Brexit 1984

Brexit has exposed the mechanisms of our Orwellian society, masquerading as a western Liberal 'democracy', says David Hardy.  

'If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever . . .' With the recent spate of arrests of political activists in the UK for effectively holding the 'wrong' opinions – Orwell's chilling vision of a life under a totalitarian police state edges closer. Ever since the politicisation of the civil service (and police) by Blair's New Labour, 1984 has been threatening to arrive for some time. It might finally have done just that.

'The face will always be there to be stamped upon. The heretic, the enemy of society, will always be there so that he can be defeated and humiliated.' Indeed, the British state has been excelling itself of late. It has been stamping happily away, seemingly oblivious to the simmering resentment its actions are having upon the populace. Within the last 48 hours the state has arrested not one but two political campaigners using tactics straight out of the Stalin playbook.

In the first case, a middle-aged woman who had recently had a run-in with the police at Speaker's Corner fell afoul of Britain's emerging police state. Viewing the YouTube footage of the arrest is not for the faint-hearted. Battering on her door before 9 am just a few mornings ago, the police issued a raft of menacing threats, but refused to justify their actions or behaviour. What exactly had she done to warrant this treatment? The officers would not say.

When the visibly upset occupant eventually opened the door, the officers' entry into the premises was about as intimidating as it could possibly get. But this was not a den of terrorists. This was home to a suburban wife and mother. Pure Thought Police. Her crime? Wishing someone a 'gay day' the previous afternoon . . . Her real 'crime' had however involved holding the police to account some weeks ago as they permitted an Islamic prayer meeting to go ahead in the Royal Parks, a location where religious gatherings are expressly forbidden by law.

Chillingly, it appears that the 'gay day' remark may have been a pretext for some form of police revenge. The British state was, in the tradition of the best gangsters, sending out a message.

Within the last 24 hours political activist Tommy Robinson has suffered a similarly heavy-handed fate. Arrested outside Leeds Magistrate's court while reporting on the latest instalment of grooming gang trials, Robinson was apprehended by a posse of officers numbering almost a dozen. Sledgehammer to crack a nut.

While Robinson may or may not have breached a previous court order, it is the alacrity and manner of the arrest that ought to disturb any citizen who professes to care about due process and liberty. Robinson styles himself as an 'Enemy of the State.' Judged by how the situation has been handled, it's difficult not to agree with that assessment.

Subsequent to the arrest, the judge has debarred the media from even reporting on the case! And this is not Russia. This is not some kind of kleptocracy – at least we assume it is not. This is the United Kingdom, a democracy supposedly governed by due process and the rule of law.

And yet these arrests follow on from those of conservative activists earlier in the year. A pattern is emerging: Speak out on topics the establishment wish to ignore and it is entirely possible that entry to some kind of UK gulag awaits. Orwell would be turning in his grave: 'I told you so.'

The political establishment are panicking. After decades of slumber, it appears that the citizenry may at last be waking up, though I use the word 'may' advisedly. For the very sobering footnote to these tawdry affairs are the latest political opinion polls, which consistently show about 80% of the British population – the same one being sleepwalked into tyranny – intending to vote for Labour or Tory, the political duopoly which caused this mess in the first place and which is now attempting to silence criticism of its past (and current) political objectives.

What chance the British electorate seeing through the charade which is western Liberal 'democracy?' Sure, Brexit has exposed the mechanisms like never before, but while there's Asda and Strictly Come Dancing on the TV, revolt could be light years away, if at all. Orwell certainly seemed to think so:

'They (the working classes) needed only to rise up and shake themselves like a horse shaking off flies. If they chose they could blow the Party to pieces tomorrow morning. Surely sooner or later it must occur to them to do it? And yet – !'

'And yet!' While there's take-away curries and TV, it's never going to happen, as Orwell knew only too well. Recall too that he was writing in 1948 . . . For Orwell, in order to even consider ushering in change, first there needed to be recognition and then acknowledgement that tyranny existed, where most people prefer the ostrich approach:

'They (the proles) could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening. By lack of understanding they remained sane.'

Perhaps Mr Orwell was being overly pessimistic. After tricking the electorate for nearly a century that it has offered a real choice, and that it actually represented the interests of the ordinary man and women, perhaps the people will one day summon up enough courage to eject the globalist Tory-Labour cabal from power as the author hoped.

Put it this way – If they do not, 1984 is very clear what the British police state will ultimately look like:

'Progress in our world will be towards more pain,' a party apparatchik informs the novel's hero Winston Smith.  'In our world there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph and self-abasement.'

Still, there'll always be the telly . . .