How populism sunk the UK

“You will decide and whatever your decision I will do my best to deliver it.”

2016: David Cameron announces that he will deliver his promise of holding a referendum on the UK’s status in the EU.

“I do not think it would be right for me to try to be the captain that steers our country to its next destination.” David Cameron announces his resignation as the rest of the UK lashes out at London and calls for an exit from the EU.

January 2019: Theresa May’s government suffers an unprecedented crushing defeat in the British House of Commons as her own MPs turn on her to burn down with a flamethrower, the house of cards she calls a Brexit Deal. David Cameron is on a surfing vacation in Costa Rica.

“Somewhere in a yoga retreat in the Maldives our former prime minister David Cameron is sitting, closed eyes, in lotus pose and repeating the mantra ‘the referendum was absolutely the right thing to do’ until he almost believes it,” reads one tweet.

“Was the referendum absolutely the right thing to do?” David Cameron thinks to himself as Great Britain turns into not-so-great-anymore Britain and quickly into I’m-moving-my-bank-to-Frankfurt-thank-you-very-much Britain.

Was it right to give in to a populist demand simply because it was populist? Should there be no limits to populism; morality, integrity, pragmatism, law, necessity perhaps? Or should populism remain unchecked, the wishes of the people overriding parliamentary supremacy, unbound by constitutionalism, granted unto them through a fiercely democratic political machine. Did someone say fascism?

On the day Theresa May faced a vote of no confidence, David Cameron was caught by the BBC jogging along on a nice run on the street. He didn’t regret the referendum he said. He regretted the difficulties in implementing it. Make of that what you want, because Dave is already away. This actually happened, good old Dave said that and literally ran away. As Jeremy Corbyn stared down a hauntingly distraught Theresa May before the vote of no confidence, where was David?

Probably painting. David Cameron had his kettle chips and painted still life as Theresa May fought for her life and the UK burned as a global monument to populist catastrophe. Dave really Brexited the UK.

But what should he have done? The people demanded a referendum. As the elected representative of the people in a democracy Cameron had to give to the people what they wanted, right?

Brexit isn’t a democratic exercise though. It’s a populist exercise. Brexit wasn’t Cameron’s service to British democracy, but a product of his arrogance, as he took for granted fragile democratic safeguards and underestimating populist forces, chose to flirt with populism with the fate of the British people hanging in the balance. He had counted on Brexit being rejected in line with his position on the matter, an assured political victory for an otherwise unimpressive Prime Minister. He was wrong.

With Brexit, Britain fell in line with the sweeping tide of populism across the world, from Brasilia to DC to London, Vienna and Manila, and most places in between. Global social and liberal orders collapsing under the weight of a populist resurgence. That sounded good initially, the corrosive status quos of the global liberal order being replaced by the “government of the people by the people.” “Draining the swamp” as Trump put it. But soon, the people got more than what they bargained for.

Populism without the checks and limitations of liberal or socialist democracy is the tyranny of the majority, the worst form of democracy. And by its very definition, populism cannot exist with the inherent, albeit imperfect, order of socialism or liberalism. Left unchecked, populism demands total control, free from the encumbrances of political order and ultimately fundamental human rights.

Almost always, the first casualty of populist nationalism are the rights of the minorities. In the case of the UK, this may not sound as bad, even though it is, as the minority which is actually 49 per cent of the people who voted in the referendum is forced to dissect itself from a union with Europe that leaves the UK’s economy in a paralysis of uncertainty. But across the world, basic human rights of minorities continue to be threatened by populist forces.

The US government is currently experiencing the longest shutdown in its history, as the American President refuses to reopen the government unless his wall of prejudice is built at a cost of billions of dollars, which according to some estimates could end world hunger for a whole year. At this point though, Donald Trump is a prisoner of the populist monster he himself created as he catered to the prejudices of his electorate to reach the White House. Once there, even if Trump was to decide to end world hunger instead of building a $25 billion wall that could be comprehensively conquered by a $25 ladder, he wouldn’t be able to.

That’s the problem. Catering to populism is a convenient path to power, which is why it is being used so often. But once the prejudices of people are incited to clear the way to power, that very power becomes subject to the same prejudices. What manifests is unchecked prejudicial populism taking over long-established democratic and social values, as the world moves towards nationalism, isolationism, hatred and eventually conflict.

As DC comes to a grinding and shameful halt over a wall, and as London tears itself apart over Brexit, both serve to illustrate to the rest of the world the perils of unchecked populism. A stark warning, that when populism shuts down the US government and brings London to its knees, and as the people of the US, the UK and beyond, begin to suffer, the harbingers and beneficiaries of unchecked populism will be surfing in Costa Rica.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 18^th, 2019.

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