In this struggle, hurt is inflicted on both sides; but rarely does one side or the other behave so badly that divorce is the only option.
However, in 2010 (though barely acknowledged by the mainstream media) the divorce has occurred.
It's been on the cards for a while. Some say it dates back to the government's (Big Oil-directed) assault on the coal-mining industry and its use of dirty tricks to destroy the National Union of Mineworkers, or its incremental evisceration of the National Health Service, or the selling of our national railways to profiteering private interests, or the deceptions of Maastricht and Lisbon - treaties that, without reference to the British public, transferred British government powers to the European Commission.
In my view, what actually caused the divorce was something relatively trivial: the 2009 Swine Flu Hoax. If you remember, in early 2009, government officials were warning that a Swine Flu pandemic was on its way and predicting 40 deaths a day when it hit our shores.
When this didn't happen, this was the last straw - and the wife metaphorically packed her bags, left the house and moved in with her mother. In January 2010, in response to a Parliamentary Question (which must be answered honestly or trigger criminal charges) the Health Spokesman admitted there were no recorded deaths from the H1N1 Swine Flu. Unsurprisingly, this was not reported in the mainstream media that had been so enthusiastic in its fear-mongering.
Disgust with the mainstream media - and the reason for a drastic decline in newspaper sales (The Guardian, for example, has been unprofitable for the past four years) - is due to the spreading awareness that the 'free press' is an illusion; that the media is an arm of government.
This awareness began well before the Swine Flu hoax. I think the main disconnect happened during 2003 when people learned there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The media couldn't spin this because everyone could see that if there had been WMD's, the Iraqis would have used them to defend themselves.
Later, journalists working in the alternative media - mainly via the Internet - demonstrated that the UK government knew there were no WMDs before the invasion; that Blair agreed to invade many months earlier at George W. Bush's ranch, and that the Foreign Office considered an invasion illegal. Everyone knows now, without a doubt, that the government lied deliberately about WMDs in order (for its own, still secret, reasons) to justify attacking Iraq.
Maybe the trust between governors and governed could have been repaired if Tony Blair et al had owned up to the lies, explained them, apologised for them and made appropriate amends.
But this has not happened, the government appears not to give a toss about the truth or what the people think, and Iraq is still occupied by hundreds of thousands of foreign troops.
So it's hardly surprising the people don't want anything to do with the government. In response, the government has beefed up its police, paramilitary forces and close circuit spy cameras. Britain now has more CCTV cameras per head of population than any other country in the world - more even than China or North Korea. Like a husband spurned by his wife, the UK government has responded with 24 hour surveillance and threats of violence.
The public's reaction has been to duck is head and avoid the psychotic state machinery as much as possible. Perhaps if we ignore the government for long enough, it will go away? The people know there's no point in trying to overthrow the government because the government has all the weapons.
So it's a stalemate. The government, which needs the people for its blood supply, won't go away, and the public can't see how to get rid of it.
We're stuck.
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