Harry Potter and The Party of Nasty

J K Rowling has taken on the the Britain's Nasty party, known as the Conservative party to the ignorant. She wrote a guest editorial in The Times, drawing from her personal history as one of Britain's poor, and later one of Britain's most wealthy, to give us a scathing and insightful reminder of what the Nasty party is all about.

This is definitely worth a read, both for how well she retells her personal story and describes the twisted social paradigms that form the bulwark of what passes for thought among British conservatives.

Just a small quote from her editorial;

"Suggestions that Mr Cameron seems oblivious to how poor people actually live, think and behave seem to provoke accusations of class warfare. Let me therefore state, for the record, that I do not think it any more his fault that he spent his adolescence in the white tie and tails of Eton than that I spent the almost identical period in the ghastly brown-and-yellow stylings of Wyedean Comprehensive. I simply want to know that aspiring prime ministers have taken the trouble to educate themselves about the lives of all kinds of Britons, not only the sort that send messages with banknotes. "

I have rarely seen a brief paragraph convey so much deep understanding about what Britain is all about. Unfortunately, I'm afraid these observations apply equally well to the U. S.

When I lived in Suburban London in 1992,, I experienced a National Election through the interpretation of the drunks who attended my pub. that was not a placid election. Britain was just getting over recent Pole tax riots. Sometimes,in those days, i had wondered how life would've been if the rioters had taken over the country.

I can't remember whether it was Franklin or Addams, of the fictional Nathan Harris who put it so well, "The Tories are full of it".

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.