Beauty with a BANG ♥

BEING a student myself, I have a strong opinion towards the vicious protest that swarmed London earlier this week.

WEDNESDAY afternoon saw outraged students taking matters into their own hands, turning a peaceful protest into a violent ceremony.

Milbank Tower, home to the Conservatives, was literally bombarded by a furious bunch of so called 'mature students,' with windows smashing, fire's lit and an extinguisher ready to be thrown. It is estimated that this foolish conduct has cost at least £1million in damage.

Many cuts in education budgets and the removal of the EMA (Education Maintenance Allowance) and ALG (Adult Learning Grant) for students that attend sixth form or colleges across the country, were also major concerns for the demonstration.  The rally was set-up by the NUS and the UCU (University College Union).  President of the NUS, Aaron Porter was furious with those who had taken matters into their own hands; “It’s an utter disgrace.”  “Perhaps 500 or more have chosen to use disgraceful tactics to try and undermine us.”

Over 50,000 students stormed through London with violent expressions implanted on their faces, blaming Nick Clegg in particular for "broken promises." In the Liberal Democrats manifesto, Clegg promised a cutback on tuition fees and many of the Lib Dem MP’s signed pledges against increases on university fees. By the looks of the violence portrayed at the protest, the physical battle may have been over on Wednesday night but the war between students and the Coalition government has only just begun.

I admit no one can condemn the animal-like behaviour that turned the successful protest into a shamble of fury. However, should the overwhelmingly peaceful majority of students really not get another chance to protest their opinion on a potential increase in tuition fees?

To quote the French Premier George Clemenceau, ‘If a man is not a socialist in his youth, he has no heart. If he is not a conservative by the time he is 30 he has no head.’ Regardless of how you feel about any part of this quote, I think it reflects the assumption that younger people are more likely to feel strongly about issues, that at first glance, seem roundly unfair.Without a doubt at first glance the trebling of tuition fees does seem pretty unfair and therefore students, like myself, will have strong feelings of anger that they'd like to deal with.

Personally I do agree that these students had a right to march the streets. Like me, they were angry with proposals of an increase in tuition fees from £3,290 to a horrifying £9,000 per year. The way various small groups dealt with their anger towards David Cameron and Nick Clegg could clearly have been pursued in a more positive manner, such as following the original march in order to defeat the Coalition Government's outrageous proposal.

Obviously trebling tuition fees isn't as unfair enough to warrant through London with a fire extinguisher, like some foolish person on Wednesday, but it is unfair enough for students to cause a bit of commotion on the streets, with their future being their highest interest.

Given that the people who the rise in fees are going to effect are a bit too young to take to the streets (and don’t have the organisational backing of the likes of the NUS), who else is going to protest on their behalf if not current students?

It's easy, as I’m doing, to sit back and ponder the theoretical rights and wrongs of raising tuition fees. On a selfish note, I worry for the likes of the children I will have in the future because who knows what the world’s going to be like when they are ready to go to university  (if they decide to go at all).

In conclusion,  I am a student and seeing that tuition fees are going to triple, and universities aren’t going to have to do anything to show for it, bankers are still getting massive bonuses, and billionaires are getting away with paying less tax than really they should... my heart, like the rest of us outraged students, is certainly telling me to do something about it.

Rheannon Sandell