A snap shot of Britons fighting against the cuts
1:05 pm - April 30th 2011
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contribution by Casper ter Kuile
This month, the cuts become a reality for public and voluntary services all over the country.
The Robin Hood Tax campaign has been travelling around Britain to document what the financial crisis has meant for the public, and how communities are working together to protect their services.
In Corby, Northamptonshire, our visit the Pen Green Sure Start centre quickly revealed how involved the staff and parents have been in fighting the cuts.
One thousand people (one in fifty residents) recently descended on the city centre to challenge the proposed cuts of £1.1m. A Robin Hood tax on financial transactions in the UK would pay for these cuts in 26 minutes. Many joined the March for the Alternative in London with banners and flags still on display in the office; others have given testimony in local council meetings.
Pressure on local politicians is working. Louise Bagshawe, Tory MP for Corby, has publicly stated that any cuts to the centre would happen “over my dead body”.
On the outskirts of Liverpool, Kaliya Franklin has become an online organiser through her grassroots network The Broken Of Britain. Her video attacking David Cameron’s cuts of Disability Living Allowance became a viral hit at the end of last year, and she’s now working with disabled people across the country to lobby the government on welfare reform through Project V.
Friends of mine who are disabled are planning exit strategies to end their lives for when the time they most fear comes and their benefit is denied. I have never before felt such despair and fear for all our futures
In Oxfordshire, where the council has been forced to make cuts of £119 million, a thriving local campaign has successfully pushed back the closure of twenty local libraries. Public meetings of over 300 people in each of the local communities around the city are putting real pressure on politicians.
The cross-party local campaign has had the backing of famous local authors like Philip Pullman, and thousands of signatures from residents who want to keep the libraries open. Young families and the elderly are particularly reliant on the services provided by librarians, as campaigner Irene Stratton describes in the video below.
In Kentish Town, where daycare services for under-5’s costs up to £1500 per child, per month, parents are fighting a campaign to keep centres from closing down. The mums that we speak to explain that they are likely to have to leave their jobs in order to care for children at home.
That will mean we’ll have to move away from the area, to somewhere much cheaper. And that means moving away from friends and family, and leaving behind the good schools in the area too.
These are the ‘squeezed middle’ that we hear about in the media – middle-class families with middle-class aspirations and expectations. They work in the media, or in IT, or as teachers, and are being forced out of the area by withdrawal of already barely-affordable childcare.
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Reader comments
Casper, have you guys done any stuff about effects of cuts on environmental initiatives?
Pressure on local politicians is working. Louise Bagshawe, Tory MP for Corby, has publicly stated that any cuts to the centre would happen “over my dead body”.
You’ve neglected to mention that the cuts to Corby’s Sure Start are being made by the LABOUR council. Louise Bagshawe needed no “pressure” to oppose them.
…..oh and:
In Kentish Town, where daycare services for under-5’s costs up to £1500 per child, per month, parents are fighting a campaign to keep centres from closing down.
Yes, indeed they are. And who are they fighting?
Camden’s LABOUR council, which is proposing to spend £92 million on unnecessary new council offices for its own bureaucrats in the swanky new King’s Cross development while closing day care centres and libraries across the borough.
The Left really should wake up to the fact that people are not going to be fooled by their mendacious cuts narrative.
@2 and @3
These comments read as if they have been posted by the so-called Taxpayers’ Alliance.
Pray tell why the Corby cuts are being made. If there is no choice but to make these cuts – given the front loading of reductions from central Government – then the stripe of the party in power is immaterial – unless there is a need for someone to make a cheap party political point.
As to Camden council, whether their proposed new offices are “unnecessary” would depend very much on the state of their existing ones, and if rented or leased in whole or in part, whether these arrangements could continue.
But I doubt you have any of that information to hand, as this is yet another cheap party political point being made.
And the use of the terms “swanky”, “bureaucrats”, and “mendacious” disqualifies you from any serious consideration. If you can’t make your point without trowelling on the abuse, don’t bother.
@4 Tim Fenton: “As to Camden council, whether their proposed new offices are “unnecessary” would depend very much on the state of their existing ones, and if rented or leased in whole or in part, whether these arrangements could continue.”
I know nowt about Camden, either. In Leicester City, Labour are about to be clobbered about placing workers in a visual monstrosity that collapses internally. Rooms within the building are taped out as “unsafe space”. It would be unfair to identify Labour solely for the problem, but they were in control most of the time in recent years.
Leicester City Council desperately needs a new home for workers. None of the Mayoral candidates has identified this necessity.
@Flowerpower (number2) Wrong!
The cuts to the Pen Green Centre are being made by the Tory controlled Northants County Council.
@ 6
Actually, we’re both wrong. Turns out these cuts were proposed by the Northamptonshire Schools Forum – an independent body mostly made up of headteachers with a statutory responsibility to oversee the direct schools grant and ensure its distribution is equitable.
The forum’s chair said before coming to a decision:
“Pen Green has additional funding, and the question is, is that equitable for everyone else? For the other children’s centres?
“The Schools Forum is represented by heads across the county and professionals in the business.
“It is non-political and a professional opinion is going to be weighted on the evidence.
Hey Brett,
Yep – there’s a final video coming from South Uist in the Outer Hebrides about the work being done to adapt to climate change, and we have an interview with Caroline Lucas on the Green Economy as well.
Hope that helps!
We’ve had years of the public sector being showered with money and it’s paid for an awful lot of new carpet and nice office furniture, not to mention ‘leaders’ being paid salaries based on the rate for jobs they’d never get in a million years outside the cosy world they inhabit.
We didn’t get services. Now cuts are being made. The cuts are tiny to the point of invisibility, but the screaming is deafening. And the waving of bleeding stumps is pathetic.
@9 Did you even bother reading the article and watch the videos?
Don’t bother answering, it’s a rhetorical question. You’re such a fuckwit troll I won’t follow any of your responses.
Reactions: Twitter, blogs
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Liberal Conspiracy
A snap shot of Britons fighting against the cuts http://bit.ly/jnVLCz
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Tim
RT @libcon: A snap shot of Britons fighting against the cuts http://bit.ly/jnVLCz
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AdamRamsay
A snap shot of Britons fighting against the cuts http://bit.ly/jnVLCz on @libcon by @caspertk
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Martin
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Suzanne Newman
RT @AdamRamsay: A snap shot of Britons fighting against the cuts http://bit.ly/jnVLCz on @libcon by @caspertk
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Casper ter Kuile
My piece on LibCon on how communities are fighting back against the cuts http://bit.ly/jnVLCz
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Alex Hartley
RT @caspertk: My piece on LibCon on how communities are fighting back against the cuts http://bit.ly/jnVLCz
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BendyGirl
A snap shot of Britons fighting against the cuts | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/nXxHVgg via @libcon #dla #esa
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Rosemary
A snap shot of Britons fighting against the cuts | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/6yqAtIK via @libcon
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Jeffrey Newman
A snap shot of Britons fighting against the cuts. Provides graphic real life material including videos.http://t.co/F6Q4fJy via @libcon
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Stardust we are
A snap shot of Britons fighting against the cuts | Liberal Conspiracy: http://bit.ly/jwJUnF
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Terranosaurusrex
RT @Copernispiracy: A snap shot of Britons fighting against the cuts | Liberal Conspiracy: http://bit.ly/jwJUnF
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