- Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, Foreward to 1946 edition
It is unquestionable that Britain is one of many countries in the world drifting into fascism. The US is an obvious one, but we fail to realise how close it is happening to home. But if we continue to refer t this new oppressive system of government as 'fascism', we cannot fight it, as we will do nothing until we see armed soldiers patrolling the streets. the new system of government is authoritarian, oppressive, and increasingly totalitarian.
Primarily, the country is increasingly run by unelected individuals. We have the house of lords, an unelected group of 'politicians' consisting of landowners and businessmen who have either inherited or bought their position. They use this primarily to hinder progressive laws and maintain the old ways, for example opposing the fox-hunting ban. Here, we have a prime example of unelected figures playing a role in politics.
Politically, there is a very small spectrum of acceptibility. Only the three main parties gain any media coverage, which are all practically identical. Here we see election campaigns revolving around "well a vote for a minor party you actually agree with will be wasting your vote."
Politically, the group with the most power is a conglomerate of businessmen and industrialists called the CBI. Almost every private television station and newspaper is operated by them, so they exercise their influence over the government. To quote George Monbiot, "Every public event the bosses' trade union hosts is attended by a senior minister, usually either the Prime Minister or the Chancellor of the Exchequer. They come on bended knee to ask permission to stay in office."
The vast majority of the media is controlled by multi-millionaires, members of the elite class who control the government, as their stranglehold over the media results in them being the most powerful group of voters in the country. This is effectively weighting the votes of one group above another, and is another unelected group of people wihtout whose consent nobody can be elected prime minister. An example of this is the conservative party conference. A mere couple of hundred old men, it was widely covered and reported by all newspapers and television stations. In contrast, the 51,000-strong, youth-dominated European Social Forum achieved only one report in the entire printed British press.
There is also no doubt that we are seeing a gradual erosion of our civil liberties. It is now banned to protest outside parliament, and the government has the power to dissolve any protest. It is now illegal "to persuade any person ... not to do something that he is entitled or required to do, or to do something that he is not under any obligation to do". This has been used to break up several peaceful protests, and distributing leaflets has now become a crime.
During the Labour party conference, an old man said the word "nonsense" at the back of the room, and was removed by two heavies and thrown onto the street. If he had said this vicious and evil word twice, fortunately, he would have been recognised as the threat to national security he surely is and charged. As the law states - it “must involve conduct on at least two occasions … conduct includes speech.” It has since been used to stop peaceful protests, used by arms companies to disperse protests at their gates, and used to prosecute a woman for sending two police emails to a drugs company asking them to stop testing on animals.
The terrorism act in 2000 is even worse. Yes, you can now be arrested for wearing a t-shirt that might “arouse reasonable suspicion”. The police can now arrest anyone they believe may be about to commit an offence, and holding them in custody without trial for seven days. Added to the obvious fact we have more CCTV cameras per person than anywhere else in the world, it's pretty hard to get away with. Plans are also underway to fit mandatory tracking devices in every vehicle, along with ID cards fr every citizen.
Welcome to the brave new world.
Edited by Comrade Kal, 10 June 2006 - 11:43 PM.
