Blood, populism and liberal democracy
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The horrifying scale of failure and cover-up that emerged from this week’s report into the contaminated NHS blood scandal has now been overshadowed by the General Election. This is a pity, to put it mildly. Thousands of patients, including hemophiliacs and others requiring blood transfusions, were infected with HIV and Hepatitis C due to the use of contaminated blood products supplied by the NHS. This was exacerbated by the fact that the NHS had used imports from high-risk sources, such as blood from the United States collected from prisoners and drug addicts. The negligence in failing to properly screen and test these blood products, despite growing awareness of blood-borne diseases, reflected severe institutional failures.
Moreover, successive governments delayed acknowledgment of the problem, coupled with inadequate support for the affected individuals and their families, deepened the sense of betrayal and horror. This scandal starkly highlighted the devastating human cost of systemic negligence and the profound impact on public trust in healthcare and government institutions.
Yesterday, Paula Vennells, the former chief executive of the Post Office, repeatedly broke down in tears as she testified at the Post Office inquiry. It was a reminder of another scandal which follows a similar pattern to the Hillsborough disaster and Bloody Sunday, to name but a few. Collectively they highlight recurring themes of systemic failure and institutional negligence that have significantly eroded public trust in the UK establishment. Each case is marked by delayed justice and cover-ups, with authorities slow to acknowledge issues and accused of downplaying or suppressing evidence, further deepening public mistrust.
The profound and lasting impact on victims and their families is another significant theme. Thousands of individuals have faced life-threatening illnesses, wrongful imprisonment, financial ruin, and emotional trauma. The families of the victims endured decades of struggle for justice and recognition, facing immense personal and psychological tolls, which compounded their sense of betrayal by the institutions meant to protect them.
But all of this plays into a wider, deeper narrative in Western politics. It’s that nagging idea in the back of a sizable chunk of the electorate that the state, business and other vested elements are out to get the common man. This all expresses itself as populism.
Furthermore, and perhaps more worrying, is the fact that the elements of that liberal democratic establishment can’t see that populism is an expression of their failures. This failure to understand populism, whether interpreted through philosophical explanations or ideological foundations is, in part, because the very nature of populism defies easy categorisation, as it encompasses a diverse range of movements, ideologies, and leaders. This has enabled the liberal establishment to sneer at the movement and decry it as a flash in the pan.
This sneering and derision is a mistake. It’s only by understanding how populism appeals to the human condition and probing questions that lie at the heart of how the state should interact with the individual that the liberal democratic tradition can start to formulate an understanding of the movement.
Populism, by its very nature, resists tidy definition. It arises in response to grievances and inequalities created by liberal democracy. This might be in the headline grabbing scandals of the day, such as the tainted NHS blood scandal, or just the simple fact that roads are falling to rubble.
Expressions of populism often mobilise around a charismatic leader who claims to represent the will of “the people” against entrenched elites. Populist movements can manifest across the ideological spectrum, from left-wing movements advocating for economic justice to right-wing movements championing nationalist and traditionalist values. This multifaceted nature makes it challenging to pin down a singular philosophy.
Populism lends a profound reverence for collective “common sense”, which contrasts with the intellectualism of elites and paralysis of the state to do anything useful for the common man. The wisdom of ordinary people transcends the complexities of “Westminster”, “Brussels” or “Washington” discourse, pointing towards a deeper, more intuitive understanding of politics and people’s needs from the state.
The populist scepticism towards established authorities bears striking parallels with 19th and early 20th-century reservations for religious institutions. The 19th-century church and the 21st-century state serve their own interests rather than addressing the needs of the people. The solution is a call for the decentralisation of authority, emphasising personal moral responsibility over institutional control—greater grassroots empowerment and autonomy.
As the Post Office, Blood Contamination and other scandals demonstrate, the common man in 21st-century British life, and across the Western world, struggles to stand up to the abuse of corporate and state power. This is the stuff populism feeds off, and liberal democracy seems to have no answer.
In essence, the liberal democratic tradition has to find a solution to populism, not in the consolidation of power or the suppression of dissent, but in a deeper engagement cultivating a more profound sense of empathy, compassion, and solidarity. It’s only by doing this that society can address the root causes of populist discontent and forge a path towards a more just and equitable future. Scandals are demonstrations of suppression which populism thrives on.
Only by probing the fundamental questions of how the state should interact with the electorate will liberal democrats be able to provide a compelling framework to understand and address the complexities of populism. There needs to be liberal democratic renewal; we need to find a path towards a more just and equitable society, where the grievances that fuel populism can be addressed at their root.
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