to make sure the violence didn't spread out across the London streets." The police came under increasing criticism however, particularly as there were large numbers of children and young teenagers in the crowd, who were held for nearly ten hours in near-zero temperatures. Green Party MP Caroline Lucas brought up the topic in the House of Commons that afternoon, stating: "there are many hundreds of students and school children who have been kettled for over four hours and are going to be out there for another several hours, according to the police, in the freezing cold… whatever one thinks of the student protest, [holding people against their will in the contained crowd was] neither proportionate, nor, indeed, effective." At a meeting of the Metropolitan Police Authority the following day, the Metropolitan Police's Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson defended the tactics. He condemned the protest. He was criticised by Jenny Jones, a Green Party member of the London Assembly, who told him: "when you imprison thousands of people, which is essentially what you did yesterday, you do have a duty of care to them... You kept people for nine-and-a-half hours. You punished innocent people for going on a protest." A spokesperson for Prime Minister Cameron stated that "people have a right to engage in lawful and peaceful protest, but there is no place for violence or intimidation", while education minister David Willetts responded by claiming that protesting students did not understand the government's plans. Clegg stated on BBC Radio 2 that "I hate in politics, as in life, to make promises that you then find you can't keep. We made a promise we can't deliver – we didn't win the election outright and there are compromises in coalition." Labour Party leader Ed Miliband stated that he would not rule out joining further demonstrations, remarking that "I was quite tempted to go out and talk to them [the protesters]. Peaceful demonstrations are part of our society. As Labour leader I am willing to talk to people who are part of them." 30 November Central London protests A third central London protest was organised for Tuesday 30 November, a day that saw cold temperatures and snow in the city. Protesters assembled at Trafalgar Square, but a police line prevented their march down Whitehall towards the Houses of Parliament; the NCAFC accused the Police of "pre-emptively block[ing]" the protest route. Fearing that they would be