Over 2 million people are on strike today and it makes my heart swell with pride at the British public. I though we were a bunch of apathetic twits with opinions swayed by a lying press and an awful elitist government, but it turns out, we do care. I say ‘we’ but already today I have been to a casting and I will be gigging tonight, so technically I am not striking at all. Not that I should be, being self-employed, and to be honest, I’m not sure comedians ever strike, let alone actors. If actors went on strike would anyone notice with the amount of resting they are usually doing anyway? I was very tempted to stand outside my casting for the 10 minutes I’d be in there, forming a tiny picket line but I felt this would only be detrimental to how people see my mental health and not at all helpful to those actually on strike for a purpose. I will be heading down to the march at 12 at Lincoln’s Inn Fields and there I will make a point of not doing any work while I’m there. Apart from the odd email or tweet.
So far, things still seem to be running, with airports and transport coping and many children looking delighted that they aren’t at school. Osborne has now said about umpteen times already this morning how it will ‘destroy the economy’ and won’t change anything, completely ignoring how his proposals have also destroyed the economy far more than a day of strike action will. Nor, as someone brilliantly pointed out on Twitter yesterday, has anyone noted that the Royal Wedding caused even more financial loss than a day of strike action, by both being a public holiday for everyone and the cost of the wedding coming partly from tax payers, and yet no one seemed to bat an eyelid, except at Kate’s sister’s bum. I’m not surprised at any of Osborne’s statements, instead I am far more saddened that the Labour Party has stated that they don’t support the strikes as it is a sign of failure. I hope they mean failure of the government, in which case I can support their statement that perhaps we shouldn’t support the strikes purely because it is a sad reason that they have happened. I don’t think this is what they mean though, and I think it’s further proof that no one now supports the people at all.
So, I’ll cut this short as I’m gonna head along now to shout my support, hopefully passing and high fiving some picket lines on the way. If you’re on strike today then well done, well done for caring about the future of not only your livelihood but the livelihood of all those in the public sector and those who rely on them. Even if the government insist on ignoring this and refusing to make changes, you can be damn sure it’ll scare the crap out of them. 2 million workers at least are on strike today, but if things continue, that will grow and grow. The Tories know full well that they could find a backlash of countrywide proportions. Remember, we are the 99% and that’s an awful lot more than the 1% left. I’m still sure there’s a handful of life coaches that insist they are the 110% but we’ll just ignore them.
Solidarity!
