What’s unfolding here and now in the UK is almost unbelievable. But it's real. And it includes an attempt to criminalise an entire ethnic group. It's as if the 20th Century never happened. We urgently need to wake up to this.
My column.
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
There’s an arrogant, unfounded belief that it couldn’t happen here: after all, we’re British. Tory MPs and Lords chunter about the “British sense of fair play”. OK, so where is it? When do they propose to exercise it?
The thing is, this swift and horrifying shift towards authoritarianism will continue even if Johnson is toppled this week. In fact, it might even accelerate, as the ascendant force in the parliamentary Conservative Party is the ERG/CRG extremists.
Johnson doesn't much care what his policies are, as long as they keep him in office: hence the pro- and anti-Brexit columns. But there are plenty of swivel-eyed ideologues in his Cabinet who really believe this shit, and are likely to be even further unleashed by his fall.
So by all means cheer if/when Johnson goes down. He has done nothing but harm to this country. But be afraid, be very afraid, of what comes next.
It's not one person we are confronting here. It's an entire, supremacist mindset, embodied by most of the Cabinet and many of the backbenchers, and backed by serious money, as you can see in the grim list of Tory donors.
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