Tagged with UK Uncut

High street horrors

Today I did something I felt deeply ashamed about.

I bought a pair of leggings from Top Shop. Philip Green’s Topshop. The Philip Green who’s registered the company in his wife’s name so he can avoid paying tax – his wife lives in Monaco. UKUncut, the tax justice pressure group, explains it very clearly.

This put me off going into Topshop – as did the fact that their security guards gave me and my friend a hard time when we tried to look at the Christmas lights back in 2010. But I’m afraid I cracked today – actually I gave in a few weeks ago, when I bought a top in Miss Selfridge, also owned by Green.

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Fortnum 145: guilty of protesting sensibly

This morning 10 protesters have been found guilty of “aggravated trespass” at Fortnum & Masons. Laurie Penny commented “this is bloody ridiculous. I was there, it was a peaceful protest.” They were given a 6 month conditional discharge, with a£1000 cost order each, and one person got a £215 fine. This was for an action in which, as the police officer in the video below from the inside of Fortnum and Mason explains, the people there were “non-violent and sensible“. The footage filmed at the anti-cuts protest was shot by Green & Black Cross legal observers and handed to UK Uncut, which passed it on to the Guardian. It shows a police chief inspector telling demonstrators inside the Fortnum & Mason store they would be allowed to leave. After being led outside, Guardian footage shows the protesters being kettled and then arrested. Continue reading →

Occupy London Stock Exchange takes it to the City this Saturday

As protests on Wall Street capture the imagination of the world, with people taking to the streets to hold the global financial system to task, a diverse group of Londoners is coming together to launch a peaceful occupation near the London Stock Exchange (LSX) at Paternoster Square.

In little over a week, the OccupyLSX Facebook page has already attracted more than 9000 followers with over 3500 confirmed attendees.

Laura Taylor, a supporter of OccupyLSX, asked: Continue reading →

YouGov poll says the public support UK Uncut tactics


A YouGov poll out today reveals that about three-quarters of the public support the tactics of civil disobedience adopted by UK Uncut. In answer to the question of whether “peaceful civil disobedience (such as people staging sit-ins or occupying shops)… was an acceptable or unacceptable way of protesting,” 73% of people said it was acceptable and only 22% said it was unacceptable. The majority opinion nationally was shared by voters in every region, age group and social class, and voters of all major parties. Tory voters support it by the lowest margin — only 6 to 4 in favour — whilst Labour and Lib Dem voters favour it b ya margin of 7 to 1.