Topic: 'Student' demo this afternoon

[Squash64]

I've just been watching reports of the demo in parliament square.  It is really quite scary and I'm glad I don't have any of my young relatives taking part. 

[skintnbitter]

We had a demo through the centre of Leeds yesterday about 1 o'clock.

[ACE]

It's a shame rent a mob had to join in. It dosn't help their cause.

[saddad]

It keeps them off the streets I suppose...  ::)

[betula]

It is good to see the kids standing up for what they believe to be right.We did it all the time in my younger days but the risk of violence is always there on these demos.

 :(

[Borlotti]

Poor police and especially their horses.

[dtw]

Prince Charles and Camilla's car was attacked.

Other news... there were 20 arrests and 8 police were seriously injured.

[Mr Smith]

 


           At least rent a mob did not throw a fire extinguisher from a building roof this time round, they just started to abuse the police and their horses, personally I would of liked to have seen a water cannon doing its stuff on a nice cold day like we have had today,  next time they will be marching along in some animal protest and releasing  mink to run all over the countryside, it rather took me back to my days in NI but no CS gas or plastic bullets today, what a shame, :)

[PurpleHeather]

It is certainly unfair that Scotland and Wales give free higher education yet English students will end up in debt for theirs.

Also, a lot of our highly qualified people are getting well paid jobs abroad to avoid having to pay off their loans.

In the end their debt will be written off and another country will have received their income tax and the benefit of their education.

We just keep the ones who can not get a job and pay them jobseekers etc.

[lottiedolly]

I am disgusted that they set fire to the xmas tree in trafalgar square and i am disgusted that the defaced and urinated on the statue of winston churchill. there are no excuses, peaceful demonstrators would not do such a thing and show so little respect. these "people" are thugs and criminals and any sympathy i had has now vanished and i think that they will find that there are many many more people thinking the way i do after last night  >:(

[steve76]

just bee watching bits of this on the news and its disgusting the way they behave >:(  have no sympathy for them at all..... hope the police throw the book at the ones they got.... police should be harder on them yep the water cannon  as for attacking the royal car  >:(

[ACE]

I do not hold with the violence and vandalism and the organisers of the original peaceful demonstrations must be tearing their hair out in frustration. But at least their generation is prepared to get off of their backsides and show that they will not be pushed around. How many times have I seen admiration for the french and their active ways of showing their government they won't be pushed either. When you look at the apathetic ways our generation have just let things slide.

They say a week in politics is a long time. Not this time! It will be remembered at the next election and some of these protesters will be replacing a lot of the fat cats we keep electing back in because we are just too lazy to change.

                                                 POWER TO THE PEOPLE.

It has made some of the MPs sit up and listen to the people that voted them in instead of toeing the party line. I think the ball has started rolling and there are going to be a lot more of these demonstrations. Lets encourage them, instead of knocking them and be a bit like Ollie. 'Don't just sit there, get involved'


Bugger! I just fell off my soapbox.

[OllieC]

I have a sticker on my guitar case that someone in a skeleton costume gave me in New Orleans 15 or so years ago. It says "Stop bitching, start a revolution". It then ruins things slightly by recommending that you join some cult near Baton Rouge, but the sentiment is sound.

Of course it's wrong to break stuff, and the fire extinguisher thrower deserves punishing for such a reckless & dangerous act. But it's also good to see the yoofs getting off their arses and showing how they feel. All this "why can't they all behave properly" stuff. It's because they're f**k**g angry at being lied to and taken for mugs.

Democracy was born when the first rock flew, not when everyone sat down to talk about it.

[manicscousers]

if the tuition fees were as they are now, my two sons would not have been able to go, get degrees and be in quite highly paid jobs now, paying lots of tax into this country's coffers..I feel very sorry for all the children of not so poor families who's full potential will never be discovered, just my opinion  :-\

[betula]

I fear this is just the beginning of it all.As more and more Government cuts start biting deep people will start demonstrating in a big way.

These student have families and I doubt they will forget how their child's future has been destroyed by these Tory/lib twits

Sadly the violence takes the spotlight off the issues but I doubt this Government will get a second term of office.

[grawrc]

You know how, when you get your council tax bill, there's a breakdown of how the money will be spent over the next year. Is that available for national government?

I'd like to see a public annual statement of account listing exactly how our money is being spent. That might help us to understand why Scottish and Welsh students don't pay fees (if they study in their homeland) but English students do. It also might help to make government more directly accountable.

I have never understood why schools should be supported by the state and universities should be run like businesses. Universities, at their best, are the cutting edge of our development as a nation. Some graduates get paid more - others don't. I spent 6 years studying full-time. That was 6 years when I wasn't earning. Meantime my peers who left school and started work were working their way up from a low starting wage to a pretty respectable one. And nowadays many of the graduates are working on the supermarket checkouts or minimum wage call centres with anti-social hours. That's the ones who manage to get a job at all.

It makes you wonder why we need so many graduates if we can't afford them and they end up unemployed or doing jobs that don't actually require a degree?

The trouble is that university places should be available on the basis of excellence but it doesn't seem to work out that way. The advantages of birth and wealth seem to outweigh intellectual ability. Money can buy you brains it seems.

[Mrs Gumboot]

Difficult one this.

Have been through the system twice now. First time was twelve years ago just as they introduced fees in the first place, second five years ago when I figured out what I actually wanted to do with me life! Now have a fairly large debt to the state which I have barely started paying back. Since I'm now on mat leave & looking unlikely to go back to work, I can't see when I'll be starting neither. I was lucky in the first year that my parents paid for everything, but had to work through second & third years as my dad was made redundant. Not sure whether I'd have managed if I'd have had to pay for such high fees. Can entirely sympathise with the students of today and feel quite proud that 'youth' have got the gumption to go out and protest. However, there are a small minority who are only there to cause trouble with little regard for the reason for the protests. Attacking the royals, who have absolutely nothing to do with this issue apart from being high profile, has been a backwards step in keeping the public sympathy.

Problem is I can see the other side of the argument. My husband got a job in the department he studied in when we finished uni and has been there ever since. The department has consistently struggled financially over the last six or seven years, resulting in them losing a quarter of staff through voluntary redundancy or unfilled empty posts, despite the fact that there has been no drop in workload. If you look at the increasing numbers of students going through the system it is clear that something has to change. The system simply wasn't designed to educate this amount of students.

Time I feel to decide whether it is right to push so many through the system when a lot simply head to uni as it's an 'obvious' next step. Many regard it as more of a coming of age rather than a vital step in their education. Many jobs do not necessarily need a university education, but it's become a way of employers simply shortlisting candidates when there are so many to chose from. Unfortunately now you need a masters to stand out  :-\

[Mr Smith]

I just hope at the next 'Anarchist riot in our capital city that no one gets killed especially the police who are doing their duty, would I give an extended educated to the no marks that appear on my TV urinating on a statue of  Sir Winston Churchill, disfiguring the Cenotaph and attacking the Royal family a free University education for three or four years, no I would not,

[daitheplant]

It is certainly unfair that Scotland and Wales give free higher education yet English students will end up in debt for theirs.

Also, a lot of our highly qualified people are getting well paid jobs abroad to avoid having to pay off their loans.

In the end their debt will be written off and another country will have received their income tax and the benefit of their education.

We just keep the ones who can not get a job and pay them jobseekers etc.

It`s not free here in Wales, the fee`s have been frozen at £6,000 I believe.

[Borlotti]

In the good old days you had to be clever to get to university, the top 10 of the A form that went to Grammar School, not private school.  I was not that clever, but don't care as the work was very difficult.  Let the clever ones, that want to learn go for free, and the others that just want to drink and play around go to technical college, or even get a job, if they can, not many about.  If you want to study something that is not useful to the community go to night school.  Do agree that they have a point that the government lied, but you leave the police horses alone, they are not involved in this and can't protect themselves.  Charlie looked a bit shocked, about time he woke up to the real world. Make him live on a Council estate and get youths on drugs etc and he may wake up to real life.  Actually a good reality programme Charles and Camilla live on a Council estate on the dole for two weeks.  I love it.