disabled people join TUC march against the cuts, march 26th, join us

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DISABLED PEOPLE AGAINST CUTS



Join us to protest on March 26th, London.



The main TUC march will assemble at Victoria Embankment, 11am to march to a rally in Hyde Park. We are still finalising arrangements of where we can meet beforehand and about a static protest for those unable to march to Hyde Park.



Disabled people are facing continuing attacks against their lives, living standards and basic human rights to live independently from almost every conceivable quarter and it is time for us to fight back against these cuts. Many disabled people are living in fear on a daily basis not knowing when or if their benefits and care funding will be slashed and whether they will be left to rot in their own homes without the support they need to live any sort of meaningful life.



These savage spending cuts damage not only our lives, but our public services, and threaten economic recovery. They're dangerous, unfair and unnecessary.



There are fair alternatives - a Robin Hood tax on the banks, end tax evasion, policies for jobs and green growth, scrap Trident replacement.

We're going to march to tell the government we demand “Rights not Charity” and to show we are not easy victims of their cuts even though they may think we are.



For information about transport to the march (some trains may be accessible) go to www.righttowork.org Transport information will be regularly updated here.



To join our events page

http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=122497767819841&index=1



For more information email linda_burnip@yahoo.co.uk , ( underscore) 0771 492 7533, or mail@dpac.uk.net

Coalitions plans clearly not working

So today the national office for statistics published its results of growth between October 2010 and December 2011 and reported that the UK's economy shrunk by a estimated 0.5% between those dates. a huge well done to the con-dems. your plan is successfully failing. Another quarter like that early 2011 and we will be back in recession. Fantastic work guys. Is this what they meant by change vote for change at the election last year ? must have been. MOre and more cuts and record VAT on items and rocketing inflation.

The tories have unveailed a time bomb now and i think they will struggle to get the economy going again. It seems as though they are obsessed with cuts and this shrinking of the GDP of the country will probably only encourage them to carry out more cuts more harder and deeper.

They think that cuts are the answer, well are they the answer so far ? i would strongly say not

what is their plan B if we do slip back into recession, carry on cutting ? god help us

from the bbc :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/

Shameful changes to employment laws

In this article this morning in the telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/8249491/Firms-get-powers-to-sack-the-slackers.html



David Cameron hopes that relaxed employment laws will help to boost the private sector and encourage firms to take on thousands of new workers Photo: PA
By Andrew Porter, and Robert Winnett 10:00PM GMT 09 Jan 2011 243 Comments
The new “employers’ charter” will allow companies to sack workers during the first two years of their employment without the threat of being taken to a tribunal for unfair dismissal.

Currently an employee can bring an unfair dismissal claim after only a year.

To reduce the number of vexatious allegations, workers will face a fee when lodging an employment tribunal claim.

The Daily Telegraph can disclose that the Government is also launching a review that is likely to see small companies excluded from some stringent employment laws. The length of time that firms have to pay workers statutory sick pay is set to be reduced as part of the shake-up.

David Cameron hopes that relaxed employment laws will help to boost the private sector and encourage firms to take on thousands of new workers.


I read all through this article and saw no where where this helps people feel more safe in their jobs. Taking a personal perspective if i got a new job and they could get rid of me without a tribunal and no reason given within 2 years i'd be very upset and disapointed. To me this is taking rights away from the workers in the private sector. This can only help the boss's and their profits of being able to get away with not paying for employment dismissal tribunals.

It is disgusting i feel and peoples rights are impeeded by this. I do wonder waht the EU would make of this being inflicted on our good hard honest workers.

It is a ploy to get cheap labour in and get rid of them easily when you no longer need them for next to nothing. Big corperations will be rubbing their hands with glee with the sound of this.

Very shameful and saddening for workers rights in this country.

Happy new year and lets keep this movement going

So as 2010 draws to a close tonight i reflect on what has been a big year for me and for the world. We now have a coalition governemnt tory lead with liberal democrats in toe for the first time in a good while. Getting to work on slashing the deficit and cutting like there is no tommorrow.

2010 will be reemembered for the year the young population and students more so finally woke up and bravely began the fightback against these harsh savage cuts. The students have started the ball rolling so to speak with protests on the streets. Now it is up to the rest of us trades unions included to ramp up the pressure on the governemnt to back down on these unessesary cuts.

As the phrase goes when they say cutback ... we say .... fightback.

I think that will be one of the major themes for next year lots of strike action being called from public sector workers who will face growing pressure to relieve people from their jobs to save money.

Next year will be the big royal wedding as it is being billed between Prince William and Kate Middleton this will have to be carefully carried out by the royals to not appear to be lavishing it up too much whilst the rest of the country suffers from deep harsh cuts.

I feel one of the biggest stories going into the early part of next year certainly january and febuary with the VAT going up to 20% from the 4th of january will really start to hit home with petrol prices going through the roof for drivers. I wouldnt be surprised if we saw fuel strikes once again with supplies being disrupted.

All in all 2011 promises to be another interesting year with a glimer of hope coming from those who are starting to mobilise on the left to take action and stand up and be counted. It will also be a interesting year for our countries opposition party. The labour party with Ed miliband in charge. Ed it has been said has got off to a slow frustrating start if more of this continues and say they dont win the Oldham East bi-election i think pressure will start to mount on him. Saying that he could have a shadow cabinet reshuffel and come back storming the government and stamping his mark on the party and the country as a whole.

I do think we have a long way to come out of this economic crisis and 2011 will not be the end of it. Whilst i try to remain positive about next years prospects it is tricky to see where these cuts will leave us when they are all done.

For myself a prospect of a open university course starting in Febuary in socail science will be very interesting for myself. I am looking forward to this a hell of a lot. It is a chance for me to further my knowledge in this area and fill my time with some good study. I was very lucky to get on the course and get fully funded before the open university will have its budget cut from this tory lead coaliton so i feel very thankful.

I wish to get to see more friends across the country next year more people i have come in to conversation with over twitter and facebook over thel ast year. I also have my podcast i am slowly starting to organise and get going. Do contact if you would like to be involved in any shape or form too.

So that's it from me signing off for 2010 wishing you all a very happy new year and the best of luck in whatever you get up to next year.

More big society ideas encouraging us to donate more to charities

So the latest idea from the tories and their big society idea which i'm still convinced is a big smokescreen for these massive savage cuts they are putting through at the moment is this idea of when people go to pay for things or take cash out of a cash machine with their card they will be asked if they wish to donate moeny to charity.

This is another barmy idea from the government while they are cutting funding to charitiesand the 3rd sector of voluntary work they are then saying well joe public can fill the gap by donating more. This is all veryw ell well not really but it would be if people had more disposable money to give away. This is simply not the case when people are loosing jobs every week and are finding themselves shorter and shorter in terms of money.

I just think this big society idea is all badly thought out and badly timed. It is insensitive to charities to remove their funding in a tough time like this and also nudge people as they call it in to donating more money to charity in what is probably one of the worst economic crisis ever witnessed in the wester world. It is complete maddness.

People are not afraid to donate to charity but only when they can afford such donations.

My suggestion would be if the toriesa are so obsessed with people donating more money to charity then they should use some of their millions they sit on and donate some of that to charity.

Making the rich spread some of their wealth around would bea fairer idea to me. It is just not on that the rich tories get to tell us what we should be doing with our money when they lord up their millions and tell us what to do with ours.

Just another fail from the out of touch tory lead coalition government i'm afraid.

Unemployed figure hits 2.5 million yet still no concern from government

Worrying signs today as the unemployed people rose by 35 thousand up to October to hit 2.5 Million people across the country. With the job cuts not set to really bite in hard to the new year where it is estimated half a million jobs will be going in the public sector with a similar amount in the private sector as they are inter-related i can see the unemployed figures hitting and breaking 3 million by the end of next year.

Shouldnt this be a concern to people ? and not least the government who this shows even more that their plan for cutting fast and deep into public sepdning is having a negative affect.

We only hear yesterday that inflation has hit a record high in recent times with teh cost of food and clothing and furniture hitting high prices.

What more concerns me is the VAT rise coming in in January will cripple consumer confidence and spending- which i made reference to in a previous blog post. All together we are in fora very rough ride in the foreseeable future with this tory lead government.

I just hope for everyones sakes they have a plan B. Something tells me they dont or dont want to face the prospect of needing one as they are so hell bent on pushing through these cuts they havent stopped to think waht might happen if this doesnt work and we end up going backwards. Which from where i am sitting is very likely to happen. With growth slowing and unemployment rising are the signs not clear now their plan is not working ?

Supporting the save EMA campaign

So as another broken promise comes from this coalition government the plan to totally scrap the education maintance allowance when before the election the tories catagorically said we have looked at EMA and can confirm we will be keeping this. Well today the 13th of December it would appear they are doing the complete opposite.

EMA is a key lump of money that is paid to students who attend school/college regularly. It can be as much as £30 a week and to a lot of families and students this is a lot of money. It can cover travel costs, school equipment including sports kit and books and stationary. Taking this away is just another attack on the people who need the money the most. When working class families are struggling enough as it is the decision to remove this benifit to young people is another bad decision i feel.

So today i and this blog will be pledging our support to the Save EMA march's today going on in london. For once Ed miliband has backed this campaign, maybe it is a cut he would nnot have made so can support this campaign, bit cynical i know but after he condemned the student protests last week i sometimes wonder who's side is he really on. If he wants to attract disaffected lib dem voters I.E students you dont condem their efforts to protest

I also hear Ken Livingstone labour mayoral candidate will be backing this campaign too. I hope as many people get behind this and fight to keep this vital bit of money that enables kids and families to live a bit easier.

A sad day for young people

So this evening we heard the government had won the vote in the house of commons by 323 votes in favour and 302 against the rise in tuitian fees to 9000 pounds per year. They also won the second vote to raise the minimum fee to 6000 pounds. The vote came in closer than thought . It turns out a majority of 21 is a very slim number and if the Lib dems had stayed with their pledges this bill would have not got through.

So a very sad day indeed. Coupled with disapointing scenes of police heavy handed tactics on innocent peaceful protesters it seems a very dark day to me. It appears as though Nick clegg has fully signed up with the tories now. All but name and has condemned students to a lot of debt which will take alot longer to pay off.

It will be interesting to see in future days, weeks and months how big of a impact this will have on the lib dems and their futures. Will they get wiped out at local level next year in the loacl council elections. I'd say itw ould be a grim day for any lib dem member today. As the party who relied heavily on the student vote it looks as though they have sold a lot of their voters down the river now.

If only labour could come up with a proper fair alternative to this they would trounce the government on this issue of higher education funding. With cuts of 80% universities have to find the money from somewhere its just sad it is at the e xpense of the poor old student every time.

Whilst i blog all this i am fully awarea nd have been reminded all of today that it was Labour who introduced tuitian fees and top up fees in the first place. SO i dont really think labour can take a high ground on this as it was partly responsible for all this now. But one thing i can say we never priced students out of a good education. With studant loans and grants it was still reachable now it looks impossible for many working class people to get to university and fullfill their potential. This will also have devastating impacts on this country too. Where we will have a skill's shortage.

why not much talk of the VAT rise in Jan ?

To me this is very important, will affect each and everyone of us. Rich or poor. Probably poor more so as they have little disposable income anyway to start with. But i know we have all the student tuitian fees debarcle which i have blogged time after time on but this will be the next bomb shell the condems will land on us for sure.

Vat from January will be rising from its current position of 17.5% to 20%. That extra few percent could tip things over the edge for people. NOt only will this cripple consumer spending confidence it will also have an affect with putting business's out of business as they tryt o compete with added pressures of putting up VAT.

The last Labour government dropped the VAT percent down to 15%. This did little to the naked eye it seemed but it did boost spending for a little bit. Combined with schemes like teh car scrapage scheme and the boiler scrapage schemes this helped a bit of growth appear in the economy.

The choice of the coalition to raise this figure to 20% will not help consumer spending confidence and will hurt a lot of people most motably the poorest in society who struggle to make ends meet as it is.

I am fully aware that if labour had been in power now they also wantedto put up VAT. This was one of Alastair Darlings plans. I feel both parties who are and would have been in power are wrong and lowering tax's at this time on goods that are essential woudl help people out a bit and lessen the squeeze that there is on people right now.

The rise in VAT will again hit families the hardest i feel as they have the biggest weekly outgoings with feeding a family of 4 for example. Food and petrol prices are already going up alarmingly quickly and this will only further put people under the strain.

I just thought i'd throw the VAT debate back into the ring as over christmas and the holidays people better make the most of the rate of VAT as it will go up in January as i have outlined above.

Stevenage against the cuts

So tonight i attended a stevenage meeting held by the trades union council and the local branch in conjunction with teh socialist party. With me being a labour party member i was fully expecting labour bashing and it didnt disapoint. There were great speechs tonight from Martin- Powell Davies from the NUT and Billy hayes from the CWu and a guy who stepped in for the guy who could not get here from teh PCSU who are the public sector union.

Now as many of you may or may not know i'm hugely in favour of the union movement so tonight encouraged me greatly that the unions are starting to move once again. The government consisting of the tories and the lib dems keep on poking the sleeping giant taht is the trade union movement putting out policy after policy against the working class's and the middle class's i might add as i dont think this is purely a attack on the working class anymore its escalated.

But waht the tory lead coalition as that is what i firmly believe it is, the role of the lib dems is to just take the flack of the tory policies almost like a human shield for the tories. A very clever tactic i must admit. But tonight i felt a start of something new. From small acons grow big trees was the line that struck me as meaning the most. A movement from the left organised and strong can take down this government of ours. They are weak, weak i tell you many many cracks are appearing in this tory lead coalition. We must aim to exploit their lies and their broken promises. Boy the lib dems could fill a whole parliament with broken promises already and we are not even a year into this sham.

There was call for a day of general strike which was debated like a hot potato, some for it heavily some not so sure. Me myself are for it and think that a day of co-ordinated strike action in the public sector hopefully followed up in the private sector too is what we are heading towards. I think labour will have nothing to do with this. Just as Ed miliband has kept out of all demo's and student protests so far i can only see that continueing.

People like John Mcdonald in the labour party have the right idea but get hammered any time they talk up a mass movement against the cuts which is unfair as he is entitled to his opinion. Even if it doesnt follow labours plan of a 4 year deficit reduction. John recognises that cuts are not nessesary and there is another way.

Ed balls also recognised this but was shouted down by other labour members and MP's sadly.
The meeting tonight was very inspirational with many gettting up and talking passionatly about their situations.
A post office worker spoke passionatly of his struggle to keep his job and the proposed threat to stevenage post office and how it is set to close. There was anger directed to the union rep of the CWu present Billy hayes. But it is difficult when your facing a situation of 69 post office sorting centres across the country and a lot needing to go. That is the situation facing the post office and its workers across teh united Kingdom right now. Billy Hayes- a labour party member and having his union still affiliated to the labour party is in a difficult situation. He wants to keep his members on side but also protect his affiliation with the labour party.

There were calls for a break away from the labour party by the unions who recognise that labour no longer represent the mass workers party it once was and going back to a post i made earlier in the week that some labour MP's have become career polititians and no longer represent the working class.

I myself am a labour party member for the time being so have to be careful what i say but i myself am becoming increasingly frustrated by labour lack of a alternative plan. Their plan still seems to be the old Alastair Darling 4 year half the deficit plan. This for me stil goes too far with cuts, even if cuts are not carried out as quickly or as deep i still am not sure the cuts are nessesary. It woudl appear labour has swalloed the idea that cuts are nessesary from George Osbourne and wont shift from that idea.

Well hwo about more growth for a start, investing in our future, investing in students and their education ? Wales has shown the way from a labour perspective and Ed miliband should be championing the idea of wales to not put up its tuitian fees.

It can be done. The capitalist system all over the world has failed and to use the anology of someone who spoke from teh audience tonight you cant carry on pouring water down the drain eventually you will run out. I really feel it is time to stop throwing our money away to these rich bankers in the elite class who seem to thinkw e have a unlimited amount of money and more money is the only answer.

One of the over riding messages to come out of tonights meeting is that we must start to ramp up the pressure on our local councillors to not impliment cuts even if they are a labour councillor. We must create a movement similar to the anti poll tax movement back in the 80's. It can be done and this government we have now is weak in so many ways. The tories wont know what has hit them once they start stirring the union movement.

Already the students have shown from their brave occupations and mass protests that the government wont get everything its own way and we must stand shoulder to shoulder with the student movement who some are so young we must protect them too.

After all it is their and our future we are fighting for we must stand up and be counted or we never will see the country the same way ever again.

How the lib dems planned to drop principles long before the election

this news has broke over the last day or so : http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/nov/12/lib-dems-tuition-fees-clegg?CMP=twt_gu

it describes how the liberal democrats were preparing to drop their pledge to defend the rise in tuitian fees. The article describes that in any event o a hung parliament the party lead by Nick Clegg would be happy to drop their tuitian fees pledge as one of their first things to bargain with.

This to me strikes as a big let down and a betral of their voters. THe lib dems won a lot of votes on the student vote and to sell them out like this is just not on.

I feel all the anger directed at them right now is fair and just. If they planned to drop that pledge long before the election why did they not be honest and tell their voters ? spineless i'm sorry the whole party.

No they are firmly in bed with the tories, a party i dont think now they are too disimilar from. In the past these two parties have been very close in the past and i wouldnt mind betting they will merge one day.

But the coalition talk about this "neww politics" and being honest and regaining trust i just think this latest announcement flies in the face of all of that and makes them look like the lieing fools they are.

Labours cuts

This is a blog post which i have been umming and aahring about for a while. I dont want to sound negative or give out a message of dissent but would just like to raise a few issues with the current situation with the labour party.

As a lot of you know i like to form a balanced opinion as much as i can and tonight i'd like to look at the alternative. Yes the alternative Labour offer.

Now i am a labour party member of course but the lack and the slugishness of the leaders in the PLP to form a credible alternative is very frustrating it is making us look weak and not standing for anything.

I do think it is a fair question by the tories to ask what would labour cut instead to the coalition cuts. I am lead to beleive they put down to halve the deficit in 4 years. Such labour cuts would have seen housing benifit cut this is true as i know it to be from reading the Labour party 2010 manefesto, Written with help by none other than Ed miliband.

Lets get one thing straight i'm not critisising Ed miliband for one second or labour as a whole they clearly have a plan under way to sit back and see where the coalition go in the next yaer before making their own move.

Although this can be a good move if the coalitions plans do not come off and we end up going back into recession it would look like labour is still there on peoples side weighing up the options. But i would love to know waht labour would have done in this situation. No doubt whoever got in at the election wuld have had to make cuts. That seems a given. Not that i agree with the cuts it was widely reported labour would have made big cuts too. whether it wanted to or felt it had to to go with the feeling in the country i am not sure. I would love to know this.

But i do think Labours cuts would have been interesting to see, playing devils advicate would they have been any fairer than they are now. i am pretty sure they would be but how much i ask you ?

Housing benifit cuts depending on how you structure them could be fair but i do wonder.

The longer labour leave it going without a credible alternative to the current cuts the longer we will look weak on economic matters. To alan johnson and Ed miliband i urge you to get a plan down on the desk even if a draft of cut where you would make and where you would not make them. Make them so the rich do pay more. I dont care if it looks like your attaking the more well off than the poor, After all are we not the labour party who was founded on the basis of the working class with a union movement behind us. I recognise a lot of this has been lost now to a lot of career based polititians in it for themselves more than standing for something. I must stress this is not everyone of course there are some labour MP's who do still stand for something and do this very well.

This post is in aid of the party and its current direction not a slagging off post. I do hope people see it for what it is that even members inside it can offer constructive advice and opinion of where we are going. As afterall didnt Ed miliband in his leadership campaign offer to reconnect with labour grass roots activism and working class people. He claimed we had lost trust, well lets start regaining this trust shall we by talking to the people most affected by these savage coalition cuts and forming policies to defend them. That would be my start of a comeback for labour and a tune to play with the public.

Once we have assured people we are on their side we can then really get down to offering an alternative to which the country including myself would love to hear.


Even as a leftist leaning labour member
I do think there is many things we could cut. Bankers bonus's for a start. Trident is something i feel we could do without. Even if it costs us in the short term it will be worth it in the long term

I also reccomend looking at big tax evaders. Wealthy capatilist tax dodgers must be clamped down on. Alot i might add who do fund the tory party but even big business such as vodafone should feel ashamed of itself for evading big tax bills. These are the cuts we should be making not the ones on the working class and the less well off.

I think there is a route for labour now but we must tread carefully and with confidence when we do. We must defend the people and let the people believe in us again, after the lib dems broken promises we must latch on to that and prove we can be trusted again and fast.

we'll make work pay say tories

After reading this news today

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11728546
the Minister for work and pensions, Iain Duncan Smith has claimed to make work pay for people. There will be a universal benifit consolidating all benifits in to one big benifit. By big i mean a one which contains them all. Although it doesnt of course it is reducing your benifits as they are just merging them all together.

Firstly i think this is wrong in itself i am against a universal benifit as such.

Also i totally oppose how the coalition government are going about these plans. No one disagrees taht if people can work they should try to. But the tactics the condems plan to use by if you dont find work within a year you will be forced, yes i said it forced to work in the community picking litter or something of taht nature. Aswell as this slave labour to keep their reduced benifits they will loose their benifits for 3 years if they refuse to work.

This criminalisation of the unemployeed is a disgrace in my view and is yet another attack on the less well off in this country by the rich. Tories are convinced there are jobs about to get into. Well why is unemployment rising month on month. With a record amount of university graduates unemployed this year this will only rise.

This is all before the proposed 490,000 public sector job cuts proposed in teh spending review last monthh.

Labour say they support these plans from teh government even the universal benifit which means people will be less well off under the plans. Their only concern is if there is enough jobs out there. If i was higher up in labour i'd be banging the drum loud on this. there are real major social concerns about these plans. Coupled with the reduction in housing benifit and the rise in VAT come january we will quickly find a lot more homeless people on our streets once again. I am depressed to see which direction this government is taking this country. Making the unemployed feel like they are criminals for not being able to find a job is just plain wrong in my view.

If the jobs were there and being created i can see the logic of encouraging people in to them. not that they would need much encouraging as i am sure most people agree with me that most people would rather be in work than not. Alot of them time people are unemployed through no fault of their own

I think Mr Ducan Smith needs to go back to that council estate he visited in 2002 and take a look again at how bad some areas of this country is in terms of unemployment and how George osbournes cuts will further affect poor areas.

Has britain got its balls back

After todays mass protests by students in and around Westminster which some say was as much as 60 thousand people.

BBc strikes last week, tube strikes becoming regular, firefighters going on strike and many many still to come i am sure of it.

so i ask the question has britain finally woken up and got its balls back to fight back ?

have people had enough of the capitalist society we have turned in to and want a farier possibly even a socialist agenda put back into society. I for one would be for taht, I do think labour could pick up many votes if it turned itself a little to the left, It would surely pick up a lot of disaffected lib dems for a start.

I just think now that this winter will be just the start of the working people the down trodden for years who have to sit by and watch their jobs go, pay cut, conditions worsen come back.

It took Margret tatchers government 6 years for protests like today this coalition government with the tories and lib dems has only taken a matter of months. Just think waht the country will be like in 2 or 3 years time. scarey and very worrying is my assessment.

I think there will be more strikes and the TUC's general strike in late march seems a long way away now but they may bring it forward, i know a lot of trade unionists want it to be brought forward to this side of christmas. Striking should always be a last resort but i think will be one of the ways to bring down this government who seem hell bent on causing the less well off pain and suffering.

It will be interesting to learn which way Ed miliband takes labour now with strikes looming large and people becoming angry. If labour stand in the middle of the road for too long it will look like we are just trying to please all. As we all know you cannot do this in politics and before long you will get found out. So i do hope Ed milibanda nd his shadow cabinet stand on teh side of the people who are being affected by all these cuts.

But i do think today the old britain has awoken and the beast is stirring....

my take on the students protests in london today

As we all have been watching and hearing on our tv's and radio's there have been big protests today organised by national union of students. Police estimate there was 50,000 people out on the streets today.

The protest which was there to campaign against the unfair trebling of tuitian fees to as much as 9 thousand pounds.

the protest turned ugly later in the day with several hundred storming tory party HQ on Millbank. As you all may gatehr i'm far from a fan of the conservative party and really dont like what they stand for. But on this ocasion i cannot condone violence. By all means protest and make your point heard but i think this will have marred the true reason as to why the students were protesting today. People have said there were socialists out there causing trouble. I dont believe there were i heard no rallying call for people to go up there and join teh protest. I can only assume these people who got into the tory hq and on to the roof were students with a radical agenda. Not that i condone violence but i really can understand their frustration and someway anger at these rises in fees.

I'm left leaning myself, a little bit more than some in the labour party maybe but i dont believe socailists to be aggresive or violent. This lot of people today were there to cause trouble and i dont think it was right. Reports of a few injuries today during the protests but i do hope the media focus's on the positive message being sent out today that students will not just lay down for these rise's and that the working and lower class will fight back if it needs to.

This was as much a message to the lib dems who broke their promises from before the general election of voting against tuitian fee rises. That is where the anger stems from. Nick Clegg and his awful party of liars who have joined the conservatives to give them the chance to put through these awful cuts which i still dont feel are entirely nessesary.

So to sum up i dont agree violence is always the answer but as someone pointed out on twitter peaceful protests never make teh news while these sorts of ones do, maybe not for the right reasons but it does send a message to this government that we will fight back if need be.

Which way will the lib dems go ?

After reading the labour lists article on the lib dems and the rise in tuitian fees which can be read here
http://www.labourlist.org/a-final-warning-to-the-liberal-democrats

i thought i should blog my feelings. As the article sets out this could be a turning point for the lib dems and their legacey really. Alot of their seats they hold are in key university city's including Sheffield where Nick clegg sits. Cambridge, bath and Norwich if only by a slim majority of 300 votes.

I think the lib dems should personally stand with labour on this issue and stand against the rise in tuitian fees to as much as 9,000 pounds. The lib dems have always done well out of the student vote but as they look to turn their backs on these pledges they made to campaign agaisnt a rise in fees they will be duely punished i hope.

The only option they have is to obstain from the vote, how many will or how many will cave in and sell out once again.

No wonder the youngest parliamentary candidate in the last election who came second to my own Mp Mark prisk has joined labour this week from the lib dems. Andrew Lewin wil be made very welcome indeed.

I would also just like to mention the big demo 2010
which yuo can read more about here
http://www.demo2010.org/


is a huge student rally in london tommorrow campainging about these cuts to higher education and rises in tuitain fees. I urge any young students or political activists to get up there if yuo can i believe it starts at half past 10 on horse guards parade.

best of luck comrades

Murdochs media empire

After watching dispatchs tonight on channel 4, i was horrified to hear how much power Rupert murdoch actually whelds now. To have murdoch within a earshot of the most powerful man in britian, the Prime minister. I for one am very worried about where this will eventually lead to.

I afor one am really worried how the right wing media - news corp can influence the government at quitea high up level.This is not healthy for a democratic country i feel.

I think the communications advisor to david cameron is in a really dodgey position now and now this documentary has aired people will be more aware of the shadey world of the media in this country now.

The most worrying party is the role of the police in all this, they sem to have their hands tied in waht they can do. i think their reputation is on the line here if they are not careful.

Spin and Burn

Reading the political blogs and comments from today. I am still amazed at how the tories are getting away with the ruthless public sector cuts. Very deep and harsh. A few months ago this was just a fear, a fear has now grown into reality and this time next year our econemy will be half way to ruin i'm sure of it. With rising VAT and lowering of housing benifits amoungst some of the harsh cuts this country will see for decades.

The title of this entry, sping and burn is to highlight my phrase i read in a earlier blog. I dont remember its name but the way the tories are using the Liberal Democrats almost like human shields to get their hard hitting cuts through is just frankly sickening to see.

If i were a lib dem supporter i would feel very worried at the way my party is being manipulated by Nick Clegg and his high up right wing friends in the party. I really think for this coalition to last the full 5 years the liberals will want more out of the deal. At the moment they are being used by the tories and seem from what i can tell happy to go along with this.

What the lib dems should be worried about though is the current polls, they suggest they currently stand on 13 percent of the poll with labour jumping up to 36 percent. The tories meanhile continue to extend their lead somehow. I still dont think the true effect of these cuts and tax rises have been felt yet. Give it till next year and we will have alot moer unemployment, more people claiming unemployment benifit and the tories will be wondering where the money will be coming back into the econemy after they have taken so much out. The fact of the matter is that whilst cuts and cuts have been going on they have not stopped to think how they will bring the money and the jobs back into the econemy.

These are worrying times indeed for me. As a benifit claimer myself, on DLA i am worried that this will be cut to innocent people who had no dealings in the banking crisis. I ask people again, why should innocent good tax paying members of the public and public sector have to foot the brunt of the bankers crisis of which they had nothing to do with. This just doesnt seem fair.