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Conservative Party offices damaged in London protest

11 November 2010 04:51 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Demonstrating students broke windows at the complex housing the headquarters of Prime Minister David Cameronâ€™s Conservative Party in London to protest plans to cut funding to universities and increase tuition fees, APA reports quoting boston.com website.
Thirty-five people were arrested, and seven police officers and seven protesters were injured in the demonstration, a Metropolitan Police spokesman said by phone.
The protesters smashed glass on the ground floor of the 27-story Millbank Tower on the north bank of the River Thames, close to Parliament, as a planned march turned violent. Demonstrators started a fire outside the building, burning effigies of Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.
Cameronâ€™s coalition government plans to allow British universities to charge as much as $14,000 a year for tuition, almost triple the current level, as the government seeks to cut subsidies to colleges. Itâ€™s the first major protest since the government outlined its plans on Oct. 20 to reduce spending by $130 billion by 2015 to narrow the record budget deficit.
â€œWe may be becoming more Greek and French in our attitude to economic stringency,â€™â€™ Bill Jones, professor of politics at Liverpool Hope University, said in a telephone interview. â€œUsually the British are much more culturally phlegmatic. This may be a sign of things to come.â€™â€™
About 30 students managed to get on to the roof of the tower to unfurl a banner that read â€œNo to Cuts,â€™â€™ while some threw things and sprayed fire extinguishers. Helmeted riot police moved in to guard the building, and office workers were evacuated. Several hundred protesters, some drinking cans of beer, massed in the foyer of the tower, smashing furniture and chanting slogans.
The president of the National Union of Students, Aaron Porter, threatened to unseat lawmakers who back the measures. He told reporters in London before the march that students will attempt to force special elections in the districts of Liberal Democrats who renege on pledges made before the May 6 election to oppose any increase. The Liberal Democrats joined the Conservatives in government after the vote.
â€œWe will initiate a right to recall against any MP that breaks their pledge on tuition fees,â€™â€™ Porter said. He later used Twitter Inc.â€™s website to condemn the violent protests. â€œDisgusted that the actions of a minority of idiots are trying to undermine 50,000 who came to make a peaceful protest,â€™â€™ he wrote.
The Metropolitan Police had no immediate estimate, but in a statement, attributed the property damage to â€œa small minority of protesters.â€™â€™
â€œThis was thuggish, loutish behavior by criminals, and we need to ensure that we have a thorough investigation to bring these criminals in front of a court to answer for their crimes,â€™â€™ Metropolitan Police Commissioner Paul Stephenson told Sky News television. â€œItâ€™s not acceptable. Itâ€™s an embarrassment for London and an embarrassment for us.â€™â€™
Leanne Johnston, 23, an English and drama student at John Moores University in Liverpool, said the break-in at the tower was carried out by â€œa group of people that didnâ€™t look like the core group of students.â€™â€™ The hard-core protesters looked like â€œpunks,â€™â€™ she said in an interview.
â€œWhatever the merits of the points theyâ€™re making, thereâ€™s absolutely no excuse for a tiny minority to engage in acts of savage and unnecessary brutality,â€™â€™ Mayor Boris Johnson of London told Sky.