(Originally published to Lowri Greene's Take On Life on Wednesday, the twelfth of January, 2011.)
So, it has been a year since my last post here. Since then, life has gone on: I have a new way to terrorise the country (called a provisional driving licence - soon to be full if all goes well,) I am a year closer to adulthood, a potentially terrifying thought, and for once I actually agree on things with the government. In fact, I thought I'd base this blog post on politics, and in particular an issue that will particularly affect me. This issue is, in fact, the rising university tuition fees.
As you may have already gathered (and if you hadn't, you're one of those who should certainly not be going to university,) I am a supporter of the cuts, which I gather from all the abuse I receive from my peers, is uncommon for my demographic. In fact, statistically it's precisely my demographic (white, very middle-class, young and rather spoiled) who tend to be socialists, expecting everything to be handed to them on a silver platter. I suspect that had I not two parents working at university, and therefore the understanding of the system, I should probably be a whinging socialist myself. However, if one really thinks about the issue they ought to realise a few things that make rising tuition fees actually look like an OK idea.
Firstly, one must ask oneself why exactly the fees are rising. There can only be one answer to this problem: the fact that the previous, Labour government spent a load of money they just didn't have, and the massive debt owed by the country had to be paid back somehow. In fact, if one digs deeper, an interesting and entirely feasible conclusion may be speculated - the possibility arises that Labour intentionally spend more than they reasonably can to make themselves appealing to the voter, so when the voter realises that actually what they're doing isn't good at all and vote the Tories in, the Tories have to make whopping great cuts which are a worse deal than what the taxpayer are used to, so Labour get back in again. It could easily be argued that it's simply a vicious circle of dirty tactics designed to make their opponents look bad.
There is one major problem with the cuts, however, and that is simply the sheer number of students protesting. Just for the record, I'm fine with the fact that they have the right to protest, but they also have the responsibility to keep it peaceful, and I am a firm believer that people should only get their rights if they adhere to their responsibilities. I'm sure you've heard about the case with a sixth former called Edward Woolard, who threw a fire extinguisher from the roof of the Millbank building into the crowd below. A couple of days ago it was announced that he would be gaoled for (I think) a year and a half. Cases like this make me so annoyed, it's just a load of students think they have the right to do whatever stupid and dangerous stuff they want if it means they can get angry for the sake of being angry.
Something else most students don't realise is the fact that they don't pay for a degree, they pay for the chance to study for a degree. Added to the fact that a lot of students go to university to socialise, get drunk and just prat about in general, I seriously think that if anyone really wanted to go to university to study for a degree, they'd go anyway, tuition fees wouldn't stop them. Also, if you consider that one can take out a student loan for all the tuition fees with no interest, that you only need to pay back when you're earning over £21000 per annum. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me! Something for those who would attempt to counter with "but then students would be in debt for the rest of their life!" to remember is that the whole point of a degree is that it's an investment, id est you pay more early on to increase the chances that you'll earn a lot more later on in life. That would also be my argument against the ignorant fools who claim that the fees rising discriminates against the lower class - only the richest people who attend boarding schools and whose fathers go out shooting foxes while their mothers sit at home and drink tea with their little fingers in the air actually pay up-front, so in most circumstances the wealth of one's parents has flip all to do with ability to pay for university.
I could go on about this for ages, but I have a maths lesson in a minute and should probably go. I am enabling comments, so if anyone disagrees and fancies being proved wrong, they're very welcome to argue. In vain. ;)
/rant
Lowri :)
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