I don’t know who this kid is, but I do know he’ll be taken the mick out something fierce if this video goes viral. We don’t like young, earnest kids talking politics, especially leftwing politics, it’s all a bit cringeworthy, naive and definately not cool. But the kid is right. His generation, the children of the children of Thatcher, were supposed to be beyond politics, good little consumers only interested in X-Factor and X-Boxes. Yet like their slightly older brothers and sisters seven years ago when they skipped school to go on the anti-war demos and getting villified for it, their own experiences in trying to participate in one of their fundamental rights, the right to protest, are radicalising them. As he says, the police is no longer that nice voice at the other side of the line helping you after a burglary. Their counterparts in the estates already knew the police and media were not their friends, but for “normal”, middle class people nothing can be as radicalising as that first time you end up at the wrong demo and see yourself and your friends be treated as dangerous criminals by the authorities.
Speaking of which, this twelve year old math geek was deemed dangerous enough to be threatened by anti-terrorist police:
Nicky Wishart, a pupil at Bartholomew School, Eynsham, Oxfordshire, organised the event on Facebook to highlight the plight of his youth centre, which is due to close in March next year due to budget cuts.
The protest, which was due to take place today, has attracted over 130 people on Facebook, most of whom are children who use youth centres in Cameron’s constituency, Whitney.
Wishart said that after the school was contacted by anti-terrorist officers, he was taken out of his English class on Tuesday afternoon and interviewed by a Thames Valley officer at the school in the presence of his head of year. During the interview, Wishart says that the officer told him that if any public disorder took place at the event he would be held responsible and arrested.
Speaking to the Guardian, Nicky Wishart said: “In my lesson, [a school secretary] came and said my head of year wanted to talk to me. She was in her office with a police officer who wanted to talk to me about the protest. He said, ‘if a riot breaks out we will arrest people and if anything happens you will get arrested because you are the organiser’.
“He said even if I didn’t turn up I would be arrested and he also said that if David Cameron was in, his armed officers will be there ‘so if anything out of line happens …’ and then he stopped.”
Wishart, who describes himself as a “maths geek” said he was frightened by the encounter. “I was really scared. Normally I’m a confident speaker but I lost all my confidence. My mum was worried, and I was worried and I didn’t know what to do.”
Armed police threatening twelve year olds. Does it not make you proud of Britain?