Never mind the journalists

I'm hooked on the Guardian's and BBC's coverage of the nationwide student protests. All over the country, university, college and school students are protesting in their thousands - a magnificent spectacle and a little heated in a few places.

What's striking about the BBC coverage is how reactionary and judgemental it is - comments like 'a complete rabble' 'a bit crazy', and surprise that Cambridge students (imagine) are protesting and are angry. There's a concerted effort to focus on the incredibly isolated bits of violence and to praise the 'peaceful' students: the discourse clearly separates 'nice' from 'nasty' with virtually no discussion of the rights and wrongs of the situation. There's no historical context - of education or of student protest - and more than a hint that all these Oxbridge-educated commentators (particularly on the BBC) are revolted by their successors. Certainly the interviewers are parrotting Clegg's and Cameron's lines as though there's no debate to be had.

I like this dispersed protest. The massive London demo was excellent, and certainly caught the media's attention, but concerted efforts in virtually every town in the country from Bolton to Bristol to York means that a much larger proportion of the population have a chance of meeting and listening to them. It's like a mini-general strike. Shame there's nothing happening in The Dark Place, unlike all these towns (rolling updates here).

Manchester, Bristol and Leeds students seem to be doing a magnificent job - as is Simon, the very articulate student talking at length to the BBC, despite their little attempts to bully him ("you condemn the occupation at the previous demo, don't you?", "we only report what we see" - he points out very calmly that news organisations frame all stories, and they choose what that frame is).

Back-to-bed boycott?

No walkout or demonstration here at The Hegemon, as far as I can see, but London and Manchester seem to be pretty active, with Leeds and Bristol doing good work. There's a mass walkout at nearby Birmingham University too, and a lot of schools have seen very effective walkouts - great to see the younger generation radicalised.

Despite some difficulty from security guards preventing many of our students getting in more than 30 birmingham students are currently in occupation of the aston webb building the site of the prime ministerial debates. this is a copy of our written statement.

Students at the University of Birmingham have embarked on this occupation because we believe the Government's cuts to be economically unnecessary, unfair and ideologically motivated. We stand in solidarity with unions and seek to be active members in a broader anti-cuts coalition. The government must understand that if they continue to destroy the livelihoods of the majority to benefit the rich and powerful minority, they will face increasingly widespread and radical action.

The government is however not the only catalyst for our action. This university currently adheres to a strategy which prioritises corporate profit above the value of education. To this end we have set out an alternative budget proposal that fairly shares the burden of government cuts. If the Government and University continue with their marketisation of people's lives this will only be the beginning.

Plymouth Uni's occupation is so sophisticated that there's a live web feed. Royal Holloway students got started yesterday!


I like this Aberystwyth nerd-banner: 

 '404 Error Funding Not Found.'

I think the tensions between institutions and students will start to grow soon. My institution is so humble and vulnerable that even our management - for whom I rarely have a good word - are on the side of The Kids. It's not the case in the Russell Group élite institutions: their managements think the fees are absolutely brilliant, whereas the students know better.


(As an example, 20% of Oxford University's outreach programme to recruit 'non-traditional' students went to private schools, including Eton, from which 46% of Oxford's intake is drawn - 7% of the school population is privately educated).


UPDATE: the London protest is getting heated, helped by the cops' decision to 'kettle' them - kettles tend to boil. Live pictures here.

Action stations

Morning all. Very busy day today, so you won't be hearing too much from me (a nation celebrates). Today is another day of action by students protesting the imposition of £9000 fees, massive cuts in teaching provision and the appalling abolition of the Educational Maintenance Allowance, which keeps 16-18 year olds in education.

Will anything happen here? I don't know. It's an institution of 20,000+ very diverse students. Those who rarely turn up to classes aren't bothered by politics (or the worries of anybody else). Those who do split between the determined who've grabbed their chance and won't let it go for anyone and those who are more relaxed. Also, the student body is hugely fractured - there's little sense of a student body or political leadership. I'm sure a few students will do something, but the rest of us won't notice.

For what it's worth, I'd love it if nobody turned up, or if a building was occupied - a bit of backbone after all these years would be very welcome.

Follow the day's events here.

"Haven't the rich suffered enough?"

Astonishingly, that's a quote from Peter Mandelson, supposedly a Labour politician, in negotiations with the Liberal Democrats before they decided to go with the Tories: the Lib Dems toyed with an extra tax for those who owned houses worth more than £2 million.

The simple answer from those of us who don't habitually hob-nob with the super-rich is that they appear not to have suffered at all. Bankers' bonuses are going to be around £7 billion pounds this year. On the other hand, the poor are going to suffer an awful lot.

This is why Mandelson's hated in the Labour Party.

Meanwhile, the National Union of Students has come up with a cunning wheeze. The Lib Dems proposed a recall election if 10% of a constituency signed a petition, so the NUS are planning to recall all the Lib Dems who lied about tuition fees. If the government doesn't bring in the law, they'll look like cowards. If they do, many Lib Dems might lose their seats and the government may fall. Excellent.

Also: support the national day of action on campuses, 24th November.