We Are On a Dangerous Road

Following the humiliating defeat in the Supreme Court on Tuesday, our Prime Minister had no choice but to cut his US trip short and return straight home to face a packed House of Commons. The spectacle millions of us witnessed was truly shocking and without doubt has demonstrated he is an unfit person to hold public office. 

In reckless behaviour that apes that of the current US President, Boris Johnson has clearly decided to follow the advice of his special advisor and career psychopath Dominic Cummings and set the People against Parliament. His appalling choice of language and dog-whistle rhetoric was specifically designed to incite anger and the ugliest forms of civil unrest within our population, knowing full well that it will be enthusiastically fuelled by the right-wing press and internet trolls. I don't think I've ever been so alarmed or appalled by any other politician in my lifetime and that includes Enoch Powell.

I suspect this Twitter thread from Jonathan Lis of British Influence will resonate with many this morning:-      

"I don’t think any of us who witnessed what happened in the House of Commons today, whether in person or on TV, will ever forget it. I think the genuine, inhuman, toxic horror of it will remain etched in my mind for the rest of my life. This sounds shrill or hysterical. It is not. Something died tonight that will never come back. Something of our decency, our love, our care for one another, not as political opponents but as human beings, trying to do what’s best for the people we care about.

This transcends Brexit. I don’t care if you voted leave or remain. It even, in fact, transcends prorogation. This was a festival of gleeful cruelty orchestrated by a political leader so removed from humanity that he was prepared to barrack and assail the friends of a murdered MP. Make no mistake. We’ve witnessed the first steps of a very deliberate revolution. This is the end of civility. End of playing by the rules. End of giving a fuck about anyone or anything beyond the nationalist prize you think will unlock the glory you couldn’t begin to deserve.

This is Trump’s Britain in ways we can only begin to compute. Language has no more limits. People have no more value. The aggressive, heartless contempt starts here and people have every right to be scared. These moments are as dangerous as any we’ve found in the last 80 years. We expect it from Johnson. The total unadulterated sociopathic malice was ‘priced in’ by his Tory enablers who denied what was in front of them and looked the other way. It’s the rest of the Tories who shame and devastate us. They saw, they listened, and finally they applauded.

If you value democracy, if you value civility, if you value basic fucking decency to your fellow human beings, now is the time to fight for it. We will get over prorogation. We will, somehow, get over Brexit. But unless we fight hard, fight now, we may not get over this."

--oo00oo--

This from Buzzfeed News:-

Female MPs Accused Boris Johnson Of Putting Their Lives In Danger After A Furious Brexit Debate In Parliament

Boris Johnson received widespread condemnation from across the House of Commons on Wednesday night and was accused of putting politicians’ lives in danger, after he claimed that delivering Brexit was “the best way to honour the memory” of the murdered MP Jo Cox.

Amid furious scenes in parliament — with some MPs walking out of the chamber in protest and others left in tears — the prime minister shocked the Commons by responding to a plea from Labour MP Paula Sherriff to moderate his language in the wake of death threats to politicians by saying “humbug”.

In astonishing exchanges across the House, Sherriff told Johnson: “We stand here under the shield of our departed friend with many of us in this place subject to death threats and abuse every single day. “And let me tell the prime minister that they often quote his words — “Surrender Act”, “betrayal”, “traitor” — and I for one am sick of it. We must moderate our language and it has to come from the prime minister first.”

To cries of “shame” from opposition MPs, Johnson replied: “I have never heard such humbug in all my life.”

Several Labour MPs left the Commons chamber in protest at Johnson’s description of legislation passed by MPs aimed at preventing a no-deal Brexit as a “Surrender Act”. Despite the criticism the prime minister doubled down on his language by calling it the “Capitulation Act” and the “Humiliation Act”.

In an emotive intervention, Labour’s Tracy Brabin, who took over as MP for Batley and Spen after Cox was killed a week before the EU referendum, asked Johnson: “As the woman who has taken over the seat left by our dear friend Jo Cox, can I ask him, in all honesty, as a human being, please, please will he going forward moderate his language so we will all feel secure going about our jobs.”

The PM replied that “the best way to honour the memory of Jo Cox and indeed the best way to bring this country together would be, I think, to get Brexit done”. Cox campaigned vocally for Remain before she was shot and stabbed to death by a far-right terrorist in the final days of the referendum campaign.

Johnson’s words were condemned by Cox’s husband Brendan on Twitter:

Feel a bit sick at Jo’s name being used in this way. The best way to honour Jo is for all of us (no matter our views) to stand up for what we believe in, passionately and with determination. But never to demonise the other side and always hold onto what we have in common.

In response to another question from the Labour MP Anna McMorrin about the abuse politicians were receiving on social media, Johnson warned that it would not stop until Brexit was delivered. If McMorrin thought “that storm on Twitter is going to abate, she’s got another thing coming,” the PM said.

Johnson was also criticised by Conservative MP Jeremy Lefroy, who said: “With freedom of speech comes responsibility, and sometimes that responsibility means not saying what one might like to say — words like surrender, betrayal, treason”.

Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson said: “The Prime Minister tonight proved he is totally unfit for office. To suggest the best way to honour Jo Cox, an MP who was murdered for what she believed in, was to pass his Brexit deal was sickening.”

As the debate raged in the Commons, BuzzFeed News spoke to several MPs who expressed their horror at the prime minister’s language. Sherriff revealed the level of abuse she and other colleagues have received in recent months: “I’ve had swastikas left outside my office. And I know now as a result of that, I might not be able to go home this weekend, stay in my own house. We’ve had MPs have to move addresses, stay in hotels, there’s a lot that goes on that we don’t necessarily talk about.”

Alison McGovern, a close friend of Cox, said: “It is devastating that our Prime Minister cannot realise the consequences of his words. They have real life effect. This isn't a game, and he should listen when people express grief and distress at what he says.”

Earlier this year, BuzzFeed News revealed the specialist police unit set up to investigate crimes against MPs has received 558 complaints since its inception and has seen a huge increase in reports in the last 12 months.

Scottish National Party MP Alison Thewliss called for Johnson to resign, saying his behaviour was: "Absolutely despicable. And what makes it worse is it's deliberate. He's doing this deliberately to wind people up, to get people out on the streets. It's irresponsible and it's dangerous, and it's got to stop. He's got to go."

Labour’s Rosie Duffield said: “He is inciting violence, implying to [women] MPs repeatedly that if we vote his way, we will all be safe. His answer to Anna McMorrin sounded like an outright threat. I had written a question about Kent but when he upset so many of my colleagues, I felt compelled to call him out. This is what real privilege looks like.”