Liberty and Freedom in Whose Name?

Jane pointed me at a good 'Comment & Analysis' piece in yesterday's Observer, by Will Hutton, which serves to emphasize the sheer wanton stupidity of the Brexit process - no it hasn't been 'done'; not by a very long chalk, thus far - and it's inevitably very unfortunate consequences continue to affect all of us; except that is for the tiny minority of its most rabid, and wealthy adherents. The final bonfire of your and my liberties looms large on the horizon, heralded by the Fourth Horseman of the Brexit Apocalypse: [The] Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill currently in the pipes, championed by that exemplar of modernity [I couldn't help myself] and cheerleader of free speech and market freedoms, Jacob Rees-Mogg. A man so out of touch with the real world that who, in any normally-functioning society, would be treated as delusional and quietly locked away for the public good, instead of being allowed, like his equally deranged colleagues, to play at politics at the very highest level.

The problem - and it's a very serious one, with these people - is, to paraphrase Will Hutton, that they hate and disavow rules; characterizing such restrictions as '... "burdens" and "obstacles" to our [their] freedom and prosperity...'. This, the very bunch of people, who in the same breath espouse policies, and propose bills to curb freedoms of speech, assembly and representation for the rest of us. Those without millions in the bank must toe the line drawn in the sand by those with: a less than oblique codification of our expected servitude and obeisance to their 'natural' superiority. Rules only applying where they see fit. This is both an augury and, unfortunately, a reprise: mid-twentieth-century history slowly and sickeningly repeating itself, aided and abetted by greed and ignorance: the bastardization of the democratic process itself. This time, though, there's no autocracy, just the twin pillars of greed: plutocracy and kleptocracy, built on the old foundations of class and education. Historically, the outcomes leading from such a situation are generally not good. For anyone.

This is politics without politics. You can hear it in their rhetoric, routinely accusing the opposition of 'playing politics' whilst they are 'getting on with the job of government'. Except, as we know, they are not 'getting on' with any such thing, bar ensuring their, and their friends and allies, continued prosperity; whilst legislating to remove the true freedoms, hard won for ourselves - the hoi polloi - over the last two hundred years. Without collective action against this tide of perfidy, we will ultimately be complicit victims in our own downfall. However, the signs of a kickback are currently looking tentatively positive, along with a hardening of resolve to challenge the government, from the BBC and many on the right itself. It's time our Stockholm Syndrome groupthink gave way to open, rational thinking and true debate, and for a serious political reset to take centre stage in this archipelago.