The Politics of Dancing

‘What Is Populism?’  by  Jan-Werner Muller If ever there was need to stop and pause, to stop and consider how we, on both sides of the Atlantic, got into the terrible mess we now find ourselves in, that moment is now. Just two years ago the world was a very different place. Obama was US president, whilst in the UK Cameron looked unlikely to obtain an overall majority and, though not well led, the Labour Party was still a significant electoral force. However, as the band played and children slept, the ship was gliding steadily toward the iceberg. If we should wish to name that iceberg it would surely be populism. Few words have been bandied about with such little regard to whether there exists a shared understanding of what the term means. This makes ‘What Is Populism?’ by Jan-Werner Muller [1] a timely [2] contribution to a developing debate. As so often the case with ambiguous terminology it proves easier to designate what populism is, than what it is not, an...

I Corbyn who sabotaged the remain campaign  The case for remain was poorly made, this was a consequence of several factors, one of which, incidentally, was the deliberate undermining of the Remain camp by Jeremy Corbyn and a small coterie around him. This does not explain the lacklustre campaign. At heart was the simple fact that the case for remaining in the EU was so glaringly obvious, rational and in the country’s best interests, that making it proved a mountain to climb. It is much harder to summon up the energy and intellectual rigour to persuade people that jumping off a cliff into the spray covered rocks below is not a good idea, than it is to make a more difficult and nuanced case. Rational arguments, as the rational minded are oft having to relearn, rarely make themselves. The forces that shape our world are complex, subjective, random and ‘irrational.’ One only need examine one’s own inner and outer life to see how this is; sensible eating, regular exercise, n...