Be afraid. A political coup is underway in the UK – Kenny MacAskill

By The Newsroom
Published 11th Jul 2019, 07:00 BST
Conservative party leadership contender Boris Johnson has not ruled out suspending the Westminster parliament to force through a no-deal Brexit without MPs' consent. (Picture: PA Wire)Conservative party leadership contender Boris Johnson has not ruled out suspending the Westminster parliament to force through a no-deal Brexit without MPs' consent. (Picture: PA Wire)
Conservative party leadership contender Boris Johnson has not ruled out suspending the Westminster parliament to force through a no-deal Brexit without MPs' consent. (Picture: PA Wire)
The leaking of UK Ambassador Sir Kim Darroch’s scathing assessment of Donald Trump is the latest sign of the soft political coup being carried out by pro-Brexit politicians who care only about power and their own self-interest, writes Kenny MacAskill.

Political coups come in all shapes and form. I read the biography of Victor Jara, the Chilean folksinger murdered by the Pinochet regime. His widow narrated the growing tensions as the oligarchs ramped up opposition to Salvador Allende’s democratically elected government. Fear grew before finally it erupted, with military jets bombing the presidential palace and opponents rounded up and killed. It’s to Britain’s eternal shame that Thatcher consorted with the Fascist Chilean General.

Now I don’t for a minute believe that anything like that will ever occur here. But a soft political coup is under way, replicating what’s been happening across the Atlantic. In the USA, Trump used his personal wealth and connections, along with those of other super-rich oligarchs, to win the election and take control. Despite losing the popular vote by a considerable margin – winning because of the US electoral college system – he showed neither magnanimity nor made any attempt to broker consensus.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Instead it’s been open partisanship and outright nepotism. Military commanders removed, others patently unfit for office such as Brett Kavanaugh appointed to the Supreme Court and now Ivanka Trump elevated to a position of some latter-day Henry Kissinger, despite possessing neither the academic record nor intellect.

Read More
How Donald Trump will benefit from leak of UK Ambassador’s scathing memo – Marty...

So it is with the UK and I fear that, with a Boris Johnson Prime Ministership, it’s only going to get worse. Oligarchs and the super-rich using their wealth and their media influence to lie and distort. A referendum won with dodgy money and by telling flagrant untruths, even if it was the stupidity of David Cameron that brought it into being. The people who propagated those untruths have been easing themselves into position whilst easing out those who don’t agree with them.

Talk of proroguing Parliament’s an abomination. Boris Johnson’s great hero Winston Churchill didn’t even consider that when the country’s back was to the wall and a Nazi invasion loomed. Instead, in the national interest, Churchill created a coalition government that not only saw the country through the war but established the welfare state.

But Britain’s new ruling class are entirely narcissistic and care only about power and their self-interest. The rights of others matter not one jot and the national interest an irrelevancy – understandable when you consider that they offshore much of their wealth and that, to them, loyalty to the UK is about ensuring privacy in London’s financial centre. Deep state indeed.