I'm not sure that it is possible to be more disappointed, disenchanted and disillusioned with a Government.
I have a copy of Christopher Logue's Poems, published as Abecedary, under the letter 'T' there is a poem about Lao-Tzu.
'Came to a woman weeping'
Why?
Last year my husband broke his neck.
Last week my son lost all we had.
Last night my daughter sold her face -
And the traffic drives me mad.
Then why remain in such a place?
O, well ... the government is not too bad.'
But O it is bad, it is bad, bad, bad!
Unstable and weak, a coalition of chaos, heading for a political and economic wasteland, as some commentators have observed, a weakened government has meant that Britain, this United Kingdom has become the laughing stock of the world.
The essential problem, from the con-dem coalition which condemned us to austerity, to the Cameron Osborne coalition of privilege and disdain, to the referendum that should never have been called is that we have elected Governments who have chosen not to serve the country (for which they were elected) but to save the Tory Party (for which they were not elected).
Christopher Logue's poem could be rewritten:
For many individuals the litany of loss and disaster could well echo the weeping of the woman, individual losses, individual poverty, individual heartaches, with little or no compensation or care being offered or exercised.
Families losing their Tax Credits.
Children leaving tertiary education burdened with debt.
Fuel prices rising.
Inflation impacting on families and pensioners alike.
Job's being lost.
Incomes not keeping up with costs.
Yet again and again the hard hearted rehearsal of the phrase, to children, to families, to public servants, Police and Firemen and Nurses:
Their is no Magic Money Tree.
And in the light of terrorist attacks, the blazing inferno of a tower block, the tragic loss of life, the observation of the sociologist C. Wright Mills in his book, The Sociological Imagination, (first published by Oxford University Press in 1959!) rings so terrifyingly true:
'When in a city of a 100,000, only one man is unemployed, that is his personal trouble, and for its relief we properly look to the character of the man, his skills, and his immediate opportunities. But when in a nation of 50 million employees, 15 million are unemployed, that is an issue, and we may not find its solution within the range of opportunities open to any on individual.
C. Wright Mills next sentence nails the truth denied by by this and its immediate predecessor Governments:
The very structure of opportunities has collapsed.
We saw this in the 1980's under the Thatcher administration and we are seeing it again.
Of course it is in only one class and in one generation that the structure of opportunity has collapsed, chided and derided by previous Ministers of previous Governments.
It is perhaps too easy to join the chorus of protest and chant the slogan, 'for the many not the few' but it is right to say that when the structure of opportunity has collapsed for the many, it is far to easily possible to recognise, see any edition of How to Spend it, the FT Weekend supplement, that the structures are still in place for the few who clearly do have access to a Magic Money Tree.
I have a copy of Christopher Logue's Poems, published as Abecedary, under the letter 'T' there is a poem about Lao-Tzu.
'Came to a woman weeping'
Why?
Last year my husband broke his neck.
Last week my son lost all we had.
Last night my daughter sold her face -
And the traffic drives me mad.
Then why remain in such a place?
O, well ... the government is not too bad.'
But O it is bad, it is bad, bad, bad!
Unstable and weak, a coalition of chaos, heading for a political and economic wasteland, as some commentators have observed, a weakened government has meant that Britain, this United Kingdom has become the laughing stock of the world.
The essential problem, from the con-dem coalition which condemned us to austerity, to the Cameron Osborne coalition of privilege and disdain, to the referendum that should never have been called is that we have elected Governments who have chosen not to serve the country (for which they were elected) but to save the Tory Party (for which they were not elected).
Christopher Logue's poem could be rewritten:
For many individuals the litany of loss and disaster could well echo the weeping of the woman, individual losses, individual poverty, individual heartaches, with little or no compensation or care being offered or exercised.
Families losing their Tax Credits.
Children leaving tertiary education burdened with debt.
Fuel prices rising.
Inflation impacting on families and pensioners alike.
Job's being lost.
Incomes not keeping up with costs.
Yet again and again the hard hearted rehearsal of the phrase, to children, to families, to public servants, Police and Firemen and Nurses:
Their is no Magic Money Tree.
And in the light of terrorist attacks, the blazing inferno of a tower block, the tragic loss of life, the observation of the sociologist C. Wright Mills in his book, The Sociological Imagination, (first published by Oxford University Press in 1959!) rings so terrifyingly true:
'When in a city of a 100,000, only one man is unemployed, that is his personal trouble, and for its relief we properly look to the character of the man, his skills, and his immediate opportunities. But when in a nation of 50 million employees, 15 million are unemployed, that is an issue, and we may not find its solution within the range of opportunities open to any on individual.
C. Wright Mills next sentence nails the truth denied by by this and its immediate predecessor Governments:
The very structure of opportunities has collapsed.
We saw this in the 1980's under the Thatcher administration and we are seeing it again.
Of course it is in only one class and in one generation that the structure of opportunity has collapsed, chided and derided by previous Ministers of previous Governments.
It is perhaps too easy to join the chorus of protest and chant the slogan, 'for the many not the few' but it is right to say that when the structure of opportunity has collapsed for the many, it is far to easily possible to recognise, see any edition of How to Spend it, the FT Weekend supplement, that the structures are still in place for the few who clearly do have access to a Magic Money Tree.
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