I went to the very first annual general meeting of Together Declaration in central London on the evening of Thursday 1st September. For those not already aware of this organization, it is a promoter of civil liberties and human rights. Its mission statement includes: “No future overreach in the name of ‘safety’.” “Uphold fundamental rights for citizens, applying unified pressure when legislation puts these at risk.” “Safeguarding open debate and free speech.” “Freedom to congregate and protest.” “Bodily autonomy must be respected without exception.” “Privacy and anonymity are a fundamental right and enormously important for citizens in daily life.” “We, the public, must always be heard and not treated with contempt or sidelined. Our voices must be heard by those in power.” See https://togetherdeclaration.org/about/.
This was my first visit to London in three years. It has
changed, and not for the better. I actually felt as if I had crossed over into
enemy territory. The streets were all but empty of cars, and quite a few of
those that were around were Mercedes or Rolls-Royce chauffeured limos. The
number of beggars and rough sleepers had gone up by an order of magnitude.
Businesses which ought to be open on a Thursday evening, including my favourite
London restaurant, were shuttered. Tourists were expected to keep to a one-way
system when walking across Westminster Bridge. Welcome to the élites’ world, a world of
“them” and “us,” where “they” order us around and have everything, and “we” are
oppressed and have nothing.
Getting in to the hall was more than a bit chaotic. Early
arrivals had to wait outside in a queue for quite a while, and the registration
process was non-intuitive, with each desk only being able to check in people
whose surnames were in a particular range in the alphabet. By the time we were
in, it was already time for the AGM to start.
We had reports from Together “supremo” Alan Miller and the
steering committee. The thrust of the message was, first, we have come a long
way in just one year, and have achieved a certain level of profile and media
attention. But second, we still have a very long way to go. The next stage is
to connect with a far greater number of ordinary people. To “break out of the
echo chamber,” or as Norris Windross put it, “We must become the many, not the
few.”
One thing which did become clear is that Together, as an
organization, has a very high level of financial discipline. When I saw the
balance sheet, I was astonished by how much we have already achieved for so
little money.
Two questions were put to the meeting. (1) Should we
continue to campaign in the same ways as we have been doing so far? (2) Should
we create a “people’s cabinet” of Together people with expertise in particular
relevant areas? The meeting, all but unanimously, answered both questions with
“Yes.”
There was a longish break between the members-only AGM and
the panel discussion. I took a look around me. The main hall was completely filled,
and about half of the upstairs area was occupied too. There must have been at
least 500 people there, probably more. The demographic was younger than I
expected; I was probably 25 years older than the average. There was also, if
anything, an excess of women over men. (I’ve seen a similar demographic before,
when I was a member of Liberty).
We were “warmed up” by comedienne Tania Edwards. I confess
I didn’t find her very funny, though I did enjoy the line “How can you have a
good pandemic without the BBC?” There were short presentations from several members
of the Together alliance: Barrister Francis Hoar. Ryan Karter of the Workers of
England trade union. Harry Miller of the Bad Law Project. Toby Young of the Free
Speech Union. What came over to me was the wide range of views and political
inclinations among those allied in the fight to re-claim and to secure the
rights of ordinary people in the UK. This has to be a good thing.
Dr Aseem Malhotra (speaking by video) put his finger on one
root cause of the problems we face: the unchecked power of big corporations and
of governments. (Myself, I would add internationalist and globalist
organizations, including the UN and the EU, to the list).
Then, at last, to the panel. I was one of those who had
submitted, and had had accepted, a question for the panel (but we ran out of
time before reaching it). I won’t ascribe responses to individual panellists,
but here were the main take-homes I got from the discussion. I’ll also add my
own personal thoughts on some of the matters.
Q1. How can
#Together make sure the COVID Enquiry is not a whitewash, and ensure
accountability – from economic and mental health side effects of lockdown, to
Project Fear and mainstream media propaganda, and coercion over vaccines, and
conflicts of interest?
Panel Thoughts: Ideally, we should get our own
experts on to the Enquiry, and get them to ask the right questions. But that
won’t be easy. So, second best is to make a lot of noise to our MPs – then at
least they won’t be able to claim they didn’t know about the issue. One panel
member thought that the government narrative over COVID is starting to come
apart, and made a comparison to the Hillsborough disaster.
My thoughts: As to Hillsborough, I hope it doesn’t
take that long! But making government accountable for what it does is an
absolute key. Even in a supposed democracy, there seems to be a default
position among politicians and high-ranking government officials that “the king
can do no wrong.” This has got to change, and we should be looking to raise the
profile of the accountability issue in public opinion.
Another issue relevant to government actions over
COVID is the culture of over-precaution and “safety at any cost,” which has
grown in government over the last 20 years or so. This culture favours, and
tends to increase the level of, government overreach.
Q2. Are we
going to see any justice for all the people working in the care sector who were
pushed out of their employment and discriminated against and are still
suffering the financial and emotional outcome of this?
Panel Thoughts: Basically, no. But we should try to
help the victims of injustice by promoting their personal stories, and helping
them fight for compensation.
Q3. Given the
devastating impact the steep rise in energy costs will have on businesses and
households what is the best form of action we can adopt to successfully protest
and ensure they are pushed back?
Panel Thoughts: Not much in the short term. Except
to seek to persuade government that they need to invest for economic growth,
and to cut green taxes. We need proper medium- and long-term plans for energy
policy.
My thoughts: For me, Together has focused too much
on “cost of lockdowns” as a cause of the energy problems. The cost (direct and
indirect) of lockdowns has, of course, had a big negative effect both on
government finances, and financially and psychologically on all the individuals
who have been impacted. But in my view, it is not, in itself, a cause of the
energy problems.
The main cause of these problems is idiotic energy
policies, that have been driven for decades by nonsensical green pipe-dreams.
These have left the UK (and the rest of Europe, too) open to gas supply
disruption. But they also threaten the viability of the electricity grid. The
problem is not just cost, but reliability of supply too. We shall see what
happens this coming winter. It could be very nasty.
All that said, there are at least two common themes
between harsh lockdown policies and the green agenda (“nett zero” and all the
rest). One, both have been driven by bad “science,” peddled by activists in
SAGE or the CCC that do not have the interests of ordinary people at heart.
Two, both have been philosophically rooted in the culture of over-precaution
and “safety at any cost.”
Q4. How can we
make sure that nuanced debate is brought back into science?
Panel Thoughts: We have to get back to doing science
as it should be done. We need to listen to the people who know and deal with
the facts, rather than politicized “experts.” We must be relentless in
promoting free speech and debate, even for those with whom we do not agree. We
need more independent assessment to spot poor science.
My thoughts: I agree with everything the panel said.
Also, helping to publicize misuses of science for political purposes is
something we should do as much as we possibly can.
Q5. Will the
UK government agree to a totally open and public debate on their connections
with the WEF, the WHO, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and other
un-elected institutions that they are very much connected with?
Panel Thoughts: They have “links,” and money talks.
There is a similar problem within the UK, with links between big corporations,
academics and financial regulators. We need far more transparency.
My thoughts: Lack of transparency and the lack of
open and public debate are both big issues. I think this is another aspect of
the same problem as lack of accountability. It all comes down to dishonesty by
government towards the people they are supposed to serve.
Q6. How can we
have just one “Together” freedom party to all get behind at the next election?
Panel Thoughts: The politicians have failed us. The
political system is broken. We can voice anger to our local MPs, and we might
try to get MPs and candidates to sign up to a suitable set of principles.
My thoughts: I agree that politics is broken. I go
so far as to think that the problems cannot be solved within the current
system. Personally, I see a new political party as being exactly the wrong
thing to do. Reform UK has already tried that, and it seems to be going
nowhere. I’ll be leaving it when my membership expires next month. We need to
start thinking more radically. Together is a promising start towards that.
I think it is also worth listing the remaining questions
which were accepted, but didn’t get put to the panel due to lack of time. These
mostly reflect issues a little away from Together’s current focus, but which
are foreseen to become problems in the quite near future.
Q7. (My own
question). Under what circumstances do the panel think that it is OK to
subordinate the rights and well-being of humans to the interests of “the
planet,” or of other species on it?
Q8. It feels
like all the pro-freedom groups need a more coherent ACTION strategy, i.e.,
what can we collectively DO, proactively rather than reactively? We can “raise
awareness” ad infinitum, but it feels like we talk while the globalists do.
Q9. For much
of the population to feel at ease we need 100% transparency with the
possibility of an attempt to bring in compulsory “Digital ID.” Will the UK
government guarantee they will not try and enforce a Digital ID within the
foreseeable future?
Q10. I
would like to know from each of the panel members if they can name one scenario
where the use of an emergency act by government to suspend an individual’s
rights is warranted.
Q11. We
keep hearing rumours that the NHS has been sold off to the US and done so
without any mention of it to the UK public. Are we all in for a nasty surprise
and massive changes? And if so, this is totally unacceptable.
Q12. How
effective do you think #together is in the present political climate?
Q13. I’m
concerned about the WEF and Global governance making our national government a
local council. Our own government are offering money to farmers to sell their
land, kill livestock, cutting trees to build windfarms. Your thoughts?
At the end, there was movement towards the pub. But as it
was already 9:45pm, I had a train to catch, and the pub chosen was in the
opposite direction to my station, I regretfully had to forego that pleasure.
Potted summary:
·
We have one hell of a lot of work to do to push
back against the enemies of our human rights and freedoms. But as the Dutch
say, “een goed begin is het halve werk.”
·
The list of issues we need to fight on in the immediate
future is becoming clearer. For free speech and public, open debate. For government
transparency and accountability. Against over-precaution. For justice for those
harmed by government policies. For economic, energy and food policies for the
good of ordinary people. Against corruption of science.
·
There will be further issues to follow up. Against
green extremism, hype and false accusations. Against lies and spin in the
mainstream media. Against all kinds of dishonesty in government. Against digital
IDs and currencies. Against the globalist agenda, that makes a mockery of any
pretence of “democracy.” There will be more.
And what is our best way forward? There are those who push
for protest NOW! That, I think, is not the right way forward. Only when we
understand well enough the issues on which we need to fight, and have some idea
about our strategy and tactics to win on those issues, will we be able to bring
Together enough good people to win back our rights and freedoms.
