Echos of Wiemar

In 1933, Germany did not simply abandon democracy. It was undermined from within: by emergency powers that became the normal way to govern, by political extremes that agreed on nothing except that the centre must fail, by courts and police that seemed to treat opponents differently, and by ordinary people who learned to look away.

Echoes of Weimar asks whether Britain is seeing any of the same warning signs today, and what can be done while the question is still hypothetical. It is not a claim that Britain is Weimar. One chapter is given over to the differences, and to the evidence that cuts against the authors' own argument.

Drawing on history, law and current events up to October 2026, Michael and Paul Anwyll examine:

• how Article 48 turned an emergency safeguard into government by decree

• the pandemic regulations and what they revealed about Parliament's control of ministers

• arrests for online speech, the policing of protest and the use of terrorism law

• the return of antisemitism, disorder on the streets, and France's deadlocked parliament

• war talk in Europe, and what preparing for conflict does to liberty at home

• the paradox of tolerance, and the eleven things the law should do now

Written for general readers, with full footnotes and legal references, it ends with a practical question: what can citizens do to keep the habits of a free country alive as the last witnesses to the 1930s pass away?

A standalone volume in the Anwyll on Law and Defence series.

The past is not just history. It is a warning.