Five months in and already the coalition Government have faced strikes, demonstrations and now a riot that resulted in the Conservative headquarters being trashed. Not a bad start.
The group up in arms this time was the student body who will see fees treble and debts of almost £30,000 at the end of their three year degree courses while the higher education budget is slashed. As the decision was made by a coalition who include the Liberal Democrats who vowed to oppose any increase in student fees before the election, maybe they had better man the barricades at wherever there seat of power is, if they have one.
The Conservatives you expect to be evil, but the Liberal Democrats were the supposed nice party.
While violence and criminal damage can never be condoned, watching Millbank be torn apart has proved surprisingly popular with large swathes of the general public.
Even the police seemed surprisingly lacklustre in putting a stop to the rioting. Possibly because of the bad job they made of policing recent demonstrations or possibly because 40,000 of them face losing their jobs thanks to the people inside the building being ripped apart.
It does seem that finally Britain has woken up to what the Conservatives are doing and have decided to protest. The Fireman and BBC have already staged strikes while the students have now raised up and the public service is coordinating widespread strikes which will paralyse the country like we have seen in Greece.
Some historians are already making reference to the 1968 French protests which saw millions of workers and students revolt and occupy buildings while Charles de Gaulle bolted to Germany for his own safety.
It is hard to see how the coalition Government can make it to the end of their term if they have succeeded in upsetting so many people in such a short amount of time. The next four and a bit years should be fun. Dave Cameron may want to extend his trip to China because he is quickly running out of people here who he can expect a Christmas card from. Viva la revolution pet as they will be saying in Newcastle soon.
3 comments:
Lucy, Britain's problems are being mirrored all over the world as the capitalist system self-destructs.
Why even in the U.S., where the streets are paved with gold, one person in seven lives in poverty.
I think we are all in for a very rough ride during the next few years and we may need to hold our Bibles and Rifles and our Indoctrination close to our chest!
Cheers.
Capitalism won't self destruct David because the people making the decisions have a vested interest in patching it up and carrying on as before regardless of how rubbish it is and how it destroys lives in a regular cycle. Not their lives so they don't care.
Lucy, what you say it true. There is so much 'patching up' going on at the moment but not enough to stop the whole rotten system crumbling.
I guess you can't make greed the cornerstone of anything worthwhile!
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