Boris Johnson’s demand that the Queen prorogue Parliament in order to ensure that his “no deal” Brexit cannot be stopped – and her meek submission to it – has shown that the UK’s democracy is at risk of collapsing: We are threatened with dictatorship.

Some of us have been watching it coming for years.

The first move was the economic crisis of 2008 onwards, leading to the collusion of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in order to form a Coalition government that imposed austerity on the majority of people in the United Kingdom.

The reduction of money for public services led to splits in society, with groups lining up to demonise other groups – supported by highly-inflammatory rhetoric from the government.

Most notable in this was the demonisation of the sick and disabled – with the conscious collusion of the mainstream TV and print news media (consider the effect of so-called documentaries like Benefits Street, for example).

This in turn made it possible for David Cameron to call a referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union, partly because people in his party were claiming that EU regulations were the country to accept excessive numbers of immigrants from other EU countries.

The result of that referendum was three years of deadlock as Parliament struggled to agree an agreement on the manner of the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union that everyone could accept. This could have been avoided if Mr Cameron had taken the time to define the terms on which the UK might leave, before the referendum was held. He did not.

It also gave a huge platform to demagogues – politicians appealing to the desires and prejudices of ordinary people rather than using rational argument – most notably Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson.

Mr Cameron, who became prime minister in 2010 despite the fact that his party did not have a majority in Parliament at the time, resigned after it became clear that the referendum result was to leave the EU. This was in contradiction of his own promise to stay and enact Brexit, in the run-up to the vote. He was replaced by another unelected prime minister, Theresa May – who resigned earlier this year, having failed to take the UK out of the EU.

Now we have a third unelected Conservative prime minister, Boris Johnson, who is determined to take the UK out of the EU on October 31, preferably without a withdrawal agreement. He knows that Parliament will prevent this if it can. A known liar, he has lied again in order to wrong-foot his political opponents and steal power from Parliament to ensure that he gets the Brexit he wants.

As the BBC’s Iain Watson tells us:

This is the precise wording Downing St gave me in response to the Observer story this weekend on suspending parliament re #brexit: ”the claim that the govt is considering proroguing parliament in Sept in order to stop MPs debating Brexit is entirely false.’' #prorogation

— iain watson (@iainjwatson) August 28, 2019

And this is what @borisjohnson is saying now – parliament in effect suspended from Sept 10th pic.twitter.com/j6ttew2uOa

— iain watson (@iainjwatson) August 28, 2019

He’s proroguing Parliament to prevent it from debating Brexit.

And the Queen has allowed it:

The Queen orders Parliament to be suspended. https://t.co/abZFRZgHjv pic.twitter.com/umhG42UjrE

— Adam Bienkov (@AdamBienkov) August 28, 2019

Now Dictator Johnson is saying there will be “ample time” for Parliament to debate Brexit.

This can only be seen as another lie.

But the real issue now is this:

History is repeating itself. We have seen these developments elsewhere.

Do you know where?

It happened in Germany after Hitler and his Nazis took over the government of that country.

Hitler did not have a majority in the German parliament when he took power in 1933 – he relied on the collusion of others, as David Cameron relied on the support of the Liberal Democrats.

Hitler used Germany’s economic weakness during the time of the Weimar republic to demonise groups within German society – most notably Jews, but also the sick and disabled who he described as “useless eaters”. The Coalition government – and every Conservative government since – have persecuted people claiming benefits because they are sick or disabled and, while not gassing them to death as Hitler’s Aktion T4 programme did, they have “nudged” these people towards death by denying them the wherewithal to survive by sanctioning their benefits, or removing them altogether.

The first political opponents that Hitler removed from Germany altogether were Communists, and it is unlilkely to be a coincidence that Tories have constantly referred to Jeremy Corbyn as a Marxist, and his Labour Party as Communists (in fact, Labour is a democratic socialist party, which is not the same at all).

There has been a huge amount of mass media collusion with the Coalition and subsequent Conservative governments. Hitler controlled the German mass media with an iron hand.

Hitler rallied the German people around powerful feelings of nationalism and Brexit has allowed modern demagogues like Boris Johnson to kindle such feelings in the UK.

Hitler had no regard for human rights. In their plans for the UK post-Brexit, the Conservatives intended to repeal the Human Rights Act and replace it with a “Bill of Rights” in which no UK citizen would have any rights beyond what would be decreed for them by our Tory masters.

The list goes on and on (the above are just off the top of This Writer’s head).

And now Parliament is being prevented from sitting for most of September and half of October, leaving it without enough time to stop Dictator Johnson from achieving his “no deal” Brexit – in defiance of democracy.

I know – you thought you were living in a democracy.

So did the Germans!

Many years ago, in the early days of This Site, I used to paraphrase the words of Pastor Martin Niemoller, who wrote of the Nazis:

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out – because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak out for me.

I used it to highlight the plight of the sick and disabled, changing the first line to “First they came for the sick and disabled, and I did not speak out because I was not sick or disabled”.

Now we know what my last line should be:

Finally, they came for democracy – and now it doesn’t matter whether I speak out or not because nobody will listen.

That is the situation we face, it seems.

You can watch it getting worse and do nothing, and then tell me I was right when it is too late to reverse this disaster.

Or you can actually get up and stop it.

What are you going to do?

Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/mike-sivier-libel-fight/

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