Liam Byrne

Populism curve: what is the supply side of Britain and Europe’s decline?

In his new book Why Populists Are Winning: and How to Beat Them, British MP Liam Byrne argues that it’s time to go after the “supply side” of populism – time, that is, to curb freedom of the press and the right of individuals to spend money on causes they believe in. For a decade, you see, the European and British establishments have focused on quashing the demand side of populism. They have employed police, prison, censorship and shame to stop people from voicing anti-establishment opinions, demanding populist policies or voting for populist parties. They have formed preposterously broad coalitions to exclude populist parties from power.

decline britain british

Is being ‘infamous’ a bad thing?

From our UK edition

John Prescott, so Dominic Sandbrook observed last week, ‘infamously exchanged punches with a protestor in full view of the cameras’. My husband has just chipped in to say that it was the best thing he ever did: he’d had an egg thrown at him and responded with a neat left jab. But even if one disapproved, was that punch an act of infamy? I saw the same adverb used recently of Liam Byrne, the chief secretary to the Treasury in 2010, who ‘infamously wrote the “I’m afraid there is no money” note’. Admittedly he has since said that the act ‘was not just stupid. It was offensive.’ To me it was humorous, and true. But the meaning of infamously has shifted recently.