LONDON, U.K - Angry student protesters marched through central London toward Parliament on Thursday as lawmakers began debating a controversial plan to triple university tuition fees in Britain.Weeks of nationwide protests were reaching a crescendo, as thousands of students held demonstrations and sit-ins throughout the country. In central London, where recent protests have turned violent, demonstrators braved near-freezing temperatures to protest.
- The tuition vote poses a crucial test for both the Conservative's governing coalition with the Liberal Democrats and the government's austerity plans to reduce Britain's budget deficit.
The vote put Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and other Liberal Democrat leaders in an awkward spot. Liberal Democrats signed a pre-election pledge to oppose any such tuition hike, and have reserved the right to abstain in the vote even though they are part of the governing coalition proposing the change.- To jeers from the opposition, Business Secretary Vince Cable insisted yesterday that the new tuition plans were "progressive" as a heated debate over the proposal began in the House of Commons. While some Liberal Democrats have declared their opposition, the increase is still likely to pass.
All of this has made Clegg one of the least popular politicians on university campuses. "Clegg today will expose himself as the pathetic Pinocchio of politics," read the front page of the Daily Mirror newspaper — complete with an altered photo of Clegg's growing "nose of shame."- Clegg defended his decision to support the proposals, saying the plans represent the "best possible choice" at a time of economic uncertainty.
- "In the circumstances in which we face, where there isn't very much money around, where many millions of other people are being asked to make sacrifices, where many young people in the future want to go to university, we have to find the solution for all of that," Clegg told the BBC.
Prime Minister David Cameron's government defends the move as a painful necessity to deal with a record budget deficit and a sputtering economy. To balance its books, the UK passed a four-year package of spending cuts worth £81 billion (Dh470 billion), which will lead to the loss of hundreds of thousands of public sector jobs and cut or curtail hundreds of government programmes.
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