What exactly is their beef?

Why aren't the protesters at work?

Let me guess...

The Peace Garden, will anyone notice?

Why not occupy part of the new Manchesterer central NHS complex and point out that, no matter how many beds, staff or services are cut, or how many damning reports on care published the PFI consortium still get paid £50 million a year, every year for the next 38 years (and thats index linked, or "gold plated" as the anti public sector crowd would have it)?

Well he must have a few quid that North Face coat must have cost some wedge..

I understand why they're protesting but I honestly don't understand what they expect to achieve just by sitting there. If it were civil disobedience I could see the point but in this case all they've done is set up camp in one of the most unpleasant places in Manchester.

Though it is a little ironic that they must wake up every morning, see the town hall extension which is having so much money spent on it & still blame the Tories for cuts in Manchester!

I'm not sure they're just protesting about the cuts, I think it's anything and everything so they can camp out in the Peace Gardens. I went past on a tram and they had signs up saying "no to the second crossing", ie the tram crossing along Deansgate. At the same time, one of the protestors stuck his fingers up at the tram passengers.

I expect they're not from Manchester and don't know how important that second line is. Each morning, there's a stack of trams stuck on Mosely St. I get off at Picc Gardens and now find it easier/quicker to get off at St Peter's and walk up.

It's a shame the Cenotaph has to move, but the plans for the full pedestrianisation of St Peter's Sq look very good.

As I said, I think they're just protesting about anything and everything. Will be interesting to see how many of them stay through the winter - that'll test whether they really feel it necessary to protest.

I love the way you're allowed to camp out in a public place in Manchester if your political persuation just happens to be exactly the same as the current local council. If these were pro-fox hunt protesters or the BNP they'd soon be getting help taking their tents down. They are clearly trying to emulate the USA "Occupy Times Square" but failing miserably. Having said that, I actually sypathise with anyone having their pensions stolen from them. I just think it's hyprocritical that they are allowed to protest in a way that other's would not - the failure to move them on is clearly a local political decision on behalf of the local authoriy and the police.

They are probably all on a lunch break from the Town Hall still trying to pin the blame for the economic situation on the Government that inherited their financial mess. If my wife ran up debts of £60,000 on her credit card and I told her to stop spending, I'd be pretty annoyed to come home to see her waving a plackard saying "Stop The Spending Cuts" (or is this too "right wing" to get published)

Don't care what they're on about, rarely go into Manchester these days thanks to the Chapel Street debacle. Now there's something to protest about which would get plenty support.

well done! the protests are to show that we the people, should not be made to pay for the reckless gambling on the OTC derivatives market, which has lead to austerity measures taking place, not just here, but globally, blame for most of the misery, lies with the TBTF banks and their political puppets!

The banks have taken £850 billion out of our pockets thats why there're there.The system is broken and small peaceful protests like this get in the paper and people start to ask questions. I say good on them.

I think many people welcome the tory conference bringing business to the city as a conference venue, well done Mr Cameron, making tough decisions to get country back on its feet.

Hats off to the middle classess, it must be uncomfortable for them to protest in this way..Hope the rain doesnt get into their tofu and humus causing it to go off.

Supposing the Peace Garden is needed to eat my sandwiches in at lunch time, will they move somewhere more convenient? I thought the whole idea was to disrupt matters.

If the Government is allowed to keep cutting jobs, funding and benefits we might all be living in tents soon. We should all be supporting the people who have the backbone to stand up for what is conducive to the common good instead of bleating inanely about what they are doing.

That is a small garden area for the use of the public not for a bunch of swampy's to set up a scruffy looking campsite - if they want ot protest at government cuts then camp outside or as close to No 10 not in a small public garden in St Peters Square! Eyesore!

Let's run a book to see how long these layabouts last once the Mancunian winter starts taking hold........any offers on 1st Nov......swampy and his chums will soon up-sticks and sod off back to Surrey when the Ancoats wind comes a blowin'.

What's the guy in the photo thinking .......

Did I leave the oven on?

I have been stood here so long I have soiled my trousers.

ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US

So you only publish left wing views on here!!! Brilliant, well I think you and them should all be rounded up and given a good wash.

First thing: They don't "support" the Food and Drink Festival, it was just pretty obvious that things would get antsy if they didn't move and they would end up being moved anyway.

Secondly, I am really glad to see that there aint the barrage of negative reactionary comments one might have expected. Perhaps things are changing. Anyone who would sneer at these efforts is basically doing the work of the heist faction. People are fed up of being lied to and ripped off, and quite rightly. The underclass, working and middle class are all being screwed into the ground for the elite. These occupations are but one expression of protest against that. It's early days and no one in their right mind would claim they present answers at this point, but they could well be part of a process. Some of the occupiers and supporters have jobs, some don't. It's better that some are protesting than doing nowt at home.

Occupy Manchester? What about Clean Manchester - who is going to pay for that once they decide to go

Well all you critics should take heed, the protests are a necessary call to try and wake people up to the fact that we are going to suffer the burden and collapse of our country and society. The NHS has slowly been run down, the bankers have taken all the money, pensions have been made worthless, people are losing their jobs and their homes.
You may be alright at the moment but when the collapse comes you yourselves may well find you are jobless and your savings and pensions have gone.
It's time to wake up to the fact that since the late 1970s successive governments have slowly sold England by the pound, ruined education and the health system, made you work longer for less and taken your pensions. The politicians have been the puppets of the large corporations and greedy bankers that have caused the greatest financial crisis since the 1930s they caused all of this, along with a succession of wars, not us, not the everyman but the everyman will pay for it while they give themselves bigger bonuses and bigger pay rises...
Watch the award winning documentary 'Inside Job' then after watching it put you cash into tangible assets because paper money and numbers on computers won't be worth jack once they have finished with it. Why do you think these bankers, business moguls and politicians etc are buying up gold, silver, £20 million paintings, property, land and government bonds...Tangible assets things with physical substance are worth more than digits on computers or paper money... Do any of you moaning critics remember what happened to money in 1930s Germany and what it lead to...
Wake up people!