Lightbulb! Boris Johnson’s non-existent unity: 1/n

Remember how Boris Johnson suggested that once he’d “got Brexit done”, there would be levelling up and “unity”? It may have surprised you how much effort he has since put into mocking rather than reaching out to remainers. 2/n

I’ve just read @anneapplebaum’s excellent new book and am re-reading Jan-Werner Muller’s equally good book on Populism. Both works touch on the psychology of Populism. 3/n

They both observe that there is a hostility amongst populists to complexity and diversity which they see as division. Their preference is for simplicity and “unity”. That concept of unity is key to the idea of there being (and them being a part of) a “people”. 4/n

Talk of “unity” plays to populist psychology in the same way and essentially for the same reason as phrases such as “the will of the people” and “enemies of the people” do. 5/n

The obvious rebuttal is that there is no “unity”. There is no homogenous “people”. Diversity and complexity are aspects of reality whether or not you welcome them. That is to misunderstand how the terms are being used. 6/n

If you were on the wrong side of the Brexit vote, you are simply not part of “the people”. As Farage put it, this was a victory for “real people”. 7/n

Although this may surprise you, you are part of the “elite”. The “people” is an exclusionary and not an inclusionary concept. “Unity” is not achieved by reaching out to try to include you. It is reached by excluding you. 8/n

To exist at all, “the people” requires a boundary drawn to exclude other groups. Who is excluded is a critical element of the identity and the unity of “the people”. 9/n

Johnson is not breaking a promise made to remainers to reach out to include them. So don’t expect a call. His promise is one made to his base that he will preserve their unity - their right to be the true people - by continuing to exclude you. /END