CAVE quod Idibus Martiis, as our esteemed PM might not say while being a frontman for those who are plotting the hardest of all Brexits.

In her book Fascism: A Warning, Madeleine Albright, who has personal experience of the results of this political ideology from infancy, throws a searing light on our current politics in the light of the history of Europe in the 1920s and 30s.

When Mussolini took over the Italian Parliament, he and his colleagues were very careful to cloak their moves in legality and before the moderate politicians realised what was going on, they were completely defeated. Hitler, after failing in the Munich Putsch (1923), took a lesson from this successful play book and after emasculating the Reichstag (1938) he was free to realise his horrific plans for Europe. Both these leaders used “legal” means to usurp their respective parliaments and take absolute control of their countries, and the end result were regimes that could operate outside the rule of law, domestic and international.

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Why the Ides of March? We face our own deadline in 01/01/2021. After this date the full power of unfettered government may well be felt in the UK. The current Tory government has an 80-MP majority and is driven not by politics but by the needs of disaster capitalists whose place man (D Cummings Esq) is a self-confessed anarchist. We have seen the virtual defenestration of seven senior civil servants and two senior law officers, thus reducing the capacity and quality of the advice available to government, and again the installation of place men to do the bidding of the executive.

As it stands, the Internal Market Bill now going through parliament specifically states that notwithstanding the current law, laws and regulation enacted after this bill takes effect cannot be deemed illegal in either domestic or international law.

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The threat to devolution in Scotland, Ireland and Wales is palpable. After 01/01/2021 we may face a situation where these institutions are simply abolished, we might never see elections to Holyrood in May 2021, and Section 30 is completely off the table. Our politicians, like those in Italy and Germany, may be wrong-footed by misunderstand-ing the motives and actions of what appears to be a circus led by a clown. Both Mussolini and Hitler were initially dismissed as amusing sideshows and used this as a distraction. Neville Chamberlain found to his cost that when dealing with this sort of regime there is no honour, no integrity and no shame involved when reaching their goal is the only consideration.

I notice that Keir Starmer is suggesting that “should the SNP win a majority in May 2021, a referendum will have to be considered”. This also should ring alarm bells. There is no commitment in this statement at all, and quite frankly Keir Starmer will have no say on the subject in the House of Commons, the only place it would matter one iota.

This may sound like a doomsday prophecy and I hope and pray that I am wrong. I am fearful that our children and grandchildren will be politically disinherited. Ruth Wishart makes the economic case for our generation supporting independence (Backing No will deny young Scots the kind of lives we have enjoyed, September 21). I urge the political leadership in Scotland to realise the political danger, and act before they too are overtaken by events that bring catastrophic results.

We have to recognise that we are not living with a rational regime that acts within societal norms; one that wishes to dismantle the structures that support our wellbeing in many areas. We have no time to order our response to this situation, and must be fleet of foot and flexible in the face of an unpredictable authority whose motives are concealed from us but would seem to be malevolent.

David Neilson
Dumfries