Ot labour will get in

[KerrAvon]

Farage is a populist - he says what people want to hear. He's never been in a position where he's been required to deliver what he promises.

Boris Johnson followed the populist play book - promises on buses, 'oven ready' Brexit deals, no borders in the Irish Sea, 40 new hospitals etc.

Unfortunately for Johnson (and the country), he did find himself in a position where he was required to deliver. At that point the problem with populism came to the fore.

[Eternal Optimist]

Farage is a populist - he says what people want to hear...

Are you saying Sunak and Starmer are saying what people don't want to hear? What's the difference?

[mellowmiller]

Are you saying Sunak and Starmer are saying what people don't want to hear? What's the difference?

Exactly. That's what all politicians of all parties do.
They spout what they think people want to hear regardless of whether or not they can deliver it.
The strange thing is that the majority of people don't seem to have woken up to that fact despite centuries of being lied to.

[frogmiller]

Exactly. That's what all politicians of all parties do.
They spout what they think people want to hear regardless of whether or not they can deliver it.
The strange thing is that the majority of people don't seem to have woken up to that fact despite centuries of being lied to.

It's the hope that kills you!

[UlleyMiller]

Are you saying Sunak and Starmer are saying what people don't want to hear? What's the difference?

It's the things he says, and the dark corners he aims at.

Most reasonable people don't endorse Enoch Powell, deny climate change, carry a deep-rooted dislike of people because of their origins, sympathise with gay conversion therapy ideals, or believe themselves to be the vessel for Thatcherism to remain alive.

The fact any sort of support for Farage goes hand-in-hand with having to defend, mitigate, or explain away his bull****, would make him unsuitable for any serious political role.

[Grist_To_The_Mill]

"Most reasonable people don't endorse Enoch Powell, deny climate change, carry a deep-rooted dislike of people because of their origins"


But how do you know this? How can you speak for others?

Or is being reasonable just something that fits your view?

[KerrAvon]

Are you saying Sunak and Starmer are saying what people don't want to hear? What's the difference?

It’s a fair point as neither Labour nor the Tories are being completely truthful about their positions. Both argue that it is possible to have first class public services with either no general tax increase in the case of Labour or with reduced general taxation with the Tories. Whether those positions are actively dishonest is a moot point, however, as both believe that they can achieve their aims by bucking years of economic history and growing the economy.

Farage’s only plan is to gain power, or probably more specifically, getting into Parliament in order to continue to feed his own ego whilst being funded by the taxpayer, in much the same way as he did as an MEP.

I’m not convinced that Farage believes everything he says – he just says everything that he believes will optimise his chances of being elected. As Ulley points out, key amongst that is the beasting of ‘others’ – initially the EU and now immigrants – because he knows that people will find that more comforting than looking at the UK's own failings.

Populism goes beyond saying what people want to hear, of course. Like Trump, he plays the 'I’m on the idea of the working man against the ‘elites’' card, when they both come from privilege and are prime examples of those ‘elites’.

But hey, Farage likes a pint, so he’s obviously one of us.

[Derbymiller]

Farage is a disrupter and disruption in politics is a good thing we need more of it to address the the failure of a two party system that enables a professional political class to be bred by external organisations to push an agenda that does not benefit the people. This is not just a UK problem it can be seen everywhere just look at the recent Mexican elections as an example of corruption within the overall system.

[Jimmy Badfellow]

Farage is a disrupter and disruption in politics is a good thing we need more of it to address the the failure of a two party system that enables a professional political class to be bred by external organisations to push an agenda that does not benefit the people. This is not just a UK problem it can be seen everywhere just look at the recent Mexican elections as an example of corruption within the overall system.

Like him or loathe him,Trump is a disrupter.The political class in the US is as hugely ingrained as it is here. Careerist politicians are not good.

[harpo88]

I'm a bit confused as to why a professional political person or system is worse than say a professional construction industry or insurance industry..? In both you do need to spend time to learn the skills to how to technically do the job, but also inevitably carries the risk of overly ingrained thinking and in a few cases corruption/collusion. I do agree that outside experience of the world is helpful for politicians before going into that career, but you also need specific skills to be effective, and having someone come in from outside to be, in the US case, President without understanding the impacts that certain decisions can make is not that helpful. But obviously overall I wish there was more attention on good policymaking rather than politics, but it's not really in our human nature as voters to make decisions purely based on evidence, so that's why they do the political games.

With that in mind I would love to see better political education in this country, reminding people that democracy is not just about a tick in a box once every few years, but there are many avenues for participation and influence, that only a few people take up. In turn, if we as voters can find time to be informed about issues then that would make our democracy stronger as well.