That we face a risk of fascism taking hold in the UK, with democracy failing as a consequence, is something I have recognised as a very real risk for longer than most when writing this blog.
The risk has come from a Tory party determined to hold power in the interest of the narrow clientele it serves, which it rewards handsomely, and is in turn rewarded by.
It has been assisted by supine opposition from Labour, more keen to rid itself of the left than uphold democracy, and the SNP, more keen to exit the Union than to worry about what might happen if it fails to do so.
Last night saw fascism make big advances in the UK. Because, it would seem, Labour could not be bothered to call in all its working peers to vote in the Lords, the Tories won a whole series of victories on Bills where the Lords had previously inflicted defeat on them.
As a result the government now has control of the Electoral Commission. In other words, there is now no independent agency required to uphold electoral law and democracy in the UK. Instead, the government can now decide what is fair, and no one can object.
Second, laws on voter registration went through. Supposedly dealing with the almost unknown crime of fraudulent voting, the reality is that these laws are intended to effectively remove the right to vote from those who do not need and so do not have forms of photographic ID. They, of course, are almost invariably the least well off, who are least likely to vote Tory. In effect, a property requirement has now been reintroduced into the right to vote in the UK, pushing us back more than a century and representing the first reverse on this issue since the expansion of the franchise began in 1832.
Third, our right to protest about this was removed. We can now only protest if we do not cause offence to anyone when doing so, which is the whole point of protest. We must now, quite literally, be silent.
These are not laws any party or government committed to democracy would promote. They are fascist in their intent. They will be fascist in their consequences.
And Labour, which had defeated the government on all these issues previously, rolled over and let the government win last night, which makes them a partner in this, in my opinion.
The path towards fascism is proceeding apace in this country. And now, apparently, the Opposition are on side with it.
This is deeply worrying.
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The SNP have no lords.
So?
And whilst they partake at Westminster maybe they should
I wholeheartedly agree.
I think Labour have thought about it and decided that having these draconian laws would also benefit them because it would suit their managerialist nature. It also sends a signal to the deep shadow state who have captured democracy with their money in this country that they are willing to go along with this agenda.
At root also is the cowardliness of our politicians – they know that we are heading into really stormy waters for which they have no answers because of the dogma they all carry
So, turning protest into a crime will essentially help our politicians to do………….nothing.
A sad state of affairs if ever there was one.
Also, now we have another out in the open and very hostile grab for the future by those who are really ruling at the moment – the very rich and corporations who are really in charge at the moment.
It is really frightening thinking about how this is going to play out.
Hello Mr Murphy
Here in Norway voter ID is required. It is also required in Sweden, Finland, and Denmark. These are not fascist countries, nor undemocratic.
Thank you.
So what?
You miss the context
You also ignore the fact you require ID fir everyone and we don’t
So politely, you utterly miss the point
What point have I missed?
You say that the UK are introducing a law on voter ID and that no government committed to democracy would introduce such a law and that it is fascist in intent.
I have explain that all Scandinavian countries have such laws. In fact I find that virtually every European country has voter ID laws and so do 33 of the 37 members of the OECD.
So if voter ID laws are undemocratic and fascist then you are saying that all these countries with voter ID laws are undemocratic and fascist which is a strange claim as the most majority of countries have them.
But in most countries ID is mandatory
It is not in the UK
Nor is there any plan to make it so
In that case you are not comparing like with like
And, politely, your claim is absurd
In Norway it is voluntary to have national ID card.
It is voluntary in Austria, Sweden or Switzerland also.
In these four countries voter ID is required.
I am looking ‘like for like’ when comparison UK with these four countries.
Do you think Norway, Austria, Sweden and Switzerland are fascist and undemocratic?
Thank you.
There is no national ID card here
Stop wasting my time
All the countries you’ve named are eithjer in the EU or have close ties to the EU. This is because the voters there are educated in basic reality (including the importance of the EU and what it actually is) and not brainwashed by fascism. Not a valid comparison.
Askel
The UK has always rejected ID cards – they are not very popular and very controversial until now it seems.
And to request ID cards for voting is a joke that is not very funny at all.
When you vote here in the UK you are on an electoral roll which you are asked to update yearly (for example if you have kids who enter voting age). Even if you forget your voting slip, you can identify yourself at the voting station as the station has a copy of that roll on the day. It is whether you are on the roll or not that determines if you vote. You have the opportunity to make sure that you are on it.
I have even ran polling stations for local Government and I know how they work and I’ve never seen any problems in my area pertaining to ‘voter fraud’.
‘Voter fraud’ is a fascist trope Askel meant to undermine a system that essentially works. Fascism is good at making up false enemies and spreading irrational fears Askel – you have fascists in Norway too don’t you? Every country has.
ID cards will be an added expense (no doubt administrated by semi-private authority wanting to make money) on poorer households where the cost of registering which was free under the system described above is now transferred as a private cost onto citizens (the citizen has to pay now on top of their taxes to be recognised by their State – what a joke).
The intent is to put people off voting and to reduce the voting by poorer households wanting change and help with living expenses.
When I first got my UK passport Askel, it was £16. A passport now is between £75 to £85 because the Government wants to make money so that the service looks attractive when it privatises it. So these issues are big in a country whose wages are declining and which allows people to work on zero hours contracts.
Basically Askel, the English system was not broke, so why fix it? What is the motive?
The motive is fascist. Because this Government knows that people who may not like it will not be able to vote and they are more likely to stay in power – which is typically fascist.
The motives for having ID cards in Scandinavia are to do with the different citizenship processes and values you have – not fascism in Scandinavia – although you do know don’t you that fascism exists everywhere – including Scandinavia which is seen as a modern democratic region?
There was a Swedish division of the SS in world War II even though Sweden was ‘neutral’; and in 2011 it was a Norwegian fascist (not a Muslim extremist) – Anders Breivik – who mowed down 77 young people at a summer camp in the name of his fascist beliefs and laughed at the Norwegian court and legal system who convicted him.
We have to vigilant about fascism Askel because it is amongst us all of the time, just waiting.
Fair?
Thanks for having the patience to explain PSR
I think Richard is making the point that this new law in the UK requiring an ID, is expressly only for the purpose of voting and nothing else (unless they haven’t yet told us about other purposes) – is that correct Richard? The requirement for an ID in the countries you mention are for many purposes that happen to include for when voting. The big difference here is that UK will only require the photo ID for voting only, and the effect will therefore be to disenfranchise many people who currently do not need any form of photo ID, because they don’t drive (requiring a driving licence) or travel abroad (requiring a passport).
If the Tory Government here is requiring everyone to have a photo ID for many purposes other than for voting, then that’s a different proposition, and when last mooted a few years ago was roundly objected to by the very same Party that has just introduced it this time!
If I’m correct I hope that helps.
You are correct
I have a postal vote. I’ll try to check all the details later but will they still be permitted? I wonder if that would be a way around a lack of ID for potential voters.
Nevertheless, to me this sounds like Goebbels on steroids (in that the Tories or at least Johnson want to commit massive electoral fraud but are laying the groundwork by accusing others)
I think they are going to get a lot more complicated
Aksel,
I think the essential point here is that voter ID is fine (and I would say a good thing), provided some form of ID card (whether obligatory or not) is available at no cost in the country, as is the case in France but not in UK.
i completely agree anrigaut.. to have to pay to vote is wrong. I think voter cards may well be free. If so, surely dismisses the notion of fascism?
How much do ID cards cost in Norway? In the UK, it costs at least £75. It’s a significant cost for someone on a low wage.
Also, it’s not just the voter ID law, but the other aspects of this bill that raise concerns.
As far as I can see, this present government has had two main policies since 2019. “Get Brexit done”, and get and keep power at any cost.
The latter includes keeping the friendly press onside and subverting critical press (e.g. control of Ofcom, and attacks on the independence and funding of BBC and Channel 4 for example). Attacking the court (criticisms of judges, changes to judicial review). Identifying enemies within and without (immigration, “woke” culture wars). Subverting constitutional conventions (the illegal prorogation, illegality at the heart of government, the dead letter that the ministerial code has become). Changes to election law (controlling the election regulations, boundary changes, disenfranchising hostile voters). Changes to laws governing protest.
It all comes from the autocratic “managed democracy” playbook. Control the press, control the election process, control who gets to vote. If you line up enough controls, you don’t need to do anything so obvious as stuffing the ballot box: the result is a foregone conclusion.
Orban’s recent re-election shows how this goes.
And Labour’s seeming disinclination to oppose effectively may well become self-defeating. They can’t just rely on the government making mistakes. Where is the attractive alternative vision?
Agree with all, including the last question
Couldn’t agree more.
While ruthless and single minded in their aim for a one party state they are also stupid – unable to hold more than one idea at one time. This makes them even more dangerous.
BBC helps this along by abandoning curiousity and investiation in favour of the only (stupid) thoughts allowed:
– ‘ military victory over Russia ‘ –
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/apr/27/ukraine-war-end-putin-russia-talks
– ‘the virus has gone away ‘ despite 2000 a week deaths https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/
You are not exaggerating.
It is as if the Tory party had taken Hannah Arendt’s description of how Fascism happens, adapted it for the times we live in and turned it into a to-do-list.
First the refusal to engage in any honest, rational, evidence-based debate.
Then the constant, repetitive Big Lies.
Attack and limit democracy in all its forms.
Threaten any news organisation that does not tow the Party line.
Force the sale of any news organisation that refuses to stop being honest.
Corruptly reward allies and supporters.
Govern incompetently creating chaos.
Blame the chaos on everybody else and claim that you are the only party strong enough to save the country from all its wicked internal trouble-makers and external enemies.
Start arresting political opponents.
The truly scary thing is that despite Hitler documentaries having reached epidemic proportions on TV and authoritarian governments now ruling most of the world, people in the UK cannot cannot see the connection.
The Conservatives once again take a leaf from the Republican playbook – voter suppression. The Labour leadership has no interest in electoral reform and is headed by an establishment toady who would no doubt like to take advantage of these powers should he get the chance. Blair and his associates are apparently dreaming up a suitably vapid equivalent of Macron’s En Marche. Small parties on the left are starting to form and a crisis around the cost of living advances apace. One wonders when the British electorate will break out of its docile passivity rather than supinely subjecting itself to this immisserating malaise.
Why do you want to stop technology and change? Voter ID is entirely rational as are driving licences, passports and other means of proof of who you are. It protects against electoral fraud. I would say that protects democracy not harms it. If people can’t be bothered to get ID then they can’t be bothered to follow a simple process to allow them to vote. its that simple… the next stage to take voting out of the dark ages is to use block change technology now that really will eliminate completely fraud and human error…
You know that is disingenuous
But presumably that’s because you are supporting the advance of fascism
No i absolutely do t understand why is it disingenuous? and trust me blockchain technology will eventually be used at elections. The ballot box is primitive.
And I note you are already displaying classic troll behaviour
I would not trust you with 10p
“Simple process”, “can’t be bothered”.
I’m a non-driver. My last (and only) passport expired, unused, twelve years ago.
I’m on a very limited income which doesn’t extend to learning to drive or owning a car or taking holidays.
I “can’t be bothered” to freeze myself or starve myself in order to acquire either.
In our neoliberal (all tories, 70% of labour plp, regional and hq staff, etc) governed land, that makes me – and millions of others – ineligible or *unworthy* of having a vote?
Your situation is exactly what concerns me
Thanks, Carole, for explaining this. I’m in pretty much the same position. The situation is thoroughly dispiriting.
Not that I agree with the proposition of voter id, and do agree with Richard that we are heading to a dark place with this, anyone can get a provisional driving license, without any intent to own a car, or even drive. Cheapest way that I’m aware of to get a Government-issued photo id.
My son has never sat behind a steering wheel is his life, and uses his to prove that he can buy drinks in a pub, etc.
It is valid for 10 years.
But there is still a cost
And it is not easy to get
Why do people have to pay to vote?
If the purpose of requiring every citizen to have a photo ID were for obtaining a variety of public and private services more easily and safely, then that’s a separate conversation we can have, and has been held many years ago and roundly rejected previously. What this ID requirement is about is merely, expressly and exclusively for the purpose of voting and the effect of this requirement is and will be to disenfranchise many people in the UK. As other contributors have written, if one doesn’t drive or travel abroad then many citizens have no need for a photo ID and they will be excluded from voting without those forms of ID – unless another form of photo ID is to be mandated – see above.
Thanks
Fabulous, another “blockchain” bore. There was no statistically significant, “electoral fraud” or voter fraud any where in the Western world until Trump lost the electoral vote in 2016 and came up the fictional “fraud” story as an excuse.
The only significant fraud is in the fictional accusations of “fraud”.
I saw this last night. It’s not often I feel shocked but this is one occasion. I found the website which shows the numbers and who voted for which amendment but I didn’t find what the actual amendment said.
I did see that a lot of returned amendments were voted on and there were some obvious absences including the Labour front bench.
I do recall that the Commons can force through legislation and the Lords can only hold up a new measure for a limited time.
What were the opposition parties thinking of? Is this ‘clever tactics’ by the Conservatives in the Lords?
It is a modern version of the Enabling Act in Germany in 1933. It is a dark day for the country.
The Lords can stop anything not finance and not in a manifesto
All these could have been topped
Labour just did not turn up to do so
I am ambivalent on the principle of compulsory ID cards in general. My instinct is no… but having lived in places where they are required and always carry my Drivers’ License I can’t get too heated on this.
Where I do get heated is that if ID is required to play a full part in society (and most surely, voting fits that bill) then they MUST be issued efficiently and free.
In any case, this is gerrymandering of the highest order, Lady Porter? You were an amateur!!
Precisely
If the ID card was feee, required and assistance to get it was provided for all then no problem
But it isn’t
But this issue of having ID cards in the UK has been debated many times over and been roundly rejected, as I recall by the very Tory Party that has just made this law! As has been written in many contributions above, this law if expressly for the purpose of voting, and for nothing else. That’s what’s despicable!
I think the fascist tendency started with Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government in 1979 – the crushing of trade unions and workers’ rights (as Mussolini and Hitler did) demonising and criminalising gays with section 28 legislation (as Hitler did) demonising and banning foreigners with draconian immigration and asylum law (as Hitler did), support for South African racist appartied and fascist Pinochet in Chile, the list could go on………………
The thing about ID cards and compulsory registration is that their adoption can be used for other purposes. What if the government decided that failure to carry and produce your id card to any deemed “appropriate authority” could result in your arrest? What if ID card details were a compulsory requirement to join a political party? Opposition to a fascist run government would be controlled and monitored allowing new laws to prevent opposition to be enacted. There are many other examples where the use of iD cards can be used to surveil the population. This is not the case for the often cited equivalents of passports, drivers licenses etc. They are not equivalent at all. ID cards rely on the “good chap” notion of government and as is plain the era of the “good chaps” is long gone. We should all be very suspicious of states wanting to implement systems of ID surveillance.
I agree
Thank you for highlighting this on your blog. I picked up on this story last night when looking through social media. Maybe I’m not looking closely enough, but I can’t see this story reported on any MSM website, illustrating the point made by you and other commentators about control of media to suppress democracy. Salacious stories about MPs watching porn grab the headlines whilst this authoritarian gambit passes by right under our noses.
Perhaps a useful word for our current democratic crisis is “philofascist”.
Philofascists are those who are fond of fascism and would be happy for our country to become more fascist.
The word comes from the book “Big Business and Hitler” by Jacques R. Pauwels.
“Pauwels explains how Hitler gained and held the support of powerful business interests who found the fascist leader ready and willing to protect their property and profits.”
His book “The Great Class War 1914-1918” is most informative on the shadowy powers behind political and military decisions. The last chapter brings us up to now.
So if voter ID is free.. is your fascist scaremongering over?
No, because we are becoming a fascist state for a multitude of reasons
you are hysterical
No, utterly realistic
Today was the one when fascism will really be thought to have begun in the U.K.
I remain perplexed why those who protest individual freedom and free markets as the rime right above everything, so often insist that every individual should be required to be registered and monitored by the state and carry instant personal identification; in order to do anything in real life. It is a strange form of individual freedom.
That’s the hypocrisy of fascism for you
We’ve had a Fascism here before – remember Oswald Mosley anyone – and do you know what?
It never went away.
I think it would be wise to realise that Fascism is a mode of political operations – not strictly a belief system – OK?
It involves making any opposition to any idea into an enemy of the people; it is tactically nothing more than about getting its users into power – exclusive power at that – because the people who use it cannot be bothered with things like compromise (the true aim and objective of politics) and democratic processes like debate which most Fascists see as dissent and are intolerant of other ideas.
Fascism is essentially used to get around the structures of political democracy – to short circuit them. And it manifestly uses fear to get people on side which is why it is socially and politically so divisive. And Fascism also wants/insists on monopoly power in the bargain.
Fascism is also reactionary – it typically comes about from frustrations with existing political processes and is a trap that any political belief system can fall into. The fact that it is reactionary is another reason why it should be treated with caution and discarded.
And who practices Fascism?
Why, Left and Right of course. And the Centre.
Whether it is Thatcher telling us that Unions were the ‘enemy within’ , to Communists telling us that famers were ‘capitalist profiteers’ in any famine that occurred in China or Russia, to Labour telling us about ‘For the many, not the few’ – this is all Fascist bullshit and it should be barred from political life.
My epiphany about Fascism came from a reliable source: I have read all of Tim Snyder’s books. I’m no serious academic about to change the world or anything like that. But just for a moment think about it – really think about the sloganeering in politics and also think about our FPTP political system which I think encourages Fascist behaviour.
This is another reason for why we need PR so badly because nothing is more the antithesis of Fascism than PR.
Thanks
And agreed
Hmm. I’ve seen PSR’s take on Snyder’s idea about a “mode of operation” before and I find it hard to be anything more than partially agreed. Fascism inevitably involves ideas, fears a mentality and it is definitively, one form of right wing thought.
I’m not going to go write some long comment listing all the characteristics of fascism but Umberto Eco’s “14 common features of fascism”, which was published in this blog, covers most of those characteristics. There’s more to them than a mere mode of operation.
https://www.openculture.com/2016/11/umberto-eco-makes-a-list-of-the-14-common-features-of-fascism.html
Dear Marco
Reading Snyder it was obvious to me that the extreme Left (Stalin) and Right (Hitler) at war in those lands behaved similarly towards the people in the lands they occupied. This made me realise that there was a certain ‘utility’ to Fascist techniques that went beyond political ideology. I now don’t refer to Stalinist Russia as Communist – I refer to them as Fascists masquerading as communists. Hence seeing Fascism as a technique.
All political ideology has degrees of application to it – from moderate to extreme. Fascism appeals to any extremist of ANY political colour in my view – an intolerance of others; absolutism etc. Left or Right and anything in between.
We even use Fascist methods during war to dehumanise and make enemies of the people we want to kill. It’s so easy to fall into.
We need to be vigilant but most of all we need a new way of doing politics AND economics. Neo-liberalism’s negation of human history and it’s support by wealth and of monopolies for example is worth looking into as well as a Fascist technique.
You are right to point your finger though at the right wing in contemporary Europe and its Fascist behaviour as they are on the march so to speak. But you have a residual Left wing Fascism arguably in China (think of what is happening in Hong Kong) and North Korea.
I too have read Eco’s list and my observation is that I’ve seen Left and Right employ the techniques he lists.
Hannah Arendt’s (to whom Snyder owes a debt) observations about Eichmann also come into play – the ordinary banal men and women who made the Nazi extermination of 6 million Jews and others possible, to those who worked in the USSR and China who helped to kill millions through famine or through the work camp system.
So I will stand by my guns I’m afraid.
Perhaps we can ultimately agree on Arendt’s premise: that Fascism appeals to certain human beings who are always there in society or come into being because of the way we choose to run society? Or not.
Fascistic thinking seems to exist because it exists in people at the top who want to retain power because of fear of losing it; and it appeals to those who feel left out of something or powerless and have an axe to grind. It’s like gunpowder lying out in the open waiting to be lit. Both these elements seem to be joining each other at the moment which dire and troubling consequences.
It’s good Marco to discuss these things and reflect and synthesize ideas.
My view about Fascism as a phenomenon is as follows:
1. There is at anytime a section of the population at any level of social strata in society who are receptive to it.
2. There is a political science and methodology of Fascism than can be used to exploit this.
3. Where the social strata element comes into play depends on where the ‘user’ element is as opposed to ‘used’ element is. It depends on what utility Fascist methods have to the aims and objectives (needs) of both the user and the used and finding common cause.
The exploitation is part of a self-reinforcing cycle.
It is both a human failing or weakness (perhaps brought on by certain circumstances) and a political technique.
I have a lot of sympathy with this
Should we be surprised at Labour’s failure to oppose these measures? They’ve been supporting the Scottish Tories for years, so why not do so in England as well?