COMMENT

Is Javier Milei Argentina’s Liz Truss?

— Javier Milei, Argentina’s president-elect, resembles Britain’s short-serving PM Liz Truss in their shared goals of low taxes and a reduced state. Both faced economic challenges, raising concerns about the potential consequences of their radical policies.

Extremism

Look to the mainstream to explain the rise of the far-right

— We cannot pretend to stand against the far-right while referring to its politics as “legitimate concerns”. We must stand unequivocally by and be in service of every one of the communities at the sharp end of oppression.

Argentina

New Argentinian president Javier Milei promises to ‘take a chainsaw’ to the country’s crippled economy

— Javier Milei, a maverick libertarian economist, secured a historic win in Argentina’s 2023 elections with 56% of the votes. Amid a severe economic crisis, his radical agenda pledges to dismantle government, respect private property, and promote free trade, sparking societal upheaval and concerns.

Long-Read

Brexit has driven the Tory Party mad

— The influence of Brexit on the Conservative Party has bolstered populism and pushed the party further from moderate conservatism towards the influence of Nigel Farage, which is characterised by detachment from reality and ideological purity.

UK Politics

Why so many people have had enough of experts

— New research highlights three key reasons for declining trust in experts, and how to regain their authority in future.

Italy

Silvio Berlusconi: The property developer who became a media tycoon – and Italy’s most flamboyant prime minister

— Despite his serving three separate terms in office, it’s still difficult to decide on a definitive view of the late Italian prime minister.

OPINION

National Conservatism, self-pity, idiocy and English fascism

— The NatCon conference in London displayed hard-right Tory views, blaming UK’s issues on migrants, the EU, and the liberal elite. The event showcased extremist politics and culture war tropes, with controversial speakers, representing the “Trumpification” of British politics.

France

Emmanuel Macron: A French president whose populist tactics are derailing his own career

— French president Emmanuel Macron is facing a political crisis unprecedented in contemporary times.

Analysis

The fall of Boris Johnson: Any democracy should look to his case and ask if it is enabling machiavellian leaders.

— Boris Johnson is not the first world leader to prioritise his own ambitions over meaningful governance. But his fall is a good moment for reflection on how far a democracy is prepared to tolerate, and even reward Machiavellian tendencies.

OPINION

Quick summary of the ERG’s – sorry, your next Prime Minister’s plans for Britain.

— Our next PM, supported by a global network of free-market think tanks, will attempt to turn Britain into a Libertarian-Right dystopia by enacting the insane and cruel policies outlined in a book by Jacob Rees-Mogg’s dad.

UK Politics

Boris Johnson’s ignominious end: The difference between ‘big tent’ politics and personalised populism.

— What exactly was “Johnsonism” beyond a few slogans such as “levelling up” and the scandals that attracted the attention? Behind Boris Johnson’s buffoonish exterior, the quick wit and wearisome repartee, lay very little.

Brexit

Post-Brexit Britain is going rotten.

— The moral rot of Boris Johnson’s conduct is part and parcel of a deeper malaise in which Brexit and ‘Brexit COVID’ have created a country that is literally and metaphorically rotting away.

Brexit

Partygate, populism and Brexit.

— Partygate doesn’t mean that we’ve seen the end of the populist politics that underpinned and flowed from Brexit, still less of Brexit itself. It may not even mean the end of Johnson, whose fate remains precariously in the balance.