The long and dark history of charismatic leaders

JC Wilcox provides his own favoured list of past leaders with presence and persona. Let’s all join in. Benito Mussolini certainly had both qualities, hoodwinking a cheering nation for over 20 years with his buffoonery, even as he sprayed poison gas on the hapless Abyssinians. But when he stupidly joined in the Second World War, he was shown to be totally incompetent and ended his days upside down at a gas station in Milan.

Adolf Hitler also had persona and presence, beyond a shadow of a doubt. By losing the war, he was responsible for the triumph of communism in Eastern Europe for half a century and the establishment of the state of Israel, both of which causes he had tried to destroy. He was also responsible for the first mechanised genocide.

Mr Wilcox claims that Donald Trump, as US president, would develop with the job. Wisely, your correspondent does not speculate what he might develop into.

Barry Kenyon