...I was in Canterbury, speaking at the Catholic chaplaincy of the University of Kent. A good attendance for weekday Mass, the chapel full on this ordinary, dark and cold November evening. Afterwards, a wonderful welcome and a happy evening as I led a discussion on the Holy Father's visit. Lots of enthusiasm, a warm and friendly atmosphere, much swapping of anecdotes and much lively talk over a delicious and hearty supper, the chaplain, Fr Peter Geldard presiding over things and indeed cooking the (excellent) spaghetti carbonara...
It was a very interesting time to be in Canterbury, as news had just broken about the five Anglican Bishops and the new chapter opening as plans for the Ordinariate unfold. Fr Peter was a leading figure, when an Anglican, in the debates over women's ordination. It was fascinating to talk all this over with him.
The chaplaincy at UKC is a modern building, dedicated to the English Martyr, St John Stone. Fr Peter is having to expand it and showed me the new extension - which includes v. smart loos with tiles showing Chaucerian pilgrims en route to Canterbury...
I stayed overnight - still a great buzz of talk beneath me as I lay in bed upstairs - and was able to raid part of Fr P's excellent library and do some useful reading for my Maryvale studies, got deep into the Council of Chalcedon and Nestorius, and more...
The next morning I caught the train back to London, and on arrival at Victoria needed to hurry off to a bank, Post Office and other errands. I got caught behind a small group of young people led by one with a placard which simply said "NO FUTURE". That seemed a rather ghastly notion so, intrigued, I followed them down Victoria street. Turned out that they were about to join a massive demonstration which was pounding its way down from Whitehall past the Houses of Parliament. It was students, all shouting about the education budget... I needed to cross the street at this point to reach the bridge to get to Waterloo. The police suggested I simply find a gap in the crowd and slip through, and this I was able to do...but the crowd now seemed a lot more menacing. There was the beating of a great drum, and much fevered rhythmic chanting. It felt nasty, suddenly wild and slightly hysterical. As I hurried on and looked back, I felt glad to have got away.
The evening news and the next day's papers were full of scenes of mayhem as a mob from the students' demo had broken out and crashed its way into the Conservative Party HQ, breaking windows, grabbing furniture and equipment and bashing its way up on to the roof, in sheer anarchic anger. Not clear what message they were trying to send to the rest of us by doing that.
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Violence is usually tolerated from favoured, politically powerful groups. We saw that during the wave of strikes at the height of trades union power. It's hard to see how the students can gain their objectives without being in this favoured group.
However I think their cause is doomed. There simply isn't any money, and it's hard to fight a cut to a subsidy.
However what we might see is an end to the culture in which a degree is required for routine jobs like nursing, which never required them in the past and haven't changed all that much.
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