Franklin D. Roosevelt died 75 years ago today. FDR was the most important statesman of the 20th century. He saved American democracy from the Depression, led the Allies to victory over fascism, won four consecutive presidential elections, and did all this with a broken body.

FDR was a seductive figure and an effervescent one: to encounter him, said Churchill, was like opening your first bottle of champagne.

‘There is a mysterious cycle in human events,’ FDR believed. ‘To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.’

I hope that this generation of Americans keeps its rendezvous. I am sorry they will receive no succour or inspiration from a president who is so unworthy of the great office he holds.