Exclusive: Arrests And Violence As Demo Turns Nasty

There were two arrests outside King’s today after a student march against tuition fee rises and education cuts turned nasty.

Cambridge students, sixth-formers and members of the public were all part an angry mob that surged onto the Senate House’s famous lawn, chanting and threatening to smash windows before staging a sit-down protest.

Photos courtesy of Masons

Over a dozen police cars raced into town by 2.15pm, and there were some ugly exchanges as they fought for control before the protestors were kicked off the premises half an hour later.

Lorna Finlayson, 24, a PhD student at King’s, told how she was injured in one of these. She said: ”I climbed up onto the fence but I was dragged down by a police officer. I got a whack on my head and my head really hurts.

”Hundreds of us managed to get over but several other people were hit over the head as well.”

Sixth-form student Chris Izatt, 18, who studies at Cambridge Regional College, revealed he used a ladder to scale the Senate House fence.

He said: ”We sat down and then people started standing on the platform shouting ‘let’s occupy Senate House’.

“There was a bit of aggro with people fighting police and police fighting back. It got really violent but that wasn’t what we were here for.”

The Tab can exclusively reveal that two people were also arrested outside King’s for obstructing a police officer as the melee developed.

The protest had started at noon outside Great St. Mary’s with a few hundred students shouting slogans slamming the PM, Tories and fees.

Some school children, amongst the protestors, told The Tab how their politics teacher had signed them in so that they could go and protest.

Things seemed peaceful up until about 1.30pm though, with 2nd year NatSci Tom Becker describing the scene as “a bit jovial really,” and another passer-by commenting that there “wasn’t much going on”.

As the protestors went to more extreme measures to get their point across, however, a policemen was overheard saying that he would have to get his baton out soon.

Harry Bellow, an Open Uni student, who dressed as a Japanese schoolgirl to vent his anger at the cuts, said: “Fuck the big society, let’s have a big-up society. This cesspool of a country needs change to sort itself out”.

After being turfed off Senate House property, one of the most vocal protestors addressed the crowd with a megaphone and urged everyone to meet up again on Saturday to reignite the fight against cuts.

More on reaction and events from protest to come…