'We will not introduce top up fee's and will legislate to prevent them'

Tony Blair Labour manifesto Pledge 2001

'I pledge to vote against any increase in fee's in the next parliament and to pressure the government to introduce a FAIRER ALTERNATIVE'

Signed- Nick Clegg

Strange times in Blighty when (hashtag) Day 3 (or "dayX") saw the 'baying rabble of masked and hooded troublemakers' ( ©DAILY BILE)along with their accomplices the 'feral mob' (© DAV CAM) once more exert their civil right resulting in a police response that it is now apparent was neither civil nor right.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=axWyu1t4rkE

The Met decided to redeploy the 'kettling' tactic of crowd control last witnessed at the previous Student Protest, during which schoolchildren and others where incarcerated (too emphatic?) in freezing temperatures, denied toilet facilities, food water or exit from Trafalgaur Square up until (in some cases) ten o clock in the evening. However in addition to this most counterproductive and intimidating of police options came a yet more medieval decision- to, with the intent of dispersing a peaceful crowd of protesters, instruct a charge of 21 horses headlong into the students. Now, let me stress that I am not a dogmatic ideologue who views every police officer as an architect of state brutality, but it is hard to dispel that perception when the curtailment of civil liberties is as forceful and flagrant as it was yesterday. Tellingly, the reportage of this incident has predominately been concerned with the one officer who was toppled from his horse amid the carnage, rather than any protesters on the ground subject to it.

I was unfortunately unable to attend yesterday's protest but have one previous experience of seeing a crowd 'kettled' from a restaurant window just off High Street Ken back in 2008. The demonstration being staged was a 'Free Palestine' protest in which a relatively humble sized crowd (certainly bearing no resemblance to yesterday's proportions) gathered to voice their grievances over the Israeli bombardment of the West Bank and Gaza strip in January of that year. Me and my family watched in amazement as this crowd of no more than 50 was advanced upon by a horde of officers wielding riot shields and rubber truncheons (some of whom where also on horesback) who proceeded to hem them in a semicircle and prohibit any movement. I took away from this singular example two observations which have acquired greater pertinence in recent weeks; firstly that the amount of police presence was entirely disproportionate to both the temperament and size of the protests being enacted and latterly that the experience of being tightly and arbitrarily restricted in a limited space served not to mollify the already peaceful protesters but in fact to aggravate them.

The final commons result on the Browne Report is as culpable as any major political event to spin because whilst it may inevitably lead many to crown the efforts of britains yoof/ youngsters/ whippersnappers (substitute accordingly) as 'futile' it was by no means a triumphant victory for the coalition. Although not quite the mass defection hoped for, 21 LibDem's favoured being able to sleep at night and disobeyed the whips. The impact of the mass demonstrations seems to have been to remind Westminster that the younger demographic whilst often foggy in its message and less clear still in its allegiances, is capable of defiance and activism. Teenagers across the country have slipped into the roles of protest co-ordinator's, sit-in and occupation manager's and militant critic's of government hipocrosy with minimal effort.

Although the media's lens may gravitate as ever towards the violent minority, to paraphrase Edmund Burke (of all people) although the Crickets in the night are the first you here they obscure the sounds of all the other wildlife underneath. The vast majority of the protests have been moderate and the examples of violence can be shown to be either products of the draconian police measures mentioned earlier or the intrusion of anarchist elements onto the movements fringes. Excluding the recent surge in party membership this does represent a largely bipartisan movement amongst which the dark shadows of the Iraq war, expenses scandal and recession are cast heavily over any political party attempting to capitalize on the outrage. Long may this movement elude the shackles of ideology! It is only in doing so and through sustaining their optimism and naivety that the views of the anti-cut militia amongst our generation will keep their place at the forefront of the opposition!