You see, we are dictated in life from a Government that we pay for. Firstly, yes that was rather direct, but isn’t it quite a correct realisation? What’s even more peculiar is how we have virtually no control over what decisions are made against, or for, us in Parliament, despite funding it through the many thousands of tax systems our country inhibits. That may be an overexuberant and exaggerated comment, but really, we have no input even though we supposedly live in a democratic society. I could name many examples, but can you recollect any point in which the Coalition asked for the public consensus in life changing budget decisions. I mean, we didn’t elect this Government in the first place, and now they’re making seriously damning budget reforms without any consultation. I have a sister, my parents have a daughter and my dog has a friend – but all but one of us three really care about getting her into university and receiving the same high quality education I have been fortunate to get. The fact is, not only will she have to inherit greater debt in post-education, but the quality of her education will dramatically reduce; I name the University for the Creative Arts in particular here, reporting 40% reductions in funding, but with backroom figures closer to 60%. The system we have in place gives the public no opinion, action or responsibility to ensure that any budget cuts aren’t detrimental to society as a whole, not favouring the short term future of our unelected Coalition Government.  Budget cuts have led to another shift in society; don’t you find how the tables have turned from us having power over the authorities, to them having power over us? Some cases have been of an unrelated and steady depreciation such as how the public see the ‘neighbourhood Police Officer’ as more of a legitimate trouble maker.

Of course budget cuts will escalate this issue further, with many protesters in recent months defining the Police as a representative symbol of the Government, attacking them with sticks, fire extinguishers and steel fencing; gone are the days of the friendly Police Officer you’d say hello to in the morning on the High Street. Budget cuts are also going to see an increase in occasions where your own Government, that of which you pay for, will be fining you for what seem to be minor offences – this could be overfilling your household rubbish bin, using too much electricity, washing your car without a permit, your child missing a day off school, whispering in public… you get the idea, it could literally be anything! But the philosophy of the public becoming servants to civil servants is not a new idea; every two weeks we end up begging to rubbish men to take the bin bag that is causing an elevation of one inch between the lid and the bin itself. In Wiltshire every fortnight it has become a bi-weekly ritual to forget the class divide and partake in the relentless sport of bin stomping; essentially reducing the six overfilled bin bags of pointless product packaging, needlessly wasted food and hidden prohibited contents to the size of six squashed, split and no longer overfilled bin bags in a fraught attempt of fooling the bin men. You wake up at 8am, you feel liberated, shaking your fist in defiance; you’ve beaten the very system you pay for, unnecessarily, with vengeance. The solution is simple; give power to the people to establish a majority and then sit back and watch a harmonic Government. Ok, it’s not quite that simple, and certainly not achievable, this isn’t Pleasantville after all, but surely achieving some form of proportionate agreement for significant Government decisions is. I type and dream…