Here is an evening summary.
• Thousands of students marched through central London to protest against the government’s cuts to education, increase in tuition fees, and the introduction of private providers into the university sector.There was a very heavy police presence, and very little trouble, with only 20 arrests. Some students criticised the police, saying their approach was over the top. Luci Cunningham, 17, said: “It’s definitely too much. There were police at every corner – we’re not animals.” (See 4.51pm.) Police were also criticised before the march started for briefing that they had the power to use plastic bullets in extreme circumstances, and sending warning letters to known activists. After the march began, the police imposed additional restrictions on the protesters (see 1.27pm).
• The most dramatic scenes were at Trafalgar Square, where protesters linked to the Occupy London camp at St Paul’s Cathedral set up a camp of around 28 tents before being removed by police after about half an hour (see 3.27pm). Some of them had planned to stay until the planned strikes of 30 November.
• There was a good atmosphere outside St Paul’s, where Billy Bragg and others played music in support of the demonstrators (see 4.29pm).
Joe Meredith emails in response to Sarah Brittan at 5.03pm:
“You will pay it back when you can afford to”… while a student with the same three-year degree, the same job, but well-off parents, can instead save up £27k towards a property deposit. Or do I not understand?
Police have packed up their riot gear at London Wall and most of them have gone now too, the BBC reports.
Robbie Wojciechowski tweets from the Occupy London camp.
Now sitting around in the #occupylsx, slowly protesters that’ve been let out of the kettle are flowing through. Nice mood. #9nov #occupylsx
Sarah Brittan emails in response to Luci Cunningham’s comments at 4.51pm:
Your mother won’t be paying your fees, so it doesn’t matter if she is a single mum! You will pay it back…when you can afford to! The problem is that the students are protesting because they don’t understand the policy!
As mentioned at the start of this blog, from next year fees will triple, allowing English universities to charge up to £9,000 annually, with graduates paying back loans once they are earning £21,000 a year or more.
Shehani Fernando has been speaking to Occupy London’s George Barda. He says he hopes to see occupations of universities soon. “We need students to be with us.”
The containment is thinning out now, Patrick Kingsley reports, with most leaving via a filter cordon on Moorgate. The police have just tweeted that the only road closure still in place is at London Wall.
There’s still around 200 left – many listening to a range of urban music on London Wall. Others who have been involved in previous direct action are worried they’ll be snapped by police photographers as they leave. Police say they’ve got until 5.41pm precisely before a dispersal order kicks in.
Leah Borromaeo, the 32-year-old filmmaker who brought the badminton gear, says she got the idea after hearing the police might use rubber bullets. “I thought I’d bring some of my own rubber projectiles to the protests. It’s an ironic dig. And it gives people something to do.”
My colleague Mustafa Khalili has just been on the phone. He told me he felt some of the protesters had felt frustrated at the huge police presence, which enabled officers to block almost every side road along the route. The police were always in full control of the march, Mustafa said.
Luci Cunningham, 17, an A-level student, criticised the police in an interview with the Press Association:
It’s definitely too much. There were police at every corner – we’re not animals. I think they went a bit over the top, to be honest … It was generally a good atmosphere. We came here because we are going to struggle to pay university fees. My mum is a single mother and my sister is already at university and we are working class. We shouldn’t have to compromise on education. It’s not fair.
Police have made 20 arrests so far. A Scotland Yard spokesman said three were for public order offences, one was for possession of an offensive weapon, three were for going equipped and 12 breaches of the peace. There was also one arrest relating to a suspect covering his face.
Shehani Fernando writes: “Great atmosphere outside St Paul’s with a crowd of a couple of hundred people. Billy Bragg has taken to the stage, Tony Benn is watching and people are loving the music. Unfortunately the sound system is playing up. I met Kaya Mar who hopes to sell this painting to raise money for leftwing movements.”
Patrick Kingsley reports from London Wall:
There are perhaps 800 people contained at the front of the march at the Moorgate / London Wall junction. Protesters can still leave via a filtered cordon on Moorgate, but many are staying. It’s quite a festive mood still – some are dancing, while four people are playing badminton.
Farah Ahmed emails to say that plainclothes police officers are dragging people out of the crowd. “My friend’s boyfriend was grabbed by someone whilst literally doing nothing.” Alex Peters-Day of the LSE sends this picture, purportedly showing three undercover policemen pulling a protester out of the crowd.
My colleague Hannah Waldram informs me of the interest on Twitter around a photo submitted to our Flickr pool. The image shows a “sodtherich” sticker on the back of a police helmet at the start of the protests. This post on the Londonist blog details how graffiti artist Chu takes plays on “Shoreditch” and the London Underground symbol to get his message across. When asked on Twitter how the sticker managed to get on the back of a police helmet Chu tweeted: “Quick fingers and a bit of good adhesive.”
Lucy Gettings reports that the crowds have been let out at Moorgate, and are no dispersing. She is off to visit Occupy London’s Finsbury Square offshoot.
Shehani Fernando has just been speaking to Billy Bragg at St Paul’s Cathedral. He explains why he is playing in support of the Occupy movement and the protesters today.
Lucy Gettings reports that protesters cannot get out of Moorgate. “Police say they’re waiting for a decision about which way to let us out.”
My colleague Mustafa Khalili sends this video from New Fetter Lane of scuffles with police as the protesters get frustrated with the police tactic of stopping every 10m.
Shiv Malik has just been on the phone from London Wall at the head of the march.
He says the energy of the marchers has picked up, but he is worried about how the thousands of marchers are going to fit into the area around Moorgate, which is the destination of the march.
He says it was hard to tell if there was any link-up with Occupy London at St Paul’s, although the march passed nearby.
He said the police are protesters were not getting on particularly well, with some bottles and sticks thrown by protesters and the police being quite “aggressive”. Apologies for the poor audio quality.
Sky News coverage shows protesters on London Wall throwing a few bits of wood at police, Jessica Shepherd reports.
Lucy Gettings, near the front of the march, reports that the route is lined with riot police with helmets and shields behind multiple barriers. “It’s quite intimidating,” she writes.
Jessica Shepherd, our education correspondent, writes that TV reports show protesters are heading towards St Paul’s, a potential flashpoint for the march because it is the location of the Occupy London camp. The live shots show the main body of protesters is about 25 people deep. Police are letting the protesters continue their march, but are stopping them every few minutes. Police appear to be walking backwards to face the protesters head-on. Police horses are patrolling the sides of the street.
Shehani Fernando sends more video from Trafalgar Square. She writes: “Most of the protesters went fairly peacefully apart from a few at the end who were kicking and screaming. Big coach load of them were taken away and police now gathering the tents. The reasoning for arrest comes across in the video when a female officer says: ‘We believe you have deviated from the route.’”
Shiv Malik sends this from the front of the march:
Protesters were held on New Fetter Lane for 15 minutes causing considerable agitation among the crowd. A number of bottles and placard sticks were thrown. Protesters tried to re-manoeuvre in the narrow lane causing protesters and media at the front to scatter. As the crowd moved into Holborn Circus, plain-clothed officers made an arrest. One officer (presumably an officer) was wearing a windcheater with a British marines emblem on it. More bottles were thrown. The marchers are currently moving down towards City Thameslink station and police have now changed into riot gear.
Alexandra Topping reports the first signs of trouble with apparently minor scuffles between protesters and police. “Some blockages down Fetter Lane, mostly as people try to see what is going on. Police a huge presence and appear very well organised.”
I’ve been speaking to some young men from Liverpool university. They are disappointed at the numbers who have turned up for the march, blaming lack of explicit backing from NUS and “intimidation tactics” from police.
Anthony, 19, studying civil engineering said: “People who were involved in the protests last year were sent letters, police are threatening to use plastic bullets – I think it’s put a lot of people off. But it’s not going to stop us, we are going to keep coming back.”
Shehani Fernando shot this video of the police removing protesters from Trafalgar Square.
Michael White reports that the stand-off at the front of the march over the electricians’ protest has ended, with the demonstrators agreeing to go up Fetter Lane as planned.
Shiv Malik reports: “Getting hairy at the front. Bottle thrown. Cross wants to march a lot of pushing. Another bottle thrown now.”
Trafalgar Square is now clear of all protesters.
Here is a screengrab from BBC News of police clearing the protesters from Trafalgar Square.
The BBC are showing the police removing protesters camped in Trafalgar Square.
Jessica Shepherd, our education correspondent, has been speaking to Michael Chessum, one of the main organisers of the march. He says electricians, who are on a separate march, have been kettled by police by Fleet Street.
This has stopped the students’ demonstration because students are refusing to continue to march unless the electricians are released.
Apart from that, Chessum says, the mood among the protesters is calm. “Police have been stopping us every five minutes to ensure they can control us.”
He says police are being heavy-handed in threatening to arrest protesters who go off the main route of the protest (see 1.27pm).
Lucy Gettings reports that an electrician made an announcement saying that their protest had been kettled by the Territorial Support Group and police dogs and they sent a message of solidarity to the students.
My colleague Shehani Fernando has been speaking to protesters who have pitched tents in Trafalgar Square.
She says they consider themselves part of the Occupy movement, and are affiliated to the protesters camping outside St Paul’s and at Finsbury Square.
They held a general assembly meeting when they pitched their tents and declared their support for the strikes on 30 November. The protesters want to stay until 30 November if they can.
Shehani says the atmosphere is “calm”. There are about 28 tents, holding 50 people, she says.
The police are watching at the other end of the square.
Here she speaks to one of the protesters.
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Lucy Gettings, who is on the march near the Royal Courts of Justice, reports builders on scaffolding waving “unite the fight” placards. “It’s good to see so much support from non-students; these cuts affect everyone.”
Here’s a picture of protesters setting up tents at Trafalgar Square.
The Metropolitan police have tweeted this:
A small group have broken off the main route, this contravenes Sec 12 of the Public Order Act #nov9 #9nov #ULU
A reader called Drew emails with a claim that the police have been driving dangerously on the Strand while it has been closed:
I’m working on the Strand and was grabbing lunch 40 minutes ago. The Strand is closed with no traffic, so many pedestrians are crossing the road at different points at leisure. I saw a silver BMW police saloon turn on it’s lights/sirens at the Trafalgar Square end and by the time it passed me in the centre of the road it would have easily been doing 60 miles per hour whilst people were crossing everywhere. Very, very dangerous in my opinion, particularly when there was nothing particular going on there at the time and there was no other traffic. If someone had had their headphones on and walked out in front of that police car it would have been a guaranteed fatality. Indicating an attitude of nonchalance when concerning the public (the people the police are supposed to be protecting) as far as I’m concerned. Aren’t there particular rules as to when a police car can break the speed limit?
Shiv Malik reports:
The Guardian had been informed that groups may break away from the march to take direct action. Mini-bands of protesters also seem to be drifting in and around the march route. Here at Fleet Street a small group who appear to have come from St Paul’s has turned up and now headed down the official route the wrong way. All this is going to cause a headache for police who find it very difficult to contain and police so many organically moving and shifting groups over such a large area.
Lucy Gettings and Shehani Fernando are both reporting that after a pause at Trafalgar Square the march has now moved on again, with chanting and drumming, down the Strand.
Shehani interviewed Michael White at Trafalgar Square.
The BBC is reporting that the atmosphere is “jovial” but the big difference to student marches last year is the huge police presence, with police lining the route of the march and walking alongside the demonstrators.
My colleague Shiv Malik has just phoned from Fleet Street, along which the march is due to pass shortly. He told me: “I’ve been to a lot of protests, but I’ve never seen such police preparation before. Most of the rest of Fleet Street has been blocked off and sealed with two dozen police horses, dozens of police vans, a police dog section, and a new resource: giant blue road blockades.” Shiv said there was an “apocalyptic feel because so many roads in the City have been closed down”. He called it “a complete no-car zone“.
Lucy Gettings says the march has stopped near Trafalgar Square; she’s not sure why.
But the BBC is now showing pictures of the protesters putting up tents at Trafalgar Square.
Lucy reports “lots of support from passersby and people in flat windows on Charing Cross Road”.
My colleague Sandra Laville has sent me this update from the Metropolitan police, who have imposed “additional conditions” in today’s march “in order to avoid serious disruption to the life of Londoners and to avoid any potential damage to property or public disorder”.
These conditions are that the protesters should gather for no more than two hours when the main body of the march arrives at London Wall, and that they should restrict their rally to the agreed location of London Wall.
Protesters must also remain on the agreed route and must not enter Bank junction, Princess Street, Threadneedle Street, Lombard Street, Cornhill, Poultry and Mansion House.
We will notify protesters on the route of these additional conditions by way of Twitter updates and text and officers will also use loudspeaker and hand out leaflets and on the route.
Anyone who knowingly fails to comply with these conditions, or who incites others to fail to comply is committing an offence and may be liable to arrest.
We’re getting some good images of posters, placards and stickers to our Flickr group.
Here’s a slideshow of the submissions so far.
Lucy Gettings from the University of Cambridge has been in touch to describe how the march is going so far. She writes:
Great atmosphere, marching with a group who’ve come down from Glasgow and Cambridge University students’ union, singing anti-capitalist songs.
You can get a taste of the atmosphere and hear some of the chants in these Audioboo files.
Becci Heangney took a few moments off from her loud speaker activities to tell Alexandra Topping why she was protesting today. Heangney said:
The government isn’t listening. Everyone here needs to get involved in the strike on November 30, and support Occupy. That is what is going to make the government sit up and listen.
The likelihood of any violence later would “depend on the police”, she added. “Like last year if there is violence it will be started by the police. If you fire rubber bullets at people, kettle them for hours and charge horses at them you are going to get a reaction.”
The Press Association has been speaking to marchers about the police’s comments about being able to use plastic bullets in extreme circumstances.
Beth Atkinson, 27, from London, said:
It is ludicrous. It is antagonistic, it is like they are egging on a fight, which is frankly embarrassing.
John Roberts, a 25-year-old architect from London, said:
I have got friends who haven’t come along because of the threat of rubber bullets.
Sheridan Few, 24, a PhD student at Imperial College London, said:
I think it makes it even more important – we shouldn’t be intimidated.
PA reports chants of “no ifs, no buts, no education cuts” and “David Cameron fuck off back to Eton”. They also shouted: “You can shove your rubber bullets up your arse.”
News and police helicopters hovered overhead and workers came out of their offices to look at the march, which was led by mounted police. Officers on foot carrying batons and riot helmets walked alongside the protesters, PA reports.
Here’s Shehani Fernando’s video of the march passing Bedford Square in central London.
The marchers can be heard chanting for a “general strike”.
Shehani Fernando has interviewed marcher Adam Reeves from Brighton.
The National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts is now claiming “tens of thousands” of people will join the march.
The turnout of the demonstration is already big, with well over 15,000 students already ready to march at 12.30pm. Estimates could go to tens of thousands.
Here’s a nice picture of Goldsmith’s and LSE students marching today.
There is no intention of water cannons being used today #Nov9 #9nov
The BBC is reporting that the student demonstrators have just begun their march from Malet Street in central London.
The Press Association has some details on today’s demonstration by construction workers.
Thousands of construction workers staged a demonstration today in an escalating row over pay and skills in the industry which is set to lead to a strike ballot.
There were some minor skirmishes between some of the workers and police but no arrests were made and organisers said they expected the protest to be peaceful.
Electricians, plumbers and engineers from across the country joined a rally at the site of construction work at Blackfriars Underground station in London, and will later lobby MPs in parliament.
Unions claim that de-skilling and pay cuts are being imposed by a group of construction firms and have been staging protests at building sites across the UK in recent months, including Sellafield in Cumbria, Grangemouth and Ratcliffe power stations and Blackfriars and King’s Cross railway stations in London.
David Willetts, the universities minister, has said allowing police to carry baton rounds at today’s student protests was an “operational matter”, adding that the government was hoping for a peaceful protest.
We want to see peaceful demonstrations, people have a right to demonstrate peacefully for the police, they have operational decisions, so they can obviously after the events a few months back they will be concerned if there is violence from protesters but I very much hope we can avoid all that.
My colleague Alexandra Topping is with the protesters and has been speaking to 17-year-old Yasmin Elgouze.
She says the protests are part of a wider feeling of discontent with capitalism and the belief that things could be better.
“Today is not about violence, it’s about talking,” she says. “We will not succumb to police bully tactics. The vast majority of people are here to exercise their right to peaceful protest, not to fight.”
She says she does not condone violence but can understand why people are angry. “There is a huge amount of rage about what is happening in our country and it is seeping through.”
Dee Doocey, the Liberal Democrat London Assembly policing spokeswoman, has said she will be challenging the Metropolitan Police Commissioner over the “misguided policy” of using plastic bullets as a last resort at the demo.
“Plastic bullets have no role in policing demonstrations in London,” she said. “Their use in Northern Ireland has led to seventeen lives being lost, including eight children. How can anyone believe plastic bullets deliver security when their record is so horrific?”
Meanwhile, Shiv Malik is reporting that police helicopters are circling over Bloomsbury, in central London, where protesters are starting the march.
@danderricott, a student at the University of Lincoln, has tweeted that coaches on the way to the demonstration have been stopped by police to give protesters “warning fliers”.
Shiv Malik wrote in the Guardian today that the police have sent hundreds of letters to anti-cuts activists warning them of the consequences of attending the protest.
The Metropolitan police have put up a statement explaining the route and which roads will be closed. They list the route as:
Malet Street, Gower Street, Bloomsbury Street, Shaftesbury Avenue, Charing Cross Road, Duncannon Street, Strand, Fleet Street, Fetter Lane, New Fetter Lane, Holborn Viaduct, Newgate Street, King Edward Street, London Wall.
The police point out that there will be a one-hour rally at London Wall from 3.40pm-4.30pm. “Participants are expected to disperse by 17:30,” they predict, which sounds optimistic to me.
All roads on the route will be closed, with surrounding roads closed when necessary, including London, Southwark, Blackfriars, and Waterloo Bridges.
On the Twitter page of CO11, the Met’s public order unit, the police write: “At present there is no intention to use baton rounds on today’s demonstrations.”
My colleague Shehani Fernando has been interviewing Luke Durigan, the education campaigns officer for University College London Union.
Durigan says the march is going to the City, London’s financial centre, rather than parliament, because “we feel that perhaps we need a change here, we need to attack the group where the government’s higher education policy is really coming from today”.
We’ve just created a Flickr group to help you show us your pictures of placards and posters for our Reality check. Click on the link to find out more about how the group works and how to submit photos to the pool – hopefully we’ll also be able to feature a selection on the blog.
There is currently a “teach out” going on at Russell Square where academics, student activists and Guardian columnists Polly Toynbee and George Monbiot have been invited to talk, my colleague Shiv Malik reports. It has been organised by the Tent City University, which is part of the Occupy encampment at St Paul’s.
One of the organisers Neil Howard said the atmosphere was friendly. “There are a 100 people gathered. We have a series of speakers … The audience are members of the public [around the square]. They are predominately young people.” But he added there were those in their 70s standing in their solidarity.
“People are excited abut also determined. Everyone gathered here realises that this is not a simply fight for education but for the welfare state more broadly. So we’re exited,” Howard said.
My colleague Jessica Shepherd points out that Alistair Thompson, a Conservative who unsuccessfully ran for West Bromwich East, has written on ConservativeHome that today’s demonstration is doomed to failure and is “nothing more than a throwback to the 1970s, when union activism last mattered”. There’s a high probability that it will be hijacked by “anti-capitalist loonies, hell-bent on vandalism and destruction”, he writes adding:
The battle over fees was lost more than a decade ago. I say this with a heavy heart, because at the time I was a student officer and took part in yet another ineffective NUS march, calling on Tony Blair’s government to ditch their plan to introduce them … What students need to do is realise that now they are paying for their education, they are consumers in a competitive market and should treat the provision of their education as they would buying a mobile phone.
Here are some tweets as people gather for the start of the demonstration.
My colleague Paddy Allen has drawn up this dynamic map of the route.
I have just been speaking to Michael Chessum of the National Campaign against Fees and Cuts.
He was at the march’s meeting point at the University of London Union on Malet Street, and said he was expecting 10,000 people to join the march, but numbers were “unpredictable”.
I’m looking out the window now – it looks good … We’re expecting dozens of coaches to come in from around the country. Currently the Ulu cafe is packed with Scotland, [people] from Aberdeen, St Andrew’s, Edinburgh, Glasgow. We’re expecting coaches from the north of England, all over the midlands, all over the south-west and -east and all over the south coast.
He talked about why the marchers were opposing the government’s higher education white paper, which would allow private providers to offer degrees for the first time.
The government’s higher education white paper … is essentially, in short, a chaotic, frankly kind of incompetent attempt to introduce a market into higher education and it will end higher education as a public service in the UK, it will introduce for-profit providers, it will mean a market in fees, and it will mean universities such as London Metropolitan University, which is the most working-class university in Britain, with more black and minority ethnic students at it than the whole of the Russell Group, the top 20 university group, combined, may well be forced to close or to privatise. And we may well say formerly public institutions going private and that’s a disaster not only for access but also for the nature of education, education being reduced to a consumer commodity.
Over on the Reality check blog, my colleague Jessica Shepherd is examining the messages on the best student placards. Send her your favourites at jessica.shepherd@guardian.co.uk or on Twitter @jessshepherd1. She starts with this one from last year, which says “tax the banks, not the students”.
One of the other inherent messages in this placard is that students are going to be taxed under the new tuition fees system that comes into place in 2012. The government has been careful not to call it a tax, but the demonstrators holding this placard are right: it is in all but name. It is repaid through the income tax system, the amount you repay increases with earnings and you only repay it over a certain amount. However, it does end once you have repaid what you borrowed plus the interest.
Here is the planned route of the march.
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live blog on today’s student protests against tuition fees and cuts in education spending.
An estimated 10,000 students are expected to take part in today’s march in response to government funding cuts and a tripling of maximum tuition fees. They are also opposed to the government’s education white paper, which would allow private providers to offer degrees for the first time.
The students are due to meet at the University of London Union on Malet Street, near Euston station in central London, at midday. Here is a map of the route.
The march is due to head down Gower Street to Trafalgar Square, east along the Strand and Fleet Street, along Holborn Viaduct, before swinging round just north of St Paul’s Cathedral and ending at Moorgate, in the City. The Occupy London camp at St Paul’s is planning to join the demonstration, and has organised a protest concert at St Paul’s featuring Billy Bragg, Chumbawamba and Peggy Seeger.
We are determined to block the cuts and privatisation agenda before it becomes a reality, and build a sustainable movement to defeat the government … It does not matter if University College London is aiming to raise application rates from less advantaged socio-economic backgrounds if, just a few miles away, London Metropolitan – the most working class university in the country, with almost as many black students as the whole of the Russell Group – is forced to close or privatise. Meanwhile, fee waivers – a ploy to plug the funding gap caused by the policy of £9,000 fees – will raid bursary pots, pushing more students into scarce part-time work, or poverty.
The demonstration comes exactly a year after thousands of people first took to the streets to protest against the government’s higher education plans. Those protests ended in chaos, with violent clashes between police officers and troublemakers who hijacked the marches, leading to hundreds of arrests.
Police have sent hundreds of letters to anti-cuts activists warning them of the consequences of attending today’s demonstration, my colleague Shiv Malik reports.
In what may also be part of an attempt to discourage students from participating, earlier this week the police brief the press that they were being allowed to use plastic bullets for “extreme” measures during the march.
David Cameron said yesterday he would not criticise the police if they felt it was necessary operationally to use rubber bullets on the student demonstrators.
Chessum accused police chiefs of acting in a “political and cynical” manner in an “attempt to put people off coming to a national demonstration … They have made it more likely trouble will occur.”
Simon Pountain of Scotland Yard said of the plastic bullets, or “baton rounds”: “These are carried by a small number of trained officers and are not held and used by those officers policing the route on Wednesday.”
Around 4,000 officers are expected to be on duty.
Meanwhile a new YouGov poll has shown that the majority of adults have little or no understanding of the new university fees system. From next year fees will triple, allowing English universities to charge up to £9,000 annually, with graduates paying back loans once they are earning £21,000 a year or more. In the poll more than a quarter (26%) thought that students would have to pay their fees upfront; over a third (37%) knew that students would pay nothing upfront.
I’m looking for as many first person stories as possible, so please email me at paul.owen@guardian.co.uk or reach me on Twitter @paultowen and let me know how the march is going for you or send me your photos or video clips.
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