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Ghost Dog

(16,881 posts)
Sat Jun 20, 2015, 10:55 AM Jun 2015

UK anti-austerity demonstrations – live coverage

Source: The Guardian

... Our fight goes on to protect our communities, to defend the vulnerable, to expose spivs and speculators and tax avoiders...

... Supporters of Spanish anti-austerity party Podemos have attended the march in solidarity, joining a handful of people showing their support for similar movements in Greece. Andrea, a 34-year-old Spanish protestor living in London, is part of the Podemos group. “What is happening here now happened four years ago in Spain,” she said. “In 2011, protestors from the ‘indignados’ movement stayed for days in public squares like this. It showed the need for change in Spain. You should do the same!’...

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2015/jun/20/anti-austerity-demonstrations-live

12 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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UK anti-austerity demonstrations – live coverage (Original Post) Ghost Dog Jun 2015 OP
American streets should look like London today Jack Rabbit Jun 2015 #1
How many of the protesters didn't vote? iandhr Jun 2015 #2
I wonder how many had their vote "electronically" corrected by private company Stargazer99 Jun 2015 #3
None, because the UK uses hand counted paper ballots for parliamentary elections (nt) muriel_volestrangler Jun 2015 #5
Maybe the US ought to take notice Stargazer99 Jun 2015 #11
They say 79% of the electorate Ghost Dog Jun 2015 #4
little sympathy... Ironing Man Jun 2015 #9
I suppose that voting TUSC or Green also splits the left wing vote T_i_B Jun 2015 #12
Since turning out to a protest is far more effort than voting, very few, I'd think muriel_volestrangler Jun 2015 #6
70-150,000 estimate muriel_volestrangler Jun 2015 #7
That's a big crowd Rosa Luxemburg Jun 2015 #8
Too busy watching "Reality TV" to see the Reality at their doorsteep. libdem4life Jun 2015 #10

Jack Rabbit

(45,984 posts)
1. American streets should look like London today
Sat Jun 20, 2015, 12:36 PM
Jun 2015

[center]

[/center][font size="1"]From Wikipedia Commons (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Eugène_Delacroix_-_La_liberté_guidant_le_peuple.jpg)
(Public Domain)
[/font]

Ironing Man

(164 posts)
9. little sympathy...
Sat Jun 20, 2015, 04:54 PM
Jun 2015

very little sympathy from me. registering to vote in the UK is incredibly easy and available up until just five days before election day, there's a massive, state funded, voter registration campaign everytime there's an election - infact its a criminal offence to not be registered to vote in the UK - you can vote postally or in person, and they don't close the voting stations until everyone who has queued up has voted.

morever, every single constituancy in the UK had at least one properly anti-auterity candidate, whether that was Green, TUSC or some other left wing party.

66% of those eligible to vote bothered to do so.

only third world countries sub-contract their vote counts out to private companies , in the UK its done by local council staff and volunteers.

T_i_B

(14,734 posts)
12. I suppose that voting TUSC or Green also splits the left wing vote
Mon Jun 22, 2015, 07:19 AM
Jun 2015

thus making things easier for the Tories.

But then again, looking at the way the election went, the big problem is the uselessness of Labour. Uninspiring, unconvincing and losing votes on all sides. Labour's drift since 2010 ended up gifting the election to the Tories.

And it's only getting worse with the dross in the Labour leadership contest.

muriel_volestrangler

(101,153 posts)
6. Since turning out to a protest is far more effort than voting, very few, I'd think
Sat Jun 20, 2015, 03:43 PM
Jun 2015

apart from those under 18.

muriel_volestrangler

(101,153 posts)
7. 70-150,000 estimate
Sat Jun 20, 2015, 03:50 PM
Jun 2015
Estimates of the size of the rally in central London on Saturday varied between 70,000 and more than 150,000. Several thousand more gathered in Glasgow’s George Square and smaller demonstrations were reported in other cities, including Liverpool and Bristol.

“We’re here to say austerity isn’t working,” said Caroline Lucas, the Green Party MP, to great applause from the crowd in Parliament Square at the end of the London march. “We’re here to say that it wasn’t people on jobseekers’ allowance that brought down the banks.

“It wasn’t nurses and teachers and firefighters who were recklessly gambling on international markets. And so we should stop the policies that are making them pay for a crisis that wasn’t of their making.”

Marching under the banner End Austerity Now, protesters denounced public sector cuts, the treatment of the disabled and the vulnerable through welfare cuts, and the privatisation of the NHS. Teachers, nurses, lawyers and union groups marched under their own banners.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/20/tens-thousands-rally-uk-protest-against-austerity

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