the story of an 'abandoned' police van

you might have followed the media coverage of the students demonstrating all over the country yesterday:
here's one of the images that was widely used: as you can see, it looks like a bunch of masked hoodlums out for a bit of 'bovver'. however, i think things are not what they seem. it may be that some young people smashed up a police vehicle: but why was it left there? where are the other vans? why was it left unattended right in the path of a demo?

ever been fishing? i think this van was left as 'bait', in the same way that, during the G20 business last year, about the only shopfront not boarded up on the demo route was - guess what? a branch of RBS, who were profligate gamblers of the worst sort, before they were bailed out with squillions of our quids. smashing up banks and police vans makes for good pictures in the Daily Mail and the rest of the 'yellow press'

anyway, here's another pic of the same van:

in the Guardian, this was originally captioned something like "Protesters try to stop a ploice van from moving", since changed to the more accurate "Students in London try to stop a police van from being attacked". the young people in this picture probably know what any sensible activist knows: that violence tends to alienate the very people you've got common ground with. that's why the road protestors in the mid-90s were almost never violent: they stood their ground, often with a struggle, but didn't use violence in the process. eventually, even the right-wing the press couldn't keep printing crap about them - the lies didn't work, and the protestors gained widespread sympathy, including in arch-Tory organs like the Telegraph and, believe it or not, Country Life.

anyway, here's the picture that really caught my eye (and not just for the obvious reasons):

five pretty young women pose for the camera with their fashion accessories in perfect order. what was the demo to them? did it turn into their chance for catwalk fame? they're not exactly dressed for a demo on what was a chilly day - and i wonder if they've brought their make-up with them?

is this what demos have become? has Big Brother come out of the house and done a mind-meld with his namesake, who lives among the securocrats?

i'm wondering whether to be happy or depressed about this last image. are they showing that they're empowered and making their own decisions, including looking good on a demo? or have they swallowed the oxymoronic 'celebrity culture' blue pill and intent on getting noticed? is the demo just another photo-op? i'm still wondering

well, at least they took the trouble to turn up instead of staying at home with a copy of Elle. and hats off to all the young people who got off their arses - i'm pleased to see that they're not the bunch of depoliticised, feckless, drunken twits parts of the media will have us think they are