Will student tuition fee protests bridge the generation gap?
Student protest at London's Millbank.
You couldn't find a bigger contrast. Walking into Westminster today, I noticed the debris of yesterday's student protest - rain-soaked leaflets and placards - had still to be cleared up.
Today, the streets around Parliament belonged to another and older generation. They were gathering for the two-minute silence outside Westminster Abbey, some of them hoping for a glimpse of the Duke of Edinburgh.
They were remembering friends and old comrades who died in past wars. After the two-minute silence was replaced by the roar of the London traffic, I asked an elderly couple their thoughts on the students' protest and the subsequent violence.
They were appalled at the images on the TV news of the disturbances, but surprisingly supportive of the students and their case against increased tuition fees.
That'll delight one student I met during the students' demonstration. She's Lucy Padolsey, a third year politics student from Loughborough University. She was one of thousands of students who would have marched passed Westminster Abbey during their lobby of Parliament.
She's orginally from Surrey and will be the first to admit, she's from a typically middle-class background.
"Students from middle-income families will be hit the hardest by these fees," she told me.
Under the Coalition government's plans, tuition fees will double to £6,000 a year - in some case up to £9,000 - from 2012.
Said Lucy: "I will have left university by the time the increased fees are introduced. But I've got a brother and sister who are coming through school and will want to go to university. It's going to be such a major issue for them and whether they can afford it."
"I think it's appalling. If I had been faced with such high tuition fees, I wouldn't have gone to university."Coalition ministers insist there'll no upfront fees and no repayments until the graduate earns £21,000 a year. Students from poorer income families will get extra financial help. It's more progressive, say ministers.
I caught up with Lucy's MP. She's Nicky Morgan, a Conservative, whose constituency includes the Loughborough University campus. She's also a parliamentary aide to the Universities minister David Willetts.
"It was a great shame for the majority of students who wanted to demonstrate peacefully. I was shocked that there was a core who wanted to cause trouble," she told me.
"I accept there is a concern among middle income earners about the increases, but the government has some difficulty financial decisions to take. University funding is unsustainable and it has to change."Outside Westminster Abbey, my elderly couple by the field of little wooden crosses never went to university. They told me it was never an option for them, but their grandchildren will.
Maybe that's why the tuition fees controversy links two very different generations, and why government ministers are right to be anxious about how this issue will impact in the polls.
Hello. My name is John Hess. I'm the BBC's Political Editor for the East Midlands and this blog will offer my musings on the political scene from Westminster to closer to home. 
