And above all, an unaccountable liberal elite that stands in the way of the hopes and aspirations of the British people. The destination is a revived hard-right populism, narrow in focus, pumped-up, aggressive, that will define the Conservatives long after Brexit. The Conservatives have no option but to engage in this pantomime authoritarianism, because they simply don’t have anything else to offer. Populism doesn’t just need a “people” to speak for, it needs an enemy – and Patel and her party are happy to name it, however reckless their language. • Daniel Trilling is editor of New Humanist and author of Lights in the Distance: Exile and Refuge at the Borders of Europe

Source: The Guardian October 11, 2019 05:00 UTC