Anne Applebaum: In Britain, Outrage Without a Thoughtful Outlet
[Anne Applebaum writes a column for the WaPo.]
In the photograph that appeared the following day, her mouth was open, her eyes were wide, and she seemed to be shouting as her car window shattered. But those who know her insist that the Duchess of Cornwall - Camilla Parker Bowles, wife of Prince Charles - was not frightened by the demonstrators who attacked her car during a demonstration-turned-riot in London late last week: She was angry....
Still, this kind of violence demands some explanations, particularly because the British public's initial reaction to government spending cuts was, as I wrote in October, stoic acceptance. Unlike the French, who spent most of that same month on strike, the promise of a new age of austerity seemed to appeal to many in Britain, particularly those old enough to feel nostalgia for the penny-pinching, consumer-unfriendly country of their youth....
...Britain's 20-year housing boom has benefited people who are now in their 50s and 60s - the same group that once enjoyed free university tuition at taxpayers' expense, who anticipate large pensions on their imminent retirement and who are now solemnly instructing their children that it's time to cut back "for the benefit of future generations." Never mind that the hated tuition bill is accompanied by provisions designed to help the poorest, or that British students will still pay only a portion of the real cost of education, which taxpayers still subsidize. Just because a generational struggle takes place within the middle class doesn't make it any less ugly....
Read entire article at WaPo
In the photograph that appeared the following day, her mouth was open, her eyes were wide, and she seemed to be shouting as her car window shattered. But those who know her insist that the Duchess of Cornwall - Camilla Parker Bowles, wife of Prince Charles - was not frightened by the demonstrators who attacked her car during a demonstration-turned-riot in London late last week: She was angry....
Still, this kind of violence demands some explanations, particularly because the British public's initial reaction to government spending cuts was, as I wrote in October, stoic acceptance. Unlike the French, who spent most of that same month on strike, the promise of a new age of austerity seemed to appeal to many in Britain, particularly those old enough to feel nostalgia for the penny-pinching, consumer-unfriendly country of their youth....
...Britain's 20-year housing boom has benefited people who are now in their 50s and 60s - the same group that once enjoyed free university tuition at taxpayers' expense, who anticipate large pensions on their imminent retirement and who are now solemnly instructing their children that it's time to cut back "for the benefit of future generations." Never mind that the hated tuition bill is accompanied by provisions designed to help the poorest, or that British students will still pay only a portion of the real cost of education, which taxpayers still subsidize. Just because a generational struggle takes place within the middle class doesn't make it any less ugly....