And how did that work out for you?

And we did have walkouts, sit-ins and a march. Most of the volient ones probably weren't student anyway, just young thugs needing an excuse to break stuff. You almost seem proud your people don't protest against your government...

The peons need to learn that money does not grow on trees. When I was a lad you could go to University and even get help with accomodation. Now you pay for the accommodation and also a sizeable chunk of the tuition. Of course back in the day when it was cheap it was only a priviledged few that attended and the vast majority where happy to pay to receive the beneift. The world has moved on now the priviledged are no longer the few and they expect the few to pay for the priviledged.

I am a 40% Tax payer I pay a lot of my hard earned cash into the system. I also understand the benefits of a good education and if that meant that I had to pay latter in life I would. As a bank manager pointed out to me this is the cheapest loan you will ever have with the best repayment terms.

I am pretty sure the Liberal Democrats did not think they would be in power, now they are they too have had a sharp lesson in economics.

But you are right what ever justification the Students had for protesting they managed to balls up every time they turned up and acted like a bunch of arses. I am pretty sure whoever kicked in Prince Charles limo will not be on the student unions christmas list.

I don't sympathise with the people who uses violence, but I do think increasing the fees will do no good. It's just a short term solution that will do little good in the long run. Well, it will be interesting to see what the extra money will be used for, I guess.

I might be biased though, because here you don't have to pay a penny to go to university and that seems to work. That doesn't mean that you don't have to take loans though, unless you have rich parents that buys food and lecture for you.

Actually protesting yesterday, thus having first hand experience. Everything was well and dandy until the fucking police started kettling us in (This is after stampede charge from the horses) with no access to toilet and food, I think people will start to get freaking unsettled.

I had a riot shield rammed to my face as I couldn't stop the momentum of 1000 people pushing the opposite way, also the police tend be pretty trigger happy with their batons. I condemn the acts of violence but under those conditions I can understand the reasons.

Too bad there was no footage of the stripping pink storm-trooper >.<

Arrival time: 2pm

Got home: 1am

Pretty much nothing happens.  Fees were increased most years while I was in college, by as much as 10% and nothing happened.  The students didn't organize or anything.  Fees increased by even more in Cali and there were walkouts and maybe students caused a little damage but they stopped causing problems and went back to their normal way of life.  People in the US are used to paying for university.  Even at the government schools, students often end up paying $2,000 to $20,000 per year or about 1/2 the costs (while the government pays the rest of the costs).

They were badly run for sure. But let's make one thing clear, the IMF / EU is not bailing out the Irish banks. They're bailing out Ireland (which in turn bails out the banks) in order to make sure that their own banks don't go bankrupt. In other words, the IMF / EU lends money to Ireland, then Ireland lends the money to Irish banks so that they have money to pay foreign banks.

Follow the money and you realize that the foreign countries are bailing out their own banks, with the bill falling solely on Irish taxpayers. The foreign banks don't pay for their mistake of lending money to badly run Irish banks.

The bankers ALWAYS win, that's been a constant since Lehman Brothers collapsed.

You sound like a communist.

Being against bailouts of fraudulent / badly run companies is communism now?

Then roast and execute them.

I hate rioters. They don't belong in a nation and should be stripped off all their freedoms.

Pleasant. Rioters are the only ones that get things done, and i would think that even staunch foes of Communism could have a healthy appreciation for rioters, since they're the ones that toppled the Eastern Bloc