Bit of a hoo-haa down in london

[yeo]

Haha this is quality.
Did anyone see the fire extinguisher thrown from the top floor?

Sky news are shitting it

ha ha I think you and I are probably missing the point and just enjoying a good afternoon watching the trouble

[santasdead]

That argument presumes today's graduate gets a £15k salary and the future graduate gets £21k salary. And is therefore no justification at all.

It doesn't presume anything. It just states that a future student earning the repayment threshold of £21k can pay off a years tuition and be left with more than todays graduate earning the repayment threshold.

But, if todays graduate was earning £21k then they could pay off two years tuition. So i suppose i am wrong, as usual:).

[pauld]

Haha this is quality.
Did anyone see the fire extinguisher thrown from the top floor?

Sky news are shitting it

Sky always do, makes their reports seem more exciting. Bollocks, I'm going to have to stop working now so I can watch some of it, you and yeo are a bad influence

[yeo]

I don't care what anyone says,watching Tory party HQ get smashed up is great.

[tans]

ha ha I think you and I are probably missing the point and just enjoying a good afternoon watching the trouble

Youre probqbly right

I like the fact theyve got music blasting out and their pretty much having a rave on the ground floor

[Bogus Dave]

I sent an angry email to my local mp (Lib dem)

I feel like ché guevara

[yeo]

There's been some good tweets as well.

"there's an Anarchist on the roof complaining that the State wont pay his fees..."

"just when you thought this protest couldn't get more cliched a Reggae sound sytem has turned up"

haha

[reeves4england]

OK, you are economically and semantically accurate. In practice, though, these fees are a massive deterrent to anyone but the very well off from getting a university education. Doesn't mean some of the less well off won't do it, many still will, but many who would qualify academically will be put off by the debt. And I don't mean the poor and the destitute - at 3k, this is already hitting kids from those "decent hardworking families" we keep hearing so much about, fuck knows what impact 6-9k pa will have

I agree that that's happening. And something should be done. I just saw a video of a guy from Cardiff uni who accepted it doesn't make education unaffordable, but that 9k would have put him off going. Perhaps between the ages of 16 and 18 more should be done to educate people on how the system works, to show that they're not going to have to have to pay £9k per year up front, and that they won't have somebody chasing them for £30-£40k as soon as they graduate.

Back to the point about the actual amounts being charged, I begrudgingly accepted the introduction of fees before I went to uni (I think my year was the first to pay £3k+ for every year of education). However, to double or treble that really is taking the piss. Especially when many students' studies may ultimately be worthless for them, or at least of little value.

[reeves4england]

"there's an Anarchist on the roof complaining that the State wont pay his fees..."

Like.

[DMR]

That argument could apply to many things, duty on petrol being reinvested in roads, cigarette and alcohol duty reinvested in the NHS.

Who should foot the bill, and how then ?

Fair point, but I cannot accept an 80% cut in teaching grants (if you take Labour's point at face value, which to be fair you probably can't) warrants a up to a 200% rise in fees for what might be inferior teaching, which is probably inevitable if Unis have to cut their budgets left right and centre.

Just texted my housemates telling them to get themselves down to the Tory HQ and get themselves on telly, that really would make my day.

[tans]

I thought it was your mates on the roof lobbing extinguishers dave...

[ghanimah]

I sent an angry email to my local mp (Lib dem)

I feel like ché guevara

You didn't vote for him as well did you?

[Simon Pieman]

I almost didn’t go to uni because of the debt etc. and that was before top up fees. No chance I would if I had that decision to make now.

In an ideal world potential students would look elsewhere e.g. different qualifications which cost less or different career paths. In practice it’s very difficult for young people to do this if employers will look for degrees as a general minimum, which they will because so much of the people looking for jobs do have degrees.

I think the politicians from all parties need to realise that the average graduate salary is heavily boosted by London and nearby areas. Other areas can be much less. When I started my graduate trainee job I was on less than £15k and that was only 4 years ago.

[thepeoplesgame]

Secondly, the interest rate at which you repay is to rise. Double the current figure if you earn more than 41 grand.

Okay, I'm on the side of anyone who smashes up Tory HQ, and the hypocrisy of a bunch of cunts who are milking the benefits of their free education hiking up the cost to future generations for the same opportunity is obvious, but no one earning more than £41,000 pa is getting any sympathy on the grounds of financial hardship from me.

[pauld]

I agree that that's happening. And something should be done. I just saw a video of a guy from Cardiff uni who accepted it doesn't make education unaffordable, but that 9k would have put him off going. Perhaps between the ages of 16 and 18 more should be done to educate people on how the system works, to show that they're not going to have to have to pay £9k per year up front, and that they won't have somebody chasing them for £30-£40k as soon as they graduate.

Back to the point about the actual amounts being charged, I begrudgingly accepted the introduction of fees before I went to uni (I think my year was the first to pay £3k+ for every year of education). However, to double or treble that really is taking the piss. Especially when many students' studies may ultimately be worthless for them, or at least of little value.

Yup. All that. And what Si said as well - too many of the pundits and politicos just see these kinds of issues through a London/SE-centric prism.