Students burn placards on the plinth below Nelson in Trafalgar Square
The second of the series of student demonstrations organised by the National Campaign against Fees and Cuts took place on November 30th, and they had a further demonstration on December 9th, which I also photographed and posted about a few days ago.
Students go up Regent Street having come up Piccadilly from Hyde Park Corner
The next big student demonstration will be towards the end of January, because Parliament has a longish break over Christmas, as do many students. But another person or group, rumoured to have links with the EDL, has set up a Facebook page for a ‘fake’ demonstration on Monday 20 Dec, presumably with the intention of in some way discrediting students, perhaps hoping for some kind of violence. It’s one I won’t photograph even though some people may turn up.
A police medic holds a protester with his left hand and takes a swing at him with his right while friends try to pull him away
The second day of action started in Trafalgar Square but did not develop as expected. Rather than a short march down Whitehall to Parliament Square and then on for a further protest outside the Lib-Dem headquarters, over half of the demonstrators decided to head off early, were blocked by the police and then commenced a ten mile fast march around much of central London, before returning to Trafalgar Square.
It was a peaceful march by the students though I witnessed one small attack by a police officer on an individual student and another use of what seemed rather unnecessary force to stop a group of the marchers taking a short cut. There were a couple of fireworks thrown – one exploding at my feet, and a few snowballs mainly aimed at the police.
The marchers got lost in the maze of back streets around St Bartholomew’s hospital in the City – and there wasn’t even a policeman there too ask the way, as the City of London police either hadn’t noticed the demonstration or had decided to stay out of its way, at least of the half hour in spent on their patch before I gave up and caught a bus.
Marchers going past the Stock Exchange with no police in sight
The protesters were convinced the police were trying to kettle them, but so far as I could see they made no effort to do so until very much later in the day, following a certain amount of pushing and shoving in Trafalgar Square when most of the protesters had already gone home – and I too left before they imposed a kettle.
Just beyond the banner some students were trying to push through the police line. Others were simply walking out one of the the other entrances to the square which was still open.
It was a chaotic event, and the accounts on sites of some of the left-wing organisations differ dramatically from mine. I think you do get a fairly good idea of what went on from my description and pictures on My London Diary, though of course it wasn’t possible for me to be everywhere and see everything.
