London Student protests - Wed 8th Dec+ Thurs 9th

[belboid]

Clegg now 7-1 to be the next minister to leave the government

28 Liberal Scum voted for, had they even stuck to the coalition agreement and abstained, the government would have lost. Spineless scum.

 

[ddraig]

flip flopping wtf! honesty and decency, major front!

 

[belboid]

Sky reporting the candlelit vigigl is 'not happening'

 

[ViolentPanda]

Watching Aaron Porter's career go up in smoke has been the sole bright spot in this otherwise bleak argument.

What makes it even more edifying is that Porter is the one who has poured petrol on that career, lit a match and ignited himself.

 

[Mr.Bishie]

28 Liberal Scum voted for, had they even stuck to the coalition agreement and abstained, the government would have lost. Spineless scum.

They too deserve a kicking.

 

[agricola]

Porter on TV again, albeit this time following the Labour line.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

What makes it even more edifying is that Porter is the one who has poured petrol on that career, lit a match and ignited himself.

He's a fearful idiot, isn't he! This issue would have been the making of him if he had half a brain.

 

[ViolentPanda]

This is just the beginning.

Yep.

Oh, & fuck the filth too. A pity that animal didn't break its fuckin' neck when it fell of that horse.

Unfortunately, like Paras, they're trained to tuck their shoulder in and roll as the ground comes up to meet them.
Doh!!!

 

[claphamboy]

Not wishing to sound uncaring, but it's the best way to learn a lesson. Makes it far less likely you'll make the same error again.

I see where your coming from, but it wasn't what I was getting at.

You: They'll learn.
Me: And pay for it later.

 

[fractionMan]

Porter still not sticking up for students and not pointing out reporting bias from the bbc or police brutality.

 

[ymu]

Sky reporting the candlelit vigigl is 'not happening'

Yeah. That's the NUS protest. They refused to back the NCAFC protest down in Parliament Square. They'll have about three people attending. No big deal - they won't draw away anyone who would otherwise have tried to do something more meaningful.

*polishes fist*

 

[scifisam]

A friend says the best protest sign he saw all day was 'Crimes Against Humanities.'

 

[stupid kid]

Am at whitehall. Good bonfire here. Some people want to push through but most content with chanting

 

[ViolentPanda]

PORTER: some have been thinking more about their future careers as MPs than about the issues at hand.

the boy has got a brass fucking neck.

he also wants those of his members who involved in violence, who he's supposed to represent, "exposed"

In other words he wants to bring about a Kinnock/Militant-type situation where the NUS can be purged of troublesome activism.
What a worthless careerist shit-cunt he is.

 

[Orang Utan]

does anyone know if there are going to be any wider protests?

 

[ViolentPanda]

Sky reporting the candlelit vigigl is 'not happening'

 

[ymu]

does anyone know if there are going to be any wider protests?

The anti-tax dodger protests have been going for some time now, and will continue. December 15th is a protest against benefit cuts. Plenty more to come, for sure.

 

[agricola]

I'm not convinced (only going by my own experience and conversations, mind) that the presumption is that the cuts can be prevented/reversed. There seems, from where I'm standing, to be an awful lot of acknowledgement that the current politics offers no alternative, that being why, for example, the NUS hasn't been trusted by the students, and why the Labour party hasn't benefitted from a rise in membership (something that could be virtually guaranteed during the last Tory government).
What this means, in terms of either the evolution of new power structures, or a modification of the existing ones, I don't know, but I reckon it's going to be interesting finding out, if not particularly comfortable for folk like me who are on the sharp end of more than one of the cuts.

I dunno, maybe it is just coming from a Welsh perspective but there are (albeit in small numbers) clear alternatives in the devolved regions where money is not being wasted (or at least, not to the same massive extent), fees are not being implemented in full and cuts are not being made. What the anti-cuts movement should do (as they have started to do with the tax avoidance demos) is to draw attention to what the Plaid-Labour government, and the SNP government, have managed to do with regards to this issue (and many others).

 

[ViolentPanda]

He's a fearful idiot, isn't he! This issue would have been the making of him if he had half a brain.

To be fair, he'd need not only what the Tin Man wanted, but also what the Scarecrow wished for, and he has neither.

 

[Steel Icarus]

He's playing "Let it be" far too fast.

Oh, that's better. The rap classic "Tory Scum".

 

[Dan U]

does anyone know if there are going to be any wider protests?

Big TU march in March. Plus lots of small local stuff before I am sure/hope

Don't know of any other big things

Eta - and what ymu said. That's another on a work day too. Pah

 

[teuchter]

Few of these protesters have any time for Labour. This is about drawing lines that no party of government dare cross. Real democracy - not the pantomime that passes for it in parliament.

What do you think is actually going to happen, even assuming major protests continue? Is some new political party that represents a genuine alternative going to somehow appear?

 

[smokedout]

does anyone know if there are going to be any wider protests?

National Day of Protest Against Welfare & Housing Benefit Cuts

won't be huge this time, but stuff coming in from around the country, London - Trafalgar Sq 3pm, probably not mental though, is a disability protest, but then who knows

 

[_angel_]

I think you are wrong. Virtually every random student interviewee made it clear that this was about the cuts in general, not just tuition fees. The banner at the front of the original march said "students and workers unite against cuts". There was a lot of TU representation there, and Brendan Barber gave good interview.

This is the beginning, not the end. The vote was close enough to show that we can bring this government down if enough pressure is brought to bear, and it will be. There is a lot more of this to come.

Yes, it's just not being reported very well, I think I heard the bbc mention EMA for the first time on the news, for all of about 3 seconds! But every picture contains people with banners about EMA, yet it's being largely ignored by the journalists.

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

What are those students doing on the Treasury building? Trying to break their breeze blocks up? Still trying to smash the bombproof glass?

 

[belboid]

bombproof but not student proof it seems

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

bombproof but not student proof it seems

What do they hope to gain by doing that? Look at all that grafitti on the building

I used to work in there

 

[agricola]

Yes, it's just not being reported very well, I think I heard the bbc mention EMA for the first time on the news, for all of about 3 seconds! But every picture contains people with banners about EMA, yet it's being largely ignored by the journalists.

EMA was a bad idea at the time and should have been cut, albeit of course they should have spent the money instead on the old-style grants to fund undergraduate study (both when Labour brought it in and the Coalition now).

 

[butchersapron]

No backing off, I love these kids.

 

[Orang Utan]

What do they hope to gain by doing that? Look at all that grafitti on the building

I used to work in there

i don't think there's a specific strategy to it. it's just smashing shit up innit.