Our coach to the capital took its time. We had got through Camden, but the traffic was inching excruciatingly through what I believed to be Euston (I’m not a Londoner). We sat patiently, nervously, listening to Radio 1, and its god-awful news bulletin, “Thousands of students have taken to the streets of Westminster today…” A half-hearted cheer for our comrades circled inside the bus. But we’re still stuck in Euston and the tension is rising. The guy behind me whispers anxiously to his neighbour, “It’s properly started.”
In frustration, we alighted early and around 100 or so of the Trent army marched into the City. Our spontaneous, disorganised approach was quite satisfying, because instead of marching in one unified mass, we had caught the attention of two extra miles of unsuspecting Londoners. We joined the march proper at the cenotaph, thousands more latecomers filed in behind us and suddenly we were part of something entirely different.
Drums beat constantly from somewhere in the heart of the crowd, chants of: “Nick Clegg shame on you! Shame on you for turning blue!” increased steadily in volume as more and more people joined in. We pitched in with our own: “T-R-E-N-T, Trent says no to increased fees!” There seemed to be a minimal police presence at this time and there was a carnival atmosphere. Only a few policemen on the road itself, but the constant and sinister surveillance of the helicopters hovering above was unnerving.
We got to the end of the demonstration area after about an hour of shuffling forward, here Trent separated off and headed back to meet the coaches via Buckingham Palace, where we confused the American tourists hanging around the gates.
On the way back we noticed a TV screen in the lobby of an office showing live BBC coverage of the Millbank occupancy which had begun after we left the main protest. We all pressed our noses against the windows of the building for a better look. As it became clear that things had “kicked off” a convoy of riot vans with officers suited up for action drove by behind us. I can’t speak for everybody else, but then I was stuck with a dilemma: while I feel like I participated in something just and right, I wanted to be in around the action, if only to see for myself what was happening. After seeing how the media covered the G20 protests, I knew their descriptions weren’t to be trusted.
Read the main Trent March Article in the December Issue of Platform
Joe Zammit
image by Aleena Iftikhar
Tags: london, nottingham trent, student demo, tuition fees
Student Diary: Trent Demo March