I see from the pages of this esteemed newspaper that a “third year student from Kings” Mark Reilly’s comment on the spectacle in London is: “I don’t think that the message has got lost because of the violent aspects of the protest […] Democratic channels have been tried and failed”.

If you think that’s nonsensical, try the following. Helping out at the OTC’s Remembrance Day services, I and my fellow volunteers were warned to keep a weather eye out for any English Defence League members who had been involved in a recent dust-up involving the burning of poppies by certain members of the Islamic far right.  The conversation, however, quickly moved on to the fact that the principle source of violence in the media recently was the demonstration against fees.

Terrific. The EDL is planning another demo in about two weeks and now, should their shaven headed members decide to get rough, they will have every excuse.  And should prosecution and condemnation fall on them, they will be able to say, “See?  When it’s a bunch of upper class toffs from University, everyone’s fine with it, but when we do it…”  And you know what?  They’ll be right.

One of the EDL members was described as being ‘clubbed to a pulp’ by the police for his actions.  I can only imagine the sort of self-pitying drivel we’d hear if something similar happened to one of our students.  Is violent hooliganism suddenly okay if it’s done by upper class students from Cambridge but not working class boys from the projects?  My Marxist days are a long, long way behind me, but that doesn’t mean I can’t recognize this sort of thing.

It does no good whatsoever to try to argue that the students’ cause is more righteous.  I’m going to step over the question of whether the EDL has BNP, or whether it is simply a group of politically motivated football hooligans – and which possibility is scarier – because it makes no difference whatsoever to this.  We are all equal before the law.  Should I go out and firebomb a car, it makes no difference if that car belongs to Nick Griffin or Nelson Mandela.  Or at least it shouldn’t.

In my youth in the newly free South Africa, one of the most impressive sights to me was that Louis Luyt brought Nelson Mandela to court.  Mandela is a personal hero of mine, and one of the most respected people in the world, let alone South Africa, whereas Luyt is an unpolished Afrikaaner thug with some very questionable associations.  But in the eyes of the law, it made no difference.  And, as furious and betrayed as Mandela felt, he was not going to spit on the law and the constitution that had been so bitterly won.

“Democratic channels have been tried and failed” – yes, I think I can guess how that little gem is going down in the rougher parts of London.  It is not helped by the NUS and CUSU’s stance that, essentially, violence is bad because it doesn’t work.  There’s always going to be someone who’s going to argue that it does.

So, my message to anyone involved in this mess is: the next time you hear about some ghastly football riot or self-righteously roll your eyes at a BNP demo, and ask how on earth this sort of thing is allowed to happen – take a good, hard look in the mirror. There’s your answer.