[joegrundman]

The thing about these protests is that they come with a context that is distinct from the US national discourse.

It is a generational thing, and intertwined with the financial crisis.

The financial crisis in Britain is serious, and is in short the very large national debt. The dramatic growth of this national debt had two components. Firstly overlarge public spending with Brown as chancellor and then prime minister, secondly the huge spending on the financial sector to prevent it from collapsing altogether. In this the British taxpayer bought out the debt of the banks.

The British press is becoming ever more partisan on the matter, and all blame is shifted to just one of these two causes, depending on the political viewpoint of the newspaper (see if you can guess which supports which view).

In any case, this government has decided that the answer is to massively cut down on that part of public spending which does not negatively affect the financial sector, but keep spending on that which helps it (eg the bailout of ireland which is mainly in effect a second bank bailout for british banks)

One of the many areas that are targeted for savings is student tuition fees.

To an american there seems to be no reason why taxpayers should have to pay for students, and the right-wing press in britain is full of pundits pontificating on the absurd entitlement attitude of modern youth.

But it is worth appreciating that every single legislator and pundit in britain (except the very young and precocious) paid absolutely nothing in tuition fees, and may well have also had living costs paid for courtesy of the taxpayer. That these same people in secure positions later in life are saying to the young that the young must pay where the older generation had it easy is an unpleasant thing to hear, especially when those that must pay did nothing to contribute to the financial crisis whereas those that are now legislating are the generation that made such a mess of it.

It is not just student debts, house prices have gone crazy in britain as a result of silly financial policy and now the average age of first home buying is expected to increase by about 10 years from how it has been until recently. in short it looks to the younger generation as if they are being punished in order to pay for the foul ups of the older.

It may be that the student protests have no hope of substantial change from what is planned, but it's possible to sympathise with the sentiments.

As for scaring the royal couple. whatever. they are not in hospital tonight unlike half a dozen policemen and about 50 students.