CONSUMPTION BLOG

Bournemouth, UK – ‘Tory Direct Action Group UK UnCut steps up campaign against Topshop’.  I read that headline recently and being a naive, curious American I set to find about more about this oddly named group.

First off, ‘Uncut’.  Get that silly image out of your head. It’s not that kind of uncut. Nor is it the SouthPark kind of UnCut though the group would like certain things bigger and longer, mainly the Tory government.  As I’ve found UK Uncut is a thicket of wooly bohemian reactionaries hailing mainly from the south of England.  They desire that places they wouldn’t be caught dead in like Topshop and Lewis Hamilton to give more money to the Tory Government on the theory they will spend it better than people who aren’t Tory Governments.

The group has quickly become notorious invading and protesting TopShop, Marks & Spencer, Fortnum & Mason and others.

I interviewed several UK  Uncut supporters recently at a demo in front of a TopShop on the main high street in Bournemouth.

I found protestor Tilda Smith to be representative of the response I received.  “You’re telling me a person with this kind of fashion sense shouldn’t be paying more Tory tax?”  She held up a new Ipad showing me this:

“I wouldn’t be caught dead in that,” continued Tilda,  “especially now, it being a bit chilly at the moment.  And if I did want to wear that I wouldn’t mind paying a bit more tax to David Cameron.”

After chatting a bit more I asked her to describe what she was wearing to the protest.  “Nothing from in there if that’s what you are asking,” pointing at the besieged TopShop store front.  “I got this jumper from my grandparents attic, god knows how old it is but you can’t go wrong with Argyle.  These jeans are from a million years ago, I can’t even recall.   My bra, well Triumph, it was a gift.” she insists with a blush.

“36D?” I ask.

“Yes, how’d you know?!”

“I’m not a Tory but wanna go get a coffee?”

to be continued…