DEM not gonna CON dis NATION: Rolling UK politics in the short-lived Cleggeron era

Um, this might be a ridiculous question but, erm, WTF is going on at Millbank Tower?

My tweetstream is full of conflicting reports.

student invasion, fires set, tory hq evacuated

"Nick Clegg, we know you, you're a fucking Tory too."

A few smashed windows and a couple of injured police, but on the whole it seems like a huge and largely peaceful demo that the media are trying to turn into a riot. Lot's of funny anti-Clegg placards too!

"lot's" lol ffs

I was wondering if it was just diversionary press tactics to discredit the protesters but ILX's Favourite Socialist New Statesman Columnist (tm) is on site describing some pretty scary scenes.

Not sure how scary it is relative to, say, anti-capitalist protests of a decade ago, not to mention the poll tax riots, but it looks pretty fucking angry. I approve.

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

police literally making a space for the protestors so they can get a good run up at the windows o_O

Krishan Guru-Murthy tweeted that someone just threw a fire extinguisher off the roof of Millbank. Okay that's pretty scary.

Stuff like this inevitably makes me think of this song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gpRqmuW7Ak

Now you can smash all the windows that you want
All you really need are some friends and a rock
Throwing a brick never felt so damn good
Smash more glass
Scream with a laugh
And wallow with the crowds
Watch them kicking peoples' ass

But you get to the place
Where the real slavedrivers live
It's walled off by the riot squad
Aiming guns right at your head
So you turn right around
And play right into their hands
And set your own neighbourhood
Burning to the ground instead

Riots are rarely productive I suppose but peaceful protests are about the same level of use.

I don't really know if this alienates people who wd otherwise be against the ConDem's policies or just confirms a bunch of entrenched beliefs all round. Also I dunno if the firestarters are spooks or genuine sabbatical SWP dudes but it doesn't make much odds either.

I know real people could get injured here but at the same time it's good to see some actual visible display of ANGER, fuck knows its merited.

Bet you any money they're SWPy types though.

Fine line between spooks and genuine SWPy types tbf.

I say "fine line", I mean "3 or 4 years".

swp'ers are bigger pussies than nus dudes, doubt it's them

surely they're anti-globalization mob? overlap but not the same as swp, who are generally pretty well behaved at these sorts of things.

would rather they weren't throwing stuff off a tower block tbh.

If no one hears from LJ in the next 24hrs send out a search party.

Sorry yeah, it's been a long time. The anti-globalization mob are mostly the Hunt Sabs post Blair pissing on their chips, yes?

The anger is being expressed at the wrong targets and in the wrong place.

Public demonstrations of anger are one thing but there's nothing socialist about frightening ordinary working people (receptionists etc.) who in real terms probably have a lot more to lose (they're the ones who are going to end up being priced out of London because of spiralling rents and the downsizing of housing benefit) than the protestors.

tory hq is the wrong place?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millbank_Tower#Occupants

I dunno, watching some clips of House of Commons discussion earlier today really does give me more sympathy towards those who've scaled it up to riot status. If a bunch of complacent overprivileged sociopaths are deciding what is happening to you, of course you're going to be angry.

Also, this is what happens at peaceful protests: "The British Stop the War Coalition (StWC) held a protest in London which it claimed was the largest political demonstration in the city's history. Police estimated attendance as well in excess of 750,000 people and the BBC estimated that around a million attended."

That really worked, didn't it?

But obviously I don't want to see anyone hurt, and there's always the likelihood that the people who escalate are just there to kick off and don't actually give a shit about the cause.

These kind of random bursts of adrenalin violence are never cool, absolutely. But if these kids are playing into the hands of their enemies by shifting the focus of the discussion, we oughtn't to get sucked into the same trap. On a sliding scale, this uncoolness is nothing to what's being protested about.

i realise there are other people in millbank but i would like to know where exactly this perfect alternative venue is

Yeah this can't be fun for the people working elsewhere in Millbank who have nothing to do with the Tory Party or the government. You'd hope they'd have been evacuated ages ago but that would presume competence here.

I'm looking forward to seeing some hapless LibDem stooge get eviscerated on Newsnight tonight if nothing else. But I can't see it actually changing anything unless some LibDems actually grow a spine and rebel.

wonder if this was a tory undercover agent subverting the cause from within
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01758/beer-pot-noodles_1758450i.jpg

You have to check the boots tbh

i realise there are other people in millbank but i would like to know where exactly this perfect alternative venue is

um, on the streets. tv coverage would be better for one thing.

no one would have given a shit

like g-20?

reckon a few self immolations would have put the message across way better than chucking a couple of computers about

Smoking ban in public buildings, dude

think plenty of non-politicos might have been caught up in those too? xp

Also, this is what happens at peaceful protests: "The British Stop the War Coalition (StWC) held a protest in London which it claimed was the largest political demonstration in the city's history. Police estimated attendance as well in excess of 750,000 people and the BBC estimated that around a million attended."

That really worked, didn't it?

Um, it didn't stop the war, but it did motivate people to join in with the groundswell of opinion, and make themselves heard. It's not like it got totally ignored and had no news coverage, was it?

it had no consequence

Anything happening at LibDem HQ round the corner?

It's not like it got totally ignored and had no news coverage, was it?

I mean, an actual LibDem rebellion is the only way this can possibly get canned, right?

LibDem's rapidly hanging out a banner that says "SWP Can't Whine Here"

a friend (currently in Paris funnily enough) tweets: STUDENTS, GET TO SKY HQ. KAY BURLEY IS YOUR NEXT TARGET

Mark, I don't think the aim of the Stop the War protests was to get news coverage. Otherwise it would have been called the Get News Coverage protests. There's a significant clue in the name. It failed.

(Bad use of grammar there, sorry)

dg, g20 riots were general anti-capitalism things, pretty untargeted. my point mentioning them is that you can riot in the streets and get on tv.

if you want to get on the news while minimizing the number of people who have nothing to do with your campaign who get caught up, ascending a tower block does not seem like a smart move.

unless you do it King Kong style

conservative party have like two floors in millbank. they have an actual central office round the corner too. now that's box office.

matt, i think the street the LD HQ is on was blocked off when it started getting violent

Pluck Theresa May screaming from her office

if you want to get on the news while minimizing the number of people who have nothing to do with your campaign who get caught up, ascending a tower block does not seem like a smart move.

er smarter than rioting in oxford street surely

They are only in Milbank now IIRC, the old central office at 32 smith square, irony of ironies, is the London office of the European Parliament.

xp, don't know what we're talking about now