Tuition for a Remembrance

There has been much to look forward to in 2021, if not merely the end of 2020. But, alas, we have 3 registered vaccines in circulation across the UK, with the end of the virus finally being in sight after nearly a year of great mental strain, despair and, sadly for many, the loss of loved ones.

Indeed, it seems there is but one more obstacle to overcome: the third lockdown. In this statement, I mean to encapsulate that in overcoming this lockdown, we can reduce the rate of spread of this disease, reduce the deaths that it produces, and completely halt the tide of this malicious killer. Truly, Boris Johnson, Donald Trump and the rest of the proto-fascist movement can be overcome and I know that, in this time of great change, we can all come together (metaphorically) and return to vague normality, and hopefully something beyond that too. It is also my great hope that we stop COVID-19 as well.

With my period of undoubtedly humours writing over, let me assert that, as a privileged middle class university student, I have by almost all accounts been treated better than most during this pandemic; I am not in a vulnerable group, I have not lost any close friends or family members to the virus and I am lucky enough to just about be financially independent enough to carry on. This is something I am incredibly grateful for and I am utterly disgusted and angered by the selfishness and sheer incompetence this government has demonstrated. The lives lost and the damage done to public trust and mental health will be felt for years, possibly generations, to come.

The latest spell of incompetence (or should we just refer to it as the wilful disregard for another set of people that it is?) has been shown to my peers: university students. People who have come to a place of higher education to better themselves, meet new people and gain reputable qualifications, have instead been burdened with upwards of 10k of debt for a year of impotent and borderline useless online learning, plenty of mental distress and have forced to carry blame for the spread of the virus on the only occasion the Tories have chosen to acknowledge our existence. No mention of a refund to our tuition fees, no mention of rent mercy; nothing. The pockets of exploitative landlords remain well lined and the hands of the government well washed of any blood with the fabric of the blindfold they choose to wear.

Of course, there is no surprise here; it’s what we’ve come to expect and, to be perfectly frank, I am not here with the business of offering solutions; I am not a legislator and there is nothing I can say or do that will change the approach of this cruel and callous government. I can however, offer this one piece of advice: never let the Tories forget the deaths they have caused, not just from the virus, but from suicides (in either case in large part preventable). Never let them forget the debt they’ve saddled you with while excusing tax cuts to corporations and the wealthy as means of stimulating the economy: they were lying. Never let them forget the hundreds of millions they gave to their Tory mates to produce world beatingly useless track and trace system. Never let them forget that they chose greed over lives. Never let the bastards forget.