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Continuing a series on world leaders, Miles Deverson takes a look at Angela Merkel
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In the first of a series on world leaders, Miles Deverson takes a look at Nicholas Sarkozy
It seems somehow appropriate that a decade characterised by governments’ flagrant disregard for public opinion ended with the passing of the tuition fees rise on 9th December 2010.
Hundreds of thousands of students and supporters protested throughout November and December, only to see the bill rushed through without even the prospect of revision. Most of those protesting had lived through the introduction of tuition fees, the outbreak of the Iraq war in 2003 and the 2009 G20 summit. All three events sparked huge waves of protests and all protests were ignored. Even the largest demonstration in UK history, which saw a million people march against the invasion of Iraq, failed to make a dint in the Blair government’s foreign policy. But in the wake of this depressing history, faith in demonstrating refuses to die.
Protests against the coalition’s welfare reforms have continued on a regional and national level into 2011 and this Saturday, some of the country’s largest unions and pressure groups are combining to stage a fresh day of resistance against education cuts. The action, centred in London and Manchester, has been called by the Education Activist Network and has support from the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts, University and College Union, Unison HE, and the Public and Commercial Services Union. On the same day, TUC is also holding ‘A Future that Works: a TUC National Rally for Young People’, focusing on the impact of the cuts programme on young people and promoting trade union and student movement campaigns for alternatives.
Some may wonder at the timing of the protests. It’s been nearly two months since the tuition fees bill was passed and the coalition’s drastic austerity measures are showing no sign of slowing down in the face of vocal opposition. But although it may seem futile, I believe that exercising our right to protest is more important now than ever.
For me, protesting has become about far more than the tuition fee rise, or even budget cuts as a whole. It is about democracy. In principal, we do not vote to give a government five years of unchecked power. Our representatives should be under constant and unrelenting scrutiny between elections. Public demonstrations are a legitimate and vital form of communication between the electorate and the government and the coalition’s lack of response to protests should not be accepted.
On the 24th November, I had the chance to ask our Universities Minister about the government’s reaction to protests on Young Persons’ Question Time. Many audience members had taken part in the ‘Day X’ marches and walk-outs before going on the programme. I had narrowly escaped a kettle, police cordons and several baton charges to get to the studio and needed to know if the protests that were becoming so dangerous were having any effect. When I asked if the government was going to ignore protests to implement the tuition fees rise, David Willetts refused to answer. Instead, he asserted that students were protesting because they did not understand the proposed repayment scheme. The tens of thousands of people who marched, walked out and rallied on that day were obviously just a bit ignorant.
So will this be the government’s verdict on every protest? Students are fledglings in the political world and an easy target for accusations of selfishness, naivety and ignorance. But can the same be said of trade unions? The involvement of UNISON, TUC and PCS in upcoming protests will not be so easy to dismiss. Soon, anti-cuts protesters will have formed a coalition of their own and hopefully, it will be one that cannot be ignored.
"Soon, anti-cuts protesters will have formed a coalition of their own and hopefully, it will be one that cannot be ignored."
and soon there will be the revolution!
The reason I believe it is so easy to ignore the current fees and cuts protests is that is seen very much as a left wing Union led protest, with people doing it because of their political ideology rather than to provide any constructive proposals as to what they would do differently.
Public peaceful protests are an extremely important part of any democracy, and anyone who disagrees with government policy should protest. But if the anti cuts protests are to work, they need to have an achieveable aim. It's all very well saying we don't want you in power because you're 'Tory scum', but that hardly gains the support of the rest of the electorate, the electorate who gave the Conservatives more seats and votes than any other party.
If protestors want to achieve their aims, it's not the government they should be trying to persuade and win round, it's the rest of the population, and they will only be able to do this if they put forward a credible alternative to current policy, instead of sounding as if they're whinging all the time that it's not fair but not saying what they would do differently.
Well, that's my opinion anyway!
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