Now that No Deal is becoming ever more likely along with all of its concomitant damage to us, our lives and our way of life, it is reassuring to know that our government is up to speed with preparations for handling any problems that might crop up. “Prepping” for all possibilities, they call it.
They are laying in supplies, opening bunkers, setting up armed forces and arms dumps, organising private communication channels, water supplies, medical supplies, making emergency transport arrangements, and so on.
When “end of the world” merchants do this sort of thing many of us regard them as loonies – Now our government is doing the same thing. The only difference is that the government are also the ones planning to make the disaster happen. A self-fulfilling prophesy. One has to ask, “Are they completely mad?” Do they make the average Doomsday Prepper look sensible or do they have some other agenda?
It appears they are completely ready to declare Martial Law, indeed have been “gaming” scenarios to deal with anyone who stands in their way.
Rest assured, they will have been having a good hard look at what they can get away with.
For example:
- Just how quickly can they impose martial law?
- Just how flimsy a pretext can they get away with?
- How much “chaos” do they need to justify what they want to do?
- How quickly can they clamp down on civil disobedience?
Can they use “an overriding fear that it will lead to death in the event of food or medical shortages” to impose curfews, travel bans, to confiscate property and deploy armed forces?
Unfortunately, thanks to our saviour Tony Blair’s phoney socialist government, it seems likely that they can. It is called The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 and it was brought in to sort out Fuel protests, Foot and Mouth disease and floods that happened around 2000/2001. It looks as though it may have left the barn door a little too wide-open.
So, if you feel so strongly about Johnson’s Jackboot crew bringing the country into a state of chaos, they can capitalise on that, declare that things are so bad, that civil disobedience has broken out, and declare Martial Law under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, to halt such unrest.
That should quieten things down, eh?
Yes, curfews, bans on travel, confiscation of property, and, most drastically, the deployment of the armed forces to quell rioting are among the measures available to ministers under the legislation. More than that, they can also amend any act of parliament, except the Human Rights Act, for a maximum of 21 days.
The possibility of using the legislation, introduced to deal with national emergencies such as acts of war and terrorism, has certainly been considered as part of contingency planning. Indeed, towards the end of mother Theresa’s spell as PM, her deputy director of the Civil Contingencies Secretariat, Robert MacFarlane, was reported as having been involved in discussions about the practicalities of implementing the 2004 act as part of the charmingly named Operation Yellowhammer, the battle plan for a no-deal Brexit. So, this is no idle threat.
They also have sub-operations Redfold, involving the military, and Brock, involving lorries and where to park them.
Civil Servants clearly have to understand how the legislation could be used in the event of a no-deal Brexit. One would hope that the general public would be similarly informed before the event. Somehow, I doubt that this will feature highly on their agenda.
How can it be that our government can deliberately, knowingly, bring about a state of chaos, and then apply the law to quell any resistance or protest about the outcome? Surely if any body is culpable under the law for wilfully causing chaos, it is HMG.
The truly draconian powers available to ministers (and it is unclear to me where The Queen sits in all this mess), include any provision which the person making the Powers is satisfied is appropriate to protect human life, health and safety, and to protect or restore property and supplies of money, food, water, energy or fuel. So pretty much anything they like really.
The government seem to be planning to pin their policy on an overriding theme that civil disobedience could lead to death and food and medical shortages. In that case they believe that they will be able to supress freedom of expression and dissent and ride roughshod over those that disagree with them. Even if that group is in the majority, because the government will hold all the levers of power.
Their line is that we have to respect the referendum decision and that means whatever they choose it to mean.
They know their policy objective will cause disruption; in fact, they are planning for it.
No Deal is a Bum Deal
To rub salt into the wound, they are pretending to be acting responsibly by wasting our money taking steps to control us if we are unhappy about what they have cocked-up in our name.
Sounds like a bum deal to me!
Mickey take and more 