I think the point is to remind those in power that society depends on the workers working before anything else.

Oh no, Octavious was inconvenienced. Whatever shall we do? Nothing gets attention and makes a point like making it possible for Octavious to ignore you.

Octavious's brilliant scenario assumes crybabies like Octavious would actually support the unions in said marketing campaign. The only way to make change is to hurt the ruling class in the pocket book, since all they care about is money anyway.

BTW, Clarkson said strikers should be shot in front of their families. I'm waiting for Invictus and Octavious to condemn such comments. Typical violent rhetoric from the bourgeoisie.

Kelly Clarkson? What a bitch!

No, the fucker from Top Gear. Hope he dies in a car crash.

Working people have so little ability to influence those in power that often the only way to have any chance of being effective is the withdrawal of labour. The true cause of this strike is the government which is (again) attempting to walk all over the public sector employees. The workers are simply attempting to retain rights that are part of the contracts they had with their employers.

How about people start appreciating the folks who watch their kids and wipe their asses instead of feeling entitled to their services? You're not entitled to anyone's fucking labor. The Tories want the working class to be their slaves.

To be honest, Putin, I wasn't inconvenienced at all. Indeed, the drive to and from work was somewhat easier than usual. I do, however, have a great deal of sympathy for the people in the UK that did suffer because of the Union action.

My scenario, Putin, assumes that what the unions actually want to say is worth listening to. If it turns out, after hearing their message, that most of the people think they don't have a good enough point then they should shut up and get back to work along with the rest of us. If it turns out that they do have a genuinely good argument then support will dry up for the government who will start shitting themselves.

As things stand the union policy of "lets keep kicking the country until it breaks or we get what we want" gets everyone's backs up and doesn't advance their cause one iota. The government is currently delighted by the strikes which is doing them no harm whatsoever and making the people on strike look like spoilt brats.

Right, as if union money could compete with the corporate media disinformation campaigns which tell people like you the lies you want to hear, that public sector workers, who clean up after the middle and upper class and do their parenting for them, are "spoilt brats". The spoilt brats are the ones who think public sector employees are their serfs who should just shut up and service you, while the government balances the budget on their backs while enriching their big money friends.

Your Tories and Lib Dem friends are the ones kicking the country with a ridiculous austerity plan that makes absolutely no sense in the middle of a recession. You want a scapegoat so you pick on people on anybody who isn't rich and has a decent job. Heaven forbid working class people might get benefits or something. That's just horrendous isn't it?

@ Putin regarding Clarkson

Have you even seen the interview in which he said this? It was on a shown he was invited to in which the theme was "Clarkson's crazy comments". They even had a panel of judges sat in the room ready to mark him on how outrageous what he said would be. Two of them marked him as guilty of saying mad things, and one marked him 7. It was meant to be a bit of fun, for god's sake.

God damn it, man. At least try and learn about what you're condeming before you condem it!

a show*, not shown

Yes, because it's funny to say things like people should be shot in front of their families. Because we're not having problems with police pigs beating the shit out of protesters right now. Clarkson is a bigoted piece of trash, but I suppose any bigoted rightwing piece of trash gets a platform from which to speak, while the right continually expresses outrage when the working class organize themselves to speak.

You know what's funny? Saying the only good Tory is a dead one. Hahahahahaha, laughs. If a leftist made a joke like that you Murdoch loving dittoheads would be crying to your mommys about it. We found that out when Hoffa made the "take these sons of bitches out" comment, after two years of violent rhetoric from the teabaggers.

If Clarkson was the worst the world had to offer then we would be living in a paradise. He is a decent family man that makes a good living in the media by bringing a bit of laughter and merryment to millions and gives generously to charity. I have no problem with you attacking people, Putin, but you could at least make an effort to attack people who deserve it. There are plenty out there.

He drives cars at high spends and has managed to make bigoted remarks about virtually every group in existence. He's another blowhard with a microphone. He produces nothing of value for the world and then calls for the assassination of trade unionists. We've already had a Congresswoman get shot in the head by you rightwing thugs here in the States thanks to violent rhetoric like that of Clarkson.

I like how giving to charity absolves the exploiters of any wrongdoing. Philanthropy is truly the golden ticket from which evil people who live off the labor of others doing evil things try to buy themselves into heaven.

He presents a highly successful and amusing car/talk show despite admitting that he knows next to nothing about cars. He is well know for making outlandish comments and having a predominantly right wing viewpoint, but you may have noticed that he invites onto his show a huge variety of figures of every political persuasion and does nothing to belittle them no matter how much he may disagree with them.


He is a fair and decent man with a dark sense of humour that is appreciated by huge numbers of people. He has done more good in this world in the past few years, by giving to charity and giving a voice for politicians of all colours to people who would normally not bother listening to them, than the likes of us could hope to achieve in our lifetimes.

He is a damned good man, and shame on you, Putin, for laying into him just because he's the celebrity pantomime villian of the day.

Getting back to the point, I personally support the strikers. Cameron is an over privileged multi millionaire who does nothing but look down upon the hard working public sector and the vast majority of essential work they do. What's more, he's doing this whilst greedy bankers are getting away with it. Shocking, absolutely shocking.

Whether you support the strikers or not isn't really the issue. I just don't understand why they choose to strike when the alternative I suggested at the start of this thread allows them to march and appear all united and angry in the news, avoids causing harm and upset to the rest of the UK population, and gives them over TEN TIMES THE SPENDING POWER OF THE ENTIRE TORY NATIONAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN to help draw attention to their message.

I appologise sincerely for the use of capitals, but it is such a stunning little fact I felt it was justified :p.

Again, the point of the demonstration WAS to cause upset. Sometimes you have to do that to make sure they are listening. Nothing says, "I'm serious" like bringing the whole system to a screeching halt.

Yes it is the issue Octavious. Stop pretending like you'd give a damn if the unions put out commercials. You'd bitch about how you'd rather see ads for the newest video games or ignore them completely. You'd rather complain and demonize public sector workers and are just looking for an excuse. You're not entitled to other people's labor. Deal with it.

And I find it hilarious that people who are depriving themselves of pay in order to score a victory for the entire collective are 'spoilt brats', while the people who whine about being inconvenienced are apparently the real working stiffs.

"He is a damned good man, and shame on you, Putin, for laying into him just because he's the celebrity pantomime villian of the day."

Shame on you for absolving a gangrenous malignancy of a human being who "jokes" about killing brave trade unionists just because you find him entertaining. What kind of person has such a bizarre set of priorities that you value shock jock media personalities contributions to the world over the entire public sector working class.

" TEN TIMES THE SPENDING POWER OF THE ENTIRE TORY NATIONAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN"

Does that include all the spending power of the Tory press and their big money backers? As if the Daily Mirror and the other joke papers would give the unions the time of day. Murdoch would engage in a blitzkrieg of union hate.

@ Yellojacket

But they did nothing at all to upset the politicians they were striking at. All they achieved was to cause varying degrees of upset to the public at large and loose themselves support. I doubt very much than people who had previously been sitting on the fence about public sector pay and pensions have been saying "I wasn't sure up until now, but since their unions forced me to take a day off work to look after my kids instead of them going to school I'm all for them". Cameron will have laughing all the way to the bank where he's depositing the money he didn't have to pay the strikers on Wednesday.

@ Putin

Some days what you say is truly insightful, touching on brilliant, and has the power to open up new avenues of thought. Sadly, today isn't one of them.

I have every sympathy for the strikers; it does seem odd that when the taxpayer bought the banks the obscene bonuses still had to be paid out 'because they were part of a contract', but we can rip up the contractual entiltlements of the very taxpayers who bailed out the banks.

However, there is a reality that unions, private sector workers and the bankers need to face and that is that economies cannot survive by continual borrowing against our childrens' potential income. We have to acheive a balanced budget over a short economic cycle and realise we can not allow politicians to bribe us with our own money (and our childrens' money) to get elected. We are in for a huge correction and we had better face up to it and share the pain as evenly as we can.

> on average earning £100 per working day (bit of an underestimate,
My wife works in the UK public sector - she makes less than £50 a day - before tax! - and now the bastards want to make her contribute even more out of that to go towards a reduced pension she'll eventually get several years later than was originally promised.

@ SpeakerToAliens

Yeah, some people earn less than average. Teachers on the other hand, who made up a rather large part of the striking workforce, earn around £32,000 per year which is (very roughly) around £125 per day. I don't think the £100 average is unfair.

Re Clarkson. It seems as if a lot of comments are based on the clip of his "Frankly I'd have them all shot" comment. But if you watch the whole segment (transcript at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15993558) if is clear that he is offering his execution comment as an outrageous counterweight to his earlier comments praising the strike (or at least praising its effects on traffic!). He even precedes the contentious comment with the sentence "But we have to balance this though, because this is the BBC" and finishes the interview by explicitly denying that those are his views: "They're not. I've just given two views for you.". Context is everything.

Well said, that man!

A good friend of mine was forced to change his name not so long ago when the left wing media took something out of context and attacked him without mercy. I can't help but get wound up whenever I see it happening to someone else.

i just wonder why every time politicians and those in power talk about 'austerity measures' it is the common working person's salaries and benefits that are curtailed, while their own 6 or 7 figure salaries are not, nor their benefits. Why is austerity continually burdening the working class?
and Maniac had a good point. The taxpayers bailed out the banks, and the very bank executives that got themselves and us into this mess are still walking away with their outrageous bonuses this christmas.
I would really just like to know why this is acceptable, and how this has happened? Please enlighten me.