Cambridge Uncut, part of the national UK Uncut movement, staged a very successful afternoon of actions last Saturday, to draw attention to several high street institution's tax avoidance activities, in an age where we are told by PM David Cameron that the current round of public sector funding cuts are necessary, due to there being not enough money in the treasury kitty.

In Cambridgeshire alone we have recently witnessed funding cuts of over a hundred million pounds to local authority budgets, including reductions to youth support services, and cuts in the number of village bus services, along with much more.

Yet at the same time it has also been reported that between them, the targets Saturday's of Cambridge Uncut actions - those being Top Shop and HSBC - have cheated the treasury out of a combined total of at least £3 billion, by diverting profits through various offshore accounts, including an account set up in the name of Philip Green's own wife who is based in Monaco!

More background here:
 http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=519377&in_page_id=2

And here:
 http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/11/hsbc-taxes-idUSN1123547620110411

As for the actions themselves, about thirty activists simply walked into the St. Andrews Street branch of HSBC and sat down, meeting little resistance, save for a couple of staff members, one of whom tried to prevent people from filming and photographing inside the premises, but it was soon pointed out to them that there was CCTV everywhere anyway!

This sit-in (see picture) lasted approximately 45 minutes, before everyone decided to leave. In that time, two police officers entered the premises, but did not attempt to remove anyone. The overall atmosphere was very upbeat and peaceful.

After a few minutes of walking around the block, the next target was approached, that being Top Shop in The Grand Arcade shopping mall, who within seconds of activists arriving started to draw down their security screen, trapping their own customers inside the store, who were left to peer through the gaps in the screen, along with shop staff!

For the best part of an hour, about thirty activsts gathered outside the store, some of them sitting and standing directly of it with a banner (see pictures), but many of them standing to one side of the mall in soldarity, and explaining to confused (and occasionally angry) passersby what was happening and why.

Many people, once they realised why the store was being targetted were sympathetic to the action, with only a handful insisting on objecting, despite the reasons being explained to them, with one group of young ladies seeming only to care that they couldn't do their shopping.

At one point a security guard arrived and alleged that activists were blocking the mall, despite this clearly not being the case, as there was an uninterrupted flow of hundreds of people managing to get past throughout the duration of the action!

The action did however draw quite a crowd, with many people pausing to see what was happening, including on the balconies above, where a few police officers had decided to also take up residence for the duration of the action (they never came down, merely observing from a distance). One activist alleged later that some people on the balcony above them were spitting on their heads - no accounting for folk it would seem.

About half an hour into the action, Top Shop decided to raise their security screen, despite no one having moved an inch outside, and one activist managed to wander in and sit a few feet inside the shop for several minutes, without any staff asking them to leave!

Once again, the whole action was peaceful and good natured, with no arrests being made at either location, ending only when after about an hour, the activists reached a consensus to leave together.

It's worth noting for the record, that the police response seemed to be low key and measured at both locations, although I suspect they may well have used it as an intelligence gathering opportunity as well.