Democracy Watch, 2011 – Issue 9
Eastern Ukraine falls into disenchantment
Discontent with government activity is on the rise in President Yanukovych’s native region. Miners’ wives have gathered outside the municipal building in Donetsk in a spontaneously organised protest to demand improvements to living standards. The women claim that food has now become a luxury item, as their tiny salaries are required to pay for services that should be provided by the state. According to protesters, the authorities also support and cover-up the illegal extraction of coal which siphons over 10 billion UAH (US.26 billion) a year into the shadow economy. Some protesters also possess evidence that the authorities tried to intimidate them and block their access to the demonstration.
Currently the miners discharge their outrage only upon the local authorities, under the assumption that Yanukovych would not sanction their plight. However the Ukrainian characteristic of naivety is on the decline. The GfK Ukraine survey conducted in January shows that 54% of respondents think that the nation is moving in the wrong direction. 59.3% of respondents to the survey carried out by the Gorshenin Institute in February view the activity of the current government as ineffective and not in their interests. In summing up his first year of office President Yanukovych promised to focus his attention on the coal industry and those who rely upon it. These statements give the President’s loyal supporters hope – but should they lose it the backlash would be very public and not easily quashed.
Liberal Democrat Support Goes into Meltdown
It’s the worst recession in the post war era and globally everybody who is economically active is concerned about their jobs and careers due to the parlous state of western economies in particular.
But spare a thought for poor old Nick Clegg the leader of the Liberal Democrats who along with his advisers and political colleagues steered the UK’s third largest political party into a coalition government with the Conservative Party. It’s true to say that many people who voted for Mr Clegg’s enterprise have ended up with something they didn’t expect: a Conservative government, and a right wing one at that.
Many voted for the Liberal Democrats as a protest at New Labour’s thirteen wasted years and what they saw as an abuse of power, a government playing fast and loose with borrowing and the economy, a burgeoning nanny and surveillance state and contentious decisions such as taking the nation into what many saw as an illegal war in Iraq based upon spurious intelligence data. New Labour did indeed deserve a good kicking, and they received a blood bath at the ballot box.