Demo-lition!

It's been fascinating to watch the news all day. We saw people smashing up windows and the reception area to the 30 Millbank building (or was it Millbank Tower, the journalists couldn't quite make their minds up) - all in the name of protesting against increased student fees (although oddly I don't recall anyone doing anything like this when Labour introduced them in the first place, nor when they hiked them by a factor of three in 2005).

Strangest of all has been the reaction of the NUS (whose staff, wearing reflective jackets, were prominently on the scene when those windows were being smashed in). It is currently saying on its web site:

NUS has condemned the violent actions of "rogue protestors" who have undermined an otherwise peaceful protest with NUS President Aaron Porter calling the scenes "despicable".

Strange then that this afternoon, clicking on the "WE WILL MARCH" banner produced the following, at http://www.demo2010.org.uk/

With "DEMO-LITION" emblazoned all over it (as well on the NUS' official placards and t-shirts), it seems to me not so much a condemnation of violence as an incitement to it.

Of course during the course of the afternoon all trace of this site has mysteriously disappeared and the URL currently links straight through to nus.org.uk. Funny that. There's still a couple of "DEMO-LITION" badges tucked away on its front page though.

Pity the media hasn't made a point of this, they don't seem to like reporting on union hypocrisy very much for some reason...

On a related note, credit to the BBC who managed to find the perfect candidate to interview for the Six O'Clock News (long before the watershed): a man with "FUCK" scrawled all over his face. Very prominent on the analogue set I watched it on...

Update: they just showed him again on the News at Ten.