This makes me angry:
Instead nice, gentle Nick Clegg has secured the position of Britain’s most hated man. He has been burnt in effigy by student rioters. Police have told him that he must no longer cycle to work for fear of physical attack. Excrement has been shoved through the letter box of his Sheffield constituency home, from which his family may now have to move for safety reasons.
I can hear the Labour apologists winding themselves up for response already: “Was his family in residence when the shit was pushed through the letter box? Have you got a crime number for that? It’s terrible, but you know he betrayed the people who trusted in him. Moving out of the home is just theatrical.” The president of the National Union of Students, Aaron Porter, Labour party member, decries the “betrayal”, the breaking of a pledge. Anyone like odds on how likely it was that he voted for the Liberal Democrats? Let’s face it: he didn’t, he didn’t vote for the party that he’s excoriating for not implementing the policy he didn’t vote for, the only party to oppose tuition fees. All those Labour folk, talking of the “betrayal”, they didn’t vote against tuition fees either. “Satirical” they say of David Mitchell advocating pissing through Nick Clegg’s letterbox , it isn’t satirical if someone’s actually done it.
As the riots progress an army of armchair revolutionaries bemoan the violence of the police, as buildings are smashed up. “The police should simply keep the protesters moving on, so they don’t cause any trouble”. “The police are stupid”, they say, “I could manage a large crowd of protesters, some intent on violence, much better than them. That’s why I’m sitting here tweeting about it.” “The police van was bait, because every right-thinking person when they see an unattended police van thinks: “Fuck me, I better smash the crap out of that”.”
I used to think it was the Tories who felt power was their divine right but now I know it’s Labour. Len McCluskey, leader of Unite, a Labour affiliated union calls for demos to topple the government, speaking approvingly of the poll tax riots. John McDonnell, Labour MP, says:
I know the Daily Mail will report me again as inciting riots yet again. Well, maybe that is what we are doing.
Beaten in an election, they use weasel words to get people out on the street smashing stuff up. “These cuts aren’t what people voted for, they voted, but they didn’t vote for this. They really meant to vote for Labour, the party who repeatedly reneged on promises to introduce fairer voting. The party who said they were going to reduce the deficit by making cuts, but now only have a blank piece of paper; who can magically make the deficit painlessly go away.”
For the first time in 60 years Liberal Democrats are in government, they are in government at a time when the country faces the largest budget deficit it has had in many decades, it is a crap time to be in government. They are taking hard decisions that Labour would not have the guts to take. For some this is a “betrayal”, they’ll happily contribute to an atmosphere that means a family gets shit pushed through the letterbox of their home, and a columnist in a respected paper can applaud it.
But more than ever before I am proud to say “I agree with Nick”.
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Three very loud cheers!
I think the point is that the Liberal Democrats are not in government. The reason they're not is because not enough people voted for them; if they had done so then maybe the Liberal Democrats would be in a position to enforce their pledge of not introducing tuition fees.
More twisted logic from the LibDems:
"We are not in government".
"We might abstain on the policy we opposed and then designed"
What incites people to anger and to show their anger using dubious tactics is that millions are seeing their benefits cut, their jobs disappearing, their services declining and their futures being saddled with debt.
The LibDem party has destroyed itself by making itself the instrument of Tory class war against the people.
@weavingsandunpickings – glad to have helped.
@Joseph – I've said this elsewhere, todays post a bit more ranty.
@River – cool a comment from my very own "class warrior"! Doesn't it occur to you that belief in the "class war" is a minority sport these days and makes you look like a nutter?
We went on a protest about cuts last week; nice jovial affair but what kept irking me was the constant insistence that the LibDems ase worse than the Tories. It seems that a party who holds principals you agree with but is unable to follow through is worse than a party holding principals you're against.. being seen to be consistent is the only thing that seems to matter. I really don't want to get swepped up in this LibDem backlash. I voted for them too, and I would again. There.
@ladycrafthole – thank you for your comment. I have a lot of sympathy for people facing uncertain prospects in their jobs: three times in the last 6 years I've been in the big meeting where redundancies are announced and it isn't an experience I would wish on anyone. I hasten to add that on each occasion I've retained my job and the redundancies have all been made voluntarily but the last round was 15% of the workforce where I work.
I appreciate your comments about believing in the 'class war', but whether you believe in oxygen or not, you still breathe the same air.
What we have witnessed is a cabinet made up of 2/3rds millionaires allowing massive tax evasion by the rich, (£6bn by vodaphone for example), bailing out the billionaire bankers, and making the poor and weak in society pay the price for all this via cuts in our benefits and the services we receive.
If you can find another name for this set of policies that is different from 'class war', please let me know.
Whatever you call it, by pursuing these policies, the LibDem party is tearing itself apart.
Just heard that the LibDems have had to call off their forthcoming conference in London, because of their fear of a student backlash against them.
You may not believe in the class struggle, but it certainly believes in you.
Somebeans: Nye Bevan once famously said that the Tories didn't like mentioning the term "class war" because they were "too busy practising it". Clearly the same now goes for nice Mr Clegg.
No right thinking person should support physical intimidation of a political opponent, but if Nick Clegg thinks he can do what he has done without there being a strong reaction from all those he has betrayed then it's high time he crept back into the terribly nice, middle class bubble from whence he sprang and left real politics to his newfound Tory chums.
The only people who can claim betrayal are those who voted liberal democrat. If you did, fine, you feel betrayed. I did and I don't feel betrayed.
Labour chancellor Alastair Darling before the election: "Darling concedes cuts could be tougher than 1980s"
This is why I get so cross, because as you rightly point out, most of these students feeling betrayed actually voted for cuts – albeit Labour inspired.