This weekend is going to be brilliant.
Going to London for the weekend to do the big demo. This, I would look forward to enough, but it also means I get to meet up with loads of people *AND* see BB three weeks earlier than I thought I was going to.

Alt: I loathe prog music.
(BelladonnaAnodyne Melissa's gonna wet herself, I swear..., Mon 21 Mar 2011, 8:58, 1 reply, 14 years ago)

Demo? What about this time?

( Agnostic Antichrist Baltimora, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 8:59, Reply)

It's a march against the cuts
But this one has a main TUC march with lots of feeder marches as well as other direct action. It's going to be huge.
(BelladonnaAnodyne Melissa's gonna wet herself, I swear..., Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:03, Reply)

So, shall we expect chaos again?

( Agnostic Antichrist Baltimora, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:04, Reply)

I certainly hope so :D
I'm doing one of the feeders and then the UKUncut action on Oxford St.

www.ukuncut.org.uk/
(BelladonnaAnodyne Melissa's gonna wet herself, I swear..., Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:06, Reply)

Don't you think that massive public spending cuts are both necessary and hugely overdue?

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:06, Reply)

Only if they are only against the rich

( Naked Ape call me Caitlyn, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:06, Reply)

I agree that some public spending cuts are necessary
However, the way that the deficit is being reduced by harming the poorest in society is both unnecessary and unfair, and could be handled in an entirely different manner. For example, allowing public schools to have 'charitable' status means that we lose out on approximately £130 million in taxes per year.
(BelladonnaAnodyne Melissa's gonna wet herself, I swear..., Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:09, Reply)

Do you believe that causing London to grind to a halt,
inconveniencing millions and costing the nation hundreds of thousands of pounds in policing bills and in lost productivity at a time when the country hasn't got any fucking money is
a) going to produce any results whatsoever and
b) isn't actually making a bad situation worse by squandering resources?
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:14, Reply)

/\ This

(Himjim died a little more inside on, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:17, Reply)

POTD

( Naked Ape call me Caitlyn, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:17, Reply)

I see your argument.
You're completely right, nobody should ever protest if it's going to inconvenience someone. Sorry about that, I'll just stay here and accept the ideological assault on the poor and disadvantaged.
(BelladonnaAnodyne Melissa's gonna wet herself, I swear..., Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:17, Reply)

The unions
(massive, wealthy organisations who pay their staff enormous salaries - very 'up the workers' I'm sure you agree) will of course be paying for the required police cover, won't they?
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:21, Reply)

As much as the palace is paying for the police cover of the Royal fucking circus next month
Which is going to cost between £20-40 million, I might add, and will also harm productivity and shut down London. Even more so because of the insistence on a bank holiday.
(BelladonnaAnodyne Melissa's gonna wet herself, I swear..., Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:22, Reply)

And has been costed out to provide upto £620m to the economy
That's what I would call a good investment personally
( Naked Ape call me Caitlyn, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:24, Reply)

NO WAY MAN - SMASH THE SYSTEM
that the majority of people in this country want.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:26, Reply)

*waves tea-towel*

( JeffTheDogFucker Can you dig it?, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:27, Reply)

How so?
The £20-40 million figure I gave was for policing and security alone. I'm fairly sure lost productivity on the bank holiday and the preceeding weekend will inflate the sum much, much higher. Along with all the clever people's insistence on taking three days holiday afterwards.
(BelladonnaAnodyne Melissa's gonna wet herself, I swear..., Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:29, Reply)

Why should people not take advantage of getting 10-11 days off in a row for the cost of 3 days holiday?

( sporters I’m sincerely gratitude to you, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:32, Reply)

I'm not saying they shouldn't
But that level of absenteeism all at once will surely also harm productivity, no? So according to Monty's argument, people shouldn't do it.
(BelladonnaAnodyne Melissa's gonna wet herself, I swear..., Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:39, Reply)

I couldn't care less
I'm off to Centreparcs!

*GLESS*
( sporters I’m sincerely gratitude to you, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:41, Reply)

Think is, people going to the wedding will spend money, protesters won't (as much)
I'm totally on the fence and could argue for both sides as although no one is right, no one is wrong.
( G/PP 💩💩💩💩💩&#128, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 10:03, Reply)

Perfect well done
Why not have some sort of cyber protest, you could all meet up in WoW and totally get in the way of the Goblin Express and the castle of Grayskull
( Naked Ape call me Caitlyn, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:21, Reply)

Also, do you not think that fucking up the lives of people in this country for years to come
just so your mates in business and the banks can make even more cash at a time when the country hasn't got any fucking money is

a) not going to produce any results whatsoever,
b) actually making a bad situation worse by squandering resources and
c) actually incredibly cuntish behaviour?
(BelladonnaAnodyne Melissa's gonna wet herself, I swear..., Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:21, Reply)

Have you ever wonder if the poor are poor because they are
a: lazy
b: feckless
c: stupid
d:all of the above

So why prop up a failing area of society, it's anti Darwinism
( Naked Ape call me Caitlyn, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:23, Reply)

Sorry, by 'poor' I meant
Not leeching off society by being either:

a) born obscenely rich (and having your family avoid tax to make sure you don't lose a single penny),
b) a banker (and avoiding tax WHILST getting taxpayer funded bailouts when you fuck up) or
c) a business magnate (who conveniently actually lives in a post box somewhere in the middle of the Indian Ocean)
(BelladonnaAnodyne Melissa's gonna wet herself, I swear..., Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:27, Reply)

And how precisely
is holding central London to ransom whilst a load of inflammatory tosspots with megaphones chant tedious rhetoric going to make the slightest bit of difference to the taxation and banking situations in this country?

I put it to you that you will achieve nothing whatsoever other than massive wastage of public money - unless you count fucking up struggling retail businesses that are already having a bad time (the FAT CAT BASTARDS) and generally pissing off innocent citizens.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:32, Reply)

Struggling more than the people who are about to be made redundant for no good reason?
Or more than the disabled people who are having their benefits fucked about with and removed for no good reason?

Or the children who will struggle in the future because their education was so fucked up, for no good reason?

Or the people who won't be treated properly because the NHS has been fucked about with so much, for no good reason?
(BelladonnaAnodyne Melissa's gonna wet herself, I swear..., Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:37, Reply)

I still don't see how shouting about it and walking through the streets of London
will help? Unless it works as well as the student protests!

Oh, wait.
(Himjim died a little more inside on, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:39, Reply)

What will happen
is the banks will say 'hey - we're really sorry! Here's loads of our salaries to spend on flids! Now we've seen people vandalising shops we realise the errors of our ways!'

That's is what will definitely happen.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:44, Reply)

Slippers should be tax-free.

( JeffTheDogFucker Can you dig it?, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:46, Reply)

The previous government had one policy
Throe money at a problem. When questioned in the commons why the NHS was failing in an area, or scholls were failing children their response was, "Well we've increase investment by £Xbn".

Brilliant, but if those billions made no difference to the lavels of care etc availible then they were wasted. Money is not the answer, efficiecny, quality and itleeligent running of services is the answer, this will never happed whilst budgets continue to rise.

If my boss questioned me on why a project had failed and I said, "yes it failed, but I pumped shit loads of extra money into it" I'd be fired, and rightly so.
( Naked Ape call me Caitlyn, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:42, Reply)

I'm not saying that was right.
My argument is that shafting the 'little people' while your mates make off with obscene amounts of cash and you lie and tell them that the cuts are necessary is fucking morally abhorrent.
(BelladonnaAnodyne Melissa's gonna wet herself, I swear..., Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:44, Reply)

Wasting ten years of growth by borrowing huge amounts of money
to pay for jobs that aren't required to employ people who will then vote for you is morally abhorrent.
( Naked Ape call me Caitlyn, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:47, Reply)

So, in your eyes, all public sector jobs are a waste of money and effectively non-jobs?

(BelladonnaAnodyne Melissa's gonna wet herself, I swear..., Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:51, Reply)

No, not at all
But the Labour governemnt propped up growth with borrowing during a time of global growth when the country should have been saving (Not selling all of our gold at a historically low price).

Save in the good times, so that you are prepared for the bad times. The recession would have happned either way, but we would have been in a better postion to ride it out and less cuts would have been necessary.
( Naked Ape call me Caitlyn, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:57, Reply)

*Fewer.
I don't disagree with you wholly, especially not about the gold. However, my point was originally that there are alternatives to the wholesale 'slash and burn the public sector then piss on it' approach of this government.
(BelladonnaAnodyne Melissa's gonna wet herself, I swear..., Mon 21 Mar 2011, 10:01, Reply)

Whoever is in government, this will still happen

( sporters I’m sincerely gratitude to you, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:48, Reply)

You're missing out a large area of the population in the middle
I don't consider that i earn a huge amount of money, but when my baby is born in August guess waht the governemnt will give me to help out...that's right absolutely nothing which is all I've ever been eligable for and all I would ever take as I have some pride.

And yet I pay almost £1000 a month in direct income tax and NI, a big chunk of which pays for pikey fucking twats to breed little shits up and down this fetid Isle.

My point is the people you are moaning about are a tiny minority, and your ideals filter down and fuck up the lives of the hard working, high tax paying middle classes, so just leave it out, alwight!
( Naked Ape call me Caitlyn, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:35, Reply)

Now, now just because you are affluent, it doesn't mean you have avoided tax and fucked over the little guy
Tgere are people who have gambled and grafted at the right times in their life.

And those people generally help many on their way.
( G/PP 💩💩💩💩💩&#128, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:39, Reply)

I'm sorry, but to me
acting like a selfish cunt simply because you believe someone else is acting like a selfish cunt is incredibly cuntish behaviour.

There's a brilliant way of making sure your opinions are heard. They're known as 'elections'.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:25, Reply)

A good point, well made

( sporters I’m sincerely gratitude to you, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:28, Reply)

Once every five years?
And with a system that doesn't favour the majority? Yeah, stellar choice that.
(BelladonnaAnodyne Melissa's gonna wet herself, I swear..., Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:29, Reply)

There's a referendum on that very system coming up.
Sorry if the democratic process doesn't favour your minority opinions because they are...y'know...minority.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:34, Reply)

Hardly.
I vote Labour, and broadly agree with their stance on most things.
(BelladonnaAnodyne Melissa's gonna wet herself, I swear..., Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:38, Reply)

So you support the very party whose idiocy and 'end to boom and bust' have necessitated the public cuts in the first instance
Bravo, why not do everyone a favour and stay at home rolling around on the floor or whatever it is that you usually do
( Light In Chains maker of the ikea sofa, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:43, Reply)

hahaha!
what?
( sporters I’m sincerely gratitude to you, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:46, Reply)

Oh, hello.
Now, whilst I commend your ability to learn and repeat a trite phrase, I think you'll find that the public cuts have been necessitated due to the failings of a global financial market which rewarded idiocy with taxpayer money. Do run along now, wouldn't want you to get a headache by thinking too hard.
(BelladonnaAnodyne Melissa's gonna wet herself, I swear..., Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:47, Reply)

I've got a headache by drinking too hard.

(Bazongaloid, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:47, Reply)

I like the sig!

( sporters I’m sincerely gratitude to you, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:49, Reply)

Yes, the World has caused the cuts, not Labours continued unwillingness to properly regulate the financial markets
Especially as the tax receipts were lubbly jubbly. Hey look at us we're continuing to fuck more money up the wall year on year with the nhs. VOTE FOR US !!11! You may have noticed this if you hadn't been so busy rolling round on the floor.
( Light In Chains maker of the ikea sofa, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:52, Reply)

Hm. Yawn.
So exactly what are the government now doing if not making it worse?
(BelladonnaAnodyne Melissa's gonna wet herself, I swear..., Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:56, Reply)

They're dealing with what is a staggering national deficit by spending less, it's a fairly understandable concept really
No amount of mannequin theft or drinking diamond white on a day out in London is going to prevent it. I just wish all you pikeys would go to somewhere like Bradford and fuck that place up as opposed to annoying me in London.
( Light In Chains maker of the ikea sofa, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 10:01, Reply)

Do I need to point out that after WWII there was a larger national debt
And not only did we manage to pay it off with relatively little fuss, we also managed to set up a welfare state in the years after it?
(BelladonnaAnodyne Melissa's gonna wet herself, I swear..., Mon 21 Mar 2011, 10:03, Reply)

The WWII bill was only paid off a few years ago.
And that was on favourable terms, not the commercial terms we are borrowing on now.
( Bartleby A dead man on vacation, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 10:08, Reply)

You seem to have as much a grasp on the situation as a child with downs syndrome
Hopefully you get kicked in the cunt by a charging police horse, when it all inevitably gets 'out of hand'
( Light In Chains maker of the ikea sofa, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 10:09, Reply)

Sorry, I read this as:
"I don't actually have an argument, so I'll just engage in extreme fuckwittitude".
(BelladonnaAnodyne Melissa's gonna wet herself, I swear..., Mon 21 Mar 2011, 10:12, Reply)

I don't think there's anything to apologise for.

(Bazongaloid, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 10:14, Reply)

Are you seriously saying the protesters have no valid points at all?
Think about it, agmonst the great unwashed are plenty of people who seem to know what they're talking about... Doctors and stuff, not just wanky people who are doing qthier damndest to avoid doing what their parents did; get a job and contribute to society.
( G/PP 💩💩💩💩💩&#128, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 10:14, Reply)

Based on the Belladonna brush I can't see what these protestors are after
Other than an easy ticket, and a day out on the piss in that London boring people with their commie opinions. They can fuck right off.
( Light In Chains maker of the ikea sofa, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 10:21, Reply)

They're paying off the massive debts run up by your lot.

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 10:02, Reply)

Coming from a man who refuses to take part in elections
that's a fairly stupid argument.
(Bazongaloid, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:46, Reply)

How was the Fatherland?

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 10:02, Reply)

It was excellent. Though a lot of it was covered in scaffolding
and you can't go into the Reichstag anymore unless you register a week in advance. But it was still good fun.
(Bazongaloid, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 10:07, Reply)

I've never been to Germany.
This is wrong.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 10:09, Reply)

I'd recommend it
though they are not as efficiant as national stereotypes would have us believe. In some cafes we waited for over five minutes to get a coffee.

They did all speak english though, which was useful as my German isn't great, but also a bit annoying as I was trying to improve my german and they kept answering in either really fast german which I couldn't understand, or slow english, like I was slightly retarded.
(Bazongaloid, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 10:12, Reply)

Hahaha

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 10:18, Reply)

like as
( sporters I’m sincerely gratitude to you, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 10:19, Reply)

My privately-held opinions
won't cost the taxpayer vast sums to police.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 10:04, Reply)

I guess I could email my MP and start up a No10 petition and they will change their minds if I word it right.
I'm all for the cuts, but only if they still need the money after Tescos and their ilk pay what they morally should
( G/PP 💩💩💩💩💩&#128, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:33, Reply)

If you fuck up my weekend
I will firebomb your stupid parade.
(Himjim died a little more inside on, Mon 21 Mar 2011, 9:15, Reply)