Mass Sleep-Outs Against the Bedroom Tax in Cheltenham and Bristol 2013

This is another video from Youtube of ITV West’s and BBC Points West’s coverage of a mass sleep-out held in Bristol and Cheltenham on the 25th August last year (2013). The sleep-out was a protest against the ‘Under Occupancy Charge’, AKA the Bedroom Tax. The protesters feared that the Tax would lead to many people losing £100 a month, and would therefore lead to them losing their homes. The Bristol demonstrators hoped that their protest would stop the elected mayor, George Ferguson, implementing the Tax in Bristol. They also had a wider goal of attacking the Tax throughout Britain.

There fears have come true, if not in Bristol – yet-, then certainly in the rest of the country. Two of Mike’s friends in the Welsh town in which he lives are being evicted due to their inability to pay the Tax. As Mike points out, these are decent, hard-working people: strivers, not scroungers. It’s one more assault upon the poor by an iniquitous government of Eton-educated aristocrats, who have nothing but contempt and hate for the poorest levels of society.

Here’s the video: