{"id":56125,"date":"2021-03-20T07:42:31","date_gmt":"2021-03-20T07:42:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=56125"},"modified":"2021-03-20T07:42:52","modified_gmt":"2021-03-20T07:42:52","slug":"for-his-long-might-i-be-able-to-say-that-we-have-a-fascist-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2021\/03\/20\/for-his-long-might-i-be-able-to-say-that-we-have-a-fascist-government\/","title":{"rendered":"For how long might I be able to say that we have a fascist government?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In 2003 historian Laurence W. Britt <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hartford-hwp.com\/archives\/27\/076.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">suggested<\/a>\u00a0that there were 14 characteristics to fascist regimes. They were:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Powerful and continuing nationalism<\/li>\n<li>Disdain for human rights<\/li>\n<li>Identification of enemies as a unifying cause<\/li>\n<li>Supremacy of the military<\/li>\n<li>Rampant sexism<\/li>\n<li>Controlled mass media<\/li>\n<li>Obsession with national security<\/li>\n<li>Religion and government intertwined<\/li>\n<li>Corporate power protected<\/li>\n<li>Labour power suppressed<\/li>\n<li>Disdain for intellectuals &amp; the arts<\/li>\n<li>Obsession with crime &amp; punishment<\/li>\n<li>Rampant cronyism &amp; corruption<\/li>\n<li>Fraudulent elections<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Of these I used to say that only supremacy of the military and an intertwining with religion were absent from the UK, and I dismissed the latter as no longer being of any popular relevance.<\/p>\n<p>Given recent announcements on defence spending and nuclear weapons I am not now sure that the supremacy of the military over other claims on the public purse can be dismissed any more.<\/p>\n<p>If that is the case then thirteen out of the now thirteen relevant criteria are met by the current UK government.<\/p>\n<p>I wonder if they care?<\/p>\n<p>I wonder for how long I might say this?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2003 historian Laurence W. Britt suggested\u00a0that there were 14 characteristics to fascist regimes. They were: Powerful and continuing nationalism Disdain for human rights Identification<br \/><a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2021\/03\/20\/for-his-long-might-i-be-able-to-say-that-we-have-a-fascist-government\/\"><em> Read the full article&#8230;<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,16,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogging","category-ethics","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56125\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}