A million to march on Westminster!

[Sydney Grew]

Mr. Tariq Ali, who has now become an Englishman of the best kind, last week in a learned article issued a call for a "grand remonstrance" - a march of a million or more people to/on Westminster.

An excellent idea is it not!

He also quotes there - with evident disapproval - Edmund Burke's notion that "in all societies, consisting of different classes, certain classes must necessarily be uppermost" and that the apostles of equality "only change and pervert the natural order of things." It has to be said that on that question my own Platonical instincts draw me rather to Burke than not - but what is the feeling of Members?

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

perhaps unlike yourself Mr Grew it has been some while since i last had a feeling in my member ......

[Serial_Apologist]

perhaps unlike yourself Mr Grew it has been some while since i last had a feeling in my member ......

it lies down in my expectations

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

it singularly fails to elevate in my experience .....

[Nick Armstrong]

Mr. Tariq Ali,

Whenever I've seen or heard him speak, I always look forward hopefully to something bracing and cogent which will challenge some of my preconceptions, but I always find him strangely woolly and lacking in substance and coherence - lots of passion and feeling but...

[Serial_Apologist]

Whenever I've seen or heard him speak, I always look forward hopefully to something bracing and cogent which will challenge some of my preconceptions, but I always find him strangely woolly and lacking in substance and coherence - lots of passion and feeling but...

I knew Tariq a little when I was politically active in the 1970s/early '80s. I remember him once bemoaning the position of Maoist groups who viewed the British state as already fascist - an analysis leading them to carry long staves on demonstrations and attack the police at every opportunity, resulting in the case of one sect having 90% of its membership continually in jail. "Such a waste of potential, such a waste of intelligence", he commented wanly to me. We invited him down to participate at a seminar to which members of other left groups had been invited along. Unfortunately none of us had accommodation suitable for putting him up, so the mother of one of our sister comrades offered him her council flat. The lady in question, a leading local member of the Communist Party, who had taken a leading role in unionising health workers and was widely renowned across the left in the area, was then EXPELLED from the CP for hosting a Trotskyist! Tackled by Yours Truly over this, one of the leading lights of the CP, which by then was regarded as Eurocommunist and somewhat to the right of the Liberal Party, retorted by saying, "You lot just wait; come the revolution you Trots will all be lined up against a wall and shot!". "You mean like happened in Albania?" I replied.

I think I agree with what you are saying, Caliban. Tariq's strengths are best revealed in the complexity yet cogency of his writings, of which there are many. I have his 2002 book "The Clash of Fundamentalisms - Crusades, Jihads and Modernity", which I would strongly recommend for background understanding of the whole history of the Middle East and role of the West in the nurturing of political Islam. His Bandung series of arts programmes on Channel 4 (iirc) were also imo excellent.

[scottycelt]

Mr Ali certainly knows all about marches and sit-ins (outs), but a "grand remonstrance" doesn't sound very revolutionary to me ...

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

remonstrance

..this'll do me ...

[Lateralthinking1]

Disability

I heard of a couple in their mid-fifties. They ran their own company until serious illness struck them down, Both are in wheelchairs. She has a degenerative disease and not many more years to go. He has a condition which requires him to drive with difficulty in a specially adapted vehicle to hospital daily for blood procedures. They are about to have their benefits cut.

Civil Service

The average civil servant has an annual pension of £5,000 pa. This is regarded by the Government as unacceptably huge. Mine is higher but far less than double following 25 years work. I have the papers on leaving under Guantanemo Bay like psychological pressure last December that confirm the precise amount that I can take at age 60.

The proposal is that anyone who is over 50 next April will have commitments honoured. I will miss out by eight months. Those in my category will not be able to draw that pension until 66. More significantly, the Government is considering substantial cuts to the figure it confirms I and similar others have earned. The figure on its papers means nothing.

Last year the Government stole £115,000 of my compensation entitlements at the stroke of a pen. In the proposed reneging on pensions outlined above, it is about to steal another six figure sum, possibly amounting to £200,000 or more depending on how long I live.

While this places me and others of my age in the same category as those younger in terms of pension rights, it has been consistently victimizing the 40-somethings in the most vicious way like an enemy since the election. It has no commitment whatsoever to what we have accrued and were promised for decades.

Jobseekers Allowance

I don't qualify for JSA or any other benefits. One proposal is that jobseekers who can claim JSA to the tune of £65pw will need to spend 30 hours per week doing voluntary service. This will make their rate of pay just over £2 per hour. Slavery.

Conclusion

I welcome the march. There is only so much that can be said here. Some may though have had insights even in the last ten minutes about the fragility of current democracy. It would be wrong to assume that we aren't a whisker away from life as it has never been seen. I know that if I feel as I feel, given my past political balance, there must be many thousands who will feel more strongly and by contrast they will actually translate those feelings into actions. It won't be on 30 November 2011 but it could be far sooner than many imagine. The policies being pursued are unlikely to get through without a cataclysmic shifting of the axis.

[Sydney Grew]

But I cannot understand why he suggests this march might take place "next autumn." Such a long interval!

[Serial_Apologist]

But I cannot understand why he suggests this march might take place "next autumn." Such a long interval!

The older one gets, the faster time passes...

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

i am free tomorrow, i might not be still about the place by next autumn

[Lateralthinking1]

What do you mean Calum? I do hope you are ok.

Pension-slashing minister Francis Maude could pick up £731k retirement pot while other Ministers are set to rake it in from taxpayers as well -

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/most-popular/2011/11/22/pension-slashing-minister-francis-maude-could-pick-up-731k-retirement-pot-115875-23579471/#ixzz1ecIqkMEy

[MrGongGong]

But I cannot understand why he suggests this march might take place "next autumn." Such a long interval!

It might have something to do with how long it takes to get permission from the authorities to assemble in groups of no more than 2
It's illegal to protest at Westminster without permission

[Bryn]

Just got my reminder of this governments policy on reducing not just pensions, but pensioners (not that I actually am one yet, nor expect to be for a decade or so if I can help it). My 20% reduced Winter Fuel Payment has been credited to my current account. An interesting way of compensating for rocketing fuel prices, what!? Knocking £50 off the payment should really help.