Precedents

[poliphilo]

I can think of two famous occasions in my lifetime when police cavalry were used against demonstrators. The first was at Orgreave in 1984 when Margaret Thatcher defeated the striking miners in a pitched battle. The second (Thatcher again) was during the Poll tax riots of 1989. 

Earlier there was Peterloo. The cavalry that charged the demonstration in St. Peter's Fields in 1819 have been described as "younger members of the Tory party in arms". An unknown number of people were killed that day- sabred, shot, trampled by the horses. Among them was a two year old child.

The Tories have an affinity with cavalry charges. Maybe it's in the genes-  all that ancestral fox hunting, all that riding down of peasants.

They don't see as us as citizens. They don't know us. We don't count.  We don't feature in their world except as annoying noises off.  We are the "enemy within" (Thatchers phrase) to be kettled and ridden down. In this latest episode of class warfare the "enemy within" are our students and school children. 

Comments

Oh, what utterly tendentious rubbish, Tony.

[wemyss.livejournal.com]

It were stale and unprofitable, no doubt, to argue why we're out of mun, who's responsible, and All That; nor I rather suppose shall we ever agree on any matter of politics or economics. I shan't even pause to note that the question for any Government confronted with 'an overmighty subject', a large dissenting faction, is, Whether the legislature and executive duly chosen by the electors shall govern, or whether the verdict of democracy shall be ignored.

What I must criticise is your attribution of evil intent to me and my friends and those who share my political opinions. In the first place, it's projection: I seem to recall that the only national politician ever to have called his party (and, as he saw it, wrongly, class) enemies as 'lower than vermin', was the Rt Hon Member for Ebbw Vale. In the second instance, it's simply false. We Conservatives do not, it is true, see the rest of the GBP as 'citizens', in that we consider ourselves and all others as, not mere citizens, but rather as fellow subjects of the Crown. We do - hold on a moment: Fulham have just scored - we do rather believe that the result of a democratic General Election and any Government that emerges in accord with the usual procedures that inhere in a Westminster system, is not to be subject - whether that ministry of the day be Conservative or Labour - to a sort of ongoing heckler's veto. To that extent, perhaps, one might call any group that seeks to overturn that democratic result an internal enemy, but that is not what you have charged Conservatives generally with holding, is it. But this assertion that I and those with whom I share - sometimes uneasily - a party, are the Wicked Barons oppressing the 'smallest hee in England', as the Putney Agitators put it, thirsting to ride them down, is not only rot, and offensive rot, it's a simple lie.

You are of course perfectly free to hold and express such opinions as seem good to you. You are not at liberty to assert without challenge or contradiction that those who disagree with you are actuated by evil and take a malign pleasure in somehow oppressing you and those whose views you share, and do so because it is in our inherently vicious character to do. Assert that if you like, I repeat, but it shan't be unchallenged, because it is false in fact (like the odd assertion that the PM is an 'aristocrat': upper lower upper middle, shurely?).

The more I see of Labour as it has been for most of my life, the more I miss Major Attlee, Major Milner, Colonel Wedgwood, and Captain Bellenger, frankly.

Well, Enough of that. To more important matters. What in buggery got into Hussey and the Australians at the Gabba? I don't recall Hussey's being quite so bloody indomitable when he played county cricket for Glos, do you?

Re: Oh, what utterly tendentious rubbish, Tony.

[ingenious76.livejournal.com]

Nice points. One story that seems to have been swept under the media rug lately is the bizarre and unpleasant rant of a Labour MP against the middles classes, making unsavoury comments of how they were a class of boozers and potential paedophiles. Lovely. Reminds me again that if there *is* a class war, the attitude of "us and them" is just as rife in the Left as it is in the Right.

Re: Oh, what utterly tendentious rubbish, Tony.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think the Mail is spinning his words to fit their own agenda. He says a lot of voters are racist, that the condemnation of drugs by people who drink heavily is hypocrisy and that most sexual abuse happens in the home.
I agree with all those statements.

He has since resigned his front bench seat and been arrested for drink driving.

Re: Oh, what utterly tendentious rubbish, Tony.

[ingenious76.livejournal.com]

So in other words he slates the people who vote for him (or did) and thats acceptable?

I'm sorry, I don't care whether the Mail "spun" his words for their agenda or not. I find it repugnant. If you have *that* much contempt for the electorate, then don't run for office!

Re: Oh, what utterly tendentious rubbish, Tony.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

So voters are never racist,there's no hypocrisy in condemning other people's addictions while indulging your own and all paedophiles are weird men in macs.

OK.

Re: Oh, what utterly tendentious rubbish, Tony.

[ingenious76.livejournal.com]

I didn't say that. You're twisting my words.

All I tried to point out was that if there is a class wat in this country, the Left are just as capable of taking shots as the Right. Yes, some voters are racist. So, are some politicians. Yes, it is hypocritical to drink heavily and condemn drug use. Yes, paedophiles deserve to be strung up. But to imply - as that MP did - that the middle-classes are more pre-disposed to that than anyone else, is offensive. Simple as that.

Re: Oh, what utterly tendentious rubbish, Tony.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes, it takes two to make a class war.

I've just read Joyce's original article. He doesn't use the word "middle-class" once. It's the Mail that has assumed he was getting at their readers. If the cap fits, wear it.

Re: Oh, what utterly tendentious rubbish, Tony.

[burkesworks.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, I don't care whether the Mail "spun" his words for their agenda or not. I find it repugnant.

Read what he actually said first before believing what it said in the Volkischer BeobachterDaily Mail. You'll find Joyce said nothing of the sort, and actually made sensible points. All lies as per usual from the Mail. There's a link to what he actually stated below, and it differs greatly from Tim Shipman(any relation?)'s account.

jeez, I can't believe I'm defending Eric bloody Joyce

Re: Oh, what utterly tendentious rubbish, Tony.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

There are a lot of titles in Cameron's pedigree. He's descended on one side or the other from William IV.

No, we're not going to agree on much, are we? I do however share your dismay at Hussey's proficiency.

Also your nostalgia for Attlee and co. I take your point about them having been military men. That was a "great generation". I think of myself as a lefty- but there's no place for me in the modern Labour party- not after Blair and Brown. I don't like Cameron, but I heartily despise those two.

Re: Oh, what utterly tendentious rubbish, Tony.

[burkesworks.livejournal.com]

Also your nostalgia for Attlee and co. I take your point about them having been military men.

As indeed was the aforementioned Major Eric Joyce, whose actual words were quoted here as opposed to in the Mail.

Re: Oh, what utterly tendentious rubbish, Tony.

[ingenious76.livejournal.com]

An MP admits politicians are basically liars. Tell us something we don't know, Joyce.

Re: Oh, what utterly tendentious rubbish, Tony.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link. I was looking for one earlier, and couldn't find it.