Ken Clarke warns middle class over cuts

Personally I have been harping on about repeating the kind of situation seen in the early to mid 1800s with the economic distress the nation was in causing riots and massive political change..

The issue (as in all nations right now) is how the pain/change will be managed by each nations elite and the pressure from the international community.

I honestly see Cleggs push towards recreating the great reform of 1832 as an indicator that the Gov feel we are on a similar path and are trying somehow to negate the impact.

I also see front loading of the cuts a way to manage en masse the potential protests that will be the result of the cuts.. tho I'm not sure right now what will happen, I feel pretty sure something will.

Let the egyptian angst move elsewhere....

Originally posted by thoughtsfull
Personally I have been harping on about repeating the kind of situation seen in the early to mid 1800s with the economic distress the nation was in causing riots and massive political change..

The issue (as in all nations right now) is how the pain/change will be managed by each nations elite and the pressure from the international community.

I honestly see Cleggs push towards recreating the great reform of 1832 as an indicator that the Gov feel we are on a similar path and are trying somehow to negate the impact.

I also see front loading of the cuts a way to manage en masse the potential protests that will be the result of the cuts.. tho I'm not sure right now what will happen, I feel pretty sure something will.

I can't help but think, at the moment, some people will feel they have too much to lose by protesting in this country. For example, how many people would go 18 days without a wage (or even then have a job to return to), how many people could afford go more than a week without pay.

In the 1800's most people had nothing to lose. We are controled and seduced by what we have acquired and the promise of what we can acquire.

The way things are going it is the youth who will have nothing to lose.

With regards to Clegg, I have never been a fan but one of the wisest things I have ever had said to me was "you have to get in first and then change things from the inside". Who knows what his game plan is, if indeed he does have one.

Well I have always had a grudging like of Kenneth Clark. He has always struck me as a decent sort for a Tory. He has given us a warning but also subtly shown his is not Cameron’s servant.

I believe he could have made a unifying PM.

Pain is on its way.

reply to post by MissTiger

I can't help but think, at the moment, some people will feel they have too much to lose by protesting in this country. For example, how many people would go 18 days without a wage (or even then have a job to return to), how many people could afford go more than a week without pay.

Really? So the half mil public sector and half mil private sector workers losing their jobs due to the cuts have what to lose? you think a JSA payment is really going to make that much of a difference to someone who has a mortgage they can not pay and are about to be thrown on the streets.. with the best option being perhaps a grotty council B&B?

Now hold that thought of losing your job and ending up in a grotty B&Bs...

Have you noticed how cities like Liverpool are approach the cuts? they are putting ALL staff "at risk". so however many tens of thousands of people that council employs ALL are under the same level of stress and worry waiting for the axe to fall on them, and for them to be the ones to end up in that grotty B&B.

That fear will be a massive driver in the first wave of protests to try to get a u-turn on the cuts.. what Tunisia and Egypt have proven is that as long as you hold out in the short term you can win in the long term.. and that'll give confidence to those fighting the cuts.

Now expand the potential 1 million workers who will lose their jobs to include those who will be at "at risk" over the next year.. I think it safe to say that for each worker lost at least 5 more will be put at risk during the process.. that's a minimum 5 million very stressed and unhappy workers (plus families) to recruit protesters from.

In the 1800's most people had nothing to lose. We are controled and seduced by what we have acquired and the promise of what we can acquire.

The Swing riots (1832) where driven by underemployment and a failing social safety net. I would actually say they had far more to lose, where more controlled, and had less rights than we have today..

You might think so little of us that you think we are so easily seduced.. but I honestly think you are mistaken.. I believe people resent and hate today's angry unhappy society.. and that resentment lies just below the surface, needing the something to crystallise those feelings into action.

The way things are going it is the youth who will have nothing to lose.

Nah, I think the youth are youth and are simply more militant as they want to make their own mark on the world.. growing with most of my friends on one of Maggies YTS, I wish today youth luck in changing their lot in life

With regards to Clegg, I have never been a fan but one of the wisest things I have ever had said to me was "you have to get in first and then change things from the inside". Who knows what his game plan is, if indeed he does have one.

Now that made me laugh the liberals in parliament have had a sniff at power and are selling their soul to hold onto it.. I had high hopes for my MP (Norman Baker) but his principled stand on things like the Dr David Kelly affair seems to have turned to dust now he has a ministerial position. very sad.


But still the corruption, greed, economic distress, rise in under-employment and un-employment leading to a greater wealth gap in the early to mid 1800s led to people pushing for reform, which I what I expect to happen today.

I feel we are coming to the end of this iteration of our society.. in the 1800s it took 30 years of protests (Luddites, Swing, Tolpuddle, Chartists etc) to get some of the reforms the protesters sought to change their society for the better.. and I feel that betterment will be the driver today.