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PITY Britain's politicians. They spend much of their time being ignored as they try to explain important issues to the public. The repetition involved can be numbing: New Labourites used to complain that the moment they became heartily sick of saying something, and convinced that they sounded like interminable bores, was about the moment ordinary people began to catch on. Just occasionally, though, people do listen to politicians. The consequences can be calamitous.