The new Liberal-Conservative coalition has cut the budget for
university teaching by 80 g-d per cent.

To make up the shortfall, each student will pay between £6k and £9k
each year in tuition fees. Currently they pay £3k. Previously it was
£1k. Before that, when the current political class went to university,
it was free -- though many fewer people went to university back then,
and besides most of the current cabinet have vast personal wealth and
would not have noticed had they been charged.

The fees were introduced originally by Labour in 1998 to fund an
expansion of higher education. Though there's more to it than that.

N e ways, the Liberals actually campaigned on an unequivocal
commitment to *cut* tuition fees!

And they've ended up trebling it. They have particularly strong
support in university towns because of their opposition to the Iraq
war and to... tuition fees. They are doomed at the next election.

So, not very surprisingly, students and schoolchildren (and divers
others)  are very angry, and there have been some big protests over
the last six weeks, with about twenty occupations, particularly at
Cambridge and London universities.

Today was the day of the debate and vote in parliament. The Lib-Con
coalition was likely to win, but the Liberals were badly split over
it. (Labour actually introduced the review of education policy that
led to the increase, and they don't really have a definite policy, but
that's another story.)

The government *did* win, but only by 21 votes, which is tight.

There's been a protest all day long, probably the most violent in
twenty years. It's still going on.


On Thu, Dec 9, 2010 at 8:16 PM, Tony Mills <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> I have been keeping track of the last few messages on this topic, but I don't know precisely what's going on, seeing as how I am in the States. Can someone offer me a summary please?
>
> Tony Mills
>
> ________________________________
> Date: Thu, 9 Dec 2010 11:43:05 -0500
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: FILM-PHILOSOPHY
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
> Alan,
>
> As it makes me proud to be an anglophile that you're students are out protesting, It makes me ashamed to be an American that our students are not.
>
> We must therefore never assume that cultures always evolve to a higer form. Two generations ago --mine-- things were different; so we're left to wonder how things went beyond the zero.
>
> Perhaps the difference, as Nagel wrote in this month's NYRB, is that Americans lack a realistic picture of that class identity which categorically states that there is no peace.
>
> Ciao, Bill Harris
>
> > Date: Thu, 9 Dec 2010 16:17:49 +0000
> > From: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Re: FILM-PHILOSOPHY
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> >
> > Hello everyone,
> > I just want to raise my voice in support of our brave and committed students, who are today out on the streets fighting this
> > completely anti-democratic legislation that is an attack on the foundations of our culture. From now on only the rich and those
> > enthralled by the paranoid individualism of consumerism will be afforded an 'education'. because this is so blatantly
> > anti-democratic the sons and daughters of the working class who have found employment in the police force are now in the position
> > of defending, by force, the laws that are designed to deny their children an education. (remember Pasolini?) Everywhere the
> > paradox of parliamentary democracy is displayed and everywhere this spectacle is denied by the mediations that reproduce it.
> > Victory to the students.
> > Peace
> > Alan
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > A. Fair
> > IDS
> > “The reform of consciousness consists soley in.....the awakening of the world from its dream about itself” Karl Marx
> >
> > Before acting on this email or opening any attachments you
> > should read the Manchester Metropolitan University's email
> > disclaimer available on its website
> > http://www.mmu.ac.uk/emaildisclaimer
> >
> > --
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