Yes and the Lib Dems did specifically target the student vote, on the basis of their opposition to tuition fees. When they went into coalition it was inevitable that both parties would have to drop some things from their manifestos as part of the negotiation process. The Tories for instance had been promising to reduce inheritance tax and they dropped that. Lib Dems had been campaigning against nuclear power and Chris Huhne is now Energy minister and looking to bring in a new wave of nuclear power stations. Nobody is up in arms protesting against these. The reason the fees issue has gone so sour for the Lib Dems is because they went touring round the university circuit stirring up students in opposition to Labour bringing in tuition fees, and threatening that if Labour got back in then the Browne report could end up advocating £7000 fees for students. So they got a lot of student support and Nick Clegg relies heavily on the student vote in his constituency of Sheffield Hallam. Now they are in government and are presiding over a policy which is bringing in potentially higher fees than was originally feared, the student vote has turned against them. They have got 57 MPs at the moment but I wouldn't be surprised if at the next election they drop back down to 20 or so, probably their vote will drift off to the Greens and various smaller socialist parties.

Lots of people just take the default cynical line on parties and elections like flying biscuit has: "they never keep their manifesto promises" but when someone says that if you ask them to give examples they struggle to find any, because this doesn't happen very often. They are very wary of breaking explicit promises because they know the opposition and media will slaughter them about it like George Bush (senior) saying 'read my lips: no new tax rises'. As a result you learn to infer what they are really going to do by what is left vague or left out of a manifesto, or what the leave open to interpretation in answer to questions, eg when the Tories or Liberals were asked about if they would put VAT up, they always announced "well we have no plans at this point to raise VAT, but nobody can rule it out...". This was basically obvious that they were going to rise it. I read later on that in internal meetings in Labour, Ed Balls had wanted Labour to take advantage of this by making an explicit pledge to not raise VAT, but Gordon Brown refused, probably because he also planned to hike up VAT at the next budget.

100% parasites the Royal family!Only parasites imo are the lazy students who think i as a tax payer should fund their education.I say get off your ars$s + fund it that way + as for supporting the violence they get all they deserve.Can't expect the coppers just to stand there waiting to get beaten up.Get the water cannons out,soon disperse then.

The Liberal Democrats are, under Clegg, a disgrace. A friend of mine was one of Charles Kennedy's advisors, and a parliamentary candidate for the party at the last two elections. He has recently resigned his twenty-odd year membership of the party.

Clegg has taken the party into government (of sorts), but he has also pretty much ensured that they'll be back as an irrelevance again come the next General Election.

As a few have mentioned i believe the majority of people involved are workshy tax dodging layabouts yes not students but paracites of society. The Hoody massive, the wannabe gangstas and all they have done is jump on a bandwagon where they are intent on causing violence because that is what good ole England has become. This is not helping the real students who are struggling to fight their corner.
But in my eyes too many students use going to Uni as an excuse to not work and despite them getting a degree in the films of Quentin Tarantino they still end up in an o2 call centre which is why they dont want to pay anthing. They just wanna bum around sniffing tip ex and drinking cheap booze. The ones who actually go to Uni to learn for "Proper Jobs" will be able to afford any fees when they graduate. Remember they only pay once they finish.

I was going to go uni next year but after the rise there is now way I can and will put myself in that amount of debt,

And people calling students layabouts is quite frankly ing me off, I am currently at college I am in 5 times a week and work 38 hours aswell, so stop tarring everyone with the same brush.

I was going to do programming at uni the course I wanted to do has risen from 3,500 to 8,450 that is a 5 year course on top of that to eat and pay rent I'm looking at another 2,000, so that's around 50,000 pound in debt then I will also be looking to buy a house with my girlfriend so put that on top of that then that is a monsterous amount.

you will find the word student is being used to describe university folk. You are still in free education.

As for the debt, welcome to the real world.

Check the details as my daughter has been informed that the new proposals start for university entrants in 2012. If you strat an undergraduate course in 2011 then the old capping rules will apply.

This is exactly why the increase in fees is wrong. Prospective students from generally poorer backgrounds will choose not go to University because of the huge debt. A £15k debt compared to a £50k debt !! Disgraceful. People try to excuse the trebling of fees (In some cases) by stating that it won't have to be repaid until a salary of over £20k is being earned. Well that ain't a lot. We'll be penalising people in 'normal' trades & professions. Christ it's hard enough for young people to get onto the housing ladder now never mind when having to carry a further £50k of baggage.

The 'layabout student' thing is just a generalisation made by people who just don't like them. My daughter's a student who also works 25 hours a week in a restaurant often working till the early hours. She works harder than anybody else I know. There are layabouts in every section of the community.

Will the protests make any difference. Highly unlikely but should we just accept laws like this without a fight. No effing way....

One the detailed proposals are explained..rather than just the media headlines.. you will find that children from "poorer" families will largely be unaffected as they will either qualify under the governments scholarship programme are the netwrook of assiatnce and bursaries offer by the universities themselves. The biggest losers will be the kids from "normal, average, hard working, never claimed for anything" families who will be hammered with the full fees with no assistances or handouts. (Aint these the same families who voted "anti-labour" at the last election and got the Tories in......watch for these measures to be reviewed immediately prior to the next election).

I can't be bothered reading through 4 pages of drive,however....

you can't say some of the students actions were acceptable,because they are NOT.however you have to understand the anger of the young generation, we are being led into the next generation of tory deadwood,education should be for ALL not just for whoever has mummy and daddy to pay for it.

EMA/ALG is being scrapped (thats £30 a week for the costs of attending college over 2/3 years),raising tuition fees to more than double for most students...it is NOT right at all what this government are doing to the future of this country.

Im a student at Chester,and as i leave next year it won't effect me but i feel ashamed and sorry for the younger generation leaving school in the next 3 years...no jobs, unaffordable education,welcome to the UK kids.

RIP 'Great' Britain

Under the promise of spreading democracy to other parts of the world, young men have been killed in two world wars and more recently in Afghanistan and Iraq– and yet we current have a government currently in place doing things for which it has no mandate. Even worse, promises that were made are being broken.

Democracy implies that the voter has some influence on the decisions made – and once this link is lost, history tells us that violent protest is the likely outcome. I can’t condone it, but I feel there is a degree of inevitability about it.

On the subjects of students and education, it’s a shame that government doesn’t help encourage or facilitate the path that was open to my baby boom generation. I left school at 16 and then completed an HNC on day release. This involved about 12hrs/ week study plus homework time. Later in my 40s I took an Open University degree. This again took about 12 hrs/ week and cost about £2k. Throughout I was earning money and was fully exposed to the work place.

You only have to see the masked idiots(illegal by the way)at the front of the demos to work out they came hellbent on violence.The police have a very tough job at the best of times so i for 1 applaud them for showing such restraint in very trying circumstances.If you get 10,000+ protesters with some clearly just wanting to vent their anger your going to get casualties.When the police cuts come into force next year some of these scroats will be able to run riot over the country.Maybe then you will be happy + as for living in another country no thanks.Just because i said the police should be tougher obviously hit a sore point.I'll say it again.Name + shame the thugs who cause damage + as for that waster caught swinging on Churchills statue i'd jail him for 6mths whatever feeble excuses he came out with.

I've got a better idea for the scruffy lazy t**ts that thought it was fine to desecrate the cenotaph and Churchills statue, give them a choice 5years jail or join the army!.........spoilt brats, a disgrace to the country!