Fascism doesn't arrive in fancy dress...

[Batmanisaplaceinturkey]

"I sometimes fear that
people think that fascism arrives in fancy dress
worn by grotesques and monsters
as played out in endless re-runs of the Nazis.

Fascism arrives as your friend.
It will restore your honour,
make you feel proud,
protect your house,
give you a job,
clean up the neighbourhood,
remind you of how great you once were,
clear out the venal and the corrupt,
remove anything you feel is unlike you...

It doesn't walk in saying,
"Our programme means militias, mass imprisonments, transportations, war and persecution."

By Michael Rosen

michaelrosenblog.blogspot.com/2014/05/fascism-i-sometimes-fear.html?m=1

You don't get it, do you? A part that formed 7 years ago achieved nearly half the votes that Labour did. This is unprecedented popularity, and if it continues in the same vein, Reform will make it impossible for Lab or Con to form a government without them. And it ain’t going to be Labour they’re getting into bed with.

The next Parliament, unless we act quickly, will be a Conservative/Reform coalition.

Your tedious accusations of me being a Reform fan girl are, yet again, a strong indicator you have no intuition of the situation and can only see things from a very basic tribal angle.

I have never voted Reform and will never vote Reform, because my priority above all else is getting us back in the EU and dealing with the climate crisis. But I feel like I’m banging my head against a wall in explaining the above to others who apparently despise Reform. If I tell you not to underestimate your enemies, you accuse me of secretly loving them. And it’s this complacency and contempt which lead to Brexit, Trump, 4 million votes for Reform and all the manner of horrors we’ve experienced over the last 10 years.

UKIP came from nothing and was instrumental in Brexit. Ignore the population at your peril.

Exactly! Would Brexit have happened without this tiny party with barely 2 seats, lead by a charismatic and dangerous man? When it came to it, the persuasion of Labour and Tory together was not enough to cancel him out. It’s like talking to a brick wall though, they just want to curl up in a dark room and mutter ‘Labour won by a landslide’ over and over.

I may be unpopular in the opinion that long term brexit will turn out to be a positive for the UK. I was all for the EU as a trading block, but ignoring the working class regarding free movement was a major mistake by our leaders.

@izimbra

Are you blaming the left for fascism?

If the left had blamed immigrants and transgender people more for everything that's shit about this country, we wouldn't have Reform/Trump/Musk?

The thing is - the left isn't going to put the blame on immigrants and transgender people if they don't think they're responsible for the UK's problems, are they?

*I do love this approach. It seems a common one.

Fascists are responsible for their own actions, speech and behaviour. @Wildflowers99, blaming other factions for what fascists do is akin to blaming the victim for the actions of a bully.* You are also repeating Russian propaganda.

*Apols for bold fail there.

I think it was a huge mistake. Right now the USA has turned its back on us, our Colonial lands are a distant memory and we are no longer in the EU. What allies do we have in the face of aggression?

It's because it's like talking to a brick wall people go to people where they can talk freely and who will listen.

Fascists are responsible for their own actions, speech and behaviour. , blaming other factions for what fascists do is akin to blaming the victim for the actions of a bully. You are also repeating Russian propaganda.*

Repeating Russian propaganda by saying we should rejoin the EU? Are you for real? If Russia said the sky was blue and I agreed, is that repeating Russian propaganda as well?

No matter how much the EU try to pretend all is rosy. The reality is, the economy of the net contributers are in an even worse state than us. How long they will carry on supporting other nations in support of a union I don't know. Both France and Gemany are seeing a massive rise in centre right support. I suspect if it were not for psychological issues within Germans as a fallout of the war, they would have elected a far more centric to right wing government.

Yadda, Yadda, Yadda. UKIP have been around for years, everyone knows Farage and the bollocks he spouts.

Reform very evidently don't represent the electorate or they'd be in power. What don't you understand about that? That's a rhetorical question, please don't answer.

The population have spoken and they voted in Labour. Ignorance was instrumental in Brexit, that's far more dangerous than Farage.

@ARealitycheck we were a net contributor, one of very few in the eu!

If I was in any country near Russia in the eu I would be praying we hadn't fucked off the UK too much and they would military still be there to help us because many many many of the eu countries are as useful as the old chicken tea pot

@username299 oh yes... That's where the beautiful idea of giving the vote to educated people came from.

Denying poor people a vote..
The idealism of liberals.

Rich people can be ignorant. Where did you get the idea I was talking about the poor? You're not stereotyping people are you?

I believe it was the working class concerns being ignored rather than ignorance that brought on brexit. I don't blame labour for that. I blame all our politicians and the London centric world they inhabit.

As I say, most people I know were all for a trading bloc. Our leaders allowed it to become a behemoth that we were very much net contributers along with becoming the destination of choice for mass Eastern European migration, at the expense of manual UK workers in particular.

No, it was ignorance. The EU was scapegoated for everything wrong with the UK and had been for years. The day after Brexit, one of the most searched for terms was "What's the EU?"

People believed that money was going to pour into the NHS and immigration was going to stop. They thought coming out of the EU would be beneficial.

Fisheries, farmers, businesses, the working person, were screwed over because of lies and ignorance. It cost billions we don't have.

Why would someone with the facts vote for that?

Immigrants are still being scapegoated and people are still voting for Farage despite the lies and chaos of Brexit.

Had covid not happened, I suspect the UK would be starting to see the benefits of non EU membership. I also as I said earlier, believe that within the next decade the UK will be in a stronger position than the current EU members. And that it is highly likely many more EU Countries will follow our lead. Especially when the combined money pot has less going in and more coming out.

We'll have to agree to disagree re Covid. However the far right are isolationist and don't like the EU or international law so if they continue to gain power in Europe, we could see deep division.

The EU is ultimately a trading bloc and Europe is better off trading as one than individually. Ask UK businesses how they feel about bureaucracy and customs outside the EU.

As you can see from current events in the US, we're better off with our European neighbours security wise than we are alone.

How on earth does erecting trade barriers between your country and those of your nearest neighbours mean that Brexit will be a good thing but it wasn't because of Covid?

What an utterly bizarre perspective!

And the EU will be just fine without the U.K. That ludicrous English sentiment that we are so special and so very important no institution such as the EU could possibly survive without us. I think that sense of exceptionalism will deflate very slowly over the next few years.....

I didn’t say they ‘represent the electorate’ so you’re arguing against a post that isn’t even real

If everyone knows it’s bollocks, why did Brexit happen?

You sound like somebody very deep into the ‘this country is left wing’ denial tunnel.

You have no idea the damage that the TQ+ rainbow brigade have caused in society, part of the reason this pendulum appears to be swinging back is because of how hard this pablum was pushed. And yes, many many people have been victimised by this movement, there have been enough court cases, aren't you paying attention?

UKIP have been around for years, everyone knows Farage and the bollocks he spouts.

It's been fairly level over many years until the GE. Labour's policies have pushed that support to top of voting intention.

Why do you say that out of interest?

Or it arrives as a corrupt senile old man with an equally corrupt son. If Trump starts censoring and warmongering as much as Biden did I'll start to worry.