I'm with you up to this point:
I have never been under the illusion that uni is a given right, I expect to pay for it, I don't however expect to be lied to and have the extra money that I will spend on my tuition fee being used to pay back the national deficit.
It's not. The extra fees are not paying back anything, there is just a reduction in the huge subsidy on tuition fees, which has been passed onto those that will ultimately benefit (in theory at least) from the education.
Also, why hasn't the NUS condemned the violence? The only quote I can find from them is on the BBC website:
A statement from NUS president Aaron Porter reads: "This is not the end, and our protests and our work have sparked a new wave of activism which will grow stronger by the day. We stand ready to fight the next stage of this campaign together. Our future is at stake."
So they intend on causing more damage and disruption on the average Joe and Jane taxpayer, who would have funded the increase if it hadn't gone through?
Any sympathy I had for this cause is most definitely gone after today's debacle.