The simplicity at the heart of the tuition fees debate

The university fees debate is very very complex, and I have lots of comments on this blog which have gone unanswered for far too long.

Sorry. Blame the snow.

Within complexity there is always a simplicity trying to get out. It is stifled, because the complexitarians are stuck into their complexities which they enjoy using as a bludgeon against the complexities of opposing complexitarians.

The simple truth is that education of the next generation is the duty of the present generation.
It is a tribute from the present to the future. The gods know that we have taken enough away from our children - stable climate, biodiversity and finite resources for starters - so we can at least educate the poor young buggers to help them cope with the mess we bequeath them.

Education must be paid for.

There are two extremes to paying for education. We can either pay it 100% from general taxation, or we can privatise it 100%.

The Green Party's education policy seems to go for the former, 100% taxation extreme, and there are no doubt neo-liberals who would like to see the whole thing totally privatised.

Doing it from general taxation is perfectly reasonable: all society benefits from education, so all society pays for it. It is far more simple and less administratively complex. The graduates pay back through the higher taxes on their enhanced salaries.

On the other hand, it is not totally unreasonable to ask the student's parents to make some kind of contribution. At very least, it makes them value the course more.

So between the two extremes, politicians have to set the slider to determine which proportion will come from general taxation, and which from the individual student. So it is not too difficult. Negotiators can take a vote on the number ratios (50/50, 70/30, 90/10 &c) and then decide how to implement the agreed numbers.

For starters, I would suggest leaving it where it is, pretty much.

In this debate, we must remember ALL young people, including those who choose not to go to Uni. It is in the interests of the students to start addressing their situation, because the apprentices &c are beginning to grumble.

Hope this helps.

Demonstrations, kettling, cuts. Non-violent alternatives

I'm feeling a in a bit of a sober mood this morning, over the student demonstrations. An image from last Sunday stays with me, of the small Bristol demonstration shuffling meekly down Park Street and onto College Green, effectively prisoners at the pleasure of the Police Chief.

It now appears that if a British citizen chooses to go on a political demonstration, he or she runs a real risk of being unlawfully (arguably - Austin's case is still waiting to be decided in the European Court of Human Rights) detained by the police in a kettle.

The ostensible aim of Kettling ("Containment") is to stop demonstrators from interfering with the right of other citizens to go about their business, and to protect their property.

The implicit meaning of kettling is that it is a form of collective punishment. By detaining people for hours in cold conditions, without food, warmth, water or toilet facilities, the police aim to damp the fervour and energy of demonstrators, tire them out until they are willing to be photographed, identified and let out.

That is what you are letting yourself in for if you go on a demonstration now. Unless, that is, you can guarantee that there will be not one single idiot present on the demonstration who will challenge the police, step out of the agreed line of march, or throw punches, sticks, or rocks.

All the police need is one of these idiots (let us, for want of a better term, call them Provoking Agents, PAs) to act stupidly, and they have a pretext to kettle the demonstration.

I spent a long time last night, unable to go to sleep, running through possible responses to kettling.

The physics are fairly simple. It should be possible for demonstrators to break out of a kettle, using crowd pressure applied intelligently. But it is dangerous, not only because the police will use batons on the front line of demonstrators, but because of the risk of a crowd crush, falling, trampling and asphyxia.

So, reluctantly, we should abandon thoughts of breaking out by mobilising our force of numbers.  Which means that we are graciously granting the police their wish, which means in turn, that they owe us.

Within the Kettle

If kettled, we have to accept the situation passively, and make the best of it. I have suggested some strategies here and here.

The Key is to form into an organised group, instead of existing as a crowd of imprisoned individuals.  Kettled protesters are time rich. We can use the time to spread information, spread strength, and - supremely - to educate the police. It should be routine for all kettled people to line up and address their captors firmly, politely, individually and at length on political subjects - why they are here, the vital importance of the right to demonstrate, the illegality of collective punishment and unlawful imprisonment, and so forth.

Some coppers will happily chat back. Aim for consensus, and concentrate particularly on the effect of Osborne's cuts on the police service. This is key.

Other officers will clam up, and their faces may show dissent from your views.  In this case, try to guess their beliefs (think Daily Mail) and so go on to de-construct Daily Mail-type interpretations on what is going on.

When you get tired or hoarse, pull back and let another demonstrator take over in addressing your cop.

Six solid hours of being lectured, politely, by students on political matters is not going to be without its effect on the individual officers.


Avoidance

On the other hand, it is preferable not to be kettled. If it seems that one is forming, the cry should go up "Kettle! Scatter!" and run - run away from the cops, down side streets and alleys, and especially into shopping crowds, shops, and restaurants, there to merge back into the citizenry. Do nothing to draw attention. Have a cooling off period, and wait for mobile phone messages to select the next target to converge on. This, clearly, will not be agreed with police, so they can now kettle you on sight. However, to be kettled outside (or indeed, inside) Vodafone or Topshop actually serves the purpose, since it closed the retail outlet for the day. The police are doing our job for us.

In essence, we are turning around the force of the Force to cause it to serve the cause of the people.

In all this physicality, we need also to have a clear idea of the alternative to the Coalition cuts that are causing the civil unrest and breaking the social consensus.

Here are a few alternatives:

• Axe white elephants like Trident
• Withdraw troops from Afghanistan (~£6bn/yr)
• Close down tax havens
• Clamp down on tax evasion
• Clamp down on tax avoidance
• Stop the job cuts at HMRC
• Tax bank bonuses
• Impose a Financial Transaction (Robin Hood) tax
• Stimulate bottom-up efficiency in all state institutions
• Impose a one off capital wealth tax on the richest 10% to negate a large part of the historic National Debt.

These are serious times. The fabric of society is severely strained by the elaborate, violent pasa doble between the Police Chiefs and Provoking Agents. We need to think our way out of this, otherwise, trouble will escalate in coming months.

The Day the Uni's Died

I have spent the day watching Twitter on #dayx3, and watching BBC TV news 24 propaganda.

Parliament has spoken, and the Coalition was its majority drop from 84 to 21. But the vote means that from 2012 most students will leave university with a debt of up to and over £36,000.

Note that the MPs who were graduates will have left university with a debt of ~£0. Zero. Morally, those who voted in favour should write the universities a cheque for £30,000. "Morally". Don't hold your breath.

What are the unintended consequences of Parliament's decision? Here are a few possibilities. This is not my field, and the experts should have covered these points. Or not, as the case may be.

1. A whole generation of students have been "blooded" in demonstrating and many will have animosity towards police that was not there previously. Big Society, anyone?
2. Some who could have gone to University will not do so. Student numbers will fall, so student fees will fall, and Uni incomes will fall.
3. Some who leave with a debt of £30k will go abroad. >Brain Drain.
4. Some will curb their ambition or their tax returns to make sure that they do not cross the £21k threshold where they start paying tax.
5. Some will be unable to afford a mortgage as well as their student debt. This will have an effect on the housing market, which, reasonably or not, is an important component of the UK's economy.

So, well done, George Osborne and Nick Clegg. Five unintended consequences.
Six, counting the fact that the whole nation has been glued to TV/Twitter all day.

Book Shields at London Student Demo

Seen at demonstration against privatisation of education

Student demo in Bristol, from the outside.

Went into Bristol to meet son Joe for lunch in Park Street, prior to a Chopin recital in St George. Saw a whole bunch of lemon coats going down Park St, tightly surrounding about 100 citizens. Realised it was a protest, went out onto the street to give solidarity, and saw a Green Party comrade in the protest, so stepped inside the police line to chat briefly, then stepped through the line of freedom to go and have lunch. After lunch, we walked down to College Green where there was a line of police vans including the dreaded Stazi Support Team. Chatted with police at the edge of the kettle. My man said the protest had sinned by stopping traffic, therefore stopping citizens going about their normal business (this was Sunday mind, with not many citizens about, mostly sight-seers, and the demo was offering a sight to be seen. I said the kettle was of dubious legality, (he frowned), but he did not frown when I said that Osborne's cuts were doing damage not just to the fabric of society, but also to police budgets. And that we have a duty to civil disobedience if Government is not acting in the interests of the people.

The crowd inside were doing a bit of chanting, but mainly acting as people who have been trapped.

For more, go here. You may have to sign in or register with Twitter. It is definitely worth registering, you don't have to say anything, but this is the way to keep informed.

Paying respect to the students

Respect to all the students who demonstrated on the streets and occupied universities in protest at tuition fees, debts and cuts. Great tactics to run around to avoid kettling. And shame on those police officers who ordered illegal kettling and used violence against peaceful demonstrators. Pity that someone scrawled graffiti on Nelson's Column, because it gave the idiot far right commentators something to bleat about.

Here are some web resources:

• UKUncut is targeting the Govts advisor on tax avoidance "Sir" Phillip Green on Dec 4th
• Next student protests are on 9 and 11 December
• False Economy: why the ConDem has the wrong approach
• Bristol anti-cuts alliance

There are reports of tazers (tasers) being used in Brighton. Well, Hove actually.

@brightonnocuts: We've had confirmation from 2 independent sources tasers were used during the Brighton march.
 

brightonnocuts UoB Occupation

We heard a huge amount of rumours of tasers being used. It only needs to be confirmed. Trying to source footage

@debaucherydean

Re #brighton #dayx2 taser 'use' - think 1st mention came from same bloke screaming about #policebrutality when nowt had happened

So it looks as if it may be an unfounded rumour.However, Brightonnocuts assert they have eyewitnesses, and call for investigation.

What should we do about kettling of protestors?

It seems that the police left an old van in the middle of the student demonstrators today in order to give themselves an excuse to kettle ("contain") the demonstrators.

Kettling is arguably unlawful detention, and a case is going to the European Court of Human Rights.
Hopefully, students who were kettled today will form a class action on legal aid (before it is withdrawn) to challenge the police action.

However, for the time being, if we are going to demonstrate, we had all better go prepared to be kettled for many hours.

So, here is a check list for demos:

• Sleeping bag.
• Bedroll
• Tent
• Food
• Drink - in a bottle that can contain urine when empty
• Shepee for the girls.
• Plastic bag for shitting into (NB Resist the temptation to throw filled bags as police lines. It is vital to be friendly to the police, as the Government will have to back down when the police refuse to do the politicians' dirty work for them.)
• Kettle, gas stove, tea bags, powdered milk, sugar (if taken) 
• Hand cranked mobile phone charger. 
• If kettled, organise. form groups of round about 8 people, get to know each other, talk about the situation, and elect a speaker. Get the speakers together to pass on ideas, and elect a main speaker for all the prisoners, who can seek to speak with the police commander. 
• Be mindful that people can be crushed in crowds.

The beauty of this is that kettle or no kettle, suitably prepared demonstrators may decide not to go home at 5 pm, which makes the success of the demonstration that much more likely. That is how they brought down the Berlin Wall, remember?

Student protests, if linked with unions, could lead to fall of the Government

This could well be significant day. Big student protests all over the country, both on the streets and  sit-ins in several universities. Mainly non-violent.
Too big for the media  to ignore, so they will have to distort instead.

The police abandoned an old police van (outdated markings) in the middle of the crowd, which was duly vandalised. It has been termed the #baitvan on Twitter - bait for the vandalisers, who gave the police an excuse to form a kettle, and also gave an excuse for servile media to diss the demos. More here.

It is alleged that officer U2128 repeatedly kicked a 15 year old girl. Hopefully pictures and/or video evidence will surface to bear this out. [Update: no they have not. I traced the U2128 story back to @TaobhCle: RT @Adam_S953:  Officer U2128 kicking 15yr old girl caught on camera. Chant of "your going on YouTube" #demo2010". This was RTd many many times, accounting for much of the
 #demo2010 activity.

I searched for @Adam_S953 and got "does not exist".
@santi_girl had had exchanges with @AdamS953 who it seems did originate the story, without having any evidence. @AdamS953 is at the moment unobtainable on Twitter. His unremarkable blog is here.

@TaobhCle seems to have protected tweets.

This does certainly show the desirability of checking sources. End of Update]


Some questions:
How much will the police operation cost?
How much will need to be set aside to police future policing operations?
How much will this extra expenditure cut into Osborne's budget cuts?
Did they think of this?
Have they thought how many more demos will occur, and of what magnitude, once the Unions get their act together and start demonstrations too?


Historically, Government tend to fall when students and workers get on the streets. Especially if the police harbour a sympathy for the protesters - which they surely will, since their own jobs are on the line.



Politically, there is massive  pressure on LibDem MPs to abstain, take a sickie or vote No on tuition fees. This raises the possibility of a Government defeat - which would be followed by a No Confidence motion, which the Government would probably win, but a precedent will have been set.

There is a real possibility of an early general election. The Green Party should be ready for that event, but more, we should be leading negotiations with progressives in other parties to see if we can elect a cross-party majority of MPs who can put forward a fully costed alternative to Osborne's insane butchery. The programme would focus on cancellation of large white elephant projects like Trident, closing tax avoidance loopholes and tax havens, and a clamp cown on tax evaders.

When I last put this forward, one influential Green objector simply asserted that the Coalition will run its full term. OK, it may. Alternatively, it may not. If it does not, and if it collapses as rapidly as a Samoan scrum, we need to be ready.

Moreover, even the fact that negotiations are taking place on an anti-cuts Alternative Coalition would put the fear of god into the Cleggeron. Which would be nice.

So this is big, and could be the start of something really big, politically.

Fair play and big respect for the students.