London:
Tens of thousands of students marched through London on Wednesday against plans to triple university tuition fees, and violence erupted as a minority battled police and trashed a building containing the headquarters of the governing Conservative Party.
Organisers said 50,000 students, lecturers and supporters demonstrated against plans to raise the cost of studying at a university to 9,000 pounds (14,000 US dollars) a year, three times the current rate, in the largest street protest yet against the government's sweeping austerity measures.
As the march passed a high-rise building that houses Conservative headquarters, some protesters smashed windows as others lit a bonfire of placards outside the building.
Office workers were evacuated as several dozen demonstrators managed to get into the lobby, scattering furniture, smashing CCTV cameras, spraying graffiti and chanting "Tories Out," while outside police faced off against a crowd that occasionally hurled food, soda cans and placards.
The violence appeared to be carried out by a small group as hundreds of others stood and watched. Anarchist symbols and the words "Tory scum" were spray-painted around the building, and black and red flags flew from atop an office block beside the 29-story Millbank Tower.
Rooftop protesters threw down water, paper, and in one case a fire extinguisher, to boos from the crowd below.
Police said eight people, a mix of protesters and police officers, were taken to hospitals with minor injuries.
The Metropolitan Police said, "a small minority of protesters have taken it upon themselves to cause damage to property, whilst the vast majority have peacefully made their point."
Police Commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, called the actions "wholly unacceptable".
Nearby, the headquarters of Britain's MI5 spy agency, Thames House, was sealed with heavy metal doors as police guarded the rear exits.
Organisers condemned the violence.
Sally Hunt, general secretary of faculty group the University and College Union, said the actions of a minority, out of 50,000 people, was regrettable.
Elsewhere, protesters were peaceful but determined.
Britain's Liberal Democrats, who are part of the coalition government with the Conservatives, pledged during the country's election campaign to abolish fees.
"I acknowledge, of course I acknowledge, this is an extraordinarily difficult issue and I've been entirely open about the fact that we have not been able to deliver the policy that we held in opposition," Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said in parliament on Wednesday.
Protest leaders said they would attempt to use recall powers to oust lawmakers who break campaign promises on the issue.
The National Union of Students said it would try to recall legislators from the party who vote in favour of the hike.
While British tuition fees are modest compared to those at some US colleges, British universities are public institutions.
Opponents of the tuition increase have pointed out that Prime Minister David Cameron and other members of the government attended elite universities such as Oxford and Cambridge at a time when university education was free.
The previous Labour government of Prime Minister Tony Blair introduced the first fees for students soon after it was elected in 1997.
Scotland abolished tuition fees in 2000, and in the rest of Britain the cost is capped at about 3,000 pounds (4,800 US dollars) a year.
Cameron's government plans to triple that and cut funding to universities as it strives to slash 81 billion (b) pounds (128 billion (b) US dollars) from public expenditure over the next four years.
Organisers said 50,000 students, lecturers and supporters demonstrated against plans to raise the cost of studying at a university to 9,000 pounds (14,000 US dollars) a year, three times the current rate, in the largest street protest yet against the government's sweeping austerity measures.
As the march passed a high-rise building that houses Conservative headquarters, some protesters smashed windows as others lit a bonfire of placards outside the building.
Office workers were evacuated as several dozen demonstrators managed to get into the lobby, scattering furniture, smashing CCTV cameras, spraying graffiti and chanting "Tories Out," while outside police faced off against a crowd that occasionally hurled food, soda cans and placards.
The violence appeared to be carried out by a small group as hundreds of others stood and watched. Anarchist symbols and the words "Tory scum" were spray-painted around the building, and black and red flags flew from atop an office block beside the 29-story Millbank Tower.
Rooftop protesters threw down water, paper, and in one case a fire extinguisher, to boos from the crowd below.
Police said eight people, a mix of protesters and police officers, were taken to hospitals with minor injuries.
The Metropolitan Police said, "a small minority of protesters have taken it upon themselves to cause damage to property, whilst the vast majority have peacefully made their point."
Police Commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, called the actions "wholly unacceptable".
Nearby, the headquarters of Britain's MI5 spy agency, Thames House, was sealed with heavy metal doors as police guarded the rear exits.
Organisers condemned the violence.
Sally Hunt, general secretary of faculty group the University and College Union, said the actions of a minority, out of 50,000 people, was regrettable.
Elsewhere, protesters were peaceful but determined.
Britain's Liberal Democrats, who are part of the coalition government with the Conservatives, pledged during the country's election campaign to abolish fees.
"I acknowledge, of course I acknowledge, this is an extraordinarily difficult issue and I've been entirely open about the fact that we have not been able to deliver the policy that we held in opposition," Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said in parliament on Wednesday.
Protest leaders said they would attempt to use recall powers to oust lawmakers who break campaign promises on the issue.
The National Union of Students said it would try to recall legislators from the party who vote in favour of the hike.
While British tuition fees are modest compared to those at some US colleges, British universities are public institutions.
Opponents of the tuition increase have pointed out that Prime Minister David Cameron and other members of the government attended elite universities such as Oxford and Cambridge at a time when university education was free.
The previous Labour government of Prime Minister Tony Blair introduced the first fees for students soon after it was elected in 1997.
Scotland abolished tuition fees in 2000, and in the rest of Britain the cost is capped at about 3,000 pounds (4,800 US dollars) a year.
Cameron's government plans to triple that and cut funding to universities as it strives to slash 81 billion (b) pounds (128 billion (b) US dollars) from public expenditure over the next four years.
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