That matters. It matters because whatever the Government does now to tell those millions to behave themselves is going to fall on deaf ears. If they don’t fancy behaving themselves, they won’t. The Polecat got away with it. They can do the same.
What’s alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson going to do about it? Ten years of cuts to Police numbers means that if enough pissed off Brits kick off at once, the cops won’t be able to cope. This week’s crowded beaches have shown that. Cops ask folks to move on? Nah, don’t fancy it mate, shove off. What’re you going to do about it?
So now the public know they can get away with breaking the law if enough of them do it. Right ahead of a series of events that will show Bozo and his pals that the genie they have let out of the bottle - through their own ineptitude - is not going back any time soon.
On the 4th of July - a Saturday in high summer - pubs will be able to reopen. Many are not doing; they want to be able to keep themselves and their customers safe. But the Spoons chain will be. A warm day, lots of cheap alcohol sloshing about, early opening, long session, the first for months - what could possibly go wrong?
By mid-afternoon, the cops won’t be able to cope with any more than the odd disturbance. And what if it really kicks off? Maybe the pundits would like to scold the masses. But who will listen to them? Take those in the Mail, now the country’s largest selling paper. Sarah “Vain” Vine, whose husband Michael “Oiky” Gove didn’t bat en eyelid when he fiddled his expenses, and never apologised afterwards? What authority does she have? None.
Richard Littlejohn, perchance? But who wants to listen to a has-been who doesn’t even live in this country? Nigel “Thirsty” Farage? Properties in France and has been trying to get a German passport? The PM, whose Dad has been trying to get French passports for some of the extended family? Any of them plead for calm, they’ll get told to fuck off.
And that isn’t the half of it. The economic contraction due to the Covid-19 pandemic will mean possibly millions of job losses. Along with a possible winter resurgence of the virus. The NHS will struggle to cope, there will be increases in domestic violence, suicide, self harm, and yes, public order will fracture once more, almost certainly violently.
Added to that, any perception that the cops, especially in London where rather more of them can be deployed, are going after BAME communities when they break up street and house parties, will set off years of frustration at the different standards of law enforcement authorities towards people who are not white. That, of course, gives the real racists and white supremacists an excuse to join the party. The potential for unrest is huge.
Tonnes of litter scattered across the beaches of the South Coast are bad. But they will pale into insignificance when the public realises they’re the fall guys, the people they voted for don’t care, and there aren’t enough cops to tell them to get back in their boxes.
When the storm breaks, it could be seriously grim. And the only certainty is that the real culprits will be nowhere to be seen. We live in worryingly unpredictable times.
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/zelostreet6
17 comments:
Fantastic post Tim. You have absolutely nailed it bang on. We knew this months ago. Covid was but the bitter icing on a very foul tasting cake.. and what can our hypocrite government and putrid media do to stop it? Absolutely diddly fucking squat.
Dear Zelo ,
A distinguishing feature of the culture in the fifties and sixties was the pretence that the British establishment were historically more sensible than foreign elites because they knew not to go too far , and that a stitch in time saves nine . Marie Antoinette and her ‘let them eat cake’ was given as an example of foreign elite’s stupidity creating an invitation to revolution . I think this culture just about held during the Thatcher period , but now the elite seem to have lost the common sense to sustain their privileged position . The attitude of Johnson , Cummings and the lemmings in the cabinet (including their ethnic quislings) is pretty much ‘let them eat cake’ , and I fear like you that a serious reckoning might break out with incalculable nasty consequences . It’ll be too late once the milk is spilled .
Are there elitists who want that to happen ?
Derek
The police, who do nothing of the sort, are now a woke joke. Send in the Squaddies, it's the only language the great unwashed understand, then we'll see who's running away!
Police numbers per head of population are far in excess of what they were when the police gave up policing in the 60s due to er.lack of numbers, they are about 100% more! The steep rise in crime correlates exactly with the police abandoning the streets to criminals. And now they run away, incapable of doing their job. The veterans of the Battle of Orgreave will be watching open mouthed in horror and shame. Once all a Bobby needed was a pointed helmet a truncheon and HIS brute strength, now they run off for councilling. Khan, Dick resign!
Some years ago, an author - I forget which one - said Britain had become "A far right litter strewn racist authoritarian rat hole".
That was then.
Just a few more small pushes and we will be an openly fascist country. Then nobody will be safe.
At last someone has put their head above the parapet. I have tried not to voice my concerns up to now, for fear of seeming alarmist or paranoid, but I am convinced that we are heading for a civil war in England. Civil disorder will degenerate into all out conflict. I hope I'm wrong.
Who said satire was dead, Anonymous @16.54? Bravo!
16.54 ... couldn’t disagree with your post more. Total twitters. Do you really think the police don’t know themselves for the fools they are seen as? That is why they run. And your beloved squaddies, how many would that be? And how many baton rounds before they turn the batons upon their leaders? And the miners, it would be the children of those self save miners that in large part helped elect this government of Etonian privilege.Will they Or do they not already feel betrayed too? Face it. People are angry and some just don’t care funniest thing is though that You answer your own post with your final lines inasmuch as what once made society work makes it work no longer. How can you have a leader telling beechgoers they ‘take liberties’ when they themselves witness the liberties taken by Cummings, jenrick Johnson et al.
Imagine the civil unrest when Malcolm from the mailwatch forum got rid of that lovely Winegums.
Speaking as a total aside, always sad when the racist removes the hero.
Trump will send Blackwater over. We'll be policed by American mercenaries.
That fat, lying slob would relish any excuse to impose martial law. Another step on the road to fascism.
Let's hope for a very rainy summer.
Excellent post, very wise words. I like your work and mostly agree with what you write but this hits the absolute nail on the head.
I'm willing to bet anything you've broken lockdown rules, and probably several times.
Londoners like their mayor. Everyone else likes their mayor too. And there is nothing you can do about it. So cry more, if you haven't already.
The possibility of UK chaos has been noted elsewhere:
"Italy’s Repubblica meanwhile asked whether the Dominic Cummings scandal will have an effect on compliance with the test and trace system. “How will citizens behave now after the scandal of Dominic Cummings, Boris’s ‘Rasputin’?” its correspondent asks, noting that the prime minister “has defended him strenuously” despite breaking lockdown rules. “The risk of ‘anarchist’ behaviour is increasingly widespread,” it notes. "
This from a piece in The Independent on what global media are saying about our response to CV19 (they are not impressed):
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/coronavirus-uk-cases-government-boris-johnson-covid-19-death-toll-a9588111.html
@Derek
Interestingly, Marie Antoinette was a foreign foreigner, being Austrian, who neither understood the French people nor commanded their affection. I wonder if this applies to the current cabinet?
The thing that messes with my head is how the right-wing here and in the US are doing everything in their power to make the pandemic worse. On the one level you have the conspiracy nutters ranting about Bill Gates & nanobots but the mainstream 'Conservative' press is pulling the same tricks.
I've been reading through Allison Pearson's tweets recently (Pray for me) and she's telling her readers the epidemic is over, you shouldn't have to wear masks, teachers are lazy oiks, Covid isn't that dangerous really, let's open everything up now and so on.
How on Earth does a sociopathic Karen with a history degree get to dish out ridiculous medical advice to a big chunk of the English middle-classes and not get called out for endangering public health? She's not the only one. Toby of Toad Hall is pulling the same nonsense. While doctors are worried about degrees of illness & future organ damage these characters split Covid into 'dead' or 'not dead' and push the 'well it won't kill you' line while ignoring all the other problems for the infected.
It really appears like this is similar to the climate change denialists where the press/blogs/sites are bombing readers with drivel/distorted facts to confuse and bewilder them. Am guessing someone is giving them a list of points to spew out each day ("Masks are bad", "PPE stresses out small children", "6ft rule is too traumatic for us to endure") and they're being good little monsters and helping commit genocide to pwn the libs.
Is especially noticeable how many of those who reply to Pearson have Qanon-type guff in their twitter bios. Crazy is actively being encouraged and it won't end well. Massive amounts of cash are being spent to push this agenda.
Ah well. 4th July pubs coming up. And holidays.
Take care everyone. Be safe.
Well thank you for stating for what many have been saying since 2011, when Boris and his Far right chums decided it was a good idea to force austerity upon the masses whilst their chums got huge tax breaks.
After 10 years of disastrous austerity,4 year obsession with Brexit and bang comes along Coronavirus which our government had plenty of warning about, but put their fingers into their ears and left the country with the highest death rate in Europe.
When the Guardian and the Mirror rumbled Cummings' Midnight Run and his experimental drive to test his eyesight, instead of being fired, Johnson threw a Ministeral ring around him whilst leaving our care homes exposed to the virus.
With this week's skirmishes on the beaches across England, what does Johnson do , throws open the pubs on a Saturday next week despite warnings from the police and local authorities.
People are fed up, fed up of a government that is openly hypocritical, fed up of the mixed messages.
To those on the right who think cracking a few skulls via police batons or sending in the army, sorry but they won't do it.
But what puzzles me, is why do people in England keep voting Tory? Voting to be shit upon daily by narcissistic sociopaths ..
Post a Comment