100's of Thousands to march against cuts in London.

Originally posted by dizzylizzy
Did NuLabour put my country into these dire straights or was it their puppet makers.

People here are angry, while front line services are being cut the bankers are still having pay rises and huge bonus.

I wish I could have been there today alas health and distance made it impossible.

Funny old world we live in, the protesters in the Middle East are applauded, yet here in the West they are questioned,...why...is it because we already have a so called Democracy?

To answer your first question.............

2010 UK Government Debt = 52.34 % of GDP (£840 BILLION ish give or take a few pennies....)
1996 UK Government Debt = 41.20% of GDP

www.ukpublicspending.co.uk...

The real issue here is that the amount needed to cover the annual spending is around £140 BILLION extra BORROWING......... this is technically the overspend to satisfy the current expectation of the cost of services, salaries, etc etc etc..

Secondly, I work with the NHS and was told yesterday about a Hospital (remain nameless) where there needs to be a 10% saving across different departments...............on a £3 million budget in one department then you can do the maths of the savings required......it effectively means that jobs WILL BE lost because trying to save on consumables budgets and other stuff is already at the limit..... or IS IT???

Some Medical companies sell new advances in technology or great innovation and charge normally a higher price for doing so..... in reality alot of medical devices/consumables are made in China anyway nowadays and so that arguement to me just does not stand up as much as it used too......
These companies will then 'sponser' Doc's and others to attend seminars which tend to be ''selling pitches'' so that those individuals become advocates for those devices....... so the merry go round continues......
These companies do this because they must ensure 'double digit' growth and satisfy their share holders and give good returns which is all intrinsically linked into the pensions. shares and assort crap that is the finance and banking industry.......
The bankers then, operating in global markets do deals on computers and again the merry goround continues...... it sort of makes me a little sick...

The ONLY way to protest is for the population as a whole is to stop being the avid consumers fixed on material wealth, the wealth of our houses etc etc and start to make companies more accountable..... re Banking, ALL BARCLAYS customers should switch accounts in protest at Bob Diamond's slary and attitude........ great company and is probably going to be one of Britains biggest in the futuure but currently it is being run by Mr Diamond with the American business attitude of Greed is good, kill the competition......... It is that ''greed'' mentality in ALL OF US, whether on the march or not which NEEDS to be extinguished before we can move forward...

Ref - the Middle East ........... that's A WHOLE other topic...........

Regards

PDUK

WOW!!!

I just read this thread and if you were to substitute some of the words like "tory" and "labour", you sound JUST LIKE AMERICANS!!!

We aren't so different after all. Even if you are still mad about the Revolutionary War...

My very best regards to you all.

Originally posted by Misoir
I am watching this on TV and I have to say these people out there throwing molotov cocktails are absolute morons and should be arrested. I do not disagree with protests demanding changes but these people being violent and destroying private property should be arrested.

Sorry to all the Anarchists but there should always be law and order at all times.

Thing is, they're not even anarchists.. they're just morons that enjoy being violent and damaging property and they're just using the protests as an excuse to act up. They probably don't even know what anarchy means! Funny, saw them labelled as 'anti-capitalists' on Sky, in a really demonising manner.

Having said that - As usual, all the British media are focusing entirely on the incredibly minute number of people actually being violent/aggressive rather than hundreds of thousands who weren't.. brilliant reporting. Apparently, the organisers 'intended' the protests to be peaceful, but failed. Erm, how about the hippies walking around with the 'make love not war' signs? Really getting tired of watching the media and sitting there like a cynical old man rambling about what propaganda it is. It's literally become infotainment, or in fact purely another form of dumbed-down entertainment. Cant stand their journalists either, acting up and being as dramatic as possible.. its not like the major media networks have all that much competition asides from one another, leave it out! Pull the forks out your backsides lads, you've got nothing to be so egotistical about.

Isn't it quite bizarre that the UK is spending vast quantities of money bombing Libya and Ghaddafi's ground forces when there's half a million people back home protesting public spending cuts?

Finally, rather than focus on political parties I'd suggest focusing on the nature of the political system and the false rhetoric surrounding the ideal of democracy - which the UK certainly does not practice. I.e. it isn't all as free and good as the media like to tell everyone it is, spoonfeeding them what they should believe and spread via word of mouth.

It's only tens of thousands, not hundreds of thousands. Lets not blow this out of porportion. It's about time at least some of the people stood up for their rights though.

reply to post by biggilo

You must work for the Gov't
Since when is any government official not a liar, cheat, immoral, unethical, and corrupt?
Oh wait according to you the people that sweat and bleed and give their food from their families mouth's to feed the insatiable corrupt governments of the world and barely eek out a living are the problem while those you hold in high esteem and their families and their future generations will never want for anything.
You're right the people should sacrifice everything for these wonderful people.

reply to post by xxshadowfaxx


Fair enough, had read that it was half a million.. good correction! Some sources still say 250 000 (including the police apparently), not really sure who to believe. In any case, the aggressive ones are still the vast minority.

The ones causing chaos are still there...the leftie vegetarians have all left and gone home to drink their organic wine and talk about what they did today to their friends to save the world.

The 250,000 peaceful protesters achieved NOTHING and never will. Walking down the streets with signs changes nothing...the cuts have been made and the increase in duty has already been added.

To believe peaceful protest works is pure ignorance.
More people protested the Iraq war....we still went!!!

Did peaceful protests work in libya or egypt....NO
These places have been targeted for stealing £125 billion in taxes (avoiding to pay)......we have to borrow because big business doesnt pay their fair share!

60% of our tax goes to greedy bankers!! Then we have to borrow to pay for services!

We live in a dictatorship....we are allowed to do what the government allows us to do....we are robbed by the government for our hard labor....we are getting less and less and paying more and more.

Lets hope this continues and picks up pace....lets see our government topple like all the other nations that are being taken for mugs.

Originally posted by arollingstone
reply to post by xxshadowfaxx

 

Fair enough, had read that it was half a million.. good correction! Some sources still say 250 000 (including the police apparently), not really sure who to believe. In any case, the aggressive ones are still the vast minority.

It's the same Anarchists every time. I think their tactics are called blackbloc, they are a bit like anon in that there is no leadership and no cohesive organisation. It's annoying these fools turn up at every protest just to destroy property and take the focus away from the real reasons for a protest.

A black bloc is a tactic for protests and marches, whereby individuals wear black clothing, scarfs, ski masks, motorcycle helmets with padding or other face-concealing items and often carry some sort of shields and truncheons.[1][2] The clothing is used to avoid being identified, and to, theoretically, appear as one large mass, promoting solidarity.
The tactic was developed in the 1980s by autonomists protesting squatter evictions, nuclear power and restrictions on abortion among other things.[1] Black blocs gained broader media attention outside Europe during the 1999 anti-WTO demonstrations, when a black bloc damaged property of GAP, Starbucks, Old Navy, and other multinational retail locations in downtown Seattle.[1]

www.infoshop.org...

reply to post by woodwardjnr


It's exactly that reason that I once thought (during student protests last year) that some of them could perhaps have been police plants. What better way to detract from the value and validity of what the protestors are doing? The media love to show the violent few and then run their mouths about how 'peaceful protesting' failed, they basically try to undermine the initial cause and issues. I mean, they've done it before - a UK policeman posing as a hippie protester was caught. Then again, I don't really subscribe to that suspicion now, I just find it a possibility that a couple of them may be..