One of the advantages to living in London is that when something really big happens in this country, it tends to be happening on my doorstep. Take today’s big event – a mass of screaming students, a police presence, unions travelling from afar to the big City because of the blues and lots of kettles on the go. It’s not every day I get to attend the Oxford vs Cambridge Boat Race so it’ll nice to toddle along to it this afternoon.

There is, of course, another large event taking place in London today, the TUC’s national demonstration, this one focused on the coalition cuts and calls for an alternative.

While I sense there exists strong and convincing arguments against the speed of the cuts that the coalition is bringing in, it is difficult to really believe in them when the main Opposition struggles to fall behind a distinct narrative that it not only believes in but is also a clear alternative to what the Government is trying to do. Portugal being the latest country to require a bailout should be a timely reminder that the UK has it all to lose if it gets this wrong and it is difficult to argue against balancing the books as quickly as possible. “Moral indignation and political failure” as The Times had it yesterday, ‘student politics’ as many of the rest of Ed Miliband’s detractors call it. I’m inclined to agree.

Perhaps there is time for a hero of the left to rise above the fray and show real leadership against the Osborne’s and Clegg’s of this country. Until then, protests will just seem like a lot of noise over not very much.

I’ll be at the boat race rather than the marches in body today, I can’t say I’ll really be at either in spirit.