“‘We never had democracy in the first place.’ The British Empire was too busy to worry about the feelings of overseas subjects, and the Queen’s appointed Governor was certainly not elected locally. Western democratic ideals were a late arrival in Hong Kong, and the big selling point for the 2017 elections is ‘universal suffrage’ – at last, everybody in Hong Kong gets to vote on the Chief Executive. The catch is, under the election rules as they stand, Beijing gets to pick which candidates ‘everybody’ can choose between. Which is why the students are protesting.”