Elective Dictatorship?

Considering the significance of the Second World War in British culture, the most staggering ignorance of it is permitted at the very highest levels. Tony Blair thought that the United States had stood shoulder to shoulder with the United Kingdom during the Blitz, and we are now governed by people who think that there were no elections during the War. There were in fact 219 parliamentary by-elections, numerous local elections, and of course the 1945 General Election, which was held while the War was still being fought.

From 1940 onwards, there had to be a fresh Prolongation of Parliament Act every year, and the Emergency Powers (Defence) Act 1939 was no more martial law than the Defence of the Realm Act 1914 had been. That Vladimir Putin is a dictator does not mean that Volodymyr Zelenksy is not. He has outstayed his constitutional terms of office, having banned 11 Opposition parties, all trade unions, and the largest church in the country, and having put dissidents under house arrest, closed three television stations, and flogged off national assets to global vulture capitalists. Putin's awfulness does not validate his enemies either within or beyond Russia.

I have never met anyone on the Left who liked Putin. It was Blair who used to go to the opera with him and whatnot, at the same time as Blair was cultivating Bashar al-Assad, also to the disgust of the Left. Of people who are still active in British electoral politics, the longest anti-Putin record is Jeremy Corbyn's. He was the main sponsor of an Early Day Motion against Putin's warmongering as long ago as 9 December 1999, he sponsored an EDM calling for the freezing of Russian assets on 13 December 2010, he scandalised his Blairite backbenchers in 2018 by calling from the Despatch Box for action against Russian money in British politics, and much more besides.

Today, YouGov has the public opposed to the deployment of British troops to Ukraine by 51 per cent to 28. Labour supporters are 47 to 33 in favour, and Liberal Democrats an even tighter 44 to 39, but Conservatives are 55 to 34 against, and Reform UK supporters are opposed by a whopping 71 to 17. Yet "I have no objection," Nigel Farage has said on GB News. Along with the release of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, this issue could be lethal for Reform, presently at the top of every poll, but with four and a half years to go until a General Election. Of course, though, that is a side issue. Likewise not reflective of the country, there was this level of consensus in the House of Commons for the wars in Afghanistan and Libya. How did those work out?