Public Service News from around the world

Workers face ‘pandemic of debt’

LONDON (December 15): A former Shadow United Kingdom Chancellor of the Exchequer has warned of another pandemic — “a pandemic of debt” among the country’s Public Servants.

John McDonnell said that there was much anger in the public sector because the workers had kept the country running during the COVID-19 pandemic despite being subjected to pay cuts and freezes over the past 10 years.

 Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have organised a petition calling for a fair pay rise for Government workers and signed by more than 100,000 people.

The petition notes that Public Service pay had fallen in value by up to 20 per cent in the past 10 years, causing increased hardship for workers in Government Departments, non-Departmental public bodies and facilities management staff on outsourced Government contracts.

*********

Court support for pay backflip

 PRETORIA (December  18): South African Public Service unions have lost their court bid to force the Government to pay salary increases which were initially promised and then withdrawn.

The unions had wanted the court to enforce a wage deal struck in 2018 that promised their members inflation-linked increases for three years in a row.

The Government honoured the deal for its first two years but did not pay the final year of increases, which were due in April. It said it could not afford it during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Labour Appeal Court ruled it would be unlawful for trade unions to enforce the latest wage increases because it would contravene parts of the constitution and Public Service regulations.

 *********

Ardern rejects climate criticism

WELLINGTON ( December 17): New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern has rejected criticisms by climate activist, Greta Thunberg of the country’s plan to make its Public Service carbon neutral within five years.

Ms Thunberg derided the plan, saying: “The Government has just committed to reducing less than one per cent of the country’s emissions by 2025.”

However, Ms Ardern said if that was the sum ambition of any Government, it would be worthy of criticism.

“It is not our sum ambition, and it is not the totality of our plans on climate change.  I think that it’s actually for us just to get on with the business of fulfilling our obligations and expectations,” Ms Ardern said.

*********

Trump loyalists still burrowing

WASHINGTON (December 12):  The number of political appointees named by United States President, Donald Trump who are attempting to become Public Servants in Federal Agencies continues to grow, sources say.

The latest round of approved conversions includes a White House liaison officer at the Department of Homeland Security and appointees at the Departments of Interior, Justice, Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency.

The Trump appointees are using a long-time, controversial practice called ‘burrowing’ in which political appointees, who might be dismissed by an incoming President, transition to more secure Public Service positions.

The growing number of Trump appointees attempting to obtain career Government jobs is raising increasing concern among some Democratic Party leaders that they could undermine President-elect, Joe Biden’s Administration from within.

*********

Most PS staff get a pay rise

BELFAST (December 14): A report by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) shows that last year 99 per cent of Public Servants received an increase in pay.

Figures for wages for the year ending March 2020, show the average basic pay was  £27,020 ($A48,150), a 5.8 per cent increase on 2019, with the bottom 10 per cent receiving average basic pay of £22,779 ($A40,590) and £41,799 ($A74,488) for those in the top 10 per cent.

Some 38 per cent of industrial staff received a pay increase of between four and 5.9 per cent, with this rising to more than six per cent among Senior Civil Service staff.

However, NISRA noted that increases in pay could be due to normal progression up a pay scale ... “and changes to pay scales".

*********

China recruits Hong Kong PS

BEIJING (December 15): The Chinese city of Shenzhen is recruiting Public Servants from neighbouring Hong Kong and Macau for the first time.

In recent examinations, 446 people from the two Special Administrative Regions competed for five positions in the administration, finance, city planning, foreign personnel management, and medical supervision areas.

State media reported that the five positions were tailored for the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the direction of cooperation between the three regions.

“One position in the subdistrict office of Fubao, Futian District, which is relatively near to Hong Kong, attracted 244 people and became a highly sought after position,” the report said.

*********

Broadcasting shake-up likely

LONDON (December 12): The United Kingdom’s television regulator says streaming services, such as Netflix and Now TV, could be encouraged to provide public service programing as they become dominant players in the digital era.

In a report on how public service broadcasting should adapt to the age of online viewing, the Office of Communications (Ofcom) said the existing system was “unlikely to survive” and that new platforms should be obliged to feature traditional broadcasters’ streaming services prominently.

It suggested the rules governing the public service remit for broadcasters, including the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), should be radically overhauled, potentially allowing them to fulfil their obligations online instead of through traditional channels.

If Ofcom’s suggestions are implemented, they would represent the most radical revision to the rules governing public broadcasting in the UK since streaming services began to challenge traditional outlets.

*********

High flyers’ wings clipped

DUBLIN (14 December): The Irish Government has offered Public Servants a one per cent pay increase or €500 ($A807), whichever is greater, beginning from next October.

A further one per cent rise or €500 would follow in October 2022 under the proposals, which were agreed between trade unions and Government representatives, subject to approval by members.

However, there is a sting in the tail for higher-earning personnel — those receiving more than €70,000 ($A113,000) – who were scheduled to have the final elements of austerity-era cuts restored over the next year or so.

The document suggests they may not receive the proposed across-the-board increases.

*********

PS head hedges over oath penalties

HONG KONG (December 15): The head of Hong Kong’s Public Service says Government workers who refuse to sign a pledge of allegiance to the city would not “automatically” be guilty of a crime.

However, Patrick Nip Tak-kuen stopped short of completely eliminating the prospect of employees facing prosecution over the oath, sparking demands from a Public Service union leader for more clarity.

Chief Executive of the Federation of Civil Service Unions, Leung Chau-ting said the Minister’s “ambiguous” comments would not ease concerns among employees.

Under a new policy, all 180,000 Public Servants will soon be required to sign a declaration pledging allegiance to the city and promising to uphold the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s mini-constitution.

*********

Fine for hiring too many women

PARIS (December 19): The municipality of Paris has received a €90,000 ($A145,300) fine for employing too many women in senior positions.

The fine was imposed by the Ministry of Public Service on the grounds that the Council had broken national rules on gender parity in its 2018 staffing.

However, Socialist Mayor, Anne Hidalgo was defiant. “I am happy to announce that we have been fined,” Ms Hidalgo said.

She said she had been faulted because 11 women and only five men were named to management positions in 2018, meaning that 69 per cent of the appointments went to women.

*********

Bullying alleged in Department

LONDON (December 13): The leader of the United Kingdom’s Public and Commercial Services union has raised “grave concerns” over bullying of Public Servants in the Cabinet Office — the Department that directly supports Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.

Mark Serwotka also said disabled staff had faced "direct and indirect discrimination", with some Public Servants having contemplated suicide as a direct result of their treatment.

In a letter to Permanent Secretary of the Cabinet Office, Alex Chisholm, Mr Serwotka said staff were demanding meaningful action.

The union official said staff believed there was widespread and ingrained discrimination within the Cabinet Office with "too many senior managers either directly discriminating against colleagues or failing to tackle discrimination within their teams".

*********

Shift to digital accelerated

TOKYO (December 13): The Japanese Government is considering the establishment of a new category in its national Public Service examination that requires specialised knowledge in the digital sector.

The category would deal with subjects such as information processing technology, and was aimed at accelerating the digitisation of administrative procedures.

It comes after the Government announced it would set up a digital agency in September 2021.

The category will be part of the national examination in 2022 from which a few dozen recruits familiar with such matters as cybersecurity and building information systems would be selected.

*********

Cost of PS pensions soars

DUBLIN (December 18): An independent report presented to the Irish Government says the projected cost of all public sector pensions has surged from €114 billion ($A184 billion) three years ago to almost €150 billion ($A242 billion) now.

The figure covers the total cost of pensions accrued by about 320,000 Public Servants currently in employment and about 170,000 retired Public Servants who are in receipt of pensions.

The bill will be paid over several decades, but is also expected to rise during that time.

Workers in receipt of a full Public Service pension who have completed 40 years’ service are in most cases entitled to a pension of 50 per cent of final salary plus a tax-free lump sum on retirement of 150 per cent of final salary.

*********

Praise for pandemic workers

BINTULU (December 15): Public Servants in the Malaysian State of Sarawak have been commended for their excellent work during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking at the end of a course for young Public Service leaders, Chair of the Bintulu Division Disaster Management Committee, Jack Aman Luat said the service of Government workers had been outstanding despite the great risks brought about by the worst health crisis that had affected the world in many years.

“When carrying out our duties, we faced various obstacles and problems and without your support and cooperation we might not have been able to perform our duties accordingly,” Mr Jack said.

“With the best methods, the State Government together with the relevant Government Agencies, whether at the State or Federal level, managed to control the spread of the virus in the State.”

*********

Festive salary advance offered

COCKBURN TOWN (December 15): The Government of the Turks and Caicos Islands has offered its Public Servants an interest-free advance on their salaries to help them through the Christmas period.

While the offer had been a permanent feature at Christmas time for decades, it was discontinued in 2011 due to fiscal constraints, only to be reinstated last year 

Some 1,148 Public Servants benefited from the 2019 program and Deputy Governor, Anya Williams said she was pleased to be able to offer it again.  

“Civil Servants have worked tirelessly throughout the past few months during the pandemic to ensure that service continued to be delivered to persons across the Turks and Caicos Islands in a highly difficult environment,” Ms Williams said.  
  

The full International PS News service will resume on January 19 

Ireland an example of what Scotland could be

In a recent article in Foreign Policy Magazine, Amy MacKinnon and Colm Quinn lauded Ireland as a “country that punches well above its weight”.

As part of an investigation into United States President-elect Joe Biden’s Irish connections, the writers noted that the Emerald Isle had “a good claim to be the world’s most diplomatically powerful country” on a per capita basis.

“Ireland has an embassy in every European Union country…in June Ireland beat Canada to secure a seat on the United Nations Security Council. In July, Ireland’s Finance Minister, Paschal Donohoe, clinched the leadership of the Eurogroup, a club of Eurozone Ministers of Finance,” the journalists wrote.  

This, they said, was good going for a country of five million population.

Does that figure look familiar?  Well at the last census Scotland had a population of not quite 5.5 million.

Ireland’s example gives the lie to voices at Westminster who claim an independent Scotland would flounder and sink without big brother England to take care of it.

Of course Scotland charting its own course would not be a great power, but there is nothing to bar it from being an international voice of influence and a force for good.

Freed from the shackles of the disastrous Brexit experiment it would be free to create its own relationships, which could be its membership of the European Union (which the majority of Scots appear to want).

For the moment it appears the Nationalist cause north of the border is going to have to bide its time.  

The pro-Brexit Tories at Westminster have a healthy majority and Prime Minister Boris Johnson is refusing to give Scots a voice, clinging to the fiction that the matter was settled by the 2014 referendum which resulted in a majority in favour of continuing the union.

However Johnson, who loves to frame history in terms of what suits him, conveniently forgets that at the time the then Prime Minister, David Cameron, promised Scots their best hope of retaining EU membership was as a continuing member of the United Kingdom.

Cameron did not deliberately lie, and was probably as shocked as anyone with the 2016 Brexit referendum and its narrow result in favour of leaving.

The significant majority in Scotland (and in Northern Ireland) in favour of retaining EU membership was overwhelmed by the English majority. Scotland is being forced out of the EU against its will and deserves another vote on this significantly changed situation.

First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon wants that vote to take place next year, and will use May’s General Election in Scotland as a mandate for that to take place.

Of course the final decision will come from London, but five months into Brexit Johnson may have enough to worry about than having to put up with simmering discontent north of the border.

It is just possible he might decide to remove that one thorn from his side, so he can better deal with all the others.

In which case, Scotland will have its best chance in centuries to take a place, with Ireland, among the small but influential voices in the family of nations.

Scots a target for the Lord of Misrule

When United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson dismissed Scottish devolution as “a disaster” he was speaking with some authority.

He is, after all, an expert on disaster.

He presides over a disastrous Government at Westminster; many if not most of his Minister are either proven disasters or disasters waiting to happen.

In a few weeks he is likely to lead his nation into the biggest disaster it has faced in peacetime – exit from European Union’s trading bloc without a deal, without a relationship, setting it adrift on a friendless sea.

Well, perhaps not entirely without friends. There are of course the Government’s mates in the infamous ‘high priority line’ who have grown fat on the thousands of public contracts handed them during the COVID-19 pandemic (the handling of which is another Government disaster).

Contracts worth billions awarded without competition following the suspension of procurement rules, some to companies of little known and questionable backgrounds, with what the National Audit Office has stated “with inadequate documentation”.

The expenditure has been so great that Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak is now likely to implement an indefinite freeze on public service pay for all but front-line National Health Service workers.

A move described by one union leader as "insulting to those public sector workers that have underpinned the fabric of society during this continuing pandemic".

In effect, those who worked to hold the country together, must now pay for the Government’s mismanagement. 

So it is little wonder there has been a great deal of push back to Johnson’s description of devolution as [former Prime Minister] Tony Blair’s biggest mistake.

Blair delivered on his 1997 manifesto commitment to hold devolution referendums, with Scotland and Wales voting for their own Parliaments, and Unionists and Nationalists in Northern Ireland forming a power-sharing coalition.

Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon tweeted: “The only way to protect and strengthen the Scottish Parliament is with independence”.

The Scottish National Party (SNP) leader at Westminster, Ian Blackford said it was a clear sign that devolution was under attack and echoed Sturgeon: “We can stop this wrecking ball; it is called independence”.

With successive opinion polls showing Scots favouring independence and the prospect of pro-EU Scotland being dragged out of the European Union by an English majority, it is hardly surprising Johnson’s views have been swiftly condemned north of the border.

Scots will be frustrated for now, while Johnson’s Conservatives have a healthy majority at Westminster, but there will come a time when that will not be the case.

The SNP must hold its nerve, and wait for when that time arrives.

Now for the easy bit…

Not quite the victory speech, but United States Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden came close to it in his address to the nation yesterday.

He made all the right remarks about the need to “look beyond” the deep divisions exposed by the election “toward a more perfect union”.  

This is what many Americans wanted to hear, and it was a refreshing memory of what Presidents used to say in the days before Donald Trump’s Administration.

However, Biden must know he is about to embark on four years in office far more different, and difficult, than that of any of his predecessors other than in times of war.

For a start, he is not going to receive any of the assistance that is usually extended during a change from one Administration to another.

Expect Trump to drag out the election result itself with multiple challenges in many states and at different levels of the court process.

When this fails he will persist with his refrain that many of Biden’s votes were “illegal”; that the Democrats “stole” the election; that there was something underhand in the counting process after Election Day itself.

Having exhausted the legal process he will turn to the people who voted for him in large numbers across the States where he won easily – in the heartland stretching from West Virginia to North Dakota. Expect him to continue to hold rallies in which he will rage against the illegitimate Administration in the White House.

Do not rule out that he will declare himself, or possibly a member of his family, a candidate for 2024, telling his supporters to maintain the rage through the next four years.

Maybe we saw son Donald Jnr already staking a claim in a rabble-rousing address in which he urged supporters “to go to war” over the election.

Never to be outdone, far right pundit Steve Bannon supported the “beheading” of officials who had been disloyal to the Administration.  

Where does that leave the Republican Party itself? We are already getting a glimpse of things to come in an angry exchange between two Republican members of the House of Representatives, Dan Grenshaw (Texas) and newly-elected Marjorie Taylor Green of Georgia.

After Grenshaw said that allegations of illegality in the vote count must be investigated, but if this was disproved Republicans should accept the election result, Greene jumped in accusing him of defeatism.

“President Trump has fought for us and we have to fight for him,” Greene said.

For the moment it appears that Republicans are split into three camps —  moderates such as Grenshaw, die-hard rightists like Greene, and a large group in the middle who for the moment are staying silent, not returning calls and waiting to decide which way to jump.

Greene, who sees herself elected as a ‘Trumpist’ rather than a Republican in the traditional sense, will certainly resist views such as that of former National Security Adviser John Bolton who described the President as “an albatross round the party’s neck”.

The difficulty for Biden is that he must begin his presidency with some hard words for those who believed Trump in 2016 and again this year — that he could bring home jobs lost to Asia and elsewhere.

Biden has to state clearly that the country’s old-style manufacturing base has gone, and gone for good, that history has no reverse gear.

That done, he should present a vision for what America does best, and what has kept it at the forefront of the world’s economies for generations – innovation.

Barack Obama realised this when he called for the promotion of innovation hubs around the nation, putting researchers at the forefront of a range of sciences and technologies.

Biden needs to promote a crash program of infrastructure repair and development —bridges, roads, inner-city transformation, that has been allowed to languish for too long.

Most controversially, he should re-energise the space program, promoting a sense of adventure and enthusiasm among young Americans that he would have experienced as a young man during the Apollo Moon missions.

And he must do all this with the Trumpists snapping at his heels, waiting for mistakes, ever ready to drag him down.

Apart from that it’s an easy ride.

Scots must keep the pressure on Johnson

In his speech to the virtual Conservative Party Conference, United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson eulogised a Britain that was “more united than for decades”; a Britain where the exit from the European Union “has delivered a new excitement and verve”.

A Britain where Brexit would be “a huge opportunity for Scotland”. 

The unusual setting was fitting for such an address, because it seemed that whatever reality the Prime Minister was living in, it was certainly not this one.

The country has never been so divided, and in so many ways: Brexiteers against Remainers, north against south, rich against poor, Scots against English, far left against far right, the list goes on.

Far from creating “excitement and verve”, the likelihood of the United Kingdom severing its ties with the EU without any form of compensating trade deal is spreading disillusionment and despair among all but the most rabid haters of Brussels.

Scotland, far from being eager to anticipate the “huge opportunities” that Brexit will bring, is straining at the leash for a new referendum that would almost certainly result in it breaking free to set a path to independence and its own relationship with the EU.

The really terrible thing about Johnson’s address is that he doesn’t believe a word of it.

He knows all about the dangers of Brexit but is too far along the path to attempt any kind of correction, instead falling back on Joseph Goebbels’ dictum that if you tell a really big lie and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.

Lying is one skill at which Johnson is supremely proficient, going back to the days when he was sacked from a newspaper for making up a key quote.

He cheated his way through the EU referendum campaign with lies about the huge financial benefit to the country’s National Health Service that Brexit would bring, and most recently he lied during the exit negotiations with Brussels, making arrangements over the future of Northern Ireland he had no intention of keeping.

Johnson has tried to preserve the image of a likeable rogue; a bumbling eccentric who somehow muddles through. In fact he is as brutal and ruthless as any Mafia captain.

At the last General Election he demanded all Conservative candidates sign up for his version of Brexit before gaining party endorsement, thus silencing any debate within the rank and file.

The hollowing out of the party left him short of talent for his Ministry, having to pick from the rump of narrow-focused Brexit fanatics who owed their loyalty, not to the country, or even to the party, but to him.

It is little wonder that many Scots are regretting their decision to place trust in one of Johnson’s predecessors, David Cameron when during the 2014 referendum campaign, he told them their future in Europe was better assured as part of the UK than as an independent nation. 

Johnson has stuck to the broken record-formula that the Scots made their decision to stay within the UK then and the question of independence is not going to be revisited.

Given that the vote was taken on the understanding that Scotland’s place in the EU was assured, there is every reason to allow voters north of the border the chance to change their minds.

While it is difficult to exert pressure in Westminster while the Brexiteer Government holds a substantial majority, it behoves Scottish Nationalists, both in and out of Government, to make the next few months and years as difficult for Johnson as they can.

Eventually, the make-up of future Parliament will be less favourable to the ruling party, of whatever colour.

Then will be the time to strike.

History is poised to judge us

History is a harsh mistress, and those who disrespect her pay the penalty regardless of previous ability and success — reference Napoleon in 1812 and Hitler in 1942.

I am writing this on the anniversary of one such singular event. The Battle of Stamford Bridge, which might have been one of the defining moments in British history, is now almost forgotten because of what followed.

In 1066 Harold II of England, the most able Anglo Saxon king since Alfred, defeated an invading army of Northmen at Stamford Bridge in Yorkshire, virtually ending the Viking era in one master stroke.

He fell upon the huge but unprepared host by making a forced march from the south, covering hundreds of kilometres at a rate unprecedented for the time.

But when William of Normandy landed a far smaller force on the south coast a few days later, Harold, instead of waiting for reinforcements, made the mistake of rushing his depleted and exhausted army back to meet the new threat.

As a result what should have been a mopping-up operation became a hard-fought contest between two roughly matched opponents which William narrowly won, so radically changing the story of what eventually became the United Kingdom.

So why am I writing this? Because I feel that 2020 may be another year in which the currents of history are flowing towards an international crisis which has the potential to threaten us all.

In the United States we have an erratic and self-centred President who is currently seeing everything through the lens of his re-election in November, and has even hinted he might not accept being beaten.

We have a European Union distracted and weakened by the United Kingdom’s ill-thought-out and damaging Brexit process, unable to respond to mounting atrocities on its own borders as the Belarusian dictator stops at nothing to remain in power.

In Russia a leader who is on record as saying that “democracy has had its day” is orchestrating social media chaos among those states who still try to hold free and fair elections.

China has, in recent days, been testing the resolve of democratic Taiwan (and those who might come to its aid) as it prepares to add to its already unashamedly expansionist ambitions.

The list of states that have failed or on the brink of failure is growing almost as fast as that of so-called strongmen who are squeezing the life out of nations that once proudly lived by the rule of law.

Add into this mix the world-wide disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic consequences, plus a number of more local but no less devastating natural events, and we are living firmly within the Chinese curse of “interesting times”.    

Can it get worse? The dystopian scenarios of troops surrounding the White House to haul out a President who refuses to leave, of a second American Civil War, unthinkable only a few months ago, are now being seriously canvassed. Yes, it could get worse, but it need not.

What is desperately required in the democratic powerhouses of Europe and the US is for people to pay attention and stop being taken in by slick, populist slogans and easy answers to increasingly complex questions.

Never have true leaders — those who are prepared to take action not because it is popular but because it is right — been more in demand.

The next few weeks and months are either going to provide them, or we will all face a very troubled and uncertain future.

 

The repackaging of fascism

‘Fascism’ and ‘fascist’ are words that are being slung about with a great deal of abandon these days, almost always as a term of denigration for governments, policies and people that that are considered abhorrent.

They carry a great deal of emotional baggage, conjuring up frightening images of death camps and jackboots, but are they being used wisely, and do the actions of politicians deserve the description?

Before it became a term of abuse in the wake of World War II, fascism was widely considered as an acceptable form of government, not just in Italy and Nazi Germany, but among considerable minorities in most democratic countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia.

The thinking during much of the 1930s was that liberal democracies were ill-equipped to meet the rise of communism which was a threat to social order, and that something stronger, more authoritarian, was needed to stop its spread.

Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini had their admirers. In the UK Sir Oswald Mosley was a particular fan of Mussolini’s style of fascism and if a General Election had been held in the late 1930s his British Union of Fascists may well have gained seats and played a pivotal role in Parliament.  

In the United States Charles Lindberg headed the America First movement, which opposed US involvement in the war against the Nazis and embraced polices that if not fascist, were certainly on the far right.

Today there are fringe groups that adhere to the legacies of Hitler and Mussolini, but no mainstream politician in their right mind would ever go to the electorate under the branding of fascism.

However, policies and actions can easily be disguised under more comfortable titles.

Philosophy Professor at Yale University, Jason Stanley suggests a few aspects of a political movement that might suggest it is masked fascism.

First is an appeal to an imaginary or glorious past which has been destroyed by the forces of liberalism, cosmopolitanism and globalism.  

“Through appeals to this mythical past, fascism establishes a hierarchy of human worth: Law abiding over criminal; hard-working over lazy; racially pure over impure; heterosexual over homosexual; able over disabled,” Professor Stanley says.

“Those deemed worthy are considered the nation’s true people; those deemed unworthy are singled out as threats.

“These false distinctions between worthy and unworthy are enforced through propaganda and anti-intellectualism that corrode shared reality, degrade language and create fertile grounds for conspiracy theories to flourish.”

It is not hard to find examples equating to fascism in countries around the globe. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin is the most blatant when he says liberal democracy is “obsolete” has “outlived its purpose” and that multiculturalism is “no longer tenable”.

Some three quarters of a century after his country won a war against Nazi Germany in which millions of his compatriots died, Putin espouses concepts that would not have been out of place at a Nuremburg Rally.

While not yet so outspoken as the Russian leader, Xi’s China, Erdogan’s Turkey, even Bolsanaro’s Brazil are heading in the same direction — but what about the bastions of the liberal democracy that Putin dismisses , the United States, The United Kingdom, the European Union?

US President Donald Trump’s suggestion that November’s presidential election be delayed because of the pandemic prompted condemnations of fascism, but he was not calling for the election to be cancelled, and he has not succeeded in silencing his critics, one of the hallmarks of a successful fascist dictatorship.

There is no doubt that Trump wants more powers than his office currently gives him — but wishing and getting are different things.

However, should he win — and win well — in November, he and his supporters might be emboldened to push harder against the restraints that have held him in check so far.

The EU is dealing with waves of what has been called Populism, but which almost always has its genesis in the ultra-nationalist far right, most prominently in Poland and Italy, but with supporters in most of the countries of the bloc. 

Most concerning is the path taken by the United Kingdom Government in the wake of its exit from the European Union.

Without the US’s system of checks and balances, the ruling Conservative Party has shifted to its extremes, destroying or subverting long-standing conventions in its bid to cement itself in power.

In its Brexit campaign it referred endlessly to the UK’s so-called glorious past, to the false claims that it stood alone against the Nazis in World War II, and how all this could be reclaimed if only it broke the shackles of the evil bureaucrats in Brussels.

In the weeks and months after the 2016 referendum many of its triumphant supporters taunted fellow citizens of colour, or who spoke with strange accents, calling on them to “go back to where you came from”.

Ministers routinely reject any advice, however sensible, that might be contrary to what they want to hear; instead they huddle around a select group of unelected sycophants plotting how they might target and neutralise those who stand in the way of their march to greater authoritarianism.   

Those who take this path maintain, as Putin said recently, that it is what the “overwhelming majority of the people want”, the problem being that under the system Putin advocates — and has largely succeeded in putting in place — there is never an opportunity for second thoughts.

The fire bells are ringing in the night. We ignore them at our peril.