I'm Alright, Jack

"Don't you worry, I'm alright Jack,

we've never had it so good.

House in Hampstead,

fallout shelter,

done everything we could...

...All good men at number 10,

everything's understood.

Don't you worry, I'm alright Jack,

we've never had it so good."

(Tom Robinson)

(photo shamelessly nicked from www.gildassapiens.blogspot.com)

You might have guessed that I've started to get a wee bit annoyed by the sanctimonious self-serving claptrap being spewed from the mealy mouths of the government's junior partners.

It's a  pretty well established fact in these pages that I'm not a Tory lover. In fact for the last umpteen years (since 1992) I've voted Lib Dem in every election just to keep the buggers out.

I did so again this year. I can't say I really took to Karen Gillard, the Lib Dem candidate in this constituency, but I stuck my cross next to her name because she was the only one with the slightest chance of keeping the recurring nightmare that is Sheryll Murray out.

Turns out that I needn't have bothered. Not only did the Hounster windbag win in this corner of the country, but as soon as they got a sniff of power the Lib Dems turned into Tories as well. Suffice to say the yellows will never get my X again; at least you know the Tories are a bunch of self-seeking bastards, and not a faintly ridiculous party with pretend conviction. 

The thing that's finally really got my goat is the fact that every single Lib Dem MP signed a pledge before the election that they would oppose tuition fees for higher education.  Soon, in the House to which they were elected at least partially on that pledge, the leadership of the party will vote in completely the opposite direction. It's expected that many, if not most, Lib Dem MPs will do the same. That makes them hypocrites and liars. No excuses, no platitudes from Vince "Pinocchio" Cable should convince anyone otherwise.

These people benefitted from a free-at-the-point-of-use university education, but now they want to prevent ordinary working people from sharing that privilege. Make no mistake, that's what this is all about - preserving the privileges of the few against the many. Who on earth can even contemplate spending three or more years at university and coming out with a debt of somewhere around £30,000? Answers on a post card please to Eton, Westminster and other jolly decent schools from whence the majority of university students of the future will emerge. Oh, quelle surprise, they appear to be the hugely expensive public schools of the 2 Cs (how appropriate) who currently occupy the premiership and deputy premiership.

Not to mention that this bunch of yellow-goldy coloured right wing apologists are also about to hand the management of those student loans (debts) to the banks rather than the nationalised student loans company - market rate interest payments, here we come. That should ensure most graduates remain in debt (highly profitable for this government's banking chums) for decades.

Clegg, Cable et al - don't bother pretending it's because of the "financial crisis", or the great god "deficit". You are liars. This move is pure ideology intended to keep the top places for the top people - "Don't you worry, I'm alright Jack - we've never had it so good".

I look forward to seeing them electorally annihilated at the earliest opportunity. Hmm - that'll be in May for starters, then.


For the curious about the lyrics at the top of this rant - one of my old heroes, recorded live in 1978, the Tom Robinson Band performing "I'm Alright Jack".