Student protests

[Kittwazzer]

Don't know if anyone was listening to the Jeremy Vine show last week when this was discussed. One young lady came on to complain how she would struggle to ever clear her student debt as she was finding it impossible to secure a job which matched her degree.

And her subject? Drama Therapy!

[ancientnloyal]

Don't know if anyone was listening to the Jeremy Vine show last week when this was discussed. One young lady came on to complain how she would struggle to ever clear her student debt as she was finding it impossible to secure a job which matched her degree.

And her subject? Drama Therapy!

whatever degree you get, its very hard to get the job you want... and most jobs dont need a specific degree! I know, im still looking and i graduated with a 2:1 3 and a half years ago. It's hard... you need at least to do a Masters course whcih I couldnt afford.


Although I thought the Police were hard done by, only a few officers let themselves down, there is no justification for this:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUHzSQgayXY[/youtube]

[Kittwazzer]

Don't know if anyone was listening to the Jeremy Vine show last week when this was discussed. One young lady came on to complain how she would struggle to ever clear her student debt as she was finding it impossible to secure a job which matched her degree.

And her subject? Drama Therapy!

whatever degree you get, its very hard to get the job you want... and most jobs dont need a specific degree! I know, im still looking and i graduated with a 2:1 3 and a half years ago. It's hard... you need at least to do a Masters course whcih I couldnt afford.


Although I thought the Police were hard done by, only a few officers let themselves down, there is no justification for this:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUHzSQgayXY[/youtube]

What was your degree in?

[doc]

I wonder if the CCTV footage will be used to help identify members of the Police who removed their i.d. numbers as well as the demonstrators who were causing trouble. I think we all know the answer.

Anyway, for those students who get prosecuted (make the most of your Legal Aid as that will go soon) as a result of the protests may I suggest resorting to burglary of rich bankers to help pay their fines. With the government forcing cuts in Police numbers, cutting the number of Magistrates/County courts, cutting prisoner numbers and getting rid of the Forensic Science Service they will never have a better opportunity to get away with it!

I thought the Torys were meant to be the party of law and order! Their actions above make Hague's speech at the Tory party conference as a 16 yr old seem even more ridiculous.

[Kittwazzer]

[quote="doc]I thought the Torys were meant to be the party of law and order!
[/quote]

There is no party of Law & Order. Criminals rule now. The party members sleep safe within their moats and behind their electronic gate, churning out the usual aphorisms whenever a prol is murdered/raped/mugged but nothing ever happens.
Law & Order, such as it was, ended with PACE. It became a bookies and if the CPS don't like the odds, they don't place their bets. In the meantime, the wealthy use the law for their own ends and Legal Whores like Nick Freeman get obscenely rich on the back of it.

This is what we pass on to the next generation.

God help em.

[gpartin]

Dennis Skinner should be in charge. We'd get to see what rich men with moats look like when they're demonstrating.

[Kittwazzer]

Not long enough Gaz. Go back and do it again!

Agree with you on Skinner though. But he was a one off. A total embarrassment to the genuine MPs who enter Parliament to do the right thing. Ie feather their own nests!

[gpartin]

Not long enough Gaz. Go back and do it again!

Agree with you on Skinner though. But he was a one off. A total embarrassment to the genuine MPs who enter Parliament to do the right thing. Ie feather their own nests!

haha mate I've been biting my tongue so much on all this talk of cuts, striking at Heinz, fees etc. Written replies, deleted replies time and time again and decided to leave most of my political side to twitter its easier in 140 characters x10 (I can't even do that right):). I went with my dad demonstrating about the poll tax and public service cuts, joined him on picket lines when he worked as a lorry driver, a dyer and then a lab technician and also listened to him shouting words I didn't understand through a megaphone when he worked for TGWU etc. He's been a teacher and NASUWT union rep for 15 yrs and not once voted for or called for industrial action of any kind. He told me last night he's disappointed he's retiring in July

You can always rely on tories to renew people's 'interest in politics'. Watching Teresa May talking in parliament yesterday made me physically shudder but its good to know I think they've broken the record for the fastest time a ruling party has ever gone behind in the polls.

[DaveO]

mickh

I read the stuff Martin Lewis posted and this bit.....

"Actually the real problem with the new £21,000 start point is the opposite of what the woman in the Question Time audience was saying. The problem is people will repay LESS, so it will take much longer to pay off the loan.

Now that wouldn’t be so bad if it were still inflation linked, but with the new interest charges, compounding will mean the cost of these loans is going to escalate massively over the years."

.....is exactly the problem and is the sting in the tail no one seems to be talking about. It really is saddling graduates with a credit card style of debt.

It gets worse because if you stop paying for any reason such as unemployment or if a woman takes a career break to have kids the interest still piles up.

What is surprising for someone like Lewis who seems to think subsidising it by linking it to inflation as is done now would help, is he has not realised the government simply can't afford to carry in doing that.

The reason it can't is because given they have put the fees up thus making students borrow more, means any subsidised interest rate would cost the government more and this extra cost on the government soon wipes out the saving they are making by cutting the teaching grant in the first place!

At the moment the interest rate students pay (which is set periodically) is 1.5%. The government borrows at about 3% so on every £10K borrowed the government loses £150 a year.

Now it doesn't take much to work out a student loan of £18K for fees + £12K of living expenses is going to cost the government £450 a year per student to subsidise the loan at the outset.

This easily wipes out what they will save by introducing higher fees so the "solution" is to saddle graduates with a credit card style debt. It is completely bonkers.

What really gets my goat though is the pious rubbish about "Why should a postman pay for a graduates education".

The teaching grant that is being taken away is just over 1% of the total tax take each year. So if you want to work out how much you personally pay towards undergraduate study look at how much tax you pay in a year and calculate 1% of it. For a postman on the basic salary of just over £16K that works out at about £20 - A YEAR. Someone earning £10K pays about £7.40 a year and someone on £60K about £150 a year.

Given 90% of the salaried population earn less than around £45K a year I can't believe anyone in that group could think paying that sort of money each year for all their working life is worse than their or their friends and relatives kids being saddled with a huge credit card style debt.

Even if they don't have kids they won't get this tax back when these changes come in - it will just go to bail out failed banks instead and they benefit from the skills graduates bring to society and the tax they pay into the system.

All this about it being progressive is nonsense as well. If you are rich you can pay the fees up front and avoid the loan and credit card style interest completely. If you are poor and get the fees paid you avoid the cost but as usual with means tested things, if you dare be in the bracket that misses the cut you get hammered. That is not progressive.

It's a completely stupid policy all ends up and when you study it as you can no doubt guess I have it becomes clear the figures don't add up and the motivation for this is not saving money (the IFS have said it will actually cost more with student loan write-offs in future) but is about bringing a market forces economy into education. It's apolitical decision not a cost saving exercise.

Dave

[jobo]

90% of politicians are basically thieving toerags, with snouts so big, even the biggest pig would be jealous.

My Granddad used to say that just after the first world war, things were getting too hot for Al Capone in Chicago, so he thought he'd try his hand over here. Unfortunately for him, the councils had got in first and he didn't stand a chance.

Ref the students, not sure if I like some of the stuff that's supposedly gone on but we only get to hear what the establishment media let us know about, wikileaks excepted.

I for one though am glad that at last somebody is having a go.