slightly peeved that the news coverage of March for the Alternative

[Glitterknickaz]

has focused mainly on the minority of troublemakers up until now?

Although watching now there does appear to be a smidgen of how peaceful the march proper was. There was half a million people there today and it was wonderful, peaceful and the atmosphere amazing. There were people there from every age, every background. Not all union members, indeed I'm not.

All I could see when I got home was fireworks, police getting attacked and violence. It got to me a bit that the minority have overshadowed the majority and what they marched for.

sorry, there should have been "to be" at the start of that, dunno what happened there...

The weirdest thing about watching the 24 hour news channels today was the sight of loads of reporters and photographers following a group of about two hundred people for hours on end saying 'well they aren't doing anything at the moment....' , plus footage from above, (showing a very random, scattere group) and then split second cuts to the hundreds of thousands of people merrily having a lovely day in Hyde Park. Absurd!! Where was the balance?

In fact, I am listening to a policeman on Sky News at the moment who sounds perfectly reasonable and far more balanced than the news coverage.

YABU.

The TUC-led protestors again attempted to commit murder by throwing firebombs and Molotov cocktails at police.

Whether some other people were peaceful or not is irrelevant.

If the TUC can't control its thuggish supporters, they shouldn't arrange these protests. I do hope the violent TUC-led protestors are arrested and sentenced to hefty prison terms, and that the TUC leadership are forced to pay compensation to innocent retailers like Top Shop, who were just trying to go about their business perfectly legally.

longfingernails.... you seriously think that lot were members of the TUC?
mynotfinkso

oh, and 'some other people' being peaceful? out of 500,000 people there were a couple of hundred troublemakers

longfingernails I think you have a very skewered view on what went on today I really do. There was half a million people there today. 150 of them caused the violence. You work it out. Some people just look for trouble it wouldn't matter if the protest was about the cuts or whether we wanted green milk they would use it as an excuse to cause trouble!

My DH was there and he didn't see any violence at all!

News at ten not too bad?

They are at least now acknowledging that the trouble making groups are separate from the main march.

They are from anarchist groups that are always around in London - groups like Class War. Their main aim is to cause trouble, perpetrate damage to property and generally push for anarchy.

The protest was very largely peaceful for most of the day and yes, the idiots have spoilt what was a valid and justified march.