Cue backlash...

Tory Bear has written a comment piece about the recent farcical student protests for the Edinburgh newspaper

The Journal

. It seems he has already "tickled a few trouts" even though the article has only been up for a few hours.

"When a dozen or so students stormed their campus, university officials cut the power, wifi and access to loos. They refused to negotiate, and very soon the whole thing began to fizzle out. That was New York University. The reaction at Edinburgh was a very different affair, one that has left the reputation of the university tarred and set a worrying precedent. A strange phenomenon has spread from campus to campus this term in the form of a small bunch of well organised, well equipped and well out of line protesters illegally occupying various buildings across American and European universities. The general model for these sit-ins has been the same: get in there, take some photos, set up a blog and watch the chaos ensue as you block thousands of students from receiving the education for which they are paying. How much these protests have actually achieved is open for debate. Last time I checked I don't think the Israeli government was considering a radical change in policy based on twenty-odd students, a guitar and the "creative space" they made for themselves to change the world in.

When the George Square Theatre was occupied last week, it at first seemed that the university was giving tacit consent to the actions of the protesters. They kept the wifi on, allowing them to pump their thinly disguised anti-Zionist thought across the world via their website and Flickr. This really was a 21st century protest, as the glimpse into their press operation showed. I wonder what the protesters of '68 would have thought about sitting around drinking herbal tea while furiously typing into your Mac and checking the Blackberry. The university even opted to keep the heating on, fearing that because of health and safety laws, the building had to be kept above a certain temperature. "

You can read the rest of the article

here

.

The Journal's normally semi-level headed leader writer seems to have a

wee dig

at TB for unduly criticising these protesters, but it's hardly unfair to raise the point that real hippies don't have Macs and Blackberries. (The evidence of which was strangely recently removed from their

website

.) Whatever you want to call them, be it champagne swampies, eco-rahs, or middle class idiots throwing their toys out of the pram while pretending to be oh-so-bleeding-heart socialists, they deserve to be ridiculed. They might have tried to hide it but luckily TB saved the evidence for just this occasion:

Though it has been temptestuous in the past, TB is beginning to enjoy the relationship he has with The Journal. Though they were

far from helpful

during his own

delve

into the horrible world of

student politics

, and every week less than fair to friends, he does enjoy banter like this and the platform for

upsetting

lefties. They have been in financial trouble recently and had to be bailed out by the student's association for office space for the next year, after they couldn't make the rent and get an edition out. While it would be a shame to see the entrepreneurial venture go under, news is reaching TB this morning that there might be further trouble for the team...

Details are sketchy but Tory Bear understands the ball is in motion for legal action to be bought against the paper by an Edinburgh student.

+++developing+++