Laurie Penny

Pop culture and radical politics with a feminist twist

The day the teenagers turned on Topshop

What has been stolen from this angry generation? Hope.

By Laurie Penny Published 03 December 2010 14:51

Oxford Street at Christmastime is a special hell, and the last Monday in November is no exception. Grim-faced shoppers mummified in winter coats shove their way down freezing pavements to do their duty to the market, while a panopticon of corporate-sponsored festive lights glares down from slate skies. With no warning, a hundred young protesters pour across the road holding banners and whistles. The children of Britain are leading the consuming classes to mutiny.

These young activists are the same students and school pupils who were kettled in central London on 24 November after demonstrating to protect higher education. They have not gone away. They come from the buses and the Underground, pouring out of the backstreets in twos and threes, chanting: "No ifs, no buts, no education cuts!" The target is the flagship store of Topshop, the global byword for successful British commerce, owned by Philip Green, billionaire and business adviser to the Prime Minister.

When we were young, this world-famous, multilevel store, with its blaring music and cool-looking young employees, was an Aladdin's cave of consumer delights and cutting-edge fashion. Now, however, the sales tags have fallen from our eyes. "Philip Green's taxation could pay for our education!" the protesters chant, accessorising their woollies with clashing orange bandanas, two fingers stuck up at the matchy-matchy aesthetic of the Kate Moss display. "Please occupy Topshop for us," whispers a young shop assistant with exciting, angular hair. "We're right behind you."

Green revolution

This youth movement isn't just about university fees - it's about challenging a political class that systematically gives the needs of the market greater priority than the people, offering tax breaks for big businessmen while ripping the heart out of education and social security.

Britain's child crusaders are beginning to win the argument, the raw edge of their righteous indignation slicing through the semiotic debris of state propaganda. Messages of solidarity come from all sections of the public - from parents, teachers, social workers and even police officers. Teenagers who came to buy novelty tights and lip gloss toss their bags down and join the protest.

When the demonstration ends, we march back to the student occupation at University College London, a welcoming space where smiling people hand out cups of tea and draw up well-being committees. These kids are savagely organised. Watching them plan their next action, I feel that someone really ought to have warned David Cameron not to underestimate the bloody-mindedness of British youth. These young people are angry. They are angrier than anyone could have anticipated.

What has been taken from them to make them so angry? Hope, that's what. Hope, and the fragile bubble of social aspiration that sustained us through decades of mounting inequality; hope and the belief that if we worked hard and did as we were told and bought the right things, some of us at least would get the good jobs and safe places to live that we'd been promised.

Hope was the emotional engine of a decade of dizzying economic growth. Now it's gone. Thatcher and Reagan knew you couldn't take away hope altogther, which is why they replaced the politics of collective bargaining with a cynical, but seductive, politics of aspiration and individualism. The coalition has forgotten that it's not enough for millionaire politicians to preach the politics of austerity when all they have to offer is more austerity.

Back on Oxford Street, as the police vans scream into view, the children's crusade stands firm. "They want to marketise our education," says Ben, 21, his breath clouding in the bitter air. "So we're going to educate their market."

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Tags: Tax Topshop Student protests

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77 comments

Sat, 2010-12-04 02:43 — stuart (not verified)

i have decided to stand as a candidate if i can raise the money in the local elections in may in my borough of hackney,and hope to get elected to serve as a councillor, and i am calling my new politacal party (the big issue peoples party),my 5 main pledges in my big issue party are..no1= free tv licences for the unemployed and pensioners...no2=raise the minimum wages to £13.75 a hour...no3=carrying a knife in a public place without good reason 9 years in prison and 10 years probation...no4= first time offence for paedophiles 25 years in prison no parole with the option of serving 10 years if opt to be castrated...no5= reverse the privatisation of the utility companys and nationalise them so no pensioners or poor people will ever have to worry about keeping warm in the winter again...that is my 5 main pledges in my manifesto and there is more to come,.i think i am worth voting for as a champion of the people..

Sun, 2010-12-05 02:26 — shoestrade60

Best regards for you all,

Looking forward to your visiting.

http://www.1shopping.us/

Sat, 2010-12-04 02:57 — Ona

I don't think my politics have changed much since I was 18 and first became aware that capitalism was just a model and we could replace it with another. But it seemed so strong and self-assured. Now it seems so effete, privileged and corrupt. I want to celebrate the resistance of the young - they make me feel that another world is possible - I can hear it breathing. I read the posts of those who are scared of change and I think they are just scared they have made the wrong choice - they can't bear to be wrong.

Sat, 2010-12-04 03:15 — josephCape

I feel let down, Laurie. Should our ire really be directed at the fact that hypothetically the taxes that Topshop avoids could fund higher education?

Topshops refuses to join the Ethical Trading Initiative and is one of the largest users of sweated labour in the UK.

Topshop don´t have a duty to provide funding for our Universities (their duty to pay tax is quite different); they do have a duty not to cause unnecessary suffering in their workforce through unfair employment conditions.

http://peopleandplanet.org/redressfashion/topshop

Sat, 2010-12-04 11:06 — Terry (not verified)

@ mike thomas
If they were so angry, why didn't they vote to keep Labour in power?

if you hadn't noticed, the labour policies of the last 13 years have largely been tory

Sat, 2010-12-04 11:11 — Luddite (not verified)

Nick. 'I'm glad Philip Green is being exposed as the vile, tax-avoiding rapacious pig he is'. That vile tax-avoiding pig turned around a failing enterprise creating thousands of jobs and saving many more, or aren't jobs important in your world? You can't help the poor by tiring down the rich. Miss Penny I'm afraid you are going to live a life time of disappointing in our youth we are all Liberal but as we grow older we become more Conservative.

'politics of austerity when all they have to offer is more austerity' What part of 'all the money has gone' don't you understand. You can't spend what you no longer have and you can't borrow your way out of debt. Miss Penny save me the rant tell me what your alternative is to sound government.

Sat, 2010-12-04 12:39 — mount1

"in our youth we are all Liberal but as we grow older we become more Conservative"

might that sentiment be the definition of serfdom?

Sat, 2010-12-04 13:08 — Lox (not verified)

@Mount-no, it wouldn't. I'd define serfdom as being happy to be told what to do by people who you think know better than you. The opposite of that is liberalism.

Sat, 2010-12-04 13:29 — KateC (not verified)

I applaud the protestors; however I agree with @josephCape that there are perhaps bigger reasons why people should be storming the high street. It makes me incredibly sad that people don't get angry until their own bank balances are affected. My hope is that this mobilisation will lead to a greater political/social awareness amongst those involved and perhaps opportunities to link campaigns.

Sat, 2010-12-04 13:30 — Fred Davis (not verified)

Except that if you don't actually enforce the taxation of the rich you make the taxation of the poor, through all those sales taxes tory MPs put on their expenses, the primary source of income to fund the public services that allow businesses to operate in the UK at reduced costs to them. See Brown's greenwash petrol taxes, and the condem's new VAT hikes contrasted with both governments' continued cutting of jobs at the revenue.

But then jobs at the revenue, or in unversities' cancer research laboratories, or in the mines or in the factories or the NHS don't count/aren't valid/ain't real like the pointless work selling pointless clothes at a pointless retail outlet, because We've Never Had It So Good In This So Called Recession.

All Hail TopShop! Ye Holy Temple to All That Matters In Life!

Sun, 2010-12-05 10:29 — Nick (not verified)

Alan: If you look on Hansard at previous budget speeches, you can see how everything this lot is doing has all been done and said before. It's just the same old record, playing over and over again. I don't think the Tories were booted out in 1997 just because of sleaze, corruption and a general tiredness of the party. A contributory factor was certainly the way our public services had been allowed to decay, education, health and crime were all neglected, it's the hallmark of every conservative Government, as is high unemployment. We're just going down the same old path again, but on a bigger scale because we are being far too reactionary to a national debt that can be paid back over a longer period of time.

When you look at the detail, all these policies are linked to cuts which are more connected with longer term deficit reduction with a huge accent on shrinkage of the State. It's never worked under a Conservative administration and it never will.

The Conservatives have yet to achieve a balance of growth and maintaining public services. Gordon Brown is always shot down for saying there will be no more boom and bust. It was actually the Conservatives who uttered those words in their budget speech of November 1996; Gordon Brown subsequently answered it by saying 'no more Tory Boom and Bust'.

The Cons talk of reduced taxation but they are the past masters in the introduction of indirect taxes such as VAT, the fuel escalator, the poll Tax. Their changes in Income Tax and NI are always too minimal to make a noticeable difference.

Luddite: I agree with your last words, we need a new brand of politics. But the real freeloaders are those who earn huge amounts and buck their taxes with far too many tax avoidance loopholes. This lot are just protecting their own by going after those who have little to give, it's a means of distraction; thaking the eye off where the focus really should be.

The students are protesting for the right reason; they want change.

Mon, 2010-12-06 14:59 — Ron (not verified)

Angry and without hope!

Luckily they arent one of the millions of people whose sole aim today is to find clean drinking water.

Get a life children

Mon, 2010-12-06 15:11 — Beast Of No Nation (not verified)

Well done, I saw the demo on TV news, it was 100% peaceful and successful-Topshop and other outlets in the group were closed for most of the day. Tax evasion is equivalent to robbing the Treasury. If you trade and make a profit you should pay tax on the profit, not negotiate a lower amount or zero tax. The students are an extension of HM Revenue & Customs, visiting businesses that have failed to pay their tax. Do these Organisations set up businesses here with no intent of paying business taxes?

Sun, 2010-12-05 11:14 — jeremiah

"Sir" Philip Green is nothing but a greedy tax dodging b'stard.

I thought it was hilarious that Dave asked him to a report on the efficiency or otherwise of Government.

Hey Phil, sorry "Sir" Philip. How about you pay the £250M in tax that you owe and get your pals at Vodafone to pay the several billion they owe and we will call it quits.

Why are they angry? One rule for fatcat tossers like "Sir" Spivalot Green and other for the rest of us. All in it together my tax paying ass!

Mon, 2010-12-06 12:29 — Rosie (not verified)

@Mike Thomas.

A lot of us did vote labour, in fact I am a labour party member. I don't think your pessimistic attitude towards the power of protest is going to help change anything, at least the youth of 2010 are trying.

Sun, 2010-12-05 11:45 — Nick (not verified)

Kate C: I couldn't agree with you more. We have become a Nation of people who only worry when the bank balance tells us to. Although, I believe there are people with a good social conscience who see the bigger picture. We do need linked up campaigns and should voice our discontent as a massively powerful lobby.

Thu, 2010-12-09 11:08 — max (not verified)

When I was 20, I thought 59-year- olds were incomprehensibly old, decrepit, or just dead.
Now I am 59, I think 20-year-olds (the ones out protesting, at least) are fucking amazing. All my 59-year-old friends think so too.
Fair play to you all.
Make a different path.

Sat, 2010-12-04 15:23 — Nick (not verified)

Luddite: That was the other Nick's response, but none the less I agree with it entirely.

We've become obsessed with austerity and deficits, we're not on the verge of bankruptcy, far from it, this is a nation full of wealth, it's the division of it that has become the current problem.

'You can't borrow your way out of debt', you can. Many an ailing business has fallen because of insufficient cash flow, often the way out is to come up with a good business proposition to borrow more to allow you to invest in production. Correctly executed borrowing helps restore prosperity in many cases.

All we hear about is billions and billions having to be paid back to reduce our deficit, everything is conveniently rounded to the nearest billion as though no-one should dare ever ask the question, how did you work that one out then?

The more I hear Cameron and Osborne, the more I question their policies, in my experiences rounded figures often smack of inaccuracy, inaccuracy is often routed in sloppy policy. I's like to see a lot more detail as to how all these figures have been worked out before I'm asked to shell out more of my money to pay it back.

Tue, 2010-12-07 14:36 — Frank (not verified)

I've watched the coverage of the protests with great interest but it's bothered me that one important question hasn't been answered. Why should I as a UK taxpayer subsidise higher education? I agree 100% that taxes should pay for education up to the age of 16 but I don't see why this should be the case after that. Continuing with education after the age of 16 is a personal choice, so why should taxpayers money continue to be used to fund something that isn't taken up by everyone? The other point regarding the Top Shop protests, which I found rather ironic, was when the students were accusing Phillip Green of "sponging off the state". Isn't this exactly what the students are doing by using public money to fund their education?

Sun, 2010-12-05 15:16 — A.S.Powar (not verified)

Finally there seems to be a substantial movement against the profligacy of a political generation that has kowtowed to the markets and financiers.

I am very proud of a burgeoning class of students armed to the teeth with technological know-how and black-belts in social networking. These are the weapons for the mass mobilisation of people, that could be more devastating than any before, simply because it can all be achieved with very little financial resources.

It is ironic how the generation before generally derided this generation for its sedentary, internet fueled, semi-illiterate lifestyles. The students, as someone recently said to me, are not a group to pick a fight with. They have little outside commitments or distractions, can be very committed to a cause when they want to be, are precociously intelligent and not scared to show it, they study rebellion and all that stuff, they are not ones to go picking a scrap with. I hope the students hold there nerve, and really find the inspiration and means to sustain a movement that can bring about some change.

For too long the political parties in this country have been allowed to get away with democratic myopia and murder, it is as if the peoples' thoughts and opinions count for nought. The students could give them a right whipping and I for one thoroughly support them.

The simple fact which the article rightly expresses is that there is very little hope at all. You can go to university, study hard and get good results, but the opportunities there on seem incomparably thin. For the students of 2011 onwards with fees of 9000 pound a year from a moderate household just over the threshold of what is considered a 'poor household', what sort of position will they be in? The fact is if they get a job of £21,000, they will be paying £45 a week for there student fees, bills and services would have increased by then, these people can forget the idea of owning a home, that was the aspiration of the generations before. It is as though the generation now can only but aspire to not jump from the nearest ledge - as Rigsby once said: 'they'll be fighting for ledges to jump off soon!'

Sat, 2010-12-04 16:06 — shoestrade6779

Best regards for you all,

Looking forward to your visiting.

http://www.1shopping.us/

Best regards for you all,

Looking forward to your visiting.

http://www.1shopping.us/

Best regards for you all,

Looking forward to your visiting.

http://www.1shopping.us/

Fri, 2010-12-03 15:12 — Mike Thomas (not verified)

If they were so angry, why didn't they vote to keep Labour in power?

As for the rest of these tawdry hard-left totems, I see little has changed in 20 years for the student left.

Plus ca change, plus ca meme chose.

They thought 20 years ago that the revolution was just round the corner too. Add to this that you were in nappies when Reagan and Thatcher were in power, it was just that little bit rawer, more savage for us then.

Because it was reality for us not a tapestry of left wing fables passed down like Norse legend.

No wonder those of us who lived it, saw it, grew up with it and are now seeing it again are underwhelmed.

Protesting wasn't the sole preserve of the anarcho kids of effete middle class lefties either.

And our banners were witty.

The big mistake of our youth was we thought we were the first, we were new and changing things. We weren't and we weren't even original.

And this? How many times can you facsmilie a facsimile before you cannot read what was on the page?

Fri, 2010-12-03 15:16 — Nic

I'm glad Philip Green is being exposed as the vile, tax-avoiding rapacious pig he is. For too long the media and the establishment have hailed him as a sort of retail guru - a champion businessman.

The truth is he made his money by doing what he advised the government to do - squeezing the suppliers. The consequence of this was the implosion of the rag trade (the UK fashion industry) with British suppliers going out of business as work was farmed out by the big retailers like Arcadia to ethically dubious factories in Asia and the far east.

Fri, 2010-12-03 15:16 — Maria (not verified)

I'd be there right with them if i could. work and lack of funds to get to London prevent me. I say we start a wider campaign to boycott vodafone and the arcadia group (topshop, topman, dorothy perkins. burtons, wallis, outfitters, evans) this christmas. DONT BUY FROM THEM. DONT GIVE THEM YOUR MONEY.

Fri, 2010-12-03 15:20 — Maria (not verified)

@mike thomas

"If they were so angry, why didn't they vote to keep Labour in power? "

A lot of the students protesting were unable to vote due to being under 18. a lot of them still are.

in either case, labour is no good either. All our political choices are rubbish. Bunch of out of touch cowards and promise breakers.

The three main parties have proven to be a betrayal to the people of this country.

Fri, 2010-12-03 15:21 — Iden (not verified)

Great piece.

I look forward with earnest to the further development of this emergent youth movement.

A lot of right-wing trolls are going to decry the recent activity (and your excellent coverage of it) as being insignificant or frivolous in the comment section. They are dead wrong.

Do they parrot the words of their political demagogues because they really believe it, or because they so desperately want to think that their discredited neoliberal/neocon economics will bring a brighter future?

Fri, 2010-12-03 15:22 — Mark (not verified)

The beneficiaries of big government are the middle class lecturers, doctors, lawyers and their children who know how to get the most out of the system and know how to trick the working man into paying for them.

How about cutting lecturers pay or providing materials free online to save money? Or does consumption of frivolous hats offend right-on students too much?
Must spend as much money as possible on socially worthless jolly of mindless middle class management fodder - coz ejukaaashon iz greeeeat!

Fri, 2010-12-03 15:25 — Paul (not verified)

Another great article. Ignore the sneering, unproductive, empty haters who your articles seem to attract in the comments. It's a generational thing... The baby-boomers will be remembered by history for betraying their own children.

Fri, 2010-12-03 15:32 — Alan (not verified)

At a wage of £25,000 over a 40 year working life the average worker will earn £1,000,000 at today's value. When today's students work out that the government will take half, from both direct and indirect taxes, and throw most of it at the welfare state they will soon change their opinions.
There is a lot of truth to the old saying that 'if you are not of the left when you are young you have no heart but that if you are not of the right when you are older that you have no head'. Unfortunately some people just never grow up.

Sun, 2010-12-05 17:14 — Scroblingtons (not verified)

Wonderful article!
Who knows if the world truly is awakening, but we're going to make enough noise that it's gonna be bloody hard to stay asleep!
Peace.

Fri, 2010-12-03 15:36 — Molly (not verified)

@nick

Totally agree with you, well said. I was nearly sick (sick I tell ya!) when I watched Dispathches C4 on the tax invasion and Phillip Green and his offshore Jersey company, owned by his wife in 0% tax Monte Whatever... Look, whatever anyone thinks of the 'students' protest, young people in every generation call it as they see it. They tell the truth. And as for them being aggresive, well they learnt that level of behaviour from watching the Prime Mins Questions... They learn from us and they will tell you how they are feeling. They have every right to express themselves in the way the have. They have my support.
Phillip Green, go away, and take all your Tack Shops with you.

Fri, 2010-12-03 15:33 — Mike Thomas (not verified)

Paul,

I am no baby boomer, I am the generation between the feckless on the street now and the feckless that were booted out of power.

Two generations, one mentored by an older and spolit rapacious one who rewarded them by putting them into debt servititude to pay for that older generation's largesse.

Only it is my generation that is now in power to sort it the debt and the administrative mess left behind.

My attitude is a plague on both your houses.

Fri, 2010-12-03 15:44 — Mark (not verified)

I agree Molly. We shouldn't rest until clothing (unfashionable) is at least four times as expensive as it is now.
As for Tesco with it's cheap food... you can keep your pilaf thank you very much. Give me a 5 pound loaf of rye bread any day of the week.

Down with cheap food and fun stuff boo boo boo!

Fri, 2010-12-03 15:46 — rooftopjaxx (not verified)

Mike Thomas, 14:12 If they were so angry, why didn't they vote to keep Labour in power?

ROFL !!! (& what would the point of keeping Labour in power have been?) :)

Sat, 2010-12-04 16:20 — clare (not verified)

Time the retail magnates were challenged. If they insist on writing politcally biased letters to government then they have politicised their own position and are valid targets for political action.

As for the young. Brilliant! Proud of my generation for bringing them up to have brains enough to see through the propoganda of governments and guts eough to take them on.

Sat, 2010-12-11 04:30 — shoestrade301

========= http://www.1shopping.us/ =========

Best regards for you all,

Looking forward to your visiting.

========= http://www.1shopping.us/ =========

Sat, 2010-12-04 16:28 — suburbanmonk

weldone again your be putting pilger to shame soon. viva revolution

Fri, 2010-12-03 16:01 — Mike Thomas (not verified)

My point is that voter turnout amongst 18-24 year old was the lowest of all demographics at 44%. Of that age, the turnout for men was 50% and women 39%.

The swing to Tory from Lab was 4.5%

http://www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/researcharchive/poll.aspx...

Fri, 2010-12-03 16:09 — Molly (not verified)

@Mark

the ole saying 'the poor make food so the rich don't have to eat money' springs to mind.

Enjoy your rye bread :)

Sat, 2010-12-04 17:02 — Alan (not verified)

@ Nick
You are bankrupt when you can no longer service your debt. Our debt is set to peak at about £1,400,000,000,000 and the interest payments alone on that debt will be about £50,000,000,000 per year, and that may well be an optimistic forecast, they usually are. This is not a little cash flow problem, a billion here or there is less than the margin of error.
Compare and contrast the difference between ‘investing in production’ and ‘spending like there is no tomorrow’.
Bear in mind that despite all of the talk about austerity and cuts, total government spending is still set to increase year on year.
The deficit is structural and if it is not addressed then there may well be no tomorrow. Only we will not be able to sit out in the sun and eat olives like the Greeks.

Fri, 2010-12-03 16:17 — Jason Darby (not verified)

If these kids were so angry, why didn't they do anything when Labour introduced tuition fees...?

Smacks more of being greedy and being angry.

Fri, 2010-12-03 16:18 — Jason Darby (not verified)

Smacks more of being greedy *than* being angry.

Wed, 2010-12-08 17:55 — Richard Tagart

Shouldn't DC be celebrating this shining example of the Big Society in action?

Wed, 2010-12-15 22:41 — Ruth Hill (not verified)

Klum (4th December, 00:34) your words brought a lump to my throat and tears to my eyes.

Contrary to what the article says, your words show that there is still hope for the future of our nation and our nation's youth.

Fantastic!

Fri, 2010-12-03 16:27 — Bethany (not verified)

Love this article, love the last quote "they want to marketise our education so we're going to educate their market." Bang on.

Sat, 2010-12-04 17:21 — Nick (not verified)

Alan: I'm all too familiar with the definition of bankruptcy; this country is no where near a state whereby our total liabilities exceed our assets. My point over trivialising the odd billion here or there is we should be looking at accurate figures when proposing cuts. This government just dreams up £2 billion or £3 billion from this sector or some other sector with no clue as to how it arrives at these figures. I'm well aware, for instance over how wildly inaccurate their figures on DWP expenditure are.

I wasn't advocating we spend, spend, spend, just saying we should be a little less inclined to follow the whole austerity and defict reduction thing with no real explanation as to the figures. I mean let's face it Cameron and Clegg said they hadn't got a clue before the election and it strikes me they are none the wiser now!

There's plenty of riches which could be sold before we need to liken ourselves to the sun soaked, olive eating country of Greece.

Fri, 2010-12-03 16:37 — Lucy (not verified)

Jason, most of the kids that are protesting were in primary school when the fees were first introduced. It should have been their parents that marched. I was one of many thousands of students that protested to oppose tuition fees in the late 90s, even though it would not affect us as we were already the last year through on free education - and in Scotland we won.

Mike - As for why did the angry not vote? - because they don't see the current political system as being relevant to them, and who would blame them with the lies we have been fed? And the 16 - 18 year olds? - well they are not allowed to vote are they? But they are allowed to pay for the bank bailout...

Sat, 2010-12-04 17:48 — Luddite (not verified)

Nick. First you have to create wealth then you can spent it it's not rocket science. Sadly for many on the political-left they simply don't understand the fundamental. The good times are over. It's fucking hard work that will deliver this nation from the shit.. Nick. I'm fucking sick of working hard, carrying political baggage. Working folks are sick to death of both the political left and the right.

Fri, 2010-12-03 16:56 — monkey_man (not verified)

It's a bit of a middle-aged-and-bitter keyboard warriror's meme that nobody did anything to protest when Labour introduced tuition fees.

"Why didn't these 18 year olds go out and protest when they had the chance five years ago?!? They were staying at home thinking about how much they loved the Labour Party that's why! I'm so angry I could wank."

Actually a lot of people did protest back then, I know because I was there. It's just no one listned at the time - or if they did were midlessly patronising.

After reading some of these dismissive comments - aimed at the protesters, rather than their ideas - it's made me remember how important these protests are. I'm going to find the next one and join it.

Sat, 2010-12-04 18:07 — Alan (not verified)

OK Nick, the devil is in the detail but the bigger picture is plain for all to see, isn't it ?

Whether Cameron and Clegg have a clue remains to be seen but there is no doubt that it was Brown who got us here.

The idea that we can sell off yet more riches to continue to fund a broken system doesn't make sense. And anyway, living off capital rather than income will always end in tears.
Post-neoclassical endogenous growth theory was tried, and it failed.