The UK is “past the point” where the electoral system can intervene as the UK swings dangerously towards authoritarianism.
Warnings from Turkey, which is ruled under a strict Recep Erdoğan regime, come as the politicians voted through a policing bill that would ‘make a dictator blush’ in the Commons.
The move was described as a “Tory-led coup without guns” by Labour MP Clive Efford, while former justice minister Maria Eagle said the “populist Government has swiftly developed a penchant for authoritarianism.”
And now a Turkish political activist has fired waring signs over the direction of the British government.
He tweeted that as “someone who’s seen this happen in Turkey, you’re past the point where electoralism can save you.
“It might have saved you in 2017/2019, but you wouldn’t listen.”
He was tweeting in response to Politics.co.uk editor Ian Dunt who recalled a conversation with a Hungarian journalist living under Viktor Orbán’s regime.
He said that “the scariest part was when the silence came – when the newspapers stopped criticising and the protests stopped happening. That’s when you knew you were fucked good and proper.”
Related: Dominic Raab credited for ‘epic trolling’ as he warns democracy is “in retreat” around the world