Image: Peter O'Connor/Flickr, CC 2.0
How does democracy die? Rarely through a large dramatic event, more often, it just drains away. Death by a thousand cuts while we, the impotent people, have neither time nor energy to ward off each and every attack.
Take, for instance, the right to public assembly and debate. Let's start with a local story and, to most journalists, a “story in a teacup”. It surfaced, a fortnight back, in Letchworth Garden City. Irony! For Letchworth's origins lie in a political project, a philanthropic project designed to provide affordable and civilised housing for the ordinary citizen and to allow a free exchange of ideas and debate.
