Left-wing Labour MP's and the likes of the Guardian newspaper have spoken of a 'day to be proud' and 'building on this anger' and who praised the ­protesters for 'getting stuck into the Government'. Charming I must say.

The students themselves are supposed to belong to the most intelligent section of British society. But they are protesting for a cause which suggests they left their brains at home. It suggests to me that the protesters are blind to the national deficit, oblivious to the fact that there was an "all-for-nothing culture" promoted for decades by Labour. The truth is that the money no longer exists to provide everyone with a free pass to higher education, or indeed much else.


Precious few broadcasters highlight, or even mention, the fact that even if the ­Government's blueprint to reduce the national deficit is implemented in its entirety, the total number of state jobs axed will amount to barely half those created by Gordon Brown over the past decade.David Cameron is attempting to restore a fundamental ­relationship between effort and reward, which has been allowed to atrophy for far too long.The government must hold its nerve in the face of illegal protests, it could leave Britain's economy in a perilous condition otherwise. The Government faces an absolute need to save huge sums of money, or see Britain's credit rating slump.

My own fear is that the cuts do not go far enough. David Cameron has asserted his determination to tough out the protests. If he has not used a phrase similar to Mrs Thatcher's 'the lady's not for turning', that is still his message.

He makes plain that marches and ­demonstrations, and indeed outbreaks of violence such as took place in London on ­Wednesday, will not deflect him. Those who protest have their rights; but so, too, do the ­majority of people of this ­country who recognise the price that must be paid to restore Britain to solvency.

If the pain imposed by cuts will be real enough, much ­heavier will be the price if the public, as well as this ­Government, does not hold its nerve amid some broken glass.