Is it me?

Do I attract trouble?  I was a student in the 70s when demos, occupations and loadsatrouble was the norm.  I go away for 30+ years, and when I return to full-time education the trouble starts all over again!  My reaction to the Millbank Tower episode is mixed: on one hand I've mellowed and now don't see police officers as instruments of the state, but as regular men and women with families and and a mortgage to pay, but on the other hand what is to be done to make this vile coalition sit up and take notice?

As is always the case, the vast majority of protesters, those who demonstrated peacefully, will be tarred with the same brush as the tiny minority who caused criminal damage and injury.  One difference between the 70s and now will be the amount of video footage available to the authorities, and I've no doubt that tracking down a lot of the troublemakers won't be too difficult - I was amazed at how many of them showed their faces!  Harking back to the 70s, they've got a lot to learn - in those days sales of balaclavas always boomed before a major demo!

Serious questions need to be asked of the Met, as they seemed woefully unprepared for the trouble - they probably fell into the trap of thinking that students nowadays were too busy trying to earn the money to pay their current fees to even think about rioting!  The Met has controlled bigger demos than this in its time so where were the numbers needed to manage this one?  Someone dropped the ball and we'll be hearing a lot more about it.

Today's students have only heard about 'The winter of discontent' from textbooks, lecturers and their parents, but I fear this might not be the last outbreak of violent rioting we see in the coming months.  The facts are that the economy was recovering well under Labour, and the biggest threat to the continuation of that recovery comes from the ludicrously draconian measures taken by Dave and Gideon.  There's a limit to how long people will believe the rubbish they're spouting about the deficit: deficits fall when economies prosper and more tax revenue is collected, not when they're plunged further into recession by drastically reducing publish expenditure and bad government.

As for the Lib Dems: I stand by my belief that the current generation of students will not forget Clegg and Cable's volte face on the issue of fees.  I hope and believe that this is the final nail in the coffin of their sorry little party.