Something very, very scary is currently  happening to the world which I think we should be very, very worried about. I just came across a link to this article on my PA Paul’s facebook page. Paulo is Brazilian, but has been living in the uk for  about twenty years. Like a lot of Brazilians, and  a growing number of non-Brazilians, he has been watching what is going on there with deep concern. It now looks increasingly likely that Jair Bolsonaro will be elected as  Brazil’s next president. From what I read, the man is a disgrace to civilisation if ever there was one: He  thinks criminals should be shot rather than face  trial; he is deeply homophobic; he has eugenicist views on Brazil’s indigenous communities. How  Brazil could even be thinking about electing such a vile man is beyond me.

Yet it is happening more and more. In america Trump was elected; in the uk we voted for Braxit. Far right parties and views are on the rise all over the world. I wouldn’t like to speculate about the causes, but it’s probably connected with the global economic crash of a decade ago. It might also be a backlash against globalisation, or bigots might be taking advantage of people’s apprehension and ignorance over immigration. Whatever the reason, it’s starting  to look uncannily like what happened in the 1930s in Germany. As the article points out, Bolsonaro is using precisely the same tactics to woo people that the Nazis did. That  history is now repeating: full-blooded fascism is returning to world politics, and unless something is done about it quite quickly, I fear things will get very dark indeed.