[![Anti-Student Loans Demo](https://i1.wp.com/www.onemanandhisblog.com/content/images/2010/11/Scan-101114-0025-Version-2-thumb-520x342-1777.jpg?resize=520%2C342)](https://i0.wp.com/www.onemanandhisblog.com/content/images/2010/11/Scan-101114-0025-Version-2.jpg)

The first of those was on November 22nd, meeting at 1pm on Malet Street, London. I was there – but not as a protestor. I had my notebook, I had my camera. I was *reporting*.

Over two decades later, I was watching this year’s demos begin, and discussing it with others on Twitter. I couldn’t resist digging out my old negatives, scanning them and sharing them, as a point of comparison with last week:

Things have, I think, changed…

November 1989. I was not long turned 18, in my first year at [Imperial College](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_College_London), and working on [Felix](http://www.felixonline.co.uk/), the student newspaper. Oh, and Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government was proposing to replace student grants with student loans. Cue a wave of protests and demos…