Pointless protest

FEW politicians relish the prospect of making painful cuts to their budgets. However, given that the cuts are inevitable and that councillors in Leeds have steeled themselves to the grisly business, it is hard to see what the student protesters who disrupted yesterday’s budget-setting meeting hoped to achieve.

But, of course, if reality and responsibility were the guiding forces of the student demonstrators who have waged such a destructive campaign against the very notion of bringing the public-sector deficit under control, their tactics would have been very different – and far less damaging to their own cause.

There is a much-needed debate to be had about the ways in which local authorities are meeting the Government’s requirements. Are the cuts, and the time-frame in which they are to be achieved, too demanding? Have councils got their priorities right, or are they too eager to cut the services that will make embarrassing headlines for the Government, such as libraries, while not giving enough thought to reducing their administrative costs or to pooling resources with neighbouring authorities?

This is a legitimate, indeed crucial, debate. But the demonstrators in Leeds yesterday have little time for its nuances. In the same way, during the weeks before Christmas, student protesters preferred to cause as much mayhem as possible rather than consider the costs of higher education and explain ways in which the future of the sector could be guaranteed without major increases in tuition fees.

The cuts agenda is so radical that it needs to be challenged by vigorous and well-reasoned arguments. In Leeds yesterday, however, this type of constructive criticism was conspicuous only by its absence.