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

All togethr now: "I think it's so groovy now, that people are finally gettin' together..."

But then I'm not sure that the mostly peaceful aspect of the protest today will succeed either.

Of course it won't, it'll be totally obscured by reports of the violence for one thing.

I'm surprised Tory HQ is victim to the nanny state elf 'n' safety madness fire extinguisher requirement.

I do want to reiterate that I'm not unequivocally supporting this escalation. I'm just, I guess, understanding it.

Also, has this actually become a 'violent' protest? There's property damage, sure, but I'd consider that to be a different thing.

80 revivalism isn't going far enough, gotta go all out with the retro and publicly lynch G. Osborne if you want to make a real difference.

80s*

@PennyRed: Woman with blood running down her face: 'I didn't raise my hand to anyone. I was just trying to get in the building. A policeman whacked me'

Sounds pretty violent to me.

1780s revivalism!

xpost

Hey, let's not bring my family into this, please.

WD, shit, have the cops started being particularly awful again? Hadn't actually heard anything of that ilk yet, was hoping that maybe their techniques had finally improved.

http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/03cnc4v9hL4Kl/610x.jpg

^^^^^ would smash

(I am so so sorry)

http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/08aua3P8oMf69/610x.jpg

would smash the system

This is the violence of the disposessed. They are not a minority. They are young and scared and angry. Listen before condemning.
about 1 hour ago via Mobile Web

have nothing against the protests -- i want a job in academia, and a well-paid one too, borrowing £27k to go to uni is crazy -- but you know, no

http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0aZqfmD5Ty0lR/610x.jpg

where's that thread about hot rioters?

That guy was inside the reception way before anyone else.

Dude can afford Tennant's and cigs, can't be that hard up.

Riot cops on horses now. Sheesh. This is the 1780s. Where's Mad Uncle George?

kronenberg, yet

http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0aMk4F131zdCP/610x.jpg

Where's Mad Uncle George?

Probably in the Treasury where he usually is...

If I owned a pub in Westminster I'd be putting all prices down by £2 just for the day...

Oh yeah, it was Kronenberg. See, I can't even remember what that shit looks like.

http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/060Oddr28a5r8/610x.jpg

There's a riot going on...and it's in my pants!

http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/08hU4wAdzMcRM/610x.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/MxKt4.jpg

i see what he did there

some kind of lied/laid pun?

I like this "Cut us at your peril" statement from the fuzz

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police Federation has said today's protests should serve as a reminder to the government to maintain police numbers.

He said officers had shown "great restraint and professionalism", but added:

"It is a reminder that the Government must maintain the number of fully warranted police officers to ensure that policing these spontaneous incidents, along with their everyday duties, can be sustained in the capital," he added.

"While we understand and support the right to peaceful protest, police officers must be supported when dealing with such unprovoked violence."

So: LibDems get a nice excuse to stand up to these fascist bully-boy protesters, Cops get a nice excuse to angle for no pay cuts, Protesters get some nice pictures for their Facebooks. Everybody wins.

Sky News get to wank on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on about it.

:D @ this. Shame I forgot it was on, was thinking of going.

Heh: http://twitter.com/chickpeajones/status/2443956113641472

did everyone else know dcams is a fifth cousin of the queen?!

which would make harriet harman what? sixth?

Lots of mixed feelings about this - hopefully it might be the catalyst for an extra-institutional anti-government coalition, I don't think students-protesting-about-fees will by itself change the mood of the government or the nation but tying together all the groups that are being screwed over and continually hammering the government on their priorities might lead to something happening.

One potential difference between this and the anti-globalisation protests is that it's hard to paint the broad student body as an extremist community. The media can focus on the vandalism/violence but most people will know someone who is affected by and feels strongly about the increase in fees.

Nick Clegg has admitted he "should have been more careful" about signing the pre-election pledge to oppose any increase in tuition fees.

He told ITV1's Daybreak it was a policy he thought could put into practice.

The Lib Dem leader and deputy PM said compromises had had to be made as part of the coalition deal.

But he added the planned changes were "better than" the existing fees regime and would help generations of "poor bright kids" go to university.

this fucking guy

I guess it's encouraging to see any political sentiment other than frustration or apathy (I find it hard to muster anything else myself). But this is a single issue protest only possible because of the makeup of the crowds - the last thing the government wants is bloodied middle class students protesting a policy most people disagree with anyway I think).

Even supposing the protestors get their way, the momentum of these events isn't going to carry on into further social change, i.e. living wage, social housing, transport reform, climate change, raising taxes on the rich. As soon as any bourgeois support vanishes (if there is any) the Coalition agenda will continue at full steam.

Given supposing the protestors get their way, the momentum of these events isn't going to carry on into further social change, i.e. living wage, social housing, transport reform, climate change, raising taxes on the rich.

ok, but it's a start, you know. don't really want swp types to 'get their way' but do think it's ok to break a few windows at tory hq, basically.

What's the harm in breaking a few windows?

http://k-punk.abstractdynamics.org/archives/cameron-bullingdon-club.jpg

History Mayne OTM. It's just that it's fairly small as far as expressions of anger goes. It's not Paris '68 ("beneath the cobblestones, the cable TV, high speed broadband etc."). Guess I trust union action over student protest anyway.

Of course there'll be bourgeois support for the protests, it's an inherently bourgeois thing the coalition is attacking. And yeah, a hell of a lot of people will be affected including Middle England parents.

But he added the planned changes were "better than" the existing fees regime and would help generations of "poor bright kids" go to university.

Simon Hughes was on Newsnight last night repeatedly saying the poorest students will pay nothing at all, but I've no idea a) whether that's true and b) what the upper threshold is for that.

They keep saying the hike is necessary because it ensures universities are well funded. The thing they're conveniently forgetting to mention here is that it's because they're cutting higher education funding massively. And I'm not sure what universities are meant to do in between the cuts taking place and the post-graduation fees repayments coming in.

you don't have to pay anything until you earn £21,000, and that will rise with inflation. any repayments scale with earnings. the browne proposals are much better than labour's former fee regime, but the withdrawal of 40 per cent of the teaching grant is kind of an insurmountable obstacle.

would like to know why it costs more than twice as much to teach a university student than a kid at school, though. suspect that teaching is also paying for research time, which i guess students benefit from but idk if they should be paying for it really.

Simon Hughes was on Newsnight last night repeatedly saying the poorest students will pay nothing at all, but I've no idea a) whether that's true and b) what the upper threshold is for that.

yes exactly. there will be a few places for the very poor indeed. i don't think there's much getting round the fact that the tuition fees cut into the middle class more than anyone else, but the middle class is 1) large, 2) not restricted to horrible people who shop at waitrose and can probably afford it anyway.

dowd, i dunno if you've read about may 1968, but the unions were actually against it.

the browne proposals are much better than labour's former fee regime

yeah there is some truth in this

suspect that teaching is also paying for research time, which i guess students benefit from but idk if they should be paying for it really.

― joe, Thursday, November 11, 2010 9:55 AM (20 seconds ago) Bookmark

research is one thing that distinguishes a university from a school

yeah but there's a separate research funding system. that's one bit that really should be picked up by the taxpayer imo.