Students are joining with the TUC (Trade Unions’ Congress) in a protest against the Liberal Democrat Conference next month.
People from all over the country, and all different political affiliations, will be congregating at Clifford’s Tower on the 8th March to protest against the Liberal Democrats. Students in particular are in attendance due to the “broken promises” made by Nick Clegg regarding Tuition Fees.
The TUC organised the demo “to help show them the electorate know there are better ways to grow our economy and protect our society than the coalition’s austerity policies”.
There will be a large student presence, with people from the York Greens, York Labour and York Socialists in attendance.
William Hornett, Chair of the York Socialist Society and one of the student organisers of the demo commented;
“The Lib Dems represent a betrayal of the student population. A large portion of student voters voted for the policy of a scrapping of tuition fees, and when that party got in power, tuition fees tripled. If this isn’t a betrayal, not much is. They sold out students and have left them with tution fees of £9000 a year leaving students broke, disaffected
and angry.
“As well as this, they have been complicit in the privatisition of the Student Loans Company, which will have vast negative impacts on all students because of the change in terms and conditions. The Lib Dems, once seen as a party that supported students, now have a legacy of introducing them to massive debts and a decrease in the quality of education due to massive cuts in the sector. I urge every student to attend the demo on March the 8th to show their anger in full force.”
Charlie Kingsbury, the Chair of the Liberal Democrats at York, commented;
“The demonstrators have a right to a peaceful protest that I respect. But as a student, I’m proud of the Liberal Democrats’ record in government: creating a fairer student funding system, delivering same-sex marriage, and raising employment levels to a
record high.
“In York, we’re working to give young people a fair chance by bringing an end to unpaid internships, helping them get on in life. Labour’s mess meant the Government has to make some tough decisions, but I know that Lib Dem policies are making this government fairer.”
“tuition fees of £9000 a year leaving students broke”
How on earth are fees leaving us broke? We don’t have to pay anything up front, and will never not be able to afford to pay it back because the repayment system is fairer. Just more lefty lies…
I’m glad I’m on this new system. I’d be much worse off under the old one Labour made.
Funny use of the word ‘fair’ by the Lib Dems. And who’s got record high employment levels asides from private management consultants in the NHS?
I agree with Charlie. These people can protest peacefully to their heart’s content but at the end of the day the Lib Dems have done a pretty good job in government. They’ve cut tax for the poorest workers, while creating a million new jobs and cleaning up Labour’s mess. Personally, I want to see an end to the Labour-Tory back and forth. I hope coalitions are here to stay!
The fact that some students are totally unconcerned by a tripling of tuition fees to £9000 a year being implemented by a Party that promised exactly the opposite to potential student voters show just how out of touch some sections of pampered, middle class York students are. With fees and loans to pay off I will be in over £30,000 worth of debt before I even start earning money.
Add a Masters or a PGCE onto that (as many students do) and you have an entire generation of educated people with next to no spending power at all. How is that good for the economy even from a capitalist perspective?
I don’t support Labour’s tuition policy either. The fact that Blair introduced fees is one of many things New-Labour did to help convince millions of people that the Labour Party no longer represents working class people and students.
“when that party got into power”…… the Lib Dems are a minority party in a Tory dominated coalition government. The Torys have nearly six times the number of seats as the Lib Dems in parliament. The Lib Dems have been able to deliver on some of their manifesto but regrettably not all.
“No spending power at all”? Student loans are not proper debt – do you actually understand the system at all, Uncle Joe?
“raising employment levels to a record high”
is he joking?
I mean surely, in numerical terms, technically yes, but nobody views employment seriously in that way — what’s of more concern is percentage. Particularly considering large swaths of that percentage are young people who are not involved in cyclical, business cycle unemployment and instead have never worked in the first place. Also, the prevalence of part-time work over full-time work, and how skilled workers made redundant/newly graduated students are restricted to underpaid work, points at a harsher picture. Most growth is in London, in the services, in the financial sector – banking, etc. In Yorkshire, very little economic growth and new employment is being seen.
The picture’s pretty bleak.
Student Loans fundemtally are debts. Debt that have put people where I come from off going to Uni.
The Privatization of the Student Loans Company is only going to make that increasingly worse. Anybody who fails to see that is blind.
You don’t have to pay student loans back if you’re earning less than £21,000. Anything you do pay is incredibly manageable (I’m sure everyone could manage £90 a year on a £22k salary).
If your income goes down, so do your repayments. You’ll never not be able to afford to pay it back.
The loans are written off after 30 years automatically.
They don’t go on your credit file, so don’t affect you when applying for consumer loans or mortgages.
Student loans aren’t really that much like debts. Anybody who fails to see that is blind.
And, for the record, I’m not “pampered” nor “middle class” by any stretch of the imagination. When I came to uni, I came from a household with a single mum and two kids, and an annual income barely reaching £10k.
I’ve just sat down and looked at the facts, instead of listening to spin from various sides. I can see point blank that I am better off under this system than I would’ve been under the old one.
Some simple facts.
1997 – Labour say they will not introduce Tuition Fees.
1998 – Tuition Fees Introduced – Labour do not offer an apology for lying.
2001 – Labour say they will not introduce Top Up fees taking tuition fees from £1000 to £3000
2004 – Tuition fees rise to £3000 – Labour do not offer an apology for lying.
2010 – After following the recommendations from a report Labour asked for, tuition fees rise to £9000 – Nick Clegg says sorry.
Not only that, the new system of repayment is much fairer than the old version. I currently pay back tuition fees for my undergraduate degree under the old system and I’m much worse off. Right now I pay back £75 of my wages a month, whereas under the new system introduced by the Lib Dems I would be paying back nothing until I start earning more.
Samuelrees91am, the 1997 Labour manifesto said “the costs of student maintenance should be repaid by graduates on an income-related basis” – it absolutely did not say anything about not introducing tuition fees. The 2004 rise was against the 2001 election manifesto, but it passed by a majority of just 5 votes (316 – 311); Labour had won the previous election with a majority of 167, indicating a dramatic Labour vote against the increase. Your “simple facts” are thinly veiled, poorly presented Lib Dem propaganda.
“Nick Clegg says sorry” could be more accurately be replaced with “Nick Clegg concedes to the fact that his betrayal of students has lost him huge amounts of support and timidly and shamelessly releases a video full of rhetoric pretending he gives a shit.”
Nobody is defending the Labour Party, or Blair, or their introduction of tuition fees that was always going to be a slippery slope to higher and higher fees (see calls from Russell Group Universities for £16,000 fees as proof of that).
But you simply cannot defend the Liberal Democrats’ shameless betrayal of students who almost certainly received the overwhelming majority of student votes on the back of a promise not to raise fees.