It’s barely a fortnight since the British voted to move out of the European Union and the mess could not be any worse. The UK is experiencing a leadership crisis in any sphere that matters.
There is a leadership struggle in the Conservative Party. There is another within the Labour Party, and on Monday Nigel Farage stepped down from being UKIP leader “to get back a life”!
News stories about treachery, counter-treachery, Lady Macbeth, Brutus and comedies of errors are providing a very creative way of commemorating the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare.
One television commentator in the UK could not help asking: “Where is the accountability that we heard so much about during the referendum campaign?” He added that it was as though all those who brought about this situation had hung up their football boots and refused to play any more.
The leadership vacuum is the tip of the iceberg. The First Minister of Scotland cannot be blamed for vowing to do everything possible to ensure that Scotland remains an integral part of the EU. That is apart from the ramifications in Northern Ireland and in Gibraltar.
A populist would have no values to guide him. Such a person is typically amoral
Add to the conundrum thousands upon thousands demonstrating in London in favour of the EU, around four million people petitioning for a second referendum, a law firm contesting the right of the UK government to activate the exit process without referring the matter to Parliament and the former deputy prime minister of the UK, Nick Clegg, putting pen to paper to argue that Britain must have a general election before activating Article 50.
Significantly, in Malta, both Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and Opposition leader Simon Busuttil were analysing the post-Brexit situation in very similar terms last Monday.
The Prime Minister said the UK at the moment does not know what it wants.
The Opposition leader pointed out that those who had worked for the UK to leave the EU had no idea and no road map as to what to do afterwards.
Another point about which there was convergence in our Parliament is that the UK cannot negotiate to move its products and services into the EU by having access to the single market without accepting freedom of movement – in simpler language, without allowing immigrants from other European countries freedom to enter the UK.
The important lesson to be drawn from this situation is that voters all over Europe – and not only – need to become aware of the scourge of populism.
The symptoms of the scourge should be clear to all: the populist politician is only interested in achieving power. He does not mind preparing contradictory positions to then choose the one that he considers will better suit his ambitions depending on what pollsters indicate to him as the more winning card.
Achieving power becomes an end in its own right. What happens afterwards is irrelevant. Lying, half-truths, manipulation and working on people’s emotions are all part of the tool kit. A populist would have no values to guide him. Such a person is typically amoral. His personal ambitions and agenda prevail over that of the party to which he pertains and even more so prevail over the national interest.
One month ago, Benjamin Moffitt published The Global Rise of Populism, combing research carried out by the University of Sydney and Stockholm University. He observes that “populists across the world have made headlines by setting ‘the people’ against ‘the elite’ in the name of popular sovereignty and ‘defending democracy’ ”.
The scourge cannot be underestimated. The root causes need to be analysed – in particular why connectivity has often been lost between persons in power and the people. In politics, connectivity is key.
Brexit represents more than one wake-up call. If we can learn from its outcome and analyse what led to it, then we are in time to do our part towards politics that connect to the people, but do so genuinely – in other words, by placing the people and the nation above all other considerations, never the other way round.
Francis Zammit Dimech is a Nationalist Party MP.