Student protests
Background for the non-UK people: yesterday saw a lengthy demonstration take place outside of the Conservative HQ, protesting the planned rise of student university fees. At present, a domestic student will generally pay about £3,000 a year for tuition, but the groundwork has been laid and the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition has signed off on the paperwork to increase this to £9,000 a year sometime in the near future. This is in direct opposition to one of the coalition's founding promises, and considerably against a core, long-held LibDem value. About 50,000 students, teachers and members of the National Union of Students turned up and all was well until approx 2,000 students violently rioted (see also basically every related article and related article of related article thereof), smashing windows, assaulting the police, rushing offices and Tory HQ staff and occupying the roof and throwing paperwork, burning banners, office furniture, and full fire extinguishers(?!) onto the crowd below.
Those people who turned up: good on you. While I think that, given the state of the economy, the current student loan system is about as good as you can possibly get, such an egregrious example of the coalition going back on it's word should be called out.
The people who rioted: well done, you fucking morons. What an excellent way to completely and utterly undermine the serious point the rest of the crowd were trying to make. What was an organized display with a very good intent behind it is now going to be remembered as a chavvish mob of random destruction and assault. All that you've really done is attach more stigma to the word 'student' and ensure that any further NUS protests are going to have considerably greater police cover and not going to be taken even half as seriously. It's a fucking miracle only eight people were badly injured. (who the hell throws heavy, bulky and above all fucking hard fire extinguishers into their own supporters?!)
A politics student from Liverpool attending a London university who named himself "John Smith" said: "Normal protest are just Socialist Workers marching and doing nothing.
We smash up buildings because it will get us into the news and we're not going to stop until the Government listens." -- Source
Yes. The Government will listen to you smashing up buildings and tell you to fuck off, then arrest you. You idiot.
Arrrgh.
Those people who turned up: good on you. While I think that, given the state of the economy, the current student loan system is about as good as you can possibly get, such an egregrious example of the coalition going back on it's word should be called out.
The people who rioted: well done, you fucking morons. What an excellent way to completely and utterly undermine the serious point the rest of the crowd were trying to make. What was an organized display with a very good intent behind it is now going to be remembered as a chavvish mob of random destruction and assault. All that you've really done is attach more stigma to the word 'student' and ensure that any further NUS protests are going to have considerably greater police cover and not going to be taken even half as seriously. It's a fucking miracle only eight people were badly injured. (who the hell throws heavy, bulky and above all fucking hard fire extinguishers into their own supporters?!)
A politics student from Liverpool attending a London university who named himself "John Smith" said: "Normal protest are just Socialist Workers marching and doing nothing.
We smash up buildings because it will get us into the news and we're not going to stop until the Government listens." -- Source
Yes. The Government will listen to you smashing up buildings and tell you to fuck off, then arrest you. You idiot.
Arrrgh.