WHILE warnings of the UK’s continuing slide toward authoritarianism are often dismissed as hyperbole, the last few months should really have given pause to even those most sceptical of those shining a light on the British Government’s despotic aspirations.

Britain has always talked a bigger game on democracy than it has walked in the corridors of power. It’s a political ideal that successive governments have always seemed more comfortable forcibly exporting abroad over taking steps to ensure we had real representation at home.

And for all its posturing as the “mother of parliaments”, Westminster is an undemocratic and archaic joke at our literal expense, stuffed as it is with unelected peers, flaunted wealth and political dynasties. Yet even from that murk, Boris Johnson’s government stands out as a particularly egregious outlier.

There are many identifiable markers of a country’s descent into fascism, from rampant nationalism to a total disdain for the arts; something on clear display through the pressing of the vacant Nadine Dorries into the role of Culture Secretary. Dorries gives the impression of someone whose idea of a good British cultural event comes in the form of a public hanging. Fraudulent elections and rampant cronyism too are markers of autocracy. The pandemic has done much to shine a light on the blatant corruption taking place behind the doors of Number 10, including the scandal of handing more than £3.5 billion worth of contracts to friends of Tories without the experience or means to deliver; companies subsequently shielded from any public scrutiny whatsoever.

And between the controversial VIP lane to secure contracts and questions of just who actually paid for Johnson’s extravagant flat renovations, the Tories partied as the rest of the country took seriously its responsibility to look after others.

The National: Boris Johnson’s administration has clamped down on immigration Picture: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire

Now the Tories have turned their attention instead to voter suppression and anti-democratic measures that will keep them in power despite their unpopularity. The first-past-the-post (FPTP) system used by Westminster is not fit for purpose. Rather than moving toward a more proportional parliament, the Tories instead are desperate to keep using a system that gave David Cameron a majority in Westminster with support from less than 37% of the electorate in 2015 – and we all know how that turned out.

The Conservatives benefit from FPTP as the only serious right-wing party in British politics, while the centre and the left have many options. So while the right’s vote coalesces around a single party, the left is split and the winner-takes-all approach results in disproportionate representation.

Having realised this as beneficial to the political right, the Tories are now proposing to replace more proportional practices with this undemocratic system that actively penalises voters for picking the candidate that best represents them over the candidate that might win and isn’t quite as bad as the others.

The process for electing mayors and police commissioners in England uses the supplementary-vote system, which has resulted in only two of England’s 10 metro mayors being Conservative – something they now plan to remedy by replacing voting system with the one that is less representative and democratic, but which leads directly to more right-wing candidates getting seats in areas that don’t really want them.

Meanwhile, the UK is fighting to get its Elections Bill through Parliament, seeking to solve the non-existent problem of voter fraud with compulsory ID; a move that will significantly disenfranchise poor communities who lack any accepted. It’s old-school voter suppression, baby.

Putting active barriers in the way of voting, particularly areas less likely to vote Conservative, may not be considered fraudulent – but alongside plans to make voting less democratic overall, it shows a government that is actively hostile to democratic ideals.

And what’s a march away from democracy without a convenient scapegoat for the public – a wedge issue in the form of the trans community and the UK’s ongoing “war on the woke”.

The National:

I don’t really believe that Johnson cares particularly about trans liberation, either in supporting or opposing it. Instead it’s a community that can be used to distract from this government’s illiberal leanings. The recent whiplash-like decision to scrap plans for a ban on the abusive practice of conversion therapy followed, by a reversal to move ahead with plans but to remove trans people from the ban, is indicative of things to come. This reversal led to HIV and LGBTQ+ charities pulling out of the Government’s Safe To Be Me conference; an exercise in pinkwashing that would have allowed his Cabinet to once again wax lyrical about how best to respect the LGBTQ+ community without applying its own advice at home.

The relationship between the two – and the various organisations that advocate on our behalf – is at its most fraught since the days of Section 28. Between scapegoats, hostility toward democracy and the UK’s recent attempts to ban the right to protest, there is a pattern emerging of a nation that is becoming increasingly comfortable with autocratic ideology. It is not alone, as Marine Le Pen edges close to victory in France. Yet whether through independence, or by crushing this government beneath the boots of anti-fascists, we must let the Tories know that we see them, and that we will not allow fascism to flourish in Scotland.