There was quite a lot of hostile reaction to comments I made on this blog yesterday, albeit all from the usual pattern of new commentators who appear here on one-off bases to post such commentary and then disappear again. One might call the members of the 'usual suspects': those who make up the right-wing trolling community.
Whilst that was going on I was reflecting, in odd moments between work, on the state of politics in the UK. This comment from Lord Sumption, at the conclusion of his Reith lectures last year came to mind.
There is already plenty of gloomy speculation about how long democracy can last against an adverse economic background without my adding to it. Prophets are usually wrong, but one thing I will prophesy; we will not recognise the end of democracy when it comes, if it does. Advanced democracies are not overthrown, there are no tanks on the street, no sudden catastrophes, no brash dictators or braying mobs, instead, their institutions are imperceptibly drained of everything that once made them democratic. The labels will still be there, but they will no longer describe the contents, the facade will still stand, but there will be nothing behind it, the rhetoric of democracy will be unchanged, but it will be meaningless - and the fault will be ours.
I rather strongly suspect that Lord Sumption and I do not agree on a great many things. But on this I think he is right. We are fast approaching the point where all that is left of our democracy is the facade.
We may not be quite there, yet. I cling to hope. But it is only hope.
And this is what the battle really is all about now: it is a fight for democracy itself, and those who come here to troll, and most on the right-wing of politics (where I would also place Lord Sumption, making him an exception to my argument) clearly now only have a desire for the facade.
We are reduced to such a fight. I did not expect it in my lifetime. But that is what we have got. And unless we do fight Sumption is right: the fault is ours.
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You can see the direction of travel in Trump’s America, where the president feels empowered to interfere directly in criminal prosecutions. Once the executive directs the courts, the rule of law is shot, and without that, democracy (that is, a popular vote every few years) is hollow.
An exceptional case, but Hitler was granted extraordinary powers by a democratic process. Putin is elected and re-elected. Erdogan. Autocrats know very well how to use the clothes of democracy to keep power – prosecuting and disqualifying opponents, censoring the press, banning protest, controlling electoral commissions and the courts.
62 years ago Aldous Huxley wrote in Brave New World Revisited: ‘Under the relentless thrust of accelerating over-population and increasing over-organization, and by means of ever more effective methods of mind-manipulation, the democracies will change their nature; the quaint old forms–elections, parliaments, Supreme Courts and all the rest–will remain. The underlying substance will be a new kind of non-violent totalitarianism. All the traditional names, all the hallowed slogans will remain exactly what they were in the good old days. Democracy and freedom will be the theme of every broadcast and editorial–but Democracy and freedom in a strictly Pickwickian sense. Meanwhile the ruling oligarchy and its highly trained elite of soldiers, policemen, thought-manufacturers and mind-manipulators will quietly run the show as they see fit.’
While maybe not the exact scenario we are currently witnessing in the UK, it’s clearly been the direction of travel for some time. And with no effective parliamentary opposition on the horizon, it’s difficult to see how this tendency can be halted, let alone reversed. If there’s any public protest down the line, Priti Patel would doubtless look to a US-style militarisation of the police. And a Trump second-term – looking ever more likely – would further empower, legitimise and embolden right-wing governments globally (https://www.rawstory.com/2020/01/fascism-scholar-if-trump-wins-again-america-will-be-ready-for-full-on-authoritarian-rule/).
Meanwhile the genera public will remain blissfully unaware until, of course, it’s too late.
Prophets are not wrong. But beware of false prophets …..
Lord Sumption might equally as well have been discussing the NHS 🙁
chin up Richard,
In any democracy, ethics, self restraint, tolerance & honesty will always take a second seat to narcissism, avarice, bigotry & persecution, if only because people who play by the rules in any democracy are at a disadvantage to those who easily subvert the rules to their own advantage,
it’s always going to be an uphill battle.
I live in a quiet Somerset village. It’s true blue tory country. Quiet racism is prevalent and directed at a wide spectrum of ‘otherness’. Overt racism reveals itself from time to time. At times it feels as though I’m living on the set of some dark comedy programme.
I’ve read the comments you mention and I agree they are xenophobic and racist. As the grandfather of 5, 4 of whom are mixed race, I no longer sit quietly while such remarks are made. It has reduced my social circle somewhat but it’s time to choose. It feels as though there is an attempt to establish a new norm where covert racism is acceptable. My worry is that this is a prelude to more draconian measures (a la Sabisky). Can’t happen here? There are reams of academic studies (Jane Elliot, Zimbardo, Milgram et al) to show it can. And if racists like Sabisky are given even the slightest encouragement it will.
Be as harsh as you like with the trolls Richard, you’ll have my support for what its worth.
Thanks Bill
If I appear intolerant of them it’s because I am
My family were migrants not so long ago
Even with Labour at a low ebb, there is still an anti-Tory majority among the electorate. But this majority is split among democratic socialists, social democrats, Greens, national progressives and liberal centrists – with most of them kicking lumps out of each other. While this goes on there is a real risk that this virus of populist illiberal economic nationalism blended with the most recent ugly mutation of capitalism will take hold.
You could add to the list, an assault on the independence of the civil service, who of course now need to pass tests of loyalty and submission to the ruling regime of Johnson and Cummings, and their acolytes such as Patel, but not it seems tests of being tolerably decent human beings.
I wonder if she is still running parallel positions again, alongside the government’s official policy. Rule of law? That is for the little people.
Richard, on this subject and indeed Sean’s Progressive Pulse article on fascism, it’s worth watching this clip from Bill Maher. I’m a great fan though I know he’s a bit like Marmite for some people. But this clip is all about the end of democracy – and he very much makes the same case as Sumption. And not least, he points out that the Republican Party in the US is now an anti-democracy party. And wherever the Republican party goes the Tories in the UK soon follow.
Anyway, here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kllPUCjKHI4
Good one Ivan
On the blog tomorrow
Hope you’re well
Richard
As an octogenerian I have lived through many, many changes in the nature of British society and its politics. Never, at any time have I considered Britain to be a true democracy. It is, to my tired mind a place ruled by one or more concealed oligarchies overlaid with an illusion of democracy. All that has changed now is that the tools available for control of the people have become more sophisticated and effective.
Until the fundamentals of our social and political systems are changed there is little hope for a better future for all. What that change may be I find impossible to describe, but would add that almost any new arrangements would be superior to the dogmas of Harold Fairhair of ninth century Norway, refined by William the Conquerer of eleventh century England and perpetuated to this day by the rulers of our so-called ‘democracy’.
Evening on a Thursday and only reading Tax Research now – what appears on R5 Question Time. This is perfect description of the looming problem for ‘Democrats’. Truth seems not to have been invited, as usual. Sumption seems proved right over and over again. On air. This is where the fight you mention evidently starts.
[…] quoted Lord Sumption on the end of democracy […]
In order to fight the erosion of democracy, we need to be able to recognise when it’s happening. And there’s the difficulty.
With the mainstream media throwing banal distractions, twisted statistics and outright lies in the path of people who consume that media, it’s not easy to get the stark message across. We do live in perilous times.
Thank you for your blog, Richard, which I do read every day (even when the tax-related topics are a bit over my head) and I frequently share it on my Facebook page. It helps keep my hopes up.
Thanks Jan
Appreciated
I was asked by a friend recently where I get the energy to do this from. The implication was that it was not normal. I suggested that we do not live in normal times….
In my opinion proportional representation is a necessary if not sufficient condition for democracy to survive. If you are not already fighting for it your 1st port of call should be ‘Make Votes Matter’. As well as being fairer it allows parties to co-operate and to argue about what’s right rather than who’s right.
I have believed this since the time I joined Charter 88, or before
Since he’s a “lord” I suspect he knows more about it than me but when was Britain ever a democracy? FPTP guarantees minority rule.
Perhaps he should concentrate on finishing volume V of his narrative history of the 100 Years’ War. I’ve got round to reading Volume III and it’s really rather good.