View original postThat was the year the far-right got so many votes they had to let them in the governing coalition in Austria - cue a lot of dramatic 'we're never going back to ski in Austria anymore!' declarations from politicians in other European countries.

View original postTwo years later the far-right also joined the government in the Netherlands, although considering their leader had been assassinated just weeks before, and that for all the man's own obvious talent his party was just a last-minute gathering of sub-par candidates, it's not too surprising that they spectacularly self-destructed before long.

View original postAdmittedly, all those older cases involve coalition governments, very different from the kind of far-ranging solitary power that a winning candidate or party can hold in the US or UK, so there's a reason to be a lot more concerned about it now. But still, Trump's campaign (which so far his actual government doesn't resemble all that much) reminded many of us of candidates we've seen running, and in some cases seen in ministerial positions, for twenty years or more.