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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To wonder if these riots will change anything?

279 replies

poshsinglemum · 09/12/2010 22:17

I think it's getting totally out of hand. I think that HE should be accesable but that's what the students loan company is for-no? i have no money; I have a student loan. When I start to earn enough again I shall continue to pay it back.
I have no problem with demos but attacking a car etc is not helping the cause.

OP posts:
TheFarSide · 09/12/2010 22:24

There will always be a few who go to extremes.

We shouldn't let that detract from the fact that many, many young people are objecting to the fee situation.

Loans incur interest and with mortgage loans so high I can understand why young people don't want to saddle themselves with a huge debt, which will be all the greater if they want to study subjects like medicine at the "better" universities.

The proposals will lead to a two tier education system with wealthy youngsters benefitting most.

Tiredmumno1 · 09/12/2010 22:32

What idiot attacks the future kings car anyway, they should be locked up.

i am sorry but i think the students need to just accept the outcome now

littlebabynothing · 09/12/2010 22:34

yeah, just accept it. doesn't really matter does it? Hmm

LemonDifficult · 09/12/2010 22:37

This riot will harden the hearts of those who were undecided. Who wants to be on the side of these wankers? Attacking police horses and police just doing their jobs? Tosspots.

Peaceful demo folk, I salute you and your right to march. Not peaceful folk, that was a total own goal.

nightmarebeforechristmas · 09/12/2010 22:38

imo thay have lost any sympathy normal non university people would have had for them.

nancy75 · 09/12/2010 22:41

i did have sympathy, watching the news just now i hope the cost of the policing and clean up of this mess is added to their fees, they have lost my support.

Tiredmumno1 · 09/12/2010 22:45

Yes littlebaby just accept it.

the government do all different things that we wont agree with at point or another, but if we all went out and behaved the way alot of these have, then you may as well declare war and just smash everything to pieces

some of that behaviour was inexcusable

sethstarkaddersmum · 09/12/2010 22:46

I would like to think it was an own goal because I really really don't support violence, but I also suspect that a peaceful march wouldn't have got a tiny fraction of the media coverage that this got.

I think this generation of young people is going to be politicised in a way that they haven't been for at least 15 years - one consequence of all this is that I am pretty sure come the next election there won't be all the earnest despairing stuff about the impossibility of getting young people to vote.

and I think the riots will have had a hand in that, through being an event which makes students politically visible again including to their own generation, ie even people who weren't at the demo let alone the violent bit will feel it has something to do with them.

does that make any sense?

DancingThroughLife · 09/12/2010 22:46

The violence has completely lost their argument for them, even though I do agree with the protest in principle.

I graduated 3 years ago, having a student loan of £3500 per year. I will never pay that back. I earn just above the current repayment threshold, and repay about £10-15 per month on my student loan. Last year my interest outweighed my repayments by about £60. At that rate, by the time I retire, I'll have a bigger debt than I left uni with. And future graduates will be even worse off because they'll start repaying a bigger debt later.

But yes, let's just accept it and move on eh? Hmm

littlebabynothing · 09/12/2010 22:48

There is a middle ground between just accepting a far reaching policy which will hugely negative consequences for many years to come and 'smashing everything to pieces'

Tiredmumno1 · 09/12/2010 22:49

Again dancing yes get on with it,

if those on benefits have to face cuts, then why not this, we cant have it all ways,

littlebabynothing · 09/12/2010 22:51

That's the spirit

blueberrycustard · 09/12/2010 22:52

I think it has all the scope to get out of hand, like the poll tax riots. I disagree with violent protests, but I do understand that university will become a no go for many young people if they have to pay such high fees and hence have to have such massive loans. I would not want my dd to have to incur such debt. That is why we have decided that we will have to go back to the Netherlands, after having been here for more than 20 years, so she can integrate into the Dutch school system (first she has to learn Dutch, she is British citizen so might need to change that as well, don't know yet) so she can study in the Netherlands. I find it all so so sad. This is a policy dreamed up by very well off people ... they have no clue how the majority of people live IMO.

EggFriedRice · 09/12/2010 22:52

I witnessed first hand one of the demo's today, I saw as many police as demonstrators, only difference was that the police had batons & cameras, why? anyone would have thought it was a group of terrorists they were dealing with. If the Liberal Party had not lied this would be a non event.

Tiredmumno1 · 09/12/2010 22:53

Whats the spirit?

seriously we cant have everything go the way we want them to, its just never going to happen.

blueberrycustard · 09/12/2010 22:59

I agree that there will have to be painful decisions for everybody given that the mess the UK is in thanks to our banker friends by the way, who are still doing pretty well out of it all. However, my calculation is 3 years of £7000 = £21000 then a Masters which will no doubt go up as well say to £12000 that totals £33000 that is now (i.e next few years). So when my dd will study this will by no doubt has massively increased further, I have totally no doubt about it: fewer students, still university's will have large fixed costs: fees will thus further increase ... I simply think that this change is far too big, a small increase in fees is one thing, but this is not a small increase, this is a major step change. This in my view is just the start of a total new approach to university funding in the UK (more similar to US but they have a good bursary system though for talented students).

UnquietDad · 09/12/2010 23:03

No, it will just make students look like twats and make "ordinary people" even more inclined to trot out the trite "why should a bus driver pay for Tarquin and Jocasta to study Media" stuff. Sadly.

nightmarebeforechristmas · 09/12/2010 23:05

but why should we?
when I think how they are cutting stuff for disabled people, I can't really get sad for an adult who chooses to go to university, they can still go if they want to.

donkeyderby · 09/12/2010 23:07

Some of the protesters got violent but most didn't. Our students have put up a spirited protest against being fleeced so badly and I am proud of them.

I am sure rent-a-mob were loving their day out but having had some personal experience of police tactics in marches, my mind is open to the possibility that the police made it worse than it could have been. They are not always the most skilled professionals out there...

christmaseve · 09/12/2010 23:09

They have won on this one, shame for our kids aged 16 down, yes that is all yours too. As for the disabled and the most vulnerable people in society, you have also lost today, I'm sorry to say.

GiddyPickle · 09/12/2010 23:09

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

grumpygrumps · 09/12/2010 23:09

Most likely the riots will not provoke change but the placards have certainly given me a chuckle: 'The Tories put the N in to Cuts' and 'CUT Nicks dick'.
I'm easily amused..

nightmarebeforechristmas · 09/12/2010 23:10

no we lost because the press and media have been so taken up with this, the goverment just got away with the cuts made, no one noticed

Meglet · 09/12/2010 23:15

Whoever let charles & camilla go driving into that crowd will lose their job that's for sure.

christmaseve · 09/12/2010 23:16

The student protest were not really about the fees rising, these students were the lucky ones who were still within a reasonable system of fees. It was about trying to exercise democracy. People are so thick they cannot see that!!

This evil, nasty party will now be able to bring in any policy they want, taking money from the lower end of society whilst protecting the rich. It's all your own blinkered faults and I won't cry over it.

Sorry I am upset but today won't stop my DD going to uni I will do everything I can to make sure this bright girl from a single parent home makes it.