Grumble wrote: ↑Fri Oct 23, 2020 6:09 pm
For a supposedly populist and classically educated leader, Johnson’s not really remembered the bread part of bread and circuses.
Yes. This is what I don't understand.
Johnson is a populist who ran as a populist called Boris and was elected by a country wanting a populist.
There are easy and obvious tricks to reinforce your populist status. When the proles ask for trivially easy things - a bit of food for kids being one - you not only give it, you go out there to hand it out yourself. You invent the Boris Breakfast and get archbishops praising you.
Always rescue the dog lost on Salisbury Plain.
Little England likes a bit of puritanical flagellation of the dissolute poor - faces must be eaten by leopards - but at the right time and against the right targets. Which is not during a pandemic and not against (white) kids. Dole scroungers can be punished in future years, masked by earlier faux generosity.
Exactly the same applies to Trump. In a parallel universe he's coasting to an easy win, following his generous tax cuts, healthcare and Covid handouts.