And so it begins...This country is in a real state. The government is very out of touch with it’s own electorate and faces a lot more action of this nature. The violence has been roundly condemned however it’s the ‘shock’ with which it has been greeted that is most telling. Over 50,000 students converged on Westminster yesterday Nov 10 2010 and I think both the government and police were actually surprised – I’m generally very cynical and am still not entirely convinced – but I think it is true that the ‘coalition’ completely underestimated the depth of feeling they are arousing with their policies.
It’s as if the government have found a new toy and are running amok with it – cut, cut, cut. The reality is that in a recession making things tougher is hardly going to improve people’s prospects and very importantly their morale.
It’s clear that the Tories want to turn back time but the truth is you just cannot do that. Once the general populous has been given the promise of a better life they are not just going to give it up. Cutting everything and creating false accountability via internet sites is not really going to cause the confusion they hope. People who watch X-Factor do kinda know it’s rigged, kinda know their votes don’t count – but it’s entertainment it’s not real life. The voting system for government is mean to be somehow representative of the electorate’s views – albeit heavily compromised. With this latest administration however it’s clear that many voters have been completely betrayed. There will be more strikes, more protests and more pain unfortunately.
The remaining apathetic ‘middle’ classes will actually become less ambivalent over the next few months when they realise the cuts do in fact also mean them too. The poor are always the first to suffer but it won’t only be people with 2 pennies to rub together who are going to feel the effects. As for the Liberal Democrats – they are in a world of shit. If you never thought you’d be in power and you suddenly get it it’s like your big brother finally inviting you out with his mates and you do whatever he says but after a while you’re gonna feel like he’s taking the piss. By then it’s too late and the roles have already been written – the Lib Dems will be the scapegoats because we all know what the Tories are about. Labour are just gonna shut up and watch it fall apart.
The truth, yes the truth, is that we need a more modern way of looking at society – we are living longer, expecting more and wanting to work for it less. We do want more leisure time, more choice and to own our homes. But someone has to pay for it all. But there is something intrinsically very, very wrong when financial institutions – often through fraud creating mountains of debt and then are bailed out and everyone else has to bear the brunt.
Then we are told ‘we are all in this together’ while ministers run back to their cosy homes and hide behind the most empty rhetoric I’ve heard in – well for ever. But government has to realise that their ivory towers are a lot shorter these days, they’ve given the ‘public’ the opportunity to peer in and not everyone is happy with what they see. Trying to turn back the clock won’t work – the age of mass communication has put paid to that. Essentially restricting education to the well off is a strategy rooted in the worst type of folly – nostalgia. Unless we want this country to be an archaic anachronistic postcard where inbred toffs preside over heaving uneducated masses we need to find another way. Not some Utopic vision but something pragmatic, practical and non knee-jerk and reactionary.
With their latest set of actions it’s cringeworthingly apparent what a far way world the Tories(sorry coalition) live in – Cameron runs off to one of the most chronic human rights violating regimes in the world for cash and yet tell people at home to behave!? Duncan-Smith fails to realise that making poverty essentially a crime punishable with forced labour is even in the least bit backward!? And there’s a strike at least every other week liek it's a lotto rollover! The CONDEM(NED) hope that by playing on people's selfish instincts they will keep people from seeing the bigger picture but I think it's that self same selfish instinct that will be their undoing - because this way forward helps no one but the VERY few and that's just not enough votes. I’m still reeling thinking I’m watching actors in parliament play out a Dostoevsky or Kafka novel.
The youth are getting restless, but soon it won’t just be the youth...
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