Student Riots (Continued)

I'm pleased to note that according to today's Daily Telegraph, lecturers at Goldsmiths College who backed the "magnificent student rioters" are to be brought before the college's governing body to explain their actions.
And, as a correspondent on their letter page wrote, "The academics at Goldsmiths, by their actions, have demonstrated the need for higher student fees, in order to employ better-educated lecturers." Rather nicely put, I thought!

Labour Supports Student Riots

According to today's Daily Mail, two Labour MPs encouraged the student rioters using twitter, telling them to:
"get stuck in",
"just shows what can be done when people get angry. We must build on this",
"Well done our students"

If these were local councillors, there would be a full inquiry by the independent ethics committee (or whatever it calls itself) and they would probably be suspended. As MPs, no one will do anything and they are apparently allowed to encourage criminal behaviour. (Surely this is in itself a criminal offence?)

A number of so-called "University" staff also added their support and approved of what took place.

We have a fundamental right of peaceful demonstration in this country, and very few would want otherwise, but this was not peaceful demonstration, and action should be taken against any persons who can be shown to have actively encouraged what took place.

Student Riots in London - Police to Blame

Listening to the BBC news and media comment, it seems that the Police are to blame for what happened. Apparently the  Met failed to have enough officers on hand to police the student demonstration. Well, I suppose it makes a change from being accused of having too many police as at the G20 summit and thus provoking the riot.

Lets make it clear, the riots were the sole responsibility of those "students" who rioted, together with the National Union of Students who organised the demonstration, no-one else, and certainly not the police.

As usual, the organisers try to duck the blame by claiming that it was a breakaway group, and by implication, nothing to do with them (it wasn't me gov!). They organised the demonstration, they encouraged thousands of students to come to London and protest, and if they hadn't done this, there would have been no "break-away" group.

The Metropolitan Police have nothing to be ashamed of. They set out to police what they had every reason would be an orderly but possibly rowdy demonstration with what they believed would be adequate levels of police; a sufficient presence but not so many as to be accused of "over-kill".  If they had had large numbers of riot police held ready nearby, "just in case", and all had been peaceful, they no doubt would have been accused of wasting public money.Whatever had happened, they were in a "no-win" situation. I just hope they manage to identify the "student" who threw the fire extinguisher off the roof of the building; there seems every reason why he should be charged with attempted murder.

If I were Cameron, I have another fiver put on to all students annual fees in order to pay for the damage and the cost of the police. Why should the taxpayers be expected to, not only pay their University costs, but also the bill for the problems they cause?