Are these the wonderful students we should be funding?

The idea that anarchists were behind the occupation of Tory HQ is wrong. This was the action of students radicalised by cuts

Hahaa - you've just pissed on your own chips. You can forget the thought of any support from the general public if you're going to push this line.

Suppose this had been the Young Conservatives trashing Transport House - or wherever Labour meet these days.

Your reaction would have been. . . .

I think it is a real shame that the protest went the way that it did. Such a good turn out has been overshadowed by the irresponsible minority, and will very possibly have lost students a fair bit of public sympathy.

Any of these "speakers at rallies" who tries to encourage protest to take such a turn ought to be arrested.

And don't get me started on Polly Toynbee...

Speaking to the people inside the building, however, revealed a different story. Those dressed in black were students too, and several fresh-faced, excited students said this was their first demonstration.

Patrick - thank you for confirming that the violence was not the action of a few unemployed Socialist Worker morons, but the student body itself. It is always good to nail the lies of the right-wing press early.

Now we know why it is necessary to make the unappreciative ingrates pay a sensible price to appreciate the value of the opportunities that are being given to them.

I also note that less than 1% of the university population joined the protest.

students have been left feeling that there is no one left to lobby.

Correct. No more free lunches. Blame Gordon Brown - he bankrupted the country.

Not quite what the students interviewed on the news said. Most of them were pretty pissed off that the whole thing turned into a riot.

That is what will be remembered. Nice own goal chaps.

My 16 year old daughter thoroughly enjoyed being on her first large protest today.

Don't these students understand basic economics.

If the lib-cons don't make the tough decisions now then this country will be completely destroyed like Greece.

Investors will lose confidence and their will be even less well paid jobs available to you when you graduate.

Don't blame the people trying to clear the mess. Blame the government who was in power for 13 years, ruined the countries economy and finances.

Nobody's got to study;if you think it's toot expensive for you,well you might turn to apprenticeship and become a good plumber.Or join the army.Or .......After all you're supposed to be motivated if you decide to study.

Students, I am sooooo proud of you!

This is what students should be doing. The wanton destructiuon of our cultural and educational heritage by the Tories is an act of Stalinist cultural vandalism. Aquiescing like sheep to an undemocratically selected government with no mandate for these sort of cuts is what the Tories and their LibDem Quislings want you to do. There is hope for us after all.

If this is the result of us investing our taxes in education then I am all for it, this is an indication that our money has been very well spent. Time to wake up UK and do something, you are either with the Tory destroyers or against them.

Robert Briggs "This is nothing, this is a spark, but it is important for people to see that they can do something..."

Yes, they can vandalise a building. That will certainly help garner the support of the General Public.

EgotisticalUsername - Well, yes. But if the vitriol directed from CiF to students is anything to go by there was never going to be any support from the general public anyway.

I did wonder if CiF might be unrepresentative - but hush my mouth on that thought,

More generally on the article. The NUS has never really been anything more than a lobby group. At least not recently. That's not a bad thing per se but to look to the NUS for the sort of thing you have in mind is asking to be deceived. Think the Lib Dems, just on a smaller scale.

While, of course, one can never condone acts of violence against property or the police, one is compelled to say: fucking brilliant.

"The idea that anarchists were behind the occupation of Tory HQ is wrong. This was the action of students radicalised by cuts"

So why didn't you trash the Labour party's HQ for running up a £156bn deficit last year?

positively4thestreet

My 16 year old daughter thoroughly enjoyed being on her first large protest today.

Jolly hockeysticks.

Quite the opposite: if the students make some headway, others will be spurred on to push their agendas more forcefully.

Fingers crossed. Paternalists like Polly Toynbee can't stand that people can take their own fate into their own hands.

yes! absolutely agree, i was a protester today. Students are angry, as should the rest of the public. Storming the head quarters of the party in power isn't mindless violence, it is an expression of outrage at what this government of millionaires are doing to us all. When there is no other option, people do things that appear reckless to many, but there is a very real basis for this anger. Many people, perhaps never before in their lives, feel powerless to prevent what they see as an injustice, and rightly. This is what happens when that feeling takes hold.

I do not agree with violent protest, however I understand the frustration and rage those people felt. Its not just students feeling that rage. I for one wish to thank all those on the protest, they are fighting for my childrens right to a decent education. The mass may have been brainwashed by the cuts agenda but not all of us have. This isnt about a budget deficit its about the rich screwing the poor. I would be supprised if this really isnt just the start.

Some of us are smart enough to see the bankers laughing at us with millions in bonus payments after causing econimic collapse. Some of us are smart enough to see there is no spending crisis there is a tax evasion and avoidence crisis.

We are British for gods sake we shouldnt roll over and take this.

jhon99 -

'Blame the government who was in power for 13 years, ruined the countries economy and finances.'

So nothing to do with those banks then?

Yeah. And I feel radicalized by the fascist smoking ban!

Whats everyone worried about. I was on the demonstration against the Vietnam war, outside the US embassy in 1968. That was a demo.

markbraund

While, of course, one can never condone acts of violence against property or the police, one is compelled to say: fucking brilliant.

Yes Mark, of course you don't condone what happened today.

Still, I'm sure it will help the NUS' cause. The general public will be right behind the wanton vandalism they see on their tv sets tonight...

OK but the problem with this argument is that it is unlikely that anyone who is a current student will actually have to pay the increased fees.

I believe that when the new fees come in in 2012 they will only apply to students starting a degree at that time. Existing students will probably continue to pay the current rate. At least that is how it has worked with previous top up fees etc.

So I think its a bit unlikely that students who don't really face any significant increase themselves would go to the trouble of commiting criminal acts of violence unless they had a different agenda.

I don't really understand why a student would become radicalised by a cut that didn't apply to them. They may disagree with the cuts, but getting radicalised by them is a but far-fetched.

EgotisticalUsername

10 November 2010 8:36PM

The idea that anarchists were behind the occupation of Tory HQ is wrong. This was the action of students radicalised by cuts

Hahaa - you've just pissed on your own chips. You can forget the thought of any support from the general public if you're going to push this line

They're young and pissed off with the ruling elite.

Not a lot of point in old fuddy duddies bleating on about "revolution" if at the first sign of broken glass and bugger all else they suddenly shit themselves and start saying, "Ooh, that's far too naughty for me!"

What do you want them to do - ask with a "pretty please?"

Those dressed in black were students too, and several fresh-faced, excited students said this was their first demonstration. Meanwhile, Philippe Clem from Hull University said: "I've never been on a protest before ... we just came to join the march, but we just got swept up in this. It's amazing."

I wonder if the filing and admin staff in the building were quite as 'swept up' and 'excited' about the atmosphere, or the policemen, also facing cuts in their budgets, receiving treatment over at St Thomas's for injuries sustained today, also found it 'amazing'. Great stuff - screw the system, yeah?

The tuition fee hike is unfair, to be sure - but pulling a scarf over your face and getting all giddy at what a rebel you are? No thanks.

Hmmm over here in the States a degree can cost up to 60,000 US a year, strangely they don't smash places up but get jobs and loans.

When HE was for the few the country could afford it, now its up to 50% the country cannot. No amount of broken glass will change that, but feel proud of yourselves for a good old bit of vandalism.

This comment has been removed by a moderator. Replies may also be deleted.

Good on the students! don't let the media trash what happened today by misrepresenting it as some kind of anarchist action by unconnected factions.
The BBC and SKY (to be expected) were disgraceful in their efforts to rubbish the direct action, as the work of external extremists.
Concentrating over and over on the policeman with the cut nose as if it was the march of the Bolsheviks hitting London!

You did a good job for ALL of us in calling these lying politicians to account. Well Done!

Natacha

...undemocratically selected government ...

<sigh>

I also note that less than 1% of the university population joined the protest.

Probably because those there now won't be affected. Should have been those taking their first year of A levels that should have been throwing bricks.

Blaming the Conservatives for raising tuition fees is rather like blaming the surgeon that cut off your gangrenous leg.

Mind you, after forty years of socialist education, it's no wonder so many people fail to see that.

It's that kind of ignorance this government needs to tackle.

good on you. Ignore the usual trolling suspects with the usual predictable insults from tory central whon will be along any time now

Unfortunately - or perhaps fortunately - by kicking off the demonstrators lost any public sympathy.

"Are these the wonderful students we should be funding?"

YES. Because they care enough to stick up for themselves.

If they'd stayed at home whining about people on housing benefit, asylum seekers, or whoever the government wants us to think this weeks scapegoat is, then there wouldn't be much point in them trying to get a degree.

It's not constructive what has happened, violence is not the answer, but it's not currently about what is rational or sensible. What we are seeing is venting of pure anger and frustration by people who feel powerless. These aren't football casuals, these are the people who want to get an education and better themselves while the goalposts are being shifted by a generation that had it extremely easy by comparison. It's about millions of people who are fed up with being tricked out of their futures. Students, pensioners tenants, workers, in fact most people in the part of the Venn diagram that doesn't include the wealthy.

Best of luck to them I say.

Jaita;

"Nobody's got to study;if you think it's toot expensive for you,well you might turn to apprenticeship and become a good plumber.Or join the army.Or .......After all you're supposed to be motivated if you decide to study"

Plumbing or Army. Wonderful choice. Especiqlly if you want to be a psychologist, a classical musician, a doctor, a researcher, a teacher, a computer programmer...

Our thirst for knowledge is what makes up human. Give up learning and you may as well be dead.

"I know but one freedom, and that is the freedom of the mind." Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

The idea that anarchists were behind the occupation of Tory HQ is wrong. This was the action of students radicalised by cuts

The days of students dressing up as anarchists are over.

Most of them are simply out of the closet with their violence now, not even bothering with balaclavas and the like as they know that there is a sympathetic media out there ready and willing to justify anything they do as newly minted minority group.

What we saw today isn't radicalisation by 'cuts', as if 'cuts' themselves would be an excuse for such hatred and spilled blood.

This is a serious commentary on the values of young people today; ignorant, unrealistic, spoiled and adrift with nothing to believe in.

We've always known this was the true character of today's student, even though we've always been told it's just a dozen of troublemakers.

The problem is that there is no solution being offered, and as they are being met with sympathy by actual grown adults acting like children themselves, there is no reason to believe this generation is salvageable.

@Greensox

Silly me I was under the impression that in the USA you have virturally no social mobility and basically all your best universities were the domain of the rich. Silly me I guess those figures that peg the USA as being one of the few places in the Western World with worse social mobility than the UK are way off then.

This comment has been removed by a moderator. Replies may also be deleted.

I'm all for marching and protesting against cuts in higher education (or at last the way the cuts are being made) but FFS don't go around wrecking and vandalizing property -- it doesn't exactly dispell the idea that students are load of petulant wasters who don't know how to behave or understand the world beyond university. I don't give a damn how angry you are -- this is simply unacceptable. And I say that as a student myself.

GulfStream5

So why didn't you trash the Labour party's HQ for running up a £156bn deficit last year?

Because they're the party for the working class. Where have you been?

No really.

Robert Briggs 28.of Kings College London..... Christ at that age its not exactly the youth vote is it ?

Citizen Smith aside 50,000 demonstrated peacefully and We THE PARENTS get it, !!!! Those that will have to help with this ConDem bullshit £9000.

Patrick Smith can pray for Anarchy but it won't come here because We THE PARENTS won't fund it, let Robert Briggs 28 (Smithy) fund it but as He was one of a few hundred the maths don't add up.

This comment has been removed by a moderator. Replies may also be deleted.

The large student population gave many votes to the Liberal Democrats and these votes seem to have been wasted, since Nick Clegg's promises have been revoked. Anger is not the word used to describe the feeling amongst many students at the moment. To be told we and our younger siblings will have to pay over the £9,000 for the education that this government got for free, in a state of national debt we did not cause is outrageous.
Universities are closing departments left, right and centre and students are finally standing up for what they deserve, a fair and decent education without having to be in more debt than anyone can handle.
Funny how the government are telling us that we shouldn't spend what we don't have, since that is what got us into this financial mess but then telling students if they want a degree and they don't have the trust fund to support themselves then they should get into over £50,000 of debt - hypocrisy. One rule for the excessively rich, another for everyone else.
Wish i'd been there today.

Excellent. Never believe those who say protesting achieves nothing. The libdem betrayal especially got the response it deserved and its message was loud and clear.

At last - some anger, some real fight back against the insanity of Osborne's death of a thousand cuts. It seems it hasn't totally disabled Tory Central Office however as most of these early and totally predictable posts testify.

these are the people who want to get an education and better themselves while the goalposts are being shifted by a generation that had it extremely easy by comparison.

How so? People that grew up in the 60s and 70s had to actually be clever to go to University. If they weren't, they tended to end up working down the pit or in a factory.

Didn't Labour shift the goalposts when they advocated 50% of school leavers going on to HE? Or is that a different kind of goalpost moving?

They're young and pissed off with the ruling elite.

I'm more concerned with the people affected by these thuggish actions - those people working in Millbank, the police officers injured. Had someone been killed by the fire extinguisher thrown off the roof, would you still be saying this?

My own students were far too busy working on the wards to join this protest. I'm prouder of them than any of the violent morons Smith talks about.

Didn't the Bullingdon Club trash restaurants for NO reason?

Oh no, that was "high japes" so perfectly all right.

At least someone's got a job fixing up Tory HQ.

1 down, 3 million to go...

Well done students!

You're taking the fight to the right wingers, of course they're going to moan and wail and nash their teeth.

The fact is that you're right to stand up for the educational opportunities of future generations. I know full well that I could never have afforded to go to university under this Tory plan and that all the CIF Tories would tell me that I needed to set my sights lower. I hope future kids get the chance at social mobility that I had.