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Continuing a series on world leaders, Miles Deverson takes a look at Angela Merkel
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In the first of a series on world leaders, Miles Deverson takes a look at Nicholas Sarkozy
As protests against the tuition fee raise continue to rage on, the question of whether the government will decide to listen remains. In the meantime, student leaders have promised to force David Cameron and Nick Clegg to abandon plans to raise tuition fees to up to £9,000 per year. I Indeed, determination on the part of opposition does not seem anywhere close to fading. In fact in the past weeks tension has risen notably as good-natured marches turned into riots. Expressing their frustration, students have, on several occasions, shown they were more than willing to act on their conviction. Student at the University of York, Sophie Shaw says: “All students are right to be angry, not just for themselves but for future generations of learners. The Government is pushing us into huge amounts of debt even before we've begun earning.”
The government's decision to call an early vote on the matter indicates growing embarrassment. The issue was discussed in the Chamber on Tuesday and the debate promises to be rough. Reactions to last Wednesday's protest in London provides a foretaste of what to expect; David Winnick (Labour, MP for Walsall) described the event as "marvelous” and inspiring to others, a comment to which Sir George Young (Conservative, MP for North West Hampshire) responded bitterly by asking whether "on reflection, (he) would like to describe the demonstration yesterday as 'marvelous'". He added: "Hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of damage was done in Westminster and the demonstration was ruined by a minority of irresponsible people."
Nick Clegg's failed promise to oppose any raise in the tuition fees has further worked up students who perceive it to have been a deliberate political maneuver to get votes in the General Elections. A political blunder that the deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat leader regrets, “I should have been more careful” when signing the pre-election pledge.
In the past couple of years, there has been a general trend towards increasing or attempting to increase tuition fees, even in countries where they have generally been much lower than average. This, of course, can be accounted for by the economic crisis and the seemingly necessary measures of austerity taken accordingly. Despite this trend, UK's tuition fees remain much higher than the European average. German universities depending on the state are either free or charge around €500, Dutch universities around €1700 and France around €150; whereas UK's tuition fees already stand at £3290.
The government's decision will dictate whether Britain's education system is likely to drift towards the American model of education, prestigious but elitist, or whether it will remain, admittedly, heavy on public expenses but open to everyone. “Education should not be a luxury, or the privilege of the middle and upper classes,” says Miriam Ennenbach, student at the University of York.
The outcome to what can now safely be called a “crisis” still remains very unclear. Tuesday's discussion will begin to tell us whether the protests have had any practical effect on the political agenda. Whereas it seems unlikely that such an up rise of opposition be left unheard in a democratic country, the recent example of France's pension reform crisis shows such certainties cannot be taken for granted.
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