Basement Jack - 01 April 2011

Pot and kettling syndrome

So, it has been a quiet fortnight then, Eh? When a leaking nuclear reactor damaged by a tsunami caused by a massive earthquake is the fourth item on the news you know that all is not entirely well with the world.

Having been on holiday, during which rather less attention was paid to current affairs than normal, it was a bit of a jolt to discover on my return that we're in the middle of another bloody war. What happened to the months of nuanced diplomacy that usually precede us attempting to bomb the living p*ss out of some far-flung land?

It's very laudable that we've dashed to the aid of the citizens of Benghazi under threat of massacre from Libya's caricature villain-in-chief Colonel Gadaffi but don't we typically do a little threatening and posturing before breaking out the heavy artillery? It has all happened way too fast for way too little evident justification; we're waist-deep in this conflict without any real definable end goal in sight.

And should the Colonel be removed, aren't we going to have British troops putting their lives on the line maintaining an uneasy peace in a new, forcibly constructed democracy à la Iraq for no obvious gain? Just what the bloody hell are we doing there and how did we get there so fast? We're surely not going to be interfering in every internal conflict in every country around the globe? A more cynical observer might suspect that there was a certain amount of misdirection going on - the shock and awe over there drawing attention away from austerity unrest over here.

Embarking on a moral crusade as instigated by Man-baby Hague, 'Barking Mad' Liam Fox and the angry egg D-Cam himself could be a seriously expensive business on many fronts. Now I'm neither selfish nor some little-Englander who believes that we should ignore the rest of the world unless it comes knocking on our door but how the hell can we afford a conflict in/over Libya? When the public finances are so tight that resources are being drained from essential services here in the UK and we're constantly being lectured about the need for fiscal discipline, wazzing tens - perhaps hundreds - of millions of pounds enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya and supporting anti-Gadaffi forces is just insane.

This is serious stuff. The fire station in my home town of roughly 40,000 residents is being closed down because the £200,000 it costs to maintain annually is deemed too expensive. Instead, residents, my family included, will just have to hang on for the fire crews from a town nearly 20 miles away to arrive. You know what, when it's your home or business burning that 15-20 minute delay could literally mean the difference between life and death. Would the somebody somewhere who decided that this was an acceptable risk be happy to wait 20 minutes after dialling '999' on discovering their own home on fire? Unlikely.

Against this backdrop of towns and cities having services withdrawn or reduced, to say nothing of savage cuts in defence spending, the UK spent an estimated £28.5 million in the first four days of Libyan operations. The first four days. By the time you read this we'll have been involved in the conflict for more than three times that period. That's an awful lot of fire stations, libraries, bus services, university places and jobs. It may also cost British lives, which might possibly be justifiable if there was some point or purpose for our participation in the military action.

It all seems rather rushed and ill-considered and where huge sums of money and the lives of service personnel are on the line, this simply isn't good enough. Britain has a very proud military heritage but right now the brave fighting men and women of the armed forces are not being well served by their political masters...nor indeed are the people who elected them.

What better time then for a mass protest against the Government's cuts? The TUC-organised demonstration of late last month saw hundreds of thousands of people from all walks of life (well maybe not hedge fund managers) unite in protest. This should have sent a powerful message to the Government as to the popular unease regarding its social and economic policies.

But of course it didn't because the press attention was entirely hijacked by a bunch of rent-a-mob bell-ends claiming to be anarchists and tax protesters who used the otherwise peaceful protests as a means to smash sh*t up and have a fight.

You simply don't turn up to a demonstration armed with ammonia-filled light-bulbs unless you're planning on violence - more specifically unless you're intent on injuring policemen. These thuggish, deluded, halfwits opted to 'fight the power' by graffiti-ing Nelson's Column, vandalising the Olympic clock, smashing windows as well as throwing paint and smoke grenades at Topshop's Oxford Street store, all apparently in the name of forcibly bringing about change in a 'class war'. What they actually did was hand the Government a perfect excuse not to talk about the anti-spending cut agenda behind the real protest - a political nuance evidently beyond these pea-brained arses.

What really took the proverbial biscuit were the complaints from those who held a sit-in at Fortnum & Mason and then moaned about being arrested. Frankly, with their comrades throwing bricks at the police they are lucky that's all they got.

This was an opportunity to expose an apparent double-standard in Government policy as well as showcase the democracy we're so keen to foist on others in action. It was an opportunity missed.

If you'd like to comment on any of Jack's article or share rant about something that irritates you, email editorial@theappointment.co.uk. It might tempt him out of the cupboard, and maybe he'll write about what annoys you!