The F-Word: How Close Are We?

An incisive commentary on Mhairi Black's 'Sleepwalking Into Fascism' speech.

Hannah Ross
28th June 2022
(Image: Wikimedia Commons, Picryl)
The SNP's Mhairi Black made a chilling speech in parliament a couple of weeks ago and it went viral. Black accused the government sending the country 'sleepwalking closer and closer to the f-word'. She claimed that others avoided using the word for fear of sounding 'over the top' but Black herself made it clear that she meant the statement: we are on the road to fascism, 'wrapped in red, white and blue'. Feeling moved by this speech, I felt it pertinent to explore the issue further and ask the question she could not answer: how far down this road are we? 

The government has systematically targeted various groups of people, restricting their rights and freedom to fight against ill-treatment. They have been responsible for the rise in poverty, with more relying on food banks due to dramatic inflation, energy bills going through the roof so that people become ill from the cold, and having a minimum wage that is falsely advertised as a living wage. The government does not want to care for struggling families and so pretends that they don't exist—and yet claims that its actions are made to help the underprivileged. Now there are plans from the Department of Education to prevent students who lack Maths and English GCSEs from qualifying for student loans. The plans also discussed restricting the number of university places. This has a disproportionate impact on children from low-income families – a further demonstration of the government deliberately targeting them and keeping people 'at the bottom'. 

Further to these restrictions of rights, the government has felt it acceptable to target the rights of trans individuals, most notably in removing them from the bill to illegalise conversion therapy. This is a blatant attempt to 'other' trans people. The charity Just Like Us found that LGBT+ individuals were twice as likely to contemplate suicide compared to non-LGBT+ people with 77% transgender people contributing to this statistic. Yet somehow, the government feels that individuals who are struggling with their identity—struggling with people constantly judging them, calling them mentally ill, calling them a burden—need to suffer more than they are already forced to. Do they somehow believe that this disgusting practice of conversion therapy will not contribute to the insane rates of suicide in trans individuals? Of course not. The government has happily said that they want to get rid of the Human Rights Act which is a protection for all people, so why would they care about a group of people that they specifically want to marginalise? Mhairi Black used this 'othering' of people and this normalisation of human cruelty as a major point in her description of the road to fascism.

These few examples already highlight that we are very much on this track. But let us not forget about other appalling behaviour such as the shipping removal of refugees to Rwanda which costs more than it will save, and before that, the Windrush scandal. The government is only just getting started. 

But surely democracy means that the people get a say in the actions of government and can hold them to account? It would appear not so much anymore! The government seems to be making a concerted effort to crackdown on freedom of speech. Her Majesty's Inspector of the Constabulary claimed in 2021 that the balance between individual rights and the general interests of the community was not always judged properly by the police, tipping 'too readily in favour of protesters'. This is a bold claim given the police brutality often found at protests in recent times. Yet this statement is what has allowed the government the justification to further restrict freedom of assembly and protest. Power has been placed in the police to place extensive restrictions on protests as well as an increase in maximum punishment for any offence made. 

The government is only getting started

There is also the recent issue of the privatisation of Channel 4. Black herself highlighted that this was very much a political and personal decision rather than a financial one since the Culture Secretary was not even aware that Channel 4 receives no public money! Channel 4 has always made a point of holding people (not just the government) to account whenever it is necessary. They are not under the influence of the government to produce a certain message and are viewed by many as a reliable and reputable source. This loss of autonomy further restricts our freedom of speech as well as our access to unbiased information about government action. All these restrictions prevent direct accountability of the government to the people that elected them. 

However, it can be said that we elect Members of Parliament to enact these views for us, so we can leave it to them. Fear not though, the government has thought of this too! Boris Johnson has decided it necessary to make changes to the ministerial code, which sets out standards of conduct for ministers and helps to hold them to account. Johnson has altered the punishment for breaching the code so that ministers are not automatically expected to resign, as well as removing any reference to accountability, transparency and integrity in the foreword, and blocking his independent ethics chief from launching his own investigation before the lockdown parties enquiry. This is a blatant abuse of power and directly relates to Mhairi Black's other description of fascist transition pertaining to a concentration of power without any scrutiny or responsibility. 

Overall, it is vital that something is done about government actions. They are taking us down a road that we will eventually be powerless to turn back from – watching helplessly as the government slowly strip the autonomy of those they do not wish to associate with because they are different from Johnson and his cronies. Whilst this country is certainly not yet fascist, in the words of Black: we are 'turning into a country where words hold no value'.

Through othering of people, the normalization of cruelty

'Fascism does not come in with intentional evil plans or the introduction of leather jack boots...it happens when we see governments making decisions based on self-preservation...it arrives under the guise of respectability and price that will then be refused to anyone who is deemed different...through the othering of people, the normalisation of human cruelty'.  

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