One rule for the rich.

[la_marquise]

So the Tory peers who made fraudulent expenses claims on the public purse are being released early from prison, and from their very low sentences, doubtless to make way for those far below them on the wealth ladder who shockingly deprived a retail chain of a tea-shirt.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/sep/12/lord-hanningfield-released-early-jail

I've said it before: the wealthy and powerful are only supportive -- and forgiving and tolerant -- of themselves. Don't let the Tories con you into thinking they care about anything else. One year in, and they're handing the NHS over to the private sector, depriving low and middle income young people of fair access to education and giving the banks years and years before any kind of restrictions come into play.
Yes, the last Labour government wasn't perfect. It had its share of sleaze. Blair deserves to face the courts for getting us into an illegal, unnecessary and cruel war. But this lot are the hand of Big Capital and nothing else and supporting them will only make the rich richer.

Comments

[aberwyn.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's happening too much in the world! I hope your country wakes up, and mine, too, for that matter!

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Amen to that!

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

The last Labour government was to all intents and purposes Tory, and proves your point. Our entire governmental system is now composed of the wealthy and powerful. Future generations, if any, may look upon this as a mistake, or at very least a refusal to learn from history...

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Yes indeed. Look at the way they treated public sector workers. The labour movement acquired some power and the forces of capital promptly invaded and annexed it.

[armb.livejournal.com]

And the Lib Dems show no sign of restraining the Tories. I'm not sure I'll bother to vote next election (not that it would do any good anyway with SouthEast Cambs being a safe Tory seat).

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

You could spoil your ballot paper as a protest. And every vote is counted, so even if the seat is safe, the objections go on record, be they spoiled papers or votes for other candidates. I tend to feel that votes should be used, come what may, because they were hard to get and easy to lose.

[stina-leicht.livejournal.com]

hope you have better luck at doing something about it than we have. [sigh]

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

I hope we both get to see it change.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Thanks for flagging this up - with your help, we found it on page 16 of The Guardian (under a picture of Bjork).

It's not so much that I don't think we hould have early release schemes and parole and such, just that if we have them, they should be equally applied.

Meanwhile, measures to deprive people of benefits can be implemented yesterdays, measures to stop banks gambling with our money will take eight years.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

It's precisely this inequality that winds me up so much. Lots of slack for the rich and powerful -- and lots of time for the banks to find all the loopholes -- but let anyone from the poorer section of society do anything remotely questionable, and they are meted out the harshest treatment possible.

[dorispossum.livejournal.com]

You may remember case of Ernest Saunders - released after 10 months from his 5 year fraud sentence on 'medical' grounds. Still the only known case of (remarkably rapid!) recovery from Altzheimers!

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

I remember it extremely well.

[dorispossum.livejournal.com]

Shame they never managed to patent THAT remedy...

[dorispossum.livejournal.com]

Read both Oryx & Crake and Year of the Flood last year, and Atwood's visions of life in late capitalist dystopia seem all too depressingly real.

There was really good radio drama on last week - 'The Core', with Juliette Stevenson. Link is here, if you have interest (and time).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0148ytn
Very depressing - absolutely to the core of where the Tories intend to take education (and health care) for all but the lucky few with Cash Club membership.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

I heard it: it was good, wasn't it? Thank you!

[annafdd.livejournal.com]

Thanks for linking to this - I wanted to, it was depressing but excellent.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

If we keep talking about it, maybe one day things will start to change.

[annafdd.livejournal.com]

I am afraid that things will only start changing when the middle classes will have an interest in it. I'd rather not see it, since I am part of the middle classes myself, but it's when you can't pay your bills that you cease worrying about ID cards and start worrying about inequality.

Suddenly this morning I started thinking about Random Acts of Senseless Violence. I googled it and found a great review of Jo's that asked why it's not a classic. Well, my suspicion is that it cuts a bit too close to the quick for it. I know I found it unbearably haunting.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Well, I like to hope that better education and better levels of informtion can play into this, too. There are already people from the middle classes who worry about this and act to try and change it. But we have to stand up and be counted, to confront the self-interested, to flag the inequalities and shoulder our share of the burdens and the responsibility.

[dorispossum.livejournal.com]

For me, the conclusion was the most depressing thing - both protagonists have given up on change. Sarah's reduced her ambitions to a charitable gift, and Carly's desperate to get her kid into private school. I think Mike Bartlet has captured the psychology of the 2011 parent precisely: desperate to buy a little temporary safety for 'my' offspring, and everyone else's kids can just fuck off and die.

And in my work, I see intelligent students - who appear passionate about literature - when asked what they hope to get from their second year studying the subject, write: 'An A'.

People are too scared for solidarity. Which is why Fred the Shred and his mates will never hang from lamp posts.