Very true!

Thanks Colin, and yep, agree with your analysis on the need for the left to back the Greens.

I think one of the challenges - to attract both the left and disillusioned voters - will be to move the Green Party brand to something more hard-hitting in order to present a powerful alternative.

It might seem far-fetched, but that's the point: the idea that a modern liberal democracy could slip into this is inconceivable to Eilish at the start, but it happens gradually until, before she knows it, members of her family are gone and she has no choice but to smuggle out those who survive.

Structure govt around building public affluence and private sufficiency for all.

Use 'doughnut economics' as a model for our economy.

Create a deeper, active, multi-channel democracy.

Build social capital at a local level.

A good analysis here on exactly this - www.liberalcurrents.com/is-it-a-coup/

Worth reading this interview with political philosopher Philip Pettit from some years ago - well before we knew what Trump would do after re-election - on republican democracy, freedom and populism.

If the outrageous actions of the Trump administration tell us anything it's that a more invigorated democratic republic is vital if freedom, equality, democracy and much more are to be protected from oligarchs and capital.