on the issue of H[higher] E[ducation] cuts and tuition fee rises". On 24 November, students and supporters went into occupation of Appleton Tower at the University of Edinburgh, stating "We stand firm alongside all other students, university staff and others nationwide affected by education cuts and the risk this poses to the future of higher education." At Manchester's University Place, 3000 students assembled to demonstrate, but several hundred broke away to march towards the town hall. A group of about 100 occupied a lecture theatre in the Roscoe Building. At the University of Oxford, students initially occupied the Radcliffe Camera. At the University of Cambridge, 200 students scaled the fence of Senate House and marched onto the grounds of King's College, then on 26 November students started an 11-day occupation of part of Old Schools, the main administrative block of the University. At the University of Bristol, 2000 protesters clashed with police when they tried to move into the city centre. Four were arrested. In Brighton, 3000 demonstrators marched through the city, with nearly 50 occupying a university building. Hundreds of students from Kingston University and various local schools staged an impromptu march through the town and a sit down protest at College Roundabout, leading to one arrest. In the morning of 24 November, demonstrators at the University of Birmingham occupied the Aston Webb building, the site of the Prime Ministerial debates earlier in the year; they issued a statement in which they declared that "we believe the government's cuts to be economically unnecessary, unfair and ideologically motivated" and that "if [the government] continue to destroy the livelihoods of the majority to benefit the rich and powerful minority, they will face increasingly widespread and radical action." In Leeds, protesters amassed at the University of Leeds. Hundreds of them had walked out of the local Allerton Grange High School to join the demonstration, and later occupied the Michael Sadler lecture theatre and a room at Leeds Metropolitan University. A room at the University of Plymouth was also occupied. At Cardiff University, around 200 protesters occupied a lecture theatre after failing to gain entry to the vice-chancellor's building. Response During the Whitehall incident, the Metropolitan Police publicly defended their use of kettling, with Chief Inspector Jane Connors claiming that they had only used it as "a last resort". She stated: "it's a valid tactic. Police officers came under attack and we needed