Populism grows when governments fail to engage with the “middle people,” the former Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, told an audience in Cambodia recently.
Addressing students in the University of Cambodia, in the presence of the Cambodian prime minister, Hun Sen, Mr Kenny said that when Ireland was hit with its financial crisis, he cut the salaries of government ministers, “took away their State cars, took away their drivers, took away all the perks of office.”
Minister were told that, “if you want to serve in the government, you are going to have to get down to the level that everyone else is contending with.”
