Day 180 - In which those grubby, nose-ringed, rent-a-mob activists attract the ire of her ladyship

An article from Ms Perry in the Andover Advertiser:

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THIS month featured party conference season and I headed up to Manchester for my eighth party gathering. It was the largest conference ever and a record number of people made the journey up with me from the Devizes Constituency.

 

Along with the big set-piece speeches there was a bewildering array of other events and this year was enlivened by some protesters who chanted and sang – and then threw objects, spat copiously and hurled four-letter abuse at delegates. As I ran the gauntlet of grubby nose-ringed rent-a-mob “activists” (stopping to chat to a couple of pleasant people protesting about train services), I mused that it felt like the last hysterical days of an ideological movement that knows its time is up.

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What an incredibly aloof and arrogant attitude Perry shows with this article. With any group of people, there will always be those that seek to make their voices heard in an unconventional manner. I dare say that if 70,000+ supporters of the Tory party were to assemble somewhere, there would be plenty of bad apples in that barrel, determined to make their presence felt.

 

The chief of Greater Manchester Police praised the protesters after the main protest on Sunday 4th, saying that behaviour was very good, and that they'd only had to make 4 arrests.

I was one of those protesting at Manchester. People protesting about the continued austerity visited on this country by the Tories, the ever-increasing gap between those at the top and those below, the many broken promises and outright lies told before the last election, the tax credit cuts, the failure to support the steel industry in the face of cheap imports sold below cost price coming in from China, the damage being done to the NHS by contracting more and more services to the private sector, the funding being removed from green energy subsidies, the failure to invest in social housing, the cancellation of projects looking at investing in renewable energy, the failure of the Tory front bench to answer any question which might prove uncomfortable.

Far from "the last hysterical days of an ideological movement that knows its time is up" I think we can safely say this is a movement which is gaining increasing momentum. When you have hundreds of junior doctors joining the protest, hundreds of disabled people; when you have thousands of teachers protesting, when you have thousands of other healthcare workers protesting, when you have thousands of professional people and senior management from numerous different industries protesting, then you KNOW something is not right.

To dismiss the protest as a "gauntlet of grubby nose-ringed rent-a-mob activists" displays breath-taking ignorance, and conveniently ignores the 99.9% of protesters that attended because they are disgusted at the way this government treats the vast majority of the country's populace. The fact that the group I came up to Manchester with all felt it necessary to come along and pay for our transport, hotels and expenses, should indicate the level of feeling.

We hear the same tired old Tory mantras, trotted out like pre-programmed slogans: 'hard-working families', 'building a strong economy', 'the party of the working people' - this last phrase in particular ringing rather hollow in the light of the average £1,300 per annum cut which anyone receiving tax credits will have to put up with.

Perry desperately needs to get in touch with some of the people in her constituency that will REALLY feel the worst of the Tory's austerity programme. Open your eyes Claire, you keep them closed at your peril!