Battle against cuts hots up

The lorry was promoting a day of action against the cuts, which will take place on Saturday, October 23, and launched Craigavon Trades Council’s (CTC) anti-cuts campaign locally.

Roger Clifford, President of CTC, urged people in the Borough to oppose the cuts.

He said: “These cuts will affect everybody, no matter how old you are, where you work, or what side of the community you are from. I would encourage anyone who cares about public services to attend the rally at Belfast City Hall later this month.”

The SDLP’s Dolores Kelly MLA attended the event, along with Sinn Fin councillors Noel McGeown and Tommy O’Connor.

Mr Clifford said: “I’m glad to see some of our local councillors here to support this campaign. We have written to a number of the Upper Bann MLAs asking for their support.”

He added: “I would like to stress that this campaign is cross community. The Spending Review will have a negative effect on working people from all sections of the community and must be resisted by all sections of the community.

“I would call on people to start by signing our on-line petition at www.ictupeoplejobsandservices.org.”

Mrs Kelly pointed out that towns like Lurgan would be devastated by cuts in public spending.

She said: “Most families here rely on the public sector for household income. If thousands of people are made jobless, they will have no money to spend on the high street, which will have an adverse effect on small business. People also need to realise that the private sector here is heavily subsidised by the state, so any cut in public spending will affect that. The public need to be very mindful of these facts."

Mrs Kelly added: “What I have seen shaping up is a division between the public sector and private sector rather than the real issue, which is the division between the really wealthy and the rest of us. The trade unions have made a brilliant case for an alternative to these cuts and they should be listened to.

"When are the bankers, who got us into this crisis, going to start paying their way? They are still walking away with obscene bonuses after ordinary taxpayers bailed them out.”

Sinn Fin Cllr Tommy O’Connor said: “Unemployment has the same effect on families and on family life regardless of where they live and we must act together to create a real, long lasting and sustainable economic infrastructure.

"No doubt there will be tough times ahead but the British Coalition Government’s slash and burn policy will only make things worse and will place even more people on the poverty line."

He added: “They will force down wages to maximize profit levels for the investors and the bankers whose greed created the economic depression in the first place. To get us out of recession we need to safeguard frontline public services and tackle disadvantage while at the same time promoting sustainable economic growth.”