Thread by @SteB777

I'm alarmed at how most people don't understand the danger our democracy is and are focusing on the wrong part of the scandal.

Never before has a British PM being allowed to tell one barefaced lie after another to parliament, and to not be properly challenged about it.
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https://twitter.com/SteB777/status/1488595609149915137

This is not just another scandal. This is unprecedented in the history of British democracy. Yes, it has been alleged that other British PMs lied or misled parliament. But this is the thing, there has never been clear cut evidence to contradict them.
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Before I go on, I will make it crystal clear why this is so serious and dangerous. If a British PM is allowed to lie time and again to the House, without challenge, there is the very serious danger we could sleep walk into a dictatorship.
independent.co.uk/news/uk/politi…

This cannot be solved by Boris Johnson merely resigning. What's done and allowed to get away with, demonstrates that there are no adequate checks and balances to stop an authoritarian and lying PM (the 2 got hand in hand) from taking over our democracy.
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In other words, there is nothing to stop Johnson's successor of imposing authoritarian dictatorial rule over us, and as the Conservative Party have openly demonstrated, they have no regard for the truth or ethics, and it is win at all costs.
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Only just over a month ago, in the House, Boris Johnson angrily denied in the House, that there had been any parties in Downing St, he was aware of and all events there complied with COVID regulations at the time.
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Somehow we have gone from that, to numerous parties being uncovered, photographs of them, Boris Johnson attending many of them, to discussions about whether the government will keep secret who gets COVID fines.
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Self-evidently, Boris Johnson did like again and again to parliament (not for the first time either) and any denial of this, like let the investigations finish, is monstrous gaslighting of the public.
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Neither the PM, nor the cabinet, nor Tory backbenchers, need a none independent, non-judicial report, to know whether the PM was at parties and that they breached COVID regulations.
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The difference between Boris Johnson and any previous PM, is that none would have denied what they know could easily be proven, barefaced lying. They would have simply gone no comment, before commissioning an inquiry.
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Boris Johnson and his Tory co-conspirators are angrily telling everyone not to pre-empt Sue Gray's full report or the police investigations. However, it is they who overtly stated there had been no parties and no breaches of COVID laws and regulations, multiple times.
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You can't go around trying to pre-empt any inquiry, by trying to gaslight the public AND THE POLICE, that there had been no parties, no COVID breaches, and then complain about the opposition contradicting these bare-faced lies.
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According to the @GoodLawProject "letters between it and the Met, police said they had “relied on the government’s assurances that no rules had been broken”. If that is true, this is a clear case of perverting the course of justice.
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theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/j…

I have absolutely no faith whatsoever, in the Met to objectively investigate this case, as both misconduct in public office and perverting the course of justice, carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. I think there is very little chance such charges would be made.
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Time and time again, we have seen the police refuse to investigate or bring appropriate charges against those in high office or connected with them, with no proper explanation. They are extremely deferential and see their job as to protect government, not bring it down.
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Undoubtedly, this is what Boris Johnson is relying on. That police will not bring appropriate charges against those at the top, for fear it will bring the government down and bring the establishment into disrepute with the public.
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The problem is if this happens, and Boris Johnson seems to be actually testing this out, pushing the envelope to the maximum, to see how much he can get away with, without being challenged, we are in real danger of heading into a dictatorship.
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This is how dictatorships happen, when the so called checks and balances of a democracy fail to hold a would be dictator to account for their criminal actions, to they push it further and further.
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It's not me saying this. Academic experts are warning that the US is heading towards a right wing authoritarian dictatorship in the near future, because of the complete failure to hold Trump to account for his barefaced lying and criminality.
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theguardian.com/us-news/2022/j…

Wake up and smell the coffee before it is too late. The only way to prevent this, is for those at the very top, to be held to the same standards, laws and regulations, as all other citizens. Allowing those at the top to openly flout the law, is the route to dictatorship.
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For crying out loud, snap out your complacency, and stop treating this like just another scandal. What we saw the other day, when an opposition leader was stopped from calling the PM a liar and ordered to lie, was the route to dictatorship.
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@GeorgeMonbiot

@threadreaderapp Please unroll?