On Wednesday 10th 50,000 students marched through London to protest the Government’s plans to increase fees from their current level of around £3,000 a year to up to £9,000. The road outside our office block was closed as the march was scheduled to end just past us in front of Tate Britain.
Next to our building is a smaller 7 storey block which houses Conservative party headquarters (amongst others), at around 13:30 the fire alarm went off in our tower block and after gathering our possessions we started the long trek down 14 flights of stairs. By the time we reached the tenth floor we could smell smoke and when we got to the fourth we met some people coming up who told us that we needed to switch to the back stairs as smoke bombs had been thrown into reception.
Standing at the back of the building we could hear the baying and chanting of the mob outside the 7 storey block, after about an hour we were told we could go back inside.
The damage to the building next door was pretty extensive but none of our people was hurt which was a result. Today there are more protests planned and even as I write hatches are being battened down, who knows what will happen. In the meantime here are the Kaiser Chiefs with I Predict A Riot.
