Lewes against the Education Cuts

Lewes

Sat 11 Dec

Over 300 Lewesians turned out to protest against the Coalition Government's proposed Education Cuts, in particular the three-fold rise in university tuition fees, and the withdrawal of the Educational Maintenance Allowance available to over-16s who remain in full-time education.

As was to be expected, a special target of local anger is the local Liberal Democrat MP, and government minister, Norman Baker, who joined other LibDem ministers in voting for the cuts even though they had specifically signed a pledge before the election earlier this year to oppose any rise in fees, and indeed proposed they should be phased out.

The demonstration was called by local school pupils, at two days' notice - fantastic! Congratulations!!

There are some photos from the demo in the slideshow above, including some of the witty placards, and you can also hear some of the witty chants :-) :

Norman Baker - Shame on you - Shame on you for turning blue!
They say "cut back" - we say "fight back"
No ifs, no buts - no education cuts
Lib Dems, hear us say - "give us back our EMA"

57 varieties of hypocrite

(from today's Guardian)

For those not familiar with UK politics:

- the Liberal Democrats have 57 MPs (members of parliament)

- they are propping up the Conservatives in a coalition government

- during the general election campaign earlier this year they promised to abolish students' tuition fees, if elected

- they won a number of university town seats on the back of this pledge

- the senior Liberal Democrat Vince Cable is the minister in charge of the government department which is currently introducing a huge rise in tuition fees, alongside a massive cut in the funding of university teaching

- a wave of student occupations and demonstrations is taking place all over the country against these cuts and charges

- one leading Liberal Democrat said the pledge was 'a legitimate position for an opposition party', but 'a very different position for a party with responsibility' (see dictionary definition of hypocrisy below)

- many Liberal Democrat MPs are getting cold feet over the parliamentary vote on this issue, due next week - should they vote for? against?? abstain??? individually???? all together?????

- the Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell does Cable as a baby elephant

- Heinz (of baked beanz fame) used to boast they sold 57 varieties of tinned food

- the Liberal Democrat logo is a bird with far too many wings - or is it a worm?

- the lobby is where MPs go to cast their votes in the House of Commons

- 'lobby fodder' is an expression used to refer to MPs who always vote the way their party tells them to

- hypocrite: when someone pretends to believe something that they do not really believe or that is the opposite of what they do or say at another time (Cambridge Dictionaries Online)

They say a picture is worth a thousand words - well I've used over 250 here but I'd far rather look at Steve Bell's cartoon . . .

Oh, and by the way, I - and I'm sure many others in Lewes - will be very interested to see how our own Liberal Democrat MP, Norman Baker, votes on this issue.

Toffs and Turncoats

The happy phrase is Nick Passmore's, not mine. Here they are, delivering what they patronisingly term their 'Comprehensive Spending Review'.

There are actually four Toffs in this picture, although we can only see three of them unless we really know where to look. And please don't strain your eyes trying, you'll only end up at the optician's, and it'll cost you a fortune, even more than a bus ride.

Two of them are also Turncoats. Turncoat No.1 can be identified by his subtle yellow tie; along with Toff No.1 he is attempting to nod sagely at what he wants us to think are the words of wisdom of Toff No.2. And Turncoat No.2? Well, he's hiding behind Toff 2; we surmise he's licking that part of 2's anatomy nearest to him, as he has been doing for the last 6 months.

Toff 2's speech can roughly be summarised thus: 

We and our kind got us into this mess, so you lot are going to have to get us out of it. We're all in this together, but we know our place, and we know yours as well. This is going to hurt you more than it hurts us. That's what we're here for. We're looking after our lot, you can look after yours.

Jobs, pay, pensions, welfare, transport, health, education, arts - even the police and the armed forces - all trashed in an orgy of smug, smarmy, hypocritical, prevaricating self-righteousness. And aimed disproportionately at those least able to withstand it; but they're not likely to vote Toff anyway, if they vote at all, so what do they matter?

Someone described it as a performance of smoke and mirrors - how apt. The Toffs manipulate the mirrors, trying to get us to believe that less is more, down is up, cut is paste; meanwhile the Turncoats pump away at the smoke machine, hoping to prevent us from seeing what's going on.

And on a personal note - Oi, Norman - were you listening to this garbage? Are you going to vote for it? Or are you going to use your loaf?

Norman Baker and his loaf

Fri 9 July
Lewes

Norman Baker declares Lewes Local Food Market open, and is presented with a gift of a wholesome loaf of Lewes bread. Norman is our MP, and a Minister for Transport in our Posh Boys' coalition government. I'm still asking him for my vote back, though I didn't think this was the time to press the issue. So Norman has his loaf - let's see how he uses it.

Oi, Norman, I want my vote back!

Apparently the Liberal Democrats couldn't see how to establish a progressive, reforming government with Labour. So they've turned to the Tories.

My Liberal Democrat MP, Norman Baker, stood for parliament claiming a vote for him was the only way to keep the Tories out. I voted for him on that basis, as I have done before. Now his party has put the Tories in power.

So I might as well have voted Labour, or Green.

Can I have my vote back?