[greencreeper]

I still won't be voting - would take a major change in UK politics for that to happen.

Student loans...

I took out around £4100 each year for three years, and about £2000 (I think) for my placement year, plus an overdraft of £1800 and top up hardship loans of £300 for two of the years I was at Uni, plus the £1000 my parents lent me, comes to about £17,000 of debt.

When I applied for a student loan, I had a tough time proving that I was independant of my parents - without independant status, I wouldn't have been able to go to Uni. The application process is hard, and the hardship loan criteria even tougher.

I've not started paying back any of my debt other than the overdraft, which the bank reduces each year. It's currently at £1250. The student loan repayment threshold has been increased to £15,000 , which means I won't be paying it back any time soon.

I'd like to see the student loan scrapped, but the problem is that the Government intends everyone, chavs and all, to have a degree, which ironically means that degrees will become worthless within the next decade and the earning potential of people with degrees will be much lower (thus less likely to pay off the loan). If you scrap the loan and replace it with a grant, it will just encourage the chavs et al, who should never go near a University let alone study at one, to apply to University.