....UK "democracy". I will tell you how it feels to me. There have been references both to Animal Farm and Lord of the Flies. Ministers are slightly younger than me. They could have effectively been those with me in school. It is as if I had gone into that school one day and found that the rest of the class was absent. Let's say that I didn't know why. I assumed that they must have gone as a group somewhere for the day. I stayed put until the time to go home. As the bus pulls into my "village" in the evening, it looks alright on the surface but it feels eerily quiet. It is only on turning the corner into my road that I notice one huge difference. All the trees in the woods opposite have been cut down. There is no longer a beautiful view. Bulldozers are already in place to build luxury homes. My heart sinks. I wonder what the hell has happened. And a neighbour on the corner tells me it was them. Their families had asked them to arrange it. The parents were in property. This had been done with agreement from the local authority through "connections". No one was asked their opinions. They just tore through it all wildly and razed it to the ground.
The neighbour tells me that the kids have also burnt down the local library and run riot through the local medical centre causing chaos. Shaken, I get to the front door of my parents home. My father tells me that there is further bad news. In the afternoon, they burnt down a part of his workplace building. Such is the expense of any repair, his employer took a quick decision to lay off staff in that part, never to return, and that one of those laid off is him. They then went to my grandparents' homes and ransacked their savings and their small pensions. Next, they came back and started removing earth beside our home, joyriding in a mechanical digger, placing the foundations of our home in danger. My mother says that we must get a holiday but an expensive tax has been slapped on the roads to Devon and they have sold off the part of Devon we like to a private company. Yes this is how it feels to me. We are, of course, all in our forties. My grandparents are long gone, my parents are of an age to have survived the worst of it, most of the things that I have referred to as being destroyed are still standing. Still, some of the things that I have mentioned as happening to other people have already happened to me, others to colleagues or all of us. Some will happen in due course.
This is not UK democracy. Government is not Government. Local Government is not Local Government. Private Companies are not Private Companies. Responsible adults are not responsible adults. No, this is a teenage rampage undertaken by privileged teens, whatever their appearance, whatever their supposed authority and whatever their actual age. It isn't the followers of the late bin Laden. Its targets are across the board, not merely one train, one plane, one station. It emanates from families in which family values are no values. It strikes out at its own kind believing most of its own kind not to be its own kind. It claims patriotism - that age old game in which we at least join together in support of the big team - and works to destroy the very fabric of the country. Macro intact. Micro pummelled. Of course, it dresses it up well, turns opponents into the thugs, rounds them up, and deals with them. It works. Most believe that it is a good school because people say that it is a good school. It is a place where aspiring people go. They are clever there. White becomes black. Black becomes white. Right becomes wrong. Wrong becomes right. Indoctrination is reinforced. Health and welfare are trashed. The money accumulates where money has already accumulated. And UK democracy becomes a part of history for the overly nostalgic although its language is for pragmatic reasons retained.
The neighbour tells me that the kids have also burnt down the local library and run riot through the local medical centre causing chaos. Shaken, I get to the front door of my parents home. My father tells me that there is further bad news. In the afternoon, they burnt down a part of his workplace building. Such is the expense of any repair, his employer took a quick decision to lay off staff in that part, never to return, and that one of those laid off is him. They then went to my grandparents' homes and ransacked their savings and their small pensions. Next, they came back and started removing earth beside our home, joyriding in a mechanical digger, placing the foundations of our home in danger. My mother says that we must get a holiday but an expensive tax has been slapped on the roads to Devon and they have sold off the part of Devon we like to a private company. Yes this is how it feels to me. We are, of course, all in our forties. My grandparents are long gone, my parents are of an age to have survived the worst of it, most of the things that I have referred to as being destroyed are still standing. Still, some of the things that I have mentioned as happening to other people have already happened to me, others to colleagues or all of us. Some will happen in due course.
This is not UK democracy. Government is not Government. Local Government is not Local Government. Private Companies are not Private Companies. Responsible adults are not responsible adults. No, this is a teenage rampage undertaken by privileged teens, whatever their appearance, whatever their supposed authority and whatever their actual age. It isn't the followers of the late bin Laden. Its targets are across the board, not merely one train, one plane, one station. It emanates from families in which family values are no values. It strikes out at its own kind believing most of its own kind not to be its own kind. It claims patriotism - that age old game in which we at least join together in support of the big team - and works to destroy the very fabric of the country. Macro intact. Micro pummelled. Of course, it dresses it up well, turns opponents into the thugs, rounds them up, and deals with them. It works. Most believe that it is a good school because people say that it is a good school. It is a place where aspiring people go. They are clever there. White becomes black. Black becomes white. Right becomes wrong. Wrong becomes right. Indoctrination is reinforced. Health and welfare are trashed. The money accumulates where money has already accumulated. And UK democracy becomes a part of history for the overly nostalgic although its language is for pragmatic reasons retained.
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