UK > History > 2010 > Education (I)

Royal car attack:

Cameron calls

for 'full force of law'

• Student leaders claim protesters suffered police brutality
• PM condemns 'mob' who attacked Charles and Camilla's car

Guardian.co.uk
Friday 10 December 2010
17.28 GMT
James Meikle, Vikram Dodd and agencies
This article was published on guardian.co.uk
at 17.28 GMT on Friday 10 December 2010.
It was last modified at 17.28 GMT
on Friday 10 December 2010.
It was first published at 10.51 GMT
on Friday 10 December 2010.

David Cameron today promised the full force of the law would be used on the "mob" who attacked a car carrying Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, and smashed property in central London last night, while student leaders hit back, claiming protesters had suffered police brutality.

Mark Bergfeld, of the Education Activist Network, claimed demonstrators had suffered "horrendous" conditions as they were kettled for up to 10 hours and said the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall were just in "the wrong place at the wrong time".

"There was police brutality," he said. "I saw 14-year-olds carry out their friends with cracked heads and things like that.

"I saw that people were being kettled until 1am on Westminster bridge. They were held there without toilet facilities, without water or food for 10 hours. We don't live in that kind of regime."

Cameron and the Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, said more than a small number of people were involved in violence during and after a Commons vote paving the way for a trebling of university tuition fees.

The prime minister admitted concerns over royal security must be addressed, but said the responsibility for violence lay with the protesters.

"We want to learn the lessons from that but, above all, we want to make sure that the people who behaved in these appalling ways feel the full force of the law of the land … There were quite a number of people who clearly were there wanting to pursue violence and to destroy property."

Attacks on the Treasury, supreme court and other buildings in central London left the Met facing questions about again losing control of the streets during a demonstration. It also faced questions about some officers being heavy handed, and the kettling of peaceful protesters. A total of 33 arrests were made.

An awful 24 hours for the police continued this morning with the announcement of an Independent Police Complaints Commission investigation into the case of a 20-year-old student who was apparently struck by a truncheon and left unconscious with bleeding on the brain.

Alfie Meadows, a philosophy student at Middlesex University, has undergone a three-hour operation. His mother said he was hit by police as he tried to leave the area outside Westminster Abbey and lost consciousness on the way to hospital.

Susan Meadows, 55, an English literature lecturer at Roehampton University, said: "He was hit on the head by a police truncheon … he's got tubes coming out of him everywhere. He will be in hospital for quite a while, it was a very major thing."

Speaking outside No 10, Cameron condemned the "completely unacceptable" behaviour of protesters. "It is no good saying this was a very small minority. It was not. There were quite a number of people who clearly were there wanting to pursue violence and to destroy property.

"I know that the Metropolitan police commissioner is going to be working hard to report on this. I also know, quite rightly, he will look into the regrettable incident where the Prince of Wales and his wife were nearly attacked by this mob. We want to learn the lessons from that."

The attack on the royal car was not the fault of the police, he said. "This was the fault of people who tried to smash up that car."

His remarks came after Stephenson said that armed officers protecting the royal couple showed enormous restraint and condemned the "thugs" involved in violence.

The commissioner said the attack on the royal car was a "hugely shocking incident and there will be a full criminal investigation" but added that "short of locking everything down" police had to try to find a balance between allowing protest and stopping violence.

He praised his officers and the royal protection officers for their actions in coping with a "very unpredictable demonstration … and very difficult night" and said they showed enormous restraint in the most difficult of circumstances.

"The route was thoroughly recced in advance, including up to several minutes beforehand when the route was still clear.

"The unpredictability of thugs and how they moved about the capital meant the protection officers were placed in a very difficult position."

He said kettling and other police tactics did not contribute to the violence. "It is an excuse people are hiding behind … People need to be responsible for their own behaviour," he said, adding that a significant number of protesters had behaved reprehensibly.

He denied the police operation had been "undercooked" and said it had involved nearly 3,000 officers.

Dozens of protesters and a number of officers were injured. The mayor of London, Boris Johnson, blamed a "large number of agitators who were determined to cause the maximum possible trouble and provocation and they succeeded".

He said a balance had to be struck between allowing protest and proportionate policing, saying the country could have a "different system", using watercannon and harsher police tactics that would have left "more broken heads this morning".

Charles and Camilla's car was surrounded by a mob as it drove down Regent Street on the way to a Royal Variety performance, with protesters kicking at the doors and shattering a rear window.

The protesters had spilled into the West End after an initially peaceful demonstration outside parliament deteriorated and spread.

Witnesses described how about 400 to 500 protesters were on Regent Street when the royal car was attacked. Charles and Camilla were visibly shaken but unharmed after demonstrators set upon the vehicle with fists, boots and bottles, chanting "Off with their heads" and "Tory scum".

Video footage posted on YouTube suggested the rear window was lowered as protestors surrounded the car but it was unclear whether Camilla, Charles or the driver was responsible.

Media reports that Camilla was prodded in the chest by a stick could not be confirmed. Today Charles and Camilla praised the efforts of police. A Clarence House spokesman said they understood the difficulties the police faced and were grateful for the job they did in "very challenging circumstances".

In other developments today, Charlie Gilmour, son of Pink Floyd guitarist David, apologised for climbing the Cenotaph during the protests, saying he "would like to express his deepest apologies for the terrible insult to the thousands of people who died bravely for our country".

The National Union of Students distanced itself from at least part of its London membership, pointing out that London University's student union had organised the demonstration in Parliament Square while the NUS held a rally on Victoria Embankment. The NUS president, Aaron Porter, said violent action was deplorable but it would continue to organise peaceful protest.

Clare Solomon, president of London University's student union, called the NUS leadership a disgrace. "They should have backed this demonstration. They are clearly out of touch," she said.

The NUS had paid thousands of pounds for "a glow-stick vigil", attracting 200 people, she said, when her union had spent hundreds on a protest that involved 35,000.

Solomon said it was hypocritical for people in the Tory party and others who voted for the war in Iraq to say that "this is violence when people are breaking windows as opposed to killing people".

The police should also take some responsibility, she said. "They were the ones beating us up and putting us in hospital when we were attempting to peacefully protest."

Royal car attack: Cameron calls for 'full force of law', NYT, 10.12.2010, http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/dec/10/royal-car-attack-cameron-charles

Student fees protest:

'This is just the beginning'

• Tory HQ attacked as demonstration spirals out of control
• 35 arrested and 14 injured in violent clashes at Millbank
• Police admit being caught out by scale of student action

Wednesday 10 November 2010
21.38 GMT
Guardian.co.uk
Jeevan Vasagar, Paul Lewis and Nicholas Watt
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 21.38 GMT on Wednesday 10 November 2010.
A version appeared on p1 of the Main section section of the Guardian on Thursday 11 November 2010.
It was last modified at 23.15 GMT on Wednesday 10 November 2010.

Tens of thousands of students took to the streets of London today in a demonstration that spiralled out of control when a fringe group of protesters hurled missiles at police and occupied the building housing Conservative party headquarters.

Tonight both ministers and protesters acknowledged that the demonstration – by far the largest and most dramatic yet in response to the government's austerity measures – was "just the beginning" of public anger over cuts. Police, meanwhile, were criticised for failing to anticipate the scale of the disorder.

An estimated 52,000 people, according to the National Union of Students, marched through central London to display their anger over government plans to increase tuition fees while cutting state funding for university teaching. A wing of the protest turned violent as around 200 people stormed 30 Millbank, the central London building that is home to Tory HQ, where police wielding batons clashed with a crowd hurling placard sticks, eggs and some bottles. Demonstrators shattered windows and waved anarchist flags from the roof of the building, while masked activists traded punches with police to chants of "Tory scum".

Police conceded that they had failed to anticipate the level of violence from protesters who trashed the lobby of the Millbank building. Missiles including a fire extinguisher were thrown from the roof and clashes saw 14 people – a mix of officers and protesters – taken to hospital and 35 arrests. Sir Paul Stephenson, Met police commissioner, said the force should have anticipated the level ofviolence better. He said: "It's not acceptable. It's an embarrassment for London and for us."

While Tory headquarters suffered the brunt of the violence, Liberal Democrat headquarters in nearby Cowley Street were not targeted. "This is not what we pay the Met commissioner to do," one senior Conservative told the Guardian. "It looks like they put heavy security around Lib Dem HQ but completely forgot about our party HQ."

Lady Warsi, the Tory party chair, was in her office when protesters broke in. She initially had no police protection as the protesters made their way up the fire stairs to the roof. Police who eventually made it to Tory HQ decided not to evacuate staff from the building but to concentrate on removing the demonstrators.

The NUS president, Aaron Porter, condemned the actions of "a minority of idiots" but hailed the turnout as the biggest student demonstration in generations. The largely good-natured protest was organised by the NUS and the lecturers' union the UCU, who have attacked coalition plans to raise tuition fees as high as £9,000 while making 40% cuts to university teaching budgets. The higher fees will be introduced for undergraduates starting in 2012, if the proposals are sanctioned by the Commons in a vote due before Christmas. The NUS president told protesters: "We're in the fight of our lives. We face an unprecedented attack on our future before it has even begun. They're proposing barbaric cuts that would brutalise our colleges and universities."

Inside parliament the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg – the focus of much anger among protesters for his now abandoned pledge to scrap all tuition fees – came under sustained attack, facing 10 questions on tuition fees during his stand-in performance during prime minister's questions. He said there was consensus across the parties about the need to reform the system.

Labour's deputy leader, Harriet Harman, said the rise in fees was not part of the effort to tackle the deficit but about Clegg "going along with Tory plans to shove the cost of higher education on to students and their families". She said: "We all know what it's like: you are at freshers' week, you meet up with a dodgy bloke and you do things that you regret. Isn't it true he has been led astray by the Tories, isn't that the truth of it?"

Meanwhile one student won an unexpected concession from the coalition yesterday. In answer to a question from a Chinese student during his trip to China, David Cameron said: "Raising tuition fees will do two things. It will make sure our universities are well funded and we won't go on increasing so fast the fees for overseas students … We have done the difficult thing. We have put up contributions for British students. Yes, foreign students will still pay a significant amount of money, but we should now be able to keep that growth under control."

Additional reporting by Rachel Williams and Matthew Taylor

    Student fees protest: 'This is just the beginning', G, 11.11.2010, http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/nov/10/student-fees-protest-conservative-hq

Tuition fees rise 'won't put off poor students'

Michael Gove says universities could charge £6,000 to £9,000 a year, adding that schools are the 'real barrier' to higher education

Wednesday 3 November 2010 09.19 GMT
Guardian.co.uk
Jessica Shepherd, education correspondent, and Allegra Stratton
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 09.19 GMT on Wednesday 3 November 2010.
It was last modified at 11.20 GMT on Wednesday 3 November 2010.

Michael Gove, the schools secretary, has denied that students would be discouraged from applying to university after the government allowed higher education institutions to charge up to £9,000 a year in tuition fees.

There was "no evidence" that the introduction of tuition fees in 2006 had put off poor students, he told the BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "I believe that [higher fees] won't put off students. They will make a rational decision on the benefits that accrue to them [from going to university]."

The government has announced that universities could charge between £6,000 and £9,000 a year in fees. Those that charge more than £6,000 will have to show they are making more effort to encourage applications from the poorest students. Fees are currently £3,290 a year. The government will announce its plans in full at lunchtime.

"There is a concern that some of our best universities haven't been as imaginative about attracting students from poor backgrounds as they could be," Gove said. The government will announce a £150m bursary system to encourage the most deprived students to apply, money that will be saved by scrapping free school meals to half a million primary schoolchildren.

"We are going to ask the very best universities which want to increase their fees from £6,000 to £9,000 to come up with more imaginative ways to work with schools, but we won't impose quotas," he said.

Gove blamed schools for providing the "real barrier" to university. "It is not cost that is preventing people from poor backgrounds, but their schools which don't provide them with the A-level passes that let them go to university," he said. "The principal problem is our schools. We still have a system which means that deprivation is destiny."

He said it was "only fair" that those who benefit from going to university should pay some of the cost and that to ensure Britain's campuses stayed the second best in the world, graduates had to pay more.

"Someone who is working as a postman should not subsidise those who go on to become millionaires."

Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister, will battle to head off a revolt within the Liberal Democrats over the changes. While rejecting the recommendation of Lord Browne's review of higher education funding for unlimited fees, the Lib Dem leader faces the prospect of a rebellion now he is asking his MPs to support a near-tripling of fees despite all of them having signed a pre-election pledge they would not support any rise beyond the current £3,290 a year.

Jenny Willott, MP for Cardiff Central and parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to the climate change secretary, Chris Huhne, told the Guardian she would stick to her pre-election pledge to vote against any rise in tuition fees.

She said: "I will not support an increase in tuition fees and I'm deeply concerned about increasing levels of student debt." If Willott does vote against a rise, the ministerial code of conduct will require her to resign or be sacked as a PPS.

Aaron Porter, the president of the National Union of Students, said: "The government has already announced its intentions – wash their hands of responsibility for higher education by removing almost all funding for universities – and it seems they will attempt to continue their vicious attack on those that want a better education by passing all of the cost on to students and asking vice-chancellors to take none of the strain."

Sally Hunt, the general secretary of the University and College Union (UCU), said: "The extra fees being forced on students and their families is money universities are being denied by government. It's a simple case of robbing the public to plug a government funding gap."

But Michael Arthur, the vice-chancellor of the University of Leeds and chairman of the Russell Group of top universities, told the Today programme that the plans were a "very important development".

He said: "What this does is send a very loud signal that the government recognises the importance of higher education to the future of our country, its economy and our ability as universities to help the country out of recession."

Lee Elliot Major, the research and policy director of the Sutton Trust, which supports projects that provide educational opportunities for young people from non-privileged backgrounds, said: "I think we would totally take on board that universities need extra money but we believe there needs to be a number of safeguards in place if they are going to charge higher fees, to ensure that they attract academically able pupils from all social backgrounds."

    Tuition fees rise 'won't put off poor students', G, 3.11.2010, http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/nov/03/tuition-fees-poor-students