I am very angry at the actions of those students who became violent because my generation could have benefitted from the demonstration today if it hadn't been hijacked for violent purposes. The stand off between the hard core student demonstrators and the police is still going on. The focus was meant to have been on those thousands of students who came to London today to get their point across which is that the Government's proposed decision to remove the cap on tuition fees will be a mistake. Unfortunately, a lot of society views students as being silly freeloaders and the drama of today supports this view. I feel disheartened by today's actions. Tim Farron hasn't helped. He has said that students do demonstrate and that is part of being a student. I think he misses the point. The students probably did not want to be in the position of having to protest today. The peaceful protest students did not get much airtime at all today to tell us why they were there. In the time they were interviewed they were being asked about what they thought about the damage done. Breaking into the Tory HQ and wreaking havoc have only ruined their futures. They will now face criminal prosecution and have criminal records. Nobody won today.
"Nobody won today."
ReplyDeleteNow come on be honest here. I know you can do it. Someone 'won' today.
It was just not the students who ARE behaving like silly freeloaders and are largely whining about being 'entitled to their entitlements'. Now before the usual starts allow me to just say that I am as big a fan as anyone of absolutely gutting the banksters in any way possible, and if it were possible to tax bank profits and bonuses at say a 90% rate ---count me in. The problem is that it isn't currently possible. I REALLY regret that.
The problem is that students(and everyone else) are just going to have to understand the significance of 'living beyond one's means'. Which is what the UK and indeed ALL the West has been doing for decades. Payment has become due and protests won't change anything. Especially violent protests.
So someone won today ---- The Coalition Education Policy. It was not breaking into things and setting fires in the streets. it's opponents were.
That's a win.
Maelo,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. The scenes were awful.
Tim and I are about the same age and we will both remember many peaceful demonstrations against the government of the day. That's how they should be.
I don't want to put words into Tim's mouth,but I'm 100% sure that he would not support the sort of reckless vandalism we saw yesterday. I wonder how much of that was caused by students and how much by what we used to call "Trots" when I was a student - left wing thugs who may not even have been students just wanting to cause trouble.
By the way, you asked on my blog about Spiderplant - she is still around. This is her new address:
http://spiderplantland.co.uk/