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!

Boston Standard: Protest Against Political Establishment

PROTESTERS gathered in Boston on Saturday to make a stand against the ‘dumbing down’ of politics and the lack of representation from government.

Members of the apolitical group UK Resistance: Working Class Action held a demonstration at the Ingram Memorial on the Market Place in which they handed out leaflets and questionnaires to passers-by in a bid to discover local views on politics and discover if there would be support for the group to challenge the traditionally safe Conservative seat at the next general election.

Members believe that if people’s views were better represented it would reawaken an interest in politics for much of the working class.

Mike Watts, who was one of around 15 people to attend the event, told The Standard: “We think the working class is not represented anymore.

“It’s easy to moan, but we think as a mass of people we are being dumbed down and that’s why a lot of people have become apathetic and depoliticised. We want to show people that these so-called safe seats are built on sand.”

READ MORE: BOSTON STANDARD

UK Resistance in Boston, Lincolnshire

UK Resistance - Working Class Action today visits in Boston in Lincolnshire to highlight the concerns of local people and the failure of their elected representatives to acknowledge those concerns and act upon them.

In recent years, some areas of Lincolnshire have experienced a 33% rise in population. Many people are concerned about this and also the propensity of local employers to employ only foreign labour. Working class people who raise concerns about immigration are automatically condemned as racist; we believe this response creates frustration and is also counter-productive to our development as a society. Politicians pretending nothing is wrong will only lead to people simply in search of a better life being targeted. In the last five years alone, racially or religiously aggravated offences in Lincolnshire have risen by 22%. This is unacceptable, but simply a result of the genuinely held concerns of people not being addressed.

Locally, unemployment has risen 18% in the last 12 months, well above the national average. In some areas of Boston, a third of people live in fuel poverty, our elderly and disabled are literally forced to decide between heating and eating every winter. There is a housing crisis in Lincolnshire, yet extra government funding amounted to a paltry £419,940. There are also concerns regarding rise in drug and alcohol-fuelled anti-social behaviour on the streets. Under-funded and over-worked law enforcement and health services are buckling under the strain. Cancer patients are told that medicine to save or prolong their life is too expensive. The state education system is failing generations of our children. Long established shops and small businesses are disappearing, former proud working class areas turned into ghettos.

Local MP, Mark Simmonds, asked Parliament for more resources to solve the problems, but in such austere times we believe our politicians should be brave and confront the real issues instead of continually turning to hard-working tax-payers to paper over the cracks. In opposition, the Conservatives called on Labour to address the situation, why have they not acted themselves now the roles are reversed? The problem is, we have idealistic ex-public school pupils running all the mainstream parties. They’re totally detached from reality, terrified of taking tough decisions due to media response and re-election concerns. Instead of dealing with the issues, they raid pensions, raise retirement age, increase tax on petrol, road-tax, alcohol, tobacco and expand VAT on food. In other words, like the banking crisis, they expect you to pay for their folly. Easy come, easy go.

Unlike our politicians, UKR will confront the real issues and channel genuinely held concerns positively by encouraging ordinary people to stand up and speak out and our politicians to start listening to working class common sense again. We do not want problems to fester and leave it to our already under-funded and overstretched police force or NHS to pick up the pieces when frustrations boil over. Our emergency services are decent, dedicated people who contribute to society by serving it, but our politicians cynically take advantage of that altruism.

Our politicians turn out every four years to beg for votes, promise the world, then slope off and change nothing. Proven inept and incapable, they are failing in the basic task of representing us. It is mismanagement of epic proportions which has a negative effect on people’s lives, yet none of them seem to think they are answerable anymore. They will never get back in touch with reality if voters don't remind them they are still answerable to the electorate.

How many times do you hear ordinary people like us say ‘what’s the point? We’ll never change anything’. We believe we can change things, peacefully and democratically. Granted, there is no difference between the main parties anymore, but we believe that once the political gravy train looks like hitting the buffers for certain individuals they will sit up and take notice, especially in safe seats such as Boston and Skegness. Over the coming months and years we intend to confront our elected representatives and insist they address the concerns of ordinary working class people again.

We have lost the Labour Party and the trade unions to speak out on our behalf, so we have to do it for ourselves. We've seen people from Boston stand up for issues they care about in recent months and achieve recognition. We’ve also seen supposedly safe seats, which the main parties take for granted such as Bradford West, overturned by people power. We can do the same thing with working class communities and build voting blocs that will regain us representation again.

This is the first of many actions by UK Resistance – Working Class Action, the peaceful and democratic fight back of the patriotic working class starts here, in Lincolnshire.

We are the working class resistance, long live the resistance