About a year ago I published a blog post lamenting the lack of real protest and action being taken against the (still extant) Government’s attempts to dismantle some of our most cherished and respected institutions – including the NHS, education system, welfare state and BBC.

Since that post, the severity of the situation seems to have ratcheted up a notch or two – including plans to convert all state schools into academies, attacks on the working arrangements for junior doctors and a very public attempt to undermine and dismantle the BBC.

These issues, and others, have each seen a level of protest in response to them – and for certain issues (such as the white paper for the renewal of the BBC charter) the vocal public response seems to have had an effect in mitigating the worst of the damage. This should help to prove the point that protest, action and making our voices heard about the things that matter to us does work.

But although we have seen some action and protest focused on specific issues, I’m stunned that there have not been more mainstream voices helping people to see that these manifold acts of vandalism to different aspects of our state are not isolated events, but part of a coordinated plan by this Conservative government to take its neoliberal project as far as it can, whilst it remains unfettered by coalition government.

Progressives should be leading the revolt against this government’s policies, and exposing its broader philosophy and project to the mainstream, in language and terms that are both accessible and emotive for people. We need to get people angry.

As I said in closing my blog post a year ago – we must resist the policies of this government, and this may be our final chance to do so before the things that we hold dear vanish before our eyes. So, let’s help people to rise up and provide a sustained, vocal challenge to both the philosophy driving these policies and the government that will implement them – unless we resist.