Precedents
Nov. 27th, 2010 11:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloI 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.
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.
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Re: Oh, what utterly tendentious rubbish, Tony.
Date: 2010-11-27 08:50 pm (UTC)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.
Date: 2010-11-27 09:55 pm (UTC)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.