Hundreds of angry students gathered yesterday to take part in a march against controversial plans to scrap the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA).
The students’ protest started in London’s Piccadilly Circus where some waved banners which read: “Make Clegg and Cameron pay. Bring down the Government.”
Police, who have handed out leaflets on what to do in case of violence, were keeping a low profile before the march set off to Parliament Square.
Sinead Rylance, 21, a nursing student at King’s College London, from Bolton, said she would have been put off going to college without the EMA.
“I believe in free education for everyone,” she said.
“I’m against higher tuition fees and cutting the EMA.”
A 24-year-old student doing a PhD in musicology at the University of London, who did not wish to be named, said: “I’m here to show my solidarity to some of the poorer students of our society. A lot of them came along to protest cuts to university funding so I want to return the favour.”
The students crowded on to the steps below the Eros statue, with banners reading Tax the rich, teach the poor, Coalition of resistance and You lied David Cam(EMA)ron.
A chorus of chanting rang out including “Save EMA, the bankers have to pay” and the now familiar “No ifs, no buts, no education cuts”.
Bemused tourists looked on and took pictures of the scene.
Chris Laker, 16, from Clapham, south London, said: “We’re not happy. By the time we get to university it’s going to be really hard for us. We’ll be paying really high fees. Taking away the EMA makes it even worse. A lot of people need the money for books.”
He said he had seen the violence at previous protests and added: “It shows how infuriated people are.”
Roads were closed along the route as the march went down Haymarket and around Trafalgar Square. A line of police in fluorescent jackets walked ahead of the noisy protesters.
A “legal observer” handed out stickers from Bindmans solicitors with an “arrest legal hotline” advising: “‘No comment’, No duty solicitor, No personal details unless arrested and at police station”.
The protesters gathered on the west side of Parliament Square where the road had been closed off. A group of MCs broadcast music from a sound system in the back of a rented van, attracting a small crowd.
One protester sipped from a can of beer and said: “We should go. This is boring.”
A line of police blocked the route to Parliament but other than the loud music the atmosphere was fairly subdued.
The protest wound down before 7 p.m.
As the sound system played the last song, the leaflets and banners on the street were already being cleared away by rubbish collectors.