It's not poverty that breeds this populism. It's wealth

Steve Coogan wants people to see his new film, The Penguin Lessons, and think about how they might be living in a wealthy cocoon, disengaged from the world.

- Phillip Inman

The film's central character - a Briton teaching expat children in Argentina rescues a penguin and tries to help local people persecuted by the rightwing government. Re-enacting a true story, Coogan is showing how it's possible to be involved in local communities even when the protagonist is an outsider.

Coogan is concerned about a political shift to the right built on a more selfish outlook, one that focuses on close family and casts a cold eye on people less fortunate. We see it in the US, in the rise of Reform in the UK, and in France and Germany. In the UK, local elections next month will be an opportunity to see if Reform is gaining ground.

It's clear that a large and growing group of voters support rightwing candidates, and increasingly those from the far right, who promise to cut taxes, scrap regulations, reduce immigration and protect a singular freedom - "the freedom to spend your own money as you wish", whether from a salary or drawing on family wealth.

To Make America/Britain/France/Germany great again, policies become ever more outlandish, without any apparent concern for the often terrible side effects.