Brothers of Italy, led by Giorgia Meloni is a right-wing populist political party in Italy, that is currently the country's ruling party
Royston Smith served as the Conservative MP for Southampton Itchen from 2015 to 2024
Politicians, too frequently, treat their voters with contempt. Gone are the days of representing the majority.
Too often voters are ignored, derided or mocked. Accused of being uneducated, bigoted or far right, they are cast aside on the altar of progressive politics.
The Western liberal democracies are bloated and bureaucratic.
Like the unions, who are more interested in what they can get for their members than the service they are supposed to provide, western governments are structured more to protect themselves than the people they represent.
Sir Tony Blair’s former spin doctor, Alistair Campbell, speaking at an event in London, referred to populism as a virus that needs to be defeated.
A man who helped Blair lead this country into a war in Iraq on a false premise has the temerity to talk of populism and populists like a piece of dirt on his shoe. Without for a second understanding that it is people like him that has spawned populist movements across Europe and the world.
Does anyone believe we would have had President Trump if people felt listened to and represented in the US? Populism is a reaction to the weak liberal governments of the West.
Governments which promote minority issues over majority concerns. Governments who treat the electorate as an inconvenient means to an end.
Hardworking families, across Europe are told they are racist or xenophobic because they are concerned about high levels of immigration.
They are silenced and cancelled if they dare suggest they like things the way they are or were. What is it about our arrogant politicians, most of whom never experience the negative effects of mass migration, that they feel they are somehow qualified to lecture the voters?
Populist parties are highlighting the failings of the liberal democracies, but they are not listening because to do so would necessitate a change.
They would need to acknowledge their failings and fix them. But it is not in their interest to do so. Instead, they sneer and point the finger at those who complain.
What we are lacking, and the populist movements don’t offer this anymore than the traditional parties do, is someone who has the courage to say what many people are thinking without the narcissism so often associated with politics and politicians. Does such a person exist? Not currently.
Abraham Lincoln summarised democracy when he talked of government of the people, by the people, for the people. That isn’t the democracy we see now.
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The democracy we see now is a government for the politicians and minority self interest groups. In our rush to spread equality, we have decided that some groups have been more equal than others.
We allow the narrative of white privilege to pervade our lives. We do nothing as historic statues are ripped from their plinths as though we had lived through a revolution and overthrown a dictatorship. We allow children to change their sex, often without the involvement of their parents. Our prisons are full of foreign criminals and our public services are straining under the pressure of mass migration.
We are told by our government that migration is good for the country. That most immigrants pay their way and enrich our lives.
Of course, that is true on many levels but if there is no financial burden why are we paying so much more and receiving so much less in return? Why do our green fields need to be built over? Why can’t we get an appointment with a GP or a dentist?
Where governments fail, populist parties will benefit. Politicians’ contempt for the electorate was always going to catch up with them and now we are starting to see the results.
