Protestors in Ramsgate say ‘Enough is Enough’ over cost of living crisis

October 2, 2022 Kathy Bailes Cost of Living, News 53

Protestors and striking rail workers

Around 200 local people joined an ‘Enough is Enough’ demonstration in Ramsgate yesterday (October 1) alongside striking rail and postal workers to protest at the cost of living crisis.

The protest was part of a day of action in the national Enough is Enough campaign and moved from the postal workers picket to the railway workers’ picket both of which were near Ramsgate train station.

The demo was addressed by trade union activists, speakers from community groups and Broadstairs councillor Aram Rawf.

Community group speakers included Save Our NHS in Kent and Access Thanet. Trade unions represented included: CWU,RMT, ASLEF, NEU, UCU, UNITE and the RCN.

Hilary Chuter, one the protesters said: “This is a marvellous example of local people and workers standing together at this time of crisis.

“Many now on strike, or balloting to go on strike, are those who worked face to face during the pandemic. What’s been their reward? Worse conditions and less money.

“And we have bosses who are determined to make things worse, while making huge profits for themselves. We are right to say, ‘Enough is enough.’

“Here in Thanet, one of the poorest parts of the country, many people are already in desperate conditions and will be in even bigger trouble as the bills come in. Meanwhile we have more billionaires in Britain than ever before. This is not a cost-of-living crisis — this is a cost of greedy bosses crisis!”

Broadstairs resident and disability campaigner Christine Tongue spoke to the protesters on behalf of disability group Access Thanet.

She said: “Disabled people were the first victims of austerity, now they’re in the front line with the cost of living crisis. We want our voices heard.”

People wishing to be kept in touch about future actions by Thanet Enough is Enough can email norm6344@gmail.com.

53 Comments

  1. Brilliant! Well done to everyone who turned up, got out there to make a statement and say that we won’t tolerate bad fiscal decisions that put the economy in the toilet.

    • Once more people’s mortgage deals expire (like mine has just done) and they realise the damage done by the latest mini-budget and just how much monthly mortgage costs will rise, there will be riots. I honestly don’t think people realise yet how bad it is.

  4. Give everyone a 20% pay rise so we can all be better off together😀, anyone earning over £40,000 should have a tax increase to pay for it.

    • Basic universal income would solve a lot of problems. Expensive to implement, so making sure everyone pays the tax they should (including the rich and big business) would be essential. However, it would be so much fairer, and increase the velocity of income. With more people with more to spend we might find it improves GDP and encourages businesses to invest in the UK. There are considerably more ethical economies than crony capitalism, which we should never, ever tolerate.

      • Yeah right. So we pay lots of money to people , many of whom may decide that they’ll decide to give up work ( just as there are those on benefits who choose that lifestyle) then you have those that do work will want a reasonable reward for the work they do, so they’ll be on the UBI and wages, and so on up the work reward ladder. All it does is put huge amounts of money into the economy , discourage work, lead to greater labour shortages and increased inflation as all the money goes into the system.
        Those whining about increased interest rates need to realise that the years of ultra low rates were abnormal and rates need to return to some semblance of historical norms. If people want to be better off get better qualified, work harder, my parents along with those of many others worked hours that would be seen as untenanble these days and had none of modern lifes fripperies. Wanting the best of everything for minimal effort is not going to happen in the longterm.
        Then there’s the furore over the axing of the 45p rate, look at how much tax the high earners already pay, perhaps they are frustrated at supporting an nhs that spends umpteen billions treating people who are obese , perhaps the nations ire should be directed at those who abuse the nhs services. It’d be much easier to save a few billion with some personal responsibility.

  5. Great. Similar events all over the country.
    We can’t just rely on getting another government elected. Given the chance, Starmer and the Labour Party will just bottle out of taking serious action as soon as the Daily Mail and the Sun start putting the boot in.
    Let’s have a new ,Labour government by all means, as soon as possible, but let’s not kid ourselves that it will do much if the establishment tell them to “back off ” the bankers bonuses.
    Too many people have put their heart and soul into getting the Labour Party to return to being a Party of the workers but their efforts drained away into the sand. ” The Labour Party…where radical ideas go to die!”

    • “…their efforts drained away in the sand”? Oh, you mean how Corbyn lost to the biggest Tory majority in 40 years? It’s called democracy! Like it or not, Labour’s only hope of ever winning again are with someone like Starmer – someone whom even I may supprt if they come up with a good North Thanet candidate.

      • In fact, the Tories only got 43% of the vote in 2019 yet got a majority of 80 seats! Over 55% of voters chose non-Tory,non-Brexit Parties. But their vote was divided amongst Labour, Lib Dems, Greens etc
        But the Tories became the Brexit Party and got ALL of the Brexit vote for just themselves.Hence winning a majority with only 43% of the votes.
        In terms of the number of actual voters, Labour did OK having increased the number of their voters from the dire results of the Blair/Brown/Milliband years, almost becoming the biggest Party under Corbyn in 2017, but then slipping back in 2019. But even in 2019, they still got a better result than under Blair at the end of his tenure in Office.
        The problem was that Labour gets most of its votes in big cities and even increased its share of the big urban vote in 2019 (Corbyn’s vote in his own constituency increased yet again in 2019).
        But the Tory vote was better spread round rural and small town constituencies as well. In many areas they got just enough votes to take the seat. Unlikely to repeat those narrow wins in any future elections.
        Proportional Representation anybody?

        • And UKIP got 13% of the vote in 2015 , but I don’t expect you feel they should have got more seats. Proportional representation is a usually spouted by those that lost, whislt it has some attractions , it’d only end up with endless hung parliaments and coalitions where nothing ever really gets done.

        • No thanks that produces a government that will not could not make any decisions it would be a shambles.

  6. well done and good luck to you all , theres little point in demonstrating outside craigs office – he,s never there

  7. Live within your means and stop expecting people to pay for you lifestyle but yourself!

    Yes put pay up… but then prices go up too!

    Usual rent a gob/mob turn out!

    • If your means are negligible how do you live within them!
      Have not had enough sanctimonious humbug from the better off.

    • Yes obviously not working like the rest of us! Want me to give them more, I know let’s all stop working and say it’s someone else’s job to give me money

  8. And what did that achieve, apart from transitory personal catharsis? Even one participant feel financially better off as a result?

    • I’d love to see them try to picket an open station during the commuter rush hour (though I doubt if any of them get out of bed that early). I know what my commuting scaffolder brother would say!

  9. We must become more Self Sufficient Existance. Producing our own nuclear electricity, stop importing gas. Our farms can produce ALL our food. Stop paying foreigners, for what we can do ourselves. Cars, planes, boats… we led performance in all this before Brexit and the Common Market.
    Come on Britain – gear up to our previous proud performances!

  10. The garment industry has a problem.It says it sources responsibly.
    The evidence is that this is not so.
    The UK can fulfil a niche by concentrating on quality and using tech to increase productivity.
    Rather than buying cheap throwaway clothes which are bad for the environment as consumers we need to take a wider view.
    Shouting God save the King, is all very well,but patriotism should penetrate into one’s pocket.The late Queen expressed concern for all citizens or subjects of the UK, depending on which description fits your view of life,not just the middle class and comfortably off.
    For the poundshop patriots in our community I say support UK businesses as much as possible and lobby those in power to reduce poverty.
    Petitions and protests only go so far,what is needed is practical politics.Building more social housing will cut housing benefit.Insulating houses and businesses will increase resilience and reduce the need for govt intervention. Funding research on green energy and more efficient appliances will create products the world wants to buy,thus driving up GDP in a more sustainable way than ‘trickle down’non-economics.

  11. I fail to see what the recent tensions in Leicester has got to do with the racist post. Until last time I checked, Leicester was a city based in the UK. The comment said:
    “ …countries that have no minimum wage and very poor working conditions. Be honest, would YOU buy expensive British clothing when it is possible to buy stuff from Pakistan and China at a fraction of the price?”

    Is it plausible that Pakistan and China were used as examples of countries with ‘no minimum wage’ and ‘very poor working conditions’, as opposed to clothing from Britain?

    This, children, is an example of ‘unconscious bias’, which fuels racism.

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