The Wrong Trousers

Upon my return from vacation in the US this English news story caught my attention.  Apparently the Tory House Whip, a  privately educated Oxbridge graduate from a privileged background took offence when a policeman told him he would have to dismount from his bicycle if he wanted to enter Downing Street.

Allegedly he responded somewhat testily adding the remark that the policeman was a "pleb" thereby insinuating, or at least immediately being interpreted by the press and then the Labour Party as an example of the rift between the classes in Britain and how "out of touch" the Conservative Party is.

Maybe it was because I had been out of the country and was missing something but it seemed to me that the media and by extension Labour had gotten the wrong end of the stick.  To reduce the alleged incident to class warfare completely misses the point.

I believe one of the biggest threats to society  in general and certainly to British society is the lack of respect for authority, for public institutions, and frankly for one another.  These were two public servants, both of whom should command respect, and yet one appears to have decided the rules didn't apply to him.

In my experience if a policeman tells you to stop doing something which is contravening some rule, the correct response is to acknowledge the fact and to stop whatever it was that was not allowed.

To enter into a discussion with the policeman, and then to insult him is to insult the public institution which he is representing.  This is not class warfare.  This is disobeying authority.  It is rampant in society.  Everything is reduced to some form of human rights where there is a huge sense of entitlement, through every strata of society, and no sense of responsibility. 

The social contract is what is at stake here- not a sideshow of class warfare.  Yes there are haves and have-nots.  They are all supposed to be equal before the law.  Stop prattling on about the insult.  Give the bastard a summons for not dismounting his bike when instructed to do so and then insulting an officer and get on with it.