Student Protests in London; London Protest Turns Violent
BALDWIN: Thousands of students taking to the streets. They're marching, they're chanting, all of this over proposed tuition hikes. Sound familiar? Not talking about American students this time. This story, these pictures developing in London today. Folks, this is all a show of resentment at the government's austerity plan. There are essentially measures that would triple tuition fees and cut education funding. Today, one group actually smashed glass. They lit flares. There they go. And wrote graffiti. All of this, this is the headquarters of the conservative party in London. And just last hour, I spoke with CNN's Atika Shubert who in the thick of things in London.</s>ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It started earlier this morning with a massive protest, about 40,000 student demonstrators is the estimate. And what they're protesting, of course, is that hike in tuition fees. Tuition fees are due to triple. And a lot of students say they simply can't afford it. So, there was a lot of anger on the streets, but nobody expected it to turn as violent as it did.</s>BALDWIN: Atika, answer me this because I know we've been talking, and we've seen these pictures where they crash through the conservative part headquarters. But correct me if not, it was the liberal Democrats, you know, led by Nick Clegg who signed the pledges not to raise the fees if elected. So, my question is why are the students attacking conservative party headquarters?</s>SHUBERT: Well, I mean, this was basically on the root for the protest. So, it's one of the reasons why the protest was organized around here, went past the prime minister's office, went past to conservative party headquarters. So, the point was to make a statement. But nobody anticipated that it would turn as violent as it did. And you make a good point. The anger wasn't directed just at the conservative party. A lot of it was at the liberal democrats. They campaigned not to raise tuition fees during the elections and a lot of the students feel betrayed by that. So, there is an equal amount of anger directed at the liberal Democrats, but it just so happens that this conservative party headquarters, right on their route, and they simply smashed their way in to make a violent statement.</s>BALDWIN: They smashed through. They made a violent statement. It looks for now, looking over your shoulder, looks pretty clear. So, I'm assuming the students are out of there for now. Really, Atika, final question, where do we go from here? They've left a lot of destruction in their wake here through the protesting over these proposed tuition hikes. So when do we know if the proposal actually might go into effect and what about, you know, what about the students? What about the government here? How do they respond?</s>SHUBERT: Well this is the question -- how is the government going to respond to this? I mean, the government has essentially said that it just cannot afford the kind of funding that it had in the past, that it's inevitable that these kind of tuition hikes are going to happen. They slashed university budgets by as much as 40 percent. It's a recession. This is a result of it. That's what they say. But what the students say is that there is a better way to do that. They understand that these cuts need to be made eventually, but it just can't happen as suddenly and as quickly as it did. That's what the students are saying. Now, how will the government respond to this? We'll have to wait and see. Actually, David Cameron, the prime minister, is actually away on a trip to China at the moment. So he's missed all of this excitement from the students back home.</s>BALDWIN: Sorry. I'm laughing because of a guest who is about to walk in. We're very excited. Here in Atlanta, a huge megastar gracing our own set. It is the Wolf Blitzer in the house. So why is Wolf making a trip down South?</s>WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Nice couch you've got here.</s>BALDWIN: Please, take a seat.</s>BLITZER: Beautiful.</s>BALDWIN: Mi casa es su casa.</s>BLITZER: Beautiful stuff you've got here.</s>BALDWIN: Good to see you.</s>BLITZER: Hey.</s>BALDWIN: Hey, we'll be right back with this guy, next.