Photo of the Day

Schoolchildren protecting the police van that had been vandalised by protesters at yesterday's march in central London. From blinkofaneye on Flickr.

JR

Blowing One's Own Trumpet

Yesterday I was at my Cricket Club's annual dinner and awards evening. There are all the usual awards for the players who top the statistics in batting, bowling and catching, plus a few special awards that are voted for by the players.

I already knew I had clinched the bowling cup, which went down to the last game of the season. I piped my closest competitor by 0.2 of a run per wicket! I was, however, very surprised and honoured to be voted as the club's Player of the Year.

You can see both trophies here. The Player of the Year cup is on the left and the bowling trophy is on the right;

I'm very humbled by the support of my team mates and very happy indeed to have won the award.

JR

Photo of the Day

Nick Clegg trying to distract from his broken promises by starting a sing-song. "Head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes ..."

JR

The Man Who Will Ruin Milliband

Shadow Chancellor Alan Johnson may just be the Brown (sorry, thorn) in Ed Milliband's side.

Today Johnson came out against two of EM's key tax policies. He believes that the 50p tax band should be abolished as soon as economic circumstances allow and, perhaps more significantly, is flatly against any form of graduate tax.

A graduate tax was one of Ed Milliband's significant breaks with the Blair/Brown era of Labour's policies, using it in his election campaign to signify he was a new generation of Labour leaders. It was also announced as official Labour party policy last week.

As it is, Johnson is a critic that Milliband can ill afford on an issue that is dividing the coalition government, and where the Labour party could show differences between them and the Tories. Labour are beginning to look as split as the Lib Dems when in comes to Higher Education funding.

After just a few weeks as leader, Ed Milliband might regret bringing in Johnson as his money man.

JR

Just When Clegg Thought It Couldn't Get Any Worse

Today's front page from the Guardian tells us that the Lib Dems were ready to drop their tuition fee pledge before the election!

 

Easily Nick Clegg's worst week in politics so far! Full story here.

JR

Here's the Proof

As if it were needed, here's the proof that the vast majority of those attending the NUS demo yesterday were there for a peaceful protest, which was hijacked by a small number of idiots!

JR

Student Demo Fallout - Don't Blame It on the Sunshine

I've cleared my diary tonight. This blog post is going to take a while to write!

It's 6:45pm as I begin writing this; around 29 hours after what was a largely peaceful NUS/UCU Demo turned nasty, as around 200 of the 50,000 people attending the demo decided to turn to violence and break into 30 Millbank, the building where the Conservative Party are based, and generally make a nuisance of themselves.

NUS condemned the actions of that minority of people intent on causing damage and unrest in no uncertain terms, but that hasn't stopped individuals on the right from asserting that NUS, and specifically National President Aaron Porter, was organising the siege on Conservative HQ; nor has it been supported by groups on the hard left (who have admitted they were involved) saying that NUS should be condoning the actions of the rioters.

Quite how those seemingly contradictory viewpoints could coexist is beyond me. Of course both are seeded in the lack of understanding and misconceptions of how NUS works. Both the hard left and the individuals on the right believe that all the decisions and policy of NUS are made by the President and the VPs. This might be true on a day to day basis, but the direction is set by votes at the Annual Conference at Easter.

The right-wingers further believe that officers of individual student unions are also officers of NUS, they're not. In fact even the national executive council aren't authorised to speak on behalf of NUS individually. Meanwhile, the hard left think that the vast majority of "rank and file" students believe that free education is the only option that NUS should be pursuing (despite plenty of resolutions at NUS conference dispelling that theory) and it's the lies from the "NUS leadership" (referring to the annually elected President and VPs) mean that students are becoming less engaged in student activism ... nothing to do with their own childish behavour on campus, or indeed at the demo yesterday!

To be fair, not all members of hard left organisations that were at the march were there to cause the damage, nor would they approve of the use of violence to get their message across. However, Clare Solomon, President of the University of London Union and certified trot, went on BBC News and then Newsnight admitting she was in 30 Millbank with those who caused the damage and defending their actions. She failed abjectly, avoiding direct questions on whether she thought it was right to cause criminal damage and making herself look like a right idiot in the process. It was abundantly clear that she was a ringleader and the storming of the building was planned and carried out by anarchists, revolutionary socialists, and other groups of 'mad' hard left activists.

Of course, all this weight of evidence isn't enough to stop bloggers and commentators on from the right blaming the NUS President, Aaron Porter (pictured), for not being able to control the demonstration and therefore the violence that occurred.

Tory Bear in particular is really going for Porter, trying to pin the whole thing on him and even calling for him to resign. TB says that because the rioters had NUS placards and wearing NUS t-shirts, that means that NUS are responsible for the damage, going on to say the police are not happy with Porter himself.

Guido Fawkes goes further, taking a press statement from the group that stormed the building that was countersigned by three hard left members of the NUS NEC (at least one of which was seen in Millbank) who, as I explained earlier, don't represent NUS individually, and wrongly extrapolating that NUS was complicit in their actions.

Let's be clear about this. Members of the NEC (other than the President and VPs) do not act on behalf of NUS, especially those on the far left who very often speak against NUS policy in a number of areas, make a lot of noise, and then constantly fail to get elected into the major positions within NUS (what they would call the NUS leadership, as I explained earlier). They are not senior members of NUS and played next to no part in organising the demo, other than giving their views in NEC meetings that only happen every other month.

Now, on the flip side there are right of centre bloggers and politicians who saw the violence for what it was, a small minority intent on making trouble. Iain Dale had a birds-eye view of proceedings from his office on the south bank, which meant he was able to see the sea of students peacefully protesting and those "from left wing fringe groups who always infiltrate events like these" invading Tory HQ. The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, and Tory MP Eric Pickles, both recognised that a minority hijacked the demo. It's a pity that some feel that it's necessary to blame organisations that they don't like, just to create a story.

The hard left might just have derailed NUS's credibility in the tuition fees debate. Do they care? Not a bit!

JR

We Will Remember Them

They went with songs to the battle, they were young.
Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them

We Will March, And Then We Should Listen

Tomorrow will see thousands of students, lecturers and assorted others descend on Parliament Square in London to protest against a rise in the cap on tuition fees in England. There is, lets face it, a bit of the stereotypical student activist about the march. Scenes not often seen in the last decade from students, but a bit more common place in the 80s and 90s.

It's also true that the protest will do little to influence those in the commons who will be making the decision before the year is out; but I suspect that is not the point of the demonstration. It is effectively a publicity stunt; one that has already got quite a bit of coverage before its even happened! This is a good thing, not just because of the greater media interest on the day, but also because the message that NUS wants to portray won't be hijacked by certain members of the hard left.

The spoilers are those who are the Free Education brigade, mostly made up of members from the alphabet spaghetti of hard left factions; SWP, WRP, SBL et al. It is that group who send the media into "what a lot of silly students" overdrive, or would do if the media were exclusively interested in Wednesday's activities. The group would rather see universities crumble than pay a penny towards their education.

It is important to recognise that successive NUS conferences have voted to move to a system of graduate contribution, consequently dropping the free education policy. NUS recognised that graduates should pay towards the cost of their education, and by doing so have lead the debate over Higher Education funding in this review period. It is important that the good work is not undone by a few with, frankly, unrealistic ideals.

Therefore it is my belief that students should not indulge themselves in an overuse of direct action. It simply won't work. It gives out the message that students are not willing to listen, not willing to engage in the debate, not willing to convince the very people who will make the decision. I know that NUS will listen, engage and convince; so we will march, but we must then do the same. Listen. Engage. Convince.

JR

NFL International Series

If you follow me on twitter you will already know I was in London last weekend to watch the NFL International Series game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Denver Broncos.

I had a super seat considering I only paid £35. Four rows back behind the end zone. Apparently it was a restricted view (I guess they meant the posts)!

It was a great game, or at least it was after half time. The first two quarters yielded just a 49ers field goal, and that was at the opposite end of the field from where I was sitting; so you'll excuse me if I post a picture of the 49ers Gold Rush Cheerleaders, who provided the entertainment during the first half two minute warning.

The score moved on to 7-3 at the end of the 3rd quarter, but the 4th quarter was full of scoring, with three touchdowns to one in favour of San Francisco. Denver missed their extra point, but got a field goal to make it an 8-point ball game with around a minute left on the clock and going on offence. A couple of plays later, San Fran intercepted the ball with 34 seconds remaining, and that meant that a knee finished the game with the 49ers winning 24-16.

But that wasn't the only thing I went to while in London. On Saturday night I took a trip to the West End to see Legally Blonde The Musical at the Savoy Theatre. It was a hugely entertaining and very energetic show, with Sheridan Smith (which you'll most likely recognise from Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps on BBC Three, pictured) putting in an amazing performance as Elle Woods. It was also the first Saturday night since Denise van Outen joined the cast to play Paulette.

Lets be clear, I didn't go to see the show for the storyline (it's a bit thin on the ground), but I heard the show was amazing and it certainly lived up to expectations.

The only downer on the weekend was after the show on Saturday. I had a quick drink on The Strand, and then hopped onto the tube to get to the YHA hostel in Rotherhithe, where I was staying for the night. The Jubilee, Circle and District lines were all suspended due to planned engineering works, so the easy route of crossing the river on the Northern line then heading east on the Jubilee was not an option.

I couldn't easily get to the DLR using the Circle/District, so I got myself to Bank on the Central and then over to Shadwell on the DLR, and the plan was to use the Overground to get to Rotherhithe, however I missed the last train going south and I ended up on the wrong side of the river with no obvious crossing. I got across via taxi in the end, but not before my phone gave up the ghost meaning I was unable to consult a useful map as well!

Other than that it was a pretty good weekend. Roll on getting paid, so I can pay for it!

JR