Saturday 21 April 2012

UKR statement: Boston's Elderly Living in Fear


UK Resistance – Working Class Action staged a protest in Boston on Saturday 14 April 2012, seeking to highlight the concerns of working class people in the area. We asked local people to answer a few questions about their experiences living in Boston and will release the findings of our survey in the very near future.

The response we received was positive and the amount of people willing to talk to us quite unexpected. People simply seemed to want to unload their frustrations upon willing listeners. Many Bostonians said they felt ignored and abandoned by the political system and in particular their local MP, Mark Simmonds. Many of these people were elderly members of our community and the one over-riding concern of the town's pensioners was their personal safety when visiting Boston town centre. Pensioners were approaching our activists literally begging us to highlight their concerns over personal safety. This view was so prevalent amongst pensioners, that we thought it only right to pass on these concerns to the authorities as soon as possible. Therefore we have this week contacted both Boston Borough Council and Lincolnshire Police with our concerns.

UK Resistance - Working Class Action believes that one of the first requirements of a civilised society is for our elderly, many of whom have worked and paid taxes all their lives, not to mention served the community or nation in one function or another, should be able to live out the remaining years of their lives in peace, feeling secure. For various reasons such as anti-social behaviour and street crime that is seemingly not the case in Boston and we would like that to be resolved.

However, this is not an attack on the police, who we realise, in a time of economic hardship are doing their best in challenging circumstances. Initial analysis of our survey reveals that although many elderly people seemed worried about crime and particularly anti-social behaviour, when they have come into contact with the police they have been satisfied with the conduct and professionalism of officers. Even so, we believe that the authorities should deal with this problem as a matter of urgency. We have suggested that an announcement that the matter is being looked at might help assuage the fears of our elderly in the short term, while realistic long term strategies are assessed and implemented.

Unlike our political establishment, UKR will not desert the elderly members of our community. The fact that many are living in fear should be a matter that everyone should be keen to address at the earliest opportunity. In the absence of interest from our elected representatives, who have allowed this situation to develop, UKR intends to become a voice for our abandoned elderly. They will be ignored no longer.

We are the working class resistance, long live the resistance!

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