Britain Broken - From the Top Down

According to Boris Johnson - speaking at a Tory Party conference of yesteryear - people who swear at the police should expect to be arrested.  Unless they are the Tory Chief Whip, of course.  In which case they have the Prime Minister's full support.  Not that he did swear at Downing Street police, or call them 'plebs', so he claims.  Although the officer in question disagrees.  Mind you, whilst the Chief Whip is keen to tell us what he didn't say, he remains somewhat vague as to what he did say.  What I find interesting about all of this is that it surely symptomatic of one of the things that Cameron keeps telling us is wrong with 'broken Britain': lack of respect.  Regardless of whether or not Andrew Mitchell, the Tory Chief Whip, actually swore at a police officer who wouldn't let him through the main gate at Downing Street, he certainly failed to demonstrate any respect for the officer or what they represented.  Now, according to the likes of Cameron, it's people at the bottom - plebs - who fail to show sufficient respect.  especially if they are young and unemployed.  Which might be true, but if so, surely they are only following the example being set by our rulers?

Because let's face it, this Tory-led government appears to have nothing but contempt for most of the UK's population.  They haven't shown the disabled much respect, practically demonising them as benefits cheats.  They haven't shown much respect for the less well off generally, for that matter, with cuts to housing benefits, slashing public services, closing down libraries and the like.  You can't expect any respect if you are ill, either, as witnessed by their treatment of the NHS, which is now simply seen by them as a cash-cow for private sector profiteers.  Education?  I have five words for you: bonkers Education Secretary Michael Gove.  They certainly have no respect for the concept of democracy if their attempts to fix the next election by redrawing constituency boundaries in their favour and trying to guarantee themselves five years in power (despite not having a majority) by fixing the term of this parliament.  Oh, and if, like me, you are a public employee, you'll know that they certainly have no respect for their own employees or the very concept of public service.  But, of course, we're meant to respect them  Their sense of entitlement undoubtedly stems, in part, from the fact that most of the cabinet's backgrounds as wealthy public school and Oxbridge graduates.  As far as they are concerned, they are the rightful ruling class, just as the Conservative Party is the natural party of government - non-Tory governments aren't 'real' governments as far as they are concerned,  So we shouldn't be surprised that a top Tory doesn't see why he should have to pay heed to a mere police officer who, after all, is just an employee and should know their place.  Laws are only for the plebs, not the privileged.