Parliament Square 9/12/10

Image by lewishamdreamer via Flickr

Today the news are all about how students yesterday behaved like yobs, attacked the car with Prince Charles and his wife Camilla on board, which happened to be on the protest route,  and generally caused London to come to a standstill and businesses to lose trade. Ah those dreadful students!

The coalition passed the tuition fee bill and now universities can charge up to £ 9,000 per year for a degree. The cuts have also gone through so inevitably some departments and the poorer colleges will close down, only certain subjects are being supported. People make light of it. "In America people pay over £20,000  for their university education. Why should students here not pay?"


Right, before I explode in a rage, let me start with yesterday's events. I was there. I saw it. We began - there were thousands and thousands of us - at 1 pm. The police led the protesters astray using plain clothes officers to make the protesters go  into areas from which they could not exit.  It is easy to lead a crowd. I saw one of these plain clothes policemen  talking over his radio and telling his colleagues he had got us to go to a particular place.  The police stepped in and  used kettling techniques. Kettling should be outlawed because it serves the purpose of dividing a crowd, dispersing it,  and keeping smaller groups prisoner in an area whose exit points are guarded by police.

Image by lewishamdreamer via Flickr

Some of us realised we were about to be  kettled and even before reaching Parliament Square! We had just gone past Trafalgar Square, past the ICA. So in small groups and even individually we moved away before the police began sealing the exits. We cut through the park, went through alleyways and reached Westminster Abbey. By then I was on my own and wanted to get to Parliament Square but the police had already cordoned it off. I could see people running in all directions and towards Victoria Street.

I took a short cut and went from the back of Westminster School - I was in touch through my mobile with my son, who was also at the protest but with another group. He knows the area well having been a student at the Great School. "Go down Great College Street" he said "you will find yourself at the other end of the House Of Parliament".  I did and found myself in an area completely covered in police vans.  And saw them. They were in full riot gear and had horses, getting ready to charge. It made me feel like throwing up. I looked like an ordinary  tourist, they politely asked me to leave and I ran back to Westminster School.

I walked towards  the Abbey. Some protesters were also there, about fifteen. They were talking to policemen and insisted they had the right to be in the Square. I joined them. One policeman tried to stop me, not grasping I was a protester myself. "I am with them" I said. He pushed me lightly, I joined the group  and we got into the Square. They told us we could not get out once in. On the other side of the Square I could see people being beaten up by those officers I had seen earlier on horseback. I did not go near.

We were kettled in Parliament Square. The plan had been for all the protesters to be there, a candle vigil was going to take place. Some of my colleagues who were teaching yesterday had emailed saying they'd come after 4 pm. Now we were considerably fewer than when we started and it was about 3 pm. Police stopped allowing people in and the exits were guarded by two rows of policemen all in full riot gear.

Alex B. Photographer: KnightPix

I met lots of press people while in the Square and even met one of the photographers I have worked with. Yesterday he was working as a photojournalist.  We lit a few fires, it was bitterly cold. Yes, there were a few people there that were climbing on statues, but they were a minority. Most of us were bewildered we had got separated from the others and did not have a clue about what was going on. My son was still on the other side, by Victoria Street. He called me at some point and advised me to plead with an officer to let me out. "There is going to be trouble, I can see they are getting ready". I was not up to fighting, my left wrist is fractured. So I asked an officer to escort me out. He looked at me, at first feeling uncertain, but then he let me go. I rejoined my son at St James' Park  and we walked back towards the Abbey. By then the vote had been cast. The protesters went wild. And the police hit hard. If people went wild  that was also and especially because they had been kettled! and the police would not let them out! Please read the Guardian latest blog on this.  Murdoch's press is going on about the horrible protesters, but what about the police?

So even before we get to the main issue, of what the cuts and the raising of the fees is going to do (easy to guess, it will kill off education in this country), let me ask: how can a democratic country employ such extreme police tactics to stop people from voicing their dissent? Next it will be all right for police officers to open fire on a group of protesters "in the interest of the public". Really?

As for the tuition fees, I have posted on this already. Just because American students pay through their noses it does not mean it is a fair system and it should be adopted. Education in this country needs an overhaul and its problems cannot be solved by denying access to higher education to those who cannot afford it.

Alex B in Parliament Square. Photographer: Vijay Jethwa

Mr Clegg has given a new meaning to the word pledge. He pledged before the election that he would not support the cuts and raising tuition fees.  In his vocabulary 'pledge' means something quite different from what his voters understood it to mean. When I voted for him I did not know he was Cameron in disguise!


One of the banners held by the protesters yesterday showed a grave with the words "R.I.P. Education".  Indeed. We will sorely miss you from our lives.