That's exactly what they should have done but Clegg would have gone back to being an inconsequential nobody and that was never on his agenda. He got a taste of the limelight and didn't want to let it go. Duplicitous, deceptive, morally bankrupt scumbag is what he is but then, I suppose that applies to the majority of politicians 

I never got EMA at school as my parent works for the NHS ans earns over the £36k or what ever it is, I suppose its is fair to say that is comfortable but my parents weren't giving me £30 every week when many others in my class whose parents are far better off than mine (but managed to cook the books so to speak due to being self employed) got the £30 and got sozzled every week on it. I had to get a part time job and work dam hard for my money while many were just lying in at the weekends and going out and getting drunk with their EMA. Very little use it for its intended use.

What I would propose would be that instead of giving out money to people they should give out vouchers which can be redeemed for items, eg transport costs, books etc. I also think that instead of dole money people should be given less money for 'luxury' items and vouchers instead (I know there are milk vouchers but these are worth just £4 and can be used for anything in a supermarket except from lottery tickets/scratch-cards alcohol and cigarettes.

This shouldn't effect those on the dole due to not having work as they mainly would be spending money on essentials such as groceries, but for those who are long term jobseekers (ie by choice) then they will maybe see that if they want luxuries in life they will have to work for them, the government could have them out sweeping snow off pavements etc in return for the taxpayers money.

Sorry...went off on one there :/

The LibDems saw their one and only chance to have any say in Government and took it. It just re-inforces my view of the lot of them. Their in it for themselves rather than the country.

And another think, I think £3k odd a year is too much. The majority of student (unless its law, medicine etc) are only in 9 or 10 hours a week for 24 weeks a year. 

(For me personally

24 weeks x 10 hours/week = 240 hours so each student is paying almost £15 an hour to be in class. Roughly 2/3 of these hours will be lectures, so 160 hours of lectures, with a lecture hall full of e.g. 50 students (at least) so the entire class 50(people)x15(pound)=£750 then x 2 (2 hour lecture)= £1500.

Not bad for 2 hours work?
So if this is going on all over the UK I do not see how the Universities are 'struggling'

Smashing the windows in Topshop Dunno what that has to do with fees though

Basically, the boss of the group who own Topshop has avoided billions in tax by putting it into the name of his wife who lives abroad. He also happens to be one of CallMeDave's top advisors.

Topshop is owned by Philip Green who avoids paying tax by telling us that everything he earns is his wife's who is a citizen of Monacco.

Hi fives PC.

I am always curious as to why people who have more money than they could ever spend feel the need to avoid tax . But as ever you have shown yourself once again to be 'blokey who knows everyfink' Peter 

Oops, extra props to Cologne for knowing strange stuff too

Indeed, and also to Senora!

Basically, the boss of the group who own Topshop has avoided billions in tax by putting it into the name of his wife who lives abroad. He also happens to be one of CallMeDave's top advisors.

aaahhh I see I suppose they'll be hitting up Vodofone next

Anybody who tries to lecture about money and doesn't square up to paying their way is fair game in my book SazBomb.

Whilst I do not condone the violence I think its great that the young people of this country have woken up and raised their voices.
If I were a lib dem I would be making the most of my time in power because the minute the next election is called they will be out.
I also think that labour need to rally themselves, take a good look at what was popular , what was not popular and present a strong united front to the country cos I have a feeling this lot will not last much longer.
From what I can see the only thing that they have done that I do agree with is get rid of the ridiculous amount of quangos in the public sector and abolish those expensive and useless HIPS when selling houses. 

Congrats to the protestors for getting their voice heard.  A wake up call to the establishment that the royals aren't outside politics and never have been.

The students treated the protest like a fun day out (meaning a day without studying).


Why destroy shop windows, attack the police, smash and break everything in their path?? whats that got to do with their cause?...they've lost all sympathy from everyone with a right mind.


ALL students should be made to pay back the costs of the damage their pathetic protest caused, on top of the new tuition fees.

BTW the tuition fees would have been the same under new labour, so lets not blame "the evil tories".

No, ALL students should not be made to pay back the cost of the protest!

Why should my son (and the tens of thousands like him) be made to pay for something that happened while they were miles away doing, in his case, his part time job that he has to help support himself while he is studying.

VS, we don't even know if they were all students...

You must know more than the Tories do, as from this morning they acknowledged they didn't know what the Labour plans were... and the idea that ALL students should pay for the damage is  and do we know it was only students that were causing the damage, and should the police not hold some responsibility for the kettling of peaceful protesters and of those being caught up in the violence? Would it be happening in a fairer society, and will we ever have a fairer society with a Tory government... right when hell freezes over. I hope this finishes Prick Clegg's political career!

Hi Dame...

I am feeling smug ( but not in a good way). I have said all the way along that Clegg and his ilk were just interested in power and nothing else. When this coalition first got together,I thought maybe- perhaps- it might work....
LOL

Hi Issy and me too...I'm really disappointed in the LibDems, and more so in Charles Kennedy who I had loads of respect for, correct me if I'm wrong but I think he abstained, I really thought he was a man of conviction.

I pissed up my vote... voted tactically and wanted Labour in but its been Tories territory for around 50 years my area so thought Lib Dems may of had a better chance of getting in than labour.

Got it wrong though... looking back now it wouldnt of made any difference if the lib dems had won the vote. Their motives would of been no different to the conservatives.

Scottish elections next May,the lib Dems will be toast.They usually do quite well up here,in the areas outside the central belt which is mainly Labour territory.

I might just wander slightly north in May to join in the celebrations 

Good - then they can crawl back under the stone from whence they came.
I would bet with everything I have that Clegg and his cronies turn tory next election...

I think they should get rid of EMA.....when my daughter did her A levels she took a job in Maccy D's to help pay her way

As for tuition fees, there should be something, but the level it's been raised to is ridiculous, especially when Scottish, Welsh and N Irish students won't have to suffer them

I believe Labour was in favour of a *Graduate Tax*.....that would have seen graduates paying for life, because once a tax is introduced, no government of whatever colour would rescind it.....who introduced the fees in the first  place.....Oh yes! That would have been Labour too.
I know this forum has a left-wing bias....but do people here honestly think that things would have been any better with Labour in power? I very much doubt it, because the IMF would have ended up baling us out and then we'd know about it

Labour introduced tuition fees to plug a gap in University funding and to fund more places in Universities, so that more kids had the chance to go. They also introduced the EMA to stop 16 year olds from poorer families, who may have been expected to leave school and get a job, from being pressurised into not trying to get their A levels, and so increase the possibilty of them going into higher education.

The ConDems have taken State funding away from Universities and swapped it with loans for students. As I said before, this doesn't help pay off the deficit, which they keep claiming, but merely transfers the burden onto graduates.

Their partial u-turn, giving poorer students one, or two years free tuition, may help to encourage them to go to university, but how will that be fair when they are graduates, earning above £21,000, and those from middle income families are paying far more than those from poorer families, despite earning the same amount?

can't quote but kaytee what planet are you on?  glad your daughter was able to get a job but that isn't always possible, i live in rural lincs very few jobs  and if my daughter wants to study she will have to travel (no free transport) ema will help pay for this and her studies - could say more but reading that made me

My niece works for the Student loans group.She 's on the phones,she  has worked there for two years an utterly loathes it.She has an interview next week for another job.She did like it at first,but phone call after phone call of folk complaining etc and giving her abuse has taken it's toll.It's going to get worse  now....She was a student herself.

My son is 16 and in year 11(GCSE's this summer for those who've not got the hang of this new-fangled year system). He wants to study forensic psychology and has said all along his first choice was Cardiff. Now living near and working in Cardiff myself I was not immediately a fan of the idea. I believe strongly the best place to be as a student is a long way from home and fending for yourself. 

But it looks like Wales is where he will have to stay:

"The Welsh Assembly will meet the cost of extra fees for Welsh students attending any UK university, in effect freezing the cost at £3,290 instead of the maximum £9,000 for students living over the border. English people who wish to study at Welsh universities would face the high tuition fee rate as imposed by Westminster.

It means the Welsh Assembly has joined the Scottish Parliament in breaking away from the spending priorities of the coalition government and are putting their money where their voters have indicated they want it – keeping down the costs of higher education.

In Scotland, students, if they attend a Scottish university, pay no fees at all although English students are charged tuition fees. In Northern Ireland, a decision has yet to be taken, but it's expected that the Assembly will keep fees below the dramatic increase planned for England. Parliament will vote next week on proposals to increase the cap on tuition fees from £3,290 to as much as £9,000 a year.

These differences are, of course, what devolution was all about, giving a voice to people who felt disenfranchised by the centralised government in London seeming to ride roughshod over opinion elsewhere."

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/educ...university-education

Cariad, it sounds like he will get the extra costs paid for at any UK university, so, unless you were hoping to get him to go abroad somewhere....  

My brother went to Cardiff, btw, and loved it. 

I never really wanted to be pressured into doing a degree... but if I want to avoid the huge fees I will have to go straight onto it when I finish my current course. I believe the fee is currently around £3,000.

Shame really, I wanted to go out to work and then possibly come back once I felt ready for it.

My son has been watching all the protests and has now stated he doesn't want to go to Uni cos of the worry of fees and how much worse it could get by the time he gets to 18 in 6 years. Instead, he'd rather concentrate on leaving school and getting a job and a trade under his belt. I admire his ideas and ambition, but knowing what I know now, and knowing the struggle he could have without any good qualifications, I'd have rather the education was the priority and getting a trade and working was in his spare time.

So thank you Tory party for royally screwing things up and making kids think that education is not something of importance to this country.

That's a crying shame . Education isn't something that should cost an arm and leg ..............whilst getting a trade or an apprenticeship is a great route to follow the choice really shouldn't be down to lack of finance or worrying about the financial implications in the future.

Very sad IMO.

I've just had a conversation about this to someone who started Uni in 1969, she was in less than 10% of working class students that went to that Uni. Her her parting shot to me was, we have now gone back to the 60's, thanks to a PR man who oozes confidence and talks utter sh*t  

I just can't be bothered arguing the point that this is so unjust, it's going to do absolutely nothing to the deficit and for Clegg and Cable to sit squirming knowing how wrong it is makes me want to puke. I wish all the bad investments in the world on the likes of Cameron, Clegg....... and also wish woodworm on Sam Cameron's new No10 Bespoke kitchen  I also hope Davie boys in the cupboard reaching for something when one on the legs drop off!

20 out 0f 28 cabinet ministers are millionaires....do they give a shit?  course not.

My daughter is thirteen and has been saying similar, even though I've been trying to reassure her that she doesn't have to start saving up now for it, as she keeps saying!  

They really don't have an effing clue how this is going to affect youngsters.