VIDEO posted on November 10, 2010 by Greg Dean

British Students Occupy Tory HQ in London

(Video by an anonymous uploader)

A student demonstration has turned into an occupation of the Conservative party campaign headquarters at 30 Millbank Rd., London. Students are burning multiple bonfires in the courtyard of the Tory headquarters, have taken out a number of windows and occupied the roof of the ten story building. A party atmosphere quickly took hold as a significant sub-woofer pumped out dance and hip-hop songs.

Thirty-five arrests have been made, while police and protesters injured as tension mounts. The National Union of Students estimates 52,000 people are in London for the protests. Police are still trying to clear a sit down protest on Parliament Square.

Police were not able to prevent demonstrators, initially protesting deep cuts to education and steep rises in tuition, from completely taking the building.

Students feel betrayed by the Liberal-Democrats, who made outright abolition of tuition fees a central plank of the recent general election in the UK. 

Against the backdrop of austerity plans that spurred mass protests throughout Europe, the British government has announced an extra $700 Billion (USD) transfers to the European Union, which is still working to buy up bad debt from European banks.

Many universities are planning to double their tuition fees from the current cap of £3,290 per year to £6,000 and £7,000 annually. British students take loans from the government, but don't have to start paying it back until they attain a certain income after graduation,.

The report seemingly attempts blunt the effects of doubling tuition, by allowing British students to not start repaying (higher) debt-levels until they make £21,000 a year instead the current £15,000 a year.

On the other side of the Atlantic, Aaron Petcoff of Washington, D.C. is calling for the formation of a debtors' union in the U.S., much as the Canadian student 'movement' was in 2008.