In the midst of Partygate and all that goes with it the possibility that the continuing passage of the Public Order Bill now before the Commons.
As Caroline Lucas said of the Bill during the Second Reading debate this week:
This is a deeply dangerous Bill, and I am pleased to support the reasoned amendments. The measures in the Bill represent a fresh outright attack on our fundamental rights. Indeed, as others have said, the human rights organisation Liberty has called it a
“staggering escalation of the Government's clampdown on dissent.”
We are in the grip of multiple crises: a cost of living scandal that is pushing millions of households into fuel and food poverty; a war in Ukraine with disastrous consequences; and the accelerating climate and nature emergencies. What we need at this critical juncture is more democracy, not less—not a ban on our constituents participating in certain protests, not subjecting them to 24-hour GPS monitoring for the crime of disagreeing with the Government, and not barring them from participation in public life.
I agree with Caroline, and many Labour opponents including Yvette Cooper, of whom Priti Patel is clearly terrified. This is a Bill intended to restrict our right to protest and to free speech still further. The penalties are draconian. It will, in effect, be a crime to express dissent with the government in a peaceful fashion.
This is what the issues with the Tories really is. Partygate reveals their contempt for the law. What this Bill reveals is their contempt for political freedom. And that means they are fascism in progress.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
The Tories are fascism in progress
I noted that Politics Live brought Mhairi Black’s speech on fascism up on the program and it is true people are afraid to speak of this but I agree with you this Government Bill is just the thin edge of the wedge and if left we could be in for very uncertain times.
“What this Bill reveals is their contempt for political freedom. And that means they are fascism in progress.”
On this definition, we would have to say that the Chinese Communist Party is a fascist organisation. There are lots more we could add around the world such as Peoples Action Party in Singapore, Then there are the Governments of Indonesia, Thailand, and a dozen or so countries in Africa which are under some sort of military control.
Certainly they are all authoritarian, but are they fascist? I don’t believe this is a correct description. We need to reserve this for the real fascists. I appreciate that any definition will be open to debate but it has to be something more than just another word for ‘authoritarian’.
I think you need to read some more about fascism
Start with Tim Snyder
Or
Robert Paxton. An American scholar.
He distinguishes between traditional authoritarian regimes and Fascism. The latter , he says, has a key component of a grievance which needs to be righted or avenged -Treaty of Versailles , Italy not gaining much from world war one, the loss of the Civil War for the KKK. It draws its support from the working class but they do deals with capital and corporations, and often reactionary religion.
It also speaks of the ‘elite’ compounding that wrong on the people. It poses as ‘the people’ (but often draws leaders from the traditional rulers.) They tell a story about their right to rule.
Thanks
Neil
Try seeing Fascism as a technique.
You will then see that both Left & Right use it.
And then you will realise that is currently Johnson’s Right wing government in this country who is being Fascist.
In your country Neil – YOUR country, never mind someone else’s.
You are right
The CCP not fascist? I seem to remember Chinese people saying it was at the time of the Tiananmen massacre and, more recently, at demonstrations in Hong Kong.
Edward R. Murrow had it right;
“We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men – not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular”
It has to be said – and it is true.
My view is that a citizen has a right to protect themselves from Fascism by taking appropriate action.
Our first line of defence is Parliament and I’m hoping that the citizens who are also MPs will do their job.
you lot are a pack of old drama queens.. you really don’t know your born. Your right to protest here, regardless of the bill will be better than 97% of other counties. The disruption caused by “peaceful protest” as typified by ER is often a real pain and the normal working person has had enough. This bill is a response to this frustration. it isn’t fascist. The u.k. will remain a “soft touch”.,if you don’t agree go and protest in other countries around the world and see how far that takes you.
No doubt what Nazis said about all the minorities they oppressed
Including the last comment
You really are a fascist
‘Drama Queens’?
Tell me now, when members of this government whine about those they call ‘woke’, is that about being a Drama Queen too is it?
And please tell me why I should be thinking about protesting in a country that I am not a citizen of?
The thing is that you can’t can you because it’s the usual denial from people like you who like fascism or who are easily led. Or both.
Aren’t you ?
Colin will not be replying
Colin whether wittingly or not has proved he is a pure troll
What makes you so sure no one here has ever protested in another country? I certainly have.
You are right to sound the alarm bell. The emergence of neoliberal fascism is the gravest crisis Britain’s democratic institutions have faced since the dark days of Moseley and co.
It is no coincidence that after inflicting an anti-democratic, racist, homophobic Brexit through dark money and Russian interference, the regime is now eagerly promoting a Putin agenda by removing the right of the public to peacefully protest and openly promoting hatred against people of colour and transgender individuals.
Is it too much to hope that the Labour Party might take robust measures to right the ship of state and heal the country of division? It will not be enough to merely defeat the neoliberals at the ballot box, the toxic ideology of fascism must be rooted out in our schools, our media, and our democratic structures themselves. Fascism, like racism, climate denial, sexism and transphobia has no place in a free and democratic society that values human rights and openness.
“just the thin edge of the wedge and if left we could be in for very uncertain times.”
Very British understatement! Could->will, uncertain->dark: we will be in for very dark times
Today is yet another WTF day. Even with the depths that the bunch of scumbags that run this country have plummeted to already they continually proof they can decend further.
Craig
Typo, should have been ‘proove’
What can we do? Johnson won’t do the decent thing. Most Conservative MPs say they still support their leader, so he would win a leadership vote, if one were called (although Thatcher’s downfall shows nothing is certain). Even if the Privileges Committee finds against him, a vote of no confidence would no pass, blowing another gaping hole in our constitutional arrangements. There must be a decent chance of Labour winning back Wakefield at the by-election next month: the Conservatives losing Tiverton and Honiton would be an earthquake. Even that won’t dent the majority much but it might make other Conservative MPs consider their future job prospects. And yet there does not have to be a general election for another two and a half years. Jesus wept.
While sharing the vast amount of misgiving expressed here, it is not a zero sum game. Short of cancelling elections, which even for this lot might be a stretch, the tighter they pull the rubber band of national tolerance, the sharper will be the recoil. On the same principle, Labour privately says, notwithstanding the RESIGN!!! mantra, that they want Johnson in place until 2024, or whenever the next election is – technically it could be January 2025.
Meanwhile, Hungary has slipped quietly from one state of emergency (over COVID, which was about to expire after two years) to a second one (over Ukraine), with essentially an enabling act allowing Orban to continue ruling by decree. Because – notwithstanding his large parliamentary majority – that is the only way to protect “the people” against “the enemy”.
Anybody unsure about what Fascism is, or the differences/similarities between Fascism and Communist dictatorships, should read Hannah Arendt’s 1952 book on totalitarianism.
A rough summary of her view of Fascism is that it is the Wealthy elite plus the mob. Seventy years later a description that is uncannily accurate about the current state of Britain
It is a book written with great clarity.
From an explanation of how the power of constant lying works to the irrational hatred of some specified other it is all there.
Unfortunately, for the people who have master-minded the right wing-election campaigns in the West for the last forty years it has become a how-to-win playbook rather than a warning
I agree – that is because we were taught to fear Communism or socialism not long after the war instead of Fascism.
Big mistake.
Tim Snyder is Arendt’s heir in my view and a worthy one.
I agree with the headline: “Tories are fasciism in progress” – & without wishing to reduce the seriousness of the problem, they are, as per usual wearing policy flip-flops – first seeing things through ideological lenses (no energy windfall tax) and then suddenly flip flopping & deciding it would be good after all – I note that Sunnak-the-imbecile has (probably at the prompting of the fascist-in-chief Mendacious fatberg) decided it was a good idea after all.
Shell did an EBITDA of $55bn (net sales of $261bn), BP EBITDA $37bn (net sales $157bn). Forecasts for 2022 $80bn and $51bn respectively. As you can see, the swill trough is we filled.
Tories – fascists in flip-flops, led by a greased pig.
He prorogued Parliament when it would not vote the way he wanted.
He introduced the Public Order Bill when he didn’t like the public demonstrating against his policies.
He tried to change the law to protect one of his MPs when he was caught taking money for lobbying. Fortunately this was a rare occasion when he could not get away with it.
He has changed the rules on the Ministerial Code to protect himself from being forced to resign for breaching same.
He is redrawing the borders between England and the rUK, leaving England with more seats and Scotland and Wales with less.
And then there is Partygate – found guilty, received a fine, photographed attending a leaving party and raising a glass to toast the departing member of staff, bottles strewn on a table and reports of fighting, vomiting and verbal abuse of cleaning staff and security officers – he is still in his position folks.
Fascism? – we are sleepwalking into an extremely dangerous future.
Agreed