London: Violent Protests in Response to University Tuition Raise From £3000 to £9001

• BobYoMeowMeow wrote on 2010-12-11 07:38
  [Image: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/11/11/world/11london_span/LONDON-articleLarge.jpg]

  
  
  

  LONDON — A demonstration against government proposals to cut education spending and steeply increase tuition for university students turned violent on Wednesday as protesters attempted to storm the building that houses the Conservative Party.
  
  The protesters scuffled with police officers, set off flares, burned placards, threw eggs, bottles and other projectiles and shattered windows at the building, 30 Millbank, in Westminster. A small group of demonstrators, some of whose faces were obscured by ski masks, climbed to the roof of a nearby building, waving anarchist flags and chanting “Tory scum.”
  
  The protest was dispersed about 10 p.m. Fourteen people, including seven police officers, were injured, none of them seriously, the authorities said. Thirty-five people were arrested.
  
  An estimated 52,000 people from across the country also massed near Parliament on Wednesday to condemn the government’s education proposals, which would allow universities to charge £6,000, or $9,600, to £9,000, or $14,400, in tuition a year, up from a cap of £3,290, or $5,264. The protest was the largest street demonstration against the government’s plans, which were announced last month, to cut public spending by $130 billion by 2015. Unions and public employees have promised more demonstrations and strikes, particularly as details of the cuts become clear.
  
  Tuition is a politically sensitive subject in Britain, where universities are heavily subsidized by the government. Until the late 1990s, when the Labour government introduced tuition, students paid nothing to attend college.
  
  The current government, a coalition of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats that has ushered in an age of budget austerity, has announced plans to cut teaching grants to universities and said it had no choice but to raise tuition.
  
  That has presented a dilemma for Liberal Democrats — the more vulnerable members of the coalition — who made abolishing university tuition a core element of their platform in the general election last spring. Joining the Conservatives in proposing tuition increases has been hard for many Liberal Democrats. Their leader, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, was taunted Wednesday in the House of Commons by members of the opposition Labour Party.
  
  “In April he said that increasing tuition fees to £7,000 a year would be a disaster,” Harriet Harman, the deputy leader of the opposition, said of Mr. Clegg. “What word would he use to describe fees of £9,000?”
  
  Accusing him of “going along with Tory plans to shove the cost of higher education onto students and their families,” Ms. Harman told Mr. Clegg that he was like a college freshman who meets “a dodgy bloke” during the first week of classes “and you do things that you regret.”
  
  “Isn’t it true he has been led astray by the Tories?” she asked.
  
  Mr. Clegg responded that he had to make compromises as part of a coalition, and because the country’s finances had been left in such poor shape by the previous government. But, he said, he had prevailed on the Conservatives to make the proposals fairer and more progressive.
  
  Under the plan, students would borrow money from the government to pay tuition, as they do now. They would not start repaying the debt until they earned at least £21,000 a year (about $38,000 at current exchange rates), an increase from the current level of £15,000 ($24,100). They would then pay 9 percent of their income above that level to settle the debt. The debt would be wiped out after 30 years.
  
  Student leaders have made it a priority to denounce Liberal Democrats who support the higher tuition, and they said on Wednesday that they would try to recall any legislators who had broken their election promises on the issue. Some Liberal Democrats have said they would abstain from the vote to increase tuition when it comes up in Parliament.
  
  Aaron Porter, president of the National Union of Students, said the proposed increases were doubly unfair, since they were paired with cuts of about 40 percent in the money the government pays to subsidize teaching at universities. “We should be clear that the government has asked students to pay three times as much for a quality that is likely to be no better than what they are receiving now, and perhaps worse,” he said.
  

  
  
  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/11/world/europe/11london.html?_r=1
  
  money exchange
  UK £3000 = 4,740.6 USD
  UK £3000 = 4,782.8 Canadian dollars
  
  UK £9000 = 14,221.8 USD
  UK £9000 = 14,348.4 Canadian dollars
  
  Serious jump in tuition
• gentrone wrote on 2010-12-11 07:55
  In the long run, it will be a loss. Education should be a top priority. What, they want their citizens to become coal miners again?
• TA wrote on 2010-12-11 07:59
  That's good. Show THE MAN that they can't just do whatever the f they want.
• gentrone wrote on 2010-12-11 08:53

  Quote from Wikipedia:

  The social contract and the civil rights it gives us are neither "natural rights" nor permanently fixed. Rather, the contract itself is the means towards an end — the benefit of all — and (according to some philosophers such as Locke or Rousseau), is only legitimate to the extent that it meets the general interest ("general will" in Rousseau). Therefore, when failings are found in the contract, we renegotiate to change the terms, using methods such as elections and legislature. Locke theorized the right of rebellion in case of the contract leading to tyranny.

  
  
  That's why we can exercise our rights of protest.
  
  What they're doing in England is wrong. People can't just stand there and do nothing.
• paladin wrote on 2010-12-11 12:49
  Education is something you dont want to mess up
  Knowledge is power
  and wow
  Thats almost quad
• Sleeperdial wrote on 2010-12-11 13:56

  Quote from gentrone;244077:

  That's why we can exercise our rights of protest.
  
  What they're doing in England is wrong. People can't just stand there and do nothing.

  
  
  What we're doing in America is wrong.
• Zid wrote on 2010-12-11 16:13
  Government doesn't know about investment, huh?
  
  Education is one of the most important investments for any type of government.
• Spartaaaaa wrote on 2010-12-11 19:38
  Apparently the royal family was assaulted by protesters...
  
  

  'They were lucky not to be shot': Police chief says armed officers showed 'enormous restraint' as mob attacked Charles and Camilla
  
  By Tim Shipman and Gerri Peev
  Last updated at 1:58 PM on 10th December 2010
  
  Met chief Sir Paul Stephenson today mounted an extraordinary defence of armed protection officers after the worst Royal security blunder in a generation.
  
  Sir Paul hailed the 'enormous restraint' of the team guarding Prince Charles and his wife the Duchess of Cornwall, implying the rioters were lucky not to have been shot.
  
  Camilla was left terrified as their Rolls Royce came under fire from a snarling mob of student fees rioters as it made its way to the Royal Variety Performance at the London Palladium.
  
  The car was kicked, rocked and hit with paint bombs as up to 20 demonstrators attacked it and chanted 'Off with their heads!' and 'Tory scum', leaving the couple visibly shaken.
  
  The Prince and Duchess were not hurt but the potential risk to their safety raised worrying echoes of the 1974 kidnap attempt on Princess Anne.
  
  

  [Image: http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/12/10/article-1337088-0C6BDC2A000005DC-597_634x415.jpg]

  
  Frightened: Prince Charles and Camilla show their fear inside the car as it is attacked by the mob
  
  As serious questions were being asked about Royal security, Britain's top policeman condemned the 'hugely regrettable and shocking incident' but insisted proper procedure was followed.
  
  Sir Paul said: 'I do think that the officers who were protecting their Royal Highnesses showed very real restraint - some of those officers were armed.
  
  'Their priority was to get that car to the point of safety, which was the venue, and that was achieved, but it was a hugely shocking incident and there will be a full criminal investigation into it.'
  
  He insisted that the route was 'thoroughly recced, including minutes beforehand. I think what you have to remember is the unpredictability of ... these thugs, in the way in which they were moving around London.'
  
  The Met Commissioner promised there would be a 'full and thorough' investigation but stressed there had to be a balance between security and allowing the Royals to interact with the public.
  
  'Short of locking everything down, then frankly we have to do our best to try and achieve that balance that facilitates that closeness with the public while still providing security,' he said.
  
  'Yesterday was a very shocking incident but minutes beforehand that route was clear; a very unpredictable demonstration, a very difficult night.
  
  Dai Davies, the former head of Scotland Yard's royal protection squad, said Sir Paul must be 'embarrassed and surprised' at the security lapse.
  
  He questioned why a different car had not been used or alternative routes to keep the Prince and his wife out of harm's way.
  
  'Presumably someone must have told royal protection there was a demonstration of this sort and intelligence should have co-ordinated a better system,' he said.
  
  'I'm sure my successor is looking very carefully at what went wrong and indeed how it must never happen again. It was an atrocious attack on their two Royal Highnesses and I'm appalled, frankly.'
  
  Security analyst and former police officer Charles Shoebridge said: 'One can visualise a situation where police felt they had no alternative but to open fire. It wasn't potentially dangerous. It was dangerous.
  
  'The police will need to look at this in great detail. They need a rapid and robust investigation to identify how it could have happened.'
  
  He added: 'This is a very serious incident. It ranks amongst the most serious security breaches of the past decade.
  
  'Some of the demonstrators yesterday were carrying petrol, specifically to use in arson attacks. If the can of paint had been a can of petrol, it would have been very different.'
  
  The former intelligence officer condemned how Charles and Camilla were allowed to 'blunder' into the demonstration and questioned whether Scotland Yard had the right people in charge.
  
  Today, the Prince and his wife hailed the efforts of police and expressed their gratitude but Clarence House refused to be drawn on the security lapse.
  
  A spokesman said: 'Their Royal Highnesses totally understand the difficulties which the police face and are always very grateful to the police for the job they do in often very challenging circumstances.'
  
  The Royal vehicle was ambushed by a 'steaming gang' of masked protesters, who attacked the car with their firsts, boots and bottles.
  
  Photographer Matt Dunham, who captured Camilla looking aghast, said: 'It [the car] was unable to move because it was surrounded. It was stuck in a gridlock.
  
  'There were people kicking it and screaming. So I raced towards it and then saw it was Camilla and Charles. Charles seemed to be waving calmly at first, trying to be amicable, but then he looked worried. Camilla was visibly agitated.'
  
  One witness said Charles kept calm, gently pushing his wife towards the floor to get her out of the line of fire.
  
  'Charles got her on the floor and put his hands on her,' said Adnan Nazir, a 23-year-old podiatrist who was following the protesters.
  
  David Cameron, who described the attack as 'shocking and regrettable', insisted lessons had to be learned and those responsible held to account.
  
  'It's no good to say this was a very small minority. It wasn't,' he said. 'There were quite a number of people who clearly were there wanting to pursue violence and destroy property.
  
  'I know that the Metropolitan Police Commissioner is going to be working hard to report on this. I also know quite rightly he will look into the very regrettable incident where the Prince of Wales and his wife were nearly attacked by this mob.'
  
  The Prime Minister spoke to the Met Chief and Prince Charles' private secretary last night but he stressed the police were not to blame. 'It was the fault of the people who tried to smash up that car,' he said.
  
  London mayor Boris Johnson hailed Charles and Camilla's 'great fortitude of spirit' and called for an end to the violent tuition fee protests.
  He said: 'Clearly, it is very regrettable that in the heart of London, the heir to the throne can be surrounded by agitators and his wife can be put in a position where she's plainly alarmed.'
  
  Charles and Camilla's journey began when they left Clarence House at approximately 7.15pm.
  
  The couple's ordeal began as their limousine, escorted by three police outriders and an unmarked police car, turned into Regent Street from Piccadilly Circus.
  
  At first they were seen talking happily and waving at passers-by. But then suddenly the crowd began to close in around them, swelled by student fee protesters who had run to the scene from the riot outside Parliament.
  
  Bags of rubbish, traffic cones, bottles and plastic barriers from roadworks started to rain down on the Rolls-Royce, which was stopped in its tracks when a large bin was thrown in front of it.
  
  Rioters, wearing balaclavas and scarves over their faces, surrounded the car, banging on the windows – one of which was open – and shouting ‘Tory scum’ and ‘off with your heads’. A lone policewoman tried desperately to clear the mob.
  
  Camilla could be heard screaming as she gripped Charles’s hand. Terrified for her safety, she then dived on to the floor of the car. One witness said Charles pushed her down in an attempt to protect her.
  
  The Prince, however, defiantly remained sitting in his seat and continued to wave at the crowd.

  
  
  Link to article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1337088/ROYAL-CAR-ATTACK-Mob-attacking-Charles-Camillas-car-lucky-shot.html
• Moppy wrote on 2010-12-11 20:48

  Tuition is a politically sensitive subject in Britain, where universities are heavily subsidized by the government. Until the late 1990s, when the Labour government introduced tuition, students paid nothing to attend college.

  
  
  So the people who have increased the tuition cap never had to pay tuition.
• Mentosftw wrote on 2010-12-11 20:53
  Wow, just wow.