Thread by @WomaninHavana

It’s been the strangest of days, disheartening, on a day I wanted to celebrate, just to mark that we are still here, we got the chance to vote in elections we thought we might not see.

But a long shadow has been cast.

Of disenfranchisement in a democracy.

Of Modi. /1

It was clear before today that a systemic problem with voters’ rights was afoot.

The @the3million had complained.

MPs had raised it. @joannaccherry asked the PM yesterday.

The govt & the @ElectoralCommUK cannot say they were not warned. /2

It was absolutely clear early this morning the issue predicted was in fact happening.

Silence from the Prime Minister.

A half-baked statement from @ElectoralCommUK.

The casual defenestration is democracy can happen because nobody is looking. Or nobody cares. /3

Everybody throws the word democracy around a lot these days. “Democracy is dead”, Leavers have said without irony when we talk about a 2nd referendum.

But Britain needs a serious word with itself about what democracy means today.

It’s become another word, a tool to polarise. /4

It beggars belief how unseriously so many have taken the serious illegalities in the last referendum. Findings beyond reasonable doubt just shrugged away.

It beggars belief how govt abused & disrespected Parliament’s role time & time again in the name of the people. /5

And so we arrive at today.

And we ask - how did it happen?

How much do we keep ignoring?

How many facts do we keep forgetting in the speed of the systemic failure that is now Brexit Britain?

So enthralled by the spectacle, we don’t remember even why we’re here any more. /6

So I didn’t have my usual sense of elation as I marked X.

I just felt so sad that Britain is in this place.

Where we are disenfranchising, disrespecting & disheartening so many of our friends & neighbours.

Where we are chasing the vote to stop the rise of the far right. /7

Meanwhile, ugly nationalism has won out in India after her own mammoth exercise in democracy.

It’s complicated, & fraught.

But Modi has won another 5 years, showing Trump what he himself could achieve in 2020.

Emboldened, there are dark days ahead for India. /8

The strongman has won out over secularism for now, & the counter-narrative wasn’t strong enough in opposition.

For minorities, for human rights, for the rule of law & institutions, the spectre of an emboldened ugly Hindu nationalism lies ahead, tangled in webs of fake news. /9

So, forgive me feeling somewhat disheartened this eve.

The politics have been ugly.

Personalities matter more than principles, including some of the most fundamental in our democracies.

But we can’t give up or allow despair to dig in. We can achieve so much more, together. //