Why has there not been an uprising against the Tories?

[RosieLeaLovesTea]

Inspired why the what is really going. On in our schools, well Laura …. Thread

why has there not been an uprising against the story government?

the things going on in schools, the level of SEND needs and teachers leaving in droves.

the state of the NHS - staff overwhelmed and completely demoralised. It’s on its knees.

strikes across many public sector services for decent pay due to inflation and cost of living.

their Austerity policy has destroyed public services.

I work in social services and I see it every day. And several u turns on policy for social care - the cap on care costs, the reversal of the NI increase which was meant to provide funding for NHS and social care.

lied to about their behaviour during covid.

it just goes on

surely the whole of the UK needs a wake up call and needs to do something…

Posts like this make me chuckle.

What are you doing OP? I can guess... Nothing 😂 I see posts daily complaining about how the British won't take to the streets but strangely it's always from people who have absolutely no intention of doing it themselves...

• Apathy
• The class system: there is still a ''serf mentality'' in the UK that just accepts that anyone with a posh accent must be right...
• Right wing press: a big part of the population is not educated and politically literate enough to see through and beyond the toxic ''let's blame immigrants/foreigners and the EU'' narrative.

Sadly that is definitely true. It's the I'm Alright Jack mentality. I've heard the same from my own parents who have had the benefit of wonderful pensions, jobs for life, free university education for their children, affordable housing (on one income) etc etc. They have actually said to me in the past "Why should we vote for a party who is going to make us worse off?" I don't get it as we are talking about nice decent people who have been good parents. Generous with their friends and family. Give to charity etc. It's just other people in less fortunate positions they just don't seem to understand. They've lived in a bit of a bubble, I suppose, never volunteered in a foodbank or worked with people who are hard up.

I feel like I'd be a bit useless in a riot anyway. I know the drill is to head for high value, easily transportable goods but I think, if I let the reins off my conscience and let myself grab anything I wanted, I'd ram raid the poshest stationery shop I could find - like an anarchic swat.

@FourTeaFallOut 😂😂😂 now that's looting done right!!!

Best summing up of the situation that I have read in a long time.

A largely stupid electorate who believe what the Tory media tell them, and tell them where to look ( in the direction of the 'culture war' and immigration while in the other direction the country is being looted by the Government and their chums) apathy, boiled frog syndrome and a heavy coating of fuck-you-jack-i'm-alright.

They do take to the streets though. During the recent nurses' strikes I saw them demonstrating outside the hospital for hours. They were getting a LOT of support from passeres by. My own teaching colleagues who were on strike went to join a protest in the city centre. I am a different union but if/when mine goes on strikes I'll be going on the demos too.

Because mild mannered protesting does not work, and rioting or violence will get you arrested and banned from many jobs in the future.

We have no power in Britain. It’s a neo-empire.

It’s not just “some” I’ve sadly come to the conclusion that’s it’s an awful lot of people, more than we would like to think.

@RosieLeaLovesTea

Have you not noticed the huge wave of strikes?

What do you think they are about,?

But this is the worry. That our country feels like a sinking ship and everyone is scrambling for the raft, all out for themselves. Never mind the ones left behind, they're just collateral damage.

Because there's quite a large section who don't want to pay the taxes labour might bring in or didn't like their lax immigration policies. I blame Labour for brexit , if they would have staggered the freedom of movement for ascension countries (every other country did this) I don't believe brexit would have happened. I'm going to vote Labour at the next GE but I'm not happy with them either best of a bad bunch.

Because the vast majority of the electorate voted for them. If we have changed our minds, we can vote for someone else in the next election.

Countries which are ruled by rioting and mobs don’t seem to be very attractive places to live. Be careful what you wish for, OP.

So true !

Because not everyone is unhappy with the way the country is being run and knows that it could be a hell of a lot worse.

People still choose to come here from countries where government is worse. (And I'm not just talking dreadful regimes)

Not everybody who virtue signals about how evil the Tories are wants to risk paying higher taxes and getting lower benefits in order to pay more towards schools and hospitals.

Some people who think the Tory policies are terrible would actually suffer if some of those policies were reversed - and they know it. But they won't admit it.

Most people have the sense to know that if we rose up and smashed the Tories what would NOT happen is that we got a lovely fluffy government who gave us all what we wanted. History tells us that. Who would fill the gap?

Revolt always causes loss, damage, injury. Businesses and individuals go under. (And people who advocate that don't usually think it's going to be their car that's torched, shop front that's smashed or kid that's going to be found to be "on the wrong side".)

Energy is better put into change through influence, purchasing power, small groups at work or at home... but this is not as "sexy"

Yes it is a worry, and it makes me sad, and also angry.

Because there's no inspiring alternative so what's the point?

Because that one time England tried something different it reverted to the same old way of doing things 20 years later?

Or just voting the fuckers out - ever considered that?

Because the Tories are masters of 'divide and rule' politics - see the way the working poor have been trained to blame the non-working poor, who in turn blame immigrants ...

@dreamingoaholiday -
Or just voting the fuckers out - ever considered that?

^^Absolutely!! It might still happen

Not everybody who virtue signals about how evil the Tories are wants to risk paying higher taxes and getting lower benefits in order to pay more towards schools and hospitals.
We currently have some of the highest taxes we've ever paid

Some people who think the Tory policies are terrible would actually suffer if some of those policies were reversed - and they know it. But they won't admit it.
What policies might they be then? How has the ordinary person in the street benefited from any single Tory policy in the last 13 years?

Most people have the sense to know that if we rose up and smashed the Tories what would NOT happen is that we got a lovely fluffy government who gave us all what we wanted. History tells us that. Who would fill the gap?

I post this up all the time.......but this is what the Labour Party gave us during their last period in government. Not fuffy. Just incredibly beneficial for most people.

1. Longest period of sustained low inflation since the 60s.
2. Low mortgage rates.
3. Introduced the National Minimum Wage and raised it to £5.52.
4. Over 14,000 more police in England and Wales.
5. Cut overall crime by 32 per cent.
6. Record levels of literacy and numeracy in schools.
7. Young people achieving some of the best ever results at 14, 16, and 18.
8. Funding for every pupil in England has doubled.
9. Employment is at its highest level ever.
10. Written off up to 100 per cent of debt owed by poorest countries.
11. 85,000 more nurses.
12. 32,000 more doctors.
13. Brought back matrons to hospital wards.
14. Devolved power to the Scottish Parliament.
15. Devolved power to the Welsh Assembly.
16. Dads now get paternity leave of 2 weeks for the first time.
17. NHS Direct offering free convenient patient advice.
18. Gift aid was worth £828 million to charities last year.
19. Restored city-wide government to London.
20. Record number of students in higher education.
21. Child benefit up 26 per cent since 1997.
22. Delivered 2,200 Sure Start Children’s Centres.
23. Introduced the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
24. £200 winter fuel payment to pensioners & up to £300 for over-80s.
25. On course to exceed our Kyoto target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
26. Restored devolved government to Northern Ireland.
27. Over 36,000 more teachers in England and 274,000 more support staff and teaching assistants.
28. All full time workers now have a right to 24 days paid holiday.
29. A million pensioners lifted out of poverty.
30. 600,000 children lifted out of relative poverty.
31. Introduced child tax credit giving more money to parents.
32. Scrapped Section 28 and introduced Civil Partnerships.
33. Brought over 1 million social homes up to standard.
34. Inpatient waiting lists down by over half a million since 1997.
35. Banned fox hunting.
36. Cleanest rivers, beaches, drinking water and air since before the industrial revolution.
37. Free TV licences for over-75s.
38. Banned fur farming and the testing of cosmetics on animals.
39. Free breast cancer screening for all women aged between 50-70.
40. Free off peak local bus travel for over-60s.
41. New Deal – helped over 1.8 million people into work.
42. Over 3 million child trust funds have been started.
43. Free eye test for over 60s.
44. More than doubled the number of apprenticeships.
45. Free entry to national museums and galleries.
46. Overseas aid budget more than doubled.
47. Heart disease deaths down by 150,000 and cancer deaths down by 50,000.
48. Cut long-term youth unemployment by 75 per cent.
49. Free nursery places for every three and four-year-olds.
50. Free fruit for most four to six-year-olds at school.

Because the alternatives aren't much better. Not one really fills anyone with confidence. They are just a bunch of mud slinging, self serving, pompous, out of touch that's who argue for the sake or arguing. I think people are just ground down with it all.

It isn't part of the English constitution to riot? really? Is that why Ian Gilmour's book Riot, Risings and Revolutions is only 448 pages long

I don't think its the English class system exerting pressure upon people to doff their caps either, or else there wouldn't have been so many uprisings and riots in the C18th.

Simply put, things just aren't bad enough for enough people combined with the fact that we have a media and a whole load of propaganda and ideologies that enforce this idea that the little people have no power. Daily events in our own lives over which we have no power serve to reinforce a sense of hopelessness. And the hopelessness is coupled with the liberal ideal of individualism. This means that both triumph and failure is viewed as something that the individual has control over and that those who fail deserve to do so. Hard work is a virtue, and those with virtue are deserving. Those who fail only deserve to be booted down further. Those to triumph have power, they are not hopeless, those who fail feel not anger, but hopelessness.

However, I believe that the MC will not tolerate the sewerage washing up around their knees, and if things continue to get much worse and many more people are pushed into immiseration (Marx term for how more labour is junked) then yes we will see people take to the streets.

I don't know why either. It's so bad, I can't understand why people aren't doing something.