From ‘Brexhaustion’ to ‘Covidiots’: The United Kingdom and the Populist Future

Abstract

One consequence of Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic is the acceleration of Britain’s shift towards populism, and the rejection of expert-informed policymaking in favour of vox populi claims. The continuation of this toxicity beyond Brexit means that nationalist narratives have become Britain’s new ‘politics of everything’ (Valluvan 2019). The past five years have seen growing British contempt for technocracy, with ‘us and them’ populist narratives gaining widespread traction as the United Kingdom’s (UK) volatile political environment moves away from the political procedures and economic values by which the UK has operated since 1945. Since early 2020, this narrative has been significantly accelerated by Covid-19 countermeasures, with anti-EU parties and narratives on the left and right becoming anti-lockdown or anti-vaccine advocates. This commentary approaches the surge in British populism as emblematic of the UK’s shift from centrism towards polarised factions defined not by party, but by cross-spectrum contempt for technical governance. We argue that while populism is a worldwide phenomenon, it is not homogenous and the UK is particularly vulnerable to anti-status quo discourses and narratives. We argue that British populism should be seen not as a temporary phenomenon in response to specific events and conditions, but as a fluid, amorphous and heterogeneous ‘new normal’ which, in an environment of social mistrust, contempt for expertise and disillusionment with traditional politics, is now becoming the defining characteristic of British politics.