UK Uncut protest at Barclays and HSBC about cuts to the NHS
On Saturday May 28th May, activists from UK Uncut and SOS Reading protested outside Barclays bank and HSBC in Broad Street in protest against proposed NHS cuts.
At just after midday about 20 people from UK Uncut and SOS Reading marched down Broad Street and occupied Barclays bank for about an hour and a half. Then they moved down to HSBC and occupied that bank for another half hour. This was part of a national day of protest organised by the campaigning group UK Uncut and there were simultaneous protests in at least 35 other cities and towns around the country. The protesters were occupying high street banks to highlight alternatives to NHS cuts, including making banks pay for their ongoing public subsidy of up to £100bn a year. [1][2][3]
In Reading, the protestors highlighted that although the banks caused the crisis they are now making billions of pounds in profit, whilst the tax payer who supported them are being forced to accept public service cuts, especially to key services such as the NHS. [4] The average tax payer is facing pay-freezes, redundancy and inflation while bank bosses continue to rake in the bonuses as if nothing happened.
James Sutherland, 28, from East Reading, said, ‘I think it’s terrible that these banks continue to make huge profits with high risk strategies secure in the knowledge that the government will bail them out if it all goes wrong. We can see from the bonuses and salaries being paid that nothing has changed as result of the recent financial crisis. All this whilst we start to reap the results of what happened last time it all went wrong. The government are talking about cutting the NHS and privatising it – something that would be disastrous for the majority of the ordinary working people – whilst the banks bosses carry on as if nothing happened. It’s sickening. We’re all in this together? Don’t make me laugh.’
Health worker and UK Uncut supporter Rosie Beech, 29, added, ‘David Cameron said he wasn't going to cut the NHS. He lied. 50,000 NHS staff will lose their jobs, whilst the taxpayer continues to subsidise the banks. Why is the government cutting the NHS and privatising what's left rather than forcing our broken banking system to pay up?’
Notes for editors:
[1] They highlight a recent speech by a chief executive at the Bank of England, in which he pointed out that the annual public subsidy to the banks, in the form of free insurance and guarantees, was roughly equal to the entire NHS budget. http://treasureislands.org/uks-implicit-bank-subsidy-cost-of-nhs/
[2] http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/2010/12/how_to_curb_bonuses.html
[3] Banks such as Barclays can take massive risks with our money because they would never be allowed to fail – if they run into financial trouble they will receive a bail out. Barclays former boss, John Varley said ‘Even those banks who did not take capital directly from governments clearly benefitted (and continue to benefit) from these actions (the bail outs).’ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/6570677/Barclays-John-Varley-admits-banks-have-much-to-be-sorry-for.html
[4] The current Barclays boss, Bob Diamond, took a pay packet of £11.5 million. This is 1000 times what an average Barclays cashier earns and would pay for the salaries of 542 nurses or 380,000 Education Maintenance Allowances. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1309686/Bob-Diamond-wins-big-1-35m-salary-Barclays-chief.html
