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I wrote this article for @BylineTimes I asked what do words tell us of the way the Conservative-led governments that have dominated British life since 2010, have moulded the narratives of power? And how such political cultures have moulded British life? https://bylinetimes.com/2021/02/12/ur-fascism-the-parliamentary-language-that-defines-the-uk/
I identified, inspired by Umberto Eco's, key motifs of 'Ur-fascism', and saw to what degree these motifs were reflected in key words increasingly used in Parliament.
1. The Cult of Tradition
1. The Cult of Tradition
2. The Rejection of Modernism
3. The Cult of Action For Action’s Sake
4. Disagreement is Treason
5. Fear of Difference
6. The Obsession with a Plot
6. The Obsession with a Plot (part II)
8. Contempt for the Weak
8. Contempt for the Weak (part II)
9. Everybody is Educated to Become a Hero
9. Everybody is Educated to Become a Hero (part II)
10. Selective Populism
Something has entered British politics – an anger that has not been seen for a long while. Indeed, if you cross-refer the words ‘love’ and ‘hate’ in recent British political life, you can see that, the two years before last, hate was more articulated in the Commons than love was.
More worrying, if you look at the frequency of the time that love and hate have been articulated in the House of Commons since 1803, 2016 and 2017 were the only two years where hate outweighed love.
It is perhaps this, above all, that should concern us all – including those Conservative politicians who rule over a country their words have so strongly divided. For without love in British politics, there is no hope.
