UK Newswire Archive
Vodafone Demo Today
30-10-2010 13:22
A group of activists have staged a picket outside Bristol's Vodafone store in protest at Corporate Tax evasion by the phone company, which recently struck a deal with HRMC to avoid paying £6bn, and amount which would almost cover the cuts to welfare itself.30/10/2010
Action Against The Cuts
Info line – Call: 07856421898
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ANTI-CUTS ACTIVISTS SHUTDOWN VODAFONE STORE IN DISGUST AT £6BN TAX EVASION
Activists have today formed a picket outside Vodafone’s Bristol Broadmead Store, blockading the doorway in disgust at the HMRC’s deal with Vodafone that have allowed them to walk away from paying a tax bill thought to be worth £6bn to the public purse1.
The action started at 1:30pm where activists gathered following rapid mobilization over night.
The activists have picketed the store, which vodafone themselves have closed, in protest while others handed out leaflets explaining the action.
This comes after George Osborne’s Comprehensive Spending Review in which he announced that another £7bn will be cut from welfare, producing a total of £18bn of cuts from vital welfare services.
These cuts have been widely condemned by charity groups representing the most vulnerable in society, and the highly respected Institute of Fiscal Studies confirmed on Thursday last week that the coalition’s cuts will indeed hit the poorest in society the hardest.
It is estimated that the deficit to the public purse from tax evasion could be as high as £70bn each year 2.
To add salt to the wound, Osborne also announced last week that large corporations in addition will be expected to contribute 4% less in tax to public services across the next four years through a reduction in corporation tax.
Activists on today’s action also note that Andy Halford is both a financial advisor to Vodafone and a corporation tax advisor to the treasury. Dave Hartnett agreed a deal to let Vodafone off a £6bn tax bill, The agreement between HMRC and Vodafone came after negotiations-between revenue officersand John Connors, Vodafone’s head of tax. Until 2007, Mr Connors was a senior official at HMRC, where he worked closely with Mr Hartnett.
Richard Webb of Bristol anti-cuts group said, “The cuts are not fair, we’re not all in this together, and there are alternatives. The economic downturn was caused by the greed of the global banking system, yet it is the public sector and those at the bottom who pay the price."
Caroline Daley of the Anarchists against the cuts campaign said, “We will not pay for their crisis! The public need to unite and take to the streets to take concerted action to fight these cuts”
ENDS
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For further comment:
Call: 07856421898
Email: bristol@afed.org.uk
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NOTES TO EDITORS
1 The details of the Vodafone scandal have been released originally following an investigation by the satirical magazine Private Eye.
www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article.html...
www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/o...
taxjustice.blogspot.com/2010/09/vodafon...
2 The acclaimed tax expert, Richard Murphy, Director of Tax Research LLP, calculates that £25bn a year is lost to the Exchequer from tax avoidance, plus some £70bn a year from tax evasion, plus a further £26bn a year in unpaid and late-paid tax according to HMRC. www.michaelmeacher.info/weblog/2010/08/...
Madeleine Ann Selling fur again.
30-10-2010 13:15
FUR SCUM MADELEINE ANN THOUGHT SHE COULD GET AWAY WITH SELLING FUR AGAIN THIS YEAR. WRONG. WE CAUGHT YOU.We now call upon everyone to do what they can to stop them selling fur again. we have a few more targets to release soon but lets deal with this stubborn old fur hag first!
Full article | 1 addition | 9 comments
Vodaphone stores shut down across UK in tax dodge protests
30-10-2010 11:51
London Critical Mass October ride.
30-10-2010 10:56
Borehole Drilling Machine sabotaged in solidarity with The Happendon Wood Action
30-10-2010 10:47
Extensive damage has been caused to a mobile vertical borehole drilling machine at the proposed Glentaggart East open cast coal mine in South Lanarkshire. This action, taken during the night of the 29th of October, was carried out anonymously by those acting in solidarity with The Happendon Wood Action Camp (THWAC), and in support of the residents of the Douglas Valley.Terror plot - No plane from Yemen
30-10-2010 10:25
No cargo planes flew from Yemen to Chicago - Yemeni air authoritiesBoycott of pro spending cuts retailers takes off
30-10-2010 07:35
We posted on Sunday about our plans to stop shopping with retailers whose senior managers publicly champion George Osborne's cruel, ideologically-driven spending cuts.This month, we're targeting ASDA, Boots and Mothercare for boycott. Thousands of people have turned up to read and to join the campaign.
Clive Bloom at Cowley
30-10-2010 00:57
militarism from childhood
29-10-2010 23:56
Spetse island 28th Oct 2010
CUTZ: this week in Bristol and beyond ...
29-10-2010 23:22
Short of time? The digested read: "Everything canceled; everybody sacked"[most links removed]
P R O T E S T
BRISTOL PROTEST
The Bristol and District Anti-Cuts Alliance held a successful march and rally against the cuts last Saturday in Bristol. Estimates of attendance range from 700 - 4,000. This correspondent broadly accepts the BBC figure of 1,000. Organisers say the turnout represents "a good start" and have criticised the police for their actions at the event, which resulted in two arrests.
MEDIA LIES
Claims, presumably emanating from the Avon and Somerset Police's PR department, emerged in the Bristol Evening Post that one of those arrested possessed "a quantity of cannabis". This has been dismissed as "a complete fabrication on the part of the media."
BRISTOL INDYMEDIA
Bristol's local independent newswire has removed a satirical article poking fun at the police's actions on Saturday "following [a] legal challenge". The authorities seem shaken by the anti-cuts movement already ...
MARCH
Simon Smith, of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) Union, said at Saturday's march and rally in Bristol that civil servants in Gloucestershire may take part in a nationwide day of action in response to the Government's spending cuts. "There were leaflets circulating about a day of general strike action across the country. There are certainly people talking about it, but it must be as a last resort," he said.
DAIRY
Farmers from the West joined a blockade of a large Tesco distribution centre near Southampton on Thursday 21 October 2010. The blockade was co-ordinated by Farmers For Action, set up 15 years ago to tackle excessive supermarket power. They now have mobilised again to attempt to force up "ruinously low milk prices".
More than 80 producers from across the region turned out and used tractors and other machinery to block the entrance to the depot for more than three hours. Farmers For Action say dairy farmers are reaching "desperation point" because of huge cost increases – as much at £50 per tonne – for winter feed.
Statistics reveal English dairy farmers' numbers shrank by 3.5 per cent so far this year and the figure was 5.5 per cent in Wales, where 115 producers have quit in the last year as a result of low prices.
Farmers For Action promise a "sustained pre-Christmas campaign involving all the major retailers".
QUIT!
Somerset dairy farmer Derek Mead, from the Yeo Valley organic group, is quitting the NFU in protest at its failure to support dairy farmers. Mr Mead, a lifelong union member and Somerset's delegate on the NFU's ruling council, says the NFU has turned a blind eye to the thousands of dairy farmers leaving the industry over low milk prices.
He helped set up Farmers For Action to combat low milk prices in the 1990s. "We have had a succession of the most appalling Defra (Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) ministers and all we can do is invite them to the annual conference, listen politely to them and give them lunch," he says.
VODAPHONE
Anger over the Inland Revenue waiving Vodaphone's £6bn bill for tax evasion is rising. Protests were held at the tax dodger's Oxford Street store in London on Wednesday and the protestors are encouraging you to join - or organise! - protests against Vodaphone in your own area. #UKuncut
http://ukuncut.wordpress.com/
EDUCATION
Students and staff from Bath's two universities and further education college have joined forces to protest against cuts. Representatives from the students' unions at the University of Bath, Bath Spa University and the City of Bath College took to the streets last week to demonstrate about cuts in education. They were joined by members of Unite, Unison and the University and College Union (UCU).
BRISTOL AND DISTRICT ANTI-CUTS ALLIANCE
The alliance are meeting at 7.30pm on Monday at Barton Hill Primary School. All welcome. Please email if you intend going (please note new email).
admin@bristolanticutsalliance.org.uk
U N I O N S
UNITE
Polling for the election of a new General Secretary for Unite is now open. Jerry Hicks, the former Amicus convenor at Rolls-Royce, Filton, Bristol is running. Please vote for him. Not only is Jerry a local lad he's also the only rank and file Unite member running and he's agreed to do the job for an average working wage.
This is in stark contrast to the other candidates - Les 'n' Len (Bayliss and McCluskey) and Gail Cartmail - all well-paid bureaucrats with high-ranking positions within the union. Typically New Labour, they will take the six-figure salary - like the bosses! - no doubt because they think they're worth it.
Jerry says, "More of the same won’t do. We need a General Secretary that’s not part of the establishment. The other candidates, all appointed Assistant General Secretaries in a ‘job for life’ must share collective responsibility for the mismanagement of Unite. They’ve become ‘part of the problem’, not the solution."
http://www.unitetheunion.org/about_us/unite_2010_genera....aspx
UNISON
It is now clearly apparent that Unison has no national strategy to oppose the cuts. Instead, it seems, it will be down to individual branches to approach the cuts as they see fit. In Bristol, where the Unison strategy has been to trade away rights and conditions for nothing, this could be a big opportunity for the anti-cuts movement to seize the initiative. The other option is to continue to do nothing while thousands lose their jobs; have their pay cut and see their rights, pensions and conditions destroyed.
GENERAL STRIKE
It's time for one.
B R I S T O L
BRT - THE TRUTH
Transport Secretary Philip Hammond has cut Bristol City Council's proposed £48 million Ashton Vale - Temple Meads BRT ('Bendybus') scheme. A new, cheaper scheme needs to be drawn up and the council can then bid for the scheme from a national £600m pot at the end of 2011. Lib Dem Transport boss Gary Hopkins is "confident the Government would fund a new transport scheme in one form or another."
However, with 22 schemes bidding for the £600m - and Leeds alone requiring £200m - the scheme may be in a very different form indeed.
Whitehall sources say that as far as central government is concerned all of Bristol's proposed BRT routes (Ashton Vale to Temple Meads, Hengrove to North Fringe and the South Bristol Link) are "de facto" cancelled. The only way they will proceed is if the local authority comes back with a proposal that drastically reduces the level of funding required from central government - either by cutting services elsewhere or by attracting a high level of private sector investment.
A conversation this week between a Department of Transport civil servant and member of an NGO went something like this:
NGO: "So central government want the local authorities to be the ones to officially cancel these transport projects? For political reasons?"
Civil servant: "There is a need to share the blame around"
ABBEY WOOD
3,000 civil servants at Abbey Wood, Bristol could lose their jobs as a result of the Government cuts claim the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS). "We have been told to expect one in three jobs to go so we are working on the basis that we are looking at 3,000 jobs losses," they say.
AVON FIRE AND RESCUE SERVICE
The Avon Fire and Rescue Service could merge with neighbouring brigades due to a budget cut of 12.5 per cent or about £5.75million. The authority claims there will be no cuts in the number of firefighters, no reduction in the number of stations and no redundancies. However there will be a ban on recruitment; an ongoing pay freeze and the service is considering merging 'backroom functions' with other fire brigades. The neighbouring Gloucestershire and Wiltshire Fire Services are described as being "in a financial mess with big problems".
A BASHING FROM THE BISHOP
The Bishop of Bristol, The Right Reverend Michael Hill, has described as "chilling" the ConDem government's wholesale smearing of welfare recipients as 'benefit cheats'.
JOB LOSSES
The Guardian has extrapolated from the Office for Budget Responsibility's national figures that 5,528 public sector jobs will be cut in Bristol, equivalent to a 30 per cent rise in unemployment. Their figure doesn't include the knock-on job losses in the private and voluntary sectors.
CSR RESPONSE
Bristol's Lib Dem response to the Comprehensive Spending Review has been released. "Our £22 million savings plan for the next financial year should be broadly correct," they claim. We shall see.
LABOUR
Bristol City Council's Labour Group have published no response to the spending review. We're still left to guess what they might think then.
SCHOOL DINNERS
The Bristol Evening Post has picked up on our story about Bristol's increase in school dinner prices from £2.10 to £2.20 for primary school children. They also point out that in South Gloucestershire, the prices will stay at £1.65 for primary and £1.75 for secondary; in North Somerset they stay at £1.95 and in Bath & North East Somerset £1.90. The Post also ran a critical editorial.
FERRY
A water commuter service, heavily subsidised by Bristol City Council and provided by the Bristol Ferry Company, will stop today. "It has not attracted enough customers to make it economical," the company say. The city council, keen as always to ignore economics, have transferred the subsidy to another ferry service.
LIBRARIES
Uproar in Bristol's North West working class district of Lawrence Weston last week as Bristol's LIb Dem leader Barbara Janke launched a publicly subsidised 'free' wi-fi service for the nearby - but distinctly upmarket - Henbury Library. Lawrence Weston library was shut down last year along with their City of Bristol College further ed campus with a vague promise that they might get a "mobile" library some time.
HOUSING
Despite 'the Great Recession', the National Housing Federation reports that the average price of a three-bedroom semi in Bristol has risen by eight per cent over the last 12 months to over £190,000. This means an average Bristol home is only available to people in households earning over £54,000 a year. Average income in the city is currently £20,576.
SOCIAL CARE
The Bristol Evening Post says Bristol City Council's plan to cut the number of their specialist dementia care homes from three to one and to scrap plans for any more joint council-NHS Residential Resources Centres for people needing care after leaving hospital - as CUTZ reported last week - will still leave the council with a £2m shortfall. The council is unable to say how they intend to fund this at present. The council's total capital budget shortfall across all departments for the year is now around £20m and growing.
ARTS
Sixteen arts groups in the Bristol, including the Bristol Old Vic, Arnolfini and Watershed have had their Arts Council grants cut by seven per cent for year 2011-2012. This is a temporary settlement and the organisations have been asked to re-apply next year for funding for 2012 to 2015 when deeper cuts to achieve 25 per cent need to be made.
PLANNING
Bristol City Council planner officers proposed waiving over £150,000 of S.106 charges for community improvements from Harbourside developers Crest Nicholson. The developers are about to embark on the next phase on their Canon's Marsh plans by building nearly 200 flats. The Bristol Civic Society say, "evidence suggests that the accommodation will be neither affordable nor of good quality". Councillors have rejected the proposals so far.
MAYOR
A website has been set up by Bristol's 'creative industries' leaders to lobby for an elected mayor.
http://bristolmayor.org/
LAND GIVEAWAYS
Bristol City Council's efforts to give their land away to tax-avoiding Bristol City FC Chairman, Steve Lansdown, at a knockdown price - in the middle of a £20m capital funding crisis - may be in breach of European subsidy rules.
ELDERLY
A hot meal club for the elderly in Bristol is under threat of closure due to a lack of funding.
B A T H
BRT
Bath's BRT project has also been delayed until the end of 2011 at least. Like Bristol they are required to cut costs and bid for money from the new small £600m pot of money available. Also, like Bristol, the scheme has no hope of going ahead.
FIRE SALE
Bath and North East Somerset Council is planning to sell valuable land assets such as car parks in the centre of Bath to raise money. They hope to raise £100m over the next five years.
S O U T H G L O U C E S T E R S H I R E
CARE HOMES
Council staff will not be transferred to jobs with the new provider if South Gloucestershire Council goes ahead with plans to privatise all of its residential homes for the elderly it's been revealed. Up to 150 jobs are threatened.
N O R T H S O M E R S E T
MUGGED
Weston-Super-Mare Town Council has taken over the running of the North Somerset Museum from North Somerset Council in exchange for £100,000. The museum requires immediate emergency works of around £40,000 and at least £250,000 of investment over the next five years.
G L O U C E S T E R S H I R E
FOREST OF DEAN
Government ministers may be planning to sell off large tracts of the Forest of Dean to private companies. Whitehall sources say Caroline Spelman, the environment secretary, is set to announce that the Forestry Commission will be forced to dispose of half its land in the wake of the comprehensive spending review.
Ms Spelman's Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) was decimated by last week's public spending cuts, with about 30 per cent of its annual £2.9 billion annual budget to disappear by 2015.
The move has been slammed by critics and worried residents, who say it will pave the way for Center Parcs-style holiday villages, golf courses and industrial logging operations.
S O M E R S E T
ARTS
Somerset County Council will cut their arts budget by 100% at a cabinet meeting on Monday. Objectors are asked to meet at 9.15am at Somerset College, Taunton on Monday to show their support for the arts.
P R I V A T I S A T I O N
MITIE
Ruby McGregor-Smith, Chief Exec of Bristol-based Mitie - the public sector outsource specialists - was one of the 35 'business leaders' who sent a letter to the Daily Telegraph supporting Osborne's cuts. Mitie, a FTSE 250 company, currently turn over £1.7bn largely through local and central government contracts. The company, thanks to the cuts and the outsourcing opportunities they will provide, is now confident of becoming a FTSE 100 company. Ms McGregor-Smith earns around £1.1m a year through the taxpayer and drives from her home in Ascot to Bristol most days in a BMW M3 Convertible.
Mitie, 8 Monarch Court, The Brooms, Emersons Green, Bristol, BS16 7FH
MET OFFICE
1,000 staff at the Exeter-based Met Office are waiting to hear if they are to be privatised. The organisation, which is currently part of the Ministry of Defence and makes a considerable income by selling weather data, was not mentioned in the Strategic Defence Review or the Comprehensive Spending Review. However, it's known to be on a list drawn up by a new Cabinet committee - Pex-A (public expenditure - asset sales) - for privatisation. "They are going to sell everything not nailed down," says an advisor to the committee.
C S R
PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP?
The private sector is now taking direct hits as a result of the public sector cuts. John Dennis Coachbuilders (JDC), the UK's biggest fire engine manufacturer, is making about 45 shop floor workers and office staff - around one third of their workforce - redundant at the end of November as it scales back production. "It is not that we are losing lots of orders to our competitors, it is that new fire engines are not being ordered," says Alan McClafferty, managing director of JDC.
THE KEYNES VIEW
Will Hutton, one of the country's leading Keynesian economists says, "Unemployment and miserable poverty are about to hit Britain hard. Unstable times lie ahead." John Maynard Keynes was, of course, a lifelong member of the Liberal Party.
Fellow Observer columnist William Keegan says "George Osborne could be the most dangerous chancellor of my lifetime". Keegan compares Osborne to Labour Chancellor Philip Snowden who plunged the country into economic depression in 1930-31 by trying to balance the budget.
FARMING
Bankers - of all people - say the cuts in Defra's (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) budget herald a new era for UK agriculture in which farmers will need to become "less dependent on support" and focus instead on new business opportunities.
The government department must cut a third of its budget over the next four years. Gareth Oakley, head of agriculture at Lloyds TSB, says the reductions should prompt a more self-reliant mindset across the industry. He said: "Whether through co-operation, diversification, adding value or increased efficiency, farmers must use these cuts as a catalyst for change that will secure their futures."
Lloyds TSB with their "self-reliant mindset" was "dependent on support" to the tune of £37bn in one day on 13 October 2008. That's quite a "catalyst for change" to secure their future.
PRIVATISATION
'Procurement Connection 2010', a conference run by "tendering advisers" Ways2Win, told 170 south west firms in Exeter last week how they will be able to bid for public sector contracts in the wake of the comprehensive spending review. The Met Office, Devon & Cornwall Police, Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Service, the Royal Devon & Exeter NHS Foundation Trust, Exeter City Council, Exeter College, Torbay Council and the Ministry of Defence all attended the event.
COMMERCIAL PROPERTY
Bristol's commercial property market may be thrown in to turmoil by government cuts. The South West Regional Development Agency, which has offices in Bristol, is facing the axe along with the Government Office of the South West and the Infrastructure Planning Committee. The Environment Agency which employs a thousand people also faces large cuts. Experts are therefore predicting a glut of commercial property available in the city.
B U S I N E S S
MTC
An Exeter-based construction firm has gone into administration with the loss of 70 jobs. Michael Thorne Construction (MTC), has appointed Grant Thornton administrators. Managing director, Peter Askew, is blaming banks for refusing to extend further credit to the firm.
STOKES
Nine more branches of the Bristol-based independent greengrocers in administration, Stokes plc, have closed. The Bristol, Exeter, Falmouth, Honiton, Sherborne, Tavistock, Torquay, Totnes and Wadebridge stores have now shut resulting in a further 72 redundancies adding to the 80 reported last week. Administrators KPMG have now closed 20 of its 27 stores. UPDATE: 5 more stores closed Friday.
THE REAL THING?
Another example of how the ConDem's private sector recovery will be conducted? Staff at Coca Cola offices in Bristol are expected to join a European-wide demonstration against the company's job cuts. 120 jobs are at risk in the UK and more than 400 in Europe. The Unite union say the company is forcing through a restructuring programme that will replace high-paid workers with lower paid ones. The company is refusing to negotiate at present. Unite say the company is "recession resistant" and is using the economic climate to force through "attacks on jobs and pay". The company are still making phenomenal profits; paying large dividends to shareholders and increasing executive pay.
HELPHIRE
Bath's accident claim firm Helphire has issued a profit warning as both revenues and full-year profits are set to be down. The firm almost went bust in 2008 and 1,200 staff lost their jobs.
CONWAY STEWART
Plymouth-based luxury pen manufacturers Conway Stewart and Company Ltd have gone into administration.
E C O N O M Y
POVERTY KILLS
386 vulnerable people - mostly over 75 years of age - died in Somerset last winter from causes directly attributable to the cold and poor living conditions. More are likely to do so this year.
TRANSPORT
Train fares are set to rise by as much as 10.8 per cent in January rather than the 5.8 per cent we were led to believe last week. The ConDems have restored the five per cent "flexibility" to all train fare rises, scrapped last year. Further rises are penciled in for 2012 too.
POLICE
Chairman of Avon and Somerset Police Authority, Dr Peter Heffer admits "we will not be able to meet everyone’s expectations" after 20% was slashed from their budget last week.
Wiltshire Police is axing 20 per cent of its staff, including officers, over the next five years. Chief Constable Brian Moore says he will be losing up to 150 uniformed officers and between 150 and 200 civilian support staff.
JUDGES
District Judge, David Parsons, described benefit cheats as "parasites' this week at Bristol Magistrates Court. Highly privileged members of the minor judiciary, paid huge six-figure salaries by the state to rant aimlessly - in a public school accent - at the poor in Magistrates Courts, are, of course, in no way parasitical.
THE BRISTOL PARASITE LIST
Anyone interested in helping CUTZ compile a list of all the people in the city earning a six-figure salary courtesy of the state please get in touch. It will be published as the 'The Bristol Parasite List'
THIEVES
Boardroom pay for FTSE 100 directors has risen by 55% over the last year.
HOUSING
The Association of Residential Lettings Agents says the number of tenants seeking rental properties is at an eight year high. They report "a significant shortage" as demand exceeds supply and are calling for the government to introduce urgent regulatory protection.
Do you know about people, politics and policy in Bath, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire or beyond? Why not contribute to CUTZ and help make it the regional leader for cuts news?
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Week of action against cuts in Nottingham
29-10-2010 21:25
Last week George Osborne (real name Gideon, estimated worth £4m) announced the details of the "Comprehensive Spending Review," consigning almost 500,000 people to unemployment while slashing housing benefit and attacking welfare. Locally, the growing movement has continued to protest against the imposition of austerity, targeting both the city and county councils as well as local bailiffs.
On the newswire: Notts Cuts Watch #2 | County Hall anti-cuts protest | Baliff Bashing | Unison Demo Re: cuts for school support staff | 100 writers protest library cutbacks | Unison: Cut Waste Not Service Demo, Market Square, Nottingham | Notts Cuts Watch
In France, protests against government attempts to raise the retirement age saw general strikes, refineries blocked, mass protests, riots and apparent arson attacks. While the UK has a long way to go before resistance is on a par with that in France, last week has saw a wave of protests in Nottingham against the cuts.
On Monday 18th October, Nottingham City Unison held a protest in the Market Square against city council plans to slash the pay of school support staff. The latest single status proposals will mean massive pay cuts for many school support staff. Some Teaching Assistants will lose as much as £7,000 per year – with no pay protection, meaning salaries will drop from April 2011. This is particularly ironic - given the single status initiatives basis in the Equal Pay Act - given that school support staff are predominantly women.
The council has already agreed to delay the timetable for implementation to allow for more discussion with the trade unions, but the demonstration, which attracted 5-600 people underlined the strength of feeling against the proposals.
On Tuesday/Wednesday night, anonymous militants attacked the premises of local bailiffs M.A Julius and Co. of New Basford. Windows were broken and the message, "Fuck the Rich", "Leave our homes alone" and "Fuck Bailiffs" were gratified on the walls. In a communique on Indymedia, those claiming responsibility, stated that the action "was in solidarity with all of those, including ourselves who have had the indignity from being evicted from homes because the system we live in rewards the selfish greed of the privileged few and punishes the excluded and marginalised."
On Wednesday 20th October, the announcement of the Comprehensive Spending Review only served to fuel people's anger as the reality of the long-threatened cuts began to become clear. There were protests across the country, including a demonstration in the Market Square. Unfortunately, this coincided with a large event to celebrate 100 years of Girl Guiding.
Thursday 21st October, saw another protest, this time outside County Hall in West Bridgford where the county council was meeting to discuss the array of cuts announced last week. Around 500 people were in attendance a mixture of council workers, service users and local residents. Speakers included trade unionists, local campaigners, a Labour councillor and a Peruvian activist.
The campaign is only just beginning. The local trades council-led anti cuts campaign, Notts Save Our Services, meets again on Monday to plan further events, but there is already talk of a large city-centre demonstration on a Saturday and further protests at County Hall. Militants, are understandably quieter about their intentions, but as the cuts begin to bite, an upsurge in more militant responses seems inevitable.
Sid Williamson - Still Fat!
29-10-2010 20:27
Veteran incontinent Nazi Pete 'Sid' Williamson is back and we should be really really scared! Or something.Former BP Geologist Confirms 2005 Global Oil Peak
29-10-2010 20:07
We have just published a new report at the Institute for Policy Research & Development (IPRD) which finds that world oil production peaked between 2005 and 2008, and is currently in inexorable decline. Authored by the renowned 40-year veteran petroleum geologist Dr. Colin J. Campbell, who has worked and consulted for leading oil companies such as British Petroleum (BP), Shell and Exxon, the report warns that the "first half of the Oil Age" is over, and the "second half" - characterized by a gradual but increasing decline in production, has now arrived.
Lessons from Oxford?
29-10-2010 19:26
Can the Bristol anti-cuts movement learn anything from this?I hope moderators will allow this to stay, even though it is not directly Bristol related. It raises a lot of important issues for debate: the problems with wearing masks and not wearing masks (and some 'out of the box' answers), the ease with which people power confounds the 'all powerful' police, and the problems that arise if the whole crowd does not want to act together.
Comments are also interesting about videoing demos and other subjects.
Interested to hear what people think.
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2010/10/466984.html?c=on...58582
Vodafone £6 billion unpaid tax bill
29-10-2010 19:20
While the poor starve, the rich and global corporations fiddle their tax.12th annual protest against deaths in custody - Saturday 27 October
29-10-2010 18:14
Saturday 30th October 2010
Assemble Trafalgar Square 12 noon.
This Week in Palestine Week 43 2010
29-10-2010 18:00
Freeskilling program, November & December
29-10-2010 17:22
Freeskilling skill share evenings run on Tuesday evenings, 7pm, at the Better Food, Sevier Street, Bristol, BS2 9QS. They're open to everyone, and, of course, are free!Freeskilling is part of the wider Freeconomy community - it's free to join and a great way to share skills/tools/space/ideas etc etc. Have a look at http://www.justfortheloveofit.org for more info.
Next week's freeskill is Life Drawing, with Clodagh Scott.
Please bring paper or sketch books, something to lean on and a selection of pens, pencils or charcoal.
We've got a great program of freeskilling evenings lined up for November and December. Please see the attached poster, and circulate far and wide.
Thanks to everyone who has offered skills - we hope you enjoy sharing as much as we enjoy learning.
We're forever grateful to the Better Food Company for letting us use their cafe space each week. A member of their staff stays on to allow us to be there, and we can all show our thanks by arriving on time to enable a prompt start at 7pm, and then finishing before 9pm, leaving them in peace. (The cafe is open until just before 7pm, so we can also show our support by being tempted by a cuppa beforehand!)
We'd love to hear from you if you have any comments or suggestions about widening the freeskilling network, or if you'd like to help organise or host future evenings. Also, as always, if you think of a skill you'd like to learn, or you'd be up for sharing a skill with others, please let us know - drop us an email at freeskilling@gmail.com
All the best for Winter,
Freeskilling team
Polish Anti-fascists ambush neo-nazi band "Tormentia"
29-10-2010 16:32
...Free Fireworks Party
29-10-2010 16:22
Expect the usual dazzling displays this year followed by live music from Buggsy and Dizraeli & the STrinity Community Arts are holding their FREE family-friendly fireworks party on Sunday 7 November at the Trinity Centre, Lawrence Hill.
Dizraeli and the Small Gods will headline this night of free entertainment, supported by Bristol's hottest up-and-coming MC talent, Buggsy.
Bristol-grown, Brighton-based Dizraeli (previously front man for Bad Science), will grace the stage with his new band, and are promising to get right into the festivities, “We’re going to learn some traditional bonfire songs for this one, and cook them into a Urban pie.”
From the moment the bonfire is fired-up at 7pm, the evening is set to go off with a bang, with Bristol Samba Band providing a musical backdrop to the firework display. Fireworks kick off at 7:30pm and there will be a selection of hot food and hot cider on sale to keep you warm.
After outdoors fun, the music will move indoors for live hip-hop, West Country style. Dizraeli and the Small Gods' unique acoustic hip-hop style has earned them a nomination for the UK Festivals Award.
The evening is free so arrive early to avoid disappointment. Donations are collected on the night to support the Trinity Centre.