The well-respected Economist newspaper recently covered the issue of a sensitive head of state who came down heavily against criticism of his government or him. The newspaper cited an example where a critic while talking about the head of state said that the man was not an emperor showing off his new clothes but a naked “clown”. Soon afterwards, the critic, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for corruption. In this particular instance the head of state in question was the Chinese President, Xi Jinping but at the time of reading the above story you could be forgiven for thinking that the “emperor”, or the “clown” (depending on what adjective you fancy), is much closer to home.