Major operation for Lib Dem conference
Sheffield City Hall
Talks held as protests grow against Coalition policies
SHEFFIELD is gearing up for a major operation to handle the staging of the spring conference of the Liberal Democrats in the city.
Talks between senior police and council representatives are being held against a background of widespread protests against the Coalition Government over the raising of student tuition fees and public spending cuts.
With little sign of anger abating, demonstrators will have the focalpoint of a high profile political event in Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg’s ‘home city’.
Around 1,500 delegates are due to attend the conference at the City Hall from March 11-13 - the first time Sheffield has hosted a conference by a national political party.
The location was chosen at the start of the year when it was hailed as a coup for the city in terms of raising its profile and generating an estimated £1m for the local economy. Delegates will be based at the Mercure St Paul’s Hotel next to the Peace Gardens.
The Lib Dems’ partnership in the Coalition Government has been at the root of many demonstrations, especially among students, who have criticised Mr Clegg for his turnaround on student fees. In Sheffield, protests have been held outside the town hall and his Hallam constituency offices in Nether Green.
An extra local dimension to opposition to Mr Clegg comes with his defending of the withdrawal of a proposed £80m loan to Sheffield Forgemasters, with the Coalition Government under fire this week from MPs for taking “an easy cost saving”.
The conference will be held around the time the city’s Lib Dem council confirms next year’s budget - one that will encompass cuts of 8.35% in line with this week’s Government grants announcement.
Police and the council are now working on a strategy designed to ensure the conference is staged in a safe environment.
Supt Martin Scothern said: “South Yorkshire Police is working with Sheffield City Council and event organisers to plan a suitable policing operation around the Liberal Democrat spring conference.
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Thursday 23 February 2012
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Ann Archy
Saturday, December 18, 2010 at 09:41 AMThugs meeting thugs... It's time for me to duck out. It's interesting. I personally feel that non-violent civil resistance is one of the most effective forms of protest. Don't get me wrong, by that I don't mean well behaved civilians walking along the well planned routes decided by the police and being watched over by the still plotting and scheming state as they march past... For some years I have not gone to or attended demos in London, I've felt such frustration and anger when faced with a snarling, ignorant police officer, calling me names, swearing at me while I've stood, calmly and politely asking to leave the area before the violence kicks off. I'm not interested in fighting police. I'm not interested in getting pulverised when caught between them and the very brave, but very ignorant and reactionary, protesters who may want to fight. Thugs meeting thugs... It's time for me to duck out. When the G8 come to Sheffield I was in a very desperate circumstance, being a part of the dysfunctional attention seekers was, I thought, a means to an end and looking back at what happened it was just another play for today. We all had our set roles, aims and objectives from the protesters to the Police. When the Liberal Democrats come to Sheffield in April it will be much the same. The students and young people at these protests, I personally feel, have every right to fight if they so wish. The government does what it likes and the police tend to do as they like - it is deeply unjust to proclaim that these young people, who are having what they know of their futures torn up and trampled on, are wrong to resist that. However, even though it may be an animalistic and instinctive right of any human being to fight back and defend through violence, further study and thought about how to stand against the government may provide an alternative, and most probably optimal, outcome. The state are all too ready for what Paul Scriven calls thugs, we could debate for an age who have been the real thugs on the student protests, a section 14 was imposed in Sheffield, The Police in their riot vans, batons at the ready, lined the route of the protesters. Much the same when the circus comes to town in April. The protesters, or should that be dysfunctional attention seekers, will no doubt be protesting. Once more, as with the G8, the real impact of holding such a conference in Sheffield will be on the people of Sheffield and Paul Scriven says it is of benefit for the people of Sheffield. Need I remind him that people not involved in the G8 Protest were followed, stopped and searched, due to fact they knew people involved, or had alternative viewpoints but nothing to do with the protest itself. Once more the lives of working class people will bare the impact of such a conference coming to Sheffield. The middle class and the Police will no doubt play their part in the play for today, then we will have the same old crass headlines, along with commendation As a long standing Anarchist, I need to make it very clear that I have no time for Middle Class protestors and the Police, both are a part of the state, the problem not the solution. Neither is a full scale riot a solution or meaningless protest where the dysfunctional attention seekers shout their slogans and sell papers to each other. The circus might be coming to Sheffield but I see nothing to get overjoyed about, we need to seek alternative ways of expressing our discontent at the injustice of Capitalism and all what it stands for, agreed. There is nothing I hold in common with the protesters or the current government and you will find this be the fact for millions of working class people. Of course we either take now or stay the same, once more you will not even find myself involved with the dysfunctional attention seekers, the greatest key is to understand that they have a heart. Do not reinforce their self trickery; violence towards them reinforces that what they are doing is just and right! By smacking you when you are calm, it hurts them. If an entire crowd is calm but calculated and organised, the police aims will be revealed. In the end it will eat itself from the inside out.
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