Our place to talk – an independent website for supporters of the Liberal Democrat party in the UK.

The most-read independent website by and for Lib Dem supporters. Not paid for by trade unions or millionaires.

Advert

Tag Archives: albania.

Authoritarianism with a capital A

By David Warren | Tue 27th February 2018 - 8:55 am

Albania is a small European country tucked away in the Balkans but for forty odd years from the end of the Second World War its people suffered under one of the most brutal regimes in modern history.

Liberals cherish freedom and liberty, if you want to look for an example of the opposite authoritarianism with a capital A it could be found in Enver Hoxha’s Albania.

In his excellent book Blendi Fevziu paints a graphic picture of a nation in the grip of fear.

Hoxha’s rise to power was in many way accidental, he was handpicked to lead by a representative of the Yugoslav Communists sent to assist the Albanian partisans in the fight against the Axis powers.

Once secure Hoxha stayed at the top by using terror in all its forms.

Torture, execution and murder were used against anyone seen to be an ‘enemy of the people.’

Internal exile was another favoured method of persecution.

Periodic purges of the ruling Communist party were also carried out, so even those who thought they were on the inside were not safe.

Their families were also targetted for persecution.

Continue reading »

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged authoritarianism | 21 Comments

Most Read

Op-eds

London’s football pitch crisis is freezing out disabled children. We must stop treating inclusion as a charity luxury (Jean-François Burford)
Is kindness what we stand for? (Josh Matthews)
Don’t take Democracy for granted (Lord William Wallace)
Britain’s gas gamble: Why Jackdaw is a bad bet for our energy future (Mark Hofman)
Vince Cable writes: The endless hunt for painless taxes (Vince Cable)

Advert

Recent Comments

Peter Davies
I don't think we have the construction capacity to engineer a crash in house prices. The highest realistic target would probably only bring prices down by about...
Jenny Barnes
You might remember the story of the inventor, the chessboard and the grains of rice. 1 on the 1st square, 2 on the 2nd, 4 on the 3rd and so on. Things that ca...
Jenny Barnes
World fuel consumption rises by 2%pa, or doubles every 35 years. In any given 35 year period, as much energy is consumed as in the whole preceding history. Rene...
PM
Tim, What would happen to the economy if the price of your Chatham house fell to £70k? There's quite likely someone living there with a mortgage of quite a ...
Tim
@PM. Yes, allowing a LOT more houses to be built would reduce wealth inequality dramatically. We should aim to return to the c1997 price to income ratios - whic...