I Warn You

[DanaC]

With the conservative conference speeches promising the removal of benefits for the under 25s, the revamping of the NHS along more privatised lines, the so-called 'bedroom tax' which forces poor families to move from the social houses they're in to the smaller social houses that don't yet exist (long story, previously covered somewhere in here) and that the unemployed will have to work for their ever more meagre benefits (thereby putting out of work those who currently do those jobs for minimum wage), and basically going further in their ideological destruction of the unerpinnings of our society than Thatcher ever dared, it seems to me a good time to remember a speech given by Neil Kinnock, former Labour leader in the run-up to a past election which saw Margeret Thatcher once again take Downing Street.

I think it bears some relevance for America too, as your own political right fights to strip away any and all safety nets and provisions and further forces down wages in a climate of job insecurity and fear of unemployment.

If Margaret Thatcher is re-elected as Prime Minister, I warn you.

I warn you that you will have pain - when healing and relief depend on payment.

I warn you that you will have ignorance - when talents are untended and wits are wasted, when learning is a privilege and not a right.

I warn you that you will have poverty - when pensions slip and benefits are whittled away by a Government that won't pay, in an economy that can't pay.

I warn you that you will be cold - when fuel charges are used as a tax system that the rich don't notice and the poor can't afford.

I warn you that you must not expect work - when many cannot spend, more will not be able to earn. When they don't earn, they don't spend. When they don't spend, work dies.

I warn you not to go into the streets alone after dark or into the streets in large crowds of protest in the light.

I warn you that you will be quiet - when the curfew of fear and the gibbet of unemployment make you obedient.

I warn you that you will have defence of a sort - with a risk and at a price that passes all understanding.

I warn you that you will be home-bound - when fares and transport bills kill leisure and lock you up.

I warn you that you will borrow less - when credit, loans, mortgages and easy payments are refused to people on your melting income.

If Margaret Thatcher wins, she will be more a Leader than a Prime Minister. That power produces arrogance and when it is toughened by Tebbitry and flattered and fawned upon by spineless sycophants, the boot-licking tabloid Knights of Fleet Street and placement in the Quangos, the arrogance corrupts absolutely.

If Margaret Thatcher wins -

I warn you not to be ordinary.
I warn you not to be young.
I warn you not to fall ill.
I warn you not to get old.