to be very heartened by the student riots!

[Heathcliffscathy]

apathy be damned...I predict more riots...looks like the youth have found their teeth.

I may have posted this already but it is very tiresome to be told that because you are in favour of people paying for their degrees over their lifetime at a rate they can afford that you must be a rich tory.

I am not a tory, I am not rich. I do think that as someone who has benefited from my degree financially and personally it is not too much to ask for me to pay it back over the course of my working life

Good for you Gribbet. I wouldn't worry too much about this "lost credibility" thing. I am against violent protests (against people), but it got you lot on the news properly and that will be remembered.

Large demonstrations often include a number of people who participate in civil disobedience and a number of people who behave violently. I don't think it lets down the demonstration because most people understand that it is a minority of the demonstration who act violently.

It is hardly a big deal to the police when compared to what they deal with in many city centres with people drinking at the weekend.

waterloo, it sticks in the craw that the politicians who want higher fees had their university education for nothing and in some cases had a student grant, double standards and hypocisy.

The tories, putting the N in CUTS (from another site)

Nurse I missed your comment. Not rich here either. Di now what. Does my opinion carry greater weight?

New wave, that doesn't make the current system just. It is something that annoys you, no more.

i utterly support the protesters and, having been on students protests myself regarding fees and funding cuts(although it didn't directly affect my year, only the years following us ), i am delighted to see some gusto after decades of apathy.

i don't condone people flinging fire extinguishers off buildings but i absolutely support the vast majority who were present due to a passionate conviction in their cause.

i want to point out that on several of the marches i attended back in the late nineties, which were all peaceful, we were man-handled by the police and eventually blocked even though our route had been pre-arranged/agreed.

and there were 14 injuries. considering 52,000 protesters attended, that's a pretty small figure.

blinks, I wonder how many were inflicted by the Police.

I had a student grant, I came from a poor family. I would like to see assistance for poor students carried on. However I would now be happy to pay that money back and pay for my fees as well. I am no longer that poor student , I am a middle income professional and as I said would have no objection to paying back every month out of my wage for the rest of my working life.

Is that not socialims? I as a relatively comfortable person want to pay back for what society has given me and help those who have less in the here and now.

Appletrees.

One DS has left Uni and the other is at Uni, I will pay off their loans so I have no axe to gring personally however the ConDems are trying to make Uni only affordable by the well off.

My SIL is a police woman. Last time I saw her - a few months back - she was saying how the tories are good for coppers' salaries because of the social unrest they cause and the subsequent overtime. (Although I think they might be reforming the overtime structure now).

Newwave why not let your children pay off their loans? If my dd chooses to go to uni she will benefit from it, she will pay.

They're trying to save money and in the process I hope they stop people going to university who shouldn't be there, and stop the possession of a degree being a requirement for most careers. A very socially equalising thing.

I made my comment because you said it sticks in your crawl. So what. When they got their degrees they probably had to be brighter and have better qualifications.

that's a poignant insight lowrib

It's not poignant at all.

waterloo, I have the money (long term anuity) and I would like them to start work with a clean slate although I have thought about giving them the money as a suprise when they buy their own homes instead.

I think you qualify as rich and should have your opinion immediately disqualified.

"When they got their degrees they probably had to be brighter and have better qualifications." Honestly do you believe everything you read in the papers?

I thought it was tbh - why not?

She went on to say that a lot of coppers paid off their mortgages under the last tory government with all the overtime from the poll tax riots etc.

appletrees- your comments are very unclear, who are you talking to?

Appletrees, I wish :o. Just lucky to have two upper tax band wage earners and no mortgage. I started an education annuity when older DS was 4 he is now 24.

it was lowrib, appletrees is just being argumentative

What an offensive thing to say. Just so full of assumptions. And deeply flawed. Except.. unless.. you probably think only wealthy people went to university thirty years ago? When there were grants and no fees? That is some imagination you have.

Thanks blinks, I really must go to bed, not get sucked into arguments with argumentative tories people!
Night all