POLL: Is the Conservative Party moving towards Fascism?

Take a look at this image of Grant Shapps at the Conservative Party conference:

ShappsHitlerYouth-Reuters

Isn’t the image reminiscent of a member of the Nazi Party in the 1930s, surrounded by Hitler Youth? Even the slogan, “Securing a better future”, could have been written by Goebbels.

Perhaps it is yet another warning that the Party of the Ever-Further-Right could easily become another fascist power. For some, it is a reminder of what the Conservatives have already become.

Consider the questions posed by this image:

fascismposter

How many of these signs do you see in the Tories?

Nationalism? Check – the Tories have encouraged national pride and fear of foreigners and foreign powers, especially the European Union.

Disdain for human rights? Check – the Tories want to scrap the Human Rights Act and remove the protection we receive from the European Court of Human Rights.

Scapegoating? Check – look at the treatment of the sick, disabled and those on benefits.

Sexism? Debatable – David Cameron has struggled to include women in his cabinet.

Controlled mass media? Check – look at the propaganda coming from the BBC.

Obsession with national security? Check – look at the Surveillance Act (for example).

Corporate power protected – Labour power suppressed – disdain for intellectuals and the arts – obsession with crime – cronyism… it is possible to provide blatant examples of all of them in Conservative decisions of the last four and a half years.

Or is it? Notice that links to evidence of this behaviour are absent. This is because Vox Political wants your opinion in our latest poll:

[polldaddy poll=8342132]

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39 Comments

  1. Abdul Aziz September 30, 2014 at 3:50 pm - Reply

    They have always been fascists, a new kind of zionist fascism is the emerging we are controlled by a hidden political force the Friends Of Israel which is funded by the Rothschilds. No major policy is taken without being rubber stamped by this hidden policy approving body.

    • Mike Sivier September 30, 2014 at 5:22 pm - Reply

      Hmm. A person going by the name ‘Abdul Aziz’, accusing the government of pro-Israeli fascism?
      I suspect mischief.

  2. Grocky Groc September 30, 2014 at 3:53 pm - Reply

    This year it’s compulsory sweat shirts with logos – next year is it going to be more professional looking tasteful black and brown shirts with arm bands?

  3. nivekd September 30, 2014 at 3:54 pm - Reply

    Remember the film Cabaret? “As Brian and Max sit and talk a young man begins to sing.
    At first we see only his face – he is handsome and blond. Then the camera moves down to show his uniform, swastika armband and belt buckle. The song he is singing is about the beauties of the natural world, but each verse ends with a rousing chorus “Tomorrow belongs to me”. As he sings, other people in the inn begin to listen, then to join in or stand up to show approval. The young man becomes more animated as the song moves to a rousing crescendo – almost everyone in the inn is standing and singing along (except for Brian, Max and one old man, who looks disgusted). The singer puts on his uniform cap and gives the Nazi salute, while Brian and Maximilian leave.”
    http://www.universalteacher.org.uk/gcsemedia/nazis.htm#4

  4. Jon Maiden September 30, 2014 at 4:09 pm - Reply

    All the conditions are satisfied other than the rampant sexism (it’s there, but it’s no longer rampant), religion and government being intertwined (I suspect society has evolved since the poster was made) and fraudulent elections (they’d never get away with it even in our faux democracy). Without any doubt at all though, there are many elements of the Tory party that are already fascist.

  5. chrislawton30 September 30, 2014 at 4:14 pm - Reply

    My video I made the other day comparing the images of the tories and the nazis:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ButjOpjiN9k

  6. RL September 30, 2014 at 4:16 pm - Reply

    Dead right, Mike.

    There’s never been such a psychopathic ranting evil group of politicians in Britain since Mosely’s lot – and these guys make HIM look perfectly reasonable.

    SSmith, May, Shapps, Grayling, and Cameron himself: they have the sneer, the gutteral accenting, the idiocy, the self-belief, the hatred, and the lack of compassion that we have only seen in the most dangerous people ever in the world.

  7. marcusdemowbray September 30, 2014 at 4:25 pm - Reply

    That “Early Warning Signs of Fascism” poster actually omits:

    !) Eugenics. Those who are mentally or physically disabled enough to be unable to work are deprived of income and left to die in the normal manner. CaMoron, Osbone, Iam Dunkin’ Sh*t and Blonde Tosspot all support this policy. Health Care, Law, Further Education, and even good basic Education and housing being increasingly denied to average people, with detrimental affect on health and life expectancy.

    2) Social Cleansing: The same people, particularly Tosspot, openly support Compulsory Purchase Orders on former Council and Housing Association properties and turning them into luxury flats, and those who cannot afford it are being forced out, 100s in my Borough alone. The Bedroom Tax is also proving to be a fine device to enable Social Cleansing.

    3) Slavery: zero Hours Contracts, “Minimum Wages” being consistently below inflation every year, remove Human Rights and Access to Law all play their part in this.

    4) Feudalistic centralisation and control: rich and powerful corporations and individuals have full control, all perks, bonuses, tax avoidance schemes, share options. Everyone not admitted into the Robber Baron Caste is condemned to a short life of servitude.

  8. Robert Fillies September 30, 2014 at 4:30 pm - Reply

    The tory party has become many of those things it criticises the leaders of undemocratic countries for ie-authoritarian, undemocratic(they were not elected),controlling ie-the state broadcaster and many other things I could think of, but these are bad enough.

  9. Nick September 30, 2014 at 4:50 pm - Reply

    yes mike its a very close call and no doubt will get worse if the conservatives are re-elected next year

    having watched their conference the audience looked very typical of a controlling bunch of people who would never ever give you the time of day

    has the uk sunk so low ? maybe it has and when that happens this often follows

    Missing Bristol girl, 15, ‘may be heading to Syria’
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-29415205

    odd things always happen when you have had or live in a fascist state and there’s not much anyone can do about it sad to say

    even the good people of Hong Kong are at the end of there tether

  10. samspruce September 30, 2014 at 4:55 pm - Reply

    The signs are clear that this government has gone beyond the pale. I won’t list the signs because this is a comment not a blog but they are numerous and severe. When the Prime Minister makes a speech in an international forum (the recent UN General Assembly) threatening free speech and intellectual inquiry then the cat is out of the bag. I am in no doubt that this government is correctly identified as fascist. I would like to add a cautionary note that both fascism and Nazism approach from the left.

  11. Tony Dean September 30, 2014 at 5:41 pm - Reply

    The Tories via George Osborne are turning to lies as well, just a snippet.

    http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/20879

    The Chancellor’s Conference speech contained a statement about disabled people and benefits which was misleading, but went largely unchallenged by the mainstream media. Mr Osborne promised a two year freeze on working age benefits if the Conservatives are re-elected but made a point of saying, “disability benefits will be excluded”. Is that true?

    Well, it all depends on what you consider to be a disability benefit. Included in the proposed freeze are people who receive Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and are part of the Work Related Activity Group (WRAG). These are people who the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have decided are not fit for work at the moment, but are required to undertake work related activity, with a view to returning to work in future.

    The public would probably assume that this group was for people who had had an accident or injury from which they would soon recover, or an illness which was expected to get better. No doubt that’s what most of the audience in the conference hall who applauded the Chancellor’s speech would think, if they thought about it at all.

    However, this is far from the truth. People placed in the WRAG may have serious disabilities or degenerative conditions, from which (barring a miracle), they will never recover. Last year Parkinson’s UK reported that 43 per cent of people with Parkinson’s, MS, or other progressive conditions, who found they could no longer work and put in a claim for ESA, were placed in the WRAG group. The DWP was telling them they would recover, but as Parkinson’s UK pointed out, “This directly contradicts the definition of a progressive condition, which can only get worse over time.”

  12. Linda Powell September 30, 2014 at 5:42 pm - Reply

    Yes they are fascist always have been,divide and rule is their mantra as is most political parties. Watch all politicians hand movements,it is clear they have all gone to the same seminars of “do not point” hands in a fist fingers clenching thumb. No passion just career politicians.

  13. thoughtfullyprepping September 30, 2014 at 5:45 pm - Reply

    How many of you will vote in next years rigged elections then?
    Even if your party gets in, is everything going to change for the better?
    If you do think it will, I find that extremely funny.
    Tory, fascist, or whatever, it’ll still be same s##t, different day.

    Such is our ever unchanging system of government.

    • Mike Sivier September 30, 2014 at 6:30 pm - Reply

      Only a FOOL (Friend Of Ol’ Lynton) discourages people from exercising their only democratic right, you know.

      • thoughtfullyprepping October 1, 2014 at 7:09 am - Reply

        If your only democratic right is that to vote and you think it’ll make a difference, ROTFL!

        You’ve been conditioned well my little sheeple.
        Feel free to roll over and change channel on the droll box.

        “When government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.” Jefferson.

        Bright guy (IMO), must have seen this lot (Tories/LibDem) coming.

        What is it, 350 (and change) MP’s? (Tory, Lib Dem)
        Making life hell for those who can’t fight back.

        So how scared are you of the government?
        Are you happy with your lot or are you seriously thinking the next set of temps will improve things.?

        It’s not the same sh#t served by a different color tie Britain needs, it’s a new type of government.

        • Mike Sivier October 1, 2014 at 9:21 am - Reply

          It’s 650 MPs and I notice you very specifically didn’t mention any other democratic rights that we all have.
          You carry on giggling to yourself if you like – the rest of us will be doing the heavy lifting.

      • jess October 1, 2014 at 11:36 am - Reply

        Always note the language for tell-tale signs of kipperish

        “sheeple”; quote from Jefferson favoured by tea-baggers; didain for democracy; spelling of ‘color’;

        Methinks this one will be voting in a Presidential election, rather than a Parliamentary ballot

    • RL September 30, 2014 at 8:31 pm - Reply

      The Tories are putting removal of Human Rights law into their next manifesto.
      Many will be willfully voting for them, and for that.
      Anyone who does not vote, will be SUPPORTING the Tories in their pledge to remove Human Rights.
      If you acquiesce to this, you will share the guilt.

    • RL September 30, 2014 at 8:33 pm - Reply

      And the fewer the voters, the easier it will be to rig.
      Get in there.

  14. Linda Powell September 30, 2014 at 5:46 pm - Reply

    Bow down to the banks and corporations,They are not concerned as long as the money rolls in.

  15. gusman September 30, 2014 at 8:17 pm - Reply

    I ticked’ all ready there, BC as stated above, many of the Tories have only been hiding their light under a bushel, waiting for conditions that support their ‘extremist’ views, jonny foreigner, (seems we have an all out crusade against many Muslims, oh terrorists), British values ??? What that means I have no idea, fiddling MP’s, (take that as you wish) Tax cheaters and pedo celebs, et al. I have been out of this country for most of the 2000’s, so the slow increments of this shift to the right seems like huge leaps to me, I’ve missed the conditioning, most of you have been exposed to. I was last in China and the similarities are shocking…….
    Empathy and tolerance should be British values, unfortunately we are being taught to hate and mistrust everybody, to quote Noam Chomsky, “the atomisation of society”.
    I agree we should vote but really for who? They are all just fronts for things I detest.

  16. gusman September 30, 2014 at 8:30 pm - Reply

    Oh and ‘bonking Boris’ the leader of the British Eugenics Party. Truly fascist.

  17. Landless Peasant September 30, 2014 at 10:33 pm - Reply

    Is that Michael Green or Sebastian Fox? Will the real Von Shapps please sit down?

  18. Suzanne Ennazus September 30, 2014 at 11:44 pm - Reply

    Don’t fascists class everybody in their ideal image of society as equal? Such as seeing workers as important to society. The Tories are just capitalists and for the class system, where anybody who doesn’t want to be a slave to their upper class friends and corporate donors is punished. They would sell off our country if it made their tax dodging corporate donors who live in tax havens more money.

    • Mike Sivier September 30, 2014 at 11:46 pm - Reply

      Are you suggesting that the tell-tale signs listed in the article amount to nothing? That’s a courageous opinion!

  19. Thomas M October 1, 2014 at 4:38 am - Reply

    I think the Tories are fascist in most things (apart from rampant sexism and (as far as we know) election rigging.

    • hugosmum70 October 1, 2014 at 2:33 pm - Reply

      Jon Maiden….you say…”fraudulent elections (they’d never get away with it even in our faux democracy).”. have you forgotten that in the last elections, someone in more than one constituency (and i heard most had labour seats prior to that election) actually closed the polls early leaving loads of voters still queuing outside not allowed to vote…… no one seemed to know who that/those someone was/were. don’t know if been found since but immaterial. that was a big reason why Cameron got in coupled with, more than likely, back handers to the libdems, it could happen again and i wouldn’t put it past them to try as well.

      • Mike Sivier October 1, 2014 at 3:53 pm - Reply

        The agreement with the Liberal Democrats was made in March 2010.

  20. Pieter Egriega October 1, 2014 at 1:51 pm - Reply

    The challenge is that ‘they’, the right wing party would be horrified by the allegation, but it doesn’t make it any the less correct.
    I had the difficulty of meeting my local Tory MP last week….he would not accept my assertion that there was the echo of jackboots in most of the Tory Party’s pronouncements,(he was congratulating me on accepting an award for creative work after having had a stroke),
    It was interesting that:
    1) he accepted that ATOS was disgraceful
    2) he would not accept the phrase ‘the bedroom tax’, referring to it as the ‘spare room subsidy’
    3) I should have said the mansion tax is a form of spare room subsidy!
    4) He was quite charming and pleasant to the others who were at the stroke club

    but then he clearly believes that what Tories are doing is right and cannot recognise the warning signs of history…………

  21. Nick A October 1, 2014 at 2:50 pm - Reply

    We need to get the terminology right here. Fascism has certain characteristics that are wholly different to the current political landscape in the UK. The most illustrative example being the notion that fascism historically encouraged the mass mobilization of society towards a (supposedly) common goal.

    This is simply not the case in the UK. In fact, the UK should more appropriately be called an Inverted Totalitarian state, given the fact that one of the defining characteristics of the political classes, state structure and output from media outlets is the encouragement of a profound state of political apathy.

    To quote Wolin on the topic (who’s written extensively about this, in relation to the US); “While the Nazi regime aimed at the constant political mobilization of the population, with its Nuremberg rallies, Hitler Youth, and so on, inverted totalitarianism aims for the mass of the population to be in a persistent state of political apathy. The only type of political activity expected or desired from the citizenry is voting. Low electoral turnouts are favorably received as an indication that the bulk of the population has given up hope that the government will ever help them.”

    Also, in relation to economics; “Whereas in Nazi Germany the state dominated economic actors, in inverted totalitarianism, corporations through political contributions and lobbying, dominate the United States [as they now unequivocally do the UK], with the government acting as the servant of large corporations. This is considered “normal” rather than corrupt.”

    I commend your action on starting this debate, though it could do with a little more depth, especially in relation to the specifics of the UK.

    It’s more than obvious to me that the state structures (not just the Conservatives) already fulfil many of the criteria on your list. Especially one in relation to sexism (which I’m surprised you can’t see – Cameron’s attempt to fill his cabinet with females does not even come close to compensating for the wholly patriarchal characteristics of the state, at a fundamental level and the cultural / societal / economic approach on a more generalised level.)

    Though I seriously doubt the notion that any party – with the exception of the Green party – could be even mildly described as anti-fascist, or more appropriately, anti the inverted totalitarian state. Labour are just very slightly less overt in their leanings towards inverted totalitarianism, but we’re talking about the same party who wanted ID cards, 90 day detention without charge, and pushed as hard as they could to convince us all that we were under threat from terrorism, and thus needed such measures, whilst the majority of the actual court cases resulting from such “threats” ended up with acquittals for most defendants.

    • Mike Sivier October 1, 2014 at 6:15 pm - Reply

      I was careful in the wording of the poll to ask whether the Conservatives were moving towards fascism. The answer that says they’re there already was intended to be a bit of comedy and I did not really expect it to become the most popular.
      That being said, the Coalition has spent the whole of the current Parliament trying to tell us that we are working towards a common goal – the elimination of the national budget deficit, so it qualifies as fascist on that level.
      Your comments about inverted totalitarianism are very interesting, though. It seems entirely possible that this is exactly what the Coalition has been trying to achieve, even though it has in fact managed the opposite among those parts of the population with an aptitude for activism. I certainly wasn’t interested until 2010.
      The corporations controlling – or at least being a major actor in – the state is an element in fascistic and Nazi ideologies.
      Perhaps I’m not seeing sexism as overtly as the others because more effort is being made to hide it? (Perhaps I’m a terrible sexist myself and never realised?)
      Your observations about New Labour are apposite, and yes – it was a neoliberal organisation like the Tories and the current Lib Dems, so there is plenty of reason to see similarities.

  22. Nigs Cradoc October 2, 2014 at 2:11 pm - Reply

    Very good piece, Mike and Nick A …. :-)

  23. Dan October 5, 2014 at 6:23 pm - Reply

    All the parties are moving further to the right due to the UKIP influence.While in Scotland the left of centre SNP now has a membership approaching 100,000.

    • Mike Sivier October 5, 2014 at 7:48 pm - Reply

      The SNP’s membership bounce is due in part to the referendum loss, and also due in part to anti-Labour propaganda that can only benefit the Conservatives if it continues to sway opinions up to May 2015 (in my opinion).

  24. Atlanta Bill October 9, 2014 at 11:58 am - Reply

    My current definitions of ‘fascism’ and ‘Nazism’ distinguish the latter from the almost common ‘fascism’ that takes over in a single country when the ruling élite considers itself so seriously challenged by the population that ordinary legal means or sporatic extralegal means aren’t considered enough for the defense of its system of economic exploitation. Nazism, unlike fascism, is a transnational phenomenon that uses widespread networks to accomplish its global aims. Of course, originally the term ‘Nazism’ was given to the so-called “National Socialism” (it was neither) by its detractors.

    But today we know that Nazism was in the 1930s and ’40s, and continues to be, a global phenomenon. In fact, the Spanish Falangists were controlled by the German Nazis in Berlin, and the Italian Fascists, after 1939, were subservient to them, as well. Since we well know the global ambitions of German “National Socialism”, we don’t need to restrict the term to Germany (more has come to light about its transnational character since the World War). In a few words, Nazism is global fascism. Both use the same operational methods (MOs), characterized by the use of mercenary paramilitaries on public streets and limitless violence, but Nazism uses specialists to create think tanks and vast networks abroad, such as German agent von Faupel’s “Falangist” network across the Spanish-speaking world (surviving today in the Operation Condor network in Latin America, and that’s just what’s easily visible).

    Nazism has been able to do without Germany’s leadership entirely, though Germany, like the U.S., is today a Nazi colony, more subtle than OUN/B-dominated Ukraine but basically ruled by the same networks. The question remains, “Does Nazism (global fascism) have a homeland?” Well, if favored terms are any indication, the word ‘Heimat’ (homeland) was almost never used for the German fatherland before Hitler, and for the U.S. not before the “Patriot Act” and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security.

    For von Faupel’s “Falangist” network, see Alan Chase’s book FALANGE, available online without charge at a link on this page: http://spitfirelist.com/books/falange-the-secret-axis-army-in-the-americas/

    • Mike Sivier October 9, 2014 at 2:34 pm - Reply

      So you think the Tories are Nazis?

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