Tuesday 31 January 2012

STATEMENT FROM OCCUPY THANET

Occupy Thanet was started in response to the many Occupy protests emerging across the world. It is people coming together to ensure that our voices are heard.
We are lucky enough to live in a beautiful part of the world and the vast majority of our members support everything that the Turner Contemporary is doing for the regeneration of Margate. However we are also ashamed that the High Street and seafront have been allowed to deteriorate to their current states. We believe the local Council and developers are responsible due to either moral corruption or incompetence.

We are aware and fully understand that during a recession, cutbacks do have to be made. However, this is not a recession, this is a robbery where capitalism has operated without constraint or conscience.

Occupy is about a new way of doing things, which we believe is a good outlook to have when the current system is letting us down so badly.

We brought forward our planned Occupation in direct response to the illegal eviction of the Bank of Ideas in London. You can evict the building but NOT the idea.

We should also like to thank everyone in our local community who has come down to show their support.

12 comments:

  1. No detail of what they think should be done. What positive things do they suggest that are realistic?

    The High St has largely deteriorated because the number of shoppers has decreased. Internet shopping and people choosing to shop in large supermarkets rather than individual specialist stores are major factors in this. I don't think you can solely blame the Council and developers and people have to take some individual responsibility for the consequences of their actions.

    It's the same with the cutbacks. The country has been spending beyond its' means for many, many years but politicians could not face up to this and act otherwise they would not get re-elected so it perpetuated until we hit the buffers. For example we pay in to the State Pension but there is not a huge State Pension fund with our contributions sitting tucked away for when we get old rather it is paying current pensioners. Many state employees have/will have pensions paid from current tax not from the tax taken over the years they worked i.e. there is not a fund built up.

    Hospitals and other projects have been built using Private Finance Initiative but this is going to cost a fortune for a long time.

    The younger generation have been saddled with a huge debt for all these types of things but will get very little benefit themselves and to add insult to injury are likely to have a lower living standard than their parents and a later and lower value pension.

    I can understand why they would want to protest about these types of issues.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's nice to see thm actually doing something. It is a shame that they cannot do constructive instead of destructive though.

    Seems a bit stupid to condemn people for giving other people jobs, income and security though. But then when have any left wingers cared about anyone or anything except their own ideological principles?

    ReplyDelete
  3. How is the protest destructive?

    ReplyDelete
  4. It's destructive because they're against any local developments that create jobs. Perhaps they're worried that they'll actually have to work for a living instead of sitting around in tents?

    ReplyDelete
  5. I applaud you, there is nothing in life as damaging as apathy. Mark

    ReplyDelete
  6. Stopping businesses from investing in Thanet is worse than apathy imo.

    ReplyDelete
  7. It is the attitude of investment without conscience that has ruined our High Street which incidentally, wasn't struggling more than any other High Street in the country before Westwood Cross was put in place and now IS which is the attitude worse than apathy. The reluctance of local Council to protect existing local businesses is abhorrent! Westwood Cross, Tescos at Arlington and being pushed through planning now, Sainsbury's in Westgate, which will kill off their High Street too. Is it any wonder they protest? I'm set to join them..!

    ReplyDelete
  8. As I've pointed out before, it was Margate High Street that killed off Westbrook & Garlinge over the past 25 years (just as Broadstairs killed off St. Peters) yet no-one seemed concerned about that. So in some ways the town is having a taste of it's own medicine.

    ReplyDelete
  9. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  10. What's bizarre about it? Don't the smaller towns / villages matter? Garlinge 25 years ago had 3 grocery stores, 2 greengrocers, a butchers, a post office, a bakers & a large hardware store, now there's almost nothing.

    ReplyDelete

Please note comments that may be libellous, comments that may be construed as offensive and anonymous derogatory comments about real people will be deleted. Also note the facility to leave anonymous comment will be turned of during periods when I am unable to monitor comment, this will not affect people commenting who are signed on to their blogger accounts.

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.