The Centre Of The Universe-ity

"Sarah, which war are we against this week?"
"I've no idea. Just chant 'Israel.'"

While many people have attempted to defend yesterday’s protests, claiming that it was only a small minority of individuals who resorted to violent tactics, they appear to have entirely missed one major point; that demonstrations of any kind were completely unnecessary. A rise in tuition fees is not a sign of the impending apocalypse, an evil that needs to be vanquished or an infringement of our civil rights – it simply means graduates will have more money to pay back, which, considering the austerity measures taken to combat this country’s embarrassingly large deficit, is a necessary undertaking. There are however, those who would compare the current “crisis” to the suffragette movement or even more nonsensically, the American Civil Rights Movement. Not only is such a comparison wildly inaccurate, it is deeply offensive to those who fought for the type of freedoms which yesterday’s protestors appear to have forgotten, insensitively staging a mass protestation during Remembrance Week no less. Of course, the fact that I myself am a graduate and come from a low income family yet have always agreed with the requirement for tuition fees, apparently means nothing; I’m right wing and therefore staunchly opposed to liberal ideology. So to put it to the test, I thought I’d compile a list of some of the issues which were apparently of less importance to the liberally minded students who chose instead to protest against spending money:

*Abu Hamza, militant preacher and enemy of the state, remains a British citizen, his family lives in a £600,000 council house paid for by taxpayers and he has to date cost the country £3.5 million.

*The continued presidency in Zimbabwe of Robert Mugabe whose government has been responsible for the deaths of approximately one third of the entire population.

*Illegalised homosexuality in Nigeria which in some states is punishable by death by stoning.

*The building of a Mosque near ground zero in New York whose sponsors have direct ties to Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah and Hamas.

*The abysmal human rights violations of North Korea which lists amongst its many crimes public executions, the interment of disabled people inside concentration camps and the imprisonment of between 150,000 to 200,000 political activists.

*The adoption of nuclear power by Iran, a country whose Ayatollah is legally permitted to place a fatwa on those he deems enemies of Allah and whose President openly denies the Holocaust, seeks the destruction of Israel and provides ICBMs to the Palestinian government.

*The adoption of Sharia Law which in its most faithful application includes physical violence against women, punishment for the victims of rape and the complete removal of human rights for homosexuals.

*The imprisonment of Nobel prize winner Liu Xiaobo for publicly campaigning for political reform.

But hey, if you feel that being required to pay off a debt which will only be payable once you earn over £21,000 is of greater moral significance, then go ahead. Paint your little slogan, buy your Che Guevara T-shirt and head on down to the latest march... Just don’t deceive yourself into thinking it’s going to make the slightest bit of difference. You’re not a revolutionary, you’re just a child.