NICK CLEGG has all but called students thick for campaigning against the government’s planned huge rise in tuition fees, as a third afternoon of protests goes ahead in London today.
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In a letter to National Union of Students President Aaron Porter, the Liberal Democrat leader accuses students of failing to understand the fees system.
“Like me I am sure you have regularly spoken to people who believe that the new proposals will mean them having to pay before they go to university,” said Clegg, who is infamous for breaking a promise to vote against fee rises.
It is unlikely many of the protesting students are that ill-informed. They know the fees won’t need paying up front, but nevertheless don’t want to be saddled with debts of £40,000 as they start their working lives.
Clegg also argued that rather than the fear of a life spent in debt to the state, it was the demonstrations against the fees themselves that could put off people from going to university.
“All of us involved in this debate have a greater responsibility to ensure that we do not let our genuinely-held disagreements over policy mean that we sabotage an aim that we all share – to encourage people from poorer backgrounds to go to university,” he said.
Despite Clegg’s bizarre logic, in demonstrations across the country, tens of thousands of students are expected to brave the snow and once again show their disgust at the fees system.
In London, campaigners plan a march from Trafalgar Squre to the Houses of Parliament and there are estimates that today’s day of action will be bigger than the one last Wednesday, which involved around 150,000 students nationwide.
Already there are reports that police have threatened people arriving for the march with being ‘kettled’, but campaigners appear determined to push on regardless.
“We’re not going to accept violence from the police as they try to intimidate people or to bully or harass them,” said Simon Hardy of the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts.