Wednesday 5 January 2011

The Backward Society

As most people already know, the democratically elected parliament voted to allow universities to charge students up to £9000 for attending.
In all 65 MPs voted. This is the result: 28 Lib Dem MPs voted yes
                                                          21 Lib Dem MPs voted no
                                                          8 Lib Dem MPs either abstained or were absent
                                                          6 Conservative MPs voted no
                                                          2 MPs either abstained or were absent
And so those 65 votes changed the course of my life. Now I will be in debt for years unless my parents pay then I pay them back. Im going to be saddled with £27,000 just for tuition for an average of a 3 year course. I dont even know whether the course im going to take is three years long. It could be 7 years long which would leave me with £63,000 debt. Do you really want to leave the younger generations with this much debt, much of which most people would not be able to pay off.
The title of this post is labelled 'The Backward Society' because by raising the fees of university to this high, you are making our society backward. Only the richest and the bravest will be able to attend university. The richest- because they'll be able to afford the fees, and the bravest- because they'll be able to stomach the huge prospect of the fees.
Soon we will have a lack of qualified people in the key professions-health, law, politics and education. Unless we change the law just passed, we will be lagging behind the other truly modern countries in Europe and other truly modern countries further afield such as the USA and some parts of China. Our future lack of skilled workers was aptly described in one popular Facebook group: 'The day Nick Clegg dies because his would-be doctor couldnt afford to go to university.'
So come on Britain! Stop heading back into the dark ages and overturn this stupid law that prevents all but the richest and bravest from going to university and getting the best jobs.
The coalition said that they would lower unemployment from its current high. They might manage it- but the jobs people would be forced into will be low paid, low skilled jobs that will only be able to support themselves. Surely we dont want that for everyone? So lower the cap back to £3000 and let people get back into the higher paid jobs.
Nick Clegg is a liar. Those are the words that many people have said since Clegg said that he would vote in favour of the raise in tuition fees cap just months after he, and other Lib Dem MPs, signed a pact saying that they wouldnt. So how do we know that they wont break more promises? We dont. And so Nick Clegg you have just lost the vote of the entire youth who are able to vote.
The student demonstrations that shook London started out peaceful but were hijacked by violent youths who just wanted a bit of trouble. Thousands and thousands of people of all ages descended onto the capital to protest against the raise in fees. And the demos arent finished yet- there are still more scheduled. So what does this tell us? Dont raise the cost of tuition fees! If thousands, if not millions, of people protesting against the idea of charging us up to £9000 per annum cant change the MPs mind then what can? The result of this vote doesnt show that we have a fair democratic parliament that listens to its people. Listen to us! Please!
MPs, my message to you is listen to us, your people. And lower the cap on tuition fees to £3000 please :-)

2 comments:

  1. A good point well made. However, what must be noted is that you only have to pay when your earning reaches a certain level, and if you haven't paid it off completely by a deadline, then it is written off. This has an effect on the size of debt faced, making it more manageable.

    ReplyDelete
  2. But for people who want to have higher earning jobs might be just over that margin and have to pay it back but do not want to have all the debt are discouraged from the higher paid jobs because they might earn higher than average but still lower than most 'high paid jobs' so they might have the same amount of debt as someone who earns more making the debt more of a problem. By having a cut off point the government are lumping all of the people who earn above the cut off point as people who are high earners vary hugely. Some high earners might have a large family to support which means they have less money overall to spend on debt. These higher paid jobs normally get taught at the best universities and the courses go on for several years meaning that the money owed at the end is higher.
    Also some just purely do not want to owe that much so wont go to university in the first place.
    Many people will not think about how the debt gets written off and that you only have to pay when your earning reaches a certain level and many people dont know that so they will still think that they have this huge debt to pay.
    sorry that answers kinda confusing :-/

    ReplyDelete