The UK Riots, Continued...

These riots are making me hate my own country.

What started out as a peaceful demonstration against what has turned out to be a potentially unfair shooting of a father of four by police has turned into a greed-driven robbing fest for the under-classes and a group of greedy thirty-year-olds, it seems, taking advantage of the tragedy in Tottenham. It's now spread to Manchester and Nottingham. London seems quiet due to the heavy police presence but there have been a few fires in Tottenham and Canning Town (which isn't far from my stop on the Jubilee line).

I admit I felt a little scared earlier when I heard a large group of youths running past my window. I doubt they were going to do anything as nothing has kicked off here but it just shows how the bias of the news can scare the living day lights out of people.

There have been a couple of scandals today. Not surprisingly the two least tasteful ones were from the Tories, who first tried to make it look as if Diane Abbot (Probably one of the most liked politicians around and the Labour MP for Hackney, one of the trouble areas) condoned the violence by cutting a part of her speech which (*coughs*) condoned the riots, and then another Tory MP said that the riots couldn't have a political issue for young people by cutting their services, EMA and raising tution fees because "They haven't looted Waterstones." Twat.

I have to say that as usual the BBC reporters are as brave as ever. They seem to have gone out into potentially scary areas where the rioters are roaming through the narrow streets looking for a place to loot where there are no police in Manchester. In Nottingham a police station has been firebombed. It's strange -- it seems that while some rioters seem to genuinely still be targetting the police as a result of the killing of Mark Duggen while most are just taking advantage of the situation.

The police had this coming for a very long time because of their conduct, no one can deny that. However it's just spiraled completely out of control now. People are just taking advantage of a genuine reason to riot protest (Sorry, I was tired). As the Independant's front cover says today -- this will force the government to finally think about the under-class. They have been forgotten for too long. The governments of the past have been more interested in pandering to the lower-middle class and the working class than trying to help the poor in this country... because there is genuine poor. The Labour Party tried to ignore them while the LibDems and Tories have damn-well pissed over them with the cuts. They go on about how we are all in this together but the under-class are outsiders in society...

So why should they respect it? That's what it has come down to. It has literally become a case where people are so unhappy with their lives that the only pleasure they can find is setting fire to and smashing up other people's livelihood. It is a disgrace to this country that this children - yes, children - have been completely abandoned by society. They have rubbish parents, bad schools, light-weight teachers, no chance of getting a degree, no chance of getting a job and earning a living, services have been cut by the government...

It has all become an excuse for the anti-social to take their revenge on high street shops. I don't care about them - they're rich enough already. However it's the ordinary small businesses I feel for. They have lost their livelihood, and it's the police and government's fault because they were all on their holidays, they were all ignoring this problem... and now it's gone too far. It's too late.

You know the image of Nero fiddling while Rome burns. Replace the image with Boris Johnson (who got yelled at by the victims of the riots, and so went off to find a publicity stunt where people were cleaning-up Croydon), George Osborne, David Cameron and Nick Clegg (who got heckled by the victims of the riots when he went out) - playing Guitar Hero next to a burned out bus and looted branch of Primark.

Trouble with the NHS? Tories just don't get it, do they?

Pledges of NHS waiting times in doubt.

The moral of the story? Never trust conservatives with the public sector.

My dad has been waiting for his hernia operation since the end of March. He has a blood disorder and so he needs to have blood taken out regularly in order for it to be safe to operate on him. It should have been sorted out months ago but they're still messing around as they keep pushing his operation back, which means he has to keep having blood take out to make it safer for them to operate on him. They have cancelled his operation three times now. That's just a simple hernia operation.

This whole thing has just proved that you NEED bureacracy in order to make an organisation like the NHS run smoothly. You need more managers all the time with a population growing all the time and nearly every single one of them using the NHS at some point in their life. You can't ship out duties or look for cheap deals in the NHS. That's just the Tories' brainless and uninformed tinking.

Least we don't live in America. If we did my mum would be dead and by dad would be on the way out too. At least he is on a sodding waiting list - I guess they're just treating all the more seriously ill people first. But it's just a hernia operation! It's not fair that my dad has to keep having his blood fixed over and over again. It tires him out, for Christ's sake! He's an ill man.

Cameron talks a load of crap but has yet to deliver on anything, even the polices he was supposedly passionate about. Given that his family relied on the NHS for so many years, he should be ashamed of himself. Yes, Blair was the first true 'career' politician and career PM but at least he was good at it. Cameron and Clegg have always been nothing more than Tony Blair wannabes. They are trying to become 'the next Blair' but lack the charisma and the ability to sweat out the critics of press and opposition. They care more about their non-existant image than about doing their jobs. They don't appear to care about anything and lack even the illusion of substance to make up for lack of leadership. Say what you like about Gordon Brown, he was the last true party leader. They are all faceless wonders now he's gone. They might as well be the same bloody nasty, poorly made Tony Blair clone.

At least Ed Milliband is vaguely recognisable because he's a geek. :p

The Economy

So I was reading the papers, the websites and, of course, The New Statesman (which I know is a radical left-wing magazine but I'd rather read something I agree with than the rubbish posted in The Spectator) and they were talking about how the MPs are now falling over themselves like morons to explain away or distance themselves from the stagnant British economy.

It's not just us students who react in disgust at the sight of George Osborne though as my dad would probably punch is eyes into the back of his head were they to meet on the street. His look alone is that of a moronic and unintelligent monkey who doesn't seem to know a second thing about economics and appears to have only got to job based on the fact that he is David Cameron's best mate. I think a couple of people remember that footage shown on Have I Got News For You which proved that Mr. Osborne cannot count past ten.

During their time in opposition I would say that George Osborne was the only person I liked less than David Cameron himself. I knew that as soon as he became chancellor it would be one big bloody disaster because most of us wouldn't trust him to look after our goldfish let alone the budget for the country.

This was a good election for Labour to lose and seeing as the Conservatives wanted power so much, why not let them sort out the disaster? Especially since it is about to make them as popular as a bout of swine flu, now that the knock on effects of VAT rises (which, yes, I and other poor people in Britain - which these days is most of us) the Conservatives are becoming less and less able to hide behind the weak-minded LibDems who for the past six months have been nothing more than human shields. If there is a domestic problem it is Nick Clegg or Vince Cable who goes in front of the cameras to explain the "govenment's" position while David Cameron swans around on the world stage embarrassing us and Osborne keeps his head buried in the sand at the risk that we might stop for a second and realise that the enemy is not the LibDems -- it is this unwanted Conservative govenment we have somehow ended up with despite the fact, ideologically, two-thirds of the British population still voted for centre-left parties.

But the failure to put a cap on the Conservatives undesirable and unelected policies IS the LibDems fault, and they have proved that they would not be an effective coalition partner if the vote on proportional representation goes through in May.

A part of me wishes that it won't, though. It has nothing to do with disagreeing with the measure but rather a desire to see the coalition tear itself apart. I don't expect it will survive if the LibDems don't get what they wanted all along; a reformed voting system. This is the real reason why David Cameron is desperately trying to rush through his NHS reforms and why he shoved through the student tuition fees rise. It's got nothing to do with it being better for the country or even a desire to cut the deficit (His and Osborne's actions are more likely to damage and stunt the economic grow, not improve it) -- it's to get through his Tory-Thatcherist wet dream policies because if the govenment collapses in May, he might not get another chance.

Even his own party are split and a majority of the secretly hate him for failing to actually win them a general election. Given that he is more likely to lose seats rather than gain them in another election, even if his party still beat Labour, odds are on the party will get rid of him.

The LibDems will definately get rid of Clegg. They'd be shooting themselves in the foot if they didn't. Neither of them are worth saving so just chuck them in.

I just hope there isn't too much damage between now and May when the govenment collapses.

1st entry

I have always been a blogger at LiveJournal but I decided I needed to start a new blog, elsewhere. In a place where no one new me and where my private ramblings that I don't mind being public can be viewed. Given that I'm quite opinionated but have two parents pushing sixty (and have long since stopped caring about things as much) I find myself ranting to a death audience. At least here I can rant to a deaf internet audience.

When starting a new blog most people just jump in and tell people about themselves, who they are and what they do. I can't be bothered to tell people about that so I will settle for just pointing you to the About Me section of the blog. If I manage to keep this thing up-to-date then I guess you'll learn more about me as a go along. If not, then you're no worse off and I haven't yet again stuck my heart and soul into a blog I may or may not be bothered with.

It takes a lot of motivation to keep a blog when your life is a mental-case.

Probably the best-ish news that has happened to me today is that my mother, who is more or less disabled being only able to walk short distances before she is tired/in pain as a result of arthritis and anemia, caused by a poorly functioning kidney, who has also been suffering from a winter bug... has started eating again. Sort of.

But I don't want to talk about my private life here. That's my business and it is damnwell staying on LiveJournal in my private journal. However if I have a political rant or an opinion on how my generation - who the press are already calling the 'lost generation' - have been pissed all over by the scum that are David Cameron and camera-shy wanker George Osbourne, they you will be the first to know.

Not to mention opinions on the weak-minded Clegg who is now about as popular as a bount of swine flu. The man who single-handedly went from hero to zero in the space of six months following his failure to stand up for his principles and the policies for which the voters put him where he is. My greatest hope, ironically although I agree with it, is that the vote on voting reform fails, the LibDems pull the plug on the coalition and Clegg disappears.

The same will doubtless happen to David Cameron, potentially one of the most unremarkable PMs this country has ever seen. He is a name who is destined to earn no more than five points on the 22nd series of 'Pointless', if the show is still going in some form. No reason why is shouldn't -- it's more popular than he is.