Democracy isn’t just about casting your ballot, as many would have you believe.
Democracy is about constant debate and scrutiny; the right to oppose and to challenge.
Democracy is about having rulers who accept accountability and institutions - parliament, the courts, the media - who keep those rulers in check.
Democracy is about serving all citizens, including minorities, and not just those who voted for you.
Democracy is about not being allowed, if you are in power, to get away with lying.
Without those things, and with people in charge who don’t believe in those things, you end up with an elective dictatorship. That’s where the U.K. is heading now.
We now have a government with deeply undemocratic instincts.
We now have a government that preaches unity while practising division and dog-whistling to the far right.
We now have a government that has weaponised the very concept of democracy; claiming to speak for “the people” and treating all opposition and scrutiny as unpatriotic.
We now have a government that is systematically undermining the very institutions on which our democracy depends.
We now have a government that - helped by coronavirus - has neutered the sovereign parliament that Brexit was supposed to empower.
We now have a government that, through its U.K. internal market White Paper, is launching a power grab on the devolved administrations.
We now have a government that seeks to put itself above the law, that attacks the authority of the courts, that encourages its supporters to see lawyers as their enemy.
We now have a government that preaches to us about media freedom even as it belittles and shuns journalists who hold it to account.
We now have a government that threatens to break international law and destabilise its neighbours amd allies.
We now have a government that is a threat to the very democracy it claims to uphold.
We now have a government that is a danger to us all.
