Student tuition fees protests fall all too easily into ineffectual violence

14th December 2010

Protests have been high on the agenda recently and while some have had a positive impact, the student protests of last month seem to have done more harm than good.

Protests have the potential to have a genuinely positive impact. They have changed the world in which we live in; helping to bring an end to the horror show of the Vietnamese War, creating independence in India and putting pressure on governments to pursue nuclear disarmament. In more recent years, protests, along with the new interaction levels we have thanks to social media and the internet, have helped to safeguard BBC 6 Music.

However, the credible arguments behind the student protests were lost amid violence, resulting in a complete lack of positive impact. Losing the sympathy vote of the general public, students were reduced to the image of angry vandals, instead of the insightful voice of youth.

With so many positive protests to learn from, it's sad to see students not paying attention and simply giving in to destructive outbursts. If we'd used our votes effectively during the election maybe we wouldn't have found ourselves in a Britain on the brink of an exclusionary higher education system.

With the higher fees proposals passed in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords', it's hard to look at the student protests and see any good in their methods whatsoever. With a private sector mentality ushering its way into the UK, maybe the student population can find a genuine voice of protest that can do more than shatter a little glass.