*** BRISTOL BEDROOM TAX PROTEST – SAT 16TH MAR – 12 midday to 2pm – COLLEGE GREEN – CLICK HERE ***
Across the country hundreds of thousands of disabled and vulnerable people and low-paid workers being victimised by the ConDems’ cruel and unjust Bedroom Tax and millions of people affected by their attacks generally and standing in solidarity are rising up in a campaign the like of which we haven’t seen since the Poll Tax campaign which brought down Thatcher in 1991.
The sheer ignorance of the realities of life faced by people on disability and out-of-work benefits and low wages that is displayed by the nature of the Bedroom Tax is astounding. Council & housing association tenants who are deemed to have a ‘spare room’ by the government have to pay around £15 per week for one room and around £25 per week for two. This includes couples who sleep in separate rooms because one partner is disabled, parents with kids who have separate rooms even when one child is disabled, parents with children away with the military, separated parents whose children only stay with them some of the time and foster parents.
The reality is that 660,000 families are affected by the Bedroom Tax but there are only 330,000 one bedroom flats in the public rented sector in the whole country and obviously most of them are already occupied. So the choice that these families face is to lose their secure tenancies and move into substandard one bedroom flats on a short term lease in the private sector which will actually cost the government more in housing benefit than the larger council property; or subsidise their rent from their very low incomes. In many case this represents a majority of people’s weekly food budget. In most areas (although not in Bristol in this financial year) the disabled and unemployed will also be expected to pay up to 20% of the Council Tax too for the first time!
The revolting arrogance of Cameron and his henchmen seems to render them incapable of grasping these basic facts and despite the growing tide of anger they are facing, they seem determined to keep digging the hole they’re in. (See Prime Minister’s Questions link below.)
Dozens of demonstrations are planned around the country this month and many thousands of people are organising on social media against the hated tax. There is an Anti Bedroom Tax protest in Bath on Saturday 16th March and watch this space for upcoming meetings and protests in Bristol too.
Even after the introduction of the tax in April, the reality is that it will force many people into arrears with the possibility of then being evicted. In the words of Tommy Sheridan, leader of the Anti-Poll Tax Federation who is fighting the Bedroom Tax in Scotland, we will need “human walls of solidarity” to stop people being evicted.
BADACA have set up a specific Facebook group to discuss the Bedroom Tax and the fight against it locally. If you are affected and on Facebook, please join this group. Alternatively, if you would like to share your story about how it affects you, or you would like us to help you organise a meeting in your area, please email us on admin@bristolanticutsalliance.org.uk.
Links…
BADACA Bristol Axe the Bedroom Tax Facebook group
National Anti- Bedroom Tax Facebook group (over 11,000 members)
Details of Bath protest (16th March)
Abolish Bedroom tax or prepare for “Peoples Revolution 2013″ Facebook page (over 17,000 likes)
David Cameron keeps digging at Prime Minister’s Questions (6th March)
List of 40 anti-Bedroom Tax protests around the country in March
Article about Tommy Sheridan and the campaign in Scotland (Daily Record)
