Monday 28 March 2011

The millions against the millionaires


In the cold light of Monday morning as the graffiti is being washed off store fronts and the debris swept up around central London it is hard to establish exactly what was achieved in this weekends demonstrations.

Anti-cut, anti-capitalist and anarchist groups got together to vent their collective anger at the spending cuts that are starting to impact the lives of Joe Public in a big way.

The bulk of protestors were TUC affiliated public sector workers quite rightly shitting themselves at the thought having to watch a lifetime of Loose Women and Cash in The Attic repeats after they get made redundant in a few months time.


UK-Uncut joined the party to stage a series of direct-action sit ins in an effort to highlight the widespread tax avoidance scams purportrated by big business. They took over Fortnum and Masons (a place that makes Waitrose look like Lidl), sang some songs and accidentallty knocked over a basket of chocolates. They picked them up.


Lastly came the knuckle dragging morons with no real agenda to speak of apart from "smashing the system". They probably have never worked a day in their miserable lives who basically used the demo as an excuse to cause as much damage as possible before shuffling back to their halls of residence, bedsits and parents houses. To make it worse their mess has to be cleaned up using taxpayers money. Oh, the irony.

All this jumping up and down and for what? Despite the reported half million people in attendance , the 84 reported injuries and the 200+ arrests Vince Cable says it is business as usual.

The people have spoken, Cable says he is listening but the voices seem to go through one ear and out the other.

"No government,coalition, Labour or any other, would change its fundamental economic policy simply in response to a demonstration of that kind."

There is a real feeling of inequality in the UK at the moment. People are not happy that they are losing their jobs, having their services cut and paying more tax for the priveledge. The public feel there is one rule for the rich and another for the "little people" who should sit there and take their medicine quietly and without a fuss.


Why are the banks not contributing a larger percentage to undo the deficit that they helped to create? Why is big business allowed to "avoid" tax and allowed to pay a fraction of what they should compared to working stiffs? Why are hard working nurses being made redundant when oil companies post record profits?

I am not a socialist but its seems the capitalist model is looking seriously flawed right now and is too skewed in favour of big business. In the same way they benefit when times are good they need to contribute when times are bad. If that means paying higher tax for a set period then so be it.

The general public can only take being shafted when they are thrown a few crumbs. In this age of austerity the " we are all in this together" mantra is beginning to sound laughable.

2 comments:

  1. Dear Mr M, I only wished the BBC were as unbiased and objective as you. Can't wait to "get the right" to opt out of the licence fee.

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  2. Good luck with that. I can't see highly paid BBC execs giving up that gravy train without a fight.

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