London Protesters Fed Up With 'Gov't Crimes and Lies' Descend on Parliament

"It is about austerity — it's about the Chilcot report — it's about taxpayers money that gets spent on fighting illegal wars," one of the organizers of the Central London General Strike told Sputnik.

Also known as the Iraq War Inquiry, the Chilcot Inquiry, led by Sir John Chilcot was established in 2008 by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown to investigate and examine the UK's involvement in the Iraq war between 2003 and 2009.

The Chilcot report is to be published on Wednesday July 6 — seven years after it was commissioned.

"We are using many different grievances to bring people together — I'm expecting about 3000 people to turn up which should be enough to stage a 24-hour protest," one of the organizers told Sputnik, choosing to remain anonymous. 

Demonstrators, many of whom are sitting on the grass of Parliament Square are listening to reggae music while the police watch on. Only a small group appear to be masked, meanwhile a protester is holding a placard stating:

"Democracy, peace and human rights have many enemies."

"The aim is to draw attention to the crimes this government has committed," one of the organizers told Sputnik. 

"[The Conservative government] hasn't done anything," he adds. "They have made the lives of the average working person a lot harder. What we are witnessing is a consistent abuse of power from the Conservative party. They're effectively waging a class war against their own citizens."

"The British economy is in free fall, unemployment is rising. There are so many economic factors which determine people's quality of life — and it is going down. We'd like to stop that. We will stop that," one of the organizers told Sputnik.

A recent report by charity, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, estimated that 668,000 households were deemed destitute in 2015. That's 1,252,000 million people, 312,000 children living in absolute poverty in the UK.

Destitute means being unable to afford to buy food to eat and gas or electricity to stay warm, dry and clean. The report found hunger was the most common deprivation in the UK.

The cause, was found to be benefit delays, sanctions and unsustainable debts and arrears with public authorities and energy companies. 

"A lot of people feel that politicians are unaccountable and we want to make them more accountable for their actions, make them responsible for the terrible decisions they have made — and continue to make to the detriment of British," the organizer told Sputnik.

Many of the protesters see the recent austerity campaigns by the government as "class war."

"Having people born into power is not compatible with the notion of democracy. These two things don't go together. The entire system needs fixing. The completely unnecessary austerity campaign is pretty much an excuse for a class war. People didn't get the country into the mess it's in."

"Immigrants didn't get this country the mess it is in — the banks did.

"I am convinced that the Tory government needs to be removed. Their business and political links are so closely affiliated — they cannot be trusted to govern over people," the organizer told Sputnik.

And no other than to betray the trust of the public and politicians alike is Boris Johnson.  

Former London Mayor, former front-man for the Leave EU campaign — and former front-runner for the Prime Minister's job — and now public enemy No. 1.