http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13437819


Not long before it happens here.

I can hardly spot any differences between their protest and the Egyptian one. I congratulate the Beeb for making such an amazingly apt comparison.

Quite frankly I am surprised that Spain is the first to look at an over throw of their government. I expected Greece or Ireland to be first.

Here's a very real possibility, IMO, of something approaching a general strike within the next nine months or so. Pretty much all the public sector unions are utterly fed up with the way the executive are basically tearing up industrial agreements because they feel like it under the umbrella of 'austerity measures'. And I include the police who, although they can't personally strike, would probably have next to no enthusiasm about doing anything to reduce the disruption of other people striking given they've had 20% of their budgets cut.

Thatcher tried this stuff but was very careful to have the police on her side when she did. I think Cameron is taking the same support for granted and I don't think he should be doing so. If the major public sector unions all have separate ballots about strikes that happen to overlap each other and those ballots come back in favour of strikes (which I think right now they would), I don't think anyone would be able to stop it. OK, it's only the public sector you say. That's public transport. Hospitals. Pensions offices. Council offices. Waste disposal. Roads. Schools. IMO a three day general public sector strike will hit pretty much everyone in the UK in some way or other. And the way things are right now, I don't think everyone is going to jump to the conclusion that its just the unions being bolshy. I think Cameron & co are actually unpopular enough that public opinion might turn against them rather than the unions.

This path is.. risky to say the least. I'd say there's a 50/50 chance it could massively blow up in the Tory's faces. And then, well, I don't know what will happen. People patently don't think much of labour and the lib dems could only be more unpopular if Clegg was shown on national television kicking Kate Middleton. I have to tell you, I'm genuinely nervous about the next year or so.

A general strike is illegal in the UK


Though a multitude of random strikes will probably be far more disruptive than a general strike.


I suspect that Nick Clegg kicks puppies as a hobbie.

I suspect that any action will happen when the cuts are clear and people can see what a mess the coalition are making. It will probably be more than a year away closer to the election.

We must have been reading very different stories, because all I read about was a couple of thousand kids sitting around waving insipid banners and forming pointless committees. The only tenuous link with Egypt is that they are using TwitBook for some of these things.

+ 1 with ShockWaffle

Appart from some people is a square in Spain the comparison is just banal

The difference
- Egypt a totally corrupt goverment and one party state
- Spain a modern democracy

Yes but if you know Spains polictical system, you will know how corrupt it is. Particularly local government. There a number of mayors in prison in Spain. The mayor where my parents have a home, is currently in jail, yet still runs the council from his cell. It is exceptionally corrupt. So it has a few of the factors in the Arab spring. High youth unemployment (around 40% youth unemployment) and corruption. Both Tunisia and Egypt were republics, admittedly not very democratic.

They'd have to get Franco back in charge before this thread's title was anything other than utter bollocks.