LONDON (AFP) - – Rioters in Britain attacked a car carrying the
heir to the throne Prince Charles and battled with police outside
parliament as the government survived a major test in a vote to
raise university fees.
Charles and his wife Camilla looked shocked as the anti-fees
demonstrators hurled missiles and paint at their car as they
travelled to the theatre in London late Thursday.
The couple were unharmed but a window of the vehicle was
smashed.
Dozens of officers and demonstrators were injured as the student
protest in the heart of the British capital turned violent during
the government's narrow victory in a parliamentary vote.
The government suffered its first resignations over policy and
the plans to raise fees exposed the deep strains, both within the
ranks of the Liberal Democrats and with coalition partners the
Conservatives.
The government's majority was cut by three-quarters as lawmakers
voted by 323 to 302 to raise the cap on annual tuition fees at
English universities from 2012.
The basic level of fees will now climb to 6,000 pounds (9,460
dollars, 7,140 euros), with an upper limit of 9,000 pounds. The
current cap is 3,290 pounds.
Demonstrator Anna Campbell, a 19-year-old studying French and
Russian at Sheffield University, cried after hearing the
result.
"I'm so angry, but this is not the end," she told AFP. "It's
just the beginning, we are going to keep fighting."
Protesters attacked the armoured Rolls Royce carrying Prince
Charles, 62, and his 63-year-old wife Camilla as they were driven
down a major road in central London, their Clarence House residence
said.
The burgundy 1977 Phantom VI was cut off from a convoy of police
vehicles accompanying it and became surrounded by protesting
students who had split off from the main demonstrations at
parliament, according to witnesses.
"People were trying to talk to him [Charles] about tuition fees
at first," said Matthew Maclachlan, quoted in the Daily Telegraph
newspaper.
"But when more people realised what was happening, the crowds
swelled and people were throwing glass bottles and picking up
litter bins and throwing them at the car. You could hear all this
smashing."
The couple was not hurt and arrived as planned at the theatre,
where they were attending the Royal Variety Performance, an annual
star-studded evening of entertainment.
But the rear passenger window of the car -- where Charles had
been sitting -- was smashed and the vehicle was splattered with
white paint.
Thursday's protests were the third in response to plans to raise
tuition fees, and the most violent so far.
Outside the Houses of Parliament, activists rained missiles on
police protecting the building and clashed with police at other
points around Parliament Square.
Flares, sticks, metal fences, rocks, snooker balls and paint
bombs were among the missiles hurled at police in an ugly battle
that lasted hours.
Hooded youths repeatedly attacked police lines.
They also torched benches and a security guard box in the
square, smashed the doors and windows of the Treasury, or finance
ministry, and the Supreme Court, and vandalised a statue of wartime
prime minister Winston Churchill.
Prime Minister David Cameron denounced the "totally
unacceptable" violence.
"It is clear that a minority of protestors came determined to
provoke violence, attack the police and cause as much damage to
property as possible," he said in a statement from his office.
There was widespread condemnation of the protests in the British
press.
"How could the thuggish and cowardly attack on Charles and
Camilla's car be justified?" asked The Sun.
At least 43 protesters and 12 police officers were injured,
according to police figures. Officers arrested 26 people for
offences including violent disorder and assaulting police.
The proposal to raise fees has exposed deep tensions within the
Liberal Democrats and put strain on their coalition with the larger
Conservative Party which came to power following the general
election in May.
As they try to rein in Britain's record deficit, the plans
amount to a reversal of one of the Lib Dems' flagship election
pledges.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg's party vowed to phase out
tuition fees altogether if they won the election. Of the 57 Liberal
Democrat lawmakers, 28 voted with the government, while 21 voted
against and eight abstained.
The coalition suffered its first resignations over policy when
two Lib Dem parliamentary aides to ministers and one Conservative
quit their posts in order to vote against the plans.
Source:
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20101209/twl-britain-politics-university-0ccf4b6.html