Monday 10 July 2023

THE STATE OF THE NATION REPORT BY OPEN BRITAIN

 I get regular updates from OPEN BRITAIN - they always have their finger on the pulse of the country. I want to share their latest newsletter because I agree with the points within it and the word needs to be spread:


Warning (2018) by Louise Donovan





Dear Rob,

Whenever accountability comes knocking on his door, Rishi Sunak vanishes without a trace. Today, Byline Times Political Editor Adam Bienkov reported that the PM will be missing the debate and potential vote on the Privileges Committee's recent report – even though it suggests seven of his MPs and three Tory peers could be in contempt of Parliament. 

This is not the first performance of Sunak's disappearing act. Whenever any subject related to Boris Johnson, Conservative sleaze, or Parliamentary

integrity arises, Sunak's diary magically contains unbreakable commitments far from the Palace of Westminster. Sunak "missed" the votes on punishments for Owen Paterson and Boris Johnson and conveniently dodged an unprecedented number of awkwardly-timed PMQs.

Only by today's dismal standards of political leadership is it even conceivable for a PM to miss a vote like this one. The Privileges Committee's allegations were damning. The report described a coordinated attack campaign to undermine the inquiry into Boris Johnson. It alluded to an incredibly toxic and authoritarian culture deeply embedded within the governing party, one that Sunak is clearly terrified of. Failure to condemn such actions clearly and forcefully represents an unforgivable failure of leadership.

It's not an exaggeration to say that this is how states begin to fail. In recent years, we've seen the UK government loot the public purse during a global pandemic, systematically dismantle the rights that protect us from their excesses, and undermine and discredit the checks and balances meant to hold them accountable. Either Sunak is on board with these attacks, or he's too cowardly to speak up.

The Great British public needs to wake up very soon, or we will sleepwalk into a political abyss. We need to make the stand that Sunak is so afraid of making by calling out the authoritarian creep of recent years and making clear that we will no longer put up with it.

That starts by voting out a government that has shown itself beyond any reasonable doubt to be anti-democratic. But it also requires us to be clear with possible future governments that we expect and demand better from them. Whichever party, or parties, form the next government, they will need to take decisive action in their first term to fix our democracy or risk foisting an even more sinister right-wing government on us next time around. A new variant Conservative Party, moulded in the image of Suella Braverman or David Frost, might very well finish the job of dismantling our Parliamentary democracy. We cannot allow that to happen, and we won't.

All the best,

Mark Kieran
CEO, Open Britain

It's your generous support that makes all our work possible
THANK YOU! 




 

Sunlight Through Bars (2021) by Louise Donovan



Back to me - we are displaying the signs of a failing state. Be aware - sound the alert.  



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