The FT provides a clear indication of the way in which populist thinking is moving this morning. As they report:
An Istanbul court has sentenced a prominent Turkish businessman and philanthropist to life in jail without parole in a landmark case — a verdict campaigners described as an “outrageous” blow to human rights.
Osman Kavala, whose prosecution has become a litmus test of the rule of law in Turkey, was found guilty of having sought to overthrow the government despite years of objections to his treatment by western officials, human rights groups and one of Europe's top courts.
Extensive research by many groups and go0vermemtns has shown Kavala is nothing more than political opposition.
I give due notice that on this basis I have been seeking to overthrow this government for years because it has failed the people of the UK and because it has served its own self-interest and that of its clients very well.
Those of us who have done so should take due note. Is this where the populists will want to go next? It would not surprise me.
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Our government is already going that way – criminalising investigate journalism and ‘annoying’ protesters, controlling the electoral commission limiting the independence of the judiciary, limiting the right to vote etc etc
I agree
I am just wondering how long it is before we reach this stage
Have you got your Go-Bag ready for when that 4AM knock on the door comes?
No….
I’m with yiu, bith in terms of seeking to overthrow and direction of travel. Not a litmus test, but most people I speak to (some exceptions) despise the way things are, and the psychological stress this produces is building. David Graeber made this point talking about ‘Debt: the first 5,000 years’, that revolutions mostly occur when both the level and moral (I read that as psychological) cost of debt become intolerable.
Talking to Lib Dem and Tory voting friends possibly the most alarming feature of their views about politics is their inability to accept, often to the point of blank denial, the continuing destruction of Democracy in the UK.
Over 150 years ago in his novel Bel Ami, Guy de Maupassant produced a telling satire of how corrupt media owners and corrupt politicians can work together to totally distort the public’s understanding of reality for their own advantage.
It seems to me that we are little nearer to solving this most basic conundrum of Free Speech.
We all know it is essential to Democracy, but in that case how do you deal with the means of communication falling into the hands of a tiny number of men who abuse the power their ownership has conferred on them.
With Musk’s purchase of Twitter an ever more urgent problem.
Peaceful protest is already criminalised in the UK with recent legislation making any form of climate protest whether Extinction Rebellion, Insulate Britain, or Just Stop Oil almost legally impossible. The negation of human rights by stripping asylum seekers of any statehood and declaring them “illegal” before their cases are even heard is also a gross indication of the move to fascism by the Tories.
I’m no expert on Turkey but this is really worrying. The Turks once has to put up with Caliphate that I believe they got sick of and abolished. Let’s hope that it can do the same with the current incumbent one day in the near future.
The thing about fascism is that it always goes too far and the people will not bear it even though the conclusion takes a long time to emerge and is very painful in the process.
“ I give due notice that on this basis I have been seeking to overthrow this government for years because it has failed the people of the UK and because it has served its own self-interest and that of its clients very well.”
You want to “overthrow” a Government that was democratically elected? Isn’t that fascism? Why not wait 18-24m and let the electorate decide?
I am waiting for 18 – 24 months
Please don’t be stupid
So too was the person I was writing about in Turkey doing just that