'Populism'.

[Scot Dutchy]

To present the other side of the coin, the likes of UKIP here and Trump in the USA do tap into issues that 'ordinary people' feel are being ignored. There is no doubt that immigration was an issue for the UK that was not being addressed. The Blair government basically had an unofficial open door policy and believed it would benefit the country economically - which arguably it did. There were regions of the country though where people felt their innate Brutishness was under threat from large numbers of immigrants. The mainstream parties really only paid lip service to the issue until they realised there were votes in it - votes that UKIP were about to steal. In some circles the issue became one of racism, which I guess technically it was. But it was more than that too and it was not being addressed except by people who wanted to exploit potential divisions.

The areas which voted leave were the areas with the least number of immigrants as they just believed what their rags were printing. There was not any criticism of the government for not implementing the EU rules on EU immigration. The tories also did not want to restrict EU immigration as they were providing cheap labour which influenced wages.

You may well be right but the net result was (sticking with the OP) that the issue was being ignored by the 'political elite' and the ordinary people - many of them anyway - wanted something done and started to turn towards the far right.

But the populist rags gave the impression that there was nothing could be done and only by leaving could action be taken when in fact the government had more than enough powers to control the stream. Farage's famous poster was very important in creating the lie.

[Rum]

Yes you repeat that point whenever Brexit comes up and you may well be right. My point r.e. the OP i that 'populism' isn't always a political force that is purely negative or backward looking in some way. It is often a reaction to the elites not responding to the concerns of the mass of people in an appropriate way.

[PsychoSerenity]

I think populist ideas are similar to a lot of "common sense" ideas. It's focusing on ideas that can widely be considered to be good by people without in depth knowledge of the issues concerned, even if having a better understanding may lead people to realise they are not such good ideas. Sometimes a populist idea might be accepted as genuinely good even if simplistic, but I think the problem with populist politics is that it doesn't care if the ideas are really good or not, just that they'll lead to power. One that springs to mind that the Tories like to use is the idea that the economy of a sovereign nation runs like a household budget. It's blatantly bollocks if you understand the economics but it's a simple and persuasive idea for a lot of people.

[Scot Dutchy]

Well tory supporters like Brexiteers only think at a basic level of simplicity.

[mistermack]

In the end, to defeat populism, you need power like Xi Jinping has got, and a firm hold on the media.

Donald Trump got in on the popular vote. It can happen in the USA because of the system. It could never happen in China. I'm not so sure about Russia. It could never happen in the UK. Or maybe, UKIP showed that it could, under extreme conditions.

It's a bit like Michael Jackson vs Beethoven.

No contest in today's market. In his day, Beethoven was the Michael Jackson of the times. But only because he was admired by those who had all the power and money.

[Scot Dutchy]

Trump got in on a fraud. Clinton won the popular vote easily.

[Brian Peacock]

In the end, to defeat populism, you need to encourage people to take their civic responsibilities a bit more seriously.

[pErvinalia]

Yep. Should be a major part of the education system.

[Scot Dutchy]

In the end, to defeat populism, you need to encourage people to take their civic responsibilities a bit more seriously.

Just educate them to question.

[mistermack]

In the end, to defeat populism, you need to encourage people to take their civic responsibilities a bit more seriously.

Just educate them to question.

Yeh, question everything.

So long as it's not global warming hysteria, or EU directives.

[Scot Dutchy]

What is to ask about EU directives.

[Brian Peacock]

In the end, to defeat populism, you need to encourage people to take their civic responsibilities a bit more seriously.

Just educate them to question.

Yeh, question everything.

So long as it's not global warming hysteria, or EU directives.

Ah, now you're talking. We need an education system that strikes a better balance between developing critical thinking skills and establishing popularist policies as the personal opinions of the yoofs - a properly politically correct education system.

[Scot Dutchy]

Run by the catholic church.

[Forty Two]