Colin Hines had a letter in The Guardian on 22 November tackling the difficult issue of how to address populism, which he linked to the need for a Green New Deal:
Your chilling, but hardly surprising, front-page revelation that one in four Europeans vote populist was long on excellent analysis, but lacked any solutions. Reversing this trend and its fallout, including Brexit, will require tackling the reasons for its rise, such as widespread concerns about inadequately controlled migration and the economic insecurity now rife among both the employed and unemployed. Tackling the latter will require spelling out a “project hope” agenda which reverses austerity and instead invests in the rebuilding of Europe’s social infrastructure, while also funding a massive green infrastructure programme for transforming the energy, energy-saving and transport systems continent-wide. Europeans should take inspiration from the US, where progressive new congresswomen and men are now pushing the Democrats into adopting just such a “Green New Deal”. They realise that a “jobs in every part of the country” programme is central to defeating Trump.
Here, Jeremy Corbyn could play a central role by capitalising on the present parliamentary chaos and asserting that Labour supports a people’s vote, but with the “remain and reform” agenda for Europe, similar to that he “campaigned” for in the run up to the referendum. Putting rebuilding local economies at the heart of such reform would gain support from leave-voting areas and could be a rallying call for those fighting rightwing populism across Europe. It could also have the domestic payoff of forming the core of Labour’s next and hopefully successful election manifesto, whenever required.