Does anyone think that the people in this country would ever take part in one like the French and Russian Revolutions or are they too laid back and not bothered enough ?

Yes, no and no.

Edit:

It's remotely possible, no and no.

We were doing revolution before the French or the Russians ever considered it.





However, by the 1840s, when the rest of Europe was getting a bit unsettled, there was little major chance of it happening over here.



We will occasionally riot, though. And I suspect that we might find that the bedroom tax becomes Cameron's poll tax.

It's not a "bedroom tax" it's a "Spare Room Subsidy".



I wonder which wonk of a SpAd dreamed that one up?



I'm also interested to know how much Cameron will be charged for all his spare rooms at No.10 and what reduction in 2nd home benefits will be applied to MPs. Seeing as they are all sponging accommodation off the state and "we're all in it together"

Ooooh, great topic.



You could say that England had its anti-monarchy revolution earlier than France ... i.e. the English Civil War and Charles I losing his head outside the Guildhall.



Or you could look at the early days of the industrial revolution during and just after the Napoleonic wars when, seeing the Luddites and the mass meetings of workers rising up against the owners and the established order, the authorities were mightily worried that the UK might be on the brink of revolution a la France.

Hence the jaw-droppingly brutal and swift suppression (hangings, cavalry charges etc etc) in many towns and cities (e.g. The Peterloo massacre).

Not to mention all the spare bedrooms in Buckingham Palace, Sandringham, Windsor Castle, Clarence House, St James' Palace, Balmoral, etc.

If we do I hope somebody writes a book as good as "A Tale of Two Cities"

Thank f'ck I don't get housing benefit, we have 4 spare since the family went.

I cant believe people seriously oppose the plans to tax spare rooms in council properties?

Like many government plans, the idea behind it is sound, the implementation is shocking.

Fair enough, I've not looked into the detail.

Its not a tax, you have to stop calling it a tax, its not a tax, tax on properties, it sends Tories into spasms of fear at what happened last time, its not a tax, just like JSA isn't a wage, its not.



What it is is an ill conceived plan to cut benefits payments, nothing more.



Remember June 2010 when the newly elected Cameron sent his Ministers away and told them to come back with plenty of ideas on how to cut their public spending budgets ?



They went away and spoke to all manner of advisors, civil servants, and university graduates like themselves, you know, people with real life experience, and they came back with a whole long list of ideas, some of which were even reasonable, some were a bit impractical, and others were just "Fekk off, they'll never stand for that".



Well, nearly three years on and the country is still borrowing more money than ever and they've gone down the lists again and now its time for the ones that were on the "Fekk off, they'll never stand for that" list, with a new foudn confidence that if you just blame all of these people then the rest will agree, a sort of Jeremy Kyle Does Politics.





The proof of the pudding is in this newspaper article, ok so its The Mirror and you wouldn't expect them to agree, but read it anyway ... [urlhttp://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/bedroom-tax-farce-just-50-1745529[/url



Even if The Mirror is 100% out in its numbers then its still a national disgrace that is being perpetrated on the most vulnerable in our society where they have no choice but to hand back some of their housing benefit simply because there is nothing else on offer.



Its not selfishness that makes people have one or even two spare bedrooms in their council house, its circumstances and the fact that there is no other size dwelling available, if there were tens of thousands of one bed accomodation standing empty because no-one would take it then the anti-council tenant rhetoric would have some standing, but the fact is that its a perfect benefit cut because there is no get-out clause.