This is how history is made. Hundreds of thousands of protestors flood the capital demonstrating their opposition to a President who holds office thanks to a rigged election. They demand democracy, they demand their voices be heard, they demand that the President go. The biggest weekday demo in British history greeted the visit of George W. Bush. Meanwhile in Georgia, a President and not just an effigy was overthrown.
Following last months unofficial strike action by postal workers
management seem to have been put temporarily onto the back foot. This
is in marked contrast to the period following the recent narrow
rejection of a national strike over pay and conditions. At that time,
Royal Mail management could not conceal their pleasure. Cockey
jumped-up managers all over the country engaged in a new offensive
against the workforce. Top managers were bragging that they had the
full support of the government, the DTI and Patricia Hewitt in
particular.
The festive season in Britain got off to a grim start with the discovery of two
pensioners who died weeks after their gas supply was cut off because of an
unpaid bill of £140. These events happened, not in 1840 but in our own times.
The Office of National Statistics predicts that 2,500 people will die of cold
this week. The cause of these deaths is usually attributed to things like
influenza, heart attacks, pneumonia and the like. But the real cause in most
cases is poverty and neglect.
In Gordon Brown's recent Budget Report for 2003 we are told that "social
justice" is the aim of the Blair government. A closer look at official
statistics shows that the opposite is being achieved.