Deconstructing Dick

Now is the winter of our discontent

Protests continue on a number of fronts:

• Anti-fracking (MP, Caroline Lucas to be charged for helping stage a peaceful protest)
• Many groups, including the main unions, assembling in Manchester this Sunday against the privatisation of the NHS
• UK Uncut want an end to austerity measures that hurt the poorest and advocate a tax on financial transactions
• Several groups have formed to fight the 'bedroom tax' which was recently condemned by a UN special investigator
• Journalists continue to publish details of government spying on civilians despite threats and the detention of those who help them

Made glorious summer by this sun of York;

The first Conservatives were supporters of James Stuart, Duke of York, when he was excluded from the throne for being a Catholic.  The Tories were known for their love of the monarchy and hostility towards reform of the church.

And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.

Take your pick.  There's the Osama bin Laden threat which was used to keep us in a state of fear, before he was killed and buried at sea, so the story goes.  Alternatively, there are the concerns over climate change and pollution which are sunk beneath piles of Newspeak and propaganda which puts the finance of private business above the state of the planet's ecosystems.

Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths;

London Olympics 2012

Our bruised arms hung up for monuments;

The right to protest is in a fragile state and protesters can be dispersed for 'distressing' the public.  Given the number of copies of The Daily Mail sold across the country, it is likely that there will always be a member of the public who is capable of becoming distressed at the sight of a protest.

Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings,
Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.

Protesters often mix political anger with more entertaining messages.

Grim-visaged war hath smooth'd his wrinkled front;
And now, instead of mounting barded steeds
To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,
He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber
To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.

Boris Johnson

But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks,
Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass;
I, that am rudely stamp'd, and want love's majesty
To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;
I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion,
Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,
Deformed, unfinish'd, sent before my time
Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,
And that so lamely and unfashionable
That dogs bark at me as I halt by them;

This is how the disempowered are made to feel.  Those at the bottom are portrayed as leeches, as something broken or cancerous which needs to be cut away from the population.  Those who protest against, for example, the use of drones, are portrayed as terrorist sympathisers and detained - in the UK.


Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,
Have no delight to pass away the time,
Unless to spy my shadow in the sun
And descant on mine own deformity:

The unemployed (there are lots of these since trillions of pounds were lost by corporations who continue to reward their risk-takers while accepting handouts from our taxes) can't afford to ride on the train but they have plenty of time to become depressed over what they are told are their own failings.

And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover,
To entertain these fair well-spoken days,
I am determined to prove a villain
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.

Necessarily a villain, if your protest stands in the way of a company whose representatives are working within the government.

Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous,
By drunken prophecies, libels and dreams,
To set my brother Clarence and the king
In deadly hate the one against the other:
And if King Edward be as true and just
As I am subtle, false and treacherous,
This day should Clarence closely be mew'd up,
About a prophecy, which says that 'G'
Of Edward's heirs the murderer shall be.


At the Labour Party Conference, Miliband set himself up against the energy companies, threatening to freeze their prices if Labour win back power.  The energy companies feigned fury and in return threatened power cuts, this despite the extra £3billion in profits the 'impoverished' energy firms have made since the ConDem government took over.

But is this progress?  Current prices mean families are already suffering from fuel poverty.

Dive, thoughts, down to my soul: here
Clarence comes.

The Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill could come into play from January 2014.  It can significantly reduce the campaigning activities of charities and protest groups right up until the next general election.  Many vociferous opponents of the current government may find themselves effectively gagged during that time.

  Richard III - a villain or someone written as such by history's winners?  And who will write the story of this government, when the scholars are all owned by the same companies whose interests the government represents?  Will our descendents read about the brave, heroical decisions taken by Cameron, the hero of the 21st century?