SPENDING CUTS (2)

When the U.K. Government announced its brutal spending cuts last month, I said that it is one thing to announce unpleasant plans, quite another to implement them. The protests in London this week by university students - which turned violent, when a part of the demonstration attacked Conservative Central Office, smashing windows - were the first test of the coalition's will to force the British public to take its medicine.

University tuition used to be free in the whole of the U.K. In one of the most painful U-turns of Tony Blair's decade in power, he gave universities the right to charge fees, up to a maximum (currently £3,290 per annum). It was painful because the legislation prompted a big rebellion by his own party and was only passed thanks to help from the opposition Conservatives. Tuition fees are now the norm in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, on the other hand, the devolution government decided not to introduce university tuition fees; so only students from England, but studying in Scotland, pay them.

The huge increase in the numbers attending University in the U.K. has caused a financial crisis. The introduction of tuition fees was meant to deal with that, but the consensus is that it is not enough. A recent review of university funding in England by Lord Browne recommended abolishing the cap entirely. This was felt to be too radical, so Ministers have proposed keeping the cap, but raising it to £9,000 in 2012. It was this announcement that led to the demonstration by up to 50,000 angry - and articulate - people.

For Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats, developments have taken an unwelcome turn. In the run-up to the general election, the party's official policy was the abolition of university tuition fees over six years; and Mr. Clegg himself signed a pledge organised by the National Union of Students not to vote for any increase in fees if re-elected. He is now saying that the dire state of the nation's finances has forced him to rethink, a reasonable argument, on the face of it. However, as this week's events have shown, reasonable arguments have a tendency to go out of the window, whenever interest groups see a threat to their benefits. This was the first of many battles in what will be a long war.

Walter Blotscher