I have posted this thread on Twitter this morning:
We witnessed an attempted coup this week. A prime minister who has very obviously broken the law on many occasions and who holds the people of this country in contempt sought to stay in power aided and abetted by his party and the police. A thread….
The charge sheet against Johnson is enormous. He broke the law on Covid parties, many times. He permitted the corrupt PPE fast lane to enrich his supporters. He has taken or failed to take action resulting in tens of thousands of excess Covid deaths.
As PM he has lied to parliament, successively. He secured illicit funding for the decoration of his flat and tried to gain personally from doing so. He has threatened to break international law and denies responsibility for the Brexit deal he negotiated.
There must have been worse leadership than that provided by Johnson in the history of this country, but it is very hard to think who might have delivered it and when. Corruption, incompetence and falsehoods characterise all he does.
Now, when it seemed likely that a report that he commissioned as yet another delaying tactic to prevent his being accountable was to be delivered, with likely telling consequence, the head of the officially established as institutionally corrupt Metropolitan Police intervened.
After refusing for many months to take action to address the obviously illegal behaviour that took place in Downing Street during lockdown, on the day when a civil servant was to deliver their report on the issue the Met intervened to prevent that happening.
One Balliol PPE graduate mysteriously decided that the time has come to help another by suggesting that the Met had no problem with the report being delivered so long as it did not refer to the parties which were the subject of its inquiry.
Of course, this might just be incompetence on the part of Dame Cressida Dick, who finally realised that the evidence her officers had witnessed by being present at the scene throughout the criminal episodes might finally require investigation on her part.
Or it could simply be a part of the coup. I don't know. I just know it looks like the second of these options.
However, Dick is not alone in supporting Johnson. He has retained the loyal support of his Cabinet, including all those who wish to succeed him. They have loyally supported him by refusing to recognise lies, corruption and wrongdoing. They are his co-conspirators.
What is the conspiracy? It is to create a corporatist state. You can call that fascism if you like, but the term corporatist works as well. That is a state run for the benefit of favoured corporations and their owners against the interests of the people of a country.
The object is to retain power indefinitely. The way to achieve this is by lying. The most popular lie is that there are enemies within. Those enemies have to be opposed and beaten because they are a supposed threat. That narrative distracts from the destruction of democracy.
Who are the enemies within? Women, for a start. Remember the police reaction to the Sarah Everard protests.
Anyone not white is next. The anti-woke campaigns and the hysteria about the toppling of a slaver's statue in Bristol is evidence of that.
Then there are Europeans. Brexit was created to stoke this fervour.
But they do not stop there. There are benefit claimants, those committing electoral frauds (for which there is no evidence), students on arts courses, and so many more. All are the enemies of the state, costing it funds and denying it the chance to deliver for the favoured few.
All of these supposed threats, plus the golden opportunity that Covid supplied, are used to undermine parliament, to rule by decree, to ignore rule-breaking (remember Brexit and Russian funding issues too) and to deny as many as possible the vote in the future.
Sue Gray's report threatened this project. The simple evidence that the Prime Minister lied, time and again, was available on Number 10 CCTV footage, which she could no doubt access. The charade was to be blown asunder. And so the Met stepped up to support the coup.
Now we are in limbo. Will the coup succeed? It might. Sue Gray's report might never be published. We might get a police state instead, where the power of law enforcement officers is used to uphold those breaking the law.
And we might not get that. We do not know. Right now we are in the dark, our fate to be determined by the forces that operate in such spaces.
But what we can do is to decide that we will not accept this. Our attitude is our own. No one can deny it to us. No one can take it away. We can decide we have had enough.
In this case that requires us to decide what we have had enough of Johnson and the Tories, of course. But I suggest that's insufficient. We have had enough of a system that let this happen.
Westminster, our government and constitution are all an old boy's club, populated by insiders who knew or learned the code, and by and large agreed to live by its rules to maintain a certain style of state.
Let's not pretend that state has worked. Food banks, the bedroom tax, crushed social care and non-existent mental health care for many are the evidence of that. All are carefully maintained by the claim ‘we can't afford this'.
That claim is perpetuated by the few with the power and wealth to dictate the narrative that says that wealth must not be too disturbed by the state, whatever the human cost of that inaction. And we have paid too high a price for that whilst the wealthy have got very much richer.
I am not proposing bloody revolution. Pitchforks are not on my agenda. But a caring, compassionate, considerate, constitutional, cooperative and sustainable society that delivers for all within a framework that is legal, accountable and democratically controlled is.
The current system of government that we have seems quite incapable of delivering this. It gives too much power to Murdoch papers, the Mail and the think tanks of the anonymous wealthy. It refuses real people the right to say what they think, campaign and even vote.
My suggestion is that the construct of government that we have is rigged against all that is good.
In that case just getting rid of the Tories now is not enough. We need something more. Our democracy must be saved.
I believe that outside the Tory party there are decent politicians who are motivated to serve society. They are not just in one party. They are found across the political spectrum. They, thankfully, do not all agree with each other, as democracy requires, but they are democrats.
My suggestion to them all is simple. We have faced a coup. Our democracy is in peril. It falls to those who seek democratic power to save it. And they can only do that together.
We need a Great Reform. That is, we need to see democracy re-established with a right of representation for all, within a PR system, with a democratic second chamber, limits on government and media power and all enshrined in a written constitution.
And we need it now. To deliver this we need a one-off coalition for democracy to deliver this reform, and to then face re-election so that policy that really reflects the will of the people of this country can be enacted.
We have had our brush with a coup this week. It may still succeed. Wish me luck if it does. Like many, I would need it. Alternatively, we can change this rotten system for good.
The question is, are our politicians now big enough, principled enough, confident enough to deliver for us? Will they be partisan or act for the greater good? That is the question of the moment.
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I suspect that every time “Singapore” is invoked they are giving us a big clue to their real intentions: de facto one-party state with a rich ruling elite presiding over massive wealth inequality. The only bit of the Singapore model they won’t adopt is the low corruption.
There was a very odd piece inserted in BBC Newsnight last night that used Mark Dryford’s (Welsh FM) claim that it is England that is the Covid ‘outlier’, and it has not adequately protected its citizens throughout the pandemic (compared with Wales, Scotland and NI). The purpose of the piece was to argue that Drayford was wrong.
The only evidence presented was an interview with Professor Paul Hunter, but who offered no evidence, save to say it was “probably” difficult to prove, and it was “difficult” to say; it was then claimed by the journalist voicing the piece that if there was no evidence for England being an outlier, then with the faster opening up in England this was beneficial to business and in implicit confirmation, the piece closed with a succession of right-wing MPs critical of Plan B, effectively dismissing caution. The general tenor of the piece was that the English approach was successful (implicity critical of the more cautious nations), and that in future lockdowns would be difficult to justify. Newnight pieces typically end with at least a semblance of a balanced discussion of opinions, not always well chosen; but art least deferring to the appearance. This time there was nothing. The end was abrupt. The subject suddenly changed.
There was no balance or ‘impartiality’ in the framing of this piece; apart from Drayford. It was an astonishing piece of wretched journalism from the BBC (in spite of having in the past used Pagel, Sridhar, Reicher, Bauld, King, and a host of more circumspect professional opinion).
The proof that the whole Sue Gray, Met furore was a farce created by the Conservative Government and MPs simply to give Johnson time to concoct a survival strategy, is here; the latest news is that the Met is suddenly disappearing over the horizon with its Big Investigation suddenly reduced to an over-inflated fixed penalty ticket; and the Sue Gray Reort is miraculously about to be delivered to the PM, perhaps in hours. Nobody knows whether it is the full Report, a redrafted report or a redacted report; but don’t woory the guarantor of straight-dealing is Sue Gray’s boss here: Boris Johnson. It is all in the hands of someone you can trust, it is all in the best possible taste, and once it is in 10, Downing Street we can all relax. After all, what could possible go wrong?
I thought the story of this poor woman
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-60145677
summed up where we are now. Arrested for having a silly walk might be just around the corner. As for peaceful protest, apparently having a vote every 5 years or so means any demonstations are not needed. The sign held up in this protest is good too;
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-60145677
Sorry, wrong link.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60032465
Let’s see what happens on Twitter to this.
You are right – there are people out here in this country who are no where near the deplorable lot who are in power and their misled supporters whether anti-woke, BREXITeers or whatever – so that is a cause for hope and fertile ground for change.
Johnson is chancing his arm here and he may be right in the middle of going too far. It all depends now on the Tory media and how they respond.
As for the Police – I agree once again with John Warren – they have got tied up in something they wished to avoid – if they have now accepted that they have to investigate I can understand why they do not want Gray’s report widely published as it is not now a matter of just an ‘internal’ conduct issue for politicians – it has now been made into a criminal matter as I understand it. And Johnson is entitled to a fair investigation. Yes – even him.
BTW – it is Parliament united that has to expunge Boris from power for his conduct – I wonder how John Bercow would be handling this – come back John!!
We might need to see what happens next – what the result of that Police/criminal investigation is. If we do not get what we expect from that, there had better be a good explanation because I think that that really will be when Johnson and the Tory party may run out of road – what’s left of it.
The public did not really warm to Gordon Brown and when he reneged on an election they did not forget. I think that if this gets covered up or arrogantly swept aside, then I think the Tories are already toast at the next election.
However, it will a next election that the Labour party is already setting itself up to lose by all accounts.
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Whatever the Met are up to, it isn’t a ‘criminal investigation’. Covid breaches were dealt with by issuing fixed penalty notices. The only possiblity of a criminal conviction arising from an FPN is to challenge it and lose the subsequent hearing in court, or to fail to pay it.
All they can achieve is to establish whether the Covid regulations were breached and whether FPN’s should have been issued.
Why they’re stomping all over Sue Gray’s inquiry, by issuing demands, when a criminal conviction can never be achieved is either a deliberate misuse of their powers or gross ineptitude; neither is a good look.
I think that this issue as to whether something ‘criminal’ has happened or not shows us just how convoluted things have got.
There were rules that were created and were broken it seems by Boris and others having created them themselves.
Law – criminal and civil – are also rules and also created in Parliament and by politicians.
At first a civil servant was going to investigate them that seemed to suggest a breach of internal ministerial code.
Now the police are involved who are our main means of investigating breaches of criminal law (I don’t think they investigate civil cases do they? Or am I wrong?).
With the Tories I don’t know what is criminal anymore – do you?
Boris looks to have broken his own Covid rules that were subject to enforcement by the police , but the forthcoming NI increase, the lying over BREXIT, the poor response to Covid, contracts for mates and even austerity are bloody criminal enterprises to me that these bastards need to be held accountable for in my view.
The day after Cameron resigned I was at a meeting where a colleague likened the change of government and where we were going to go as a coup.
It later came out that Cambridge Analytica had used data from social media to send targeted, source unacknowledged pro Brexit texts on a huge scale. The organisation and its funding had links to an American billionaire. Steve Bannon, a quasi-Fascist running Trump’s election campaign, used the same methods. The first British politician Trump saw after election was Farage. Farage later went on to campaign in Alabama for Roy Moore the Republican candidate for the Senate. He was a supporter of the birther movement saying Obama was not born in the US, he is anti Gay advocating that homosexuality should be illegal, opposes abortion, rejects the concept of evolution, opposes gun control, supports conspiracy theories about Islam and praised Putin. He lost with a Democrat having a surprise victory. How anyone could support Moore, let alone campaign for him is beyond me. I can only surmise he was paying off some obligation.
There is quite a lot of evidence that very rich vested interests were and are orchestrating populist figures to implement their agenda, which they dare not honestly put to the electorate.
so I agree , there is a continuing coup in progress with links across the Atlantic. Stedman-Jones wrote a book ‘Masters of the Universe’ about the birth of neoliberal politics. The origins happened on both sides of the Atlantic.
Although there was in fact no connection between Vote Leave or UKIP and the Brexit campaign and Cambridge Analytica. This is what the official investigation by the UK Information Commissioner uncovered:
https://ico.org.uk/media/action-weve-taken/2618383/20201002_ico-o-ed-l-rtl-0181_to-julian-knight-mp.pdf
See Craig Murray’s account here: https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2022/01/beware-the-cult-of-cadwalladr/
Not that this detracts from the substance of Richard’s argument for root and branch reinvention of UK democratic structures and processes. And it appears that Steve Bannon is busy in Europe …
Richard,
I agree on almost everything in this piece. My worry is that the opposition parties as they are currently constituted are fundamentally of the same ideological bent as the Conservative Party. The Lib Dems under Davey are almost indistinguishable from the Tories and Starmer’s Labour Party moves further to the right with every passing week. Democracy ends when the levers of power are removed from democratic control and one of the key ways this happens is the co-opting of the opposition by the gradual shifting of the window of acceptable discourse. Corbyn’s manifestos of 2017 and 2019 wouldn’t have seemed out of place in MacMillan’s campaigns of the 50s or even by Thatcher in 79 – yet we hear from the mainstream media – BBC, Telegraph, Sky etc – that they represented “extreme left wing policies”. This has left us with no where to go in terms of policies that threaten the neoliberal corporatist agenda. I hope and wish that your vision of a united coalition to throw out this venal and corrupt government could happen, but I am very doubtful.
Me too
But I hope….
Many years ago somebody I knew describing his experoences in the US said that teh Americans would be even worse than they are were it not for the way they revere the Constitution and follow its principals.
As seen last January when Mike Pence and some Republicans pushed through the appointment of President Biden against calls by Trump and the threat of violence.
Whay is needed is not just a Constiution but the necesary reverence for it and to follow its principals.
It really doesn’t matter much whether minor criminal offences have been committed. I wish people would stop leading their charge sheet against Johnson with comments about parties.
Yes agree!
Lying and perverting the course of justice. Johnson has trashed the reputation and influence of UK.
I am ashamed to be British.
I agree it’s somewhat irksome. However I can’t help recalling that Al Capone was finally put away for tax evasion and not for murder or extortion. If parties are what finally defeats Johnson, then so be it. I would like him to be held responsible for a whole host of other things, but ending his reign of terror must be the first priority.
Getting rid of Johnson over parties is more likely to lead to a Reign Of Terror than follow one.
The original Reign Of Terror being the one that followed the end of the Monarchy in France. The Committee of Public Safety established by the National Convention and all that.
Richard, your conclusions read like Scotland’s Independence Movement’s case for secession from the UK. The problems you identify are largely the same. In Scotland’s case the need and desire for a democratic outcome pointed to independence because we could see no realistic possibility of the UK reforming itself, especially with a neo-liberal Conservative party strongly in power. I think your conclusions for the UK are correct and sensible, but suspect there is little chance of them coming about unless the Tories self-immolate.
I have to live in hope
But understand your feelings
Ken, being at a count on 18/19th, September, 2014, I can still remember the feeling of disappointment at losing the vote. With this in mind, we simply have to detach ourselves, at the first opportunity, from this completely corrupt Westminster administration, because I believe it is incapable of reform, whoever is in charge.
I wonder if the real prospect of Scottish Independence and Irish reunification might act as a wake up call?
Really great article Richard! I know you are friendly with the Good Law Project.
Maybe join forces and get a few other campaigns sites on board.
Cressida Dick should not be in a position of authority after her role in
the murder of DeMenzies. She was responsible and instead of being instantly
dismissed she got promoted. It says it all about both police and political
corruption.
Let’s see….
There are two issues here:
1. You promote democracy and the rule of law as a counterpoint to the capture of the state by the super-rich and their representatives.
2. The model of how the economy works and the future course of the UK economy is at stake.
On the first there is a positive way of interpreting the Cressida Dick intervention. She may be preparing a charge of “Misconduct in Public Office” as suggested by Michael Mansfield QC.
https://36085122-5b58-481e-afa4-a0eb0aaf80ca.usrfiles.com/ugd/360851_814bdd39d6134bb69927cdafbaf41c97.pdf
There is no clue that this is what is really happening. Instead the law is being changed to reinforce the rule of the Conservative Party and the neo-liberal agenda. Voter ID, Boundary changes, further privatisation and sub-contracting, Destruction of the NHS and BBC. Bans on Protest. Trade deals to remove UK legal protections to be replaced by corporate tribunals. etc.
She may be thinking of prosecuting of Boris as he is bringing the whole system into disrepute and imperilling the bigger picture.
I am not holding my breath. The Law reconciles itself with the rich and powerful, usually.
The big issue is that Boris doesn’t have a clue about economics. He is promoting a not tax and spend economics and a Bennite industrial policy at the same time as promoting rentier capitalism and the City.
As Michael Hudson has identified The BIG Question and the BIG Battle is between
A chinese/classical industrial economy model vs a western rentier economy model.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IquO_TcMZIQ
The conservatives and Johnson do not have a coherent story to tell . And no one believes him anymore.
Meanwhile the government is throwing another dead cat on the table, in the form of a “Brexit Freedom Bill”.
What this appears to mean is that ministers will be empowered to change UK domestic laws – which happen to be derived from EU law – by regulation, without involving Parliament. Trust us, they will say; we just want to cut red tape and increase growth, as they eliminate workers rights, data protection, environmental protections, financial regulation, and a host of other rules we have come to expect and rely on.
So essentially an “Executive Power Bill”.
Very worrying
Parliament is a 19the century construct habited by Oxbridge grandees. The FPTP is used scarcely at all in W Europe. Our system allows ,currently, a 100 seats more than they would have under PR. Democracy with PR works well or at least better.Cf Denmark ,Germany etc
This country thinks it rules the world: BJ is going to tell Pootin it’s naughty to invade Ukraine and Pootin will reply Votzher dermo.( you shit)