It's difficult to sum up the many reasons in so few words, for the anti-austerity march which took on Saturday 20th June and each of the individual reasons that bought the quarter of a million people to the streets of London. I'll try to highlight some of the main reasons and how the cuts are set to affect so many people. The high turnout shows how strongly people feel about this. Many more would have been sat at home, so affected by the cuts that they couldn't afford to get to London. Although some coaches were booked and low priced seats were on offer, places were limited and even the lowest priced seats may have been too much for those most affected by the cuts.
The disabled
Some people, mainly those lucky enough to be in work, simply think suggesting "get a job" to be a useful response. The unfortunate fact is that many people affected by the cuts are disabled and either unable to work at all or have limited employment options, which attract a large amount of applicants, therefore lowering their chances of obtaining a suitable job. On top of this, they now face losing some or all of their benefits.
Low pay and zero hours
Others affected are on a zero hour contract or in a low paid job, having to rely on benefits to supplement their wage. Finding a full time job with a living wage is not an option for everyone, because there simply aren't enough of these types of jobs for everyone to obtain one.
The Government may have made a big deal about creating more apprenticeships, but in reality this is just a way to pay more young people an extremely low wage, which nobody can survive on. There is nothing to stop the company taking on another apprentice rather than hiring a properly paid member of staff.
The unemployed
Then of course, there's people on benefits who are unemployed.
This does not necessarily mean that they are all lazy. There will always be some who are lazy and misuse the system, but the majority are willing to work. It's understandable that the general public could feel hateful towards those who they perceive as benefit scroungers, if they assumed they were all like the people on shows like Channel Five's, "Life on the Dole".
I have come across so few of these types of people in real life, that I can count the experiences on one hand. I only watched one episode on this vile programme and would have instantly hated everyone on benefits, if I didn't know any better. Generally people on benefits such as JSA want to work if given the chance, in a full time job on a living wage. They typically don't receive thousands of pounds a month either, contrary to what the government would have you believe.
Will the cuts help?
Having a country full of underemployed people, apprentices and those on workfare forced to work for their benefits, without the prospect of real jobs, will do nothing to help the economy. In fact, it will only damage it further.
What we need are jobs, which allow people to live without fear of where their next meal is coming from, how they'll pay for so called luxuries, like gas and electric or cover the following months' rent, while earning enough to be able to pay back into the system.
So while the country may be struggling and cuts may need to be made, punishing the poor does not seem to be the way forward. It's understandable that people want to protest, whether directly affected themselves or simply having witnessed the suffering, starvation, homelessness and in some cases death caused by these cuts. It's called having compassion and caring about other people.
