Johnson wanting to overrule the judiciary !

This goes further than controlling the news media.

The government has lost a number of cases involving its handling of the pandemic (crony contracts mainly) and Brexit. The cases it's lost have been on procedural issues, not whether Brexit is right or wrong or whether the government has made bad decisions.

The cases have been mainly crowd-funded. Firstly, it increased the defence costs, in an attempt to deter people bringing cases in the first place. Now it's threatening to ignore judicial rulings anyway.

Anybody who cares about democracy (and most people seem to claim they do) should be concerned about this, as a point of principle.

They made it clear after the failed attempt to prorogue parliament that they didn’t want them pesky legal people thwarting whatever they wanted to do, but they’d also been quite open about it prior to that. However, all the electorate seem to notice are the diversion tactics of Johnson doing his Mr Benn stuff of dressing up in silly hats and reflective jackets every day. It’s very frightening. I was chatting to a couple last week (whilst out dog walking ) about Storm Arwen and they came out with the usual ‘all politicians from all parties are corrupt’ and I couldn’t be bothered to contradict them. Same with the ‘Labour can’t run the economy’ argument. It seems to be baked in these days and no one believes that it isn’t true.

That is the power of the right wing press MayBee70

"The new ‘government by diktat’ bypasses parliament altogether"

A thought provoking article by Camilla Cavendish writing in the Financial Times

www.ft.com/content/36091d6c-a542-4253-8261-1a354e60b6cb

Looking at Johnson’s photo which showed him playing as a policeman, I tutted and shook my head at his foolishness, but it has just occurred to me and Caroline Lucas I notice has thought the same.

Where is the separation between the police and the state in Johnson’s latest escapade? This is fundamentally part of our constitution.

Lucas’s take

“Johnson’s police dress-up might look comical but it’s deeply dangerous, signalling breakdown of vital separation of power in any democracy, placing PM in a directly dictatorial role, undermining both the independence of police & the integrity of his office. It must be called out”

Has any other PM dressed up as much as Johnson does? And didn’t Patel dress up as a policeman a few months ago as well?

MaizieD

Parliament won't treat it with disdain, I'm afraid, because tory MPs will be whipped to pass the legislation and it will go through thanks to the huge majority the government has.

David Cameron deserves to rot in hell, along with the parents of little Arthur, for destroying the UK with his miserable referendum which has enabled this attack our constitution and the rule of law.

I can only hope that significant numbers of the UK population responds with massed civil disobedience. Governments aren't the only ones who can show contempt for the law. The most interesting issue would be whose side would the army be on if the police weren't sufficient to control us?

I wish call me Dave could see what he has done to social care that is supporting peers of his late son