WE should have seen it coming.

When Hartlepool voted for a man in monkey suit as mayor it was an early warning sign that people were willing to elect anyone who didn’t look or sound like a career politician.

“What started out as a joke ended with Mr Drummond sweeping away all the other parties,” reported the Echo on May 2, 2002, as former Hartlepool United mascot Stuart Drummond made a monkey of Mandelson, Blair et al.   

Donald Trump is the H’Angus the Monkey of 2016 – a figure of derision who ended up having the last laugh.

No one is laughing now. Certainly not the women, Hispanics, Muslims, disabled people, and countless minority groups whom Mr Trump insulted during his shambolic campaign. Almost everything he did went against the rulebook of how to win votes but this is an era where political mavericks flourish so distancing yourself from the accepted way of doing things can be a ticket to power. Just ask fear-mongering populists Nigel Farage and France’s Marine Le Pen who were quick to congratulate the Republican after he rode a wave of anti-establishment sentiment all the way to the White House.

What happened on Tuesday night was a disaster for decency, the political establishment and for the world. It was a massive victory for Trump who, like Farage, ruthlessly exposed a complacency at the heart of traditional politics, particularly on the liberal left which has lost touch with much of its traditional middle and working class base.

The Democrats made a fatal error by backing an insider tainted by her links to an unpopular dynasty when the country was desperate for an outsider or at the very least a fresh face. 

The Trump and Brexit campaigns were short on detail and played fast and loose with the truth but by ramping up the rhetoric they secured stunning wins.  

This should act as a wake-up call to politicians, and to the media who still think that poll ratings can be trusted to tell them how voters will behave. In this age of uncertainty pollsters are pointless and a free, well-funded and properly resourced press is needed more than ever to expose charlatans, bigots and bullies for what they are.    

Elections are becoming more bitter, bewildering and tough to call.  

Whether people elect a man in a monkey suit or a misogynist in a hairpiece the message increasingly appears to be that voters may not be sure what they want but what they definitely don’t want is more of the same.