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[Geoid]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11726822

 

Missiles have been thrown at police, the reception area of Millbank Tower (which is also the Conservative Campaign Headquarters) has been trashed. Riot police have been deployed.

Edited November 10, 2010 by Guest

[Cinnamon]

Goodness - glad my girl took my advise & didn't go,unlike many of her class mates.

The college actually gave them authorised absences.

 

They all met at Reading to go up there - traffic was a total nightmare this morning...

 

I do hope the Police manage to get things under control.

[Geoid]

Its a shame, it was supposed to be a peaceful protest.

[Cinnamon]

Sadly in these situations 'mob rule' becomes apparent.

It is a shame as the few who have behaved badly have done the majority no favours.

[patsylabrador]

I get cross when I hear/read people talking about the folly of youth. Some of those police officers will be as young as, if not younger than some of those rioters.

[kitbag]

I'm so glad I didn't go now! I nearly went but luckily my parents said no.

 

Xxx

[WarrensWorld]

These things tend to happen when polititians lie through their teeth.

[poachedegg]

The parents of the 'rioters' must be so proud.

[Geoid]

Looks like the police have got things under control.

[sadietoo]

My DD would have gone ..but she is in Bordeaux (where of course there have been lots of protests recently). I know she is particularly vexed by the LibDems who promised no increase in Tuition Fees and gained a lot of student vote on the back of it. I'm sorry that a minority have managed as usual to spoil what was a perfectly valid protest, but I hope the Government will take on board that it may not be just so easy to push things through and that future protests can be expected....and personally I 'd like to see a lot more libdem revolt from the back benches.... Perhaps we should be more like the French ...they expect their elected government to fulfill their promises...........

[Clur]

I am in Millbank quite regularly for meetings, but avoided it today and worked out of Old Broad Street which isn't too far from there. Lots of protesters were at Waterloo this morning and were largely behaved. Armed police there on my way back though!

[The Dogmother]

Sadly in these situations 'mob rule' becomes apparent.

It is a shame as the few who have behaved badly have done the majority no favours.

 

My thoughts exactly!

 

I smell the whiff of rent-a-mob

[Lewis]

I was there We were up at 4am, just got back!

 

There were 50,000 students there, took us 7 hours on the coach to get to London.

It honestly was all peaceful protest at the start and where we were - ok, chanting with banners, but nothing else from Westminster to Millbank, and we were there when they started the run into Millhouse.

About 50(?) men ran in into Millbank House with big red Activist banners, poles and balaclavas on We saw them running in, a couple of 'other' students did go in too

 

There were 2 security guards and loads of press cameras stood outside, they ran down to the street and phoned Police.

It took the police a good 15 mins to get there, during that time they were just shouting around the reception bit, then the police started with the whatever they threw in to 'calm it' and were getting really violent towards them (maybe quite rightly), and (IMO) thats when it started to get violent and the crowds were being forced/pushed towards Millbank House - apparently the police call it being kettled

We were stood outside watching it start and everyone noticed the press seemed to turn their cameras off when the Police got there... After there were smashed windows, and we saw Mounted Police arrive a couple of hours later as they were still on the roof.

That footage was about 3 hours after we saw it start, and by that time the speeches and protest had been over for a good hour and everyone else was moving on. There were some people on the roof of the building until at least 7pm when we were leaving!!

 

I agree it was completely ridiculous what they did. Spoilt the whole thing and overshadowed the point of the protest. Most of the students there were annoyed with the riots, and now the whole thing is being shown in a negative light.

Out of 50,000 students there, a minority spoilt the whole day

 

What I don't understand is, why, if they knew thats what we were protesting and there would be 50,000 students walking right past, they didn't either shut off the building like a lot of others did, or at least have Police and more security there waiting?! (There were Police at other points, just not at Millbank?)

[patsylabrador]

That is what everyone always says. Rather than rioters taking responsibility for their disruptive behaviour, they blame the police. In this case students were trusted to behave in a civilised way, that was a mistake.

I will always staunchly support the police in riots because I've been there with people spitting & screaming in my face and you have no idea the amount of restraint that they were showing, especially when a policewoman was dragged into the mob. There are no excuses for that, the police were excellent.

[Purplemaniacs]

DD thought about going but didn't in the end. OH was in London in one of the buildings that were shut off he said it was quite scary at times.

 

Its unfortunate that a few seem to have spolit it and a lot of the message is now lost in the violence.

 

Chrissie

[Lavenders_Blue]

Its unfortunate that a few seem to have spolit it and a lot of the message is now lost in the violence.

 

I totally agree. I firmly believe that university is a time that prepares and equips you for work, both in terms of your learning and also your attitude to work and self-application. All I saw on the TV footage was a bunch of hooligans who I wouldn't trust with a responsible job as far as I could throw them.

As others have said, it is a small minority who have spoilt it for the majority who were protesting in a peaceful and sensible way, but it sure does leave a bad impression.

[debbier]

Do people actually know that the "rent-a-mob" were students at all?

[Tiggy]

Do people actually know that the "rent-a-mob" were students at all?

 

good point, I was around in Birmingham during the Handsworth riots & there were people arriving in vans suited up wearing black ski masks & armed with lumps of 4x2 & petrol bombs, they weren't locals. I was a student nurse at the time in A&E, the night before a friend & I were in the queue at the chippie talking about going out the followinbg night and a man warned us to stay home because there was going to be trouble

 

DS said organisers were going around his campus trying to encourage as many of them as possible to attend the protest march, thankfully the beer in the fridge had more appeal Its a shame that a peaceful protest will now be remembered for the idiotic actions of a few

[The Dogmother]

It's such a shame that the protests have lost their integrity through the thoughtlessness of a few.

 

Tiggy, I used to live not far from the Millwall stadium ( ) there were regular problems there with the 'intercity mob', who allegedly cruised the country on the trains turning up at matches for a fight. One Saturday, as my train home drew into the New Cross overground station, it was apparent that there was a pitched battle being waged on the platform. Believe it or not, the driver stopped at the station and opened the doors. Luckily they were too engrossed in beating the seven bells out of each other that they didn't get on the train.

[Seagazer]

It is terrible that a few will spoil what should have been a peaceful march in protest, unfortunately it always seems to happen no matter what the protest is about.

 

I think the students should stop Claire Solomon, student president of University of London, from discussing it anymore as she is not getting her point across at all and just seems to be winding everyone up. She was saying she hadn't seen any violence on behalf of students but it was all the police and the conservatives I think she thinks we are all idiots.

 

My DD has just left uni with debts of over £20,000 so I understand why the students are angry but violence is never the way to do it.

[Lewis]

Rather than rioters taking responsibility for their disruptive behaviour, they blame the police. In this case students were trusted to behave in a civilised way, that was a mistake.

Thats a bit of a generalisation.

52,000 students there behaved in a relatively civilised way, 500 spoilt the whole day.

I still think it was a complete failure on the part of the police not to have a presence at Millbank.

 

Ok, students are always portrayed in a bad light in the media. Ok, some students would have got involved, but IMO they weren't violent at the start, we have videos and photos of it being peaceful, just chanting, until the police got there.

It wasn't for several hours and after the protest was over, that it all kicked off and is when the footage was filmed.

 

Do people actually know that the "rent-a-mob" were students at all?

This was exactly our point.

I honestly don't think most of the people rioting were students, but anarchists.

 

Now, rather than people facing the issues raised by thousands of students that gathered from all across the country in the protest, its talk about the few 100 people that spoilt the day...

[Cinnamon]

I agree Lewis.

And also to be fair I just heard on the radio that the Police say they totally underestimated the protest & made mistakes.

 

There will always be factions in society who are out to cause trouble, be it in the football stands or at an otherwise peaceful protest.

I think that this protest was hijacked by one (or more) of these factions,who saw it as an easy target. They rightly suspected that the Police would expect the protest to be peaceful & took advantage of a more relaxed presence.

Teens are teens & some will be guided by mob rule. The Police were very unwise to underestimate this.

[patsylabrador]

I didn't say all students were rioting, I too saw plenty that didn't, and yet enough did. Students come in many forms and many of those rioting were not teenagers. However I did see plenty of young people in that mob and that is the problem, some of them were schoolchildren, and as I have already asked today, how do you police a mob of anarchists and children.

How many people would support the police if there were pictures of a schoolgirl with a bleeding head? 41 police officers were injured and when everything that goes wrong in this country is blamed on the police, that argument wears a little thin.

[Cinnamon]

The point I was trying to get across is that if teenagers are involved,whether it is a peaceful protest or not,the Police should have anticipated more trouble than they did.

They admitted that they underestimated things on a clip on the news just a little while ago.

Some teens are incendiary...where there is trouble they will get involved.

I still think that this was a case of a group of people who were setting out to make trouble,doing exactly what they intended,knowing that teens there would also be fired up & get involved.

[C&T]

Assuming the route was planned etc, what I didn't understand is why Millbank House wasn't identified as a potential hot spot by the various authorities?

 

There is (unfortunately) all too often a (very) small minority out there, especially when the subject is a bit volatile, that will jump on the band wagon with the aim of causing trouble. This is not new, and I don't believe it is unique to teenagers either!

 

Either some visible police presense from the start, or boarding up the windows (like they do for the May Day demonstration) might have been sensible. But I guess I say this with the benefit of hindsite!