The rise of unpopulism
Why Tories give the British people what they do not want
BORIS JOHNSON’S attack had an alliterative snap. At the despatch box, the prime minister dismissed Sir Keir Starmer, Labour’s chief and a former barrister, as “a lawyer, not a leader”. The line had one flaw: beyond Westminster, lawyers are liked. No parent ever complained about a child becoming a solicitor. Indeed, voters prefer politicians to have been lawyers rather than journalists (like Mr Johnson) by three to one, according to YouGov. People who dislike lawyers include government ministers, who find their best ideas squished due to illegality, and divorced middle-aged men. Westminster has lots of both. And they presume that everyone else feels the same way.
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “The rise of unpopulism”
Britain February 12th 2022
- London’s Metropolitan Police Service is failing on three fronts
- Northern Irish devolution collapses—again
- Britain’s cost-of-living squeeze in four charts
- Boris Johnson attempts to get his government back under control
- British regulators have approved a Chinese reactor design
- Unless lawyers are paid better, courts will grind to a halt
- The rise of unpopulism
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