To think that all the thugs at the protest are scum.....

[cookcleanerchaufferetc]

Okay, protest about whatever but those people who have gone round London smashing windows, looting, damaging property, throwing lightbulbs of ammonia at the police and generally acting like scummy lowlife should be sent to places like Tripoli or Afghanistan and let our good troops come home..... They are worthless scum.

At least a few students will be drinking better tea now. Or is all proper tea theft?

BoF

as reported, there was no violence or theft inside F&M. Still, I would have been tempted to nick a nice cashmere scarf to wear as a mask. When I demonstrate I like to do it in classy style.

Well, that's so important for today's anti-capitalist, is it not?

If we're going to stick it to the man, we might as well do it in Uggs, carrying a mobile phone so we can phone our solicitors if we get kettled...

I just made a grown man cry by repeating bof's 22.21

yes, people taking part in civil disobedience need to be a bit more savvy than they used to be. Still wearing black and carrying red and black flags tend to make it easy to spot them.

Bit surprised at how police intelligence as it is didn't pick up indications that Oxford Street would be a target.

I know what you mean OP......

The police can be awful brutes at times can't they

Oh BTW, I didn't actually read your OP, just the title. But after reading your OP, have a

A BBC commentator was complaining about people "dressed in black just to
intimidate" Oddly enough I don't think he meant the police.

intimidate in a sort of style sense? any paint colour would match when on Oxford Street.

Funny how the "anarchists" all ways seem to come out to steal the headlines away from the legitimate protesters, it's all most like it is done on purpose to belittle the view of the protesters in the minds of the general public and discourage support.

The student protests had that perfectly placed single police van that they just left in the middle of the street and then they dispersed the protesters after hours of ketteling down oxford street while all the fancy shops where still open.

and this time they had small groups run around smashing windows and the like while the 4,500 police just watched as the photographers took pictures of the action.

BoF, you are really funny!

But all demonstrations, always, have had the 'people who take it too far' element. I speak as one whose first demonstration was in approx. 1979 (it was against charging extra tuition fees to foreign students ...). Which I'm sure makes me about the same age as the grandmothers of some of the current demonstrators.

princess - I am a relic of that time too. A protester who 'went too far'. Rock Against Racism. I didn't do anything baaad. Just a bit naughty.

Rohanda, tell the truth - you were SWP, weren't you?

nah. too revisionist!!

in the them days the 'enemy' was easy to identify - males with daft boots, skin heads and tattoes. And dreadful dress sense.

Yes they are scum. But don't inflict them on our troops who have to be quite disciplined and not brain dead, thanks.

Ohh Tawdry I love you.

& 'The Eton boys at the top will never care about state schools, NHS, social services, housing, day centres, making the streets safer, etc, etc.
Because they are very very rich. If they get kicked out of parliament it won't matter to them - they will still be very very rich.
So they will continue to fuck up the country to suit their agenda (and sorry but their agenda clearly isn't about 'cuts' - or why are we still in Afghanistan? And now Libya FGS! )'

Please, we're back to the politics of class now are we - poor, poor, weak argument now I think. Just because a person had an excellent education & is from a wealthy family they may not have an opinion or the ability to run the country???

I think the opposite is true, sadly, after 13 years of increasingly impoverished state education the only ones who now get into Oxbridge to study PPE are those who had the benefit of an independent education, so a Labour government has entrenched privilege by abolishing Grammars & any semblance of rigour in the state system.

Hahaha, Rohanda! I remember going on a 'stop the BNP' protest in Bethnal Green in the 80s. And I could not believe how much the BNP-ers just looked like caricatures of themselves.

Please tell me you weren't in Class War!

princess - you are way too keen to categorise me! just acted on principle.

back in the day (!) the police were tricky to deal with - were blatantly supportive of National Front. We had skin heads to fight, who were 'favoured' by the police. We were young and idealistic! Was on the anti-Alton Bill march in London about 8 years later - was awfully civilised compared with race protests. Very middle class.

Talking of Eton, I've been hearing rumours of retaliation for the attack on Fortnum and Mason: a mob of tweed clad Etonians vandalise a Lidl in Slough.

BOF - oh stop it!!

Spiderslegs, I understand that you don't like the talk of class divisions. But I think when people talk of 'the Eton set' they mean that a government dominated by rich and privileged people can easily be thought of as being out of touch with those of us (the great majority of the population) who have to worry about paying mortgages/rents, who have to commute to work in shabby trains or along pot-holed roads, who have no chance of 'going private' in terms of either the NHS, or education, or social care for the disabled, older people, etc.

If Cameron, Clegg and the like have never had to worry about any of these things - never - not once in their lives - don't you see how many of us might think they may not be quite on the same wavelength as us?

Rohanda, I was just teasing you.

BoF, I fear you are not taking this seriously enough, young lady.

I know, princess. Am fairly intuitive......ha.

BOF is our 'mock the week' representative.