On 9 December NUS organised a lobby of Parliament, and a rally on Victoria Embankment. Both of these passed off entirely peacefully, and without incident. Unfortunately another march not organised by NUS descended into chaos, as many of us will have witnessed in the media.
NUS has consistently condemned violent protest as not only morally reprehensible but also counter-productive. Yesterday many students spent the day lobbying MPs in parliament, we met with them directly and expressed our concerns about their plans and in doing so we reduced the Government majority greatly. The public is on our side but every scene of violent protest erodes that sympathy. Thousands of young people who felt alienated from the political process have joined this campaign and they need to be able to constructively voice their opinions. Politicians, student leaders and the police have a duty to help them find legitimate ways to engage in issues that affect their lives.
Regarding many of the scenes that were witnessed yesterday, whilst it is clear that there were a small number of people involved who were inciting violence, many people were contained for a long period of time when attempting to take part in peaceful protest. We are calling on the Metropolitan Police to have a full investigation into the clashes yesterday between protesters and the police and for it to look again at its tactics for policing demonstrations.