neutron bomb

These numbers are staggering, but they are drawn from a bottomless reservoir of discontent in Europe. Democracy everywhere looks as if it has been hit by a neutron bomb. Its structures - the parliaments and their committees, the elections and referenda - remain intact, but the life within them has died. In hardly any European country is there now a real choice between the policies of the governing party and those of the main parliamentary opposition. The big issues - such as the kind of economy we want and the extent to which the state should provide for its people - are scarcely debated in parliament; all that is left is the jostling and posturing.

I like this metaphor. George Monbiot came up with it in this article.