Student Protests
I'm a little late on this but reading about, Jody McIntyre the student with cerebral palsy who got dragged from his wheel chair then dragged across the street to the curb by police officers [1] prompted a part of my brain and said "Oi! I bet you've got something to say about this don't you"
"Why yes, yes I do brain. Thanks for reminding me"
"No worries, just try not to get too preachy."
"preachy? Moi!"
"..."
"Ok sorry brain"
Now I suppose we had best start at the beginning of this so we can get some context and know how we've got to where we are. From what I can gather by searching the internets, with these cuts the average student is looking at leaving university with a average debt of around £50-60k. That's a huge amount of debt to be starting out in the working world. When you add to that having to buy or rent accommodation and the general cost of living (food, heating ect.) you're looking at a group of people who are going to be significantly poor for the majority (if not the rest) of their lives. This new amount of debt will effectively exclude those from poorer backgrounds going to higher education due to this crippling debt.
Other cuts will also make it harder for them to get to the pre-university stage of education in the first place. The removal of the Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA) for example, which gave a small amount of money to poorer students to allow them to survive while going to Sixth Form College at 16-18. Also University funding is being cut by up to 80%, with subjects that are viewed as "less important" being cut more savagely and the costs being transferred onto the students.
Of course there is also the Liberal Democrat factor. Pre-election the Lib Dems were budding round with everyone being best chums, to increase their votes and therefore seats and power in parliament. To increase their visibility to the public they made the most of all the photo opportunities and signing pledges that came their way. Such as the personal pledge organised by the NUS that they would vote against any increase of tuition fees, and pressure the government to find a fairer alternative. Every parliamentary candidate from the Liberal Democrat party signed that pledge, and that's one of the reasons they got the majority of the student vote.
Then we got our first hung parliament in decades. The Liberal Democrats promptly hopped into bed with the Conservative party. In their negotiations with the Conservatives, the Lib Dems agreed to let the Conservatives raise the student fees in exchange for concessions on other conservative policies. Concessions I've not seen hide nor hair of, in fact if I was a jaded sort of person I would say that Nick Clegg (Lib Dem Leader) sold us down the swanny just so he could play at being the deputy prime minister. [2] So many of the people who voted for a Lib Dem MP on the basis of that pledge, and a lot of students did, feel understandably betrayed.
The protests started about a month ago with a march in London by the NUS. The majority of the 50,000 students that were on the march stuck to the agreed route, were entirely peaceful and unsurprisingly because of this were completely ignored by the media. What made the news was the roughly 200-300 students that broke away from the main march and instead protested outside the Millbank Tower (The Conservative party HQ). There was very little police presence here as they weren't expecting this to happen, things got a bit out of hand and some windows were broken.
Students started occupying areas of many university buildings around the country, usually demanding that university management condemn the cuts and fee hikes. Most university staff were sympathetic to this and let the students protest for an extended period of time, leaving on the basic comforts such as heating and lighting, this was certainly the case round here.
These occupations became the new headquarters for the protest movement, replacing the NUS which some students felt were being ineffectual. The setup media hubs were they managed websites, twitter accounts, organised lectures from sympathetic staff on the history of protesting and hosted meetings involving staff, students and the general public in discussing the future of higher education.
The next major protest was nationwide. The London police, seemingly eager not to appear ineffectual and foolish after last time, pre-emptively "Kettled"[3] the protestors before they performed any vandalism or violence. I think it would be fair to say that any trust the students had in the police was destroyed that day, with no faith that the police would acknowledge their right to protest, or that they will not commit unprovoked violence against them the third protest saw students determined not to get "Kettled" again.
I wonder how history will view these events.
[1] Allegedly.
[2] I hope it was worth it Nick, you've become essentially a buffer between all the anger and hatred that is being generated by these cuts and the Conservatives. All that ire is now being directed at you Nick, well done son. How does it feel to be the conservatives bitch? The Nick Clegg Story NSFW link.
[3] Kettling, also known as containment or corralling, is a controversial tactic that involves the formation of large blockades of police office who surround the crowd and slowly move in limiting the area. Protestors are left without an exit and protestors are held there indefinitely denied food, water and toilet facilities for a long period of time. To me this seems like a way almost guaranteed to incite more violence from protestors as they get more and more cramped and desperate to escape.
[4] Encase you don't know all marches and protests have to be agreed and a route arranged with police before they can go ahead.
I'm a little late on this but reading about, Jody McIntyre the student with cerebral palsy who got dragged from his wheel chair then dragged across the street to the curb by police officers [1] prompted a part of my brain and said "Oi! I bet you've got something to say about this don't you"
"Why yes, yes I do brain. Thanks for reminding me"
"No worries, just try not to get too preachy."
"preachy? Moi!"
"..."
"Ok sorry brain"
Now I suppose we had best start at the beginning of this so we can get some context and know how we've got to where we are. From what I can gather by searching the internets, with these cuts the average student is looking at leaving university with a average debt of around £50-60k. That's a huge amount of debt to be starting out in the working world. When you add to that having to buy or rent accommodation and the general cost of living (food, heating ect.) you're looking at a group of people who are going to be significantly poor for the majority (if not the rest) of their lives. This new amount of debt will effectively exclude those from poorer backgrounds going to higher education due to this crippling debt.
Other cuts will also make it harder for them to get to the pre-university stage of education in the first place. The removal of the Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA) for example, which gave a small amount of money to poorer students to allow them to survive while going to Sixth Form College at 16-18. Also University funding is being cut by up to 80%, with subjects that are viewed as "less important" being cut more savagely and the costs being transferred onto the students.
Of course there is also the Liberal Democrat factor. Pre-election the Lib Dems were budding round with everyone being best chums, to increase their votes and therefore seats and power in parliament. To increase their visibility to the public they made the most of all the photo opportunities and signing pledges that came their way. Such as the personal pledge organised by the NUS that they would vote against any increase of tuition fees, and pressure the government to find a fairer alternative. Every parliamentary candidate from the Liberal Democrat party signed that pledge, and that's one of the reasons they got the majority of the student vote.
Then we got our first hung parliament in decades. The Liberal Democrats promptly hopped into bed with the Conservative party. In their negotiations with the Conservatives, the Lib Dems agreed to let the Conservatives raise the student fees in exchange for concessions on other conservative policies. Concessions I've not seen hide nor hair of, in fact if I was a jaded sort of person I would say that Nick Clegg (Lib Dem Leader) sold us down the swanny just so he could play at being the deputy prime minister. [2] So many of the people who voted for a Lib Dem MP on the basis of that pledge, and a lot of students did, feel understandably betrayed.
The protests started about a month ago with a march in London by the NUS. The majority of the 50,000 students that were on the march stuck to the agreed route, were entirely peaceful and unsurprisingly because of this were completely ignored by the media. What made the news was the roughly 200-300 students that broke away from the main march and instead protested outside the Millbank Tower (The Conservative party HQ). There was very little police presence here as they weren't expecting this to happen, things got a bit out of hand and some windows were broken.
Students started occupying areas of many university buildings around the country, usually demanding that university management condemn the cuts and fee hikes. Most university staff were sympathetic to this and let the students protest for an extended period of time, leaving on the basic comforts such as heating and lighting, this was certainly the case round here.
These occupations became the new headquarters for the protest movement, replacing the NUS which some students felt were being ineffectual. The setup media hubs were they managed websites, twitter accounts, organised lectures from sympathetic staff on the history of protesting and hosted meetings involving staff, students and the general public in discussing the future of higher education.
The next major protest was nationwide. The London police, seemingly eager not to appear ineffectual and foolish after last time, pre-emptively "Kettled"[3] the protestors before they performed any vandalism or violence. I think it would be fair to say that any trust the students had in the police was destroyed that day, with no faith that the police would acknowledge their right to protest, or that they will not commit unprovoked violence against them the third protest saw students determined not to get "Kettled" again.
As the students gathered preparing for the march at the agreed time and place with the police[4]. They saw the police lines forming around them again, fearing the worst they will of fled. When ever they saw a police line forming they fled, that's what happened that day thousands scared students not wanting to get trapped running round London, with the police trying to keep up and blockade where they could. Eventually the majority did gather in Trafalgar square the marches destination; and got "Kettled" |  |
|---|
I wonder how history will view these events.
[1] Allegedly.
[2] I hope it was worth it Nick, you've become essentially a buffer between all the anger and hatred that is being generated by these cuts and the Conservatives. All that ire is now being directed at you Nick, well done son. How does it feel to be the conservatives bitch? The Nick Clegg Story NSFW link.
[3] Kettling, also known as containment or corralling, is a controversial tactic that involves the formation of large blockades of police office who surround the crowd and slowly move in limiting the area. Protestors are left without an exit and protestors are held there indefinitely denied food, water and toilet facilities for a long period of time. To me this seems like a way almost guaranteed to incite more violence from protestors as they get more and more cramped and desperate to escape.
[4] Encase you don't know all marches and protests have to be agreed and a route arranged with police before they can go ahead.
Labels: political, rants, student protests
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