The protests are in part (motivated by the NUS) political. Such action would have been welcome over the past 13 years under which Labour introduced tuition fees, then top up fees restructured the student loans system, effectively abolished student grants and privatised the Student Loans Agency. But of course, those apparently trivial developments aside, the proposal to increase the levy of tuition fees to a higher maximum was the result of Lord Browne's report which began it's deliberations in November of last year on the orders of Lord Mandelson. The Browne Report was criticised for a possible lack of impartiality given Lord Browne's business links with Labour and close friendship with Mandelson.
Maybe you haven't really been paying attention, but the NUS has frequently complained about Labour's tuition fee rises. Also, notice how Labour kept bursaries and grants in place. Right now, poorer students can apply for grants which very nearly cover the entire cost of the tuition fees altogether. So it's only the middle class upwards who have to pay the fees really. Labour started a REPORT. There was no concrete design to increase tuition fees - they could have rejected the report's findings, or it could have been a much lower fee limit than £9,000.
Labour essentially got the report it wanted. But of course now it doesn't. Despite this all 3 major parties have essentially committed themselves to meeting the cost of higher education through either an increase in tuition fees or a graduate tax (Miliband backs a graduate tax) What has been proposed is a flat upper limit of £9,000 (much lower than was expected when the commission was first set up) while also raising the threshold for paying it back from earnings of £15,000 to about £20,000
Don't you see the problem with a flat fee? It isn't progressive. It slaps the same sum on EVERY student, whether they come from a council estate in Manchester or have just come from Eton. A graduate tax would be fairer because it would only charge people what they could pay. But why even do that? If we get rid of that useless waste of money known as Trident, we could get rid of tuition fees completely! Education would be free and based on merit rather than accident of birth again! How about that? Is that such a horrible principle?
Interesting to see some Labour MP's appearing condoning the violence given the 'tweets' by John McDonnell and Alex Cunningham. Welcome to the Tea Party...
Do you understand the anger young people have about this? This is one of the most reactionary, myopic policies of the last 15 years, and you expect people to just swallow it and not react? Education is the lifeblood of the country - the less uni graduates we have, the less we're gonna advance as a nation. And this policy will hold us back and make this country poorer as a whole. Your party is the one who wanted to make everyone have to get a job in services rather than working in the mine or steelworks as people have done for generations and as has served our country well for decades - your party should be in favour of a better education system.
