Quote:
Originally Posted by Toy Soldier
You can appreciate and reflect on why civil unrest occurs without backing or condoning the actions of the people taking part.
Or you can choose to play it down, dismiss it as "tossers", "idiots" and "thugs", and pretend that there aren't very real reasons behind it.
People are frustrated and angry and don't know how to express it, so they smash things up in an impotent rage. Will it get them anywhere? No, it won't, they'll wake up in a cell still powerless and and with nothing changed. Whilst Cameron will get on with governing (dismantling) the country. That's WHY people are frustrated and angry... Precisely because they know that they can't change anything.
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Sure I get that anger can manifest itself in displays of outrage like this, and I do normally try and shy away from a simplistic criticism of it all. But I don't actually find much to sympathise with here. It's pre-emptive protest against a government before they have actually done anything. Fine if you hate the Tories, but under the long-standing democratic process of this country they have secured the legitimate right to govern. If they go on to implement policies that betray the electorate then protest, like when Labour went to Iraq and to some extent when fees were raised with Lib Dem approval. But what they are protesting right now is the very fact of governance, not anything specific that has been done. If it's about the record of the coalition then that was the time to protest, if it's about conservative principles in general well, I'm afraid that you are a minority force and there is little sense in kicking off before those principles manifest themselves in the way that you expect them to.
I believe this protest originally started with this being organised a few days ago:
https://www.facebook.com/events/891550857551023/. That says it all: it was arranged to stop a Tory coup in the event of them being a minority government. Unfortunately for them, the situation they expected did not come to pass so the reason for their protest became redundant and like I said they are now rioting against the very fact of a democratic outcome that was not in their favour. Even if that is cause for protest I don't think it is cause for violence and the ugly scenes that were witnessed today.