Some students have changed the world for the better. But not these ones.

I've already deconstructed the wider issues around Higher Education in this country here. I said that you can't look at the debate over rising tuition fees in isolation from wider issues in HE. But on to the recent protests themselves.

A few weeks ago my Christmas shopping was diverted by a bit of a 'kerfuffle' around Argyll Street near Oxford Circus. The whole street was blocked off by scores of police vans and no-one was being allowed through. I assumed a celebrity of some sort was visiting the Palladium, but it seemed a bit over-the-top. It was one of the days of the student protests against fee increases, but I didn't see any protestors, or any trouble at all. Oxford Street is full of noisy, slightly mad people anyway, so noisy protests are no big deal for us Londoners.


When I got back I saw the amazing story of poor old Charles and Camilla having their car 'redecorated', with them still in it. So that explained all the fuss around The Palladium. As a friend of mine said - it's our car, so we'll paintbomb it if we like! He was reminding us that we own the Royal Family, not the other way round, which is very true. The Royals only exist because we allow them to. But of course 'we' didn't paintbomb their car. If I'd been there 1 hour earlier I wouldn't have either. Some morons did. Is that the best they can do? Pretty tame, I'd say. Have a look at Greece lately to see what real rioters can do. I remember being in London for the poll tax riots and Broadwater Farm riots - now that was real violence.

Looking out across the 20th Century, student protests have challenged, and changed  the world. The students of Tiananmen Square challenged the might of the Chinese Communist party and demanded freedom, democracy and and open society. The world watched in awe. The students were then massacred by one of the most oppressive and repellent regimes on earth, while the world looked on and lifted not a finger to help them.  But I believe that they did not die in vain. One day the Chinese Communist party, with all its apparatus of terror and oppression, will itself die, and China and its people will be free.

On my trip to Prague earlier this year I visited the Museum of Communism with all its horrors. Pride of place there was a video telling the story of protest, and victory, against communism. The heroes of 1968, and a new generation of students in 1989 who took on the communist regime, took the beatings and the water cannon, and won. So it is that students all over the world have been in the vanguard of some of humanity's most important struggles of the 20th century. I salute them, and I am humbled by them.

Makes the tossers who painted old Charles's car look a little bit wimpish, doesn't it? Morally, as well as physically wimpish.

Er, and then we come to the British students of 2010. Protesting against....what exactly? War? Communism? No such luck. They are protesting against reforms which would mean that they pay their fair share towards their continuing education, have the subsidies they get from people less fortunate than themselves reduced and are given repayment terms after they start earning that are possibly the most generous offered to any group in society. Oh dear.

Let's look at the claims, and the facts. Protestors claim that these reforms will turn HE into the preserve of the rich and that poor students will be deterred by higher fees. How on earth can that be true? The poorest will be given non-repayable grants of £3,250 (an increase on what they get now).  There will be a new National Scholarship Programme for students of more modest means – offering free first year or free foundation year.  So that's that argument demolished then. Not that it was hard to do.

What about the so-called 'squeezed middle'? It seems that protestors are agitated that a system requiring them (and future students) to pay back some of the cost of their degrees will....what? I've heard all sorts of stuff: stop them getting a mortgage, have them living on the bread line, being poor forever etc etc. The main argument seems to be that 'poor' students will not be able to go to uni. It's all garbage.

Ok - say for example you graduated and earned £25k pa. That would mean you'd pay back £360/year (£6.92/week). How in God's name is £6.92 a week going to 'deter' anyone? You could pay that by switching to a cheaper mobile phone contract, or something equally simple. The actual breakdown is this:

Any graduate earning under £41k will have an interest rate set at 0.6%+RPI

Anyone earning over £41k will pay 3%+RPI
An example: Someone with an income of £45,000 will contribute £2,160/year (£41.54/week).

That's a blooming amazing deal. Nothing like having an actual real-world debt of £35k now is it?

The most eye-catching thing is that if you don't earn enough you don't even have to pay it all back! If you haven't finished paying for it after 30yrs (perhaps you arent always working), then the debt is wiped out.
So that's the bottom line: is £6.92 a week a 'deterrent' to a degree, is it oppressive, is it unfair, does it create a 'two-tier' HE system, does it treat anyone unfairly? Does it heck.

I say again: HOW IS PAYING BACK £6.92 A WEEK A DETERRENT TO DOING A DEGREE??!

The Coalition's reforms are fair. Anyone who is 'deterred' by these plans perhaps isn't suited to HE because they haven't thought long-term or seen the value of education. Or perhaps they've already made up their minds and can't break out of their mindset.

Some of the commentary about the protests has been unfair. The vast majority of the students have been good-natured and peaceful, but the students have been infiltrated by anarchist and extreme left-wing groups who use any excuse to kick up trouble. I've seen these scumbags before - at the poll tax riots, at anti-racism marches and attached like leeches to any cause perceived, however vaguely, as anti-Establishment. No doubt some students also decided to join in chucking things at the police, they are cowards but I'm confident that they are a tiny minority. If you throw a lump of concrete (or a fire extinguisher) at a police officer (or anyone else) you could kill them. Compared to their counterparts around the world, the UK police are pretty soft, I can tell you; but some of them still lose their discipline and need to be pulled up for hitting people on the skull with truncheons. Blows like that can kill. It's only ever justified if a thug tries to kill one of them with a heavy blunt instrument, or a very sharp one.

A better image for me was the sight of (very) young female students linking hands and standing unarmed and unprotected in front of an abandoned police van, to protect it from a violent mob swirling around them and preventing the thugs in the crowd from carrying out wanton violence. They were amazingly brave and principled young people; they wanted to stick to their argument and not have their march subverted by the anarchist cowards and some student thugs with their faces masked. They should be given a medal. Whatever the outcome of the tuititon fees debate, protestors such as these give me for hope for the future. They may be utterly deluded about the Government's funding plans and its effects on future students but perhaps they are worthy heirs to the students of Prague and Tiananmen Square after all.