Richmond students join 52,000 others in National Demonstration

· Pedro Diogo

On Wednesday 10^th November, an estimated 80 students and two lecturers from Richmond upon Thames College attended the ‘National Demo-lition’, a march jointly organised by the National Union of Students (NUS) and the University and College Union (UCU) against cuts in Further and Higher Education. The coalition Government is proposing to raise the cap on university tuition fees from the current £3,290 to £9,000, to abolish the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) and to cut funding for Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences courses. Added to this Train to Gain, Adult Education and many vocational qualifications, including apprenticeships are also being hit.

The latest estimate from the NUS reveals that approximately 52,000 students attended the march, which started on Whitehall and went around Parliament Square, finishing outside Tate Britain for a rally with speeches from Sally Hunt (UCU General Secretary), Aaron Porter (NUS President) and Frances O’Grady (TUC Deputy General Secretary). On the route, which passed the Headquarters of the Conservative Party, the Millbank building complex, a small number of protesters (many of which are believed to belong to extremist groups) attacked the building, breaking windows and furniture, drawing graffiti on walls, flooding various floors with fire hoses and climbing to the roof to throw missiles (including a fire extinguisher at police and other protestors.) Around 50 people have been arrested and over 10 taken to hospital, both police officers and protestors. Aaron Porter, President of the NUS, condemned the “despicable” actions of a minority of students “who have undermined the serious message that 50,000 other students tried to put across.” No students from RuTC were directly involved with the riot.

At the same time that the march was taking place, Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, took questions from MPs as he stood in for Prime Minister David Cameron who was away in China. It was clear that the debate about university tuition fees was at the top of the day’s agenda, with no less than twelve questions asked on the subject in the Commons. All Liberal Democrat MPs signed an NUS pledge confirming their manifesto commitment to scrap tuition fees altogether. It is now believed that many of them will break this pledge by voting for a rise in fees, as proposed by Secretary of State and  MP for Twickenham, Dr Vince Cable. The NUS, meanwhile has set up a campaign to recall MPs who break their pledge.