I’ve chosen a deliberately provocative title not because I’m advocating violent revolution but because Donald Trump and his sycophants, including the UK Cabinet, accept his deranged idea of ‘democracy’. Let’s get this idea out of our head, our current leaders care nought for democracy all they care about is controlling the narrative – it’s imperialism dressed up in the language of democracy!

Everyone thinks democracy is a good idea, and their version of democracy is the best – which is why they try to inflict it on other nations who have different ideas about what it means. We shouldn’t be surprised, Athens was the first democracy but it was also imperialistic and executed its greatest critic, Socrates for “corrupting youth” – challenging them to think about everything instead of meekly accepting what they’ld been taught. This is particularly relevant today when Parliament is reducing the voting age to 16. (I turned 21 two days before it was lowered to 18, which meant my eldest sister got the right to vote at the same time as I did).

All Athenian citizens were not only allowed to vote but obliged to participate in public affairs, quite often through sortition in which a citizen was drawn by lot to fill a certain office. This would be useful in a citizen assembly, we already do it for jury service, but the Athenian definition of citizenship was tautological – citizens are those allowed to vote, those not allowed to vote include:

• Women

• Slaves

• Resident aliens

• The hoi poloi, rural folk

If we take Athenian Democracy as a prototype we’ve had four millennia to improve on it and failed dismally, we can’t even agree on its meaning! Was Socrates correct to accept his fate when the democracy he venerated condemned him to death?

Government for the people should allow some element of government by the people, in other words anyone affected by a political decision should have a say in that decision. Consultations on local developments are helpful, we stopped one development going ahead in my neighbourhood although the one part to which we did not object has still not been started. Some developments have wider implications so it’s not always easy to determine the interested parties.

We have achieved the rights we have by civil disobedience. When Henry David Thoreau was imprisoned for refusal to pay a poll tax his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson asked “Why are you here?” And he replied “Why aren’t you?”

Throughout history the initial violence has come from those who wished to maintain the status quo, but violence begets violence. There’s an old saying “He who lives by the sword shall die by the sword.” We’ve passed the stage where blacksmiths can literally forge swords into ploughshares but it’s still a useful metaphor.

I was in Australia at the time of the Miners Strike so I have to look it from an historical perspective rather than a personal one. What I can say is that two former police officers are now former friends because I refused to accept that police violence is justified if it has Home Office approval – even if the Home Secretary (Suella Braverman) is a psychopath.

This is not a call to arms, I don’t personally endorse violence as a means to gain political ends but our rulers do! The state has a monopoly on violence, the police and military can get away with almost anything – including rape and murder!

If we look across The Pond we see a geriatric felon who has decided that only he should decide who lives there. Indigenous Americans have dual nationality – their treaties, though frequently abrogated, granted them sovereignty over the lands they still possess. It may be that the only way to achieve justice is The Chicago Way https://youtu.be/xPZ6eaL3S2E?si=ksjYk0nNBe1gcmMu

Taking a global perspective, we won’t achieve peace by preparing for war! That doesn’t mean we should bow down to an aggressor but that we shouldn’t be the aggressor.