#no2austerity

There are more videos and photos from this action on our Twitter feed at https://twitter.com/TeessidePA/media. A document of a lively protest if not exactly a musical delight.

So as you can probably guess from the title I hate austerity. Now if you vaguely know me this may surprise you as from the outside my family looks very middle class and like it would probably support the Tories but that is where you would be wrong. We hate them. After spending the weekend with many like minded people I have been inspired to make this post and talk about the effects of austerity I have seen and some general opinions. Firstly let's talk about my Mum. Now my Mum is the most amazing person in the world and I love her to pieces and recently the government have decided to make her life very difficult. Why you ask? Well my mum is on disability benefit because she is deaf, has asthma, can't walk for more than a few meters without the aid of crutches, to the point where we have to buy milk in two pint bottles cause otherwise she can't lift them. As if that wasn't enough she also has depression and an anxiety disorder. So what do they government think? They think she needs to be in a back to work program to help her get a job that she wouldn't be physically capable of doing. She gets constant phone calls and meetings asking her to share her progress and a job hunt that will only end in tears. This makes her feel worthless, the government may as well just say to her "you are lazy, you can work, your disability isn't real". All of this because the government thinks that forcing disabled people back into work means they won't have to pay out benefits and it will boost the economy. I have news for you Mr Cameron, that makes you a dick. Now as shit as this makes me feel this isn't where my experience with ridiculous government policy ends. For this next one you need to know that I am a student at university and I am in my third year. This year as normal me and my friends applied for a student finance using the worlds most unfriendly website with the most ridiculous system. Now when my boyfriend received his letter to tell him how much he would be getting he was shocked to find he would be getting £2000 less than he had done the previous two years. Completely confused and sure of a mistake he rang up student finance England to ask what was happening and he was told that because his parents now earn £2000 more than they did the last year (in total not each) that this was the new amount of money he would receive based on his household income. After trying to reason with them he dejectedly hung up and tried to work out how he could pay rent, bills and feed himself on £2000 less than before when he had already just been scrapping by. To me this policy is ridiculous because what has essentially happened is the government have said that despite his parents having 4 other mouths to feed, bills to pay, a roof to keep over their heads and more overtime to work to keep up this level of income, any rise in pay must go straight to my boyfriend to help him live. All because the Tories just don't want to help out people who need it. (The total income of this family is still less than £20,000 a year). Once again Mr Cameron, you are being a dick. This however isn't where my thoughts on austerity and the Tories in general end. I also have this to say: Dear Mr Cameron, If you really still think that in 2015 what we need most is a nuclear weapons program that we are never actually going to use for fear of fucking up the earth, you are a dick. That NHS you keep taking money from to fund trident and your pals at the top is the most important thing this country has and I will not let you ruin it any more. Pay junior doctors their fair share for how much work they do for us and stop telling everyone that the people who help us the most are the criminals here, you are. If you are really struggling for money like most of the rest of us are, I have a radical idea for you. How about instead of cutting benefits and raising taxes for the masses you make the corporations like google, amazon and Starbucks pay the taxes they owe. If you are rich enough to pay someone to help you avoid paying your taxes, you are rich enough to pay them and even more. This goes to people as well, 'celebrities' like Jimmy Carr who spend their lifetimes avoiding tax because they want that new car despite having 3 perfectly good ones, you are being dicks. If you can help others you should. My final point that I am going to make in this rant (don't worry there will probably be more in the future) is about the migrants who are currently fleeing Syria. To all those migrants, I have space in my house if you need a place to stay. To all those referring to them as a 'swarm' or 'animals' you are what is wrong with our world. All these people want to do is live. In Syria they live in fear each day that maybe today us the day that ISIS finds them and kills them and their family or that they will get bombed. They just want a place to live where they can go about their lives without fear of death around every corner and if that place was Syria they wouldn't leave, they would go back. None of them want to leave their homes but they have to. Imagine a crazy man with a loaded gun just walked into your house and said "get out or I'll kill you" you refuse to move so he kills you, your family then leave terrified and go to the police who just tell them they should have stayed and fought. This man proceeds to live in your house and make it impossible for them to return so they turn to your friends but their houses are all 'full', when they plead they get tear gassed. They are alone. This is a very simplified version of what these migrants are going through and we need to help them. In short: I hate Tories and I want to help as many people as I can. I'm sure there are many things I have forgotten to say but this is a start. Garrie.

On the #peaceful #demonstration #no2austerity #Oct4demo @Oct4demo #Manchester #oxfordroad (at Mancunian Way)

For details of accessibility arrangements for the 'No to Austerity, Yes to Workers' Rights' march in Manchester on Sunday 4 October, please check out the Trades Union Congress website.

http://www.thepeoplesassembly.org.uk/manctimetable

Slightly further afield, we also aware of free transport from Bishop Auckland, Darlington and Durham, organised by UNISON County Durham Healthcare branch but open to all in the labour and trade union movement (not just UNISON members). To book, phone the branch office on 01325 743039 or email [email protected]. For further details, including pick-up times, see http://bit.ly/1QVcpyr.