The Nasty…Party?

Something’s been bothering me over the last few weeks…something I couldn’t quite put my finger on…until last Saturday night.

I was jigging along with the rest of the crowd singing along to Kaiser Chiefs’ “The Angry Mob”, when I had a light bulb moment.

The Country is in dire straits, people are feeling the pinch, unemployment is high, prices are rising, housing is slumped and it all seems a bit too much for most people, me included…but it’s the way we deal with it that I believe is starting to divide the Country.

There seems to me to be worryingly large groups of people in the UK who are responding to the pressure by saying “if I can’t have it, why should they“.

• Street gangs – last August, looting shops, burning homes, wrecking livelihoods.
• Hester’s bonus – pressured to give up payment he’d been promised for doing his job.
• Sir Fred’s knighthood – the first knighthood removed without evidence of a criminal offence.
• Bankers’ generally – demonised as a whole because they are seen as highly paid individuals.

All evidence of what we are turning to…mob rule.

The mob resents success…is jealous of anyone who seems to “have it”.  It’s called “tall poppy syndrome”…but whatever you call it, it’s nasty.

How can we possibly create jobs in the UK if we can’t attract businesses to set up here?  Who will set up business here if we don’t welcome the successful?  It’s a downward spiral and one we don’t need.

Maybe now I realise that the Kaiser Chiefs attract far too many shaved heads with much too much camouflage clothing, but it was worth it to experience the mob mind…the anger was palpable.

In the words of the Chiefs, “We like who we like, We hate who we hate, But we’re also easily swayed”.