Of all the animals of prey, man is the only sociable one.
Every one of us preys upon his neighbour, and yet we herd together.
The Beggar's Opera: John Gay

Wednesday, 19 May 2010

Power to the People!

We're not exactly manning the barricades - not yet, at any rate - but a trawl through the local news stories of the Home Counties reveals an interesting trend.

From the villagers of Meriden and their Home Guard-style operation to prevent an illegal traveller camp to the doughty Dorset pensioner marching backwards and forwards across a pedestrian crossing to protest about traffic volume in his village, the people are on the move.

The latest addition has appeared on an Oxfordshire road where someone, fed up with speeding vehicles, has put up this sign.



Look at the quality and finish - this has taken time and money to produce. Someone wants to make a clear statement. And so far, it appears, the official jobsworths have not arrived to take it down (although this may simply be because they need forms signed in triplicate by the Archbishop of Canterbury before they can do so).

I suspect we will see increasing amounts of direct action as the departure of Gordon Brown has helped to shake the country out of its defeatist inertia - there's a hope that, under a new administration, the institutional bureaucracy and interference of the last decade can be cast aside.

Whether Cameron & co. actually deliver may be less important than the people believing at last that they can make a difference and actually getting out there to prove it.

1 comment:

  1. "And so far, it appears, the official jobsworths have not arrived to take it down (although this may simply be because they need forms signed in triplicate by the Archbishop of Canterbury before they can do so)."

    Good! Long may this state of affairs continue... :)

    ReplyDelete

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