Oppositions can’t dismiss Trump and Brexit voters

IT STRIKES me with regard to many politicians that a rule of thumb to use is the rule of thirds – a third are incompetent, a third are corrupt, and a third are suffering from megalomania. In the darkest hours of human history there has arisen the final 1pc replete with all of the foregoing attributes.

In the UK and US, in my opinion, there are now two individuals of such characterisation.

Where and how far these individuals are allowed to progress their agendas and to what endgame awaits to be seen but it is for certain that they do have a political base and this base cannot be ignored.

The people who voted for these leaders feel that only repudiation of the last 50 years of globalisation, mass immigration and liberalisation is the solution.

For the US Democratic and UK Labour parties, it is the betrayal and isolation that this cohort of voters feels which needs to be assuaged and tapped into in both jurisdictions’ forthcoming elections.

Instead we see both oppositions attempting to weaponise and demonise the incumbent leaders by levelling accusations of impropriety, however real or otherwise these may be. If they are able to listen to and understand those who voted for Donald Trump and Brexit (and by default Boris Johnson), then maybe the yet-to-be-decided democratic candidate and Jeremy Corbyn will have a chance in these forthcoming campaigns. Should they not, then I feel we can expect more of the same. Tony Hetherton Address with editor