Norfolk fire-fighters are among those taking part in today's protest march in London
Hundreds of people from Norfolk took part in peaceful protest march in London yesterday
David Bale
Sunday, March 27, 2011
12:07 PM
Hundreds of Norfolk people have joined the thousands marching in London today in protest at the coalition government’s spending cuts.
They were among a crowd of about 400,000 people - including young and old and families - protesting at government cuts.
The atmosphere on the march organised by the TUC was said to be largely “good natured and friendly”, but later trouble involving a group of anarchists who fought with police in central London marred the day.
Among those marching were about 100 members of the Fire Brigades Union from Norfolk, who are demonstrating against 10pc cuts on frontline services.
The FBU said that plans already declared by fire and rescue services across East Anglia show cuts of at least 250 full-time firefighters – that’s more than a 10pc cut at the heart of the frontline 999 service.
At the same time, the contracts of retained firefighters (on-call in the community) are being squeezed; 999 response standards reduced and corners being cut to try and mask the real effects on frontline emergency services.
FBU regional secretary Adrian Clarke said: “These frontline cuts mean a more dangerous job for firefighters and a worse emergency service for the public.”
Were you at the march yesterday? If so, did you take any photographs? Email reporter David Bale at david.bale2@archant.co.uk.
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17 comments
why go to london when they could have protested outside the labour party headquarters in norwich demanding to know where all the money has gone . Talk to the party who caused the cuts and ask them why we are bankrupt
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running bear
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
I tend to agree with Dr.Dee.I was working on a council when Maggie led her onslaught on the unions.The white collar workers just played musical chairs and the manual workers were made redundant.The unions did not give a damn about them.They were more interested in keeping their own jobs.What I would like to see is a independent time study carried out on all staff at the County Halls.As for Milliband I have yet to hear what his policies are on cutting the deficit.
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john kendall
Monday, March 28, 2011
If we assume that public sector staff arnt sitting around twiddling their thumbs, any cut will have an impact. And some of this impact must be on front-line services. Labour and Coalition parties accept that there must be cuts. Public sector unions are simply arguing that their jobs should be protected. Its illogical.
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Dr Dee
Sunday, March 27, 2011
If we assume that public sector staff arnt sitting around twiddling their thumbs, any cut will have an impact. And some of this impact must be on front-line services. Labour and Coalition parties accept that there must be cuts. Public sector unions are simply arguing that their jobs should be protected. Its illogical.
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Dr Dee
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Melvyn Parkerson - May I suggest you do a re read of my blog. It is not a rant as you say but a statement of fact. Well several facts. Rather ironic wasn`t it that Ed Miliband, who is the leader of a party that would have done more or less the same as the Coalition this year with regards to the cuts had they been in government, was at a TUC rally where the majority are against cuts per se. Time as Kempster says to get ones head out of the sand and get real. We are in deep doo doo and unless everyone in this country wants to see a massive tax hike in direct and indirect taxation the only way out is for cuts. Gordon Brown is not the innocent he makes out to be by blaming everything on the banks. If he had administered this country`s finances more wisely there wouldn`t have been so much pain being felt by everyone, including you and me.
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BG
Sunday, March 27, 2011
I would just like to say, i was not one of the people who sat back and done nothing. I e-mailed my local MP for support not to bring these cuts in. Isigned petions and generally did not support these cuts. I have also commented here before over the closure of The Unthank Centre. That was only to sell it for the money. Norfolk County Council gave money to the arts and thee theatre royal. How are these more important than what was cut? Put the price of the ticket up. Going out to the theatre is a luxury not a necessity.
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carol stead
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Of course the cuts were imposed on local authorities nationally, but we should remember that the actual decisions to cut certain services over others are local. With Suffolk CC choosing to maintain an overpayed executive on over£200,000 per year it leaves little scope for them to save their front line services. In Norfolk CC they have made choices to impose severe cuts on Childrens Services, in some teams 50% of staff are due to be made redundant leaving some of the most vulnerable SEN children without help. It just happens that in east anglia the ideological right wing bias in LA's cooincides with national government. It will all be OK though as the private sector will take up all the slack, I understand Bennets Electrical are an important local employer!
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RedStar
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Naomi Klein's 'Shock Doctrine' The book argues that the free market policies of Milton Friedman have risen to prominence in some countries because they were pushed through while the citizens were reacting to disasters or upheavals. It is implied that some man-made crises, such as the Falklands war, may have been created with the intention of being able to push through these unpopular reforms in their wake.
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Melvyn Parkerson
Sunday, March 27, 2011
What this country needs is strong leadership. But for the fact that she screwed everything up in the first place, I'd bring back Margaret Thatcher and if he wasn't dead the lovely Augusto Pinochet. Check out Naomi Klein's 'Shock Doctrine' and you'll see what I'm on about
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dave butcher
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Mr Kempster ? Would you please comment on if the situation with regard to the worldwide banking collapse with contributed to our present financial position. I'm not Gordon Browns biggest fan but surely he hasn't caused the present fiscal situation all on his own. Cameron and his pet poodle Cleg have made many promises but no kept very few of them.
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Melvyn Parkerson
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Peaceful? No biased reporting here then. How many Norfolk people took part in the non peaceful protests or can we not tell because the scum covered their faces.
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Kempster
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Melvyn Parkerson - so when Gordon Brown bragged about 'no more boom and bust' what he actually meant was 'no more boom and bust unless everything is ok'. He should have just kept his mouth shut. You need to pull your head out of the sand.
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Kempster
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Brian ,You seem to forget there is a world wide recession caued by parasite bankers, do you blame Gordon Brown for Iceland, Spain, Ireland, Greece, USA, Portugal , etc, etc, etc., having awfull fiscal problems If you are going to have a rant with regard to the Labour party please consider all the facts.
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Melvyn Parkerson
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Why didn't they put them fires out ,while they where down there !!
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billythebookie
Sunday, March 27, 2011
This is a re run of the 1980s all over again. UK PLC has been here before with Labour. They never seem to learn from history. It`s a pity Gordon Brown wasn`t frogged marched in front of today`s crowd to explain why he had got it so badly wrong and why people are losing their jobs and having their living standards cut. He was the one in charge of the purse strings and he was the person who let the economy rip on debt. Still, one thing hasn`t changed though. Ed Miliband`s blank piece of paper is still blank. He hasn`t got a clue what to do next. Even his mantra of the cuts being, too deep too fast, is starting to wear thin. Even the most sceptical have come to realise that as a country we cannot continue to borrow over £120m a day in the vain hope that things will right themselves of their own accord. Putting off the day of reckoning, however painful that maybe, just means that our deficit will continue to grow and we will never be free of debt.
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BG
Saturday, March 26, 2011
The trouble, Carol, is that a lot of people seem to think that all this cutting s just dandy until it directly affects them. I live in North Suffolk, where, in common with a lot of other places, people will vote for a pig if it wears a blue rosette. The same old lot will vote for the same old lot, apparently not seeing any connection between a change in their circumstances and what they vote for. The country needs to wake up and people really need to think what they are doing and then get on and make it happen. In East Anglia there is an awful tendency for people to sit about and grouse, yet expect others to fight their battles for them.
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T Doff
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Has this goverment lost the plot? Now we have firefighters from East Anglia joining today's protest about the cuts in London. We cannot go backwards with these cuts. We may be putting lifes at risk. We are cutting everything. Lights out overnight to save money. Children and adults loosing services and now cuts in colleges after this year. With all these alleged apprenticeship places coming up, who is going to be there when it happens? I said when these cuts came in i would keep out of it, but since the closure of The Unthank Centre and other vital services, i cannot anymore. Yes, we need cuts, but they are coming to fast. Considering the banker's were bailed out with taxpayer's money, they should not have their bonus's till our country is out of this mess.
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carol stead
Saturday, March 26, 2011