MikeSwiss's comments

The opinion the author puts forward in this article comes across as condescending and smug, but actually, he is more at fault that he gives himself credit for.

I make the assumption, as the author has a mortgage and I have heard this viewpoint from others, that the author is middle-aged, well out of university and mid-career.

If this is the case, the author's generation, with it's vision and drive towards a service-based economy, home ownership through debt, Thatcherism and privatisation, will need to accept that with this comes the obligation to improve the eduction standards of the workforce. You cannot be surprised that after driving manufacturing, mining, agriculture and low-academic jobs into the ground that demand for university places has risen, regardless of costs. A degree is more of a requirement now than it has ever been in the past.

A sad fact the author must accept is that his generation cannot afford to prepare its children for the economy and society they have created. Some would argue this to be selfish - he is too busy paying a mortgage and spending his cash elsewhere. Because of this, he must pass the costs down and burden his children with fees and debt (if the child is lucky enough to have parents who are willing to part with savings/wealth, they will escape this burden).

The future success of Britain is not based on work that can be done without a degree, this is the vision and direction current students are given by those from whom they take inspiration and direction. It would just seem that those elders are unwilling (but more realistically, unable) to pay.

The author should think harder about the Britain he has/is creating. Perhaps the tax he is paying is not being spent in the right way, or more likely, the money and effort he is contributing is not enough to make the generation behind him better off than himself. The fact that the students protesting are "too incoherent, too diverse and—in many cases—simply too polite and sensible" is perhaps a reflection they have inherited the selfish, weak and empty vision of the generation the precedes them.