In the UK, student fees are about to shoot up, making it significantly harder for anyone to go to university unless they have rich parents. Yesterday, coachloads of students went to London to march and protest, in what, according to those who was there, was a largely peaceful affair, punctuated with the odd bit of stupidity and violence.

At the time, people wondered why all of the news outlets were focussing on the violence rather than, say, the issues, or the fact the vast majority of students were peacefully protesting. (Anyone remember that great photo from, I think, a G20 protest, where a guy about to chuck something through a window is surrounded by dozens of photo-journalists? Ah, here we go—one of many) Today, though, all becomes clear, as the BBC reports Prime Tory David Cameron has used the violence to cunningly distract from the reasons behind the protests.

I think we’ve also got to ask ourselves some questions. This level of violence was largely unexpected and what lessons can we learn for the future.

I imagine that could go one of two ways. It either gives the Tories and their Lib-Dem chums a chance to clamp down on protests, under the guise of public order and safety, or the lesson could be to essentially ensure some unrest in future protests. After all, that is all any news outlets are talking about this morning, rather than tuition fees rising to ‘up to’ £9,000 per year.

Wired reports:

The Obama administration has urged a federal appeals court to allow the government, without a court warrant, to affix GPS devices on suspects’ vehicles to track their every move.

The argument is that Americans should expect no privacy while in public, and so officers should be able to shoot darts with GPS tracking on to vehicles to track them. As despicable as I find the idea that you’ve no right to privacy when in public, what happens when the targeted, CLEARLY EVIL CRIM, who is presumed guilty from the off, returns home, where there is still an expectation of privacy (until the administration figures out how to do away with that trifling annoyance)? Presumably, the US government has developed magic darts, which drop off a vehicle when it returns to private property! Yes, that must be it!

Politics in the UK remains broken, with a voting system that is dated and rubbish, and an electorate that whinges no matter the outcome. We also have people making promises that they never keep, and everyone but the upper classes is getting routinely shafted.

But at least we’re not the USA.

The Nation, among other publications, reported on the Republican Party using the filibuster to stop legislation to end the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy in the country’s military. Said policy essentially means no-one’s allowed to ask if you’re gay, lesbian, or bisexual, but you’ll be kicked out of the forces if you are and reveal that’s the case.

Given the size of the US and its military, this is a big problem. The Nation reports that 14,000 Americans have been booted out for having the shocking audacity to be gay. The bastards. Still, Republicans to the rescue! To safeguard the country (by excluding lots of people for no good reason), they derailed legislation and offered some choice quotes. John McCain, who’s seemingly decided to become an extremist since losing to Obama, accused the Obama administration and Senate Democrats of “pandering” to the gay and lesbian community with their effort to end discrimination.

That’s quite a statement to make in any kind of civilised country. It’s no wonder many people, including his daughter, reckon the fight for equal rights is this generation’s civil rights movement. After all, imagine if McCain had instead declared one of the following:

The Obama administration and Senate Democrats are “pandering” to blacks with their effort to end discrimination.

The Obama administration and Senate Democrats are “pandering” to Hispanic people with their effort to end discrimination.

The Obama administration and Senate Democrats are “pandering” to women with their effort to end discrimination.

It’s not like the UK is devoid of discrimination, and there are plenty of (mostly Tory) MPs who aim to derail equal rights legislation (especially when it comes to gay rights), but the brazen level of disrespect, decency and common sense from the Republican Party just beggars belief. Anyone would think it’s 1810, not 2010.

Oh my. The BBC reports that all is not well at Pope HQ. Senior adviser and old git Cardinal Walter Kasper, when recently interviewed, referred to the UK as a “Third World country” marked by “a new and aggressive atheism”. Hole dug, the Vatican then said that the cardinal had not intended “any kind of slight” (oh, so that’s OK then), and was referring to the UK’s multicultural society (oh, so that’s—what? Wait a minute!). Kasper’s comment had in fact been “when you land at Heathrow you think at times you have landed in a Third World country”. Nice.

The UK’s got all sorts of problems when it comes to tribalism, but, by and large, it doesn’t do too bad. This island’s been a melting-pot nation of immigrants for centuries, and that’s part of what has made it great. To criticise the UK on the basis of its multiculturalism shows up Kasper and co. as being an even bigger shower of arseholes than most Brits thought in the first place.

We all know the Tories hate the BBC, because they hate anything that’s not privatised. However, due to the public not realising the value the BBC offers, the ‘slow death of the BBC’ stance is now taken by pretty much every political party.

Jeremy Hunt, the incumbent culture secretary, has now suggested the licence fee could “absolutely” fall next year, using the excuse of the UK’s “very constrained” financial situation. (Source: MediaWeek.)

I realise some people are irked about paying for the BBC, but let’s put things in perspective. £145.50 is about £12 per month, or 40p per day. That’s less than the price of a newspaper, half a typical candy bar, or a third of a cup of coffee. It’s less than BT charges me for line-rental alone. It’s only 80p more per week than The Times is charging for online access to its two websites. And yet for your 40p per day/£2.80 per week BBC fee, you get a bunch of ad-free TV stations, ad-free radio (including Radio 6, which, as recent events show, has no effective competition at all), and an ad-free (if you’re in the UK) website, including decent, reasonably impartial news coverage.

Reducing the licence fee will force the BBC into terminal decline. Some will argue removing the BBC will improve competition, but it won’t. Rupert Murdoch already effectively drives everything else in this area, and so you’ll merely see increasing competition for advertising, leading to more dumbing down of content and increasingly advertising-led/advertising-friendly news. People will then pine for the “good old days” of the BBC, but by then it’ll be too late.

If you don’t want the BBC beaten to a bloody pulp, write to your MP. Alternatively, use the 38 Degrees site to speak out against BBC cuts and convince Vince Cable to stand up to Rupert Murdoch.