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UK poised to embrace authoritarianism, warns Hansard Society
Public attitudes emerge that ‘challenge core tenets of our democracy’, says report
Far-right activists in London. ‘When people do not trust traditional political systems, they look elsewhere. That’s when support for political extremes grows,’ said a Hope Not Hate spokeswoman. Photograph: Wiktor Szymanowicz/BarcroftPeter Walker Political correspondent
Mon 8 Apr 2019 00.01 BST
The UK public is increasingly disenchanted with MPs and government and ever more willing to welcome the idea of authoritarian leaders who would ignore parliament, a long-running survey of attitudes to politics has shown.
Amid the Brexit chaos, overall public faith in the political system has reached a nadir not previously seen in the 16-year history of the Hansard Society’s audit of political engagement, lower even than at the depths of the crisis over MPs’ expenses.
Almost three-quarters of those asked said the system of governance needed significant improvement, and other attitudes emerged that “challenge core tenets of our democracy”, the audit’s authors stated.
The study, compiled annually by the democracy charity, found that when people were asked whether “Britain needs a strong ruler willing to break the rules”, 54% agreed and only 23% said no.
In all, 42% of respondents agreed with the idea that many national problems could be dealt with more effectively “if the government didn’t have to worry so much about votes in parliament”.
Ruth Fox, the director of the Hansard Society, said scepticism about politics, a feeling that the system was rigged and a willingness to consider radical solutions was a potentially dangerous combination.
She said: “Preferring a strong leader who is willing to break the rules, or thinking that the government should be able to tackle the country’s problems without worrying about the approval of parliament, would challenge core tenets of our democracy.
“The public feel strongly that the system of governing favours the rich and powerful and that political parties don’t care about the average person. And people are not confident that politicians act in the public interest. Unless something changes, this is a potentially toxic recipe for the future of British
Hope Not Hate, which monitors extreme groups, said the suspicion of politicians, if coupled with a post-Brexit economic downturn, would be “fertile ground for a far-right populist surge”.
Rosie Carter, a senior policy officer with the group, said: “We are facing a crisis of political mistrust. And when people do not trust traditional political systems, they look elsewhere. That’s when support for political extremes grows.”
The report was based on face-to-face interviews with a representative sample of more than 1,000 people, who were asked a mix of new questions and those asked each year. The proportion who said the system of governing needed “quite a lot” or “a great deal” of improvement rose by five points from 2018, to 77%, the highest level recorded.
The survey found that 25% of the public had confidence in MPs’ handling of Brexit, and overall they were more likely to have faith in the military, judges, civil servants, TV broadcasters, councils, unions and banks to “act in the public interest”.
Fifty-six per cent of respondents said they believed Britain was in decline, while 63% agreed that “Britain’s system of government is rigged to the advantage of the rich and powerful”.
The overall picture was one of people engaged in politics but with little faith in their ability to shape matters, with 47% saying they felt they had no influence at all over the national direction.
One of the few areas where the populist mood has subsided is backing for referendums. Before the Brexit vote, 76% of people supported more issues being put to the public in referendums, but this has now slumped to 55%, three points lower than 2018.
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The Hansard Report 2019 in full, to be downloaded
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My
Comments :
I
have been warning for this sinister development since decades now :
1.
Our precious democratic experiment - and not just in the UK - seems to be under
severe threat by the very people who are inhabiting our democratic
institutions; the very people who are supposed to safeguard our democratic
values and rights.
2. Especially with the rise of the public arena of social media, that has
the almost unique ability to directly expose malafide politicians and ditto
public servants, the electorate is rapidly losing confidence, not just in the
inhabitants of our democratic institutions, but in our very democratic
institutions themselves.
3. However, as the latest Hansard study-poll does seem to indicate, the public at large - by observing politicians and civil servants who do often abuse their special powers, and are hardly ever punished for doing so - does not just lose their faith in the democratic institutions, but are steadily and certainly losing faith in the very fundamental democratic principals under our society.
4. So, it is hardly a coincidence, that the extreme-right has become increasingly
omni-present within our western societies and has never been more
organized, more determined and more popular among the disenfranchised
electorate since the thirties.
5. The extreme-right demagogues though - often generously bankrolled
by cynical financial and economic global powerhouses and by other cryptic
sources of dark money deriving from obscure special interest groups - are
offering the frustrated and demotivated people only false hopes and simple
solutions to complex problems, or are denying the existence of the problems at
all.
6.
Although it is not too late to change this highly dangerous tendency of looming
calamity, I would suggest, it might be a few minutes to midnight now, before
irrevocable dark political structures might become established in our
civilized societies.
7.
One of the more acute problems for the democratically minded specimens among
us, is the dangerous probability-scenario, that once the core of the
electorate has been fully intoxicated by the highly poisonous and
highly divisive narratives of the extreme-right, people will have lost
their democratic points of reference altogether and the extremist
ideology will have become mainstream.
8.
Do not under-estimate the resilience of the neo-authoritarians
to conquest power and their utter preparedness to strip the citizens of
their human rights, if and when it will suit them..
9. Do
not under-estimate their absolute willingness to entertain brute force to
defend their newly acquired positions against anyone who might be willing to
resist their will to submit the people to a state of neo-feudalism..
10. Do
not underestimate either their pathological preoccupation with national
borders, their obsession with militarism and their strong resolve to be engaged
in warfare in order to defend those borders and to recycle historic
geo-political claims with military force if they will have decided to
"take back what is rightfully ours".
11. Do
not underestimate either their pathological preoccupation with racial
superiority and racial majority, and with the demographics and
religion of minorities, which are perceived an existential threat to the
privileges of the white communities.
12. And do never ever underestimate one of the main objectives of the extreme right neo-fascists, to radically "purify our societies from deviant elements", thereby in the process all too willing to entertain the obsolete tactics of scapegoating the weak and exploiting feelings of ressentiment among the crowds of their followers.
13.
So again : It is not just the UK that might be under severe threat of stealthily autocratisation,
but our very western civilisation might be the very subject of a fundamental
cultural and political change for the worse in the years ahead.
14. Be vigilante and be prepared to defend our core values, before they will have been totally consummated by the brutal strength of the anti-democratic forces....
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