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[Parliament] could, if it insisted, I think - and if it had any kind of leadership - it could insist on continuing to sit, just as it could have opposed the action or indeed subject it to anything remotely resembling scrutiny. But it just folded up and stole away in the night. All the institutions of civil society which are supposed to protect us did the same thing. Not a single one - not the judiciary, the human rights lot, the civil service, the media, Parliament, Her Majesty's Opposition, and public opinion in general - all simply failed to do their jobs. We demonstrated, in fact, that we don't really have a civil society any longer. And what shocked me, having spent such a long time in the old Soviet Union - of course, in the Soviet Union it was clear that there was only one official point of view and that people were indeed being pushed around in many ways, although I don't recall them ever being compelled to stay at home. And there was at least a pretense made of having a legislative body as well. But the point that strikes me here is that under the Soviets' rule, particularly in the Eastern European countries, but also largely in Russia, most people regarded it with a certain amount of contempt, and made jokes about it, and realised that they were being mocked and fooled. In this case, the population accept what they're being told without any question. It's extraordinary. The old USSR would have loved to have had a population like the current population of the Western world and our population here in the United Kingdom, which actually genuinely believes the propaganda and does what it's told. They're told the chocolate ration has gone up when in fact it's gone down and they'll believe it.