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UKUncut Legal Aid Roadblock in Cambridge

Cameraboy | 06.10.2013 17:46 | Public sector cuts | Social Struggles | Workers' Movements | Cambridge | London

Yesterday (Saturday 05/10/2013) UKUncut created a disruption to the usual flow of weekend consumerist reality in Cambridge by setting up a roadblock on East Road.

They Shall Not Pass!
They Shall Not Pass!

Arsey motorists... perhaps they don't want legal recourse?
Arsey motorists... perhaps they don't want legal recourse?

Turning back the tide...
Turning back the tide...

Justice For All!
Justice For All!

Reform..? Repealment more like.
Reform..? Repealment more like.

Low key police presence. Note the CCTV camera facing in opposite direction.
Low key police presence. Note the CCTV camera facing in opposite direction.


This was done to draw attention to cuts in the Legal Aid budget for certain civil cases, the likes of which include divorce and welfare/employment cases, among many others.

For more detailed summaries:
 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11741289

...And here:
 http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2011/jun/21/legal-aid-justice-cuts

It was a very polite and good natured action, although effective in its aim of disrupting the traffic on a main thoroughfare in the middle of the city. The police had a low key presence (about half a dozen officers in attendance) and didn't appear to be too perturbed by what was happening.

I noticed that a nearby CCTV camera seemed to be turned away from the action for the whole time we were there (see picture), even though it was clear that at times Obstructing the Highway was taking place.

Make of this what you will.

Some motorists seemed more intent on having a face off with the activists by driving right up to them rather than supporting their own right to legal representation, whereas many others honked their horns in solidarity.

As someone who has recently been sanctioned it is crystal clear that what we are witnessing is a government attempting to reduce us all back to a level of Feudal servitude (Zero Hours Contracts, workfare, internships etc) with little or no recourse to a legal defence, except for those who can afford it.

We need to continue to defend the civil rights our own ancestors sacrificed so much to ensure we'd have, because these Lords of Misrule are doing their darndest to destroy them all again.

WE ARE NOT YOUR SERFS!!

Cameraboy


Comments

Display the following 13 comments

  1. So why blockade average Joe? — A?
  2. PC Troll In Da House... — No Trolls Here.
  3. Genuine Question — Random
  4. Lords of Misrule — anon
  5. Genuine Question — unbiased bystander
  6. personal privacy — anyone
  7. Ho Hum, usual nonsense... — Cameraboy
  8. Cameraboy — Genuine question
  9. Not a Troll. — another anon
  10. Cameraboy — concerned activist
  11. Cameraboy — another concerned activist
  12. Santions — yet another anon
  13. About Sanctions — Genuine Question

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