EMMIE SMASH

[emmelinemay]

The government's 'big society' becomes clear.

They make councils across the land make cuts to front line services making many unemployed and reducing the support to people in the community.

That means there are plenty of people with spare time on their hands to run those services for free as volunteers! Clever, huh? And we've saved LOADS of money!!

Tell you what, lets forget about that silly vote change too, shall we? I mean, you don't really want us to spend all that cash on overhauling our electoral system to make it more democratic? Of course you don't. KERCHING! More money saved in the bank.

And with all that money we save, we can pay for a high speed rail line that will get people to Birmingham FIFTEEN WHOLE MINUTES faster than they can do now! You heard me, FIFTEEN MINUTES. Amazing. And it will only cost £17.5 billion. Or possibly £30 billion.I am not sure, as it varies depending on what you read. But costs don't matter, right? It's REALLY IMPORTANT that people can get to Birmingham FIFTEEN MINUTES FASTER. It will make us £44 billion pounds, somehow. Probably because tickets will cost £200 at off-peak rate.

I despair. Would anyone like to annex a small county and declare independence? I am done with this unelected government pissing on my chips. How about somewhere in the Chilterns? I hear they are very pretty. Well, they are right now. Less so when there's a 17/30 billion train line running through it.

Comments

[madwitch.livejournal.com]

I am trying to raise donations to buy an island, so that we can found the Socialist Republic of Beer.

[glamgothruthy.livejournal.com]

what the tories and business and back are up to at the moment makes me angrier than i've been in a long time - i'm marching in protest on the 25th about it, i don't like crowds and don't think marching does much - but i'm going anyway

[dakari-mane.livejournal.com]

I whole-heartedly agree with you.

I'll bring the flag.

[liz-lowlife.livejournal.com]

Are you?
I am hoping I will be well enough to do so also so perhaps we should go together?

[kynon.livejournal.com]

People's Republic of Bucastan.

[emmelinemay.livejournal.com]

I would potentially also be interested, even though I am really crap in crowds and know if I am ever kettled I'll probably wee myself.

[emmelinemay.livejournal.com]

It doesn't help that my friend's home (which is also her livelihood, as she's a personal trainer and runs her own gym in a converted barn) is one of the properties which will be torn down to make way for the line. She got the compulsory purchase order over a year ago and has been fighting it ever since. If I was her I would be FURIOUS to be labelled a 'NIMBY' as the government and their supporter newspapers are.

it's THROUGH HER GODDAMMED HOUSE, not just her back yard.

[glamgothruthy.livejournal.com]

yeah there should be a few going - but it would be good to meet up first

[liz-lowlife.livejournal.com]

Safety in numbers after all!

[bluekieran.livejournal.com]

How can you talk about an overhaul of the election system that will (hopefully) result in smaller parties getting more seats, and therefore (from time to time) more coalition governments, in one paragrpah, and then later on refer to the current government as "unelected"?

If we ever got proper PR, there would be even more coalitions; in some countries you rarely get anything but. Such governments are not "unelected" - their formations are a feature, not a bug (whatever you think of the current bunch).

[dakari-mane.livejournal.com]

Ouch! That fucking sucks.

[dakari-mane.livejournal.com]

Nice try but it's going to be called Dansyvania.

[jonnytuna.livejournal.com]

I agree with you about everything except for HS2.
The idea is it's a link between Scotland and London. This will be very useful when plane travel becomes uneconomical.
The HS2 link will also bypass St Pancras and allow a Scotland- France direct service.

But yes- everything else that this government has done so far has been highly disagreeable.

[nils.livejournal.com]

Well said. It really annoyed me when people kept going on about Gordon Brown being "unelected", when no one actually voted for Tony Blair, either (well, except for his constituents in Sedgefield).

For all the (many) faults of the current government, they are no more "unelected" than any other government this country has had.

[emmelinemay.livejournal.com]

My problem with the vote change is not the vote change per se. I am not decided upon it. What really angers me is the outrageously misleading and quite frankly despicable propoganda of the "No2AV" campaign.

http://blogs.channel4.com/factcheck/factcheck-the-av-campaign-gets-dirty/5789

http://www.leftfootforward.org/images/2011/02/No2AV-baby-poster.jpg

http://www.contrastingsounds.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/no2av.jpg

Trying to blame the harsh cuts to essential services on a referendum on the voting system, and using such horribly emotive adverts, well, it just sickens me. I'd rather have a referendum on the voting system than a new train line.

[emmelinemay.livejournal.com]

From what I've read, the first stage will only go to Birmingham, the rest will only be extended following that being set up. And we already HAVE a link between London and Scotland, you can get there in 5 hours which is pretty good. We're a really small island, I honestly don't think we need high speed trains like that, especially when there are already train lines there. Why don't they just upgrade them, instead of tearing up more of the countryside?

The current transport system in this country is in enough of an almighty mess, I really think they need to sort that shit out first before this line is built.

[jonnytuna.livejournal.com]

The way I see it, upgrading the track would involve closing the existing track while it is lifted up. That would put it out of action for years. Yes, it's the first stage, but the project has to start somewhere. Also 5 hours isn't reall competative with the 1 hour plane journey (it's over 6 hours from edinburgh on a Sunday)
The rest of Europe has high speed trains, we don't and we invented the blimming things.
I'd much rather see a train line plough through the countryside than yet another traffic choked motorway.
But hey Emmie, if we all agreed on everything, what would we argue about?

[emmelinemay.livejournal.com]

well, quite.

I guess it's just in conjunction with the cuts (which, while my job is ok, is affecting a lot of people I work with, and a lot of the services we work with, which directly affects the quality of support we can give to vulnerable people)and those outrageous NO2AV adverts the whole idea that we can't afford frontline services or a vote overhaul, but we CAN afford a trainline that will support businesses, well, it pisses me off.

[ephemera.livejournal.com]

likewise - I lost my Cope halfway around the anti-war protest that was the last time I attempted to take part in such a thing, but the current situation is *so* dire, and so fury-making, I think I may have to try again.

[emmelinemay.livejournal.com]

I wonder if a whole group of crowd phobic people all go together we'll cancel each others anxiety out?