113 MPs accuse Johnson of “fascism” and demand the recall of Parliament

In a two page letter to UK prime minister Boris Johnson, 113 MPs from across the parties have accused him of deploying the language of “fascism”. Their prime concern was the consequences of a no-deal Brexit. They demand the recall of parliament. This follows speculation, reported by The Canary, that the Johnson-led government could crash out of the EU before parliament returns from the summer recess.
The letter
On the first page of the letter, the MPs get straight to the point and demand an immediate recall of parliament. They quote a number of precedents that allow for recall.
Strong language
On the second page, the MPs accuse Johnson of not respecting parliamentary democracy and adopting populism.
They also referred to the “discredited rhetoric of the Leave campaign”. This rhetoric includes the exaggerations and downright lies disseminated by Vote Leave, the campaign group which Johnson fronted. The Canary published examples of these lies.
And the MPs go even further in their criticism of Johnson, accusing him of using the language of fascism and authoritarianism in his denigration of his Brexit critics.
Read on...
The letter also criticised Johnson’s special adviser Dominic Cummings, who is concerned largely with Brexit and its implications.
The letter from the MPs concludes:
We face a national emergency, and Parliament must be recalled now in August and sit permanently until 31 October.
Rebels MPs
A third page lists all the MPs who signed the letter:
Sneaky plot
Earlier in August, The Canary reported how Cummings boasted:
[MPs] don’t realise that if there is a no-confidence vote in September or October, we’ll call an election for after the 31st and leave anyway.
And on 17 August, The Canary reported on a plan, outlined by Tory MP Tom Tugendhat, for the Johnson government to circumvent a vote of no confidence. The plan would see the UK exit the EU by 24 Aug, as an act of unilateral withdrawal.
No deal disaster
A no-deal Brexit is seemingly Johnson’s “central scenario”, and according to one diplomat, “Even if EU gave up the backstop there is no alternative [to no-deal]”. No-deal will likely bring about economic disaster, with a huge fall in the pound, panic buying, business closures, and possibly civil unrest.
And cabinet secretary and national security adviser Sir Mark Sedwill has argued that if the UK left the EU without a deal then a recession is likely as well as a fall in sterling. According to Sedwill, food costs would rise by 10%. Some stores and supermarkets are already working with police if no deal goes ahead and leads to protests, looting, or rioting.
On 14 August, The Canary published details of a cross-party parliamentary report – The consequences of “No Deal” for UK business. It concluded that no-deal Brexit:
could lead to severe disruption of the economy, pose a fundamental risk to the competitiveness of key sectors of the UK economy, and put many jobs and livelihoods at risk.
The letter from the 113 MPs coincided with the publication by the Sunday Times of a leaked Cabinet Office report, marked ‘official sensitive’. It outlined a worst case scenario for no deal Brexit.
According to Sky News, the report made it clear that a no-deal Brexit could lead to shortages of food, fuel and medicine, as well as a hard border on the island of Ireland.
A senior Whitehall source said:
This is not project fear – this is the most realistic assessment of what the public face with no-deal. These are likely, basic, reasonable scenarios – not the worst case.
Operation Black Swan
The Sunday Times reported that worst case scenario planning is referred to as “Black Swan”. The black swan reference originates from a book by risk analyst Nassim Taleb. The Black Swan planning comes under Operation Yellowhammer, the main contingency planning operation.
Yellowhammer covers 12 risk areas (source: Cabinet Office via the Guardian):
War footing
In March 2019, the Ministry of Defence announced that under the auspices of ‘Operation Redfold’, around 3,500 military personnel would be readied for deployment in the event of no-deal. The plan also included the deployment of several hundred reservists. The operation would be run by the Defence Crisis Management Centre, headquartered in a nuclear-proof bunker, known as Pindar, in Whitehall.
More than 10,000 riot police are also prepared to intervene in riots and other disturbances and ready for “worst-case scenarios”. Of those officers earmarked for deployment, 1,000 are trained in the use of armoured vehicles and water cannons.
Rebellion
But despite these threats by the Johnson gang, there are signs of rebellion.
The 113 MPs who signed the letter to Johnson didn’t mince their words. Indeed, the language in the letter is probably unprecedented in its tone.
But the next step in this rebellion could involve far more than a letter by parliamentarians. For if the worst scenario takes place, there are people’s livelihoods, if not lives, at stake.
Featured image via screengrab
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Please can you share images of the letter that are bigger enough to read
Pindar is an excellent place for storing all the rotten eggs.
Despite its physical security and capability of sustaining itself (e.g. electricity, water, food, and recycled air), Pindar has one important weakness. This is common to all command bunkers. In order to receive information and issue orders they require reliable connection to the outside world. This can be via multiply redundant copper wire, cable, and connection to radio antennae. For use in extremis, there could even be a speaking tube connecting to the outside. Maybe there is provision to supplement water supply directly from the water-table in which case parallel opportunities arise.
Pindar has been in existence long enough for knowledge of conduit routes and points of outside connection to be quite widespread among low/zero security clearance technicians and maintenance staff. When collated , it probably already has been by interested parties, it should be straightforward to isolate Pindar and its occupants from the world.
Think on it, Johnson and his putsch co-conspirators can be left to stew in their own juices until ready to come out of their own accord and, one by one, mount the guillotine erected in Whitehall. Sale of international TV rights would give an immediate economic boost sustained by flocks of tourists keen on visiting the bunker where besieged Johnson spent his last ten days (following example of a similarly ambitious megalomaniac in 1945) and follow his ‘Way of Sorrows’ to the foot of the guillotine.
Annual commemorative celebrations shall ensure children become aware of the perils facing a ruler who treats the brighter half of his population with contempt.
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Released under the Creative Commons Attribution international 4.0 license (sic).
@ Smythe-Mogg
I do really enjoy reading your posts, they are informative, creative, and fun. This one though, whilst fun, makes me think that we really should consider such actions as isolating the treasonous dogs like Johnson (and many other traitorous politicians/corporate/MSM leaders) in such a way as to starkly embed into the minds of society, that being a corrupt leader will get you censured, sanctioned, and maybe worse (punishment should fit the crime).
Whilst I am sure many do not agree they are traitors to our Nation, Democracy, and Us (though I think more and more people are waking up to that very late conclusion), I’ve heard it said that if you want to stop this kind of behaviour from rearing it’s disgusting head, the guillotine has been proven to work …. well at least for a long enough period to get embedded into many minds that ‘The People’ (who vastly out number all politicians, corrupt business leaders, and particularly the military and police) can, and will, put aside apathy if you treat them badly enough.
Yes even apathetic Britain can be pushed into revolution/civil war, and to be honest, it seems that’s exactly what these political/corporate idiots are striving to create with Austerity and Brexit, or at the very least, seem to be arrogantly pushing to find where the breaking point is.
Saying that however, seriously, how many Britons need to die a month before we do save our Nation and selves from their murderous political machinations? Have we no soul? No care for our Nation and fellow citizens?
It strikes me harshly that the MSM for years has jumped at every air disaster …. 200 – 300 souls lost almost every time, which makes International headlines, but here in the UK the government creates policies which are deliberately designed to cause death in the hundreds and thousands, against its own people (30,000 due to ATOS/DWP alone in the first year of ATOS operating here) and we sit and moan, but are all too frightened to act to force these despicable people out of the power we give them, and make them accountable and punishable for their crimes.
On a side note, it will be interesting to see if the ‘Invasion’ of Area 51 by US citizens actually takes place, and if the soldiers guarding it have the stomach to murder their own citizens in cold blood. I think they do, because they, like us, do not live in a democracy, but an oligarchy painted as a democracy.