Campaigners called for a public backlash to rival the poll tax riots to fight cuts in public spending.A whole 60 people! Wow!
About 60 people attended the Colchester Against the Cuts meeting to oppose cuts in public services.
Today, Colchester, tomorrow, the world!
Guest speaker Paul Brandon, chairman of the Right to Work campaign…said: “In the next few months, there will be a loss of 400,000 jobs in the public sector.With 60 people, just what do you plan to occupy, even if all 60 really do turn up on the day?
“We are being asked to pay for something that’s not our fault. The key question is, what are we going to do about it?
“We need to carry on marching and demonstrating. That will involve strikes, direct action and occupation.”
You need more troops. And right on cue:
Members of the National Union of Students are set to demonstrate at Essex Univeristy (sic) on Thursday, February 24, the day universities are expected to raise tuition fees, possibly up to £9,000. A march through the town from the war memorial is planned for noon on Saturday, March 5.Most people have better things to do on a Saturday than march with a bunch of public-sector parasites and students.
Bob Russell, Colchester’s MP, criticised the campaigners’ approach. He said: “This is not the way to go about this in a democratic society. I don’t know of any authority with any political make-up that likes making cuts.Yes, but then, anyone with a family budget who finds things are getting a bit tight cuts down on the luxuries.
“As anybody with a family budget will know, if the money isn’t there, it isn’t there.”
Councils, however, go right on employing five-a-day co-ordinators and anti-smoking community advisers. Because it’s not their money in the first place….
How about we organise a pro-cuts demo? I reckon we might get more than 60 people to that. :)
ReplyDeleteWhat I don't understand is the "It's not our fault so we shouldn't have to pay" attitude. Who else is going to pay?
ReplyDeleteThe bankers? Yes it was mostly their fault but they've pissed away all the money on unsound investiments which was why the state had to bail them out.
The people who were given subprime mortgages and defaulted on them? They've got no money, pretty well by definition.
The people who did very nicely thank you, selling their houses to the subprime monkeys in an inflated market? Good luck with that.
As these people are socialists, and supported the socialists as they ran huge deficits even in the boom years, then I would say they ARE responsible. Most of the deficit is structural, Labour overspending regardless of the recession.
ReplyDelete60 people? They could occupy a bus shelter, and force old people to stand out in the rain until their bus came.
ReplyDeleteThat should make everyone sit up (or stand up) and take notice!
Psst, wanna buy a university degree? Pukkah, no rubbish, only quality here. My supplier, he does university degrees to the Gentry only sometimes he makes a few more than he can sell at those prices so, rather than see them go to waste, he takes the labels off and offers them to the discerning public here.
ReplyDeleteNow, you won't see degrees like this in the shops. These are bespoke degrees, tailored to your requirements, but all top-notch subject such as philosophy and law. The current Mr Speaker, John Bercow, he's got one of our degrees and he's done very well for hisself.
Normally, you'd expect to pay well over £27 grand for a degree such as this, and that's without counting the cost of living.
But this is Essex. We aren't going to give you a little discount, so you pay £25 grand for this, we aren't charge you £17 big ones; you've got better things to do with your money than pay for old professors to hold court with bright young things. We wouldn't insult you.
We aren't even going to ask you to pay £15k, and that's only £5 fahsand a year.
No, this is Essex and we are going to give this to you at cost. In fact, we are probably losing money on it. Don't tell 'em in Camford, they'll be all over us, but you are lovely people and we prefer to do business with Essex people, so I'm holding it down at ony £4k a year, twelve grand all in - I'll throw in the library and the text books for free AND give you a photocopy card.
John, help the lady over there, she's got her purse out. Here, take this one: Psychology and Business studies. You can't go wrong. As you are our first customer, we'll throw in a free PGCE, good for any school in the world.
Who's next?
"How about we organise a pro-cuts demo? I reckon we might get more than 60 people to that. "
ReplyDeleteProbably not, because we'd all be working to keep the tax supply flowing so the public sector can enjoy index-linked pensions...
"What I don't understand is the "It's not our fault so we shouldn't have to pay" attitude. Who else is going to pay? "
Well, quite. And I wonder just how many of these protesters have negative equity, cars and high-end gadgets on HP, and holidays paid for on maxed-out credit cards...
As Rob points out, are they not responsible at all?
"Psst, wanna buy a university degree? Pukkah, no rubbish, only quality here."
An, the 'universities' of Essex.. ;)