The article isn't definatively saying one way or the other whether comparisons of the protests in North Africa with those here are crass, its just asking the question. But yes, any such comparison would be crass. The article is simply stating that people across the world face similar problems regarding economies collapsing, job losses and benefit withdrawals. Anyone who disputes that, could also be considered as crass. Luckily in this country we do not face levels of oppression and brutality that others do and if we protest the worse we are likely to get is a split head. But as the article states that doesn't mean we shouldnt protest against issues we see as unjust and unfair. Perhaps those that seem so outraged by this article have not really read it properly?

Crass, because, as we saw in the Blair years, the end-game of the British left is a government taking wealth from working people and handing it to middle-class cliques. In London and Cairo.

You are the oppressor, dummy.

Yes, the comparison is supremely crass. I don't want to be too harsh but you should not comment on the Middle East until you actually have some experience of reporting on it. Am afraid you come over as trying too hard. Stick to what you do well for now (student riots, twenty-something affairs). Having said that, it is a red herring to compare suffering, one does not cancel out the other. I agree with Lisa Ansell, the disability cuts will be catastrophic for many in UK, yet the middle classes have been appallingly detached, preferring to save libraries and free education and forests. These things are, of course, hugely important to anyone with a grain of sense, but we haven't seen or heard many able-bodied folk blasting the cuts that are shattering the sick and disabled in this country. Not much solidarity there.

There is a difference, a bloody big difference between the Arabs revolt for basic freedoms and the pampered and privileged western government workers fighting to retain the status-quo.

If people really think these cuts are necessary, they should watch this video, tears Osborne's and the Condem's reasoning for cuts apart (with proper data too):
http://blip.tv/file/4819159

What is happening in the middle east is the logical progression of a government taking money from one section of the population and giving it to another to gain political support

Suddenly, it seems rather a luxury to be fighting a right-wing government that merely wishes to impose brutal cuts for which it has no mandate.
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What good is this type of argument? Please tell me. Any party that was in office now would be imposing brutal cuts, that is simply a fact. The scale might be slightl different, they might be targeted slightely differently, but making comments like this pretend, or attempt to pretend, that their would not have been massive cuts from any government.

Oppose the direction, scale and speed of the cuts as you wish and fair enough, there are arguments to make there, but don't lazily include comments like this which attempt cheap party political point scoring with subtle and not so subtle implication that if only we did not have Clegg and Cameron in charge, stabbing us in the back, we would not have massive cuts.

That is a falsehood. Disliking what they are doing and how is an opinion with plenty of basis, pretending and insinuating, with comments like that, that cuts in general are brutal and there is an alternative without brutal cuts 'somewhere', is patently ridiculous.

PS. I voted LD and am unhappy about tuition fees and several other things, and will wait and see what Labour offer before deciding who to support, but this is utter tripe.

"solidarity" is the code word for the clueless or regressive left to make alliance with the most despicable and reactionary anti-liberal movements on this planet. With the public unions who already get paid 40% above market rates for work that has of little value, and with Islamists who wish to destroy liberalism and institute Islamic socialism. Shame on the author of this piece of trash.

Considering that the endless comparisons to May 1968 kept being made from the moment the UK student protests kicked off, I'm not surprised by Penny's article. It's just fortunate that 'London Cairo Wisconsin' scans in almost the same rhythm as the '68 slogan of 'London Paris Rome Berlin' and neatly rhymes with 'We well fight and we will win!' (It just won't work with, say, 'Kuala Lumpur') A small point, but the one that encapsulates the entire article (e.g. wanting a revolutionary moment one can call one's own, attempting to fit other world events into the same narrative). On the other hand, a writer like Naomi Klein has been covering these kinds of connections ever since 'No Logo'. The fight for democracy and alternatives to globalisation and neo-liberalism just got wider than protesting the G-whatever summits, and the protesters need to feel, believe, and above all, know, that they are not alone.

I agree that our state of "freedom" is artificial. As an example when we were being told about the bank levy a couple of weeks ago, the Guardian reported that the government had created the loophole that now allows the banks to import offshore funds tax-free. Galilea

The amount of ridiculous comments on this article beggars belief. Incapable of rationally debating the questions asked by the article there's instead a preposterous 'callout' to blindly attack what's written.

Not only do the trolls seem unable to respond to the points actually being made, the same old irrelevent and false reasoning is trotted out.

Some very simple facts:

The protest movement in this country is not just students. It is not just about tuition fees. It is a movement against cuts that will disproportionate affect the most vulnerable sectors of society.

The author, and many people who agree with the article, are not Labour party members or supporters.

Nowhere does the article suggest that events in MENA and the West are the same. It asks questions about common elements and stresses the differences.

It is embarassing to see people so spectacularly miss the point.

Great article Laurie.

Laurie Spart is having a giggle.Tell me this isn't a put on.

Guy debard Its julie Burchill she created Punk Rock

If you can't get enough of selectively quoted, under-analysed knee-jerking, click on the above links *points up*

Thanks, though, in absentia - indeed, the damage IS done through legislation that a fraction of the population can understand. I would add, or WANTS to understand or admit.

Solidarity is not a "code" word for anything, least of all a call to arms for the anti-liberal. That's the type of logic that sees Obama labelled a "communist" for his healthcare reforms, or people who use their education and vocabularies as "elitist". In this parallel universe, right is left, black is white and altruism is... what? Totalitarianism? "Islamic socialism?" (Whatever the hell that is.)

So yes, those students, public sector workers, private sector workers and even small business owners (such as myself) who value democracy, but won't countenance unmandated, ideological legislation on our watch WILL demonstrate against it, AND lobby our elected representatives vigorously. And we will overcome, because we've got more persuasive arguments than :"You're stupid".

No Lox. Am not confusing the two words at all. I am talking about basic survival.

Whether you agree with Penny or not, consider this - The Middle Eastern revolutions may not have started/carried on without people like @PennyRed @aaronjohnpeters @UKuncut.

Is there a connection between students angry about a rise in tuition fees and people risking death and injury to overthrow dictators in the interests of democracy and liberty?

No, and yes it is crass to compare them.

This is a wonderful article. It's a very difficult line to tread between disregarding and overplaying the similarities between protests in the West and the Arab revolutions. That you've managed to do so here is extremely impressive.

Well written, great points.

+1 from me.

But scale IS substance, just as style is substance with regards to aesthetics.

It is, therefore, crass to compare the protests over here with those in the Middle East, because not nearly enough people in the UK have signed off Facebook & taken to the streets. We'll have to wait & see if that transpires, probably not because as a generation we lack bite, but that's another debate.

If, however, the question you're really asking is "are the protests striving towards similar goals?" then the answer is yes, of course they are. The political structures might be cosmetically different, but what we're all fighting for is the opportunity to create a new political space for something better than what is already there. It may emerge in pockets of protests regarding specific issues, say tax dodging corporate gangsters, but the overriding goals are identical.

"the amateur brick-throwers in this country were quite happy to sit quietly for a Labour government that chiseled away at civil liberty while increasing the poverty gap, scrapping education funding and waging unethical wars"

No they weren't. Let's just see what happens now...

Other than idiocy, I think some of the outrage expressed in the responses to this piece result from Laurie not making it clear that the common denominator in all of this is the fact that Corporations now rule the world and that governments, whether democratically elected or not, merely fulfill a management function. Those at the top squirrel away as much cash / wealth as they can - the dictators in the Middle East just do this (arguably) more blatantly than others.

I think Laurie was pretty clear that day-to-day life here and 'there' are not to be compared so please, put away your mock indignation- the solidarity she describes refers to the fight against the same corporate beast manifest in a variety of guises, depending where you live.

It IS crass to compare the protests in the Middle East to London.
In the former, they are fighting against corrupt, anachronistic regimes in an era where autocratic government has grown tired.
In the UK, people are protesting and then rioting, ignorant of the actual situation. Cuts? Public spending (in actual monetary terms) will RISE this Parliament.
You mention solidarity. I am a student, and have no qualms with the coalitions spending plans. This is because I can understand that a society in which fewer are dependent on the state, in which government borrows less and spends within its means will eventually be more prosperous.

The economic system that is the route cause of all these protests is a global one. I don't think it is crass to make the comparison, I think it is essential. It's perhaps shameful that it has taken pain at home to make people feel solidarity with those abroad. But perhaps people are waking up to what has been true for a decade or more. The Third World is no longer boundaried by geography, or by race. Those who being thrown down in to poverty in the West are being shown that they are of no more concern to the capitalist system that previously rewarded them than any other of it's victims. It's going to be a rude awakening for many people, and it's folly to assume protests here won't match those of Wisconsin at the very least.

The one different is there united to overturn a unfair government. In the USA the union is standing for there rights and some media continue to try to pit the Tea party and the Union against each other. Some Tea Party members support the Union.

Crass doesn't cover it. Adjectives like dishonest, disrespectful, disturbing, wrong help...