Tourists Should Visit England: the "Dirty Man of Europe"

It's ironic that the famously inventive plumber Thomas Crapper was a Brit.

 

Really? Thank God there were no trains when Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales. All those stories told along the way to Canterbury. (And pilgrim pooping too, no doubt. I wonder how that went. Chaucer didn't say.)

 

I never asked you what the British consider populist and populist-driven governance. Do they have bullet-points, tenets?.

 

I doubt you'd find consensus there.

To me, populism is about telling folk (increasingly untruthfully, or certainly heavily embellished) that Government doesn't work for them, seeding division, sewing blame and pillorying certain others as an elite group who look after themselves. Crucially, those who are spout this also have the no-cost, no downside fix for it (which in the UK is usually, "blame foreigners") but rarely go on to detail how they can improve things. I think it all lies heavily in political blame-culture - I'm bothered about making things better not pointing fingers.

The problem I also have is that those saying it are often hypocrites - Farage is a great example blaming "elites". He's private school educated, extremely wealthy, a man of great privilege telling voters in Sunderland who live in povery, paycheck to paycheck, that he's 'one of them' because likes a pint and a cigarette and waves the British flag a lot. Clearly it works or it wouldn't happen. I believe voters will become smarter though, which is his and his party's biggest challenge if he wants to be taken seriously.
Sunak was another - a multi millionaire with no grasp of reality, promising unicorns in the hope of votes.
Keir Starmer is the same in terms of his background but at least he seems to be cognisant that he has to deal in truths, albeit hard ones.

In a nutshell, my issue is this: Telling people want they want to hear is easy. For any party, left or right. Here, a unicorn for you! And you! And you...
But we all have to Govern and Live in reality.