The members of the three parties, Conservative, Labour and Liberal (later Liberal Democrat) that have governed Britain almost continuously since 1859 are getting worried about the rising political insurgencies that are bubbling up on both continental Europe and in the UK. Some of these insurgencies are on the right and some are on the Left, but a lot of them are influenced by or have their roots in the various internet cultures that have sprung up since the late mid 1990’s.
The internet and social media has brought about a wholly new people power politics that poses a threat to the established political parties. There is little with which to compare this revolution in the communication of political ideas, apart from the social and political upheavals that came about when cheap book printing and wider literacy that happened hundreds of years previously.
Because Britain’s established political classes are worried about their futures and more importantly about their access to power and influence in the face of insurgent parties such as UKIP and others, they are starting to hit back and the way that they are hitting back has the potential to seriously damage Britain’s democracy. The political establishment is attempting, via the Committee for Standards in Public Life, to exclude from the electoral political process anyone whom the current establishment considers as an internet troll.
This could mean that someone who asks a pointed and unwelcome question of say Jeremy Corbyn or makes a mocking meme about Theresa May, could find themselves barred by law from standing for any British election whether that be for a local council or for Parliament. If these proposals that are being pushed for by Theresa May and similar political establishment types are enacted, then anyone who has cracked a harsh political joke could, by way of an MP pretending to be ‘intimidated’ or ‘offended’ by such a joke be forbidden by
law from taking any meaningful part in the electoral process.
This will be a huge disaster for political accountability and will further entrench an already overbearing and arrogant political establishment in power. I would strongly counsel that people take the time to watch Sargon of Akkad’s explanatory video on the subject of these ‘political trolling bans’ and protest about them.
If these measure go through, then to paraphrase Orwell, the future will be one where the likes of Diane Abbott will be able to stamp on our faces forever. Nobody who believes in democracy or political accountability should accept such a future and it is a future that must be as vehemently but peacefully protested as possible.
