Because I Had to Attend Some Protests

There were two moments this semester where I wanted to be back in the United States. The first was when Gabrielle Giffords was shot, and I suddenly longed for fast-paced American television coverage again. The second was when protesters surrounded the Wisconsin Capitol building for weeks to argue against Governor Scott Walker's Budget Bill which ended collective bargaining rights.

So partly just for missing out on those protests, I had to attend the protests going on here in London at the end of March. Depending on which estimates you followed, turnout throughout the day ranged from 500,000 to 800,000 people. Either way, they were the biggest protests in London since the one in 2003 against the Iraq War which drew about 500,000 people.

Similar to the movements back in Wisconsin, the protests were predominantly organized by a union: the Trades Union Congress. However, the protest drew crowds of people protesting any and all of the Government's multitude of cuts to public services, particularly the NHS, education and disability allowances.

The protests also became the biggest example to me of just how more biased the media in Britain is than in the States. Tweets throughout the day either called the protesters "violent anarchists" or simply focused on the high turnout and Labour Party Leader Ed Miliband's speech in Hyde Park.

The Guardian wrote, "Vast majority were ordinary people wanting to make voice heard, but small group of rioters seemed bent on trouble."

Covering the same protests, The Telegraph used the headline "the militants behind the violence" and wrote, "a ragtag army of anarchists, squatters, student militants, environmental activists and radical academics planned the spin-off protests that led to violence during Saturday's march against cuts."

Twitter was fun that Saturday.

Given, there was some violence. A group of protesters broke into a building and pretty much held it hostage for a few hours. Others broke the window of a Topshop and splattered paint on some police officers. This is ridiculously unfortunate, mostly because police officers are also facing job losses and changes to their retirement benefits. Other than that, they blocked traffic. Which is what happens when about 500,000 people protest...




I learned afterward that there was also some damage to the Ritz hotel. I didn't go past this side of the building unfortunately though.

Looks fine, doesn't it?




Police officers keeping a watch over the crowd.

The march ended in Hyde Park,
and a bunch of people crowded
this statue of Achilles.

And now for some of the best signs:

I think this is proof that Britons and Europeans have different views towards socialism than Americans.

I think it's also noteworthy to say that protests attract a variety of more "extreme" views. Did I see a sign supporting communism? Yes. Do I think the majority of protesters were arguing for communism? No.



In case this one is difficult to read, it says: "No American style Health Care here."

...Oops. Sorry GB.





Here's a short video I was able to grab of the protests. Sorry for any poor quality... I tried.


Below: That's a picture of Samantha Cameron. Humour prevails.

In the News

Sometimes I feel like half of my job is essentially keeping up with the news. Which is fantastic, because that's what I do in the good ol' States anyway. Now, I just need to keep up with British news, start to recognize names and Committees I've never heard of before and be able to write about all of it.

So here are some of the news items that seem to be continually popping up on my computer at work. And yes, most of them have the word "cuts" in the headline...

EMA Cuts
I mentioned this topic a bit in my post about student protests, but it deserves a little more recognition. The Coalition government basically decided to cut the Educational Maintenance Allowances, which help certain students pay for their educational expenses.

Scrapping this plan set off more student protests, and basically every Labour MP endlessly criticized the government for changing the British institution of accessible higher education.

Go England, Go.




Forestry Commission Woodlands Sell-Off
Yes, this seems random. Yes, I have spent a good deal of time researching it. It turns out that while the United States is full of random forests and field, Great Britain is the size of the state of New York. So when the government plans to take 15% of public forests and woodlands and sell them to private owners, people get slightly upset. Especially when millions of people go to the English countryside for recreation and whatnot...

But having the ability to to make 100 million pounds by selling publicly owned forests: priceless to a coalition government pledging to stimulate the economy by cutting the deficit.


NHS "Reforms"
To the average American citizen, the UK's National Health Service probably seems like one of those outrageous European health care systems. The UK has actually had the NHS since after World War Two, when the overwhelming majority Labour government adopted the system in 1948 as a wartime and emergency health service. NHS is now a publicly funded health care system, a valued institution in the UK and the only still-standing achievement of the Labour government majority following World War Two. It never actually was supposed to grow as large as it is today, but from what I have heard the British still view it as one of their idyllic institutions.

The NHS came under scrutiny two weeks ago, however, when Prime Minister David Cameron announced plans to drastically cut the NHS budget in favor of reducing the deficit. Scrapping the NHS would be one of the biggest cuts in the UK government since the infamous Margaret Thatcher.

Deja vu, right?


In other news circulating Portcullis House... which I unfortunately don't have the time or space to discuss thoroughly enough... ahem...

-The protests in Egypt. Cameron and Obama discussed the Egyptian protests. The House of Commons also held a debate today on them. This is going to be a huge international issue.

-AV filibustering was still occurring as of yesterday... Today the Labour peers finally reached a deal in the vote though.

-And Ed Miliband, the Labour Party leader, is a square.
To fully understand how the British public perceives Ed Milliband, check out Awkward Ed Miliband Moments.
And now you know everything.