Claque, noun: a group of people hired to applaud.

Suggested usage: No one thought much of his speech, except the usual claque of party hacks who applauded his every line vigorously.

With the elections mercifully behind us, we will have fewer political speeches, less bombastic rhetoric and (one hopes) less abuse of historical figures to deal with in our daily lives and dominating our news media. But it’s also time to wonder why so much of such arrant nonsense is regularly spouted by political leaders with such scant regard for the effect their words have on normal people. If they realised how they sounded to people with average sensibility and decency, surely they wouldn’t speak like this? Ah, but you’re forgetting – it’s not normal people they are addressing their offensive words to – it’s the claques that constitute the echo chambers for their invective. Every political party has them, but some have more claques than others because they can afford to pay more for the rent-a-crowd audiences their leaders need to feel encouraged and emboldened by. Surrounded by cliques and applauded by claques, no wonder so many of our political leaders are so out of touch with reality – and with the public they claim to represent.