article: Is the new popularity of anti-EU parties in the UK, France, Greece and Spain a hangover from the crash of 2007-8, the euro crisis of 2010-13 and long years of squeezed living standards - a protest from those who feel dispossessed in an economic sense? Or does the surge of UKIP, the Front National and Syriza, inter alia, reflect a more profound sense that the mainstream parties and conventional political institutions no longer serve the interests of millions of people? Is it "the economy, stupid", or is it "globalisation and a dysfunctional EU, stupid"? The answer matters. Maybe the economy is easier to fix - although not necessarily in the eurozone, which still lacks the requisite cross-border political solidarity that would allow the excessive debt burden to be pooled, and its growth-deadening impact to be mitigated. As for the UK, it is possible that the current economic recovery will suddenly translate into a significant rise in living standards, that has been so elusive for six years. But the prime minister might not be best advised to count on it. A significant microcosm of both the problem and the solution is London - where, significantly, UKIP resonated less and performed less well than elsewhere. Part of the explanation is that globalisation - which gives many a sense that they have little direct control over their economic destiny - enriches London. Much of the rest of the UK sees globalisation and its manifestations - such as immigration - as disempowering, impoverishing and a threat. Whereas for Londoners, globalisation is an economic competition they are apparently winning. Of course, there are tensions within London generated by the nature of its success - the west London ghettoes of the non-dom super-rich aren't everyone's cup of tea, and high and inflationary property prices undermine social cohesion. But I haven't heard many Londoners describe the capital as "the dark star of the economy", which is how it was characterised in March by the First Minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond. The capital's gravitational pull for what Mr Salmond called "resources, people and energy" is bound to be seen with different degrees of enthusiasm by those inside and outside the Great Wen. Alex Salmond's hope was that an independent Scotland would be able to exert a new pull for talent and money, and provide more economic balance in this island. Which some would say is a challenging argument to make, since the trends that are pumping up London are supra-national. In a world where barriers to the flow of money, services, people, goods and data have progressively been removed, vast flows of money, services, people, goods and data are drawn to where they find their ilk. Or to put it another way, the rise of London is the rise of one of the world's megacities, those urban centres which thrive semi-independently of the countries where they are located. According to the consultancy McKinsey, some 70% of all worldwide economic activity takes place in the world's 600 largest cities. And the most vital cities, on its analysis, are those that are
summary: How much of the rise in Europe's anti-establishment parties of right and left is cyclical and how much is long-term and secular?