Dear folks,

I wish you all a fantastic New Year and may 2011 release the good in you!

New stories on London's hectic life will follow shortly.

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Frozen Britain for Christmas

Heavy snowfalls have brought Britain to a halt in the last five days, as up to 25cm of snow blanketed parts of Scotland, North Wales, Northern Ireland and the West Country.

Snow showers have also reached central London and some flights from Heathrow were delayed. Thousands of passengers were stranded at the airport for four days and slept on departure lounge floors, as the airport could not deal with extreme weather.

Meanwhile, the East Coast Line, one of the country’s main railway arteries, was suspended, leaving passengers at King’s Cross staring at a departure board flashing up cancellations. Hundreds spent the night in the freezing cold waiting for Eurostar trains, while the Red Cross handed out blankets to keep passengers warm.

The great queue of St Pancras is slowly decreasing now, as passengers are leaving ‘on a first come, first served’ basis.

The situation at Heathrow airport seems more difficult; even though it has reopened its second runaway yesterday in the evening, many families were told today they will not get home for Christmas as BAA admitted it could not clear the massive backlog at Heathrow before Friday.

Even transport in mainland Europe has been heavily disrupted by the snow and freezing temperatures and hundreds of thousands of passengers in continental Europe contemplate Christmas ruined and holidays wrecked by the heavy snow.

EMA will soon close to new applicants

Many high school students will not receive the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) from the next academic year.

Economic support to 16-18-year-olds students will be targeted to those young people who really need financial help to continue in education.

Yesterday’s protest over plans to axe EMA, was called by the ‘education activist network’ and supported by London Region University and College Union (UCU); activists, who had set up a little trestles table and stood chatting and holding banners, started their march at 3.30 pm in Trafalgar Square.

Soon after, demonstrators from all over London gathered at the department of business, innovation and skills in Victoria Street, where they were surrounded by police. The crowd soon disbanded, and a small group marched off, towards a public meeting being held at King's College.

The action was far quieter than last week’s demonstration to protest at the Government's plans to treble university tuition fees.

Agitators were disappointed over EMA scrapping, but students who currently get the grant will continue to receive it for the rest of the academic year.

Day of protest against plan to axe poor pupils' EMA grants

Students and lecturers at more than 100 schools and colleges across the country will stage marches and sit-ins at lunchtime, protesting against plan to axe poor pupils’ EMA grants.

The Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) is a weekly grant of up to £30 given to 16-18-year-olds from the most disadvantaged homes to help them stay in education, by paying for their basic costs such as transport, food and books.

Martin Doel, chief executive of the Association of Colleges (AoC) said that the overall spending cut involved could see support for the poorest young people shrinking from £574 million to possibly as little as £75 million, severely limiting the career prospects of teenagers from low income families.

EMA payments are received by 600,000 young people from lower income families in English sixth forms and colleges and in some areas of Birmingham, Leicester and the North West, up to four fifths of students are entitled to the grant.

While potesters all over the UK claim that receiving the support is often the decisive factor for poor teenagers in deciding whether to continue their studies, authorities are increasingly concerned about the present economic climate.

Schools Minister Nick Gibb said that as 90% of the students currently in receipt of EMA would have stayed in education without it, the best solution is to ensure better value for money, targeting support to those young people who really need financial help to continue in education.

EMA is due to be scrapped in September 2011 and will be replaced by targeted support straight away.

The action comes just days after tens of thousands of demonstrators descended on Parliament to protest at the Government's plans to treble university tuition fees.

UK students gathered in their biggest mass demonstration ever as MPs vote to raise tuition fees

Thousands of students gathered today in a day-long demonstration in central London, in a last-ditch attempt to defend their right to higher education, while waiting for MPs’ tuition fees votes.

Young protesters from Brighton, Bristol, Leeds, Nottingham, Liverpool, Oxford, Sheffield and Manchester travelled by coach to join the demonstration.

Police attempting to control student protest in London have resorted to controversial "kettling" techniques to contain the demonstrators' anger.

The protesters marched through Trafalgar Square and headed to Buckingham Palace before converging near Parliament later today, as MPs voted to increase university tuition fees to £9,000 per year, by a majority of 21.

The protest, which was not coordinated by a central body, was chaotic and flared into violence, as several agitators and police officers were injured.

The siege of the treasury is over now, a police charge has pushed back protestors, but it is still difficult to say if the demonstration is drawing to a close. Parliament Square is a mess and anything that can be smashed is a focus of attention.

But Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who branded university tuition fee protesters 'dreamers', said that fee increases were the best possible choice, given the economic crisis.

Protest number 3 sees 153 students arrested

Thousands of students took the streets today for the third time to protest against plans to triple university tuition fees.

Traffic was brought to a standstill as the students marched through Whitehall, Westminster, Victoria, Hyde Park and the City before ending up in Trafalgar Square, where terrified workers saw a group of demonstrators attempting to smash their way into local Tesco Express and Waterstone's.

153 demonstrators were arrested in London, most of which, said Scotland Yard, were made in Trafalgar Square as they played a game of cat and mouse around the capital to avoid being 'kettled'.

Meanwhile, students who have occupied universities last week, have vowed to continue their protest despite being threatened with legal action.

Young demonstrators who marched up and down the UK were more peaceful, but they are planning to protest in London on the day MPs vote on the fees.

A massive protest is expected in the capital next week and it will be a last-ditch attempt to stop new Conservative plans turning UK in an elitist state.

Students protest up and down the UK

The student demonstrations against increased university tuition fees became a national event yesterday as thousands of students across the country took to the streets to voice anger at the new government’s plans.

Nearly 3,000 from Universities, colleges and schools gathered at University place in Manchester, and almost the same number paraded through Brighton. Meanwhile 2,000 students came together in Bristol heading into the city centre. Smaller demonstrations took place in Edinburgh, where the Liberal Democrat headquarters were surrounded by about 250 students and in Cambridge, where more than 200 youngsters scaled the fence of the Senate House.
Seven people in total were arrested amid a heavy police presence.

Meanwhile in London there were few injuries and although there was vandalism, no repeat of the attacks on symbolically important buildings such as Conservative Central Office was reported.

Moreover, several universities in the capital have been occupied in the past few days, including the University of London’s School of Oriental and African studies in Bloomsbury and the University College London.
University chiefs have been granted an injunction to evict all the students from the buildings, but in some cases, groups voted for “non-violent resistance” against attempts to remove them.

UK has not seen this sort of behaviour and demonstration for some considerable time and further riots will take place next week.