UK Uncut held a protest outside Lord Freud's house in North London on Saturday(13th).
Hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the plush £1.9 million suburban home of Baron David Freud, minister for welfare reform, to protest against bedroom tax and benefit cuts. The anti-cuts activists wrote postcards to send to him whilst sat outside his home and played repetitive beats on drums for change. Some were sat on beds and duvets that were placed on the street, whilst others help up signs, “Who wants to evict a millionaire?”
Owen Jones, a columnist, author and commentator swinging toward the left wing of the political sphere was there to show his support for the UK Uncut protest. You can see his speech here.
His main points were:
“Firstly I just want us all to spare a moment for Lord Freud, it can't be easy, imagine living in such luxury... and having to inflict misery and hardship on the poorest people in society is going to take its toll so I just want to say to Lord Freud our sympathy is with him today.”
“The thing about this government, what is such a disgrace about this government is not only are they making working people, disabled people, unemployed people pay for a crisis they absolutely had nothing to do with... they are trying to turn people's anger away from the people that caused this mess at the top: the millionaires, the bankers, the people who are still booming”.
Tax avoidance at the top costs the tax payer a hefty £25 billion a year, compare this figure to benefit fraud which hits the £1.2 billion mark and you get a sense of who the real criminals are.
“What UK Uncut have done, the power of protest, no one, no one, was talking about tax avoidance until UK Uncut came on the scene. You've got to pry apart that proud judiciary in this country of people's civil disobedience, you have driven it on the agenda and with protests like this we will build a united movement which can take on this government. We stand together, we fight together, and friends, we will win this together!”
Demonstrators also gathered outside Iain Duncan's Smith £2 million country mansion in Swanbourne, Bucks on Saturday (13th). The work and pensions Secretary hit the media headlines after his hot air claims that he could live on £53 a week. When campaigners called his bluff and asked him to prove it by delivering a 430,000 signature strong petition, asking him to do just that, Iain Duncan Smith laughed the whole thing off saying he had nothing to prove because he's been unemployed twice and knows what it is to "live on the breadline" whilst sipping from a bottle of Krug Brut Vintage 1988 for breakfast... the heart breaks mate.