The more I think...

...about university tuition fees, the less sympathy I have for the embittered students. The MPs may rebel, but they clearly have too much sympathy with a group that could largely be described as middle-class fuckers.

There was a crappy phone in on 5Live late last night, and I was half-listening to a bit of it as I loaded the dishwasher. The two contributors I heard I dismissed their arguments completely. The problem for their cause is that, without these arguments, they don't have an argument.

Argument 1 is that we'll create a generation of 21-year-olds leaving University and unable to get a mortgage because they have a huge student loan to pay off first.

To which my response is, well, good. Because it might force a cultural change in this country, and make us more European in our outlook. In the UK, we have the concept of the "Property Ladder," and people see property, always and forever, as a way to make money, and as stepping stones to making more money. And a lot of good it does us. Not only is our housing ridiculously overpriced, but we are as a nation ridiculously overburdened with mortgage debt. And as any fule kno, you don't make any money at all unless you get out of the property market altogether, sell your house, and go live in a drain.

We don't have much decent rental stock, and people continually use the equity in their homes to get more debt, all of which makes the economy extremely dependent on interest rates, which will always make it difficult for us to join the Euro zone, even if it was in our best interests, because Europeans aren't as badly affected by high interest rates as us. It would be far, far better for us all if people rented property until they were in their 30s and could afford to take on a mortgage and responsibility. None of this getting married at 19, getting divorced at the age of 25, and fucking yourself up forever.

Argument number two runs along these lines. "I'm 17 and taking 'A' levels, and if they charge top-up fees, I will not be able to go to university."

To which I say, well, good. Because my experience of these 18-21 year olds who went to good schools and got good 'A' levels is that they're a bunch of idiots. Spoon-fed, oblivious, selfish, stupid, middle-class fuckbunnies. So you can't afford to go to University at 18, so what? Get a job.

People should be able to go to university at any stage of their life, for any reason they want. If that means going at 25, or 35, 65, or 95, I don't see a problem. The problem is with campuses and libraries and resources being sucked up by a bunch of teenagers who don't give a shit, don't know anything, and don't know what to do with themselves. Go away and block the pavements somewhere else.

I can see a future in which it suits employers to send people to university, part-time, to improve their work performance. Or where people save up for a few years and then go to university. Or where people keep working part time while they go through university, even if it takes them 7 years. None of this should be a barrier to success. In fact, if the government could do one thing, I'd suggest they take away the problem of underpaying National Insurance contributions through earning below the threshold in University years. This doesn't affect 18 year olds but is a problem for 21+ students.