Dr Bryce Edwards: Democracy Briefing - NZ's populist moment

Will David Seymour’s Treaty Principles Bill become New Zealand’s version of Brexit and Donald Trump? Currently, there’s a strong coalition against Seymour’s Bill, especially amongst MPs and elites, which means the legislation will soon die. Yet, a populist mood might still carry the ethos of Seymour’s reforms to a more significant effect at the next election. Some form of a “Trexit” could eventually result.

Brendan O'Neill: The true story of this election? Populism is here to stay

British voters are wriggling out of the straitjacket of elite consensus opinion. It is wonderful to witness.

There has been an earthquake in British politics, reporters say. Everyone from the Guardian to the Sun to CNN is reaching for the metaphor of shifting tectonic plates to describe Labour’s victory over the Tories in the General Election. And in a sense they’re right. The political ground has shaken. Rumblings have been felt. But it wasn’t drab, grey Labour that did it – it was the millions of voters who rejected both Labour and the Tories and in the process delivered one of the most devastating sucker punches to the political duopoly in decades.

Dane Giraud: Why do they fear Populism?

When a political leader or their movement is referred to as Populist it is most commonly employed as a slur.

The image we’re instructed to conjure is one of a snake-oiled salesman preying off the unwashed, too dim to understand their betrayal of democracy and all things proper.

Brendan O'Neill: Populism ain’t dead yet

Nigel Farage is too hasty to abandon Brexit Britain for Trumpist America.

If there were an award for brass neck, Britain’s chattering class would win it every time. For years these folk devoted every ounce of their energy to making Britain a hostile place for populism, and yet now they’re having a good old chuckle at Nigel Farage for buggering off to America. ‘Some patriot!’, they’re yelling in their online echo chambers in response to Farage’s announcement that he won’t be standing in the General Election and instead will be crossing the pond to help Donald Trump get back into the White House. The front! They all but criminalise populism in the UK and then mock populists for going elsewhere.

Chris Trotter: Going For Broke With Woke.

What are we to make of Chris Hipkins speech “Working With Others”? Ostensibly about unity, the Prime Minister’s address homes in on the two issues which, for the last three years, have divided New Zealanders the most – Ethnicity and Gender. For good measure, he has also ruled out leading Labour into any kind of coalition agreement with NZ First. Taken in its entirety, Hipkins’ speech has much less to say about unity than it does about refusing to work with anyone who declines to embrace Labour’s radical social agenda. That being the case, it would have been more honest to entitle his address: “Going For Broke With Woke”.