“It speaks volumes about the anger and concern of students and academics in further and higher education at what this government is trying to do.”Why, you may reasonably ask, is this remark so hilarious? Well, it seems that the protesters out in force today to march against the proposed rise in university tuition fees were so angry that they turned into a maniacal horde intent not on peaceful and lawful demonstration, but on the destruction of what I can only suppose they regard as their sworn enemy, the democratically elected government of the United Kingdom.They are angry and concerned, indeed, and they told the Conservative Party about it by assaulting Conservative Party HQ in Milbank Tower. If all these students take away from their university education is that the correct way of showing your disagreement is to throw a massive anger-tantrum, then I doubt a trebling of tuition fees will bring in enough money to raise the standards of British higher education.
Whatever message the protesters had to send has now been swept away by the flames of phoney outrage. Any protest that turns into a riot should not be acknowledged by amending the plans for fee-rises. If they want to be heard, demonstrators need to police themselves better and weed out the riotous elements early on. Now, sadly but inevitably, the majority of peaceful student protesters have to suffer because of the minority who could not act in a grown-up manner.
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