DynamicSpirit
Established Member
I don't think we have a fascist government, but I do think it's essential this authoritarian drift is strongly criticised. I don't know precisely where you sit politically, but if you're a small-state conservative I'd have thought you'd agree with this.
What authoritarian drift?
This idea of the Government being 'authoritarian' seems to be one of those smears that keeps being repeated so often by politicians on the left that other people end up just assuming it's true without bothering to think about it. But, Covid lockdowns aside, almost nothing that the Government has done merits the description 'authoritarian'. (The Covid lockdowns were very authoritarian, but they were an emergency response to a specific crisis, were supported by all the main political parties, and are now in the past. Indeed, ironically, the main opposition to Covid lockdowns came from within the Conservatives, with Labour and the LibDems often arguing for even tighter lockdowns, and the Scottish and Welsh Governments actually doing that - so you could argue that in that regard the Conservatives were the least authoritarian of the parties!).
The main thing other thing that gets cited as 'authoritarian' is the Police, Crime and Sentencing bill. And it's true that bill does give more powers to the police and the Home Secretary, but the context was very clearly preventing crime and disorder, and preventing people from deliberately seeking to disrupt the lives of others. And that arguably reflects that the Conservatives have historically traditionally been the party most keen on 'law and order' issues. Nothing about that bill prevents you are I or almost anyone else from going about our normal lives, travelling and meeting whomever we wish, speaking and writing our opinions, etc. etc.
As you allude to I would say the Government are not the biggest threat regarding authoritarianism. The biggest threat is this mindset that somehow it can't happen here, which I think proves it absolutely can happen here. I don't want it to happen and don't believe we're there yet, but better we criticise signs of authoritarianism/fascism and it not happen than just sit by doing nothing and authoritarianism/fascism then happening.
But there's a huge difference between on the one hand accepting, and being alert to, the small possibility of fascism happening, and on the other hand trying to smear your opponents with being somehow 'fascist' when they quite clearly aren't.