Comments on: Topshop and the solidarity of the ‘ordinary shopper’

By: Macca43

Macca43 — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 21:37:44 +0000

Those protesting, unlike Toby Young didn’t get a leg up in the jobs market due to a connected father. Odious twerp who repeats tired old cliches without any factual basis.

By: Richard Hering

Richard Hering — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 01:31:57 +0000

Sorry, by the way we always credit both journal/blog and author.

By: Richard Hering

Richard Hering — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 01:30:29 +0000

Jeremy – thanks for an excellent piece. I wonder if we could use some extracts to put in our timeline of last Saturday’s protests at http://visionon.tv/payday

By: Anthony Martin

Anthony Martin — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 13:18:48 +0000

@yawn
What an ignorant little ranter you are. You epitomise the true scum in society with your attitude and smear tactics. You’re obviously of the ‘Hang ‘em And Flog ‘em’ Briggade. The evil scum that would shoot homeless people and promote sweatshop slave labour.
These protests are being conducted by educated individuals who have an altruistic desire to see a better fairer society. (oh, perhaps you need to look up that word ‘altruistic)
Anyone with a degree of common sense can deduce that unregulated predatory capitalism + corrupt government + greedy indifferent scum like you + population increase + technology taking over human labour = mass inequality, poverty, homelessness, hate and protests.
People like you are pure selfish and blinded by your own greed and indifference. People like you try to stereotype protests into ‘thug/anarchist’ rallies. People like you encourage Police brutality and totalitarian dictatorships.
People like you are the reason why the peoples revolution is now starting to take place. Not by uneducated louts as you would like to portray but, by people in work, financially comfortable and not brainwashed by the government propaganda BS perpetrated by people like you, the BBC, SKY etc.
Grow up you prejudice scum.

By: jessie

jessie — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 11:28:16 +0000

On behalf of disabled people I salute and thank you protesters. I would be there with you if I could. Under this govt it seems some of us will pay the ultimate price for the greed and incompetence of the financial sector, whilst people like Philip Green continue to wallow in extreme privilege.

By: ulysses

ulysses — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 10:39:32 +0000

@yawn

Astonishing though it may be for you to hear, but not everyone aspires to be earning enough money to be in the ‘top 5%’. People can actually be happy in all sorts of earning positions from minimum wage upwards.

I believe in top quality public services: I want my children to attend well-resourced schools, taught in smaller classes; I want to go to hospital knowing the best facilities are there; I want my rubbish bins collected by staff who haven’t been forced to take a 30% paycut…but none of this is possible if tax is being avoided by those who can afford to hire the most expensive accountants.

By: bristolprotestor

bristolprotestor — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 10:11:12 +0000

Not jealous. I have a large house, savings and until I retired was in the upper tax bracket. But I believe in public services – and a cohesive society. So I was there protesting.

Overall we had excellent responses – a lot of understanding – there was the odd heckle. Great campaign to get people talking – really works. We must keep going.

By: yawn

yawn — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 09:23:25 +0000

I’ve never read such a biased account in my life.

You are no better than those you protest against, with your refusal to see both sides of the argument.

If you had applied all this enthusiasm to getting better jobs and earning more money yourself, you too would be in a position to be in the top 5%, and if you were, would you be clamouring to pay more tax than you needed to? No, you would be holed up in Monaco with the rest of the fat cats, counting your riches and not giving a toss about these protests. We all would.

This protest strikes me as nothing more than a bunch of jealous people who would rather complain about other’s success than use their energy to get on with thier own lives.

And as for disruption, if that idiot dresses as santa hadn’t glued himself to the door of BHS, then those 10 policemen it took to arrest him could have been pursuing regular activities, such as catching criminals and the like.

Its fairly typical that whenever the next big ‘anti-government’ or ‘anti-corporate’ protest is arranged it brings out the usual anarchists who see any opportunity to simply raise hell with no decent reason, no logic and no thought for any other person on the planet.

Selfish is all they are…

By: Ian Anstice

Ian Anstice — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 08:33:26 +0000

These demonstrations were fantastic. Everything I have read – please see http://helenic.dreamwidth.org/347779.html – gives me hope. The public will support them if they know about them. Let’s see if the national media cover the protests at all.

It was especially great to see a “library bloc” at Vodafone. Public libraries are facing the greatest cuts in history with around 350 already under threat and perhaps 1000 by the end of 2011. For a list and maps of library cuts see http://publiclibrariesnews.blogspot.com/. For reasons to defend libraries see http://www.voicesforthelibrary.org.uk/wordpress/

By: Maria S

Maria S — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 22:20:51 +0000

Interestingly, we did get some negative heckles in Leeds today. One guy yelled “Do you even pay tax?!”, to which people responded with a torrent of “Yes, I’m a teacher” or “I’m a pensioner” but then he started yelling at the young people protesting, “they don’t though, do they, they’re students”. We also had a couple of people shout “Get a job!”, which just made me laugh – we’re actually trying to draw attention to job cuts, amongst other things. Some people still don’t get it, so patience and persistence are vital.