Wednesday, August 02, 2023
The attack on our democracy
The Guardian reports on a new study by thinktanks Civil Exchange and the Sheila McKechnie Foundation, which argues that anti-protest laws and culture wars perpetrated by the government, and imposed on the charity sector, are having a “chilling effect” on public campaigning.
They say that the findings came in a report titled Defending Our Democratic Spaces:
In an assessment about the state of British democracy, the report said there had been attempts to portray judges, lawyers, charities, campaigners and parts of the media as a “block to democracy rather than key components of it”. The report added: “We must recognise the crisis before it is too late.”
It called on people to “work together to arrest further decline, and reimagine our democratic space – one where people’s voices count and our democratic institutions are truly accountable”.
The UK was recently downgraded in an annual global index of civic freedoms as a result of the government’s “increasingly authoritarian” drive to impose restrictive and punitive laws on public protests.
A host of other factors were raised in the thinktanks’ report, published on Wednesday, including new ID restrictions on the right to vote and “gagging” clauses being inserted into government contracts tendered to not-for-profit groups.
Other issues – such as reduced access to judicial review to challenge the lawfulness of government decisions, recent clampdowns on the right to strike and claims of anti-terrorism laws being abused – were also highlighted.
“Government transparency, accountability, and willingness to listen are being reduced,” said the report. “The quality of our public services, policies, and governance suffers when this is the case and voter apathy, alienation, and political disengagement result.”
Many of those interviewed as part of the research reported concern about the impact of “culture wars” on political and public debate.
The report said such a move by some ministers had “created an intemperate environment in which it is becoming ever harder for both individuals and not-for-profits to debate differences of view or shape a common culture”.
One interviewee compared the threat to democratic spaces to a frog, which when placed in a boiling pot of water would jump straight out but does not notice the heat if it is only turned up gradually.
This toxic approach to democracy is becoming typical of the far right, a cult that appears to have taken over the modern Tory Party. The tragedy though, is that based on their past history, and their recent voting history, we cannot rely on the opposition Labour Party to undo any of these restrictions on our rights.
They say that the findings came in a report titled Defending Our Democratic Spaces:
In an assessment about the state of British democracy, the report said there had been attempts to portray judges, lawyers, charities, campaigners and parts of the media as a “block to democracy rather than key components of it”. The report added: “We must recognise the crisis before it is too late.”
It called on people to “work together to arrest further decline, and reimagine our democratic space – one where people’s voices count and our democratic institutions are truly accountable”.
The UK was recently downgraded in an annual global index of civic freedoms as a result of the government’s “increasingly authoritarian” drive to impose restrictive and punitive laws on public protests.
A host of other factors were raised in the thinktanks’ report, published on Wednesday, including new ID restrictions on the right to vote and “gagging” clauses being inserted into government contracts tendered to not-for-profit groups.
Other issues – such as reduced access to judicial review to challenge the lawfulness of government decisions, recent clampdowns on the right to strike and claims of anti-terrorism laws being abused – were also highlighted.
“Government transparency, accountability, and willingness to listen are being reduced,” said the report. “The quality of our public services, policies, and governance suffers when this is the case and voter apathy, alienation, and political disengagement result.”
Many of those interviewed as part of the research reported concern about the impact of “culture wars” on political and public debate.
The report said such a move by some ministers had “created an intemperate environment in which it is becoming ever harder for both individuals and not-for-profits to debate differences of view or shape a common culture”.
One interviewee compared the threat to democratic spaces to a frog, which when placed in a boiling pot of water would jump straight out but does not notice the heat if it is only turned up gradually.
This toxic approach to democracy is becoming typical of the far right, a cult that appears to have taken over the modern Tory Party. The tragedy though, is that based on their past history, and their recent voting history, we cannot rely on the opposition Labour Party to undo any of these restrictions on our rights.
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attempts to portray judges [..] as a “block to democracy
Almost exactly the same words as the ultra-nationalist PM, Benjamin Netanyahu, used to justify taking away powers from Israel's Supreme Court.
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Almost exactly the same words as the ultra-nationalist PM, Benjamin Netanyahu, used to justify taking away powers from Israel's Supreme Court.
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