{"id":19606,"date":"2026-11-10T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-11-10T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/?p=19606"},"modified":"2026-11-06T12:38:32","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T12:38:32","slug":"students-march-against-fees-increase-and-cuts-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/?p=19606","title":{"rendered":"Students March Against Fees Increase and Cuts – 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Students March Against Fees Increase and Cuts<\/strong>: On Wednesday 10th November 2010 around 50,000 students marched through London in a lively but largely peaceful protest against the plans to increase university fees and make cuts to education. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Students
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The event, organised by the National Union of Students (NUS) and the University and College Union (UCU) was larger than expected and because of numbers the march began early with crowds already marching down Whitehall when I arrived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Students
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Over two hours later there were still people marching down Whitehall and I was still photographing them going through Parliament Square and on towards Millbank where a rally was taking place outside the Tate Gallery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Students
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Many of the protesters got no further than Parliament Square, and it was still filled with students dancing when I left for home, having moved aside the temporary banners around the grass there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Students
Sitdown in Parliament Square ‘Don’t Con-dem the Future’<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

People on the protest were angry, and it showed very much in some of the posters. People were particularly upset at the actions of the Lib-Dems who had campaigned resolutely against fees in the General Election and had signed the NUS pledge and made a manifesto commitment to abolish fees but now in the Lib Dem-Con coalition government were supporting them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Students
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The great mass of marchers were intent on peaceful protest and there were only a few minor incidents with flares and sit-downs on the main march, but a small group of protesters had other ideas when they reached the Conservative Party headquarters on Millbank, which had been left virtually undefended by police. They rushed in and occupied the building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Students
Central School of Speech and Drama had a cannon and a large bird which could have been a turkey<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Police reinforcements then carried out a brutal attempt to evict them and there was fierce fighting in which some protesters smashed the large plate glass windows to let others in. A number of the journalists and photographers were also batoned and punched by police along with the protesters, but I was still in Parliament Square photographing the marchers coming through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Students
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A few protesters gained access to the roof of the building and hung down banners, but most stayed in the courtyard where some started fires, setting light to placards and when I arrived had been joined by hundreds of marchers mainly simply standing around and watching. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Students
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There was one seriously dangerous moment (which I didn’t see) when a stupid idiot threw an empty fire extinguisher from the roof; fortunately no one was injured, but it could have killed a police officer or a protester, and the whole crowd began a chant against him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Students
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The march stewards and NUJ officials tried to keep marchers walking past towards the rally and not join those outside the Tory HQ, but it was this action by a few there which made the news headlines, turning what otherwise would have been a small and insignificant paragraph or two into major news – but with little discussion of the real grievances that led to the protest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I heard about what was happening at the Tory HQ from one of the marchers while I was still in Parliament Square; he had got a tweet from his mother who had seen what was happening on TV. I rushed to the scene where there were still clashes between police and protesters going on. At the time I wrote:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"When I arrived later, more riot police were arriving to stand in front of the now broken window and protect the offices. A couple of yards from them was a crowd who were mostly simply standing and watching, with a few occasionally shouting at the police and arguing with them. \"<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Occasionally various objects were hurled from further back in the crowd towards the police who parried them with their riot shields; fortunately they were largely harmless - light sticks from placards, screwed up placards, plastic bottles - just as well as many fell short and landed on photographers and crowd rather than their intended target. \"<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"I was hit by a few objects and sprayed several times by fire extinguishers - both soda acid and dry powder - and again the police were better protected. At one point a woman's shoe came through the air and landed at the feet of the police, followed a few moments later by a furious woman with one stockinged foot who came to collect it after one of her 'friends' had thrown it.\"<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
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  <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
The protesters were still on the roof, and made a statement for the press from there stating their action was an expression of solidarity with public sector workers and the poor, disabled and elderly who would be harmed by government cuts and was a call for direct action to oppose the destruction of public services and state education. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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   <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Police later said that they had made over 50 arrests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can read more of my account of the events of the day on My London Diary and see many more pictures at NUS\/UCU March – Fees Increase & Cuts<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Flickr<\/a> – Facebook<\/a> – My London Diary<\/a> – Hull Photos<\/a> – Lea Valley<\/a> – Paris<\/a>
London’s Industrial Heritage<\/a> – London Photos<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
All photographs on this page are copyright \u00a9 Peter Marshall. 
Contact me to buy prints or licence to reproduce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Students March Against Fees Increase and Cuts: On Wednesday 10th November 2010 around 50,000 students marched through London in a lively but largely peaceful protest against the plans to increase university fees and make cuts to education. The event, organised by the National Union of Students (NUS) and the University and College Union (UCU) was … Continue reading Students March Against Fees Increase and Cuts – 2010<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[1916,26130,3527,26133,8959,26127,26131,279,26126,26137,10295,17,26129,244,2944,26123,26138,10293,26128,231,83,628,26135,26125,16,26134,26132,118,26136,12015,7161,26124],"class_list":["post-19606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-own-work","category-political-issues","tag-1916","tag-abolish-fees","tag-against-fees-and-cuts","tag-batoned","tag-broken-promises","tag-coalition-government-2","tag-conservative-party-headquarters","tag-cuts","tag-fees-rise","tag-fire-extinguisher","tag-lib-dems","tag-london","tag-manifesto-commitment","tag-march","tag-millbank","tag-national-union-of-students","tag-news-headlines","tag-nus","tag-nus-pledge","tag-parliament-square","tag-peter-marshall","tag-police","tag-police-attack-press","tag-ppublic-service-cuts","tag-protest","tag-punched","tag-smashed-windows","tag-students","tag-stupid-idiot","tag-tory-hq","tag-ucu","tag-university-and-college-union"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19606"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19609,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19606\/revisions\/19609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}