It is a sad, tragic even, reflection of our society when school children asking for nothing more than access to education are charged at by policemen on horseback.
This article in the New statesmen puts it better than I.
Saturday 27 November 2010
Saturday 20 November 2010
The future's bleak. The future's Tory.
Education for The few. Justice for the few. And another party at least in principle of the centre left veers awfully rightwards. The Lib-Dems have gone the way of Labour.
The wave of ideologically driven Tory cuts sever off the possibility of a decent education for all except those able to swallow debts of up to 30K. Most graduates even now struggle well into their 20s, if not their 30s, with the current debt burden. The escalation of this burden will kill off the principle of education for all, and the future of ideas, in the process. If you see yourself as middle class now be sure, if the con-dems get their way, your children won't. Perhaps this is why the MET let the students storm Tory HQ. Or more likely it was the prospect of deep slashes in police budgets and the inevitable frontline lay offs that'll follow (no matter how many printers different police forces end up sharing). If you think the streets aren't safe now, just wait. If in 1997 things could only get better the message of 2010/11 is things can only get worse.
The scariest thing about this government is how subtly they lay into the remaining principles that make this island a tolerable place to exist. Education for all being one. Equality before the law being another.
The proposed cuts in legal aid are hardly grabbing the headlines in the same way that cuts in child benefit did. However these changes in funding will do more than threaten small law firms. They will fundamntelly erode human rights as outlined by the EU.
Once these cuts to legal aid kick in the application of civil law will be determined by one's ability to pay, which harldy seems inmpartial by anyone's understanding. For example, Mrs Jones has recently left her husband. She lost her job a year before, and the resulting financial stress led to a deterioration of her relationship and she is worried for her children's safety. She will no longer have the support of legal aid to assist her in clarifying her marital status. If we assume that Mrs Jones is from a country outside the EU, she could be faced with deportation, and separation from her children who were born here. But she will not be entitled to legal aid in support of her case. Even if you are fired unjustly, and left jobless, and unable to claim full benefits because you were fired, then don't expect assitance from the state to contest the case.
So just a few months in to a new government and we see already the undermining of the welfare state, access to education effectively denied, the back door privatisation of the NHS, and justice for the rich alone. Soon it will be like the class struggles of the 20th century never happened and we'll exist in a future dreamed up by a delirious reader of the Daily Mail or Norman Tebbit with a fever, that has skipped straight out of the Victorian era, only with flashing lights, mobile phones, and the distraction of Sky TV.
In Wales, privy council decision permitting, we will soon have the chance to vote agisnt this, and to install a parliament based on the values of the people, not the preserve of the elite, the dozen or so millionaires who now form the backbone of the executive and that sit in cabinet.
Bring it on.
The wave of ideologically driven Tory cuts sever off the possibility of a decent education for all except those able to swallow debts of up to 30K. Most graduates even now struggle well into their 20s, if not their 30s, with the current debt burden. The escalation of this burden will kill off the principle of education for all, and the future of ideas, in the process. If you see yourself as middle class now be sure, if the con-dems get their way, your children won't. Perhaps this is why the MET let the students storm Tory HQ. Or more likely it was the prospect of deep slashes in police budgets and the inevitable frontline lay offs that'll follow (no matter how many printers different police forces end up sharing). If you think the streets aren't safe now, just wait. If in 1997 things could only get better the message of 2010/11 is things can only get worse.
The scariest thing about this government is how subtly they lay into the remaining principles that make this island a tolerable place to exist. Education for all being one. Equality before the law being another.
The proposed cuts in legal aid are hardly grabbing the headlines in the same way that cuts in child benefit did. However these changes in funding will do more than threaten small law firms. They will fundamntelly erode human rights as outlined by the EU.
'Equality before the law’ means first and foremost that the law should apply to all persons in an equal and consistent manner. For the law to be applied in an impartial manner."
Once these cuts to legal aid kick in the application of civil law will be determined by one's ability to pay, which harldy seems inmpartial by anyone's understanding. For example, Mrs Jones has recently left her husband. She lost her job a year before, and the resulting financial stress led to a deterioration of her relationship and she is worried for her children's safety. She will no longer have the support of legal aid to assist her in clarifying her marital status. If we assume that Mrs Jones is from a country outside the EU, she could be faced with deportation, and separation from her children who were born here. But she will not be entitled to legal aid in support of her case. Even if you are fired unjustly, and left jobless, and unable to claim full benefits because you were fired, then don't expect assitance from the state to contest the case.
So just a few months in to a new government and we see already the undermining of the welfare state, access to education effectively denied, the back door privatisation of the NHS, and justice for the rich alone. Soon it will be like the class struggles of the 20th century never happened and we'll exist in a future dreamed up by a delirious reader of the Daily Mail or Norman Tebbit with a fever, that has skipped straight out of the Victorian era, only with flashing lights, mobile phones, and the distraction of Sky TV.
In Wales, privy council decision permitting, we will soon have the chance to vote agisnt this, and to install a parliament based on the values of the people, not the preserve of the elite, the dozen or so millionaires who now form the backbone of the executive and that sit in cabinet.
Bring it on.
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