Comparing world leaders

Sir, – I enjoyed reading Michael McDowell (Opinion, November 2nd) warning us that a world with Xi Jinping, Boris Johnson, Jair Bolsonaro and Donald Trump in power would be similar to contemplating a 1.5km asteroid strike on the earth.

But it would have been even better with fewer assertions and more distinctions. For one thing, the political leaders he writes about are not all the same. Some have been elected, others have not. Whatever you think of Johnson, Bolsonaro and Trump, they were democratically elected, unlike president Xi Jinping and Iran’s chief ayatollah, who also gets a mention.

Plenty of people dislike one or all of the elected three, but they did get the votes, however much their detractors might dislike that fact. Still, at least McDowell avoided using the word “populist” (unless I missed it), which these days seems to mean “someone I dislike who won a democratic election”. This can be a bit irritating to us right-of-centre types.

– Yours, etc,