Wednesday 10 November 2010 at 10.30pm on BBC 2 Presented by Jeremy Paxman A huge demonstration by students and lecturers against plans to treble tuition fees and cut university funding in England descended into violence today when a group of protesters smashed their way into the headquarters of the Conservative party in Millbank Tower in Westminster. National Union of Students President Aaron Porter condemned the violence as "despicable", saying: "This action was by others who have come out and used this opportunity to hijack a peaceful protest." So who are the people behind the violence? Are they a fringe minority not representative of how the vast majority of students feel, and perhaps not even connected to the tuition fees protest, or are they more representative than students leaders would have us believe? Tonight we will be trying to find out. We hope to be speaking to both students and a coalition minister. We'll be discussing whether the claim by a group of former military commanders that the decision to scrap the aircraft carrier Ark Royal and the fleet of Harrier jets will leave the "newly valuable" Falkland Islands open to attack is correct. And in the latest report in our council cuts series, Stephen Smith has been in Somerset on the day the country council voted to cut the arts budget by 100%. Allan Little has a film on how French President Nicolas Sarkozy's programme of radical reform is going, why he is so unpopular in France and whether he could win the next election. Join Jeremy at 10.30pm on BBC Two. |