The Iron Lady R.I.P.

[cable tie]

The Thatchers........

The alcoholic husband, the racist daughter & the arms dealing son who has a personal fortune of £160 million and never paid a penny towards his own mums funeral because we're all going to pay for it instead with our tax's.

B4stards its a rich mans government .

[JoeRock]

I'm a student, and I don't see the problem with raising tuition fees to be honest - if you want something that is a serious investment in your future, then you should have to pay for it - when I graduate and start work I don't want to have to pay taxes towards a few million people who are studying some wishy-washy subject at uni because they just don't want to start work yet! You still don't have to pay any more up front so it really is a future investment, and statistically you're likely to end up in a much better paying job with a degree than without, allowing you to pay off your student loan. Even in the event that you don't end up in a better paying job, you don't have to pay it below a certain salary threshold (around 23k ish from what I can remember), and once you get to a certain age, the debt gets written off. I really don't see what the massive fuss was about this!
For what it's worth, I've had 7k a year of debt from the government (3.5 for tuition fees, and the rest for maintenance) for the three years of my undergraduate degree, and then I've used savings from previous jobs and a part time job to pay for most of the rest. Next year for my masters I'll be having to borrow about 9k to pay for my course, so I'll be leaving uni with roughly £30k of debt. Sounds a big investment, and it really is, but I'm confident that my degrees will allow me to earn more than I would otherwise have throughout my lifetime!

[Chillum]

@JoeRock, no disrespect mate, but when you get out into the non-student world that £30k of debt is going to cripple you in ways you can't even imagine.

I started out with only £5k of debt and it screwed me for several years, I shudder to think what 30 would do.

[Raymy]

I've got closer to 40k but its manageable. Partly I think due to my location. Although the education itself was free as a result of the location and the debt is through student loans over the years

[slimwilly]

I never did further education, no, just went to work,like all my kids, this student load malarky, well it is a bit worrying,,mum !!! lend me some money,Dad ,lend me a tenner,.Poor students, now there are limited jobs too, how do they get to pay the loan off?.

[pitternator]

wise up..tuition fees have always been there. My university course was over £3k a year back in 1980. BUT the government paid them as I was a poor student. Now the students have to pay them.Is this progress?....its discrimination against the poor.I do feel very sorry for any student saddled with that level of debt before they start.
 
Someone said we cant change anything - UTTER TOSH ! ...you have a vote ...USE IT ! We are saddled with this government because people didnt vote last election. Apathy will be the demise of us all.I dont care what you say about labour, they would have come up with a " masses friendly" package to reduce the deficcit , which has to focus around growth and regeneration, not just cutting budgets.
 
I do place maggie as almost in the category of despot. She thought she was right , wouldnt change, whatever . Hitler was the same...any historian will agree that ultimately he lost the war, and caused his own demise , all by himself as he never listened to advice or took account of the misery he caused his nation....now who does that sound like eh ?
The few never seem to take account of the feelings of the many .....is that democracy ?

[slimwilly]

Yes , well there is another thing, who do you vote for in the next election,,?


Are they all the same, or just passing the problems around, never seen a poor politician, they are there just for themselves.Labour are telling the country,"lets borrow more money to kick start the economy"  who is right, only time tells if the policies a faulty.

[JoeRock]

@JoeRock, no disrespect mate, but when you get out into the non-student world that £30k of debt is going to cripple you in ways you can't even imagine.

I started out with only £5k of debt and it screwed me for several years, I shudder to think what 30 would do.

Was that a student loan though fella, and if so, did you start H.E between 1990 and 1997? As I started mine a lot later than that my loan has no effect on my credit rating, so really doesn't play that big a part at all. If I don't end up in a well paying job (over £21k) then I don't pay it back either, and if after 30 years I've not paid it all back then it gets cancelled.
For me, because of the nature of the work I want to enter I'm assuming that I will end up paying it back, but it is extremely unlikely that I won't earn £30k more over the course of my lifetime with a degree than without it (just because I can't enter my planned place of work without one!) What I pay back over a year is basically 9% of my salary after 21k. So If I'm on say £31k, then i have to pay £900 of my loan back, about £75 a month. The only time it will make life a bit more difficult is if I emigrate (which I'm planning on doing for a year or two after uni to teach scuba diving) as the payment threshold is quite a bit lower in most other countries, so what I'd probably end up doing is asking the company I work for to instead of giving me a higher salary, pay for my rent or similar instead, so that my salary is less and I don't lose as much from my student loan repayments on it whilst I'm not in a well paying job!

[Chillum]

Won't it affect you getting a mortgage or loan if you needed it? Because that's what happened to me, and it was late 80's early 90's. Part student loan, part regular loan so I guess it's not a complete like for like, but I would have thought it would affect you getting further credit.

[Raymy]

Has no bearing whatsoever on credit. I'm looking at mortgages just now and the credit report says nothing of student debt