Peaceful protest turns ugly in London

There were two demonstrations in London yesterday. The first, and most enduringly important, was that by half a million people against the cuts that are falling disproportionately on vital public services and those who provide them.

The other one was a demonstration of just how easy it is for a few hundred people to steal the occasion with sporadic acts of violence. Last night, it the latter one which was taking the headlines as police and protesters clashed in Trafalgar Square.

Earlier half a million people descended on central London for the biggest protest the nation has seen since demonstrations against the Iraq war eight years ago. They streamed into the capital from across the country to vent their anger at government cuts, their only weapons peaceful chanting and waving placards.

There were 500,000 people and, with their disperate causes, represented 500,000 different reasons to take a stand.

From students facing rises in fees to parents whose Sure Start services are being slashed, the message was the same: "Stop the cuts." The March for the Alternative was organised by trades unions, but its anti-cuts message chimed with a much wider audience. Hundreds of coaches were chartered and public transport full to bursting as people came from across the country. Diane Richards, 62, a nurse from Aberystwyth, was one.

She said: "I was born in the same year as the NHS and I'm doing better than it. Politicians have no concept of the impact of these cuts on small communities, poor communities."

But other protestors - a few hundred at most - brought with them splintering glass, flying paint, smoke, and violence. As night fell, a hardcore of protestors continued skirmishing with police in Trafalgar Square, and a blaze started deliberately in Jermyn Street had to be extinguished by firefighters.

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