Abstract
This research was carried out within the framework of Project FFI2015-65252-R “DEMOS: Imagining the people in the new politics” (Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad).
Highlights
One burning issue arising out of the Brexit process was the constitutional question about how the British government could initiate formal withdrawal from the European Union
My approach to populism is based on Moffitt (Moffitt and Tormey, 2013; Moffitt, 2016), who builds on Laclau (2005) and Mudde (2007), to examine the common ground between populist politicians in 30 different contexts, identifying key features of their self-presentation and performance that cut across traditional political dividing lines such as right and left
The first aspect of this to be discussed is the persistence of the classic British theme of class struggle in these representations, but in its particular Brexit-era configuration, which reinforces the emotional underpinning of anti-European discourses and lends them political vigour
Summary
The second basis for my analysis is located in the literature on populist discourse, which provides a grounding for analysing these discursive strategies in a broader perspective (Taggart, 2000; Mudde, 2004) Both tabloid newspapers and the Brexit campaigners have been classified as having a ‘‘populist” style of communication (Conboy, 2006; Goodwin and Milazzo, 2015), inviting an exploration of how political and media discourses overlap in particular cases. My approach to populism is based on Moffitt (Moffitt and Tormey, 2013; Moffitt, 2016), who builds on Laclau (2005) and Mudde (2007), to examine the common ground between populist politicians in 30 different contexts, identifying key features of their self-presentation and performance that cut across traditional political dividing lines such as right and left These features constitute what he terms the ‘‘populist style”. The patterns that emerge are interpreted in terms of populist discourse (Moffitt, 2016), showing how the populist style enters into a productive synergy with the sensationalising discourses of the tabloid press (Conboy, 2006; Johansson, 2008), generating powerful persuasive effects
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