Mohammad Yasin, MP for Bedford and Kempston, writes:
"A year ago today, I watched, absolutely gobsmacked, at the scenes coming from America’s seat of democracy, as a mob of over 700 people stormed and staged an attempted coup to try and prevent the official certification of the the newly elected President Biden.
It was bad enough to watch at the time, but the details we’ve learned since, have made the events of that day even more terrifying as the mob marched in a long planned attack, to the chamber of the House chanting “Hang Mike Pence!”, the Vice President of the USA.
It’s the biggest assault on an established democracy I can think of, and its sad to see the USA are still coming to terms with the events of the day – with a majority in the Republican party and their supporters still believing Biden is not the legitimate President.
When truth can be twisted so terrifyingly, against all available evidence, I can scarcely think of the words to convey how worrying this is for democracy in America and the world.
But today, in a brilliant and powerful speech, Joe Biden did find the words. I urge you to watch it because it’s important for all of us to be on our guard against the onslaught of disinformation which is dividing us all on a daily basis.
All democracies are more fragile than we think. An ongoing attempt to undermine it is under way in the USA. In Europe democracy was severely undermined in the 1930/40s.
It can and does happen and under what I see as the most authoritarian Government we have ever had, it could happen here.
Read Biden's speech here: https://tinyurl.com/2p9492fc
Read Mohammad Yasin's Facebook posts here: www.facebook.com/Yasin4BedfordandKempston