Whilst I suppose on the face of it the Government's decision to pause with their NHS reforms as they seek further consultation and in the face of mounting opposition, which includes grassroots LibDems should be welcomed. The cynic in me, however, believes that they have announced this decision to placate the level of criticism but will introduce their reforms anyway in a couple of months when the fuss has died down. Probably introducing them on an incremental scale but without the big fanfare so that the general public are caught off guard.
   In terms of people demonstrating the curious case of the anti-debt rally seems rather futile. I understand that they are trying to be clever and stage a march to show support for the cuts in the wake of the large anti-cuts demonstrations and they are perfectly within their rights to do so but they do seem to have missed their mark. The smugness and snobbishness of the remarks from that camp don't help when dismissing half a million people on the streets of London as the loony left and having smelly armpits misses the impact of the ant-cuts movement which drew people from many walks of life. There are people from different parts of society who support the cuts but it would be equally easy to dismiss them all as well off, right wing and middle class who are not going to be seriously affected by the cuts. Comparisons to the Tea Party in the USA are nonsensical as apart from the current lack of vitriol they are supporting the Government. That is part of the fundamental problem with this movement, such as it is, in that you can not really protest in favour of something: "What do we want?" "The status quo actually". For this reason it is not too surprising to see that only 1600 people have registered which pales somewhat to the anti-cut demonstrators.
   The other smug point that particularly grated came from Mathew Sinclair of the ridiculously named Taxpayers Alliance when he stated that the tone is going to be very calm. A subtle besmirching of the movement for change by tarring them all with the same brush as the very small minority that caused trouble and suggesting that they were all rather nicer people and so no trouble would occur. As if right wing demonstrators had never caused trouble like Otis Ferry and some Countryside Alliance colleagues storming the House of Commons.
   Curiously after Charlie Gilmour's recent arrest there seems to be a pattern of the sons of 70s musicians getting into trouble.