Cuts & Grazes – Discussing the UK's coalition Government's spending cuts and any alternatives

Following a well placed comment by someone on Liberal Conspiracy that my blog is, erm, well unloved and sparse I’m looking to address this.

So, my aim is to post at least every 2 days something, hopefully daily (work/health/family depending).  All I can offer is to try my best.

Yet more worrying tweets thats becoming the norm with UK Uncut supporters

Unproven comments that an officer was provoking violence on 15th Jan, and was responsible for using CS spray today unprovoked:

http://twitter.com/#!/unitonehifi/status/31745934257823744

http://twitter.com/#!/johnnylil/status/31754367493218305

And then there’s this gem:

http://jwarren.co.uk/photos/protest/dayx5/student-protests_RAW0115.jpg/view

Now either Jonathan Warren has super sharp reaction times to capture this at the right moment, or as I suspect he was shooting his pics in burst mode.  The protester was actually pulling the officer, and this shot happens to look like the end of a punch.  If this really was as claimed by Jonathan, he’d post the entire burst stream of pics.

And that’s a big issue with protesters.  They crop pics, video and bend the evidence to fit their agenda rather than the truth.  If this is the way you intend to play, then when you’re found out you’ll kill the cause you’re fighting for and risking criminal & civil repercussions for.

Honesty & transparency is your best policy if you’re to claim police state and police brutality.

Will tax avoidance protests achieve their goal?

This is the burning question on many peoples lips watching the growing tax avoidance movement spearheaded by UKuncut.

You cannot deny that the protest movement and backlash against the likes of Boots, Vodafone, The Arcadia Group (Burton, Dorothy Perkins, Evans, Outfit, Miss Selfridge, Topman, Topshop, Wallis), Barclays & Cadburys to name a few. There are plenty of others. In fact most of the big corporations used by the protesters in their day to day lives do this. It’s just some can hide this better than others, or so far have been lucky to escape the attention of the protesters.

The aim is simple. To stop UK firms using legal loopholes to avoid UK tax by basing parts of their business in countries where tax is lower. The method so far has been by protests and store occupation which have lead to a number of high profile locations being closed, costing the companies concerned valuable revenues during their busiest time of year.

This is a tried and proven method, still being used in the ongoing protests against the rises of fees and the breaking of pre-election promises by Lib Dem MP’s.

But as ever there is a flaw in all great plans. And the biggest downfall will be media coverage. Yesterdays major action wasnt referred to in any great detail on live News channels. In fact most pulled live TV coverage, and anything reported became a snippet with the exception of Channel4 News.

So why the lack of coverage?

Circles of power. If you look at the government’s MP’s friends, supports and allies you will find a huge overlap in the companies targeted and the media protesters hope will take their message to the wider public not glued to twitter, watching the actions unfold.

The general public have sympathy with the students and the unfair fee increases proposed by the coalition government. Their protests are largely peaceful, and to be fair arent aimed at anyone other than the broad shoulders of government – who wont change their minds anyway.

But the protests of businesses, at such a volatile time for business is a subject most editors would rather steer well clear of. Those that have followed it so far, are unlikely to do so long term.

You also have the happy general public, who hate Christmas shopping at the best of times, but to not be able to get into their store of choice or be shopping in fear of the protesters that have just turned up on mass shouting, frightening the older people and those shopping with young children. The purpose of the protests will quickly turn against the protesters.

The real risk is this then impacts the valid protests against fees with the gen public linking all protests with students, and any further student protest involvement will almost certainly become negative.

The students and tax avoidance protesters must have asked themselves by now why is it only students and left wing activists (along with the rent a mob anarchists who’ll turn up at any demo) protesting against the spending review cuts? Why arent their fellow unionists showing any solidarity (as the hashtag trends) to their protests?

Are the protesters so far being used as cannon fodder to gauge public opinion?