Continuing on from the ‘Socialism article’ I thought I would comment on this running joke Peter Mandelson and Brown the Clown are peddling of Labour as ‘the party of aspiration’, Labour and aspiration, an oxymoron if I ever saw one.
Blair got elected in 1997 on a load of empty promises and lies one of my personal favourites being ‘education, education, education’. I was educated under a Conservative Government and it never did me any harm, had I gone to university under them I would have enjoyed a free education like our hypocritical MPs did.
Yet Liebour got in, in 1997 on a promise of ‘no tuition fees’, fees were introduced in 1998. Then in 2001 they proclaimed ‘no top-up fees’ another rotten lie as they were forced in by Scottish Labour MPs in a controversial vote in 2004.
It makes me sick hearing our MPs banging on about how students should ‘contribute’ to their education. They all enjoyed a free education and they deny that right to others.
Now Mandelson is announcing massive cuts to higher education funding which could mean even higher fees, some greedy universities are even calling for fees to go to USA levels. University should be free to all who want to get a good education as it was pre-Labour.
I once heard smug, arrogant Health Secretary (not for much longer!!!) Andy Burnham on Question Time banging on about how ‘elitist’ the higher education system was under the Conservatives. It was so ‘elitist’ that he got a state funded place at Cambridge under the Conservatives. What hypocrites Labour really are.
It makes me sick hearing Liebour saying under the Tories only the rich will go to university. It is Labour that is trying to make that happen. You try and make something of your life, get a good education and get a good career and Labour punishes you for it with stealth taxes in the form of tuition fees. Then when you earn a decent wage Labour hammers you with more stealth taxes.
All that said if anyone seriously believes Liebour are the party of aspiration they need to have a serious think.
To be fair to Labour though it was John Major that started tuition fees with his massive expansion of university education. All the polys became universities without having to raise their standards – and even worse some colleges of higher education too that were really poor quality. It was always possible for polys to become universities – I went to a university that had done just that.Then of course because so many places were created the state couldn’t afford it anymore. And we got loads of people studying useless subjects at third rate colleges when they would have been better going straight into work or persuing a more vocational route into work.
It was of course introduced in a crafty way – those already at university were not affected – even those who had just started medical courses and of course relatively few protested because it either didn’t affect them or was so much in the future with a lot of “ifs” that the student protest marches weren’t that well supported – though I was one there.
Where Labour does deserve criticism though is that they did state they were against fees – I really do wish I’d kept my letter from Jack Straw saying just that – the hypocrite – though it was some years before they actually got in – Labour only got in in 1997 but I’m pretty sure I would have been protesting around 1989/1990 sort of time which must have been when it was first suggested as an idea.
The purpose of free higher education was so that anyone could go to university, improve themselves and go back to their regions that had funded them and put something back. Any increase in income they got of course led them to paying more income tax so the “benefit” of an education always did benefit the state. And accomodation back then was terrible for anyone who wasn’t around. In the late 80’s I lived in two halls of residence in London – one that needed rewiring with the old fashioned two pin plugs, had an inner courtyard with barbed wire around it like a prison camp and the second was on the 10th floor and had a big hole in the outside wall I used to have to stuff with newspaper because they didn’t think it worth repairing when they were considering knocking it down – which I believe they did about 15 years later.
That was refreshing to read.
I also thought the free education motive was the prospect of higher income, paying more taxes and so on.
I need that Jack Straw letter!
An excellent point, its like I was saying to my girlfriend the other day, if in a few years I attend medical school for 4 years and become a doctor, I will earn a very decent wage later on in my career with progression and hence will pay more taxes being in the 40% tax band. I will also be serving the NHS as a frontline professional in a vital role so I feel I should not have to face crippling debts for doing so. Now it means on graduating medical school I will have a massive student loan to pay off which will be eating into my salary for years to come, so it will be several years before I am debt free. Yet the say Liebour is the ‘party of aspiration’.
No they don’t. Only Labour supporters say that because they had their aspirations drummed out of them at an early age, only to be replaced by jealousy and envy of those that have gone on to do well.
All Labour is about is the welfare state and public sector jobs. If anyone were to LOOK at the facts, they would see that sure, Gordon increased public spending dramatically but he’s also increased taxes on the sly and basically blown all the country’s savings.
Labour voters seem to like that irresponsible attitude – perhaps because it reflects their own attitude to spending.
Precisely one of the very reasons I hate Labour is because I actually have aspiration and because I actually have a mind of my own. I know people who are Labour supporters and you will find in many cases they are the ‘I vote Labour because its in my blood’ or ‘my factory worker granddad would turn in his grave if I vote Tory’, that sort of cobblers. If you question them deeper on Why Labour? They can never articulate a sensible and balanced answer. They usually back Labour referring to all the bad things they claim the Tories did. ‘frustrated of blackpool’ and ‘cardy’ on the Gasjet are fine examples of this.
Some interesting points Frustrated but what really gets up my nose is when people like Labour MPs and supporters claim only the rich could go into higher education under the Conservatives. It was Labour that introduced fees and plans to put them up which I think is disgraceful. I am not having selfish MPs who all enjoyed a free education saying I should face crippling debts for making something of myself when I plan to return to university.