The riot that wasn't a riot.

My heart swelled with pride yesterday when I watched the students march on Whitehall.
Why shouldn't it?
According to the coalition trolls who were frantically out in force across social networking sites - most mirroring the behaviour of the foul mouthed and less than intelligent guests of the Jeremy Kyle show that they loathe - I should be loudly condemning the violence, the disorder and the civil disobedience.
Without any sense of humour involved the very same trolls are happy to advocate the "cracking of student oiks heads" by the police though.
There is also a partially hypocritical statement from Camerons spokesman who appears to have a rather one sided view of any violence and intimidation displayed on the day.
Well I'm sorry, but I don't condemn their actions at all.
I will not condemn anyone for exercising their right to protest.
Especially when their reasons for doing so are altruistic.
One point the media, and those who support the coalition, are happy not to raise is that those young men and women who were out protesting are actually doing so for those who will follow them into further education.
It's not all about them.

They also don't want anyone to consider that this was simply the cause and effect reaction to the ideologically driven, and draconian, policies that their coalition are attempting to bully through parliament.
Without them there wouldn't be anyone protesting on the streets at all.

So while they wilfully point the finger at anyone who doesn't agree with them, they should maybe be taking a step back and considering what the real catalyst for this action was.
That they refuse to do so hints that they want nothing more than a deferential society.
One that is willing to accept the widening gap between those who have and those who have not, and guess what side of the fence they will be on?
Let us not lose sight of what is actually happening here though. This is not about a police van being vandalized*, a bus shelter being trashed or some windows being smashed.
This is people publicly opposing the dismantling of the welfare state, the moving of education out of reach of a whole segment of society, the draconian cuts to the public sector, the attack on the NHS, the tax avoidance of the wealthy and the bail outs of the banks (while the bankers continue business as usual) to name just the tip of an iceberg that is floating in public view.
History is littered with similar actions and they all have a common thread, and that thread is that any government who fails to listen to the people will regret stepping down that totalitarian path.
In fact above every door of every building that houses politicians they should carve the words “Without the support of the people we are nothing.”
It would be nice if they didn't need to be reminded of that, but are we in any doubt that they do?

We have had decades of acting like apathetic turkeys voting for x-mas and now due to this government relentlessly pushing us all into a corner, over what feels like a very long six month period, we have started to push back.
Make no mistake. This is the start and I applaud it.
We have still to see the disabled, the unemployed, the carers and more taking to the streets.
Unless this government start listening then their actions will do nothing more that swell the ranks of the dissenters, and there is no evidence that they will listen. So bring it on.
As it is Clegg and his Lib Dem cronies don't appear to be able to differentiate between a pledge and a promise. Say one thing and do another is their mantra it would seem. Yesterday he even stated for the record that regardless of the amount of protest and dissent that Cameron and himself would not be considering any changes to the tuition fees policies.
A rough translation could be “Say what you want because we don't care.”
Hopefully this attitude that they are displaying is starting to sink in with the general public and they will receive the reaction that they deserve.

*eye witness report from Whitehall.

Heiko Khoo – Police planted an old police van in Whitehall in the middle of 4000 demonstrators, we asked the police to remove it, they refused. Police only 20 yards from the van refused to protect it. They wanted it to be attacked. The 'attack' on the van was an excuse to kettle 4000 people for 8 hours, some 11 years old. We had no water or toilets for 5 hours.