David Mitchell Nick Clegg getting a good kicking? Could anything be more joyous?
Students bring out a violent streak in me. When I see NUS spokespeople on TV talking simplistically about tuition fees, even though I basically agree with the sentiments they express so unattractively, I want to punch them. But I also like watching them chuck stuff at the police, smash windows and jump up and down on vans. I’m not so keen on the fire extinguisher hurling – I lose my appetite for the scuffle if I think someone might get killed – but a bit of a ruck with some bobbies dressed as X-wing pilots seems entirely appropriate.
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The student protests just might be demonstrating a growing political will to reform our higher education system, to have it paid for out of income tax. I think that would be fairer. Maybe it’s unrealistic but it’s what happened until 12 years ago before the proliferation of courses. If, as a nation, we really cared about higher education, we’d find the money. If the Lib Dems cared half as much as they claimed, they’d welcome this movement. Instead, Nick Clegg wants the students to go home.
What did he get for compromising so many of his party’s principles? A referendum on a type of electoral reform that it never advocated. He should have held out for full PR or made the Tories govern as a minority. The political will was with him then. But he didn’t sense it and he took the important-sounding job. He’ll always be able to say he was once deputy prime minister. But the question he leaves unanswered is: “Why would anyone ever vote for the Liberal Democrats again?”