I enjoyed a good old fashioned riot yesterday at Millbank. In the aftermarth i have mixing feelings about its purpose and what it could lead to in the near future.
So i was wondering, what are you thoughts on rioting, bay 12?
Particullarly as a political tool, rather than football etc.
And, do you think there will be further rioting across europe? (and possibly the rest of the world? Do people in your neighbour hood wish to riot?)
As a political tool, rioting is worse than useless.
As for this particular riot, I do not see the point. Despite the government reworking the funding system so that the poorer are a lot better off than the rich in the big picture, and making this very clear, these supposedly intelligent students instantly react rather crudely with "INCREASED FEES = BAD --> HURT THE POOR --> DIE TORY SCUM".
name an effective peaceful protest in the UK, the largest protest in UK history was peaceful and a failure.
I don't know about the UK, but you'ds have a hard time beating Gandhi the independence of India.
Though, to be honest on this situation here in England, I get the feeling the riots where initiated by pro-tory students.
Nope. I know several people who went to the protest, it was nothing of the sort. From what I can tell, it was people who were using the riot as an opportunity to smash up some stuff.
I was just thinking. Gordon Brown must be pretty smug right now, not even a year in to the coalition government and there's been a riot.
The riot is due, albeit indirectly, to him and the labour government. It is because the labour government has spend so many years recklessly borrowing and spending despite all common sense and economic theory that we are currently so far in debt. It is beacause of this huge debt that cuts have to be made everywhere (and, surprisingly enough, students are included in that). It is because of these cuts that we have a protest - all these protests are doing is shooting the messanger.
No doubt gordon brown is smug, but it will be because of the sheer size of the mountain of shit (and really, it boggles the mind) that he left the coalition government to clean up after him.
These sorts of things are often turned violent against the organisers will, especially when in capitol cities. It's like the internet, the more people that know about something, the more likely idiots are gunna turn up, and try to start a fight.
Saying it wasn't their fault for the protest going violent is like saying it's not your fault if you leave all the doors and windows in your house open when you go on holiday and yout stuff is nicked. It's true, but they could easily have done a hell of a lot more to prevent it.
Spread the word. It should be done. Any politician who changes his policies so decisively after an election deserves to be out of a job. He categorically said that there would be no increase in fees, and is likely to vote towards tripling them.
Circumstances change, and people need to rething their policies. Forcing people to stick to old, outdated policies despite all changes in circumstance is a very bad idea.
On a more serious point, I was actually planning to attend the protests. Clegg and his party lied to us, and now it's obvious that he's nothing more than a Tory lickspittle who is so desperate for power he's willing to betray the demographic he was originally counting on.
I would advise you not to scapegoat Nick.
There is also one thing that really bothers me: the way the police are shown no sympathy. Seven policemen were injured, and and one point a fire extinguisher was thrown at them from the roof (thankfully it missed, but it would easily have killed), yet all the papers I've read mention this in a very offhand way. If, however, a policeman in seen being in any way violent with a civillian (and there were masses of cameras there, they could not do anything in order to physically restrain the protestors other than stand in their way) the media makes a massive scandal of it lasting months.