It's kicking off in London...

[silverclaws]

The Secret People

Smile at us, pay us, pass us; but do not quite forget,
For we are the people of England, that never has spoken yet.
There is many a fat farmer that drinks less cheerfully,
There is many a free French peasant who is richer and sadder than we.
There are no folk in the whole world so helpless or so wise.
There is hunger in our bellies, there is laughter in our eyes;
You laugh at us and love us, both mugs and eyes are wet:
Only you do not know us. For we have not spoken yet.

The fine French kings came over in a flutter of flags and dames.
We liked their smiles and battles, but we never could say their names.
The blood ran red to Bosworth and the high French lords went down;
There was naught but a naked people under a naked crown.
And the eyes of the King's Servants turned terribly every way,
And the gold of the King's Servants rose higher every day.
They burnt the homes of the shaven men, that had been quaint and kind,
Till there was no bed in a monk's house, nor food that man could find.
The inns of God where no man paid, that were the wall of the weak,
The King's Servants ate them all. And still we did not speak.

And the face of the King's Servants grew greater than the King:
He tricked them, and they trapped him, and stood round him in a ring.
The new grave lords closed round him, that had eaten the abbey's fruits,
And the men of the new religion, with their Bibles in their boots,
We saw their shoulders moving, to menace or discuss,
And some were pure and some were vile; but none took heed of us.
We saw the King as they killed him, and his face was proud and pale;
And a few men talked of freedom, while England talked of ale.

A war that we understood not came over the world and woke
Americans, Frenchmen, Irish; but we knew not the things they spoke.
They talked about rights and nature and peace and the people's reign:
And the squires, our masters, bade us fight; and never scorned us again.
Weak if we be for ever, could none condemn us then;
Men called us serfs and drudges; men knew that we were men.
In foam and flame at Trafalgar, on Albuera plains,
We did and died like lions, to keep ourselves in chains,
We lay in living ruins; firing and fearing not
The strange fierce face of the Frenchman who knew for what he fought,
And the man who seemed to be more than man we strained against and broke;
And we broke our own rights with him. And still we never spoke.

Our path of glory ended; we never heard guns again.
But the squire seemed struck in the saddle; he was foolish, as if in pain.
He leaned on a staggering lawyer, he clutched a cringing Jew,
He was stricken; it may be, after all, he was stricken at Waterloo.
Or perhaps the shades of the shaven men, whose spoil is in his house,
Come back in shining shapes at last to spoil his last carouse:
We only know the last sad squires ride slowly towards the sea,
And a new people takes the land: and still it is not we.

They have given us into the hands of the new unhappy lords,
Lords without anger and honour, who dare not carry their swords.
They fight by shuffling papers; they have bright dead alien eyes;
They look at our labour and laughter as a tired man looks at flies.
And the load of their loveless pity is worse than the ancient wrongs,
Their doors are shut in the evenings; and they know no songs.

We hear men speaking for us of new laws strong and sweet,
Yet is there no man speaketh as we speak in the street.
It may be we shall rise the last as Frenchmen rose the first,
Our wrath come after Russia's wrath and our wrath be the worst.
It may be we are meant to mark with our riot and our rest
God's scorn for all men governing. It may be beer is best.
But we are the people of England; and we have not spoken yet.
Smile at us, pay us, pass us. But do not quite forget.

G.K. CHESTERTON

 

[longun]

cant be arsed to read all the posts but silly students :roll:

proves that people of any age and background can be careless ,narrow,minded ,ill educated and feckin stupid.

and to think they created such mindless acts the day before remembrance day :!:

Perhaps if you could be "arsed" a bit more about the subject you might have something worth saying.

Who needed proof that stupidity can be found in all sections of society, who ever doubted it?

What the hell has rememberance day got to do with it?

someone got outta bed the wrong side this morning!

its about having respect ,you sunshine dont appear to have any in my book.

and lets be honest,people these days will look for any excuse to cause conflict.

peaceful protests are very far and few between.

not gonna get my self banned,its a site about retrobikes and i love it.

 

[marin man]

That poem is fantastic silverclaws,when was it written :?:

 

[rosstheboss]

That is a good poem...

I prefer this one though...

On the Ning Nang Nong Where the Cows go Bong!
and the monkeys all say BOO!
There's a Nong Nang Ning Where the trees go Ping!
And the tea pots jibber jabber joo.
On the Nong Ning Nang All the mice go Clang And you just can't catch 'em when they do!
So its Ning Nang Nong Cows go Bong! Nong Nang Ning Trees go ping Nong Ning Nang The mice go Clang
What a noisy place to belong is the Ning Nang Ning Nang Nong!!

 

[Mogsman]

Chesterton's "The Secret People" was first published in 1907 in a magazine called The Neolith. It has been by many politicians over the years.
Ian

 

[rosstheboss]

Hitting the nail on the head again....

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/soci ... 011103243/

 

[highlandsflyer]

cant be arsed to read all the posts but silly students :roll:

proves that people of any age and background can be careless ,narrow,minded ,ill educated and feckin stupid.

and to think they created such mindless acts the day before remembrance day :!:

Perhaps if you could be "arsed" a bit more about the subject you might have something worth saying.

Who needed proof that stupidity can be found in all sections of society, who ever doubted it?

What the hell has rememberance day got to do with it?

Hey now, is there any need to suggest someone is saying something worthless because it happens to be different from what you think?

No one needs to read the posts on this thread to have in depth knowledge on this issue.

I agree with Longun; the actions of these particular brats was damn stupid.

If they had turned on the element within who were intent on these actions, think how well that would have played? The fact they did not indicates how little gumption and class these spoilt brats have.

Remembrance Day certainly provides an interesting counterpoint; focussing on the sacrifice of many similarly aged people who showed incredible maturity and dignity in pursuance of protecting the interests of their countrymen and women rather than themselves.

 

[Neil]

i was in tescos earlier....set fire to the place and threw high pressure containers from the rooftops because i was told i had to pay for my stuff..(just kidding)...no excuse for this behaviour...none at all...peaceful opposition not this kind of stuff....if someone did this to your car as a political gesture im sure the reactions would change...it seems ok to pick on the tories as its all their fault(?) but the truth is nothing is free in life...does not give us the right to do this...the true protesters have my support...the black clad goons funded by groups who dont have the balls to stand up and show themselves get nothing from me but contempt..

I probably don't have quite the strength of feeling that you do, but I get the sentiment.

Anyways, colour me disappointed. Here you have students, supposedly in further education on the basis of intelligence and the development of their knowledge - and when they have issues they need to highlight, what metaphoric tool do they use - brain or brawn?

Sure, I get the - perhaps a bit specious - argument that without drama, nobody notices. But if this is an example of them brandishing their intellect, then colour me unimpressed. They should consider the hand that feeds them. I mean this is so not University Challenge. All they really need to think about is What Would Jeremy Paxman Say (/ Do).

And when middle England got put in the firing line, first, did Mums take to the streets overturning cars and putting shop windows through because child benefit is getting yanked from any family with a higher rate taxpayer?

;-)

C'mon students, show a bit of nouse, y'now that sort of thing the general public think should be being developed by further edumacation (in the words of Homer Simpson), to bastardise a quote - it's all about the voters, stupid.

I agree with you neil but the problem is that all students at uni.for the last few years have not been the brightest or the wealthiest,anybody can go because exams are so easy and credit was there for the taking,if you went back to pre. the easy finance years and pre the uni. seen as a right by certain elements of society,I dare say it would not pan out like it did the other day.

OK - so I was too subtle, then...

Don't you think it's an inordinately poor way of attempting to persuade the rest of the electorate to get behind your cause, who are responsible for paying the tax for funding your pursuits, whilst at the same time (largely) p1ss1ng off the same people who a) pay the tax; b) you'd like to garner their support; and c) are the people who can make any changes via the electoral system.

With all that in mind, does it seem to maintain good value in terms of tax spent, or with that reaction by the students, may well seem to most voting taxpayers to be largely fair-play by the gummint?

 

[Gadro]

..........I suspect this demo is but the first of many and who knows maybe one day it will be the cops themselves joining in with the demonstrations.

Ah but we are hated by ALL classes of society. I cannot add up or spell, I pay nothing into my pension, I can retire aged 30 on £50k a year, I regularly pick on people for no reason at all, I apparently also like doughnuts.................................etc, etc AND if I walk around with one of my trousers pulled up above my knees, backwards, with an apron around my waist I can also summon the hordes of hell to do my bidding.

but you never know stranger things have happened

Wish we were a bit more like the French, Liberté, égalité, fraternité, then the sh*t would really hit the pan.

I think this is only the start worse is to come

 

[KeepItSteel]

Have we become so week and ineffective that we can only wring our hands and hope a bunch of over privileged, self indulgent millionaires will come and allow us the crumbs from their table.

Its rediculous comments like that which are making me sick.
There are far too many people obsessed by a virtually non-existant class system.

Wake up and smell the roses FFS.

Power to the people MY AR$E.