Government tarnishing the UK’s reputation

‘British people expect their government to stand up for freedom, democracy and the rule of law.’

So spoke Dominic Raab about the ‘global Britain’ defence and security review.

Freedom, democracy and the rule of law are universal, not just Union Jack, values.

But slowly but surely our increasingly authoritarian government is tarnishing the UK’s reputation.

Parliament was prorogued illegally, ministers boast of breaking international law on Brexit and then broke the agreement on border checks in Ireland.

US President Jimmy Carter once said that ‘the best way to enhance freedom in other lands is to demonstrate that our democratic system is worthy of emulation’.

He was a wise man.

Now our increasingly populist government has published an alarming crime bill which restricts the right to protest and allows the police to clamp down on protests almost at will.

The same bill proposes maximum jail sentences of 10 years for defacing a statue as against five years for rape. Thank you to our MP Theresa May for saying that freedom of speech is the basis of our democracy ‘however annoying or uncomfortable that might be’.

Meanwhile vaccine wars go on, inflamed by the tabloid press and ministers.

Dominic Raab said that Ursula van der Leyen (President of the European Commission) was acting ‘like a dictator’, which was guaranteed to foster the kind of collaborative international efforts that are essential to help the whole world recover from coronavirus.

I despair.