Portsmouth Council is facing an annual drop in funding over a 4 year period of 7.1%.

The march, organised by Portsmouth Trades Council and supported by a range of unions, started off at Guildhall, made its way past Tiny Tims nursery which is facing closure due to budget cuts, then on to Commercial Road eventually making its way back to Guildhall Square.

During the rally at Guildhall Square, Louis MacDonald, general secretary of Portsmouth Trades Council, said ‘We need to register the fact that it doesn’t have to be like this, and we are not willing to put up with the planned slaughter of jobs and services.

‘Why are we cutting the number of tax collectors when there is £100 billion outstanding in unpaid taxes? It doesn’t make sense.’

Towards the end of the rally, the point was made that we can look to France for inspiration on how to fight the cuts but very little talk was given to the issue of taking the protests further than the usual rally, march, repeat.

Certainly more needs to be done to put fear into the government to stop these cuts that they’re hell bent on putting through.

General strike or council office occupation anyone?