The People vs the Blob

Contemporary conservative populism has found its articulation in opposition to an ill-defined “blob” of vested interests. This chapter explores this phenomenon, exploring articulations of discontent and the contexts in which they have arisen. Ire has been targeted at the Civil Service; the legal and judicial systems; and towards participants in two key policy subsectors (education and the environment/climate change). The chapter then relates these problematisations to two popular accounts of UK policymaking: the ‘Westminster Story’, which emphasises top-down control by senior politicians and the rituals of accountability; and the more accurate ‘Complex Government story’, which emphasises the many actors operating at different levels involved in shaping UK policy, the role of institutions, ideas, and context, and the related gap between what is promised and what emerges (Cairney & Kippin, Politics and Policy Making in the UK. Bristol: Policy Press, 2023). In short, it argues that while there may be a ‘blob’, which constrains central government initiatives, the Conservative Party mischaracterises and misunderstands its nature, and thus misdiagnoses what to do about it.