Reading the likes of the Guardian may lull you into the belief that Johnson’s premiership is already on the ropes and he will go into the record books as the shortest serving prime minister ever. Beyond the M25 away from the metropolitan bubble, it’s a very different story…

We’ve been out on the streets in Southend a couple of times in the last week or so and we can tell you that a) not only is Johnson’s strategy of acting as the ‘defender of the will of the people’ against an out of touch Parliament playing well with a fair few folk but also b) his threatened law breaking to force a no deal Brexit through is also resonating.

What’s our response to this? It’s to carry on plugging away with our ‘pox on both your houses’ narrative and putting out the message that when it comes to ‘strong’ leaders being prepared to flout the rules, people need to be very careful what they wish for. As anarchists, this is the only honest position we can take. However, we’re getting mixed messages to say the least. Sure, we’re getting through to some folk but there are a growing number who like the fact that someone’s prepared to break the rules to get a result. Suffice to say, we’ve already had a couple of tense moments out on the streets with a few of these ‘true believers’…

As for the remain inclined/anti-no deal Brexit MPs who have reportedly been in conversations with EU officials/politicians before drafting legislation that’s aimed at thwarting Johnson’s aim of a 31.10 exit, they’re only fuelling the ‘rebel’ image he’s projecting. In fact, these MPs have well and truly shot themselves and the remain/anti no-deal Brexit cause in the foot!

Party politics as we knew it is imploding and will never be the same again. What’s going to emerge from the wreckage is difficult to predict – we’re in the early stages of this process. As for the manifestations of a minority element of Brexit supporters on the streets of Westminster that took place on Saturday (7.9), while it was undoubtedly unpleasant to encounter, please can people not describe them as ‘fascist’. Yes, we realise fascists are very interested in exploiting mobs like this, however, accuracy in describing what we see is important. This piece we wrote almost two years ago guides us in how we’d describe this phenomena: Another ‘church and king’ mob?

We are where we are – in uncharted waters. This is probably the most challenging period that we as anarchists have ever faced. In the disruption and chaos to come, there will be opportunities to promote our vision of a decentralised society run from the grassroots upwards. However, we’re also acutely aware of the risks we face as well – there’s everything to play for but also, literally everything to lose. As we’ve said before, we really do live in ‘interesting times’…