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Today Occupy Sheffield was visited by Paul Blomfield, MP for Sheffield Central, he spent an hour talking to people. Although he didn’t come out and say he supported us directly, he was engaged and interested.

Previously his views on the Occupy movement have appeared in The Star:

The Occupy movements outside St Paul’s, in the heart of the City of London, and internationally are raising extremely important points about the way that our economic system isn’t working for the majority of people.

Not everyone will support the methods of the protesters, but that doesn’t mean the concerns they are raising should be dismissed. We need a more responsible economy and the Occupy protests are part of the debate about how we achieve this.

I welcome peaceful protest on these issues, but hope that the important work of Sheffield Cathedral, particularly with the homeless, won’t be affected.

Yesterday The Sheffield Telegraph published a letter in support of Occupy Sheffield, from Quentin Ashton, which contained this question for the Cathedral:

If the church cannot truly support peaceable protest during the biggest moral crisis of recent times, then when can it?

Occupy Sheffield has also received a message of support from Sheffield Save Our NHS, sheffieldsaveournhs.co.uk, ssonhs.blogspot.com (there is also a PDF version of this message):

Congratulations on your courageous initiative to demonstrate how the current financial system works against the huge majority of our population.

We represent a grouping of people from a wide range of backgrounds and political views who are united in our commitment to ensure a National Health Service which is universal, comprehensive, tax-funded, publicly accountable and free to all at the point of use.

The Health Service is currently facing a twin pronged attack – a legal restructuring which fragments the service, and lays it open to increasing privatisation; and a national cuts program officially standing at £20billion but which will be considerably more.

The cuts are inflicted on us to satisfy bankers and the money markets. The NHS ‘reforms’ will mostly benefit the huge service corporations which are circling around waiting for the green light. So called ‘patient choice’ is being use to mask the introduction of competition.

Evidence consistently shows that market-based systems do not work in health – instead they lower quality of services. Yet the government is lining up private companies to profit from our health. Cherry-picking of profitable services will occur, destabilising essential NHS services. This will sideline vulnerable and non-profitable patients such as the elderly and mentally ill people. We will not know whether our GP’s recommendations for us will be for clinical or for financial reasons. It is ordinary people, including those working in the Health Service, who will suffer most.

By working together we can make a difference, both for the NHS and across the whole system.

Several of us have already been down to Occupy Sheffield with donations and other support. We also hope that it may be possible to contribute to the site by participating in debates or similar events. Meanwhile we wish you success and if there is anything we can do to assist you, please let us know.

We wish strength and success to the Occupy movement