'A robust and unapologetic new form of Conservatism.'

This was the Telegraph headline that greeted me from my inbox yesterday. I paraphrase it as remembered, because it met the bin straight away. God knows why I'm getting missives from the Telegraph at all; way back in the past I'll have been stupid enough to sign up for a holiday offer or something.

Another march/rally today, though my time there is limited, meeting friends later for this https://www.ents24.com/london-events/oval-space/goose-island-presents-hop-party-2019/5789427 which is just as well, cos I need a break.

A break or something. We are assured by MPs and speakers that our protests make a difference, and I am tempted to believe them. Boris and his cohorts are desperately trying to build up this sense of being on the side of the people against parliament. Loud angry crowds telling him to get lost help to dispel such notions, though the protest I consider the most effective so far was one man getting it perfectly right: https://twitter.com/MattTurner4L/status/1169665924040994816

This morning I set out the things troubling me, why I've been hopping around Parliament Square and Downing Street like a loon these past few days.

I have written here before about this sense of a faint Weimaresque feel to our society, without the crazy inflation or fabulous decadence; a grey cabaret.

It doesn't feel like the Weimar anymore. It feels like decisive steps towards Britain's own form of fascism. Not Oswald Mosley all passion and poseur, no, no, never look too clever, never shine too much; bumble a bit and seem clumsy but honest, a bit ridiculous yet somehow strong. Be an egregore of Carry On Empire, or, to quote Dorothy Thompson;

'No people ever recognize their dictator in advance. He never stands for election on the platform of dictatorship. He always represents himself as the instrument — the Incorporated National Will.'

And there you have it. He represents himself as the Incorporated National Will, in bringing about Brexit, even though, given the criminal tampering with the referendum, there is no guarantee that it is the people's will. But Brexit, one way or the other, is his method, not his goal.

What else then happens? He tries to suspend parliament through the extended use of prorogation, at a point where parliament's silence would be invaluable in pushing through a no deal brexit. His response, when it looks as though the law may curtail him, is that he may defy the law. https://news.sky.com/story/boris-johnson-prepared-to-defy-new-law-on-no-deal-brexit-11804118?fbclid=IwAR3-UK2IcEmvAdbLY0TuBOIObZV7hiqp_57TEncwVBWH5OFYf4R1z9gK5a0

This was also pointed at earlier this week by Michael Gove: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/sep/01/brexit-gove-refuses-rule-out-ignoring-law-passed-stop-no-deal-

So what kind of government silences parliament, disdains the rule of law, and removes dissenting voices?

The most terrifying thing about this question is the number of people who will nod and say, 'yes, but it gives me what I want.' And that is all the justification they need.


Other aspects of rising fascism? The charismatic leader of course, grievance against outsiders, creating a sense of siege. Big money backers. Emotion, always emotion; the golden age gone, the call to rise once more, the desire to fight the infiltrating other, the enemy within, the foreigner, the deadly antitribu. And just plain lies, outright, unashamed lies.

Adolf Hitler wrote of the power of the big lie in Mein Kampf:

'in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods.

It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously.'

Goebbels put it more succinctly with regard to the English: The essential English leadership secret does not depend on particular intelligence. Rather, it depends on a remarkably stupid thick-headedness. The English follow the principle that when one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it. They keep up their lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous

However revolting the source, the truth is that 'remarkably stupid thick-headedness' is almost considered a quality here, where looking ridiculous can be considered endearing and at least anti-pompous.

Brexit is our big lie. Another is Boris Johnson's claim that he is negotiating in good faith, while EU reps tell us that there have been no new negotiations at all. Boris claims he doesn't want an election, but of course he needs one badly, hence all the ranting and name-calling. Without one he must either abide by the law which will require him to bring a withdrawal agreement to the House or ask the EU for an extension, or resign, or break the law. I hope this is enough. We are, after all, not in 1933, and this is not the Reichstag fire. I think - I hope - that this nascent peculiarly British form of fascism is being chased out of our parliament, out of our politics.

So here I go.