Student protests – live coverage
Tens of thousands of students are expected to protest against increases in tuition fees and education cuts across the country today. Follow the latest here
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12.04pm:
Hannah Waldram, the Guardian's beatblogger in Cardiff, says marches through the city are planned to start at 2pm today with a rally in the city's busiest shopping street at 3pm.
The group organising the event, Action Against Cuts Cardiff told me:
"We continue to note that cutbacks in education and other public services, whether initiated by politicians in Westminster, Cardiff or anywhere else, are unnecessary and reckless and threaten the people in society with the greatest need."
11.54am:
... and an update from our very own Steven Morris:Fewer students initially on Bristol demo this week. But unlike last they manage to get into the city centre. Marching down Broadmead and Haymarket, then running into Cabot Circus - city's new multi million pound shopping centre. Odd that police haven't stopped them this week. No violence still.
11.48am:
Bit of a round-up of some of the protests going on around the country:
• @ncloccupation @AdamGabbatt 40-50 occupying students have just left to go and join the protest. Snow will not put us off! #solidarity
• @LeedsStudent Leeds Student reporting from the second national day of action. One person already arrested #demo2010 #leedsmarch
• @RedplogHB @AdamGabbatt all of us at Sheffield Uni will be marching at 12.00 showing our #feesfury !!!
• @svejky About to go join protest. Cold and excited! If Yr in Manchester, get out there #UNIty #solidarity
11.36am:
I've just had a text from Simon Hardy, from the national campaign against fees and cuts, the group of activists from universities, colleges and schools across the country that co-ordinate action against tuition fees and education funding cuts.
The snow should not put people off – today's actions across the UK will hammer another nail in the coffin of the education cuts and fee increases.Hopefully I'll be speaking to Simon a little later on.
11.32am:
Update from Matthew Taylor, in central London, where the snow appears to have stopped for the moment:In Trafalgar Square there is a handful of soggy protesters and a few journalists. The plan today is that students will arrive here from 11am and then at about 12noon march down to Parliament Square – where there will be speeches and an "open mike".
They had agreed with police that the demonstration would finish at 3pm but interestingly some of the shopkeepers around Parliament Square say they have been told by the police that the students will be "held" there until 6pm.
Students who are setting up in Parliament Square are furious: "The police already seem to have decided to kettle the protest despite what happened last time and despite agreeing with us this week that the demo should finish at 3pm," said Maham Hashmi, from Soas (School of Oriental and African Studies).
11.20am:
Are you protesting today? Update us on your progress by Tweeting me @adamgabbatt.
You can also send your photographs of the protest to @gspix on Twitter. The Guardian's picture desk will be monitoring the feed through today, and we'll pull some of the snaps into the blog and (later on) into a gallery.
10.56am:
Shiv Malik reports from Trafalgar Square – where he "can't see any protesters" at the moment. (It is early of course. And snowing persistently, if not heavily).I've just arrived into Charing Cross with a number of students. We were approached by police officers who asked if we were attending the protest. They then warned that the protest might go on longer than expected. Even if we wanted to leave, we might not be able to. I asked them if this meant there was going to be a kettle and they replied that "they knew what that meant, they couldn't be explicit, but this was one of the tactics that the police had in consideration for the day.
They then wished us good luck.
10.33am:
Steven Morris reports on plans for protests in Bristol:Students into day nine of their occupation of a privately-run cafe at the University of the West of England in Bristol.
They say there's always 20 or 30 of them there, some sleeping in tents set up in the middle of the cafe. They're hoping 1,000 or so will turn out for today's demonstration in the city centre - there was a couple of thousand there last week.
Also hoping some of the school children who were there last week will appear again - they feel the police have to hold back when so many young teens are there.
But the students also feel they may be kettled today - last week the police kept them out of the shopping areas but allowed them to move relatively freely in the area around Bristol University.
10.16am:
On Twitter, @anywavewilldo is dishing out advice to those protesting today:
• http://bit.ly/gHp8Nr #kettle and demo survival guide - stay warm today! #demo2010 #dayx #shamelessretweetingofownblog ;0) #solidarity
• http://bit.ly/gHp8Nr #kettle and demo survival guide - stay warm today! #demo2010 #dayx #shamelessretweetingofownblog ;0) #solidarity
From her blog post:
• Think about keeping warm - lots of layers, a hat and gloves are good. Pick light things you can put in a rucksack. The gold or silver survival blankets you see at marathons are brilliant. Protesters have slept out for days with them and they fold into a pocket. Cost about £3 from an outdoor shop.
• Wear a rucksack rather than another type of bag - they don't get pulled off as easy and they protect your back if you get charged by horses, pushed over or hit with a baton. Some protesters even take cycle helmets. Wear plain clothes so you don't stand out and you don't mind loosing, swapping or giving/ throwing away.
• get a 'clean' phone - If the police take your mobile they know everyone you are mates with and who your family are which can be upsetting. Also you feel really bad if you loose your phone. Buy a cheap mobile and new sim for cash then it doesn't matter what happens to it.
9.56am:
My colleague Patrick Kingsley reports on an apparent u-turn by the NUS president Aaron Porter.
National union of students (NUS) president Aaron Porter has already reneged on a promise made only on Sunday in which he pledged the NUS would "organise financial, legal and political aid for all current and future occupations."The Cambridge university occupation – who were yesterday afternoon issued with a possession order by university authorities – asked Porter to provide them with specific NUS legal support. But Porter refused, arguing that NUS can only offer general legal advice about occupiers' rights, rather than legal support for individual occupations, in a declaration which seemed to contradict the promises he made on Sunday.
Porter did not respond to requests from the Guardian for comment last night but he did make the following statements on his Twitter account, @aaronporter:• not sure what the fuss is. @nusuk is seeking legal advice on occupiers' right. But can't on a case by case basis.Porter's apparent u-turn came only a day after promising students at the University College London (UCL) to organise financial, legal and political aid for all occupations and apologising for his "spineless" lack of prior support for university occupations.The Cambridge occupation criticised Porter for only offering advice "which is already freely available on the internet."
The occupiers said the NUS had "failed" them. "We are being failed by institutions which are meant to be standing up for us - this is why we need to step up to act and resist."
A statement released by the UCL occupation yesterday also criticised Porter's actions: "The UCL occupation is disappointed it has taken just one day for Aaron Porter to renege on his promise to provide financial and legal support to occupations.
"The excuse that NUS cannot provide support to individual students is thin - as a national organisation it has unparalleled access to those willing to offer pro bono legal advice and representation. We urge Aaron to reconsider before he loses the goodwill and unity created yesterday, and hope that his acceptance of other proposals is not under threat."
9.20am:
Last night fifteen police officers were injured and four people arrested outside Lewisham town hall in south-east London, where demonstrators gathered to protest outside a meeting where councillors were voting to cut the council budget by £60m.Officers had to call for help from the Metropolitan police's Territorial Support Group as 100 protesters tried to force their way into the building, the Guardian reported.
A spokesman for the Met police told me this morning that fifteen officers suffered "minor injuries" while policing the demonstration. Two were hurt badly enough to spend the night in hospital, one with a broken finger and another being treated for the smoke inhalation after inhaling fumes from protesters' flares.Here's a video from thegoldengirlk8 on Youtube taken outside the council meeting.
Sue Luxton, a former Green party councillor who was returning home from work at 6.45pm, said she saw 200 to 300 protesters, including a large number of students from Goldsmiths College."People were angry because the council had arranged for only 40 people to attend the meeting, although many wanted to be there," Luxton said. "About 100 people tried to rush in. I think the police were little overwhelmed. There were police with riot shields and police horses. The area was cordoned off – buses couldn't get through."
Darren Johnson, a Green councillor, said he voted against the cuts along with two Conservatives. The Labour majority voted in favour while the Liberal Democrats abstained.
"There are better ways of doing these rather deep cuts in frontline services," Johnson said. "I spoke of the importance of reducing high salaries of officers and cutting budgets for consultants, PR and marketing. These cuts will mean the closure of an early learning centre and less street cleaning."
8.50am:
Martin Wainwright reports that the weather could "release armies of school students", what with many schools closed today and all. (Where schools and colleges aren't closed the inclement weather could also encourage pupils to stay inside, of course):Snow is causing serious disruption in the North East and Yorkshire but young people are less likely to be deterred from going out than their seniors, such as myself. School closures are widespread too. Three of the five online council information services in West Yorkshire were down this morning because of heavy use. That promises to release armies of school students for the marches and rallies planned in all the regions' university centres. Student organisers are actively encouraging this after sixth formers' youthful enthusiasm stole many of the headlines last week.
8.30am:
Tens of thousands of school, college and university students are expected to protest against education cuts today, in the third day of demonstrations this month. Last night the deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, who has become something of a focus for protesters after reneging on a pre-election promise to oppose tuition fees, said the demonstrations could put young people off going to university.
Over 6,000 people have signed up for a day of direct action in London alone, where the national campaign against fees and cuts has organised a march on parliament, and where last week thousands of school pupils and students were "kettled" by police for several hours.
Over the weekend NUS president Aaron Porter apologised for his "spineless" lack of public support for last week's demonstration, when tens of thousands of students walked out of lessons. Porter, who did not attend last week's demonstrations, said in his blog he wanted to "announce my support for a new wave of action, spurred on and supported by NUS and Students' Unions said today's protests will have NUS backing".
However after the NUS president came out in support of the demonstrations he received a letter from Clegg last night. "All of us involved in this debate have a greater responsibility to ensure that we do not let our genuinely-held disagreements over policy mean that we sabotage an aim that we all share - to encourage people from poorer backgrounds to go to university," Clegg wrote. Lib Dems are expected to vote against a Labour motion in the Commons today which calls on ministers to delay legislation on the fees hike until after they have published a White Paper spelling out their vision of the future of higher education.
On the nationwide Facebook page for the demonstrations, almost 25,000 students have indicated they will be protesting across the UK today. "Direct action", ranging from walking out of lessons to rallies is expected in over 40 towns and cities, with crowds of around 2,000 expected in Manchester, Bristol and Brighton.
Some 32 universities are still being occupied following last Wednesday's protests, with most planning to keep a small group in the seized buildings while fellow students march.
