so if we really are all in it together - let's march

[sanfairyann]

can't even keep up with the tally so far but it's all anti-family and pretty much nothing else. Does Dave think we're all too busy with the kids to do anything about it? Here's a quick run through some of the cuts announced so far (thanks to guardian, link below)

abolition of Child Trust Funds;

the Health in Pregnancy Grant;

Surestart Maternity Grant for second child;

uprating of benefits by the CPI rather than RPI;

the three-year freeze on child benefits and the introduction of housing benefit limits.

Pensioners and the childless remain unscathed so far. www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/oct/07/family-unfriendly-con-dems
if we're ' all in this together' then let's stick together - and protest together.

cuts to cb are just the thin edge. The Lib-Con coalition think we should all be left to sink or swim. End up on benefits cos you lost your job? Well you should have thought of that before you had those 3 kids. scrounger. No extra money coming your way. What's going to happen to your children if you aren't given any money to feed them? I am imagining they will be taken off you and put in care. What kind of society allows that to happen?

www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/oct/07/child-benefit-conservatives-jeremy-hunt

I am very up for some kind of protest - at all these family centred cuts - there's a lot of us on here - we can make a difference

I am so up for this.

I mentioned on another thread, this isn't just about child benefit, this is about the tories using the banking crisis as a smokescreen to get rid of the welfare state.

For those of you that are old enough to remember what it was like living under Thatcher, it was very much a case of every man, woman and child for themselves and I for one don't want to go back to those days.

loved the link

I like the idea of a mn contingent on a march and also yours, tsc (I'm near manc as well, we must be stroppy round here)

so what exactly are we protesting? I'm protesting the way so many cuts are impacting on children and there is no sense of protecting children from the impacts of cuts at all - not just are they not trying to protect children but they seem to be first in the firing line. agree it is v important not to be hijacked by the cuts to cb for higher rate tax payers issue, which yes is unfair, but is a small part of a far greater picture. I am quite inarticulate at times, the comments from various more articulate representatives from groups campaigning against child poverty/social exclusion etc on this link www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/oct/07/child-benefit-conservatives-jeremy-hunt are how I feel but can't put into words as well as they do

sanctimoanyarse - exactly - I want my kids to see that they have a voice and we can protest. I'm also writing to my mp but this is another way of getting involved in the political process.

No madate and no common sense?

Who gave YOU permission?

Never mind, it'll soon be 2015
Maybe not

It's a difficult one LOL

"....wondering what on earth can be done if the money just isn't there"

Money for Trident? The £1.3bn spent annually on keeping British soldiers in Germany - why? War in Afganistan? Robin Hood Tax - bring it on.

There's money sloshing about somewhere for all these costs - it's a matter of priorities.

The Tory priority has always always always been to screw the common people. I'm not even a Labour voter but it makes me sick to see these Tories being so gleeful about these cuts. And yes, they are very very very pleased to do it.

"Hey! Tories.....leave them kids alone"

I'm going to be going to the TUC rally at Westminster against the cuts on 19th October.

There's a good thing on the TUC website where you can email your MP to protest about the cuts here

Here's the lovely Tony Benn's coalition for resistance website.

It gives details of the TUC rally as well as lots of regional demos and rallies.

ta very muchly, will have a look later on

Count me in. Just off to get my walking boots and placard.

Up the revolution! It's about time we did something instead of having it all done to us. Didn't, and never will, vote tory (no capital T for me), however they dress it up it's always about the wealthy. There is a saying 'capitalism is organised crime'

I am in - seriously, I absolutely will march with you.
Tell me the plan and I'll be there (especially if its on a saturday)
and I will give free weather forecasts so we don't get cold!

Ultimately what the Tories are doing is retarding growth. We need people gainfully employed so they are paying tax and not taking benefits. We need to encourage spending and investment by companies to grow the economy. More growth = more revenue = more revenue for public spending.

The last government weren't perfect - CTF was a waste of money and the tax credit scheme is an unwieldy, expensive to run mess (£10,000 tax free allowance I say!!). But at least they were going the right way and they WERE reducing the deficit!!

The Tories have ignore advice from the Confederation of British Industry, the Office of Budget responsibility, The International Monetary Fund, who all suggested that Britain's economy is growing faster than half of Europe and the sweeping cuts (cynically aimed at the poor, disabled and children) are not necessary.

The whole thing smacks of vindictiveness to me. I'm still waiting for them to renege on the £10,000 tax free allowance that Nick promised. Probably while David wasn't looking.

I posted this on another thread, but thought you'd be interested in a little something I heard today:

I heard, from a good source, that Dave C and his mates dined at Simpsons in Birmingham after the conference and drank stupidly expensive wine. I've checked the wine list online and their most expensive bottle is £2020. I guess they won't be missing their child benefit.

Still, we're all in it together, aren't we?

What do you expect from a bunch of Eton boys. And they didn't even win.

Bunch of c*s.

that is £2020 on a single bottle? That is more than my 'pay freeze' [two years worth] by about 5 times, in about ten gulps of juice. kind of puts it into perspective how they see money. is this wine claimed on expenses? have you got a link?

A link to the information or the wine list?

I heard about it from someone involved in politics locally. The restaurant isn't all that far from where we live. I have no idea if it was claimed on expenses, or indeed if it is true, but it wouldn't surprise me.

Yes, but they want to make cuts!

A general, stop making cuts protest will just be laughed at.

'Aww the poor dears don't understand we have to sort out this debt.'
It needs to be specific i.e. UNFAIR cuts such as cutting a child's benefit who lives in a single parent family with an income of 44K is unfair,
whereas a child in a two parent family with a joint income of 79K (I think?) could still get their child benefit.

KaraStarbuck - thank you - you articulated what I've been trying to get at for a while. The Tories are doing a blimmin amazing propaganda job at making out that our economy has been in as bad a state as Greece's. And loads of people seem to be saying 'well the cuts all have to made' and lying down ready and waiting to be rolled over.

a) public debt was higher than it should be - yes. But the situation was already improving and can be effectively managed without cutting EVERYTHING.
b) So... it is about prioritising the cuts that are being made and ensuring that the cuts that are made don't have bad unintended consequences.

The governor of the bank of england is desperate for us all to go out and spend money - he understands what needs to be done to ensure the economy gets onto a more sure footing - and is politically neutral. That's why interest rates are so low - to encourage us to go out and spend rather than save.

Georgey Osbourne meanwhile just doesn't get it. Increasing VAT and cutting back loads of other services means we will all being staying at home, terrified, not spending anything. And the economy will falter even more.

Count me in too.

But if we're going to do this let's do it well. We need to buddy up with other interested parties, especially charities who lobby on behalf of parents & families because they will know about activism and running a proper campaign.

Off the top of my head:

Working Families
Gingerbread
Whoever looks after Sure Start
NCT
NSPCC
CAB
Maternity Action
Fawcett campaign
Women's Aid (because of the removal of child benefit which is the only access to funds for some abused women)

And possibly the Unions and Labour party but I'm not sure they should be involved in the organisation although obviously they, like everyone else, would be welcome to support any rally/march/direct action.

not sure who's around friday night but thought I'd try my hand

can't believe I forgot the cuts to the Building Schools for the Future either - we're lumbered with some dire secondary schools forever now - goodness only knows what the final cost for wriggling out of contracts will be - probably not much less than the cost of building them I would imagine. large amounts of money already invested now poured down the plughole.

I've had a google for marches round manchester but not found anything yet - anyone else know of any we could join? Otherwise it's looking like 1) organise our own - either one centrally eg London or several in different main cities or 2) add a mn contingent to an existing demo in London

any more options? what would people prefer? Once we decide a time/place we can twitter/facebook - if someone is techy?

All this talk of a revolution when we only had an election a few months ago...something isn't quite right.

And don't forget the money promised to Sheffield Forgemasters. Congratuations, Nick you managed to shaft the city where your constituency is.

This money was going to be matched by funding from Europe, and would be used to develop manufacturing ability to build essential parts for nuclear power stations. The money from the government was in fact a loan which SF would be paying back with interest - so revenue for the government, not to mention all the extra jobs to be created in Sheffield. Now another country will benefit from the government's short sightedness and lack of long term vision.

FA - yes I agree it is very worrying.

The fact that they cancelled the Building Schools for the Future programme doesn't mean that they're stopping building schools - they're looking at making more use of modular construction. If people want to turn their noses up at that, they can, but it's cheaper, more flexible, more environmentally-friendly and just as sturdy (modular doesn't have to mean temporary portacabins).
bit.ly/9SJrZV

There's no reason why the UK had to have a schools building programme that was way more expensive per square metre than elsewhere.

The actual way in which BSF was stopped wasn't well done, though.