Well done the Internet in general and Wrinkled Weasel in particular for bringing to wider attention the expression drooling ochlocracy.

It turns out that it means … us! In the context of the collective national eyebrow-raising on the subject of MPs’ expenses.

William Wordsworth too chips in:

‘Twas in truth an hour
Of universal ferment; mildest men
Were agitated, and commotions, strife
Of passion and opinion, filled the walls
Of peaceful houses with unquiet sounds.
The soil of common life was, at that time,
Too hot to tread upon.