1/ Deindustrialisation has led to the collapse of the working and middle classes as coherent political forces. A fragmented society leaves many people open to the bogus solidarity of dogmatic nationalism, and so to manipulation by a ruthless kleptocratic elite.
2/ But this manipulation of a fragmented and disorientated mass by a small kleptocratic elite creates an opening for left and centre parties. They must seek to drive a wedge between the manipulative elite and the people they are manipulating.
3/ The Brexit Right used the technique of othering the 'liberal metropolitan elite'. The opposition must do the same to the kleptocratic elite. They must be portrayed as not belonging to the people, as a kind of foreign body that has colonised the nation.
4/ What is extraordinary is that none of the opposition parties is seeking to expose and exploit the huge gap between the manipulators and the manipulated. Labour is pathetically reinforcing the nationalist propaganda of the kleptocratic elite.
5/ In some ways what is required is a reawakening of the rhetoric of class war, except that in this case the attack is against something much smaller, much more interconnected and much more organised, an elite, not a social class.
6/ To make such an attack work we need to define the elite we want to attack. It's not merely the Tory elite or the rich or the super-rich. It's a kleptocratic elite which systematically uses wealth to gain effective political control over a nation.
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