student fees protest

Its funny how the country suddenly grows a set of balls whenever the 'tory scum' (even if it IS a coalition government) are in power.

The irony is however, that the Labour party took away grants, imposed fees, gave you inflation linked, and then non inflation linked loans, and then increased everything over the past 12 odd years. Did anyone protest then? Nope.

Its hilarious the number of 'were we prepared' and 'what could we have done better' questions being asked right now (Correction, the MEDIA are proposing these questions, and leading public 'opinion' just like they always do). What the fuck do the people want eh?! Police on the street 24/7 in riot gear?! Yeah that sounds like a wonderful country to live in.

This was more fun than anything else. At least our wonderful police 'forces' didn't beat anyone to death this time.

Yes they did, I went down to London for two seperate student marches on tuition fees in 2002/2003 when I was a student. I know there's been demonstrations since as well.

The problem is with each of these marches is that there's always been a minority core out to cause trouble. I remember from my first march that there was a guy who was an anarchist sat over on the other row from me on the bus - he was explaining that it wasn't a successful demo unless he provoked a copper and got arrested. Saw him a few hours later taking a swing at a copper to knock his helmet off and he got arrested.

This time that minority have been far larger and more prepared to cause bother.

I'm not surprised that the police weren't prepared for it - there's never been a history of anything approaching this with any previous student marches. You can count on the fingers of one hand the number of people who were arrested on previous demos.

Still, they never change anything. There's been similar numbers in the past and even when the protests are peaceful, the politicians aren't interested in listening. They're far too removed from the people to care.

You can probably count on one hand the number of times the government has caved in to public protests. It would take dischord on a MASSIVE scale before the boys at the top ever dared change their policies.

This is just enough to give the red tops and broadsheets a nice way of filling their front pages before we go back to normal tomorrow.

I can't see them bringing in this law to "recall" MPs who are failing at their job, especially seeing as the NUS are threatening to use it to try and unseat Nick Clegg...

That looks fucking amazing.

True enough, but times have moved on. We have a new generation of people too jaded and 'entertained' to know the carpet is being pulled out from underneath their feet, inch by inch, day by day.

Unless the newspapers tell us something is an outrage, people do fuck all. Look at petrol prices, they have dropped loads recently after rising to 1.30 a litre and nobody cared - but i bet if the media told you to protest and blocade refineries then nobody would bat an eyelid and just go about their daily lives.

With the fear of anti terror laws, G20 police and their murderous tactics and various other means hanging over every citizen who dares raise their voice or voice any real concern, i'd be massively surprised if the latest cuts had the same impact they did back during the 90's recession, or when Margret Thatcher inherited the last bankrupt Labour government (like they always do).

Agree about Nu Labour being a watered down version of the tory's tho, although nobody bankrupts a country quite like labour do mind - although all these hard line labour supporters are so blinkered that this party is 'for the people' that they would gladly line up and walk off a cliff as long as they thought this was the opposite of what the 'tory scum' advised them to do.

Its all a punch and judy show. Hate the tories while they make the cuts, and cheer the labour party as they spend their way into oblivion. rinse and repeat.

I feel like I've missed right out now.

Is there some type of weird dubstep tune playing on that video or is it just distortion?

The problem is that noone is listening. Over 1 million people marched against a possible war in Iraq. Look where that got them. There's been 3 previous student marches with similar numbers (50k+) since 2002. It hasn't stopped tuition fees.

The truth is that politicians don't give a shit. Once they're in power, they're nice and cosy and aren't interested in doing this country any good. The Lib Dems may have gone back on their pledges on tuition fees, but they aren't the first - Labour went back on it in 1997.

I think people are going to get more and more violent and disruptive to get their point across, as "peaceful protest" isn't working.

If the power to recall MPs comes in, it's only then that you might see them being answerable to the voters, but being a cynic, I seriously doubt it.