Your article (Revealed: One in four Europeans vote populist, 21 November) appeared hampered by the lack of any coherent definition of the term “populism”. Defending what Richard Alston recognised as a “punitive …callous” system rooted in deliberate immiseration can only be strategic surrender to the far right. You reveal that one in four Europeans now vote for populist parties while continually and strongly advocating for the UK to remain in the EU. To ask these questions shows that these broad definitions of “populism” are largely useless to analyse actual parties and movements. Stuart KingLondon• Your chilling, but hardly surprising, front-page revelation that one in four Europeans vote populist was long on excellent analysis, but lacked any solutions.

Source: The Guardian November 22, 2018 17:44 UTC