Agent Provocateurs or Violent Lefties?

The protests yesterday were impressive, geek speech apart, and the message should not be lost by the government following the violent end to the protest.

I suspect the violence was well organised, but by whom?

Someone sugested to me, before any violence had begun, that there would be agent provocateurs in the crowd to ensure the protest was discredited. I, on the other hand, thought that any violence would come via the usual extreme left wing groups who thrive on hatred and envy, using gullable youngsters as their tools.

However, it does not really matter who caused the violence, because it is obvious that 99.9% of the protesters were there for genuine, non violent reasons. Cameron and Clegg should thank their luckey stars that the British people have accepted everything thrown at them so far. All the protesters are saying is that the acceptable limit has been breached, and it is not acceptable to carry on with such severe 'austerity' measures when the bankers and their ilk suffer no consequences while the masses bear the brunt.

If Cameron really wants a 'Big Society' then he needs to listen to the Big Issues that the Big Protest brought forth.

That's assuming he wants to remain in power!

Protest in the Park

I agree with many of the reasons for today's protest. As a local government worker, since the bankers took all the taxpayers money, to pay for their reckless and very poor management whilst still being paid a fortune, the media have instead focussed on attacking public sector workers. We have been demonised as the incompetent,non job, overpaid, overpensioned pariahs of a world where everyone in the private sector earns two bob a day working tirelessly to provide for the lazy public sector.

So I can identify with today's protest. In the quarter of a century that I have worked in social housing, I have been spat at, sworn at, threatened, stalked and have had my car windscreen smashed in. Then there's the fleas, filth and turds (only last week - about 200 in someones vacated lounge!). And that's before you get to the routine of the job itself, battling against the competing priorities of legislation, finance and volume.

So I can easily identify with todays protesters. What I cannot fathom though, is why they attended the geeks performance? Ed served in the same government that has caused the problem, shafted Bro by crawling to the unions, and showed no remorse for his part in Britains (and the public sectors) downfall.

Can the protesters really not see his hypocrisy or is the lack of cheering for his geeklike performance a sign of British politeness towards an idiot? I do hope so.

Protest Like Gandhi

Just as it looked as though Britain we going to take these ridiculous cuts lying down, students mobilised themselves (I'll come back to this) and took their protest to Millbank, Tory Headquarters.

Now I applaud the reasons for the protest. Why should our brightest be landed with a debt, before leaving university, that will propbably take most of them till they retire to pay off, assuming there will be jobs for them in the first place. It's just more of the population landed in the debt of the bankers, and even the Magna Carta recognised that encouraging debt is wrong.

However, the protest turned violent as it was 'hijacked' by extremists.

As far as I am concerned, once you allow violence into your protest you have lost the argument. The extreme left and right will always try to hijack student protests, but as the hope for the future, students must take control and stop those looking to corrupt their protests with violence.

In other words, do it Gandhi style