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NUS Protest in Cardiff Underattended

Rebel W | 02.12.2004 17:34 | Education

Reports from the scene of the rally, which ended today's NUS march through Cardiff, say only around 1000 turned out to protest at the possibility of Welsh students failing to secure freedom from top up fees. If the campaign fails, then Labour in England will be off the hook. Should it suceed, Blair will be left abandoned at a crucial time (i.e. near a General Election).

With many English Student Unions refusing to send anyone along, and with young people blatantly less likely to go to Cardiff than to London, its no real surprise that so few turned out. This should be contrasted to the 31,000 that turned out in London last year. In fact, one student from Sheffield admitted to not knowing about the demo 4 days beforehand (by coincidence, a member of Sheffield Samba). It turns out that NUS estimated 3000 turned out, but other methods of counting reveal lower numbers, as factions (of which NUS has around 20 to 30) found themselves with far too many leaflets even for one each!

With a slightly bizarre route, and with overgenerous timings for the whole day, the march ended in a rally which was addressed by a mottley group of speakers, with Paul Makney of the Lecturers Union NATFHE standing out as usual.

As a result of this, one would hope that NUS exec officers would be able to see the mistake and try again nearer the General Election, and this time in London. However, given some whisperings that the whole event was set up to fail deliberately (Hey guys! Thursday at 10pm, hardly the right time for students who get pissed on Wednesday night, now is it?) we might have to live in hope. Should such a further demo be called, it will be interesting to see how many make up their expectations according to this arguably failed attempt.

Rebel W

Comments

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Interesting

02.12.2004 18:40

When I lived in Australia the (Labor Party dominated) NUS used to pull the same tactics. Call a demo out of the city and claim they were "taking it to the people" in full knowledge that it would be smaller and less of a threat to their own agenda of compromise.

This provincial strategy may also be observed on programmes like Question Time with its pro-war host David Dumbleby. It tours the UK posterig as being an inclusive programme and in the name of "giving everyone a say" in full knowledge that the city leads the country and therefore rural or provincial views are more conservative on average. How often do ya see Question time IN LONDON OR NEAR LONDON where the majority live? Hardly ever.

When the revolution comes, I will adjudicate at David Dimbleby's trial.

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harsh on Dimbleby

03.12.2004 11:14

Coupla things: first off there are a lot of people in London but not the majority of the population, and also it's pretty arrogant to dismiss the rest of us as backward rustics!

As to Dimblebey, on last night's Question Time he made a little dig at Home Office Minister Hazel Blears over WMD in Iraq being 'imaginary', just an offhand comment but picked up by the audience, much laughter and applause.

More broadly, the last two editions of Question Time have seen audiences in Liverpool and Manchester showing strong hostility to ID cards, suggesting the opinion polls showing huge majorities in favour are not reliable...

No to ID:
 http://www.no2ID.org.uk

type


sorry wrong link

03.12.2004 11:15

correction:
 http://www.no2ID.net

type


I nearly went

05.12.2004 15:42

If only so I could shout abuse at the NUS stewards and the Socialst Worker paper sellers.

In the end, I stayed at uni and got on with some work, as there was no point in jeprodising your degree for some pointless A to B march, especaily since I am in my final year.

Greenblack