http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/students-riot-in-london-over-tuition-fee-rises/19710751

LONDON (Nov. 10) -- A huge protest against the British government's plan to triple university tuition fees descended into violence today after hundreds of angry demonstrators smashed their way into the London headquarters of Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative Party.

An estimated 50,000 students, lecturers and supporters took in part in the demonstration against the ruling coalition's policy of charging students up to $14,500 a year for their education from 2012.

That might seem like a relatively small bill when compared with the cost of an American college degree, but it's a massive and unexpected hike for ordinary Brits, who currently pay just $5,300 in annual fees. As the government also intends to slash funding of university teaching budgets by up to 40 percent, most of that extra money will be used to plug the gap left by the withdrawal of state funds. That means students will be paying more from their own pocket, but won't see a corresponding rise in the quality of their education

While the vast majority of demonstrators marched peacefully through the capital, just an hour into the protest a 200-strong group of young people attacked Millbank Tower, the central London building that houses the Tory party's main office, as well as some 30 non-government businesses. Several police officers stationed outside the premises were injured as the mob surged forward and pelted them with bottles and placards. The crowd then smashed windows to enter the building, and once inside set off flares, burned placards and spray-painted anarchist symbols on the walls.

Some demonstrators used chairs seized from the lobby to smash more glass frontage, opening up the whole of the first floor to protesters. Riot police eventually managed to seal off the building and separate those inside from the 1,000-strong crowd outside, who threw sticks, eggs and other projectiles at the officers. In the street, cardboard signs were piled up for a bonfire and set alight.

A spokesperson for the Conservative Party told the Press Association that the protesters failed to gain access to their office. However, at least 50 protesters managed to climb on to the roof of a neighboring building, where they waved flags and hurled beer cans at the police below.

Riot police are now attempting to remove the last remaining protesters from the building. Thirty-two people have been arrested and 14 others, including seven officers, were taken to hospital with light injuries, according to the London Metropolitan Police Service.

Britain's National Union of Students (NUS), which organized the march, has loudly condemned the actions of the violent protesters. "Disgusted that the actions of a minority of idiots are trying to undermine 50,000 who came to make a peaceful protest," NUS president Aaron Porter said in a tweet. Reporters on the BBC speculated that some of the people who barged their way into Millbank Tower might not be students, but members of ultra-left wing or anarchist groups.

"I am against the cuts. I am against the Tories," one unnamed masked anarchist, who had just thrown a glass at a riot police officer, told the Financial Times. "But I am more against the system as a whole. It needs to be burnt down and started again from the bottom up."

A thuggish minority may have targeted the headquarters of the Conservative Party, but many of the peaceful marchers vented their anger toward the Liberal Democrats, the junior party in the coalition, and their leader, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg. Students waved signs bearing the slogans "Liberal Hypocrites – Lying Pigs!" and "Traitor Clegg - stop Nick-ing our money."

In the weeks leading up to the May general election, Clegg and many other high-ranking party members publicly signed a pledge to vote against any rise in tuition fees -- a promise that persuaded many students to vote Lib Dem. However, when the party entered into coalition government with the Conservatives, it swiftly dumped that policy and agreed to ramp up student fees to help lower the country's record $245 billion deficit.

"We see [Lib Dem leader] Nick Clegg as a traitor, because he specifically promised -- there are videos and photos of him signing [the] pledge -- that he would vote against tuition fees," Lauren Crowley, a vice president of Kent University's student union, told Kent Online. "He's gone completely against that and a lot of students are very angry that he betrayed them."

Clegg today defended the policy in parliament, saying it was a "progressive" way to cover the higher education bill. Under the plans, students would borrow money to fund their fees from the government, as they do now. They wouldn't start paying off the loan until their annual earnings reached $34,000 -- up from the current level of $24,000 a year -- and would repay at a rate of nine percent of their income above that level. Interest rates will also be higher for graduates who earn more.

Despite the deputy prime minister's assurance of fairness, it seems likely that his newfound belief in charging for higher education will cost his party dearly at the next election. Student leaders have declared they will try to have Liberal Democrat politicians who break the pre-election pledge recalled. And speaking to a crowd massed outside the Houses of Parliament this afternoon, NUS president Porter asked students to take their protests into Lib Dem constituencies.

"This is just the beginning," he crowed. "The resistance begins here."

Is it the same anywhere else?