the unelected coalition defies public opinion and pushes through the cuts vote, tearing the lib-dem party into power-hungry leaders versus backbench rebels. the media and police spin on today's events has gone into overdrive to misrepresent the causes of violence and property damage. here are a few key alternatives to the mainstream lies, and some pics from the day.

the mainstream media cite a police claim that a route for the march was agreed, but that students broke away from it. as can be seen from the photos, after one of the marches set off from malet street, by the time it joined the thousands of students already filling trafalgar square, they found their route to parliament square blocked by lines of police and police horses. far from allowing the march through, whitehall was turned into an empty wasteland, and students, sensing a trap, ran into st james' park and round a back route to parliament square.

the protesters then arrived at parliament square where it had been agreed they could protest, but they came against boris's ridiculous fences. (these were put there supposedly while essential works repaired damage done by the 'democracy village' during the summer - they have remained for nearly six months, spoiling the public's enjoyment of this heritage square to a much greater extent than the democracy village ever did). also police had cordoned off all of the square at the front of parliament instead of simply putting lines in front of parliament itself. thus, police had made the area available to protest completely inadequate for the numbers expected.

so, tens of thousands of protestors arrived near parliament square, and found their democratic right to protest was again severely hampered by police who had already shown they cannot be trusted when they kettled so many peaceful protestors in whitehall just two weeks ago. most students could hardly even see parliament, as they were only allowed into the two side roads and the back of parliament square, and many couldn't even get in to the square.

the mainstream lie is that police used containment reluctantly as a final measure, but actually police horses were already deployed and cordons set up at the exits to the square before violence erupted at the front. police were allowing people in through the cordon, but warning them they would not be let out. some police at one cordon told people that those wanting to leave were being let out elsewhere. this turned out to be a lie, as each cordon was operating a policy of arbitrary detention of anyone that looked like a protestor.

some police on the victoria street cordon told me they were only letting out 'vulnerable' people, but then let through a well-dressed businessman who certainly didn't appear 'vulnerable'.

i asked whether, if for example they were ordered to only contain black people, they would consider that reasonable? missing the finer points of hypothetical argument one officer then called me a racist. this is why we need free education, so that idiots don't end up in uniform. the cop that said i was racist then excelled himself by telling a young greek girl that she should go home back to greece if she didn't like it here. you couldn't make it up!

as students became angry at once again being kettled in freezing conditions and having their rights trampled, some started to fight back. on victoria street, some protestors used a kettle-busting V formation of reinforced banners to try to force their way through the lines, and many burst through as the police lines gave way with the applied force (nice to see students using their physics to such practical use).

this use of a banner isn't particularly violent at all, generally pushing police out of the way and clearing a path to exit an unlawful imprisonment rather than lashing out or throwing objects. however, police replied by launching a frenzied attack on students wanting to get out of their arbitrary prison, and batons, fists and shields were used violently against students whose only offence was trying to run out of the cordon. i saw some bad injuries, and an arrest where someone was wrestled to the ground and repeatedly batoned, punched and kicked by thuggish cops.

suddenly police lines opened up to allow a charge into the crowd with police horses. this was highly dangerous as the police cordon was already squeezing the crowd so they had nowhwere to run from the galloping horses. protestors retaliated and also defended themselves, and one poor horse lost its rider and splayed around amongst the crowd before being calmed and led out. at the end of the day more than forty protestors have been injured, with nearly thirty taken to hospital by ambulance.

many mainstream news reports totally misrepresented the timeline of this process, claiming that police only cordoned the crowd after the scuffles and after a rider fell from a police horse. this is utterly untrue, but has pervaded the reports.

i did a little recce of the cordons, and at every one i was told people could go in but not be let out. at the top of whitehall, a sergeant told me his instructions were not to let anyone in at all, including accredited press. this is in direct violation of guidelines set by the ipcc investigations into the G20 kettles, which stated that press should always be allowed in and out of cordons unless there is serious immediate impending danger of violence. since the whitehall cordon was nowhere near the protests, it is hard to see this as anything other than a direct defiance of those guidelines.

outside the cordon at westminster bridge, UCU had an authorised campaign-bus across the road at the embankment, and there were speeches and music there. a crowd of several hundred protestors listened as the vote was announced shortly after 5.30, and they erupted angrily when they heard the cuts were intact. one of the speakers, alan whittaker, the president of the UCU, then started telling the crowd that 'we've done all we could, and now we want everyone to go home along the embankment to avoid confrontation'.

the response to this was amazing, a true grassroots awakening, and an anger at the impotence of elected leaders. easily half the crowd started shouting at mr whittaker, and he and sally hunt, gen secretary, looked visibly shaken by the response. a group at the front then pushed through lines of event security stewerds. predictably, these hired thugs (from SFM security) started lashing out, but were soon overpowered and stepped back. i asked their boss on what basis they were attacking and preventing people walking along the street - he replied they'd been told to by police.

confronted by an impenetrable wall of riot police and dozens of closely parked vans on the approach to parliament square, this crowd of hundreds then walked back round the embankment and again tried to break through police lines on whitehall. remember, this was an attempt at solidarity, these students weren't trying to break out of a kettle, they were actually trying to join the protests in parliament square, to go into the kettle in solidarity with others.

given there was a publicised candlelit vigil at 7pm and many people were arriving after work to show support for the students, any claim by the police that they were trying to facilitate lawful protest must evaporate in a puff of media lies. police swept up whitehall and baton charged groups of people to clear the area and scare off any peaceful protestors.

around this time, some people were finally being allowed out of the square, having been held without food, drink or toilet facilities for some six hours. as they left they were all individually photographed for the questionable police database of protestors.

with all the repression of the day, and with palpable anger that the vote had gone through, protestors gathered in trafalgar square, and a small group tried to symbolically set fire to the xmas tree there. as the base of the tree burst into flames, riot police charged across the square to clear it and the fire was extinguished.

others moved up to oxford street and targetted corporations that are known to owe huge amounts (billions of pounds) of tax while their tory friends turn a blind eye. mainstream media coverage of the attacks on phillip green's 'topshop' chain, blamed violence, thuggery, and mob mentality, without once mentioning the issue of taxes owed.

on regent street a group of students chanced upon prince charles and camilla and damaged their car. this will be the main headline in the morning's papers as the mainstream goes into overdrive protecting this archane privileged and nonsensical family who are collectively the biggest welfare benefit scroungers ever known.

perhaps this was a little taster for the royal charade of a wedding next year, when even more people realise just how shafted we're all going to be by ideological and political cuts aimed at the poorest, while the rich and privileged carry on business as normal.

meanwhile, the thousand or more penned in parliament square inevitably turn to property destruction in their frustration at having their voices so repressed and unheard. they attack the two nearest buildings, left unprotected by police, the supreme court, and the treasury.

the square was finally cleared by a brutal push of ranks of riot police, and demonstrators were moved to the freezing middle of westminster bridge, and then finally released late in the evening as FIT teams 'processed' them all, taking photos of everyone as they were allowed to leave to the south of the river.

the breakdown of law and order on the streets of london can hardly be helped by the widespread lawless attitude of officers. when i was told to move away while trying to document a stop and search of some young asian lads, i explained to the police that i was only trying to make sure that they upheld the law. his reply? "we ARE the law".

meanwhile on sky news, reporter 'kay burley' gaffed by calling the students "insurgents". mark thomas made the point eloquently that this wasn't quite as outrageous as calling herself a 'journalist'.