Description
We are currently undergoing an extremely challenging moment in world politics and, in part responding to this, we have seen right-wing populist discourses and politics (re)emerge in countries including Italy, the UK, the USA, Brazil, and India. Studying the UK context, this paper interrogates the operation of ‘common sense’ governing narratives deployed in the 2023 party conference season, as both Labour and the Conservatives set out their stall for dealing with this uniquely complex political moment in the run-up to an anticipated general election. Focusing on the issues of climate change, migration, and the acceptance of trans people in society, the paper argues that the idea of ‘common sense’ was used to actively obfuscate, avoid or oversimplify political issues on which thoughtful decision-making would likely have produced a different conclusion. It further notes that these ‘common sense’ arguments have a disproportionately negative impact on already minoritised groups, and that they serve to reinforce historic ideas of the public sphere as being the domain of White, heterosexual and cis-gendered men. Overall, the paper makes an original contribution by connecting populist and depoliticisation debates with an approach that is informed by queer, feminist and decolonial insights
