The End Of UK Democracy

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pabenny
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Re: The End Of UK Democracy

Post by pabenny » Sat Apr 23 2022 12:29pm

I wonder whether the party managers have just decided to let this one run. Practically everyone has made up their mind about Boris and the continuing story distracts attention from whatever else they are doing - or not doing about the cost of living, NHS waiting lists, refugees, etc.
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Re: The End Of UK Democracy

Post by Chadwick » Sun Apr 24 2022 7:36pm

This was a bizarre story in the Mail on Sunday (link to BBC report: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61208037)

Some Tory MPs claimed that Boris Johnson can't concentrate when he sees a woman crossing her legs. And somehow they thought that was a show of support for him.

Less bizarre is that the Mail managed to turn this into a story from just beneath the bottom of the barrel.
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Re: The End Of UK Democracy

Post by blythburgh » Mon Apr 25 2022 9:22am

Chadwick wrote:
Sun Apr 24 2022 7:36pm
This was a bizarre story in the Mail on Sunday (link to BBC report: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61208037)

Some Tory MPs claimed that Boris Johnson can't concentrate when he sees a woman crossing her legs. And somehow they thought that was a show of support for him.

Less bizarre is that the Mail managed to turn this into a story from just beneath the bottom of the barrel.
A wonderful way to take the heat off partygate and get us talking about something else. I bet the MP was put up to this stunt by Johnson or cronies
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Re: The End Of UK Democracy

Post by Sarah » Thu Apr 28 2022 11:47am

"Fascism is advancing, rapidly"
Richard Murphy wrote: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.
https://westcountryvoices.co.uk/fascism ... g-rapidly/
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Re: The End Of UK Democracy

Post by macliam » Thu Apr 28 2022 1:55pm

Sarah wrote:
Thu Apr 28 2022 11:47am
"Fascism is advancing, rapidly"
Richard Murphy wrote: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.
https://westcountryvoices.co.uk/fascism ... g-rapidly/
Unfortunately, it seems nobody cares.... everyone is too distracted by the bread and circuses of the media. The UK populace have no experience of living in a fascist state where your rights are so limited that you effectively have none.... and they are at the whim of some bureaucrat whose you cannot elect or dismiss.

SWMBO grew up under the "Estado Novo" in Portugal, our "oldest ally", which was a fascist regime that tortured and murdered its own citizens for 50 years, without a whimper from the UK.... in fact the Queen visited Salazar in 1957!(https://www.portugalresident.com/state- ... emembered/)

The PIDE secret police of the Estado Novo were every bit as bad as the STASI in East, Germany and it is telling that the only deaths in the 1974 "Carnation " revolution were those shot by the PIDE when protesters gathered at their HQ ([https://algarvedailynews.com/news/1410 ... man-rights.

This may seem a million miles from the UK, but every journey starts with the first steps - and when a government lies and acts with impunity, it is not doing so on behalf of the populace.....
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Re: The End Of UK Democracy

Post by macliam » Wed May 04 2022 12:19pm

Image
Just because I'm paranoid, it doesn't mean they're not out to get me

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Re: The End Of UK Democracy

Post by blythburgh » Thu May 05 2022 10:21am

macliam wrote:
Wed May 04 2022 12:19pm
Image
The poster is on the right side of the law. But if they had stood in the road and said the same thing they could have been arrested by the police and face a hefty fine under the new law regarding peaceful protests.
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Re: The End Of UK Democracy

Post by Sarah » Thu May 05 2022 4:35pm

"Election leaflets distance ‘Local Conservatives’ from Boris Johnson"
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... is-johnson

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Re: The End Of UK Democracy

Post by macliam » Thu May 05 2022 5:00pm

Sarah wrote:
Thu May 05 2022 4:35pm
Image
Is that the Tory conference?
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Re: The End Of UK Democracy

Post by Sarah » Thu May 05 2022 7:35pm

History repeating? It does seem to be the general direction of travel. I've read claims that 30% of most populations would happily vote for Hitler if they could; if true that proportion differs only 12.4% from the Tory vote share in 2019. UKIP reached a height of 12.6% here in 2015, so it's hopefully a somewhat exaggerated claim, although obviously not directly comparable.

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