Here’s why populists deserve suspicion – and not your vote

Following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism, the triumph of liberal democracy seemed so complete that many serious people were impressed by the notion that humanity had finally arrived at “the end of history”. There would be no more great upheavals in the way our species runs its affairs and the remaining dictatorships would eventually accept the inevitable, throw off their tyrants and embrace freedom. Humanity would live happily ever after.

Why anyone ever thought things could possibly be so simple is now, of course, a mystery. Instead, the dictators are making a comeback and populism is on the march, with liberal politicians apparently at a loss to deal with the many problems facing the world's democracies. The uninspiring bickering on display in the TV debates between Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer certainly offered no great philosophical arguments from either the mainstream left or right to deploy against populists’ simplistic slogans.

Thankfully, left-wing populism as typified by Jeremy Corbyn’s favourite slogan “for the many, not the few” – there always needs to be an outsider to blame – is in retreat, but it still exists on the fringes of the Labour party and within the Scottish Greens. Right-wing populism, however, threatens to entirely take over the Conservatives, with Tory ‘wets’ like Chris Patten voicing fears that the party they once represented no longer exists. And if the Conservatives implode, they could be replaced by Nigel Farage’s Reform.

People's lives will not be improved by populists' empty rhetoric (Picture: Anthony Devlin/Getty Images)

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Within the SNP, meanwhile, there are people who could perhaps be described as ‘centrist populists’. This is a most unusual combination but they still deserve the tag because of the common thread that joins them all: the tendency to treat human beings not as they truly are – individuals – but as members of some amorphous group.

The populist left wages class war against ‘elites’; the right demonises ‘immigrants’; while the nationalist variant insists the people of their particular nation are somehow superior to others. There are, of course, politicians in all the mainstream parties who shun such rhetoric, who go out of their way to avoid being tarred with the same brush.

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But if the populist tide is to be turned back, they must do more. Liberals of all political colours need to recognise their shared interests, put aside their old enmities, and directly oppose it. This is not just in their party political interest, but that of democracy itself.

Politicians who achieve power by whipping up envy, hatred and prejudice or by selling nationalistic dreams are never going to be focussed on the actual business of government – practical things like ensuring there are enough nurses, the trains run on time, prison conditions are acceptable, or school children can get a decent meal at lunchtime.

In recent years, support for the nationalist causes of Brexit and Scottish independence have shielded the Conservatives and SNP, respectively, from effective scrutiny of their performances in government. On Thursday, frustrations with the Tories look set to finally boil over. However it is not actually the Conservatives but the populists within their ranks who are to blame.

If we are to restore good government, all parties need to be purged of their populists. So when deciding who to vote for this week, we hope people will examine the track records of the candidates and avoid those who are overly fond of spouting empty populist rhetoric. If liberal democracy is to survive, it needs to demonstrate its worth. And it will only do that if we elect politicians who are truly dedicated to improving the lives of the people they represent.