Hillary Clinton brought a warning to an audience in London today - Britain is at risk of succumbing to authoritarianism and fascism.
Speaking to an audience in London, Clinton said she took “very seriously” the fact that significant numbers of female MPs had opted not to run again for parliament in the coming election, in many cases citing online intimidation and threats against their safety.
“When I heard about all these people, particularly the women, who weren’t going to run again [as MPs], and they attributed it to the threats they are going to face, that is not only a threat to individuals, that is a threat to democracies,” she said.
“If people are intimidated out of running for office in a democracy because of these hatemongers on the left or the right … that is the path [to] authoritarianism, that is the path [to] fascism.”
While we have fanciful notions that Britain stood alone against the Nazis as the rest of Europe yielded to Hitler, there were several prominent Brits, including royalty, who actually supported fascism. There have always been some who have flirted with authoritarianism, especially in the runup to WWII. Then King Edward, who abdicated to marry "that Wallis woman," American divorcee Wallis Simpson, was rather sympathetic to Hitler.
History is but accounts of numerous crapshoots, truth be told
ReplyDeleteBritain with its entrenched class system is very vulnerable to facism. It already is well onto its way to a more authoritarian form of government and has been since the thatcher year. Various politicians have done well setting up the "them vs us" routine.
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