Student Protest

[Ickorus]

Im for it, this government disgusts me and this may be the message they recieve telling them that we won't stand for their bullshit.

What's especially disgusting is that most of us students voted liberal democrats based on their promises to lower tuition fees and now we see them stab us all in the back, they're just as bad as the conservatives if not worse for their outright lies to us.

 

[Kirkby]

I've been reading these forums for a while, and decided finally to register when I saw this thread because, well, I was there!

I arrived at the Millbank building just as the bonfires got going, and stayed there for a couple hours to watch (and, yes, to chant) as it all unfolded. Apart from anything else, it was amazing to see how easy it is to get caught up in a situation like this, and how easily it can escalate. After about half an hour it was no longer about anything to do with student fees, and the atmosphere was more like a festival, or school outing or something. Everyone was standing around chanting 'Tory scum' and cheering as waves of protestors threw themselves at the riot police.

I truly believe however that, apart from the incident where someone threw a fire extinguisher from the roof (which shocked everyone there, and even prompted the crowd to break out into chants of 'stop throwing shit') most of it wasn't truly malicious and the majority of the violence, from what I saw, was attributable to the actions of about 50 or so idiots at the front of the pack.

First Welcome to the escapist! This is the first forum iv ever made as well i feel like we have a very loose bond somehow.

So apart from the few things that were done by thugs (e.g fire extinguishers) Did u think it was better things went the way they did or would you of rather carried on with the march and not stormed any buildings?

 

[Snork Maiden]

A government should help those who cannot help themselves. The conservatives exist to help those who don't actually need help, and fuck all the rest who do.

Er... yeah. But I was just pointing out why the new funding plan doesn't actually harm the poor anymore than the rich. The only people who are better off are the ones who have all fees paid for by their family, but this is the case now anyway.

But cheers for not actually refuting any points.

 

[simplexity]

Though I'm against the increase in fees, I'm also against the Student's Union, since they don't seem to have a FUCKING ALTERNATIVE.

Yes they do. They said a while ago, on paper, that they advocate the 1% extra tax for the rest of your life (or whatever the value was) in the place of extra fees. Seemed like a great idea to me, too. There's always the odd millionaire who can make up for all the other middle peeps.

Why would non students want to pay tax so that people can go to university?

Gee, I dunno. Maybe because they might want to have some physicians and surgeons around in the future?

 

[Hoodsie]

In England
"Put student fees up to £9000? lets smash a window and start a bonfire"

Meanwhile in France.
"Put the retirement age up three years? BURN EVERYTHING!! WHY IS THAT CAR NOT ON FIRE? YOU WANT FUEL? YOU CAN'T HAVE ANY! BLOCKADE EVERYTHING, DEATH BEFORE MORE WORK!"

The french are cowdly 'till someone mentions "REVOLUTION!"

(No offence to any french chaps xD)

 

[Rofl-Mayo]

I'm rooting for the protest.

Why: 3000 to 9000 is quite the jump, maybe if they had brought it up by 1000 it wouldn't be so bad, but tripling it all of a sudden... That's a bad idea.

 

[fullbleed]

Oh if only there were some other way to pay for education or get rid of debts.. err ... ah .. i hmmm.. dunno taxing the rich... maybe?

[HEADING=1]NO! NO, DO NOT TAX THE RICH. NEVER TAX THE RICH! NOT NOW NOT EVER![/HEADING]

 

[CompetingMantis]

I've been reading these forums for a while, and decided finally to register when I saw this thread because, well, I was there!

I arrived at the Millbank building just as the bonfires got going, and stayed there for a couple hours to watch (and, yes, to chant) as it all unfolded. Apart from anything else, it was amazing to see how easy it is to get caught up in a situation like this, and how easily it can escalate. After about half an hour it was no longer about anything to do with student fees, and the atmosphere was more like a festival, or school outing or something. Everyone was standing around chanting 'Tory scum' and cheering as waves of protestors threw themselves at the riot police.

I truly believe however that, apart from the incident where someone threw a fire extinguisher from the roof (which shocked everyone there, and even prompted the crowd to break out into chants of 'stop throwing shit') most of it wasn't truly malicious and the majority of the violence, from what I saw, was attributable to the actions of about 50 or so idiots at the front of the pack.

First Welcome to the escapist! This is the first forum iv ever made as well i feel like we have a very loose bond somehow.

So apart from the few things that were done by thugs (e.g fire extinguishers) Did u think it was better things went the way they did or would you of rather carried on with the march and not stormed any buildings?

Personally, I definitely had more fun at the riots than the rest of the march, and of course it's gained a huge amount of media attention for the cause...

However I really think that in essence all the riots really did were further sully the reputations of the nation's young people and cheapen the protest somewhat. I don't think there's any justification for the violence that ensued and it's certainly not going to change anything. A non-violent sit-in, or even just leaving it at the bonfires would have been great, but smashing windows and chucking stuff at police? A tad too far, I feel.

EDIT: Oh and thanks for the welcome =D

 

[Lexodus]

I was there too. It really wasn't as bad as it's been chalked up to be, and although it was a little over the top, peaceful protests do not work at all. I can only hope that, with what's happened today, the shitrags in charge will understand that we are not going to stand for this; perhaps now, after they've gotten over the shock of 'OMGWTF happened?" they'll start to question WHY it happened, and see how ridiculous it all is. Part of the reason people were so pissed off was because there are MANY ways to get the money without having to slash budgets- the bankers, those bastards that crippled the global economy, are doing less work and STILL taking bonuses, and there are 19 millionaires in the cabinet alone. On top of this, Clegg lied to the people who elected him (as soon as he got in power he welshed on his promise to prevent such cuts) and Cameron and the others all went to top universities like Oxford and Cambridge when education was FREE.

Mark my words, Escapists; this is definitely not the last we've seen of this. People are fed up with the unnecessary shit the government's pulling, and we've finally seen just how angry they'll get, and it will only get worse.

 

[Kirkby]

Personally, I definitely had more fun at the riots than the rest of the march, and of course it's gained a huge amount of media attention for the cause...

EDIT: Oh and thanks for the welcome =D

However I really think that in essence all the riots really did were further sully the reputations of the nation's young people and cheapen the protest somewhat. I don't think there's any justification for the violence that ensued and it's certainly not going to change anything. A non-violent sit-in, or even just leaving it at the bonfires would have been great, but smashing windows and chucking stuff at police? A tad too far, I feel.

Im surprised more people didnt get beaten by riot police actually... There was a lot of shit thrown and they just seemed to take it, infact.. Y did they let those people kick in the windows in the first place? They could of stopped them.

p.s Np we are generally a friendly bunch at the escapist, you know, when we aren't discussing politics and the like

 

[andyallen123]

i was part of the 50,000 people protesting. i wasnt involved in the violence but im not supprised it happend. there was a lot of anger in the air and the building was on the route of the protest. yes its wrong, no i dont condone it, yes it was bound to happen.

btw we pay our taxes for all these services which we are now being denied. students didnt start the economic crisis so why should our tuition fees be raised to bail the govenment out.

 

[thebighead01]

You obviously missed the bit where someone threw a fire extinguisher onto the police from the roof, that coulda been quite deadly.

Also, I wouldn't say the media are that up in arms about it, both bbc and sky news have made a point about saying that only a few of the protesters are being twonks and that most of the students there were being nice, peaceful and productive.

Anyway, I am very much against the violent destructive side of the protest. It undermines any serious point people were trying to make, it also causes the protesters to appear like a bunch of uncivilised scumbags.

And to anyone that says they don't think peaceful protests can work I'll ask you to remember ghandi, the guy's a household name for a reason

good for the students, especially the ones who used violence. Before you idiots start quoting Gandhi let me remind that 1 million people came to the streets of London to protest against going to war in Iraq and we STILL went. And that protest was peaceful beyond any reason. And let me also remind you that protesting against anything is harder than ever in this country. You have details taken, photographs taken, can be arrested under anti-terrorism legislation for protesting, black listed, etc. Please don't be simple by saying that all these students had to so was protest peacefully because lets face it the government will be passing this through parliament whether anyone likes it or not. It's better to go down fighting than on your knees. I just hope there are more protests like this in the future.

If they'll be passing it no matter what what's the point in causing pointless destruction and injuring innocent, hard working, productive police officers?

And I'd say it's better to go down fighting in a civil dignified manner than like a screaming brat.

you serious??? innocent? hard working? productive??? police officers enforce, no, blindly enforce laws passed by politicians not in an effort to protect people but make the biggest politically influential group in any western democracy feel safe and happy i.e. the middle classes. when they say that people should be protesting peacefully it means that you have to play by their rules. to subvert them in defiance is a win. so called civil dignity is a clean term that they use to demonise those opposed to them while making them seem legitimate. it also means that people like you swallow it up and say more please. and that pointless destruction was targeted, for one, at conservative headquarters, the people who are in government right now doing their best to cut everything they see. do you really want to continue this conversation???

 

[3aqua]

I was there, it was great the art students made the banners and posters and the music student wrote the rhymes and the maths and science students stayed home and played starcraft : )

 

[andyallen123]

I was there today, I helped tear up the lobby and stole an office chair and relaxed in the middle of the violence.

I'm a Tory, I think the entire day was a success.

well done!!!

 

[Lexodus]

I was there today, I helped tear up the lobby and stole an office chair and relaxed in the middle of the violence.

I'm a Tory, I think the entire day was a success.

You were there too? I was the guy in the V mask and suit with the crutches, who ended up getting sucked into the building twice :L

 

[Bobic]

You obviously missed the bit where someone threw a fire extinguisher onto the police from the roof, that coulda been quite deadly.

Also, I wouldn't say the media are that up in arms about it, both bbc and sky news have made a point about saying that only a few of the protesters are being twonks and that most of the students there were being nice, peaceful and productive.

Anyway, I am very much against the violent destructive side of the protest. It undermines any serious point people were trying to make, it also causes the protesters to appear like a bunch of uncivilised scumbags.

And to anyone that says they don't think peaceful protests can work I'll ask you to remember ghandi, the guy's a household name for a reason

good for the students, especially the ones who used violence. Before you idiots start quoting Gandhi let me remind that 1 million people came to the streets of London to protest against going to war in Iraq and we STILL went. And that protest was peaceful beyond any reason. And let me also remind you that protesting against anything is harder than ever in this country. You have details taken, photographs taken, can be arrested under anti-terrorism legislation for protesting, black listed, etc. Please don't be simple by saying that all these students had to so was protest peacefully because lets face it the government will be passing this through parliament whether anyone likes it or not. It's better to go down fighting than on your knees. I just hope there are more protests like this in the future.

If they'll be passing it no matter what what's the point in causing pointless destruction and injuring innocent, hard working, productive police officers?

And I'd say it's better to go down fighting in a civil dignified manner than like a screaming brat.

you serious??? innocent? hard working? productive??? police officers enforce, no, blindly enforce laws passed by politicians not in an effort to protect people but make the biggest politically influential group in any western democracy feel safe and happy i.e. the middle classes. when they say that people should be protesting peacefully it means that you have to play by their rules. to subvert them in defiance is a win. so called civil dignity is a clean term that they use to demonise those opposed to them while making them seem legitimate. it also means that people like you swallow it up and say more please. and that pointless destruction was targeted, for one, at conservative headquarters, the people who are in government right now doing their best to cut everything they see. do you really want to continue this conversation???

You seem like an ill informed fool so no, not really.

 

[Snork Maiden]

A government should help those who cannot help themselves. The conservatives exist to help those who don't actually need help, and fuck all the rest who do.

Er... yeah. But I was just pointing out why the new funding plan doesn't actually harm the poor anymore than the rich. The only people who are better off are the ones who have all fees paid for by their family, but this is the case now anyway.

But cheers for not actually refuting any points.

Oh, sorry. I was kind of going off-topic from the beginning, whatever debate is struck up about this particular policy, I just love jumping at the chance to rant about what an awful bunch of shitheads the tories are.

Oh, well I think thats a sport we can all enjoy.