I don’t think anything has depressed me more in the past month than the attitude taken by many perfectly sensible Britons towards the rigged referendum in the Crimea. I would summarise their view as being: “Crimeans had a vote, majority wanted to go to Russia — so live with it because isn’t that what democracy is about?”
No, it isn’t. There was no proper supervision, no proper campaign was possible, there was no proper alternative on the ballot paper, the vote was held in an atmosphere of armed intimidation and there were some striking turnout irregularities. But apart from that, Mrs Lincoln, how did you enjoy the show?
This is not a column about Ukraine and Crimea, but about a tendency — a big and