Liam Byrne has a good line on populism:

'Populism today is not simply a movement of grievance. It is a venture, with investors and revenue models. It thrives on the same forces that have reshaped global finance: speed, scale, opacity and the monetising of volatility....

[And] they are incentivised to keep countries in a permanent state of agitation. When volatility becomes the product, calm becomes the enemy'!

Populism is essentially disaster capitalism

#Populism #politics
h/t FT

p.s. Yes that's the same Liam Byrne who left the infamous 'I'm afraid there's no money' note used by the coalition to stables a narrative justifying austerity.... but on this, at least, he's saying something more sensible!

#politics

That was a silly own goal by Liam which fed directly into the Tory narrative that brought us austerity.

I won't forgive him for that.

@ChrisMayLA6

@clinfoot

Which is why I include the ps. Not sure I can either... however insightful his analysis of populism might be

@ChrisMayLA6 @clinfoot "His analysis"? Fact not in evidence. Who wrote his script?

@Axomamma @clinfoot

Well, the bit I pulled was from a longer opinion piece in the FT which was pretty OK I thought... if someone else is doing his thinking for him, I cannot say

@ChrisMayLA6 "Analysis attributed to him" would be more accurate then.

@Axomamma

Well, you could say that of anyone who signs an article or publication.... in the same way I might say post attributed to @Axomamma - unless you have proof of him not writing his own work then we're disappearing down a rabbit hole... how do we even know this is me typing this (perhaps my posts should carry the tagline: analysis attributed to Chris May). I think when something appears in the press & is signed we may suspect its ghost written but without proof we can just take it?

@ChrisMayLA6
Oh, that one's easy, the typos are the giveaway (not a criticism, I try to catch my own but still manage to release too many into the wild 🤣🤣)
@Axomamma
@ChrisMayLA6 Unintended consequences taken to its illogical conclusion.
@ChrisMayLA6 Surely nonpopulist politics also has a business model?

@ChrisMayLA6

I really want to boost this, but without a link to back it up I just cannot.

Please, when you quote someone making an extraordinary claim, provide a link to the claim and/or data backing it up.

@jackwilliambell

i don't post links to the FT as its behind a paywall (although quite permeable) - so here's the link if you want to (re)post with it ....

https://www.ft.com/content/a47ff351-78b0-46e5-983d-8049f0d8070c?syn-25a6b1a6=1

Time to scrutinise populism’s ā€˜supply side’

Volatility traders have come for our democratic politics and are showing that turbulence pays

Financial Times

@ChrisMayLA6

Ah, the paywall. Should have expected that.

@ChrisMayLA6 is the ā€œdisasterā€ in disaster capitalism redundant?
@ChrisMayLA6 A meaningless word used to draw false equivalency between people like Trump and Bernie Sanders, The UK Green party and Reform.
@ChrisMayLA6 absolutely this. It all started turning dark when there was more money to be made in the froth on top of the beer than the beer. When capitalists made money via classical businesses that employed people and delivered stuff there was some (although always over played) overlap between what was good for a nation and for business. Once the money was mostly made in the froth, the volatility of markets, then there became zero overlap with the good of a nation.