Today’s right-wing newspapers will carry variations of a headline that shows how far we, as a country, have fallen and how close we are to falling catastrophically further still. They’re also an object lesson in another, more common demonisation.
Here are the Daily Mail’s, Telegraph’s and Express’ front pages in response to a decision by judges to uphold a law that is inconvenient to the aims and aspirations of a handful of billionaires, along with those of the super-rich individuals and companies whose interests align with theirs and the politicians who serve those interests:
The Express headline looks at first glance slightly less rabid, but the article compares EU membership to rape and forcible sterilisation and to the darkest days or World War II.
When a more sane journalist commented that this showed how close we are to ‘civic breakdown’, he was jumped on:
‘Dangerous to attempt to thwart the democratic will’. Good God.
The job of a judge is to uphold the law. If the law does not agree with ‘the democratic will’, governments are free to change the law – if they can get those changes through Parliament.
The democratically-elected Parliament.
The rule of law is absolutely critical to the healthy good order of any country. It’s far more important than the will of despots – whether the despot is a monarch or a ‘demos’, the people. If the ‘democratic will’ is considered to override the law, we have mob rule.
Speaking of mobs, one of the ‘news’ papers above was very, very supportive of a particular mob some 80 years ago:
The fascist ‘blackshirts’ were inspired by some people in Germany who enjoyed using a very similar line to today’s papers:
Translation: “Betrayers of the People – kicked out of the German people’s-community”
So who’s really the ‘enemy of the people’?
Those judges did their job properly – for the sake of all of us, whether we’re for or against ‘Brexit’.
If that inconveniences Theresa May and her ‘Brexiteers’ and makes them go a longer way round to get to where they can invoke Article 50 (formal notice of Britain leaving the EU) – tough.
Those ‘news’ papers are serving the interests of a tiny group of people and attempting to manipulate the rest of us into a mindset that is completely against our own actual best interests.
Which is an important lesson.
3 judges do their job properly for the sake of the actual good of the country, in a way that threatens the wishes of a handful of billionaires – and are demonised and derided for it.
Jeremy Corbyn does his job properly for the sake of the actual good of the country, in a way that threatens the wishes of a handful of billionaires. Do you think there’s any credibility to the way he’s derided and demonised for it?
The real ‘enemies of the people’ are not hard to identify. It’s time ‘the people’ woke up and realised it.
Reblogged this on Sid's Blog and commented:
Daily Mail typifies Fascism
Strange, these adult comics wanted to exit the EU, because they wanted the UK to have more control of its laws. As you rightly state, these comics now rant against UK Judges, making a determination on the Law? What do they want?
Reblogged this on Wirral In It Together.
Reblogged this on Declaration Of Opinion .
… talking of judges – slightly off-topic but I know this is another issue you’ve regularly highlighted here on the Skwawkbox: the disability benefits appeal process.
I’ve just seen this 38Degrees petition about the government’s proposed plans to change the appeals process – unsurprisingly, it doesn’t sound good. The petition info says, “The main change is holding the appeals over the telephone, on a webcam or even by reading submitted paperwork. The other worrying change is replacing a judge with a clerk or solicitor with no experience in disability law.”
This is the petition link: https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/dwp-changing-the-tribunal-process?
Thanks, I’ll take a look!
The Judiciary in this country is a disgraceful blot on the so-called democracy which we ‘enjoy’. You have very, very short memories. Do you really want me to list the occasions when they have proved my opinion to be correct or do you only live for the moment ? Those called upon to give their ‘opinion – for that is all it is – will earn inordinate amounts of taxpayer’s money from this application. How many layers of the ‘law’ do they need? If they can’t get a judgement correct at the first time of asking then they are too ill-equipped to be in their job. They pitch up, deliver their ‘judgement’ and then it’s up to other, more well paid chums to determine if their opinion is correct. Then an appeal Court, then another Court, then the European Courts. Only when all the Courts agree is the verdict pronounced as being ‘correct’ and we know how we are being treated. Meanwhile, at the food bank. And whilst we’re talking of criticism, why is it that your friend at ‘Vox Political’ won’t accept any. The guy’s a hypocrite.
Do you have a source for the 1933 newspaper image please/
Not to hand, I’m afraid, but I’ll do a reverse image search later and see if I can turn one up.
It’s from the Nazi newspaper “Illustrierter Beobachter” (Illustrated Observer) in 1933. Hope this is helpful. (see https://alternativeeconomics.co/storyline/3505966-minnesota-https-t-co-g0tfcpbrpm-https-t-co-tcty9exg76)
“If you don’t read the papers you’re uninformed, if you do you’re misinformed” Mark Twaine.