Special interest, eh? Trouble is, they are not special. They are simply a byproduct of the spoiled, cosseted, unionized, and protected state sector. They know nothing of risk, of initiative, of individual effort, of enterprise—hell, even of working over weekends without complaint or massive overtime payments. Now the state—their patron and provider—is broke, and they must reap the consequence. There is no sweeter sound than their howls.

Like the rats running through folklore’s Hamelin town, they will come. I wonder if their strike action will actually affect the country’s running. I ponder whether the absence of lumpen teachers will have any impact on our children’s education. Maybe we will witness a vast improvement in standards and efficiency everywhere.

The liberal left is running somewhat scared. Its experiment in big government and bigger spending has abjectly failed and brought us to ruin. It knows there is little sympathy for its fellow travelers in the public sector at a time when everyone else bears the pain for its incompetence and mismanagement. Sure, those banking-sector oafs played their part in the disaster. Yet it was Europe’s socialist elites who came up with the ludicrous concepts of the Euro, of over-taxation, and of squandering financial resources.

Look again at those protestors. They actually believe they have a point and genuinely think they are entitled. Worse, they are consumed by the thought that everything should be free. After all, in their world, the state is their paymaster and is responsible for all: health, housing, education, pensions, and child welfare. From the cradle to the grave, Big Brother will remunerate and bless. It’s hardly surprising they find themselves confused and aghast at life’s real horrors.

As always the braying camp followers, the hooligans and window-smashers, the anarchists and professional demonstrators rush and attack what they perceive to be the bastions of wealth and privilege. Only the best department stores will do. I hope the Ritz and Fortnums are prepared, for there will doubtless be a lot of broken glass. Ironic, though, how it is these rioters who are privileged: They never have to work, think, gain an education, strive, or attain. It is we who must do that for them so they may chant and stink and throw their paving slabs and run away with their looted spoils of champagne and foie gras. Not for them the moral courage of genuine protest; not for them any kind of protest outside the London embassies of the world’s most truly malign and reprehensible regimes. No, it is the mother of parliaments and the richer shopping streets upon which they vent their rage. Because it is easy and because they can. The American liberal left had a nauseating habit of describing the LA riots as an “uprising.” It must have been the only political statement in history that involved blacks and Hispanics filling their shopping carts with looted television sets.

So let the protest and anarchy and rioting commence. It is a fun day out for the left’s sprawling and delusional family. Its members might believe they are making a stand, but they are only loudly reinforcing the message that they are worth ignoring.