Whilst I agree that it could happen (& to an extent has happened during the abuses of the post brexit vote years) I don't agree that we we don't written constitution.Most of it *is* written, just not in one place. It's not codified but as we can see in the US that hasn't helped them much so far.
It would be all too easy. Musk will fund advertising using algorithms to target individual voters with outright lies. Remember Cambridge Analytica? Zuckerberg is now Team Trump so he won’t stop it. Murdoch will of course happily join in. I wonder whether British democracy will still exist in 10 yrs.
Doesn't Amèrica have a constitution?
The best way to exorcise the exremists in the UK would be to ditch FPTP and adopt PR where people's votes actually count.
Germany’s Mixed Member Proportional Representation system is often considered the “best of both worlds”. Difficult to argue therefore that voter disenfranchisement has led to the rise of the AfD.
PR would allow more reform MPs, but would also reduce what's been 2 party dominance. PR is the right way to go, but it still requires a concerted effort to prevent a far right takeover. We're seeing plenty of evidence of that in Europe right now.
as an american, you can't have the trump if your conditions aren't already in the toilet. the trump is only the result of an intellectually bankrupt but entrenched ruling class.
That doesn't mean people wanted it. In fact it was carried out in spite of the vote share he achieved. It was not only a slap in the face of the electorate but also through his inaction hundreds of thosuads of people are dead. That is the consequence of not standing your ground when it is necessary.
Not the first here to make the point, but how does this fit with the current developments in the US?
All constitutional arrangements bottom out in the 'good chaps'
theory (that is where the spade has to turn 'mein Spalten biegt sich zurück' if things are going to work).
Add to this the range of safeguards that allied powers, the British most of all, injected into the operating system of Germany after WWII to reduce the risk of an authoritarian power grab happening ever again (including our Grundgesetz, public service media, the federal system, etc.)… /2
This still holds until today and we couldn’t be more grateful— so it seems even more astonishing to discover that these guardrails are largely missing in the U. K. today. //
Thank you.
I will reference this when anyone dismisses worries that it could so easily happen here (the same friends who had already bought the Prosecco to toast Harris’ win in the US and said I was a miserable git)
Spot the difference….US has a corrupt 4th Estate, weak, cowardly and craven politicians on all sides. The UK has..oh bugger it you can see what I mean.
We are getting Frottage and his Brownshirts, the only question is when.
Not sure we should be thinking in terms of “could happen”. Farage et al are banking on it and have been working on it for years.
The danger, really, is complacency and believing it couldn’t happen.
Remember 2016?
I agree this isn't hypothetical, those weaknesses will be tested by Russian state, oligarch, and Christofascist funded traitors. I fear they have captured enough young males by the mind wars that have been going on for over a decade.
I guess Labour's better strategy for winning in 2029 would be to integrate closely with EU now and pit those approve it (60-70%) against those who will once again promise to take us back (40-30%). This strategy should help bring more of those apathetic progressive/rejoin voters back to Labour.
It would bring in vast amounts of investment and transform the dismal UK plc balance sheet. It could also motivate young people to vote, as it would show that government can work in their interest, which it hasn’t done in many years.
Absolutely. If Starmer and the rest (Libdems, Greens and, yes, any remaining smart tories) don’t all come together urgently to combat Musk and the Reform narrative, UK will be next. Brexit on steroids.
Every generation has to re-fight and re-win this battle,
I’m convinced it could happen here but it is easily stoppable if every person who reads this article realises they have the agency to stop it. Become an
Activist, join the main progressive party in your area and help campaign.
I’m convinced that only way to stop, “Things fall apart, the Centre cannot hold” is for a centerist and collaborative approach from Labour/ Lib Dems/ Greens. Dangerous times require imaginative responses.
Why hasn’t #Starmer fixed party funding or media ownership? We need strong leaders protecting our democracy and society before it is too late. @mattrodda.bsky.social
Starmer is more concerned with being ‘not Corbyn’ to care. He (or McSweeney) thinks outflanking Reform by performative cruelty to migrants is the way ahead. No discernible interest in either the big picture or the detail of people’s lives. Future dire.
Interesting - thanks. The strapline emphasises the lack of a written constitution ("Without a constitution for protection, British politics is vulnerable to its own version of extremism"), which seems odd, when the question is whether we could follow the US. Do you also see that as the key problem?
Obvs must be so many reasons for this - disenfranchisement, boredom, powerlessness - what does it really matter?, propensity to embrace ppl who promise to 'shake things up', inability to believe anyone cld be 'that bad', ignorance abt impact far away govt has on our lives - but scary nonetheless.
Many are doing it as a "F*ck You" to everyone else without actually understanding what they are supporting and what it will try to impose. There is a reason Farage supports the orange one.
What’s going on with technology and the embryonic Brit-DOGE in DSIT is the equivalent of the “pitch rolling” you talk about with respect to the judiciary. The central reason for not treating the tech dimension as a constitutional trifle is that it makes possible a transformation of the state in days
Although it has had failings, the South African (constitutionally safeguarded) Public Protector role has been an enormous benefit.
Why is the West so loath to learn from South Africa's struggle against 'State Capture'?
I can't see many signs that our Government will protect itself and it's people from foreign Oligach interference, particularly from the US .The fight should be happening now as it in Canada .
Comments
This was obvious all along. Those who spread malicious innuendo, terrorising Jews in the process, are responsible.
Better not outsource this one to "the government", eh?
https://jamescrossland.substack.com/p/the-first-fascists?r=h72q8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true
The best way to exorcise the exremists in the UK would be to ditch FPTP and adopt PR where people's votes actually count.
https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/how-does-proportional-representation-work-in-germany/
All constitutional arrangements bottom out in the 'good chaps'
theory (that is where the spade has to turn 'mein Spalten biegt sich zurück' if things are going to work).
Getting as much information to as many people as quickly as possible is the key to resistance.
h/t @annettedittert.bsky.social
I will reference this when anyone dismisses worries that it could so easily happen here (the same friends who had already bought the Prosecco to toast Harris’ win in the US and said I was a miserable git)
We are getting Frottage and his Brownshirts, the only question is when.
Dyson from Singapore?
Radcliffe from Monaco?
No, it'd naturally fall to Tim Martin using his existence of delivering a cheap pint and a fry-up to fix the public spending woes 😉
The danger, really, is complacency and believing it couldn’t happen.
Remember 2016?
Labour makes any attempt to rejoin even the SM and we are toast
You are demanding we hand the country over to Farage mate ...get a grip
You lack credibility
That is how he bought us off the last time, the merest hope of change.
I’m convinced it could happen here but it is easily stoppable if every person who reads this article realises they have the agency to stop it. Become an
Activist, join the main progressive party in your area and help campaign.
Weird how these things are actually happening in countries with a constitution
It's easy to stop the rise of the far right...make things better for your electorate
Problem is the establishment won't do that because they are in hock to corporations and billionaires
> disenfranchisement, boredom, powerlessness
There's a natural reflex to reach for an option to "explain away" scary political choices.
But the actual data leans the other way - the people who back UK Radical Right parties are *franchised* and *secure*.
(i) their values align
(ii) they don't feel like they *have* to vote for another party for immediate economic reasons/some other overriding constraint
https://youtu.be/fiZFyYkcnf4
How we in 🇬🇧 dealt with the black shirt fascists in times gone by.
Why is the West so loath to learn from South Africa's struggle against 'State Capture'?