Among the many accounts of the reasons and consequences of Brexit for the United Kingdom, nationalist populism is frequently accorded importance. In this paper, I consider the relationship of the rise of populist discourse to the impact of global decline. While populism is a all-too-obvious recent trend in democratic politics, in a number of contexts – whether the US, Russia or even Turkey – it is associated both materially and ideationally with notions of a glorious past, a less than satisfactory present, and the looming unknown of the future. The paper will unpack the discourse of decline and examine the rhetorical device where the people ‘take back control’ and ‘make great again’, to use but two populist catchphrases.