(Warning: Naughty words and socialist tendencies follow)

So, the new government’s budget was unveiled last week. In short, they’re trying their very best to use a minimum wage rise to cloak a horrific programme of benefit slashing that targets the young, the vulnerable, and those in need of support.

When people voted Tory, did they really think they would get anything other than an all-out assault on the poor and the needy? Did they really think that they would attempt to look after anyone’s interests but the wealthy and the well-connected? Did they really think that they would try and do anything to help the foundation of society, instead of making it more top-heavy?

What disgusts me most is the attitude I’ve been finding throughout the internet. “I’m alright.” “It doesn’t affect me.” “I’m £100 better off, which is nice.”

Of course it fucking affects you, you morons. You may be alright, and you may be £100 better off, but that’s come at the expense of thousands of other people. Your paltry £100 might have been the lifeline that sustained somebody who didn’t have the same start in life, someone who just wants to earn a living and look after their family.

Someone who wants the same things as you do, but by birth or circumstance never got a fair shot.

What’s worse is that Labour, the supposed party of the people, SUPPORTS these moves. They’re the OPPOSITION to the current government. I used to vote Labour myself, when I was living in England and couldn’t vote SNP. Now, I don’t know who I would vote for to deliver real socialist values if I still lived down south. When you support moves that penalise people for having children, that penalise people for being young (but still take their money in tax and national insurance), that will eventually force women to prove that they were raped in order to claim much-needed social support – you had better re-analyse your position as the opposition and consider whether or not you should cross that floor and sit with the Conservatives.

Oh, and as an added bonus, there may be a vote in parliament soon to repeal the ban on fox-hunting. Hooray! Bloodsports for everyone!

We are heading for some bullshit dystopia, my friends, and it’s nowhere near as fun as the science-fiction writers of yesteryear imagined. Where are our rebels? Where are our deckers, our net cowboys, our disruptors of the status quo who tried their best to bring down the ever-creeping iron fists of greedy governments and massive corporations? The anarchist left? Anonymous? Politically-awakened Scotland and the north of England? Can we even make a dent in the London/Westminster bubble?

The more that shit like this happens, the more I drift towards the anarchists’ cries that voting does nothing, and direct action is the answer. Then again, what would we do that wouldn’t simply make us as bad as our opponents?

Politics. Society. What a bastard.

M.