Fascism is always the same. But it always comes in a different wrapper. It always harms, and in some cases, destroys its host country. Germany and Italy after world war two were literally left in ruins; Putin’s Russia is a dystopian hellhole of war, bankruptcies and exorbitant interest rates; Milei has brought Argentina to its knees with 300% inflation; and the persecution and torture of opponents to the Pinochet regime in Chile, coupled with its economic failures, underline how quickly and how badly things can go wrong in a country when fascists obtain power. Making sure fascists do not take power in the UK is personal for me, my grandfather was killed fighting fascists in 1941.
So people are right to be concerned at the possibility of some form of fascism spreading from the US after Trump’s election. In part fascism is able to grab power by operating at or just beyond the edge of the constitutional guardrails that are designed to protect our democracy, and Trump has shown himself willing to stretch those guardrails.
Big money, bigger threats: Musk’s UK interference
In particular funding is key. The constraints on political funding are much more limited in the USA, where huge sums are regularly spent, but the threat from radical-right billionaire Elon Musk to fund Reform in the UK to the tune of $100 million (around £79 million) is a threat that should not be taken lightly. As we have seen in the referendum, such money can be deployed to convince voters to vote against their own interests. What is needed are more protections to take big money out of politics and return politics to the ordinary people.
With that in mind I am proposing the following measures
1. A cap on individual donations. Peter Geoghegan has suggested the £10,000 recommended by the Committee on Standards in Public Life. I would prefer it to be expressed as a percentage of median earnings – say 5%, which would be around £2,000 but I’m not going to quibble, as long as it is of a level that can keep big money out.
2. Transparency. All political donations over £100 should be published in real time. This would not just enable public accountability but help compliance officers to do their jobs. We need to know who is donating to whom.
3. All donations that originate from abroad, no matter who is the final donor, should be banned. Only UK citizens should be allowed to donate to British political organisations. This would, by necessity mean no donations from private companies; PLCs, LTDs, whatever. Often dark money gets round the rules on no foreign donations by donating via shell companies in the UK. Current systems designed to combat money laundering could be applied to this.
4. Breaches of these and other electoral guidelines should result in very considerably greater penalties than now. The paltry maximum £20,000 fine is a joke for someone spending $100 Million. They should include disqualification from holding office, very large personal fines and, if necessary jail time
Democracy needs you: lessons from Greece’s fight
Most of these solutions can be easily implemented, although whether they will be probably depends on public pressure. There have been reports that the Labour Party might consider some of them in the next session of parliament in 2026, but with its record of backsliding on important promises it will take people pressure to ensure they follow through.
In Greece when the population was overthrowing the country’s rule by military junta, one of the slogans shouted by the crowds was simply “Ena, ena, tessera!” literally “One, one, four!”, referring to clause 114 in the constitution which stated that the responsibility for maintaining the constitution was in the hands of the people. In a sense that is always true about democracy.
Modern fascism: fooling enough of the people
When George Washington claimed that you can’t fool all of the people all of the time he was at best being naïve. Modern fascism knows that it only needs to fool enough of the people enough of the time. Just look back to the Referendum.
So why am I, a trans woman academic writing this piece? Well people from marginalised groups are often the canaries in the coal mine when it comes to threats to our liberty and human rights; we are one of the first groups to be targeted. And let’s face it trans people are amongst the most marginalised in the UK at present. In the late 1990s/early 2000s black trans women in the US Midwest were warning of the rise of fascism. No-one listened, now look where we are.
Democracy is worth protecting. Doing nothing is now not an option. We can protect it now, or regret it in 2029.
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