[lopterton]

Has anyone else seen this article in the Cambridge Tab? Apparently thousands of anarchists, class war protestors and animal rights protestors are going to try to block the "bumps", the Cambridge rowing event.

[Azarimanka]

Pathetic retards. They need to get a life.

[illusionz]

I doubt much will actually happen. Even if it did, I don't row and most of cambridge will just laugh at the rowers...

[lopterton]

According to this article in the Cambridge Tab, thousands of anarchist, animal-rights, and working-class protestors are going to be in Cambridge in force on 16 June to protest against "Cambridge elitism". Apparently they have chosen this date because it is when the big annual rowing event known as the "May Bumps" will be held, which they see as an important date in the calendar of the rich elite "toffs". What's your view? Will you be passively cheering on one side or the other? Will you be actively taking part, either in defence of the rowing or in the protest aimed at disrupting it?

[Dmon1Unlimited]

class war? could have sworn anyone who not only meets grade requirements for their course and impresses their tutors (or whoever) would be accepted...

are they going to say with absolute certainty that a working class person does not exist within the unis list of students?

[+ polarity -]

just need a few missiles to take care of this

[marcusfox]

Surely it's a race hate crime and should be prosecuted as such.

[lopterton]

I have started a poll here, on the "anti-elitists versus Cambridge University rowing" battle...or whatever it turns out to be.

[Sternumator]

What are they even protesting for except we dont like people at cambridge? People who support this will either be going because they are jealous or would have read far to many books about social class to even look at what goes on in the real world.

[Chumbaniya]

I went to Cambridge. I f***ing wish I was as rich as these idiots think I am.

[Brit_Miller]

If there was an option called, "Going to see Australian protester getting knocked out by oar", I'd vote for that,

[Aquinas]

The people who protest against 'elitism' are just as bad as those who promulgate it. Many, many of those who are concerned about elitism are attending institutions which benefit from the same idea they abhor. It's quite funny really.

[ChampEon]

Row, row, row your boat,
Gently down the stream.
If you see a protestor.
Don't forget to scream.
AAARGH!

[Drapetomanic]

I do think our schooling system is elitist and I do object to class inequality. However, universities aren't the root cause of the problems. They choose who they deem to be the most capable applicants, this isn't wrong, how else could they choose?

The problem is that children born into relative poverty who receive a shoddy education, in comparison to a privately schooled child, are at a massive disadvantage when it comes to reaching our best universities; this is because they aren't deemed to be the 'best qualified applicants' because their background has prevented them.

They should be protesting the pre-university school system and the shocking wealth inequality we have in this country, not our universities.

EDIT: I must say I do support the animal rights protesters, as their cause is unrelated to the others and in my opinion appropriate.

[Joinedup]

(Original post by lopterton)
"bumps"

[Helenia]

Well, now that Mr Asbo has been moved on, something else had to be added to increase the risk of Bumps.

Seriously though, it's a pretty dumb idea.

[barnetlad]

If you are mounting a class war, surely you wouldn't stage an event which has minimal if any tv coverage? Isn't 16 June around the time of Royal Ascot?

[Architecture-er]

Just fit the boats with tireme-esque ramming prows.. And fit each rowing oar with a sharpened steel edge. Problem solved, and perhaps improved somewhat.

oh, and give each cox a double-barreled shotgun. Attempts to hole the boats of other competitors will run the risk of disqualification. 5 seconds deducted from your boat's time for every protestor you manage to gun down.

[Joinedup]

Class war anarchists aren't really much of a force to be reckoned with anymore.
Imo they'd be lucky to turn out a full minibus let alone thousands. Animal rightsers are pretty persistant but you'd think they have better things to worry about than one translocated swan.

[Chumbaniya]

(Original post by Drapetomanic)
I do think our schooling system is elitist and I do object to class inequality. However, universities aren't the root cause of the problems. They choose who they deem to be the most capable applicants, this isn't wrong, how else could they choose?

The problem is that children born into relative poverty who receive a shoddy education, in comparison to a privately schooled child, are at a massive disadvantage when it comes to reaching our best universities; this is because they aren't deemed to be the 'best qualified applicants' because their background has prevented them.

They should be protesting the pre-university school system and the shocking wealth inequality we have in this country, not our universities.

EDIT: I must say I do support the animal rights protesters, as their cause is unrelated to the others and in my opinion appropriate.

I agree with everything you say about educational inequality, but the 'animal rights' protest is really quite far-fetched. It's an entirely ordinary case of an aggressive animal disrupting a commonly used public space, and if it didn't have anything to do with the university it wouldn't even be a story. I could probably understand if the swan was killed, but it was simply moved and had its wings clipped. Every day thousands of mice die in traps, thousands of cattle are killed for meat and thousands of ants are squashed underfoot - relocating a swan could only be seen as worrisome to people with deeply warped senses of perspective.