The future looks bleak for Generation Z unless they can wrest the narrative from a derelict political class. Politicians of left and right, obsessed with their own careers and blinded by outdated ideologies, have failed us.

They have failed to rejuvenate our economy and consequently divided us into extremes of plutocrats and struggling commoners. They have sucked power and decision-making into the capital, leaving local communities and cities impotent.

To rack up votes, they have bribed pressure groups with borrowed money which will be paid for by future generations in inferior services and higher taxes. Worst of all, they have failed to adjust to the new geopolitical reality of our age: Asia rising in wealth and power.

As a result, we won’t influence the great global questions of our time, from global warming to mass population movements and the proliferation of monstrous weapons of mass destruction. The four nations of WISE [Wales, Ireland, Scotland and England, with all their ethnic and religious groups] are the world’s Revolutionary Nations.

With five revolutions, they built the societies which much of humanity wants to emulate or emigrate to. But, today, progress is trapped; we need a Sixth Revolution.

From the perspective of a China watcher, Hugo de Burgh reminds us how and why WISE has been the hope of the world and shows how badly we need that Sixth Revolution if our economy and polity are to survive. WHO ARE WE? redefines WISE for the 21st century.

. .