Having managed to find a parking space in London (for which we thank Mr. Livingstone, and not NUS, who advised attempting to fit the minibus into height-restricted underground car parks), we found our way to the NUS Briefing room, where we were updated on the day's events by Chris Weavers (NUS VP Education) and Mandy Telford (NUS National President); essentially, we were told how to "win the arguments" - a worthwhile briefing, to be fair, although how to deal with sympathetic MPs was not covered. The central objective of NUS was to secure MPs votes towards EDM #799 - published on the Tuesday morning, it had, at the outset of the day, got around 14 signatories. This was good, we were told, but 236 more were needed.

The day progressed, with a photoshoot on the College Green and a few moments with Sandi Toksvig (who - for the benefit of any Oxford alumni who may be reading this - is actually really keyed-in with the important issues, at least in this author's view). Then the time for lobbying came- literally dozens of students filled the Central Lobby, along with a number of politician-spotters and some tourists. We each met our own MPs, and some met our University MP - the Canterbury MP was unfortunately not able to meet more than four of the forty thousand students in the Canterbury area, which was a slight disappointment.

As the day ended, in the Westminster Arms, just off Parliament Square, we agreed on three things: firstly, that we felt satisfied that we had attended and lobbied our MPs, and had made a difference by highlighting the issue of student funding as one of importance; secondly, that we had achieved more than the thriteen-year-old children who had protested against the war outside by sitting in the road and annoying people trying to make a living; thirdly, that it is a real shame that nobody really knows that you can lobby your MP on anything, and that the process of doing so is so easy.

So what can people take from the day?

To NUS, I would suggest that they should attmept to work more with ordinary students, rather than individual SUs; I felt that it was assumed that those who attended were Union Officers. I would also advise NUS to abandon its advocation of the Government's 50% target, on the grounds that it is difficult to advocate such an figure to an MP, and then attempt to say that only those who are able to go should go to University. I would also advise them to mention more neglected areas, such as postgraduates, overseas or part-time students, in their information. Finally, and I push this one strongly, I would suggest that NUS should get A-level students involved, so that they are politically active by the time they reach university, rather than having to try and reach out to them during the sea of new information that is their first year at University. Overall, however, well done to the NUS for making myself and others aware that we have an ability to lobby MPs at all - certainly those of us who had not gone to Westminster before will be telling our fellow students to lobby in the future. To Sandi Toskvig, I would say good luck. To people in general, I would advise that if they want to have a real impact in politics, lobbying your MP is a good way to start. It is difficult to get the time off of work, or out of school, but maybe it would be more constructive, and gain more respect for your cause, than blocking traffic. Just a thought.

Read Ben Folley's lobby report

Funding Campaign- Tools, Information & Advice.

>> Charles Clarke has now delivered the White Paper which will map out student and university funding in the future. As expected it contains a lot of bad news, with debts of over £20k planned and funding cuts in other areas which will see us move closer to a two-tier system of Higher Education. So here is a resource centre for student activists to help oppose the proposals. White Paper Summary & what you can do Left A poster template for the national lobby. To access a word version RIGHT click here and choose 'save target as' Right If you can get them done, here's a template of a postcard to send to MPs. Click Here to see more >> Amnesty International say a letter is worth ten protesters, so here's the easy way to get a letter to your MP. You may not believe this, but not all MPs have published email addresses. However, you can go straight to a web based fax form just by entering your postcode. More Info and Petitions FaxYourMP.com