I normally never quote from my own articles, but here, I wish to rectify something I wrote in this newspaper seven months ago in an article called The Heart of Darkness, and to apologise for any distress I may have caused:

“… A few days later, we learned of Mohammed Saif-ur-Rehman Khan, a Pakistani interning at a hotel in Santiago, Chile, where he was arrested with traces of explosives on his hands and in his personal effects. While he has denied any attempt to blow up the US embassy where he had been invited to discuss the cancellation of his visa, one does not innocently acquire gunpowder traces under normal circumstances…”

When this article appeared, I received an email from somebody close to Saif to say I was wrong, and there was no evidence to link the young Pakistani to any crime. I promised the writer that if and when charges against Saif were dropped, I would be happy to apologise. So here I am, eating humble pie. Needless to say, I was delighted to learn that he had been released last week due to lack of any evidence by the Chilean authorities.While watching an interview with Saif on Chilean TV courtesy of YouTube, I thought how awful it must have been to be subjected to baseless accusations, and locked up for seven months while so far from home. Because of this wrongful arrest, his name will probably be on databases around the world as a terror suspect, and he’ll have a hard time getting a visa. It is not certain that he will receive any redress for his detention, or the slur on his reputation. The least the US government can do is restore his cancelled visa. For my part, I apologise without any reservations for having added to his family’s pain.

Now to England where I arrived last week at the tail end of a bitterly cold week. There was still some snow in the countryside, and the frost on the branches etched out stunningly beautiful white outlines against a grey sky. Driving through Wiltshire, I was again reminded how beautiful the English countryside can be, even in the depths of winter.

Over the last few days, I have been following the protests against the coalition government’s decision to raise university fees to 9,000 pounds (from 3, 250). Despite the fact that students will not have to start paying until they have graduated and have begun working, young people on the verge of entering university are terrified of taking on a debt of 30,000 pounds at the start of their careers.

Predictably, the protests have been noisy, and in some cases, violent. A hard core has used the generally good-natured demonstrations to launch attacks on the police, and to damage public buildings. For their part, the police have responded by using tough measures that, for a Pakistani observer used to the much harsher tactics employed by our desi cops, are the very model of restraint.

Although some of the police used their truncheons freely, they were certainly provoked. In Pakistan, tear gas would have been deployed freely, and lathis would have cracked numerous skulls. And when the Rolls Royce carrying Prince Charles and his wife Camilla was surrounded and attacked, the police still refrained from over-reacting. So while there is much indignation here over police violence, this Pakistani observer watched the proceedings over TV, and was quite impressed by the way the Metropolitan police behaved overall.

While an enquiry to look into police excesses is being launched, I am certain that there will be more violent demonstrations over this winter. The job cuts in the public sector have been slow in coming, but have long been the subject of speeches and newspaper articles. And while there are no surprises, it feels very different to the persons directly affected.

According to estimates, some 400,000 government jobs are to be axed over the next few months. And given the ongoing recession, it is doubtful that many of these people will find work in the private sector.

Much of the frustration over this surge in unemployment is likely to spill over on to the streets. The police will not be immune, as they, too, adjust to the austerity being unleashed by the coalition government. Indeed, cops were taunted by students in the recent demonstration: “It’s your turn next!”

In political terms, Nick Clegg and his Liberal Democrat Party have been worst hit by the tsunami of anger, especially among the young who rallied around him in the general elections last May. To a great extent, they were drawn by his party’s pledge not to raise tuition fees. Indeed, all the candidates signed a pledge to this effect. Now, his biggest constituency is outraged by this cynical abandonment of a solemn campaign pledge, and have vowed never to vote for his party again. Unsurprisingly, Lib Dem support has sunk to 8 per cent; one poll found it to be as low as 5 per cent.

While the Lib Dems are being hammered in the polls, the Conservatives are sitting pretty, smug in the knowledge that their coalition partners are taking the flak for a policy they have pushed through. At the nation-wide local council elections scheduled for next year, the Conservative Party is widely expected to make sizeable gains at the expense of their coalition partners. While they might have gained a few cabinet positions, the Lib Dems might end up paying a very high price for the limited power they wield today. Indeed, the fact that a number of them voted against the increase indicates that the party might well split over the other cuts to come.

Nick Clegg and Vince Cable, the Lib Dem Business Secretary who piloted the tuition fees policy through the House of Commons, both insist that they have made the measure less painful by ensuring that students do not have to pay the fees upfront. And it is true that their presence in the cabinet has mitigated the worst of the pain the Tories were planning to inflict.

But this is small consolation for the large number of young Britons who were fired up by Nick Clegg’s idealism and eloquence. Many of them voted for the first time only because they thought they saw a different kind of politician in the young Lib Dem leader. Now, he is viewed as just another cynical, power-hungry wheeler-dealer.