Our favorite doctor finishes reading the manifestos of all 12 French presidential candidates and recounts the grueling ordeal over at Quadrant.

Most people say, moreover, that elections make little or no difference whoever is elected: everything remains the same, the ship of state, like a great tanker, cannot change direction but merely the crew on the bridge, all drawn from a class separate from the rest of the population (the political class), with its own interests and class solidarity that transcend apparent ideological differences.