Demonstraties in Europa: Engeland.

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Op zondag 6 maart 2011 09:42 schreef Dr.Nikita het volgende:

[..]


En eerlijk gezegd, ik kots op die lieden die hun en andermans land naar de kloten willen helpen.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk(...)efs-lose-28000-staff
Police chiefs have privately told ministers that a total of 28,000 jobs will be lost from the 43 forces in England and Wales because of government funding cuts, the Guardian has learned.

The confidential calculation from the Association of Chief Police Officers is the most authoritative so far about the effects on police numbers caused by a 20% reduction in government grants, and the first from police chiefs to be made public.

It predicts the number of officers will fall by 12,000, while civilian staff will have to be cut by 16,000, several sources say.

Urban areas, which have the highest crime rates, will be hit hardest because they are more reliant on government money, opening the coalition to charges that cuts will fall hardest on the poor areas.

The figures come in one of the most tumultuous weeks for British policing in modern times and could herald a showdown with the government.

The first part of the Winsor report into police pay will be released on Tuesday, with the government saying police will have to accept a cut in take-home pay in return for fewer job losses. On Thursday a review of public sector pensions by former Labour minister Lord Hutton will be released and is expected to ask police and other public sector workers to make increased contributions of hundreds of pounds a year.

The moves could see officers 5-10% worse off, and come on top of a two-year pay freeze. Police officers say they already make the highest pension contributions of any group of public sector workers.

Peter Fahy, chief constable of Greater Manchester police, confirmed the figures to the Guardian. He said: "We will have fewer staff, the same or more demands, and will need to incentivise staff to produce higher quality."

The government announced in October that police budgets face a cut of one fifth over four years as part of wider cuts.

The Acpo figure contains mixed news for the government. It is lower than estimates around last year, with the Police Federation warning of 40,000 officers going. But the issue of police officer numbers is politically sensitive and Labour hopes to link cuts in police numbers to the government being soft on crime.

According to Acpo, the cuts represent an 8% reduction in officer numbers over four years, with one in six civilian staff losing their jobs, representing an overall fall of just under 12% in overall staff numbers.

By the end of last month police authorities were legally obliged to set their budgets. The figure of 12,000 police officers fewer will mean the first decisive fall in officers in over a decade, but will also mean there will still be more than in 1997, when Labour started increasing numbers.

Over the weekend, the home secretary, Theresa May, who commissioned the report on police pay by former rail regulator Tom Winsor, claimed bigger savings could be made, totalling £1.8bn, by reducing inefficiencies and waste, and by freezing pay.

She said: "We are working with police forces to identify savings that actually go beyond the reduction in the central policing grant in the next four years.

The Acpo estimate of 28,000 job losses over four years is based on the actual cuts decided by the majority of police authorities, and some projections to cover those who have not settled on a final figure. Currently the police employ 244,000 people: 143,000 officers and 101,000 civilians.

The West Midlands force faces an 18% cut in revenues, as the force gets 86.4% of funding direct from central government. Surrey gets only half its money from government, with the rest being raised locally, meaning the cut it faces is 10%.

A government grant makes up 80% of the budget of the West Yorkshire force and the Greater Manchester force, 87.6% of the Northumbria force, and 81.8% of all funding of policing in Merseyside. The forces least reliant on government money are Surrey at 51.5%, Dorset at 55.6%, North Yorkshire at 56.2%, and Gloucestershire at 57.7%.

Greater Manchester is losing 2,950 jobs over four years, and this year has to cut its budget by £49m. Surrey faces a £2.6m cut and says it will boost its officer numbers by 200 by the end of this year.

Forces face extra difficulty in implementing cuts because the majority of them will have to be implemented in the first two years. Home Office figures show the cuts in the next financial year will be 6%, followed by 8% the next year, with the cuts falling to 4% in each of the years preceding the general election.

Announcing the cuts in October last year, chancellor George Osborne said: "There will be no reduction in the availability and the visibility of policing."

Ministers believe efficiency saving and reform of outdated practices such as bonuses and allowances will achieve high quality policing at a lower cost to the taxpayer.

May said at the weekend: "I know that some will reject in principle the very idea of reviewing pay and conditions, but I remind them that those savings will save the jobs of thousands of police men and women."

The government pledge to protect "front line policing" has run into an unforeseen problem, as there is no nationally agreed definition of what that exactly means.

Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary is working on a definition of what front line actually means, given the growth in the different roles and functions modern day policing performs.

Included in the definition of front line are first responders, neighbourhood officers, and those carrying out investigations. But the grey area covers roles such as community liaison officers and those involved in communications, such as radio systems, who have little or no visibility to the public, but whose work is deemed crucial to other parts of the service being able to work smoothly.

HMIC has also visited forces to assess the risk of services being affected by the cuts. The assessments are currently private, but some are believed to be better prepared than others.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk(...)ike-planned-pensions
Trade unions representing a million state employees are drawing up plans for strikes that could bring Britain's schools, universities, courts and Whitehall to a standstill as early as June in protest over government plans to end so-called "gold-plated" public sector pensions, the Guardian has learned.

Lord Hutton, the Labour former work and pensions secretary charged by the coalition with reviewing public sector pensions, will publish his final report on Thursday, and it now looks likely to act as a starting gun for extended industrial action against the government's austerity programme.

The report will recommend that 6 million nurses, teachers, local government and other public sector workers should pay more into their pension pots, retire later and receive less when they do. All state employees will be affected, and it will create the first legal basis for simultaneous strikes across the public service unions.

Under the plans, the normal pension age of 60 would increase to match the state pension age, which by 2020 will be 66 for men and women. The changes should be brought in by the end of this parliament, though the armed forces should get longer to implement them, Hutton says.

Hutton has called on the unions and government to negotiate, saying the status quo is not tenable long term. "These proposals aim to strike a balanced deal between public service workers and the taxpayer. They will ensure that public service workers continue to have access to good pensions, while taxpayers benefit from greater control over their costs," he said.

The most generous schemes, which link pensions to final salaries, would be scrapped and replaced with payments based on career averages. Hutton has previously called the existing schemes "fundamentally unfair" compared with private sector schemes.

Ministers should also get more powers to raise employee contributions if schemes are becoming unaffordable, but there will be moves to protect the lowest-paid from proposed increases in contributions.

The TUC is locked in a debate about the timing of the coming action. Some unions insist any strikes must wait until the government publishes its response to Hutton, which is not expected until the summer. But a hardcore are preparing to ballot members, saying that changes announced after Hutton's interim report – to increase contributions by 3% from next year and change the rate of interest paid from the Retail Price Index to the smaller Consumer Prices Index – provide a legal basis to walk out now.

The Cabinet Office minister, Francis Maude and chief secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, made it clear in the first pensions negotiating meeting at the beginning of the month that they would not reconsider the decision to increase contributions and the change from RPI to CPI, leaving some unions arguing that the talks are meaningless.

The PCS civil service union, one of the most militant unions, is preparing to take action in June, when the National Union of Teachers and the University and College Union are also considering joint strikes, pending ballot decisions, their national executives' approval and the outcome of further meetings with ministers.

Teaching union sources said any action would be timed for before the summer holidays, to maximise political impact and minimise any effect on exams.

A delegation from the unions will meet Maude and Alexander next week to discuss Hutton's proposals and the TUC will regroup later to confirm a timetable for industrial action. It appears unlikely that the entire public sector will strike, but instead waves of strikes will be planned sector by sector.

Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS, said: "If we get all the teachers, lecturers and civil service, you'd have visible protests in every town in the UK. Jobcentres, tax offices, schools, courts, ports, universities would all close. There would be disruption. You would see a scale of unity across the professions that you haven't seen in a long time. It's a sequence of events and it will bring new political pressure."

Sally Hunt, general secretary of the UCU, said her union's decision would depend on a ballot result due on Monday and the outcome of the talks with ministers. She said: "These are cuts that have nothing to do with the credibility or viability of the public sector pension schemes and everything to do with the political impetus to trim away at public sector pay."

Dave Prentis, the general secretary of the biggest public sector union Unison, said: "On top of a pay freeze, and the threat of redundancy, they now face a pensions raid. This brings the threat of industrial action closer."

Brendan Barber, general secretary of the TUC, said: "The TUC and the unions are involved in negotiations with the government about proposed contribution increases. These increases are not needed, and will be an extra tax on teachers, civil servants, local government employees, firefighters, nurses and millions of other public service workers."

Government sources said they would not comment before the report's publication.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk(...)ey-healthcare-reform

Ministers have been accused of "burying good news" about the NHS because it will undermine their case for sweeping reforms, after it emerged that they are withholding unpublished polling data that shows record levels of satisfaction with healthcare.

The Observer has learned that the polling organisation Ipsos MORI submitted the results last autumn to the Department of Health for inclusion in a government survey of public perceptions of the NHS. The data, commissioned by the department, shows that more members of the public than ever believe the NHS is doing a good job – a finding contrary to health secretary Andrew Lansley's insistence that it is falling short and needs urgent change.

The department has had the findings for six months, but has yet to make them public – the most recent information on its website relates to 2007. The decision to "sit on" the positive information has fuelled a row over the way in which the government is rooting out negative statistics about the NHS to justify reforms. Under the plans – rejected by the Liberal Democrats at their spring conference last weekend and opposed by a small band of Tory MPs, as well as by the Labour party – GPs will be handed control of £80bn of the NHS budget, tiers of management will be swept away and the private sector will play a greater role. The department was unable to say yesterday when it would publish the new data, but sources confirmed that the information shows public satisfaction at a record level.

In January, John Appleby, chief economist at the King's Fund thinktank, questioned the way in which ministers were unfavourably comparing the NHS with France. Appleby's article for the British Medical Journal attracted support from several academics and doctors. Professor Raj Bhopal, of the University of Edinburgh, said: "Justifying NHS reforms by picking a few statistics that cast doubts on the UK's renowned healthcare system is worrying, but choosing statistics that are widely questioned reminds me of previous government briefings that led to dodgy dossiers."

Labour's health spokesman, John Healey, said that it was clear the department did not want to put out good news because it would embarrass ministers trying to stem criticism of the Lansley plans.

Shirley Williams, the Lib Dem peer, said she was angry that the department had "cherry-picked" information – much of it from 2006 – before the extra billions poured into the health service by Labour had begun to take effect. In its 2007 public perception survey, also compiled from Ipsos MORI data, the department reported satisfaction levels at 63%. Then, last December, the British Social Attitudes survey found satisfaction at a record high of 64%

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http://www.guardian.co.uk(...)t-protesters-growing

A deepening antipathy for the government's public spending cuts has been revealed as the head of the police union said officers patrolling next weekend's demonstrations against austerity measures would have "a lot of sympathy" with the protesters.

Emphasising the growing opposition to the speed and breadth of the cuts programme, the chairman of the Police Federation, Paul McKeever, said that officers on duty at Saturday's March for an Alternative in central London would be feeling a sense of solidarity as they policed the event, which is being organised by the Trades Union Congress (TUC).

"The great irony is that officers policing marches like the TUC are actually facing greater detriment than many of those protesting against the cuts," said McKeever, whose union represents 140,000 rank-and-file police officers.

"We're not members of the TUC and have to be careful about having too close an association, though there will be a lot of sympathy towards those marching."

The march, due to be held in London's Hyde Park, looks set to be the largest rally to date against the coalition government's policies, with organisers hoping for more than 100,000 people to attend.

Along with the unions and other campaigning bodies, a plethora of other protest groups has sprung up as the strength of feeling grows against a package of issues as diverse as tuition fee rises, the scrapping of the education maintenance allowance, bankers' bonuses, tax evasion by big business, library closures and arts and public spending cuts.

One peace activist, and veteran of the anti-war marches in 2003, told the Observer: "We will get a lot of first-time protesters on Saturday because people are getting more confident that protest is for them. It's not for a bunch of anarchists, it's families, students, old people, maybe now even the odd police officer, who don't want to put up with cuts and unfairness in Britain any more."

Groups are using technology and social media to share expertise and information as well as co-ordinate and manage direct action more efficiently. The day is expected to see traditional protests take place at the same time, with sit-ins at high street shops and banks and occupations of public buildings and universities.

In the past five months, the protest group UK Uncut has staged a steady campaign of sit-ins against tax dodging that have forced the temporary closure of branches of Barclays, Vodaphone, Boots, British Home Stores and Topshop up and down the country.

"26 March is going to be a really important day," said Anna Walker of UK Uncut. "We had the student protests and we have seen the growth of UK Uncut, but this is the first time we are going to have people from all over the UK together whose lives are being turned upside down by these cuts. It is going to be the start of something powerful."

Scotland Yard has already suggested that "troublemakers" could attempt to hijack the protest. The Met was criticised for its tactics at student tuition fee protests last year, when dozens of people were arrested during violent outbreaks. This time, members the of human rights organisation Liberty will act as independent observers.

McKeever suggested that, far from being hostile to the protesters, many police officers would share the frustrations of the day. He said that a massive march of police officers themselves could not be ruled out if the home secretary, Theresa May, pushes forward with government plans to cut back on police pay and perks.

More than 20,000 police officers marched through London in 2008 in protest about their pay, the biggest demonstration in police history.

"We had 23,000 officers on the streets on a point of principle. Imagine how many might be involved with the level of feeling at the moment. Nothing is ruled out," said McKeever.

He also warned that attempts by the government to force through changes in pay and conditions might lead to legal action. "We are exploring every avenue to make sure officers are treated fairly.

"The first duty of any government is the protection of its citizens. Yet it is being vindictive against a police service it seems to hold in very low regard.

"Mervyn King has said that it's not those in the public sector who are to blame for the crisis, but it doesn't feel like that in the police service."

He added: "They don't seem to be so accusatory towards those where the blame actually lies. There seems to be a dislike of policing with this present government – the so-called party of law and order is dead, it's buried, it's gone."

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Scotland Yard has already suggested that "troublemakers" could attempt to hijack the protest. The Met was criticised for its tactics at student tuition fee protests last year, when dozens of people were arrested during violent outbreaks. This time, members the of human rights organisation Liberty will act as independent observers.

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http://www.volkskrant.nl/(...)jk-te-verlaten.dhtml
LONDEN - De Britse bank Barclays heeft de Britse regering gedreigd het hoofdkantoor te verplaatsen van het Verenigd Koninkrijk naar de VS of Aziė als de overheid grote hervormingen in de sector gaat doorvoeren. Dat meldde vandaag de krant The Sunday Times.

Topman van Barclays John Varley zou tijdens overleg met vertegenwoordigers van de regering niet openlijke dreigementen hebben uitgesproken, maar wel de 'positie van zijn bank duidelijk hebben gemaakt'.

Eerder op zondag werd bekend dat een onderzoek heeft uitgewezen dat de hervormingen die de regering binnen de bankensector zou willen doorvoeren, de grote banken zo'n 15 miljard pond (ruim 17 miljard euro) per jaar zou kosten. Het onnderzoek is uitgevoerd door een grote consultantsfirma in opdracht van de banken.

Structuur
De banken zijn bang dat de overheid hen wil verplichten de financierinsstructuur te veranderen en een scheiding door te voeren tussen de zakelijke tak en de consumententak. Dat zou met name voor grote banken, zoals HSBC, Barclays en Royal Bank of Scotland, grote gevolgen kunnen hebben. Zij kunnen dan niet meer vrij schuiven met de opbrengsten en zouden uit moeten kijken naar andere financieringsbronnen.

Volgens voorstanders van de maatregel zouden op deze manier de gevolgen van een omvallende bank voor de maatschappij worden beperkt. Een onafhankelijke commissie die in opdracht van de regering onderzoek doet naar de toekomst van de Britse banken komt in april met haar bevindingen.

Niet de enige
Barclays is niet de enige die in het geweer komt tegen de plannen. Vrijwel alle banken hebben al gewaarschuwd dat de overheid dergelijke grote hervormingen niet eenzijdig moet doorvoeren. Dit zou volgens hen zeker internationaal moeten worden geregeld. Afgelopen weken deden ook geruchten de ronde dat HSBC met aandeelhouders de mogelijkheid zou hebben besproken het hoofdkantoor uit Londen te verhuizen en de hoofdzetel buiten het Verenigd Koninkrijk te vestigen.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk(...)olice-kettling-court

Police officers used punches to the face, slaps and shields against demonstrators whom police chiefs accept had nothing to do with violence, the high court will hear today.

The case relates to the G20 protests in London on 1 April 2009 during which Ian Tomlinson, a bystander, died after being struck by an officer.

The court action is a test of the police tactic of kettling, used to detain a mass of people at protests. The case precedes Saturday's march through London to protest against government budget cuts that will again test how effectively Scotland Yard can manage protests. According to court documents seen by the Guardian, police in charge of the protest ordered a climate camp to be kettled and then cleared, but officers were left to decide how much force they should use.

Video shot on the day shows demonstrators trying to avoid being beaten by raising their hands in the air and chanting "This is not a riot" at police clad in helmets and riot gear. Officers on the videos are seen to strike demonstrators, who cannot be seen on the video to be engaged in any violence.

Notebooks secured from some officers contain admissions they used violence, but officers said this was to protect themselves or colleagues.

On 1 April 2009, there were several demonstrations in the area, but the court case deals with a climate camp in Bishopsgate. A police chief accepts it was peaceful but decided it should be contained to avoid potentially violent people joining it.

Officers were told they were containing or detaining those in the climate camp to prevent a breach of the peace. Protesters would be held for hours.

The case has been brought by three protesters, one of whom says his girlfriend was beaten by police and then denied medical treatment.

The protesters bringing the case say police were indiscriminate in detaining and isolating the peaceful climate camp. In documents setting out their case, their lawyers say: "The police took action against the climate camp as if it were a violent crowd … That is how the instruction to impose containment was interpreted by officers on the ground."

Extracts from police notebooks record the force they used. One officer said he saw a man trying to get near officers "so I punched him in the jaw and he moved backwards … I delivered a baton strike to the shoulder of a male trying to push into officers."

Another officer said: "To get the protesters who would not move back, I needed to hit the flat part of my shield to get them to move back. I also used open handed palm strikes."

Another wrote: "I used my round shield to push back the crowd, which was 15 people deep." The officer claims the crowd resisted and some punched and shoved back "so I retaliated with shield strikes both flat and angled. I also delivered open palm strikes to a number of individuals and fist strikes as well."

Police chiefs say officers were expected to use their "discretion".

Lawyers for the protesters claim the actions of the police broke the law: "There was no lawful justification for violent force being used on any of these occasions. Accordingly, its use and any associated instructions … were unlawful," they allege in court documents.

The solicitor, John Halford, said: "This case exposes the shameful fact that many police officers lack even a basic understanding of their proper role which is to facilitate non-violent protest, not suppress it using violence. That problem extends from the officers on the ground that used force on a peaceful crowd as a first resort to their senior commanders, who gave no guidance that doing so was unacceptable.

"What the courts have held to be an extreme step – particularly because of the risk of fundamental rights being compromised – has now become routine."

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http://www.guardian.co.uk(...)falgar-square-tahrir

Campaigners against public service cuts are calling for a 24-hour occupation of Trafalgar Square – drawing inspiration from revolts in the Middle East – to coincide with Saturday's trade union protest in London.

Student activists who organised last year's demonstrations say there will be a rolling programme of sit-ins and protests on the day and have called on people to occupy the central London square turning "Trafalgar into Tahrir" – a reference to the gathering point in Cairo that was at the heart of the revolution in Egypt earlier this year.

"We want Trafalgar Square to become a focal point for the ongoing occupations, marches and sit-ins that will carry on throughout the weekend," said Michael Chessum from the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts. "There are a lot of smaller scale demonstrations and actions planned and, just as we have seen in recent protests in the Middle East and north Africa, we want to create an ongoing organising hub."

Saturday's main demonstration has been organised by the TUC and is expected to see more than 200,000 people – including public sector workers, families and first-time protesters – take to the capital's streets to oppose government cuts.

This month the TUC general secretary, Brendan Barber, promised a barrage of protests against the cuts, ranging from industrial strikes and "peaceful civil disobedience" to petitions by Tory voters in the shires.

The plan to occupy Trafalgar Square is the latest in a wave of proposed sit-ins, occupations and "people's assemblies" that activists have branded a "carnival of civil disobedience".

"We have seen time and again that marches from A to B do not achieve their objectives," said Chessum. "This is about creating an ongoing movement that will put pressure on the government. This is the start of what is going to be a hot summer of protest against the ideological nature of what this government is doing."

The call for an occupation of the London landmark is backed by student groups, activists and two Labour MPs – John McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn. In a joint statement they have called on people to "stay in Trafalgar Square for 24 hours to discuss how we can beat this government and to send a message across the globe that we stand with the people of Egypt, Libya, Wisconsin and with all those fighting for equality, freedom and justice.

"We want to turn Trafalgar Square into a place of people's power where we assert our alternative to cuts and austerity and make it a day that this government won't forget."

Alongside the main march, which will set off from the Embankment before making its way to Hyde Park for a rally, anti-cuts campaigners say they plan to occupy some of the capital's "great buildings", close down scores of high street stores and occupy Hyde Park.

UK Uncut, a peaceful direct action group set up five months ago to oppose government cuts and protest against corporate tax avoidance, is planning to occupy and force the temporary closure of scores of shops on Oxford Street on Saturday afternoon.

Meanwhile, student groups will meet at the University of London student union building in Bloomsbury at 10am. Some are then expected to make their way to the main assembly point in a "feeder march"; others will peel off to take part in various "direct actions" .

"Since Christmas the movement has become much more autonomous," one veteran of last year's protests told the Guardian last week. "There are smaller, semi-independent groups planning small-scale direct action against a range of targets. It will be a bit of a disappointment if we get to the end of the day and one of London's great buildings is not occupied. We have to make an impact."

Online, other groups are calling for more widespread direct action on Saturday. An organisation calling itself Resist 26 claims it will stage a number of "people's assemblies" along the route of the march. Under the banner "Battle of Britain" it is calling for a 24-hour occupation of Hyde Park and "after parties" at famous London landmarks including Piccadilly Circus and Buckingham Palace.

Scotland Yard says it has worked closely with the TUC to ensure the demonstration passes off peacefully and senior officers are due to give a detailed briefing on police plans on Tuesday morning.

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Anti-cuts march will round off civil servant's 166-mile trek


A civil servant will complete the final leg of a 166-mile walk on Saturday when he joins hundreds of thousands of people on the anti-cuts march in central London.

Richard Evans, 46, has walked from his home town of Cardiff to protest against government cuts to public services and raise awareness of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) march.

"It has been pretty tough in parts to be honest but I am nearly there now," said Evans. "We have had a good response along the way and I hope I have helped persuade people to take the trouble to come along and join the march."

Speaking on Friday afternoon, Evans said he was about 25 miles from London. "I will do as much as I can today, then get some sleep and finish off in the morning – hopefully I'll be there in time for the start of the march."

Evans, who works for HM Revenue & Customs and is a representative of the Public and Commercial Services union, said he was walking to London to try to raise awareness of the impact of the cuts.

"Many people think it is just about the loss of civil service jobs, but it is about so much more than that. It is going to have an impact on everyone … and there is an alternative."

When he arrives in London Evans is likely to be introduced to crowds at the TUC rally in Hyde Park.

Nigel Costley, the south-west TUC regional secretary, said many people shared his anger and determination.

"People realise that there is not going to be an area of our lives that is not affected by what's coming and they are prepared to make big sacrifices to voice their opposition. Richard's walk shows great commitment and he is not the only one. There are thousands of people from my area who will be getting up at 3am on Saturday to make sure they are in London to join the march and show there is an alternative."

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Protest march against coalition cuts expected to attract 300,000

More than a quarter of a million protesters against public sector cuts are expected to flood central London today in the biggest political demonstration for nearly a decade.

Police sources, normally cautious about estimating numbers, said last night they were braced for up to 300,000 people to join the march – far higher than previous forecasts from TUC organisers.

More than 800 coaches and at least 10 trains have been chartered to bring people to the capital from as far afield as Cornwall and Inverness.

The Metropolitan police, under fire for their use of kettling in previous protests, said "a small but significant minority" plan to hijack the march to stage violent attacks. Organisers, however, insist it will be a peaceful family event. Union members are expected be joined by a broad coalition, from pensioners to doctors, families and first-time protesters to football supporters and anarchists.

Ed Miliband said the government was dragging the country back to the "rotten" 1980s. Labour is calling today's event the "march of the mainstream".

The opposition leader will address the rally – his biggest audience ever – in Hyde Park to set out Labour's alternative to the cuts, accusing the government of fomenting the "politics of division" not seen since Margaret Thatcher's 1980s.

His remarks are reinforced by a Guardian/ICM poll that shows the public divided over the cuts. Of 1,014 people questioned this week, 35% believe the cuts go too far, 28% say they strike the right balance and 29% say they don't go far enough; 8% don't know.

Two other polls put the balance more strongly against cuts. A YouGov survey for Unison found that 56% believe the cuts are too harsh and a ComRes poll for ITV showed that two-thirds think the government should reconsider its planned spending cuts programme. Just one in five disagree with that view.

The TUC organisers of the event said they had organised a family-friendly demonstration with brass, jazz and Bollywood bands. But with unofficial feeder marches, sit-down protests and a takeover of Trafalgar Square planned, there was increasing nervousness that acts of peaceful civil disobedience could lead to stand-offs with police and outbursts of violence.

Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, which is providing 100 legal observers along the route to monitor the scenes, said she had been heartened by advance co-operation between the TUC and police, but added: "Events around in the world show the precious nature of peaceful dissent guaranteed by our Human Rights Act. This fundamental freedom was hard won and is still much envied elsewhere. It must not be jeopardised either by over-zealous policing or anyone looking for trouble."

Miliband said in a speech in Nottingham: "I thought the politics of the 1980s were rotten because they divided our country. I fear that this government is practising the politics of division."

He argued that the government's policies divided rich against poor, public sector workers against private sector workers and north against south. "These aren't the voices of people marginal to our country but the voices of the mainstream majority in our country and that's why I'll be addressing the rally tomorrow," he said. He had been told not to join the march because of safety concerns.

The Tories called on Miliband and the TUC leader, Brendan Barber, to take responsibility for any disruption on the march. Michael Fallon, deputy chairman of the Conservative party, said: "Under Ed Miliband, Labour are abandoning the centre ground, retreating into their comfort zone of left-wing protest and cosying up to the unions."

Barber will tell the rally that no part of the public realm is protected from the cuts, highlighting the proposals to radically change the NHS. "Today let us say [to David Cameron]: we will not let you destroy what has taken generations to build," he will say.

The bulk of the march will be made up of trade unionists, with virtually all of the TUC's 55 affiliated unions represented. Also among the marchers will be a coachload of mothers and toddlers from Hampshire demonstrating against the closure of Sure Start centres in the county.

Catherine Ovenden, 31, said the decision to cut the service would have a devastating impact on families. "So many people rely on these centres and we are going to lose a third of them," she said .

The demonstration is timed to mark the new financial year next week, when many of the cuts kick in. Research by the Fabian Society suggests that taken with the wider tax and benefit reforms announced since the election, this week's budget would in fact force large number of working families into tax, instead of lifting them out as the coalition has claimed.

Tens of thousands of the lowest-income families will lose around 6% of their net income in the next year because of the government's tax and benefit changes with the bulk of the cuts kicking in next week, the analysis by the Fabian Society shows. From next week the childcare element of the tax credit system will be reduced from 80% to 70% of qualifying families' nursery bills. A family with one child and one earner earning up to £23,000 will lose between 5.7% and 6.4% of their net income, compared with last year. This would cost such a family with an income of £6,000 £1,362 a year and a family on £23,000 £1,710 a year.

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Op zaterdag 26 maart 2011 07:20 schreef truepositive het volgende:
Ik hoop van harte dat het nog groter wordt.