VarsiTV News: Willetts forced from lecture hall by student protest

[arcticmonkeysfan]

disgraceful mob

[NPFRLabel]

sorted ... well done!

[1903eab]

This was a disgusting and outrageous protest by a few self-righteous scumbags who simply don't get the concept of free speech.

David Willetts should not have given up so easily. It was a pity the great majority who were there to listen did not manage a show of solidarity to defeat the freedom-haters, but it must have been difficult to know what to do about this braying thuggery.

These scenes were not anarchist or socialist in character, but genuinely fascist.

[romeosdistress]

@1903eab haha! funny :)

[JacobMorrisNinetyTwo]

@1903eab Willetts’ “freedom of speech” was in no sense denied or even challenged by the protestors. What was denied him was the authority to speak to a silent audience.

[pzunki]

the voices of the 99% are more powerful than the 1%

brilliant use of the human mic

but what is the song at the beginning? i like it...

[theredraven]

@pzunki There isn't a 99% though is there?

[theredraven]

As is usual with student protestors, freedom of speech only applies to their pet groups and causes.

[seandingley]

Wow. So that achieved..... nothing?

[egapnala65]

Well aside from the irony in the opening song (how many of these protesters' families are actually in that situation drinking wine and driving rolls as opposed to working in factories?) I say well done.

[MisterAlexGabriel]

@egapnala65 More than you'd think (although that wouldn't delegitimize their protest anyway). I'm at Oxford where my granddad worked on the Morris assembly lines, and my parents earn less than minimum wage.

[egapnala65]

@MisterAlexGabriel Well I am afraid we shall to disagree there. There is a HUGE difference between hearing this song coming from somebody on a production line and from the sons and daughters of CEOs of multinational corporations who have and no reason to work for themselves. From the point of view of an estate kid its simply swapping one form of privileged idiocy for another.

[MisterAlexGabriel]

@egapnala65 I was an estate kid, with a single mum on benefits - don't assume someone's privileged just because they're at a top uni. (Cambridge students definitely aren't idiots.) Anyway, I'd say anticapitalist activism is a good way of using any privilege you've unfairly got.

[egapnala65]

@MisterAlexGabriel Yes, I agree there a few token estate kids there, but given that the whole system is dependent on a private feeder school basis (from pre-prep onwards) and that various colleges are associated with various public schools, I think it is a fair assumption.

The problem with the sons and daughters of CEOs flying anti-capitalism banners is that it provides useful ammo for opponents, wheras estate kids waving the same banners shows genuine anger.

[MisterAlexGabriel]

@egapnala65 Somewhat agreed, but the right's intent is precisely to destroy solidarity and cause infighting on the left by pointing things like that out. And Oxford and Cambridge don't in any sense "depend" on private schools. Half of Oxford and 65% of my college are state educated - I agree there's a serious access issue and I do a lot of work to change that, but I don't think you're painting a realistic picture.

[egapnala65]

@MisterAlexGabriel I'm afraid that any solidarity between an Etonian and somebody from the Leas estate is somewhat stretched in the first place for. Check out Ralph Glasser's "Gorbals Boy At Oxford". Dated probably but the issues he raises regarding the middle class left simply want to control rather than help estate kids still have some relevance. At one point he is laughed at for answering his tutor's question " Why do people work?" with "They'd starve if they didn't." Also check out the IWCA

[MisterAlexGabriel]

@egapnala65 No I agree with you, there does exist vanguardism on the left. But if you're another person marching next to me or sitting in an occupation then I want you there, wherever you went to school. And you can't seriously compare Oxford in the 1930s with Oxford now.

[egapnala65]

@MisterAlexGabriel Check out the "Sutton Trust" report from 2007. 2/3rds Oxbridge is reckoned to be dominated by 100 private schools with only two state comprehensives getting a look in.

As for marching, well ok, you have a point. Just bear in mind that they may simply be there for a laugh or a hobby.

[egapnala65]

@MisterAlexGabriel Besides the sight of people who have forked out £20,000 for six years at a secondary level whining about having to fork out half of that for three, simply doesn't really count as serious protest, more a collective whinge. It undermines the real issues involved.

[MisterAlexGabriel]

@egapnala65 So you can't be against marketisation if you're personally able to meet the costs? I'd imagine that most of CDE are against private schools even if they attended them - and I work in access so I know the Sutton Trust data. There are only 2 comps in the top 100 Oxbridge schools, which granted is a massive issue we're trying to work on, but that doesn't mean the state sector's not present - like I said, half of Oxford (pre fee hike). The main issue is just getting comp kids to apply.

[egapnala65]

@MisterAlexGabriel As I say you would have a point here if these protesters were campaigning to nationalise Eton and Westminister as well as protesting these issues. Why are we not reading about these kinds of protests taking place within the hallowed halls of these places? Because, for all their posturing, they know which side their bread is buttered and they'll be damned if they offer you a slice.

[egapnala65]

@MisterAlexGabriel Personally I had no issues with tuition fees as such as long as grants were kept for estate kids. What is more damaging, to my mind is the 80% cuts to university funding which has effectively FORCED universities to charge the highest rates in order to survive. That is the real crime here.

Besides if people were so keen on free education for all they would be campaigning to nationalise places like Eton. On that they remain silent. Another reason I distrust their intentions.

[MisterAlexGabriel]

@egapnala65 If nothing else the issue with fees is they're just unsustainable - go up like a rocket, come down like a feather - and also, the more private money you have in the system, the easier it becomes for politicians to withdraw that state funding because they can say it isn't needed. Nationalize Eton? Sure, with a ball and chain maybe. Comprehensive education for everyone.

[egapnala65]

@MisterAlexGabriel "Comprehensive education for everyone". And what do you find so wrong with that?

[MisterAlexGabriel]

@egapnala65 Nothing, I meant "[knock Eton down, we should have] comprehensive education for everyone". I think most people at CDE probably agree, and at the Oxford Education Campaign - who occupied a main building for 36 hours, lobbied the uni. Our SU is really political and my college is famous for communist links. Oxford academics even voted no confidence in Willetts, 283:5. We're not complicit in austerity or fees, actually we were one of the first centres of student protest.

[egapnala65]

@MisterAlexGabriel More power to your elbows, just watch your backs.

[egapnala65]

@MisterAlexGabriel Not a big fan of "Communism" as an ideology. Rooted in the same Hegelian rubbish as fascism with the same results. The Russian example was merely state capitalism and was just as oppressive as what is sought to replace.

[MisterAlexGabriel]

@egapnala65 Oh quite, because it preserved the apparatus of the Tsarist state and tried to house its economic reforms therein. I don't think communism works except as an anarchic philosophy.

[theredraven]

@egapnala65 Because comprehensive education doesn't have a good track record in this country?

I'm surprised we don't have more parents trying to homeschool their children in this country.

[wnread1972]

The guy at the end who thought that Willets was there for 'a debate' was deluding himself. The dye has been cast my friend. Uprise and Occupy!

[ClarkesonTheMarksman]

bloody hell there the 99% go again spoling it all for the 1 %,, shame on them

[ourhandsaretied]

This is BRILLIANT!!!

[billdoorlives]

hahaha ... stupid fucking useless students

[duncanwil]

Interesting: freedom of speech is vital if course but I don't know the background to this episode. I don't agree with students having to pay for their university education AND then being taxed on any success that follows. However, remember the words if of the song that opens this clip: there's a very good change of the privileged few graduating from this Canbridge cohort and their Rolls Royces will be important to them. Have your say, though: try to make at least a bit if difference! Duncan

[Chinawhere]

Lovely stuff. Solidarity from Bath.

[hectorofgreecemyboy]

What is the song at the beginning?