The pink kettles were a right hit!
Fantastic to see so many people out on Saturday. Particularly good to see support from union members, parents and families. Although the police took a step back from the protest it is important for us to keep focused on the recent trend of criminalising protesters, which we witness in police attitudes and strategy as well as within the media. The protest maintained a calm atmosphere, but we must keep up momentum and organisation.
Next time, join us and bring your kettles!!
About Stop Kettling Our Kids!
This is a group for parents and supporters of children, students and young people who have protested about tuition fees and cuts to EMA. We are disgusted at the way they have been treated on the recent demonstrations. We feel that kettling young people without access to food, water and toilets for up to 10 hours is an infringement of their rights. The violence that has been used on the tens of thousands of protesters has been completely unacceptable. One young protester is in hospital. Our young people will not be intimidated from the streets and must be allowed to protest without fear of imprisonment or assault.
stopkettlingourkids 
The EDL were successfully ‘Kettled’ on Saturday 5th January in Luton.
About 2000 – 3000 of the most violent football thugs you will ever meet were ‘escorted’ in a moving kettle from the railway station to St Georges Square and then ‘contained’ while they listened to speeches etc, before being ‘escorted’ back to the railway station again.
Here are some points:
1. They passed several unguarded police vans and did NOT trash them.
2. There was NO criminal damage or large-scale violence.
3. NO police officers were assaulted.
4 They achieved mass media coverage for their cause.
So my question to you, and I think perhaps many people would also ask it, why is it that people such as the EDL can cooperate perfectly acceptable with these tactics? According to the perceived left-wing wisdom, ‘Kettling’ causes people to boil over and be violent.
So why not at the Luton march?
The answer is simple:
1. They didn’t ‘kick off’ because they decided to remain peaceful because it suited their agenda.
2. The organisation itself was VERY CLEAR on social networking sites beforehand that they did not want any trouble.
My view is that if the EDL can do it, student protesters should be able to as well. Or are we saying that students have more ‘anger management’ and ‘self control issues’ than football hooligans?