The hardline government has been left reeling by fresh clashes on the streets and criticism from UN and US Syria’s hardline regime was grappling to contain new flare-ups after an uprising that has sharply eroded its repressive rule for the past week and led to the deaths of at least 55 protesters. There were fresh clashes in the port city of Latakia, where two people were reported to have been shot dead, as well as in the southern towns of Tafa and Deraa. They came as burials took place across the country amid international condemnation at the uncompromising force shown by the Ba’athist government that has ruled Syria for more than 40 years. Despite the show of strength, President Bashar al-Assad has been unable to free himself from the most sustained threat to his 11-year rule, which has seen protesters attack posters of him and statues of his father, Hafez al-Assad, who ruled for 30 years. Such acts have been almost without precedent throughout four decades of totalitarian rule. Assad had tried to stay ahead of the revolts sweeping the Arab world as they rumbled towards Syria, considered less likely to be affected than its neighbours. He had offered a string of concessions, such as heating fuel subsidies, access to previously banned social media and a three-month cut in military service. However, his regime now appears to be facing a momentum that not even the Arab world’s most feared police state could prepare for. There were reports of between 70 and 260 political prisoners being released, in what was being seen as the latest concession. The concessions offered so far have shown no sign of containing the restive streets, which are feeding off the success of revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt as well as still simmering uprisings in Libya and Bahrain. “These are unprecedented events in Syria,” said Rime Allaf, a Syrian analyst at the Chatham House thinktank in London, “especially as they came in the wake of governmental promises of reform on Thursday night.” International criticism has been strident. The United Nations secretary-general, Ban Ki-Moon, urged Assad to show “maximum restraint”, while the US said it was deeply concerned by “the Syrian government’s attempts to repress and intimidate demonstrators”. While anger continues to grow, many Syrians remain unwilling to declare their loyalties, according to analysts in Damascus. “There is not yet the critical mass needed,” said one activist, who asked not to be named. Counter-demonstrations have been manned by loyalist groups and Syria’s tightly controlled state media is not covering the protest activity in detail. Official media have continued to blame unrest and shootings on armed gangs. Some observers said Assad is trapped. “The regime is stuck. The less they offer, the more protests there will be; the more they offer, the faster the regime changes its dictatorial nature, and this would be the start of the end,” said Bilal Saab, a Middle East analyst at the University of Maryland. Meanwhile, clashes continued on the other side of the Arabian peninsula, with Yemen’s president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, on the brink of negotiating a deal for his departure, according to the country’s foreign minister, Abubakr al-Qirbi. Saleh, in power for 32 years, has been confronted by two months of youth-led street protests demanding his resignation as well as a string of defections by top military and tribal leaders. Demonstrations continuedon Saturday, but without the violence of nine days ago, which saw 53 protesters shot dead by government snipers perched on rooftops in a neighbourhood of the capital, Sana’a. “I hope [the resignation] will be today,” said Abubakr al-Qirbi, who is serving as caretaker foreign minister, adding that the timeframe for a peaceful transfer of power by Saleh was “up for negotiation”. The sticking point seems to concern the fate of his family – his sons and nephews occupy powerful positions in the military – as well as the exact timing of his departure. On Tuesday an offer by Saleh to leave by the end of 2011 was snubbed by the opposition who demand his immediate resignation. Sana’a remains a tense and divided capital. Rival pro- and anti-government demonstrators swept through the city on Friday as Saleh told supporters he would conditionally step aside and hand the nation to “safe hands” to avert further bloodshed after weeks of protests. The sticking point of any discussions “is the subject of his departure”, said Sakhr Wajih, an independent member of the parliament and former member of the committee for national dialogue. “It still seems, though, that the president is unwilling to seriously deal with the demands of the protesters themselves and persists in trying to draw the official opposition into a cynical deal.” In Bahrain, where a three-month state of emergency is in force, another demonstrator reportedly died on Friday night after suffocating from the effects of tear gas. He was among a gathering in a Shia village that had been dispersed by government troops. The death takes to 21 the number of people killed in a two-month uprising that has deeply unsettled the Gulf states and led to a serious standoff between two of the region’s greatest foes, Saudi Arabia and Iran. Katherine Marsh is the pseudonym of a journalist based in Damascus. Syria Arab and Middle East unrest Protest Middle East Martin Chulov Tom Finn guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …The hardline government has been left reeling by fresh clashes on the streets and criticism from UN and US Syria’s hardline regime was grappling to contain new flare-ups after an uprising that has sharply eroded its repressive rule for the past week and led to the deaths of at least 55 protesters. There were fresh clashes in the port city of Latakia, where two people were reported to have been shot dead, as well as in the southern towns of Tafa and Deraa. They came as burials took place across the country amid international condemnation at the uncompromising force shown by the Ba’athist government that has ruled Syria for more than 40 years. Despite the show of strength, President Bashar al-Assad has been unable to free himself from the most sustained threat to his 11-year rule, which has seen protesters attack posters of him and statues of his father, Hafez al-Assad, who ruled for 30 years. Such acts have been almost without precedent throughout four decades of totalitarian rule. Assad had tried to stay ahead of the revolts sweeping the Arab world as they rumbled towards Syria, considered less likely to be affected than its neighbours. He had offered a string of concessions, such as heating fuel subsidies, access to previously banned social media and a three-month cut in military service. However, his regime now appears to be facing a momentum that not even the Arab world’s most feared police state could prepare for. There were reports of between 70 and 260 political prisoners being released, in what was being seen as the latest concession. The concessions offered so far have shown no sign of containing the restive streets, which are feeding off the success of revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt as well as still simmering uprisings in Libya and Bahrain. “These are unprecedented events in Syria,” said Rime Allaf, a Syrian analyst at the Chatham House thinktank in London, “especially as they came in the wake of governmental promises of reform on Thursday night.” International criticism has been strident. The United Nations secretary-general, Ban Ki-Moon, urged Assad to show “maximum restraint”, while the US said it was deeply concerned by “the Syrian government’s attempts to repress and intimidate demonstrators”. While anger continues to grow, many Syrians remain unwilling to declare their loyalties, according to analysts in Damascus. “There is not yet the critical mass needed,” said one activist, who asked not to be named. Counter-demonstrations have been manned by loyalist groups and Syria’s tightly controlled state media is not covering the protest activity in detail. Official media have continued to blame unrest and shootings on armed gangs. Some observers said Assad is trapped. “The regime is stuck. The less they offer, the more protests there will be; the more they offer, the faster the regime changes its dictatorial nature, and this would be the start of the end,” said Bilal Saab, a Middle East analyst at the University of Maryland. Meanwhile, clashes continued on the other side of the Arabian peninsula, with Yemen’s president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, on the brink of negotiating a deal for his departure, according to the country’s foreign minister, Abubakr al-Qirbi. Saleh, in power for 32 years, has been confronted by two months of youth-led street protests demanding his resignation as well as a string of defections by top military and tribal leaders. Demonstrations continuedon Saturday, but without the violence of nine days ago, which saw 53 protesters shot dead by government snipers perched on rooftops in a neighbourhood of the capital, Sana’a. “I hope [the resignation] will be today,” said Abubakr al-Qirbi, who is serving as caretaker foreign minister, adding that the timeframe for a peaceful transfer of power by Saleh was “up for negotiation”. The sticking point seems to concern the fate of his family – his sons and nephews occupy powerful positions in the military – as well as the exact timing of his departure. On Tuesday an offer by Saleh to leave by the end of 2011 was snubbed by the opposition who demand his immediate resignation. Sana’a remains a tense and divided capital. Rival pro- and anti-government demonstrators swept through the city on Friday as Saleh told supporters he would conditionally step aside and hand the nation to “safe hands” to avert further bloodshed after weeks of protests. The sticking point of any discussions “is the subject of his departure”, said Sakhr Wajih, an independent member of the parliament and former member of the committee for national dialogue. “It still seems, though, that the president is unwilling to seriously deal with the demands of the protesters themselves and persists in trying to draw the official opposition into a cynical deal.” In Bahrain, where a three-month state of emergency is in force, another demonstrator reportedly died on Friday night after suffocating from the effects of tear gas. He was among a gathering in a Shia village that had been dispersed by government troops. The death takes to 21 the number of people killed in a two-month uprising that has deeply unsettled the Gulf states and led to a serious standoff between two of the region’s greatest foes, Saudi Arabia and Iran. Katherine Marsh is the pseudonym of a journalist based in Damascus. Syria Arab and Middle East unrest Protest Middle East Martin Chulov Tom Finn guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Hell hath no fury like a golfer’s wife spurned, and Sherrie Daly has a new book out giving her philandering ex more than a little hell, reports the New York Post. The fourth ex-wife of hard-drinking, chain-smoking golfer John Daly dishes on the temptations of the PGA tour, their nine-year…
Continue reading …With the crisis in Fukushima Dai-ichi deteriorating, US naval barges are speeding toward the foundering plant with loads of freshwater to cool the reactors. The move comes amid rising concern about the corrosive nature of the saltwater the Japanese have been using; the freshwater should prevent pipes from clogging and…
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• Estimated 500,000 march in London against public sector cuts • Police say protest was overwhelmingly peaceful: nine arrests • Hardliners attack Top Shop and occupy Fortnum and Mason • Read our latest summary • Read our latest news story on the march 7.01pm: There are reports on Twitter that Lilly Whites is now on fire. 6.59pm: Paul Lewis has called in with a report of a fire in Piccadilly that appears to be getting out of control. The fire is on Jermyn Street next to Piccadilly. It began about 15mins ago when clashes broke out between the police cordon and protesters. The protesters ripped up scaffolding and planks of wood, filled a waste bin and set it alight. That fire has now spread with flames reaching 11ft high, and from where I’m standing it looks like it is getting out of control. There’s a thick plume of black smoke rising into the sky. I’m about 30ft away and can feel the heat from where I’m standing. Riot police have cleared the immediate vicinity but the whole area around Piccadilly is becoming something of a magnet for people looking to cause disruption. The situation is now getting dangerous. You can see a photo of the fire here . 6.46pm: Met police saying that Fortnum and Mason is now being treated as a crime scene and threatening UKuncut with arrest. 6.40pm: My colleague Matthew Taylor has said that UKuncut have ended their occupation at Fortnum and Mason and are now being detained by police. 6.10pm: The Metropolitan police press office has said that today’s march has been largely peaceful and well ordered, with a small number of violent disruptions and just nine arrests. This is the police statement: Today’s TUC March for the Alternative has been peaceful and well-stewarded. However, there have been a number of separate incidents including the throwing of missiles in the Oxford Street area and criminal damage in Shaftesbury Avenue. Police are on the scene and dealing with this. There have been a small number of arrests made for various public order offences, criminal damage and violent disorder. We can confirm police have not advised businesses in central London to close. 6.00pm: Good evening and welcome to our continuing coverage of the March for the Alternative in London, and the aftermath. You can read our earlier live blog here. • Around 500,000 people have joined the anti-cuts march through central London . The figure was higher than originally hoped for by the organisers. • Police said the protest had been “peaceful and well-stewarded”. But there have been a few clashes between police and activists not associated with the main march, and nine arrests have been made. • More than a dozen stores on Oxford Street were occupied by Ukuncut . The group has also occuplied the upscale department store Fortnum & Mason. Riot police have set up a kettle around the area. Public sector cuts Cuts and closures Rowenna Davis guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …A Catholic order will pay $166 million to some 470 survivors of sexual abuse and “spiritual incest” in a case of staggering scale that dates back to the 1940s at Jesuit-run schools in the Pacific Northwest. The victims were almost all Native Americans and Native Alaskans, notes the Seattle Post-Intelligencer…
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Key prosecution witness gives contradictory testimony over murder of British student Meredith Kercher Lawyers appealing against the convictions of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito for murdering British student Meredith Kercher have claimed an important victory in court, as a key witness for the prosecution gave confusing and contradictory testimony. Antonio Curatolo, a homeless drug addict living in Perugia, close to where Kercher was murdered, on 1
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Fall of Ajdabiya is first significant victory for rebels since coalition strikes began a week ago Khalif Ameen leaped on the blackened tank, its innards hollowed out by the blast of a missile from an unseen plane, and waved his Kalashnikov as he declared the war all but won. “Now Gaddafi is finished. We have won Ajdabiya. We will not stop. Next Brega, Ras Lanuf, Sirte, Tripoli. Gaddafi will go quick,” said the young man who a few weeks ago was an engineering student. But the burned-out remnants of the Libyan dictator’s armour abandoned on the outskirts of Ajdabiya after the strategic town finally fell to rebel forces told a different story that does not bode well for Ameen’s dream of marching all the way to Tripoli. The fall of Ajdabiya after days of artillery duels and air bombardment delivered the Libyan revolutionaries their first significant victory over Muammar Gaddafi’s forces since the coalition air strikes began a week ago. The Libyan army sat outside town, astride the main coastal highway, blocking the rebels’ attempts to advance west toward the capital and recapture territory lost as Gaddafi found his footing after the initial shock of the uprising. On Friday, the insurgents moved rocket launchers and other weapons down the road from Benghazi, then said they fought through the night with the dug-in enemy. “We hit them with our rockets and RPGs,” said Mohammed Rahim, a former regular soldier wearing a makeshift uniform of blue camouflage jacket and green trousers who went over to the rebels at the beginning of the uprising last month. “The fighting went on all night. It was a big battle. All the fighters came from Benghazi for it.” However, the destruction of tanks on the edge of the town suggested it was air strikes by coalition forces, ostensibly to protect civilians, that had finally broken the back of strong resistance by army forces before the rebels moved in. The length of time it took the insurgents to overcome the army, and the rebels’ reliance on air strikes to destroy the bulk of its armour before finally taking Ajdabiya, confirmed how dependent the poorly armed and inexperienced revolutionaries are on foreign air forces to fight their war for them. Libya’s deputy foreign minister, Khaled Kaim, acknowledged the defeat, which he blamed on the “heavy involvement” of Western forces. “This is the objective of the coalition now, it is not to protect civilians, because now they are directly fighting against the armed forces,” he said. “They are trying to push the country to the brink of a civil war.” Six wrecked tanks marked the road into the town alongside artillery guns and rocket launchers mangled by the missiles from beyond the clouds. Ammunition littered the ground. Other guns were left intact and were hauled away by the rebels for the next battle. On the other side of Ajdabiya, where the road heads west out of town, squatted more destroyed tanks and armoured vehicles. Others sat by the roadside unscathed. Abandoned piles of weapons and ammunition, including Russian-made tank shells and rocket-propelled grenades, suggested Gaddafi’s forces had left in a hurry. The rebels swiftly arrived with transporters to remove the armour to add to an expanding revolutionary tank force that has yet to see action. Corpses of Gaddafi fighters lay among some of the clusters of armour, but around others there was no sign of bodies, perhaps further evidence that they had fled from their tanks in fear of the air strikes. At least 20 tanks were destroyed or abandoned along with artillery guns and rocket launchers. The strikes also appeared to have destroyed a military barracks. One of the fighters, Mansour Mahdy, acknowledged that the battle would not have been won without foreign planes. “We are very grateful to the West. Everyone wants to thank France. Was it France this time? Or America? We thank them all,” he said. Days of air strikes were carried out by both countries, plus British aircraft. The rebels took control of a mostly empty town, raising the revolutionary flag – the pre-Gaddafi-era ensign – and firing off more bullets in celebration. As word spread that the fighting was over, residents began to pour back in hundreds of cars . The few of the town’s 130,000 people who endured the siege were relieved but stunned. Some gave accounts of Gaddafi security men hunting down rebel sympathisers when they occupied the town. One man said he was looking for his brother and feared he had been executed or taken to prison in Tripoli. Other residents said they had not been badly treated and that, after the initial street battles and occasional shelling, the hardest part had been to endure a town with no electricity or water and dwindling food supplies. The local hospital closed after most of the staff fled because they feared they would be targeted by Gaddafi’s forces after some doctors publicly sided with the rebels. One elderly man did not seem to view it as liberation. He said he feared the fighting would return. He did not seem entirely trustful of the rebels either. “We never had this before, all these men with guns. This was a peaceful town. Now everyone has run away. We did not ask for this,” he said. The victory will provide a boost to morale in revolutionary-held territory after a string of defeats that saw the army even invading the de facto rebel capital of Benghazi until Gaddafi’s forces were destroyed by the first air strikes. But for all the celebrations, the rebels’ struggle to overcome the relatively limited defences of Ajdabiya does not bode well for their bellicose threats to march all the way to Tripoli. If Ajdabiya is the example, it offers the prospect of a protracted conflict or military stalemate, largely decided by how far the Western allies are prepared to go in support of the rebels’ advance. Unless the regime cracks under other pressures, such as a sudden collapse of support for Gaddafi from within his own system, there appears little prospect of the rebels marching on Tripoli unless Britain, France and the US are prepared to offer rolling air cover for the revolutionaries that obliterates the regime’s ability to fight. The rebels said enemy forces were in rapid retreat back to the next town of Brega, without the heavy weapons they had used to defend Ajdabiya, and that the insurgents would catch up and crush them. The revolutionaries can probably move swiftly along the coastal road and retake the small towns of Brega and Ras Lanuf, important for their oil facilities, which they held at the beginning of the uprising. But moving on to the larger and more politically important town of Sirte may prove to be a challenge too far. Sirte is Gaddafi’s birthplace and he once proposed making it Libya’s capital. He is likely to reinforce the town because its fall would be a devastating blow. A rebel assault on Sirte would also raise a dilemma for Nato and the coalition leading the air strikes. The UN resolution permits military action in defence of civilians. Until now, it has been Gaddafi’s forces threatening rebel-held cities such as Benghazi, Misrata and Ajdabiya. But a rebel assault on Sirte would present the question of whether the coalition is prepared to launch air strikes to help take a town that has not risen up against Gaddafi. If not, it appears unlikely the rebels will be able to overcome the regime’s defences in Sirte on their own. Alternatively, if Gaddafi’s forces make a stand in the desert, where no civilians are threatened, that would also present the coalition forces with difficulty in justifying air strikes in support of the rebels. The revolutionary leadership had not expected Gaddafi’s forces to hold out for as long as they did at Ajdabiya, a sign that they are not entirely deterred from fighting by the air strikes. The rebels still do not know the size of the enemy force they faced or even who they are for sure. The revolutionary leadership claims Serb mercenaries were among Gaddafi’s fighters at Ajdabiya and that they had been seeking to surrender in return for safe passage to Serbia. But the rebel leadership has made false claims about mercenaries in the past in an attempt to whip up foreign support, even parading innocent migrant workers from Ghana in front of reporters. The revolutionaries acknowledge the shortcomings of their own military, mostly made up of young men with no experience, while continuing to insist they have the ability to defeat Gaddafi’s forces if only they were equipped with the necessary arms, particularly anti-tank weapons, rockets and radios. The rebels’ military spokesman, Colonel Ahmed Omar Bani, has said that promises of weapons had been made by several foreign government that he declined to name, although none had so far delivered any. But given the rebels’ poor combat record on the battlefield, where the civilian volunteers who have joined their ranks have proved to be ill-disciplined and prone to flee in chaos, there may be a reluctance to supply weapons that might fall into the hands of Gaddafi’s military. For all its insistence that it will not accept a divided Libya, the revolutionary council is increasingly adjusting to the reality that it may be facing military stalemate and governing the rump of a country until Gaddafi’s regime implodes. But almost no one is predicting when that will be. Libya Arab and Middle East unrest Muammar Gaddafi Middle East Chris McGreal guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Libyan rebels regained control of the eastern gateway city of Ajdabiya today after international airstrikes on Moammar Gadhafi’s forces, in the first major turnaround for an uprising that once appeared on the verge of defeat. Ajdabiya’s sudden fall to Gadhafi’s troops spurred the swift UN resolution authorizing international action in…
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• More than 250,000 expected on march against coalition cuts • Protesters gather in London in biggest demo for eight years • Police warn against infiltration by extremists • Read our latest news story on the protest The Public and Commercial Services Union has set up its own live blog of the march. 12.30pm: Here’s a map of the march route 12.20pm: PA news agency has been speaking to some of the protesters: Peter Keats, 54, from Lowestoft, Suffolk, who works for Jobcentre Plus, said: “We’re toasting the success as so many people have turned out. The press were saying 100,000 people but I think we have far exceeded that. I’m hoping for half a million. I’m hoping the government will start to listen with this many out. “Personally, I think it’s wrong the way we are hitting the poor. I’m not so much worried about myself but the customers I deal with are vulnerable and I’m worried about them and I’m worried about the kids of this country.” Alan Dowling, 40, who works for the UK Border Agency in Sheffield, said: “The other day the immigration minister was on TV saying we need to do more. How are we going to do more enforcement when we are cutting enforcement officers?” 12.17pm: Len McCluskey, general secretary of Unite, estimates there are half a million people taking part in the protest. He told PA: “This is an absolutely incredible turnout and display of anger which the government will have to take notice of.” Hundreds of police officers lined up outside parliament behind metal barriers as the marchers passed by and moved down Whitehall. 12.09pm: Matthew Taylor, who has been following the education feeder march, has now joined the main protest. In this audio report, he says the main march dwarfs the scale of the education protest: “The student block has suddenly become much quieter than it was now they see the scale of the TUC march.” 11.58am: Paul Lewis is on the Golden Jubilee Bridge near the Embankment, overlooking the march. He says the turnout is huge, stretching from the Houses of Parliament to St Paul’s Cathedral. He says the atmosphere is good natured. The only scuffle he’s seen was a protester heckling the shadow chancellor, Ed Balls. 10.49am: My colleague Matthew Taylor is with the education feeder march, which set off from the University of London in Mallet Street, Bloomsbury, around 20 minutes ago. Groups of Scottish students who set off at 11pm last night are leading the chanting. Student organisers had said ‘more than 10000′ people would meet here but so far there are probably month more than 2000 – although more are arriving all the time. Students and lecturers are being joined by various activist groups and so far the mood is vocal but pretty good natured. We’re at Russell Square now. There’s a small police presence. The police and the organisers don’t seem clear on the route but we’re on our way down to join the main march. 10.34am: My colleague Paul Lewis has just sent in his thoughts about the potential for trouble between protesters and the police. “I don’t think anyone doubts that the main march will be in large part good natured and peaceful. Most protesters will spend several hours marching through London, seeing little more than the placards in front of them, and finish with sandwiches in Hyde Park. But that isn’t to say there won’t be pockets of trouble, and if past experiences are anything to go by they could flare into some quite nasty confrontations with police. “Flashpoints could come when a handful of unofficial feeder marches, coming from across the capital, plan to join the main march. Will police let them? Many of the seasoned activists – those police like to call ‘trouble-makers’ – are likely to be on these fringe processions (watch out for delegations gathering right now in Kennington Park, Camden and Mallet Street) and the instinct of police, who at times exhibit an almost medieval vision of crowd psychology, is often to prevent groups mixing. That would spell trouble. “The other likely hotspots will be Oxford Street at 2pm, where UK Uncuts plan to close down shops, and Trafalgar Square late in the afternoon, which there are plans to occupy. Both of these locations, and others we don’t yet know about, are likely to be magnets for those intending to peel off from the slow procession through London in search of “direct action”. Coping sensibly with all these splinters from the main march will be a policing nightmare for Scotland Yard. It all comes down to how much coercion police use. Stop people from walking where they want and sparks fly.” 10.29am: Here’s some more comments from union leaders ahead of the march. Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison, will tell the demonstrators that every time the government votes through more cuts, they should hear the “angry voices” of public sector workers losing their jobs. He also warned it faced being wiped out in May’s elections. “Every day when they discuss squeezing NHS budgets I want them to remember the nurses here on the march, the paramedics – workers who keep our NHS going. Workers who see every day the effect of the cuts on patients who are having vital pain-relieving operations cut or delayed. “Workers who worry about patient care suffering, because job cuts mean there are not enough staff on the ward. NHS workers and the public fearful that the Health and Social Care Bill will mean the break-up of the NHS – the end of our much loved health service as we know it. A new dawn of privatisation for the Tories’ friends in big business. “Every month when a library closes, a care home shuts its doors, or services for struggling young people are withdrawn, I want them to feel the fear, and anger of the people who have come here today from every part of the UK to vent their frustration and to stand up for a fairer future.” Matt Wrack, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, said: “Cameron and Clegg have launched a war on working people and today’s demonstration is the start of the fightback. They expect us to suffer tax increases, pay cuts, unemployment and devastation of our pensions to pay for the crisis their friends in the City caused. They should expect the fight of their lives.” Len McCluskey, leader of Unite, said those taking part in the march were the “tip of the iceberg” because millions were opposed to the cuts. “There is growing anger, which will build and build as the impact of the cuts take effect.” 10.13am: Labour politicians will join the march and party leader Ed Miliband will address the rally in Hyde Park. He will use the speech to set out Labour’s alternative to the cuts and to accuse the coalition of fomenting the “politics of division” not seen since the “rotten” Thatcher era. Labour is calling the demonstration the “march of the mainstream”. But Gove told the Today programme there were “really big dangers” for Miliband in addressing the rally at the end of the march. “One is that people will say ‘You are calling for a plan B from the government, you don’t even have a plan A. More than that, you are associating yourself with a march which could, I’m afraid, move from being family event into being something darker.” 10.10am: Education secretary Michael Gove said today that he recognised the public concerns about the planned cuts. But he insisted that the government would not be deflected from its strategy. He told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “Of course people will feel a sense of disquiet, in some cases anger, at what they see happening, but the difficulty we have as the government inheriting a terrible economic mess, is that we have to take steps to bring the public finances back into balance.” 10.02am: Barber will tell today’s rally that there is an alternative to the “brutal” spending cuts. Ahead of the march, he accused the coalition government of threatening the NHS and destroying communities with the scale of the job cuts. “No part of our public realm is to be protected. And don’t believe it when ministers say that the NHS is safe in their hands. With over 50,000 job cuts already in the pipeline – nurses, doctors, physios, midwives – in the name of so-called efficiency savings of £20 billion, the NHS as we know it, is already in intensive care. “With David Cameron talking about selling it off to any willing provider out to make a profit, the NHS is facing the gravest threat in its history. “Today let us say to him: we will not let you destroy what has taken generations to build. Let’s be brutally clear about these brutal cuts. They’re going to cost jobs on a huge scale – adding to the misery of the 2.5 million people already on the dole. “They’re going to hammer crucial services that bind our communities together, and they’re going to hit the poorest and the most vulnerable hardest. Anyone who tells you different is a bare-faced liar. “The government claims there is no alternative, but there is. Let’s keep people in work and get our economy growing. Let’s get tax revenues flowing and tackle the tax cheats, and let’s have a Robin Hood Tax on the banks, so they pay us back for the mess they caused.” 9.45am: A Guardian/ICM poll published today shows that the public are divided over the cuts, while two other polls last night put the balance more strongly against cuts. The Guardian/ICM poll of 1,014 found that 35% believe the cuts go too far, 28% think they strike the right balance and 29% think they don’t go far enough; 8% don’t know. A YouGov survey for Unison found that 56% believe the cuts are too harsh and a ComRes poll for ITV showed that two-thirds think the government should reconsider its planned spending cuts programme . Just one in five disagreed with that view. Speaking ahead of the march, TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said of the Unison survey: “I’m sure that many of our critics will try to write us off today as a minority, vested interest. This poll nails that lie. “The thousands coming to London from across the country will be speaking for their communities when they call for a plan B that saves vital services, gets the jobless back to work and tackles the deficit through growth and fair tax.” 9.15am: Good morning and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the mass protest in London against the coalition government’s public sector cuts . Around 300,000 people are expected to join the March for the Alternative organised by the TUC , the biggest union-organised event for over 20 years and the largest in the country since the protest against the Iraq war in 2003. More than 800 coaches and 10 trains have been chartered to bring people to the capital from as far afield as Cornwall and Inverness. Union members are expected to be joined by a broad coalition, from pensioners to doctors, families and first-time protesters, to football supporters and anarchists. My colleague Matthew Taylor has written a guide to all the organisations – both official and unofficial – who will be taking part . The Metropolitan Police believe a small minority will try to hijack the anti-cuts march to stage violent attacks on property and the police. The TUC organisers of the event say they have organised a family-friendly demonstration with brass, jazz and Bollywood bands. But there are concerns that unofficial feeder marches, sit-down protests and a takeover of Trafalgar Square could turn from peaceful civil disobedience into stand-offs with the police. The march assembles on the Embankment from 11am but it will still be leaving at 2pm and possibly even later. The TUC has drawn up a set of tips for those planning to join the march . The protest will culminate in a rally in Hyde Park. Guardian reporters Matthew Taylor and Paul Lewis will be out on the streets covering the protest as it happens. If you’re at the demo and want to send me any comments – or share any pictures, audio clips and videos – you can contact me either on david.batty@guardian.co.uk or on Twitter – @David_Batty Public sector cuts Protest Cuts and closures guardian.co.uk
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