Summer in the City

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It's been a lovely day of sun and gardening today: a taste of summer long awaited. The whole thing is somewhat tempered by the appalling Grant Shapps' Commons statement regarding the now imminent rail strikes. Whilst eschewing any government involvement whatsoever in the process, he still managed to roll out every Thatcherite trope about Unions, the Labour Party and, to be honest, the working classes; that he could muster from his oh-so-tiny grab-bag of rhetorical tools. Given the bloke was only eleven years old when Thatcher embarked on her project to disembowel worker's rights and establish neo-liberalist dogma as the new 'norm' in this country, I think I might have a few years more experience of life and politics than he.

The problem, from a Tory point of view - and this was ever thus - is the hoi polloi. Always blame the people and never business or your own pathetic non-engagement with reality for the economic ills of this world. The resurgence of unionism and industrial action should be welcomed, rather than criticized: the economy will never recover whilst it's true wealth-creators are priced out of actively participating in it: it's a two-way street, people. The government and bankers need to wake up and see exactly what economies and capitalism really are; in actuality, rather than in some La-La-land of theoretical fantasy. Oh, and by the by; watch out for the pitchforks, boys, they will be coming for you, if you piss about for much longer...

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