Those who complain about populism never seem to acknowledge for a second that their policies may caused the problem in the first place. If membership of the EU was so self-evidently a blessing for all, then no one would have voted for Brexit. Rather than address real concerns for real people - or at least look as if they are - they double down on their policies.
It’s not even as if Brexit is an isolated example. We’ve also had the rise of Jeremy Corbyn and Scottish nationalism in the past decade or so. These people and movements wouldn’t have become so popular if things were rosy and people felt like their concerns were being taken seriously.
Seriously, how much warning do our politicians actually need?
Indeed. You’d think after a few hundred years elites would at least look as if they were trying to give the plebs what they wanted rather than promoting their own interests and being surprised by the revolting masses.
But why should they make the effort since they're getting away with it so well? There's no longer any point in the elite even pretending to support the masses, simpler to dismiss them as a basket of deplorables.
But they're not bothered because they live in their own little bubble and don't have any interest in the ordinary people whom they dismiss as of no importance or better still as fascists. The elite don't like the plebs and don't want to do anything to help them, au contraire. And they're getting away with it because the new elite simply hang together and block progress and are in no serious danger in the current society. They've got it stitched up. And now people are so fed up with the Tories that they are going to vote in a party that the same 'ordinary people' suspect will be much worse.
There’s a fairly popular meme that does the rounds on social media every now and again, with one person asking another “Who radicalised you?” with the other responding “You did”.
I personally don’t find many of the arguments made by a lot of so-called populists that convincing on their own, but whenever I step outside and see the absolute state this country is in, it’s clear the system has failed. Our elites fail to even try to tackle the big issues in any meaningful way like the collapse of economies outside of London, mass migration, violent crime, housing, energy or the security risks from states like China. In the meantime, they obsess about culture war guff like banning rainbow lanyards or banning anyone born from 2009 onwards from buying cigarettes.
Even when an obviously egregious example comes along that ought to prompt a rethink of their naive and dangerous worldview, like the Abdul Ezedi incident, their response is to go “oh, but micro aggressions” rather than admit the asylum system is broken. Even when one of their own was murdered extremely brutally by an Islamist terrorist, who was very explicit about his motivation to my understanding, they respond with “we should just be nicer to each other on social media”. My contempt for them is boundless, and if a mob stormed Parliament and Whitehall to overthrow the system, regardless of the aims of said mob, I wouldn’t lift a finger to defend any of them.
That is a worrying reflection - where a good loyal citizen feels so disconnected from a basic connection to the common weal. A society can only function where most of us, by and large, buy into a set of mutual obligations. If that frays, a society can fall apart fairly quickly.
Sad thing is that as far as this side of the political spectrum is concerned, I don’t appear to be in a minority. Frankly, a part of me might have been reassured in a way had I got few or no votes, but this is the second highest comment on here at the time of writing. Only upside to this is that I’m not alone in feeling this way.
I think that there is a basic truth behind populism and that is that the citizens of many Western countries are beginning to wake up to the reality of mass immigration. Mass immigration was forced upon Western countries by the Elite, for reasons that may be many-fold, but in my view it was purely to gain access to cheap labour in order to enrich themselves. This mass immigration was cleverly dressed up by the likes of Blair as enhancing our society and filling a need for unskilled labour where vacancies existed, and anyone who opposed it was a racist, thereby killing all opposition in one demonic word: racist! Nobody wished to be tarred with this hideous accusation, which became the greatest insult to heap upon anyone.
A quarter of a century of mass immigration has seen European countries changed beyond recognition, until many cities are literally part of the Third World, and most dangerously, part of the Islamic Third World, and this very visible deterioration along with a militancy that Islam promotes, is making Britain a far less attractive country, which is now becoming obvious to the middle-classes as it encroaches upon their patch, and creates a a fear for their children's future.
I will be honest and come out with the truth: I am a racist. There, I have admitted it. As an Englishman from a very poor working-class background, whose father and grandfather fought to preserve this country in two World Wars, I feel a pride in this country, and even in the Empire. I like the company of my fellow English citizens, with whom I feel most comfortable, I like drinking warm beer outside old pubs in village greens while the swallows acrobatically swerve overhead, I like Morris Dancing, the Rolling Stones, P G Wodehouse, wit and dry humour, peace and quiet, wildlife, cycling along country lanes, walking in the countryside, Shakespeare. I do not like crowded cities packed full of people who I do not understand, all talking in a strange babbling language, often reeking of garlic, lacking manners and shouting at each other; but the longer mass immigration persists, then the more all of this encroaches on and destroys MY way of life and replaces it with an alien one, one that I never asked for and was never given a choice in.
My view is that I am not the only indigenous person who thinks like this, and gradually, we are coming around to the conclusion that if we do not make a stand against the Elite now, then there will be nothing left of our country's history, culture or way of life, it will all be replaced by radical Islam and the Third World, and all those characteristics that made visiting another country such fun will be lost forever.
Notice how many people have become scared to agree because they fear being labelled racist, far right, nationalist etc. They think you belong with football yobs and thugs. I'll join you for a warm beer outside in the beer garden if we bump into each other. I wouldn't describe you as a racist, you're a traditionalist who rather likes traditional pursuits. You don't tolerate people than won't tolerate you or your warm beer. There's nothing wrong with that.
If other cultures won't tolerate your beer why do we have to tolerate them?? My muslim friends all have a beer on Friday nights. I don't dislike muslims but I do dislike islamists who hate me and them. Which bit is racist??.......
I completely agree Elizabeth, I have no problem with immigrants as long as they identify as British and subscribe to our way of life. Two of my favourite media personalities are Ben Habib from Pakistan and Mayhar Tousi from Iran, and two more proud Englishmen you will not find, who set a fine example, but I do not want my country turned into Nigeria or Afghanistan, I like it just the way that it is thank you. I was at a bus stop last week and an African family were also there, shouting at each other and the children were standing on the seats and bumping into me as they ran around, and basically invading my space; now why should I feel guilty for wishing to wait for a bus in a civilized manner? This is my country and I appreciate our quiet acceptance of respect for each other and orderly queuing, I don't wish to be pushed and shoved and subjected to verbal assaults that make travelling an ordeal. As for why the adults in this family were not at work.......
Colin - I have debated with friends here about my obligation, if I moved to Spain, to accept and learn the Spanish culture, language and laws (and be tested on them) and adopt the Spanish religion - Catholicism. And people regard that as appropriate and admirable.
Yet if I suggest that Pakistanis who move to the U.K. accept and learn the U.K.’s culture, language and laws (and be tested on them) and adopt the U.K. religion, Anglicanism, in place of Islam, that is deemed to be inappropriate. What a surprise.
Very good. This is the era of elitism gone mad but it's a new sort of elitism, more based on education than ancestry and more based on ideology than income. You can belong to the elite whoever you are by simply being woke, whereas if you object to woke you are disqualified even if you are a member of the underprivileged 'woke' people are supposed to be in favour of. This is similar to snobbism by belonging to an exclusive religious cult.
So true Robert! No matter what your background you can qualify for the New Elite by showing your support for woke causes, although a university education seems to be the common denominator.
I agree with all you say. I too have become a racist. I like my country how it was and not what it is becoming. I have such foreboding for the future , particularly the rise of Islamism which no one seems to have the balls to address.
I don't believe you have become "racist" really. The number one "racism" in the 21st c West is racism by The Great White Wokerati against THEIR FELLOW WHITES. Number two (and also pretty big) is racism by non-whites against whites. Racism by whites against non-whites is - despite "that great sack of proxy racial guilt that ethnic-whiteness has been dragging along behind it these past few decades" - now just a tiny residue in British society. https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/take-me-to-your-experts
I am afraid Barbara that the problem lies in democracy. Political parties have no principles, all they crave is power and will sell their soul to the Devil to get it. Labour have seen that the path to power lies in embracing Islam and becoming its party, with no concern for the consequences, therefore instead of condemning Hamas it condemns Israel because there are lots more votes in this stance. Labour cares not a jot that embracing and promoting Islam will see the death of our country via a medieval and barbaric religion, all they want is the keys to No 10, and the Tories are almost as bad. Nigel Farage and Matt Goodwin have the balls to call this out along with the brilliant and courageous Douglas Murray (and a few others) but the coverage they receive is limited.
"Mass immigration was forced upon Western countries by the Elite, for reasons that may be many-fold, but in my view it was purely to gain access to cheap labour in order to enrich themselves."
No it wasn't are you seriously saying that the political class drove high levels of inward immigration for their personal gain? This is not a serious point. This is childish.
The political class drove high levels of inward immigration to stop the economic loss of material demographic decline (watch what will happen to Russia and China over the coming years) and because they believe (and still do) that it drives economic growth.
Access to cheap labour was not the only element driving mass immigration but it was undoubtedly a major factor, embarrassing though this is, or should be, to Labour. An added reason was that immigrants generally tend to vote Labour, thus the Labour Party welcomed them. Add post-colonial guilt to the mix and sheer bloody-mindedness and you have a really powerful set of motives.
"they routinely criticise Donald Trump for refusing to accept the outcome of the election in 2020 —an outcome he should have respected"
Err, No. No, no no.
I was watching from 3000 miles away, and it was obvious that the 2020 election was rigged.
In six key states, they stopped counting the votes. Then, hey presto, ballot boxes start turning up at 2 am with a torrent of votes for Biden. In the US you get a ballot paper with boxes to tick for President and a whole column of other boxes for local elections. 450,000 papers had the box for Biden ticked, but none of the others. Demcrat party workers in a hurry just ticked the box for Biden and moved on to the next ballot paper.
For those who are interested, the book "Stealing your vote" by Christina Bobb is worth reading.
Mark Steyn got it right the very next day. As he virtually always does. I expect Matt Goodwin knows what happened in the US Presidential election of 2020 (after all he is a Politics professor) but cares a little bit more about his career than he does about the most uncomfortable truths. I think Mark Steyn has always cared more about the truth than anything else.
I was watching also.. It was stolen 1000%... I cannot believe to this day that the Republican Party didn't make more of a fuss over the result and obvious fraud of the mail in ballots... That's even before we get onto the subject of the dead people that voted for Biden.
...all of which gives rise to the vital question: Why is the UK the exception?
Populists to the east of us. Populists to the west of us. But apart from Reform which seems to be struggling, there is nothing else of populist note in this country.
Where's our Trump? And why is Farage still dithering?
Yes the irony is devastating isn't it? The lefty Brits were terrified of Brexit severing our EU lefty umbilical cord while the righties dreamed of a Brexit-inspired conservative revival. And the result? Britain is now on course to be the most lefty country in the Western world.
First Past The Post has a lot to answer for… You only have to look at how well UKIP/Brexit Party did in the EU elections, which use a form of Proportional Representation.
Because too many have bought, sheep like, into the fiction that “conservatives” have been in power for 14 years. And most have only even heard of 3 parties. Plus FPTP.
Who’d be an MP though? Farage can earn a good income from his media work and provided he remains good at that job he is in secure employment. Contrast that with politicians, many of whom will be out on the streets after the election through no fault of their own. Add in the social media abuse they may get, the loss of privacy and the real hard work of doing constituency work well and it’s a pretty unwelcome job. The pension is good though.
Mike, in part they are their own worst enemies - because most of us look at what they have achieved of late and conclude “nothing much”. If you are in office for 14 years with 650 MPs, that is TWO MILLION days of work, admittedly including Covid. And of course including the hugely impressive efforts relating to the inoperable smoking ban, the renaming of A levels and the abandonment of HS2, just to use Sunak’s conference highlights as an example.
With rising violent crime, what about a debate on the reintroduction of corporal punishment?
With uncontrolled abuse on social media, what about a debate on banning smartphones for under 18s and charging adults 25p for each post?
If I suggested this to my MP she’d politely say how impractical this would be in relation to citizens’ human rights and she’d laugh at me behind my back.
Actually, Donald Trump and his supporters had and still have every right to not accept the result of the 2020 Presidential election. It may be difficult to understand if you were not in the U.S. to witness it, but there was clearly widespread fraud, not in five States, but five specific cities, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Milwaukee, Phoenix and Detroit. Certain precincts in those cities recorded over 100% voter turnout. Ballots were returned with addresses that corresponded to vacant lots. Ballots were collected en mass (ballot harvesting) and deposited in unattended drop boxes.
At bottom, you will never convince me that 81 million people got off their rears to vote for Joe Biden. That didn't happen. It was fraud and should be called fraud.
One can only hope that in this cycle, Trump's support if sufficient to overcome whatever scheme the Washington uniparty most certainly has cooked up for this November.
I naively thought that the Tories would cotton-on to this and deliver a merger of elitist and populist agendas. It is so easy! Set a cap on total immigration, ensure we only select immigrants within that cap who are beneficial to Britain, deliver the Rwanda policy to deter illegal immigrants, stop all the trans-nonsense, close all the loop-holes which allow "positive discrimination" (i.e. anti-white, anti-male discrimination), boost spending on prisons and the armed forces, appoint people to run our institutions who are fans of Britain, her history and traditions. If you delivered that, the elites could have a free hand on all the other policies including economics and still get re-elected.
Not quite sure if they were just naive, complacent, inept or so tied to their pre-set agenda that they couldn't care less. Or maybe just average shitlibs who would rather die than be called 'far right' for suggesting that maybe, possibly, perhaps, immigration is a tiny bit on the high side.
Populism is closer to the ideals of democracy than Marxism. Democracy is not perfect as Churchill said but it’s the best system we have.
The problem with it is that it is constantly challenged a little from the right and what’s looking like overwhelmingly from the left’s 100 year march through our institutions, a particularly pernicious penetration being “education”
Maybe the U.K. bucks the trend towards populism, especially among the young, because the voters in other countries blame the incumbent government for all the woes which Matt lists - cost of living, net zero, unmanageable immigration etc.
Here, the Conservatives are getting the blame, not unreasonably, since the dominant One Nation clique in the government is indistinguishable from leftist liberal elites. Remember ‘the heir to Blair’? People feel the Conservative Party no longer reflects their world view but is a weaker version of Labour.
Discontented erstwhile populist voters, who were drawn to Boris Johnson, have not turned to Labour, i.e they are not turning their backs on populism. Instead, they are either voting for Reform or they are just recusing themselves from the whole process in disgust.
Pelosi (who has become fabulously wealthy since starting her career as a public servant) obviously doesn't see that "anti-democratic populism" is an oxymoron.
Populism has not murdered 100 million plus over the last century as their opposites have. Populism took fascism off the streets here when a Labour MP born into the elite took his Brownshirts marching. This much to the chagrin of the then elite (who share much in common with our present overbearing masters of unthinking sanctimony’
It's clear to me that the Luxury Belief Classes are fully aware of their manifold failure, they know that the game is up: the realisation is dawning on the people that too many of them are anti-democratic chancers taking care of their own. Not surprisingly they fear a genuine democratic surge and demonise it as populism.
In an attempt to comfort their kind, and in the hope of deferring the inevitable day of reckoning, they vilify and discredit those they fear.
They are wasting their effort; there is increasing realisation that these predatory classes have duped us; gulling us into believing we live in a democratic society, that we can influence affairs when our single vote every five years makes no difference at all.
It's early days; the opposition is only now beginning to emerge but a growing anger is palpable and soon it will be irresistible.
It has been my position that the "elites" get it entirely. It's just that they don't care. As far as they're concerned, it's a race that they think they're going to win. I.e. they think they can replace the masses with AI and robotics before the masses can replace them.
We all need to disabuse ourselves of the idea that the "elites" will ever change their ways. They don't like you, they want you gone, they're striving after that goal seven days a week, 52 weeks a year.
Great piece. Thanks Matt. It’s clear that instead of addressing any of the points and concerns you raise, our progressive elites have simply followed their usual playbook, and attempted to redefine anything they don’t like as ‘far right’ and ‘racist’. So it goes with populism, which at its heart merely means siding with the unwashed, low information, masses, rather than the entitled, nanny knows best, elites. I’ve written in praise of populism before. You’ll forgive me if I link to that piece here. https://open.substack.com/pub/lowstatus/p/in-praise-of-populism?r=evzeq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Those who complain about populism never seem to acknowledge for a second that their policies may caused the problem in the first place. If membership of the EU was so self-evidently a blessing for all, then no one would have voted for Brexit. Rather than address real concerns for real people - or at least look as if they are - they double down on their policies.
It’s not even as if Brexit is an isolated example. We’ve also had the rise of Jeremy Corbyn and Scottish nationalism in the past decade or so. These people and movements wouldn’t have become so popular if things were rosy and people felt like their concerns were being taken seriously.
Seriously, how much warning do our politicians actually need?
Indeed. You’d think after a few hundred years elites would at least look as if they were trying to give the plebs what they wanted rather than promoting their own interests and being surprised by the revolting masses.
But why should they make the effort since they're getting away with it so well? There's no longer any point in the elite even pretending to support the masses, simpler to dismiss them as a basket of deplorables.
But they're not bothered because they live in their own little bubble and don't have any interest in the ordinary people whom they dismiss as of no importance or better still as fascists. The elite don't like the plebs and don't want to do anything to help them, au contraire. And they're getting away with it because the new elite simply hang together and block progress and are in no serious danger in the current society. They've got it stitched up. And now people are so fed up with the Tories that they are going to vote in a party that the same 'ordinary people' suspect will be much worse.
There’s a fairly popular meme that does the rounds on social media every now and again, with one person asking another “Who radicalised you?” with the other responding “You did”.
I personally don’t find many of the arguments made by a lot of so-called populists that convincing on their own, but whenever I step outside and see the absolute state this country is in, it’s clear the system has failed. Our elites fail to even try to tackle the big issues in any meaningful way like the collapse of economies outside of London, mass migration, violent crime, housing, energy or the security risks from states like China. In the meantime, they obsess about culture war guff like banning rainbow lanyards or banning anyone born from 2009 onwards from buying cigarettes.
Even when an obviously egregious example comes along that ought to prompt a rethink of their naive and dangerous worldview, like the Abdul Ezedi incident, their response is to go “oh, but micro aggressions” rather than admit the asylum system is broken. Even when one of their own was murdered extremely brutally by an Islamist terrorist, who was very explicit about his motivation to my understanding, they respond with “we should just be nicer to each other on social media”. My contempt for them is boundless, and if a mob stormed Parliament and Whitehall to overthrow the system, regardless of the aims of said mob, I wouldn’t lift a finger to defend any of them.
That is a worrying reflection - where a good loyal citizen feels so disconnected from a basic connection to the common weal. A society can only function where most of us, by and large, buy into a set of mutual obligations. If that frays, a society can fall apart fairly quickly.
Sad thing is that as far as this side of the political spectrum is concerned, I don’t appear to be in a minority. Frankly, a part of me might have been reassured in a way had I got few or no votes, but this is the second highest comment on here at the time of writing. Only upside to this is that I’m not alone in feeling this way.
I think that there is a basic truth behind populism and that is that the citizens of many Western countries are beginning to wake up to the reality of mass immigration. Mass immigration was forced upon Western countries by the Elite, for reasons that may be many-fold, but in my view it was purely to gain access to cheap labour in order to enrich themselves. This mass immigration was cleverly dressed up by the likes of Blair as enhancing our society and filling a need for unskilled labour where vacancies existed, and anyone who opposed it was a racist, thereby killing all opposition in one demonic word: racist! Nobody wished to be tarred with this hideous accusation, which became the greatest insult to heap upon anyone.
A quarter of a century of mass immigration has seen European countries changed beyond recognition, until many cities are literally part of the Third World, and most dangerously, part of the Islamic Third World, and this very visible deterioration along with a militancy that Islam promotes, is making Britain a far less attractive country, which is now becoming obvious to the middle-classes as it encroaches upon their patch, and creates a a fear for their children's future.
I will be honest and come out with the truth: I am a racist. There, I have admitted it. As an Englishman from a very poor working-class background, whose father and grandfather fought to preserve this country in two World Wars, I feel a pride in this country, and even in the Empire. I like the company of my fellow English citizens, with whom I feel most comfortable, I like drinking warm beer outside old pubs in village greens while the swallows acrobatically swerve overhead, I like Morris Dancing, the Rolling Stones, P G Wodehouse, wit and dry humour, peace and quiet, wildlife, cycling along country lanes, walking in the countryside, Shakespeare. I do not like crowded cities packed full of people who I do not understand, all talking in a strange babbling language, often reeking of garlic, lacking manners and shouting at each other; but the longer mass immigration persists, then the more all of this encroaches on and destroys MY way of life and replaces it with an alien one, one that I never asked for and was never given a choice in.
My view is that I am not the only indigenous person who thinks like this, and gradually, we are coming around to the conclusion that if we do not make a stand against the Elite now, then there will be nothing left of our country's history, culture or way of life, it will all be replaced by radical Islam and the Third World, and all those characteristics that made visiting another country such fun will be lost forever.
Notice how many people have become scared to agree because they fear being labelled racist, far right, nationalist etc. They think you belong with football yobs and thugs. I'll join you for a warm beer outside in the beer garden if we bump into each other. I wouldn't describe you as a racist, you're a traditionalist who rather likes traditional pursuits. You don't tolerate people than won't tolerate you or your warm beer. There's nothing wrong with that.
If other cultures won't tolerate your beer why do we have to tolerate them?? My muslim friends all have a beer on Friday nights. I don't dislike muslims but I do dislike islamists who hate me and them. Which bit is racist??.......
I completely agree Elizabeth, I have no problem with immigrants as long as they identify as British and subscribe to our way of life. Two of my favourite media personalities are Ben Habib from Pakistan and Mayhar Tousi from Iran, and two more proud Englishmen you will not find, who set a fine example, but I do not want my country turned into Nigeria or Afghanistan, I like it just the way that it is thank you. I was at a bus stop last week and an African family were also there, shouting at each other and the children were standing on the seats and bumping into me as they ran around, and basically invading my space; now why should I feel guilty for wishing to wait for a bus in a civilized manner? This is my country and I appreciate our quiet acceptance of respect for each other and orderly queuing, I don't wish to be pushed and shoved and subjected to verbal assaults that make travelling an ordeal. As for why the adults in this family were not at work.......
Colin - I have debated with friends here about my obligation, if I moved to Spain, to accept and learn the Spanish culture, language and laws (and be tested on them) and adopt the Spanish religion - Catholicism. And people regard that as appropriate and admirable.
Yet if I suggest that Pakistanis who move to the U.K. accept and learn the U.K.’s culture, language and laws (and be tested on them) and adopt the U.K. religion, Anglicanism, in place of Islam, that is deemed to be inappropriate. What a surprise.
I think that the Left have a guilt complex which obliges them to cleave to the immigrants wishes and not ours, leaving us basically stateless.
Very good. This is the era of elitism gone mad but it's a new sort of elitism, more based on education than ancestry and more based on ideology than income. You can belong to the elite whoever you are by simply being woke, whereas if you object to woke you are disqualified even if you are a member of the underprivileged 'woke' people are supposed to be in favour of. This is similar to snobbism by belonging to an exclusive religious cult.
So true Robert! No matter what your background you can qualify for the New Elite by showing your support for woke causes, although a university education seems to be the common denominator.
I agree with all you say. I too have become a racist. I like my country how it was and not what it is becoming. I have such foreboding for the future , particularly the rise of Islamism which no one seems to have the balls to address.
I don't believe you have become "racist" really. The number one "racism" in the 21st c West is racism by The Great White Wokerati against THEIR FELLOW WHITES. Number two (and also pretty big) is racism by non-whites against whites. Racism by whites against non-whites is - despite "that great sack of proxy racial guilt that ethnic-whiteness has been dragging along behind it these past few decades" - now just a tiny residue in British society. https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/take-me-to-your-experts
I am afraid Barbara that the problem lies in democracy. Political parties have no principles, all they crave is power and will sell their soul to the Devil to get it. Labour have seen that the path to power lies in embracing Islam and becoming its party, with no concern for the consequences, therefore instead of condemning Hamas it condemns Israel because there are lots more votes in this stance. Labour cares not a jot that embracing and promoting Islam will see the death of our country via a medieval and barbaric religion, all they want is the keys to No 10, and the Tories are almost as bad. Nigel Farage and Matt Goodwin have the balls to call this out along with the brilliant and courageous Douglas Murray (and a few others) but the coverage they receive is limited.
Hear hear!
"Mass immigration was forced upon Western countries by the Elite, for reasons that may be many-fold, but in my view it was purely to gain access to cheap labour in order to enrich themselves."
No it wasn't are you seriously saying that the political class drove high levels of inward immigration for their personal gain? This is not a serious point. This is childish.
The political class drove high levels of inward immigration to stop the economic loss of material demographic decline (watch what will happen to Russia and China over the coming years) and because they believe (and still do) that it drives economic growth.
Access to cheap labour was not the only element driving mass immigration but it was undoubtedly a major factor, embarrassing though this is, or should be, to Labour. An added reason was that immigrants generally tend to vote Labour, thus the Labour Party welcomed them. Add post-colonial guilt to the mix and sheer bloody-mindedness and you have a really powerful set of motives.
I think you’re both right. Cheap labour + filling the labour gap + keeping the GDP figures up + votes for left-wing parties = winning combination.
"they routinely criticise Donald Trump for refusing to accept the outcome of the election in 2020 —an outcome he should have respected"
Err, No. No, no no.
I was watching from 3000 miles away, and it was obvious that the 2020 election was rigged.
In six key states, they stopped counting the votes. Then, hey presto, ballot boxes start turning up at 2 am with a torrent of votes for Biden. In the US you get a ballot paper with boxes to tick for President and a whole column of other boxes for local elections. 450,000 papers had the box for Biden ticked, but none of the others. Demcrat party workers in a hurry just ticked the box for Biden and moved on to the next ballot paper.
For those who are interested, the book "Stealing your vote" by Christina Bobb is worth reading.
Mark Steyn got it right the very next day. As he virtually always does. I expect Matt Goodwin knows what happened in the US Presidential election of 2020 (after all he is a Politics professor) but cares a little bit more about his career than he does about the most uncomfortable truths. I think Mark Steyn has always cared more about the truth than anything else.
I was watching also.. It was stolen 1000%... I cannot believe to this day that the Republican Party didn't make more of a fuss over the result and obvious fraud of the mail in ballots... That's even before we get onto the subject of the dead people that voted for Biden.
...all of which gives rise to the vital question: Why is the UK the exception?
Populists to the east of us. Populists to the west of us. But apart from Reform which seems to be struggling, there is nothing else of populist note in this country.
Where's our Trump? And why is Farage still dithering?
Matt, it looks like it's over to you...
Yes the irony is devastating isn't it? The lefty Brits were terrified of Brexit severing our EU lefty umbilical cord while the righties dreamed of a Brexit-inspired conservative revival. And the result? Britain is now on course to be the most lefty country in the Western world.
First Past The Post has a lot to answer for… You only have to look at how well UKIP/Brexit Party did in the EU elections, which use a form of Proportional Representation.
Because too many have bought, sheep like, into the fiction that “conservatives” have been in power for 14 years. And most have only even heard of 3 parties. Plus FPTP.
Who’d be an MP though? Farage can earn a good income from his media work and provided he remains good at that job he is in secure employment. Contrast that with politicians, many of whom will be out on the streets after the election through no fault of their own. Add in the social media abuse they may get, the loss of privacy and the real hard work of doing constituency work well and it’s a pretty unwelcome job. The pension is good though.
Mike, in part they are their own worst enemies - because most of us look at what they have achieved of late and conclude “nothing much”. If you are in office for 14 years with 650 MPs, that is TWO MILLION days of work, admittedly including Covid. And of course including the hugely impressive efforts relating to the inoperable smoking ban, the renaming of A levels and the abandonment of HS2, just to use Sunak’s conference highlights as an example.
With rising violent crime, what about a debate on the reintroduction of corporal punishment?
With uncontrolled abuse on social media, what about a debate on banning smartphones for under 18s and charging adults 25p for each post?
If I suggested this to my MP she’d politely say how impractical this would be in relation to citizens’ human rights and she’d laugh at me behind my back.
Actually, Donald Trump and his supporters had and still have every right to not accept the result of the 2020 Presidential election. It may be difficult to understand if you were not in the U.S. to witness it, but there was clearly widespread fraud, not in five States, but five specific cities, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Milwaukee, Phoenix and Detroit. Certain precincts in those cities recorded over 100% voter turnout. Ballots were returned with addresses that corresponded to vacant lots. Ballots were collected en mass (ballot harvesting) and deposited in unattended drop boxes.
At bottom, you will never convince me that 81 million people got off their rears to vote for Joe Biden. That didn't happen. It was fraud and should be called fraud.
One can only hope that in this cycle, Trump's support if sufficient to overcome whatever scheme the Washington uniparty most certainly has cooked up for this November.
I naively thought that the Tories would cotton-on to this and deliver a merger of elitist and populist agendas. It is so easy! Set a cap on total immigration, ensure we only select immigrants within that cap who are beneficial to Britain, deliver the Rwanda policy to deter illegal immigrants, stop all the trans-nonsense, close all the loop-holes which allow "positive discrimination" (i.e. anti-white, anti-male discrimination), boost spending on prisons and the armed forces, appoint people to run our institutions who are fans of Britain, her history and traditions. If you delivered that, the elites could have a free hand on all the other policies including economics and still get re-elected.
Also thought that was a no-brainer of a policy goal to stay in power for a generation.
Quite! Clearly they thought otherwise and will reap their reward.
Not quite sure if they were just naive, complacent, inept or so tied to their pre-set agenda that they couldn't care less. Or maybe just average shitlibs who would rather die than be called 'far right' for suggesting that maybe, possibly, perhaps, immigration is a tiny bit on the high side.
Populism is closer to the ideals of democracy than Marxism. Democracy is not perfect as Churchill said but it’s the best system we have.
The problem with it is that it is constantly challenged a little from the right and what’s looking like overwhelmingly from the left’s 100 year march through our institutions, a particularly pernicious penetration being “education”
Maybe the U.K. bucks the trend towards populism, especially among the young, because the voters in other countries blame the incumbent government for all the woes which Matt lists - cost of living, net zero, unmanageable immigration etc.
Here, the Conservatives are getting the blame, not unreasonably, since the dominant One Nation clique in the government is indistinguishable from leftist liberal elites. Remember ‘the heir to Blair’? People feel the Conservative Party no longer reflects their world view but is a weaker version of Labour.
Discontented erstwhile populist voters, who were drawn to Boris Johnson, have not turned to Labour, i.e they are not turning their backs on populism. Instead, they are either voting for Reform or they are just recusing themselves from the whole process in disgust.
Pelosi (who has become fabulously wealthy since starting her career as a public servant) obviously doesn't see that "anti-democratic populism" is an oxymoron.
Yes that's what most people see. This type of venal politician enriching themselves at our expense.
....and having the gall to sneer at us whilst doing so.
Populism has not murdered 100 million plus over the last century as their opposites have. Populism took fascism off the streets here when a Labour MP born into the elite took his Brownshirts marching. This much to the chagrin of the then elite (who share much in common with our present overbearing masters of unthinking sanctimony’
It's clear to me that the Luxury Belief Classes are fully aware of their manifold failure, they know that the game is up: the realisation is dawning on the people that too many of them are anti-democratic chancers taking care of their own. Not surprisingly they fear a genuine democratic surge and demonise it as populism.
In an attempt to comfort their kind, and in the hope of deferring the inevitable day of reckoning, they vilify and discredit those they fear.
They are wasting their effort; there is increasing realisation that these predatory classes have duped us; gulling us into believing we live in a democratic society, that we can influence affairs when our single vote every five years makes no difference at all.
It's early days; the opposition is only now beginning to emerge but a growing anger is palpable and soon it will be irresistible.
I agree with you, but FFS 5 years of Labour/Blair/ Starmer and that gobby woman.
🤮
Not sure who gets to the exit first.
Such a great moment when Winston Marshall reads Pelosi’s hijack quote which she doubles down on instantly proving his point.
It has been my position that the "elites" get it entirely. It's just that they don't care. As far as they're concerned, it's a race that they think they're going to win. I.e. they think they can replace the masses with AI and robotics before the masses can replace them.
We all need to disabuse ourselves of the idea that the "elites" will ever change their ways. They don't like you, they want you gone, they're striving after that goal seven days a week, 52 weeks a year.
Great piece. Thanks Matt. It’s clear that instead of addressing any of the points and concerns you raise, our progressive elites have simply followed their usual playbook, and attempted to redefine anything they don’t like as ‘far right’ and ‘racist’. So it goes with populism, which at its heart merely means siding with the unwashed, low information, masses, rather than the entitled, nanny knows best, elites. I’ve written in praise of populism before. You’ll forgive me if I link to that piece here. https://open.substack.com/pub/lowstatus/p/in-praise-of-populism?r=evzeq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
So I went and listen to Mr Winston Marshall's speech - it was absolutely outstanding. Here's the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFmjgbdNNgw
Enjoy!
Winston Marshall gives further analysis of his speech and Peloci's reactions on his own youtube channel and it's worth a watch.