Violence at Tory HQ overshadows student fees protest

[fedsron2us]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11726822

There have been violent scenes as tens of thousands of people protested against plans to treble tuition fees and cut university funding in England.

Demonstrators stormed a building in Westminster housing the Conservative Party head quarters, smashed windows and got on to the roof.

Outside, a crowd of thousands surged as placards and banners were set on fire and missiles were thrown.

Top tip to all young rioters dont make the mistake of those involved in the 1980s disturbances by burning down your local high street since that only inconveniences yourself, your friends and your family. Take your protest to where the rich, influential and powerful hangout. Make their lives a misery rather than your own.

[non sociopath skin]

1. Bloody Trots, raining on the parade as usual.

The Skin

[LeftishBrit]

2. Idiots, spoiling things for everyone else

This will be used by the Right as an excuse to blame the NUS and include students among their scapegoat categories (along with Muslims, other non-Christians, single parents, immigrants, and most of all, benefit claimants).

Obviously it is just a few hotheads, interfering with what is a really important issue.

[dipsydoodle]

3. Man suspected of fire extinguisher throw arrested

A young man suspected of throwing a fire extinguisher at police during the Millbank riot has been arrested.

>

A spokesman said: "This arrest follows an investigation into public disorder where a fire extinguisher was thrown from the roof of Millbank Tower."

Teams of officers from the Met's public order intelligence unit have been scouring footage recorded as protesters stormed the building housing the Tory party headquarters.

Police Federation representatives have called for the person who flung the empty metal fire extinguisher to be charged with attempted murder after it narrowly missed two riot squad officers.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20101112/tuk-man-suspected-of-fire-extinguisher-t-dba1618.html

[dipsydoodle]

4. Pictured: Face of protester who 'threw fire extinguisher at police during tuition fees riot' Read m

This is allegedly the face of the protester who threw a fire extinguisher that came very close to injuring police officers during the tuition fees demonstration.

The protester - with curly, shoulder-length blond hair - has been picked out by Sky News after the broadcaster reviewed hours of footage of the violence last week.

Sky claims he was spotted going into the building in Millbank and later seen again on the roof by its Skycopter camera apparently throwing the extinguisher.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1329935/The-protester-threw-extinguisher-police-student-tuition-fees-riot.html#ixzz15NcwCluy

[T_i_B]

5. Students face police in tuition fee protests

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11829102

Lines of police are holding back thousands of student protesters in central London, in a wave of protests against higher tuition fees and university budget cuts.

A police van, marooned in the protest on Whitehall, has been attacked.

Students are staging occupations at universities including Royal Holloway, Plymouth, Birmingham, London South Bank, UCL and UWE Bristol.

Police have warned they will make arrests if protests become violent.

[fedsron2us]

7. Are we seeing the beginning of the politicisation of a generation ?

Student protests in Paris in 1968 began about University Reform. It did not take long for them to develop into a wider revolt against the whole political establishment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protests_of_1968

Most students are actually not revolutionaries but those who would normally conform are finding that the price of compliance is quite literally becoming exorbitantly high in the UK today. At the moment the protests are largely single issue but as they come up against the forces of the state I expect them to start to question the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of the wider system. Things may get interesting over the next few years.

[fedsron2us]

13. Deleted

[Jeneral2885]

6. You def can blame the rowdy ones

The protests was justified but unlike the previous one planned by the NUS this lot was not planned to be peaceful.

[T_i_B]

8. Wrong - it was planned to be peaceful

However, people are genuinely angry. Plus there are always those who are intent on causing trouble.

In Sheffield the worst trouble wasn't from the protesters but from John Lewis staff throwing eggs at the protestors.

[Nihil]

9. Wrong. Not just "wrong" but "complete bollocks" wrong.

> unlike the previous one planned by the NUS this lot was not planned to be peaceful.

The protests were not only *planned* to be peaceful but *turned out* to be peaceful.

The only exception was a small group of suspiciously different "protesters" who
turned up after it had started and desperately tried to stir up trouble.

On the whole, most students ignored the "other bunch" and told them to get lost,
stop screwing around and pick a fight somewhere else.

(My son was at the Bristol protest and relayed the above last night.)

Sounds like you might need to read this page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_provocateur

[Nihil]

10. And on the same subject as my post above ...

Among those within the crowd held by police was 19-year-old Sam Lathwood.
"The protest started peacefully - everyone around me wanted a positive outcome.
But there are people here who are not in education, taking advantage," he said.

"It's a disgrace. Things like this give students a bad name."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11829102

The police are deploying the same tactics as used in the G20 protests while
the media are persuading the sheep that the blame rests on the students.

[fedsron2us]

15. The tactics may blow up in their face big time

when the students realise thast they are going to be painted as rioters even if they stage a peaceful demonstration. The risk will be that they decide that they may well as make their actions fit the stereotype. As a consequence the next time a lot of them are kettled in Whitehall rather than staging sit down protests while a few agent provocateurs pointlessly vandalise a police van they will instead torch all the government offices that surround them. Then it will be Paris 1968 all over again.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

11. This is news...

...but when cops punch kids in the face and charge at students with horses, the media maintains a silence.

[ikri]

12. It's some fucked up blame-the-victim mentality

They deserved to be beaten with batons because they were causing trouble (the exact nature of the trouble will rarely be mentioned)

That 5 foot tall, 45 kilo, 16 year old girl was a threat to the trained policeman on a horse, he had no choice but to trample her

There's still a sizeable number of people in this country who seem to think that the police are still Dixon of Dock Green who would never lie, cheat or abuse their positions. Given that and the media's cosy relationship with the police there's not a lot that gets well reported.

[fedsron2us]

14. This issue really does reveal what a sham UK democracy has become.

In the spring of this year the NUS used the General Election campaign to extract signed pledges from Liberal Democrat MPs to vote for a reduction in Tuition fees. Once Clegg and Co were ensconced in government this promise was not simply fudged or forgotten, it was replaced by a policy introduced by Liberal Democrat Minister Vince Cable to do the exact opposite. Given such a blatent betrayal it is not surprising that students have taken to the streets.

With regard to the damage to the police van in last weeks demo am I alone in finding it suspicious that this object was left in a place where agent provocateurs could provide lots of media shots of 'law breakers' threatening society. No one seems to have wondered why mobs kettled in Whitehall should devote so much time to attacking some rusting plod carrier when there were lots of government offices around them which they could have trashed and burnt to the ground. Of course, the prosaic truth is that any demonstrator wanting to exercise their democratic right of lobbying their Member of Parliament was prevented from doing so by lots of burly cops in full war paint. This tells you all you need to know about our deeply rotten, mendacious and bankrupt political system.

[ikri]

16. I'm not sure the Lib Dems realise the damage they've caused

Not just to their own party but to the electoral system.

Who is going to trust any party now when it is apparently so easy to get into power by lying through your teeth to the voters and abandoning all your principles for a taste of power.

New Politics? They've probably destroyed the Lib Dem party for a generation or two and set back any chance of electoral reform for 20 years - no one can trust that a minor party in coalition won't abandon their voters and side with people the voters often voted against.

[LeftishBrit]

17. I agree they've destroyed their party for a generation or two.

Just like the *last* time the Liberals went into coalition with the Tories. You'd think they'd have learned from history.

'Who is going to trust any party now when it is apparently so easy to get into power by lying through your teeth to the voters and abandoning all your principles for a taste of power.'

Umm, *that's* been an issue for a while now! Just look at Blair!

I will still vote for electoral reform, as I think all the alternatives are worse (e.g. Thatcher as elected-dictator with 42% of the vote!) but it's a pity that it's become so identified with one party, and that one a small and now unpopular one.