Liberal democracy and scapegoating minorities
The stupefying election of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States offers the most spectacular example of the vulnerability of the values which liberal democracy is based upon. Forgive the alarmism, but 2016 risks...
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For the British viewer, Tuesday’s US presidential election night coverage unfolded in eerily familiar fashion to the Brexit referendum night. Premised on early voting that suggested huge Hispanic turnout in urban Florida and Trump’s weak showing in typically Republican cities,...
For months, commentators have flocked to diagnose the ills that have supposedly propelled Trump’s support, from the Republican primaries until now. As in Britain, many have settled on a ‘left behind’ narrative – that it is the poor white working-class losers from...
His most famous intervention in a referendum campaign was widely credited with saving the Union. But when Gordon Brown weighed in on the side of remain earlier this year, he found himself, unlike with the Scottish vote, on the losing...
On the steps of Downing Street, Theresa May promised to speak for "the ordinary working-class family" struggling to make ends meet. Historically, when politicians have spoken of ‘ordinary’ working-class families, however, they have done so with reference to the other...
Several years ago Giles Radice coined the phrase ‘Labour’s southern discomfort’ to describe the party’s difficult relationship with southern voters. This condition has worsened to such an extent that it could now be diagnosed as ‘Labour’s English discomfort’. Labour has...