Why Theresa May and Donald Trump are proof that populism is fool’s gold
Niall Ferguson says the backfiring of Theresa May’s snap-poll gamble and Donald Trump’s waning popularity, even in his core bases, show the magic of populist memes is always transient
We now know the half-life of populism: it’s 12 months. I think the idea nicely sums up what is happening not only in British politics but also in America.
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Take yourself back just a year. Politics in mid-2016 was dominated by populist memes devised by the likes of Britain’s “Vote Leave” director Dominic Cummings and Donald Trump’s campaign chief Steve Bannon. “Take back control”; “We send the EU £350m a week. Let’s fund our NHS instead”;“BeLEAVE in Britain”; and, in the US: “Make America great again”; “Drain the swamp” and “Lock her up”.
The political sugar rush of voting for the populist option was bound to wear off. The only question was when
Those slogans really worked. Political memes spread virally through British and American politics. People retweeted them, liked them on Facebook and talked about them in pubs. And then they voted: for Brexit in June; for Trump in November.
The political sugar rush of voting for the populist option was bound to wear off. The only question was when. The answer seems to be after about a year.
Consider what just happened in Britain. Theresa May decided she could get a bigger majority, and therefore strengthen her hand in the negotiations with Brussels, if she called an election. Her request to British voters on April 18 was clear. She accused the opposition parties of “jeopardising the work we must do to prepare for Brexit at home” and “weakening the government’s negotiating position” in Europe. “Every vote for the Conservatives”, she declared, “will make me stronger when I negotiate for Britain with ... the European Union.” The election was “necessary to secure the strong and stable leadership the country needs to see us through Brexit and beyond”.
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Well, last Thursday the people spoke, and their message was essentially: “Nah.” A substantial number who last year voted for Brexit this year opted for Jeremy Corbyn. May asked for a mandate to negotiate an uncompromising Brexit, and she ended up losing the Tory majority in the Commons.
Jeremy Corbyn, leader of Britain’s opposition Labour Party, poses for selfies at a campaign event in Leeds, on May 10. British experts underestimated Corbyn’s appeal to the under-35s in the June 8 election. Photo: Reuters
