Students rioting

[I-was-there1976]

throwing bricks and smashing windows in London. Coppers just walking past. Students wearing hoodies and scarves to cover their faces.

This country is f**ked if thats the future.



Get to school you f**kwits

[rtid88]

I know I'll get shot down for this but, Good!, the sooner this Government realise that they cannot get away with ruining the lives of people that are not upper class the better! Don't get me wrong I don't neccesarily agree with violence but this government is hell bent on making themselves and there upper class friends richer and the lower class as poor as they possibly can! Its about time protests started!

[Dimples-D]

rtid88 wrote:

I know I'll get shot down for this but, Good!, the sooner this Government realise that they cannot get away with ruining the lives of people that are not upper class the better! Don't get me wrong I don't neccesarily agree with violence but this government is hell bent on making themselves and there upper class friends richer and the lower class as poor as they possibly can! Its about time protests started!

Spot on mate. British people waste too much time moaning about their problems to their mates.
We need to take a leaf out of the French way and kick some ass. Those guys don't stand for any sh*t that their government throw at them.

[River Don]

My first reaction was it makes a nice change to finally see some real protest in this country.

[I-was-there1976]

surely better ways than to riot. If not at least have the guts to show their faces and do it

[Filo]

I-was-there1976 wrote:

surely better ways than to riot. If not at least have the guts to show their faces and do it

The last tory government prosecuted alot of people for smashing their faces into policemens truncheons and boots, why make it easier to identify yourself?

[I-was-there1976]

there are now students on the top of the building throwing concrete slabs on their fellow students below.

Fantastic effort

[gillinghamrover]

I-was-there1976 wrote:

surely better ways than to riot. If not at least have the guts to show their faces and do it

Except for the one who removed his face mask to be interviewed by Sky News! God help us if this is the \"future\" of our land!

[VivaRovers]

I-was-there1976 wrote:

throwing bricks and smashing windows in London. Coppers just walking past. Students wearing hoodies and scarves to cover their faces.

This country is fcuked if thats the future.

Get to school you fcukwits

You'll find that most students are in school, though 50,000+ are in London to show their oppositions to the Government's Tuition Fees plan. Also, most of that 50,000 were also marching and making their point in a non-violent way. Whilst many of those 'rioting' will be students there are also other folk who have hijacked this march to make other political points, or for an excuse to trash Conservative Central Office (I'm quite surprised the latter didn't appeal to more folk to be honest).

Of course people walking carrying placards isn't as good television as a fire and people on a roof, so the rolling news networks cut straight to that and stayed with it.

If this is the future of the country I'd say we're far from f***ed as we clearly have a large number of folk who are prepared to stand up for what they belive in. I don't condone breaking windows and storming offices to make this point, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I was delighted when I saw of footage of it.

[MrFrost]

And do you think it will achieve anything? I seriously doubt it.
In Labour's manifesto in 1997, they were against tuition fee's, yet introtuced them when they got into power.
They were again against them in 2001, and then introduced top up fee's.

Did we see any rioting then? No! Why? Because Labour can do no wrong.
Just an excuse for people to jump on the Tory hating bandwagon.

[moses]

A taxi driver text into Radio Sheffield this morning to say he had just picked up someone who was going on the Protest today. A fifteen quid taxi fare to go to a protest about student poverty.

[vaya]

MrFrost wrote:

And do you think it will achieve anything? I seriously doubt it.
In Labour's manifesto in 1997, they were against tuition fee's, yet introtuced them when they got into power.
They were again against them in 2001, and then introduced top up fee's.

Did we see any rioting then? No! Why? Because Labour can do no wrong.
Just an excuse for people to jump on the Tory hating bandwagon.

I'd like to point out I'm not jumping on the Tory hating bandwagon, as I've despised them for about 25 years.

Endemic hatred.

[BobG]

I'm all in favour of protests. Doesn't really matter what it's about: it's the principle of the thing that matters these days. I hate to say it, really, but after the miners strike 20 years ago was squashed, the spirit of protest just about died in this country. Just think of the things that have become law - with hardly a murmur. And these can be causes for the right or the left. The point is valid for both wings:

Ban on fox hunting - one big march and bugger all else
Student fees and all that goes with that - sod all protest really until today
Surveillance society - absolutely nothing noticeable
200, (or was it 2,000?) brand spanking new crimes invented by our Labour friends - nothing
The unapproved and undebated national DNA database - not a bloody peep
The partial ending of trial by jury - zip
The resurrection of the 'sus' laws in all but name - zippo
The death, either whilst in police custody or by police action, of upwards of 20 innocent civilians over the last 15 years - sod all protest. And that's about the biggest crime of the lot for me. when poilice get away with killing people, civilisation as I knew it has just about disappeared.

This country gets what it deserves. If we allow these things to stay, then we are as culpable as those that bring them in. Protest is a damn good thing indeed. It is a check upon the unfettered and arbitrary exercise of power by any political party and state agency. And it should be encouraged, supported and cheered.

Yes. Some people will behave badly on demos and protests. Yes. They should take their punishment. But in the scale of the evil that has been done and that continues to be done, it's not even trivial.

BobG

[VivaRovers]

MrFrost wrote:

And do you think it will achieve anything? I seriously doubt it.
In Labour's manifesto in 1997, they were against tuition fee's, yet introtuced them when they got into power.
They were again against them in 2001, and then introduced top up fee's.

Did we see any rioting then? No! Why? Because Labour can do no wrong.
Just an excuse for people to jump on the Tory hating bandwagon.

Sadly I also doubt that it will achieve anything, but at the same time 50,000 folk marching through London is hard to ignore and it shows that people care and also that they're not ready to roll over.

I'm not sure 'Tory-hating' is a bandwagon, more a very slowly moving bus as most folk in South Yorkshire have felt that way for a long time, myself included, but thats not at the heart of this protest.

Most of the anger from the genuine protestors (i.e. the masses marching rather than those breaking windows) was actually directed at the Lib Dems rather than the Tories. The Lib Dems had signed a pledge in the run up to the Election to vote against any rise in tuition fees, and even proposed their abolition at that time. Yer now in the coalition Clegg and co have ompletely u-turned. It was Nick Clegg to whom the NUS direted an open letter in the past week, not David Cameron.

We didn't see rioting against the Labour rises, but there were protests. As such you could argue that those trashing Millbank were joining a bandwagon of Tory hating, but that was not the cause of this protest.


moses wrote:

A taxi driver text into Radio Sheffield this morning to say he had just picked up someone who was going on the Protest today. A fifteen quid taxi fare to go to a protest about student poverty.

Have you seen the size of the houses on Bawtry Road? Everyone in Doncaster is minted... What one person can afford is in no way endemic of the masses.

[BillyStubbsTears]

MrFrost wrote:

And do you think it will achieve anything? I seriously doubt it.
In Labour's manifesto in 1997, they were against tuition fee's, yet introtuced them when they got into power.
They were again against them in 2001, and then introduced top up fee's.

Did we see any rioting then? No! Why? Because Labour can do no wrong.
Just an excuse for people to jump on the Tory hating bandwagon.

There were plenty of protests against Labour. The Countryside Alliance one was a big one.

I was driving down the M1 that morning and it was a truly amazing site to see Farming Britain on the move. It was stirring to see so many banners hanging out of car windows saying, \"Buy British.\"

Really made me proud of the spirit of \"all in it together\" that we have in Britain as their Audis, BMWs, Mercs and Lexuses went rolling past...

[RobTheRover]

Take inspiration...

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaLmmE2hVI4[/video]

[Glyn_Wigley]

BillyStubbsTears wrote:

MrFrost wrote:

And do you think it will achieve anything? I seriously doubt it.
In Labour's manifesto in 1997, they were against tuition fee's, yet introtuced them when they got into power.
They were again against them in 2001, and then introduced top up fee's.

Did we see any rioting then? No! Why? Because Labour can do no wrong.
Just an excuse for people to jump on the Tory hating bandwagon.

There were plenty of protests against Labour. The Countryside Alliance one was a big one.

I was driving down the M1 that morning and it was a truly amazing site to see Farming Britain on the move. It was stirring to see so many banners hanging out of car windows saying, \"Buy British.\"

Really made me proud of the spirit of \"all in it together\" that we have in Britain as their Audis, BMWs, Mercs and Lexuses went rolling past...

Funnier than that was when the farmers joined the fuel protests...in their tractors...which are exempt from petrol duty when used for agricultural purposes.

[MrFrost]

I've just seen the first footage of these riots. The ones involved in most of the damage and attempted assaults are nothing more than scumbags. The guy hurling the fire extinguisher from the roof needs indentifying and locking up. I doubt any of them are real students who go to uni.

[vaya]

All 50,000 of them pretending, undoubtedly.

[MrFrost]

If you read my post, you'll see that I was talking about the ones involved in the criminal damage and violence.

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

MrFrost wrote:

I've just seen the first footage of these riots. The ones involved in most of the damage and attempted assaults are nothing more than scumbags. The guy hurling the fire extinguisher from the roof needs indentifying and locking up. I doubt any of them are real students who go to uni.

   Fire extinguishers getting thrown about etc happens most nights in student accomodation.  I worked in student accomodation for two years, some are absolute idiots.  I found it was the richer ones who were the worst.

I'm not really against student fees, I claimed my full loan and if anything these proposals make it better for those who go on to earn less money post graduation and hurt those who earn good money slightly more, still not a great level of pay back.

Do these students expect to earn 21k+ and be struggling?  Do they even expect to be earning that much in the short term?  I doubt it I barely get half that.

[Ten Mile Banker]

BobG wrote:

I'm all in favour of protests. Doesn't really matter what it's about: it's the principle of the thing that matters these days. I hate to say it, really, but after the miners strike 20 years ago was squashed, the spirit of protest just about died in this country. Just think of the things that have become law - with hardly a murmur. And these can be causes for the right or the left. The point is valid for both wings:

Ban on fox hunting - one big march and bugger all else
Student fees and all that goes with that - sod all protest really until today
Surveillance society - absolutely nothing noticeable
200, (or was it 2,000?) brand spanking new crimes invented by our Labour friends - nothing
The unapproved and undebated national DNA database - not a bloody peep
The partial ending of trial by jury - zip
The resurrection of the 'sus' laws in all but name - zippo
The death, either whilst in police custody or by police action, of upwards of 20 innocent civilians over the last 15 years - sod all protest. And that's about the biggest crime of the lot for me. when poilice get away with killing people, civilisation as I knew it has just about disappeared.

This country gets what it deserves. If we allow these things to stay, then we are as culpable as those that bring them in. Protest is a damn good thing indeed. It is a check upon the unfettered and arbitrary exercise of power by any political party and state agency. And it should be encouraged, supported and cheered.

Yes. Some people will behave badly on demos and protests. Yes. They should take their punishment. But in the scale of the evil that has been done and that continues to be done, it's not even trivial.

BobG

Perhaps the reason nobody protested is because there was nothing to protest about.

[RobTheRover]

I tend to agree on most of those.

How about Burglars and Rapists protesting at the proliferation of CCTV cameras?

[Dagenham Rover]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1329510/Poor-Disadvantaged-Pull--The-rich-rioting-students.html

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

Dagenham.Rover wrote:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1329510/Poor-Disadvantaged-Pull--The-rich-rioting-students.html

Something a lot of us who are/have been students have found often.  It is usually the rich at protests.  Now we all know that the Mail will have cherrypicked their choices here, but from what I experienced first hand it was always the richer who were against fees etc.  Those of us from poorer backgrounds had a bigger gripe - the lack of assistance in living costs, that isn't high enough.  Easy for your rich types with Daddy's hand outs, but not easy for those of us who had 2 jobs just to pay the rent.

[HBBA-Rover]

big fat yorkshire pudding wrote:

Dagenham.Rover wrote:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1329510/Poor-Disadvantaged-Pull--The-rich-rioting-students.html

Something a lot of us who are/have been students have found often.  It is usually the rich at protests.  Now we all know that the Mail will have cherrypicked their choices here, but from what I experienced first hand it was always the richer who were against fees etc.  Those of us from poorer backgrounds had a bigger gripe - the lack of assistance in living costs, that isn't high enough.  Easy for your rich types with Daddy's hand outs, but not easy for those of us who had 2 jobs just to pay the rent.

Agreed! as a student myself who this could have an impact I have shrugged it off my shoulders mainly for 2 reasons:

1. My household income was in the lowest mark to allow me to claim the full loan, whereas the rich normally don't qualify for much loans, so its their parents who may have to pay it.
2. On 5th May I put my cross next to Conservative's and I refuse to go back on that, the tuition fees aside, the cuts have been radical but not on a scale where the whole country is ready to protest.

I do agree however that Nick Clegg is a t*sser!!!!!