Students and staff must keep up fight against government, UCU president will tell NUS protest

Speaking at a rally in Kennington Park after a central London march, organised by the National Union of Students (NUS), Taylor will tell the crowd that, despite support from the Liberal Democrats, the government's education policies are 'trademark Tory' and attack the coalition for being out of touch with the needs of ordinary people.

Kathy Taylor will say: 'This is a government that does not understand the needs and fears of ordinary people; yet claims we are all in it together. In the first year of this coalition government, the richest 1,000 people in Britain increased their collective wealth by 18%. Over the same period the government introduced measures which increased the number of children living in poverty by nearly 1 million.

'The government's response has been to move the goalposts and redefine child poverty - doing absolutely nothing to tackle the problem. Students and staff need to keep up the fight against the government's pernicious policies.

'It was students and lecturers who marched together two years ago to highlight the folly of the government's pernicious education policies. As the dust was settling on the coalition agreement, we made sure the honeymoon period on the supposed new politics did not last long. We were the first to highlight just what the Liberal Democrats were prepared to sacrifice for their Tory masters and make it clear that what we were witnessing were trademark Tory policies.

'The two constants in college and university life are students and staff. Us and our values will endure long after the current crop of politicians, who are so determined to destroy them, have gone.'

Contact the press office for a full copy of the speech.