Yet the demand for total cleanness could, paradoxically, end up fuelling public disenchantment with politics.

ECONOMIST: Who has a closet without a skeleton?

Saltburn failed to meet the European "mandatory" level of cleanness for bathing water in 2010 and 2012.

BBC: Northumbrian Water to put ?6m into Saltburn water works

Mr McCain represents cleanness in every respect, from financing of campaigns to an almost pathological aversion to lying, even to journalists.

ECONOMIST: The contender