The sound of breaking glass

Those were deplorable scenes in London yesterday, as students staged their latest protest against the rise in tuition fees, on the day this was voted on and approved by the House of Commons. It was, of course, manna from heaven for the television networks, who gave it wall-to-wall coverage. Once darkness fell it became increasingly difficult to see who was who, but it was hard to avoid the impression that the protesters were outnumbered not only by the police, but also by the journalists and cameramen.

Both the police and the media seem to be playing up the idea that these protests have been hijacked by people who have no interest in the underlying issues: anarchists, of course, and even London street gangs just turning up to take a pop at the police. No doubt there's an element of this, but it would be dangerous to assume that's the whole story.

There was an interesting little incident in mid-evening at Oxford Circus, well away from the main demo, as a group of protesters smashed windows in a large department store. The SKY-tv commentator on the scene was bemused, noting that the protesters had left nearby stores such as Liberty's unscathed; her view was that the incident was unconnected with the protest as such, and was simply a stunt to keep the police off-balance (I'm paraphrasing here).

Let's think about that for a second. Arriving at Oxford Circus, the protesters could indeed have smashed up Liberty's, or broken the windows on some of the many number 73 bendy buses that were trapped in the melee. Instead they targeted Topshop, owned by the serial tax avoider Sir Philip Green, a man who, in the coalition government's crassest move so far, was asked to look at ways to reduce wasteful public sector spending. It's hard to believe that "London street gangs" would have been so selective, or that, having broken in the windows, they would have neglected to liberate some of the merchandise while they were at it.

It's no justification for wanton damage, of course. Still, if students believe, rightly or wrongly, that post-secondary education is being priced out of their reach, it's not hard to imagine that they might feel angry at the thought of a prodigiously wealthy man routinely avoiding paying what might be deemed to be his fair share of taxes. In fact, it might not just be students who would think like that.