Will Tuition Fees Kill the Lib Dems?

Tomorrow sees the vote in Westminster on tuition fees and all indications suggest that it will be tight. For the Government it’s being described as their first big test but for the Lib Dems as a party it means a lot more than that.

Over the last few weeks we have seen the Lib Dems come under heavy fire from student groups who rightly feel betrayed.  It’s not surprising how angry students and young people are about this. The Lib Dems did after all make a complete about-turn on tuition fees almost as soon as they got their feet under their ministerial desks.

Many in the Lib Dems do feel uncomfortable about their party’s sudden change in position. Some big hitters, like Sir Menzies Campbell and Charles Kennedy, have already expressed their intention to vote against this policy and others are still deciding where they stand. It will be interesting to see how many Lib Dems keep their own pledge to students and vote against the rise in tuition fees in the vote tomorrow.

We already know that all Lib Dem ministers have now agreed to vote for the changes. Although there was a ridiculous wobble by Vince Cable earlier in the month when he had hoped to be the minister responsible for the Bill and abstain in the vote! (sorry Vince Government doesn’t work like that).

But there are also many Lib Dems who are private secretaries and junior minister who still have to decide how to vote. It will be interesting to see how many of these people, who have something to loose, will rebel against the Government.

The Lib Dems (in recent times anyway) are rarely a party of Government, so they rarely have to prove that they have the courage of their convictions.  This is the first time for a generation that they have been put to the test, and in my view they have been found wanting. Even if the Government looses the vote tomorrow, the damage for the Lib Dems is done and it will, most likely, be lasting.  

Their actions on this issue may have created a generation of young people who will never vote Lib Dem again.

Helen Martin- STUC

Why be in someone else’s Government?

There’s no escaping it, this week has been a difficult one for the Lib Dems. We had the Browne review on Tuesday which very imaginatively recommended removing the cap on tuition fees. By mid afternoon we saw Vince Cable, one time political heavy weight, conducting one of the most humiliating changes of position I have ever seen. Of course now he supports the Browne review recommendations and his justification? The economic situation means that there simply is no other option. Sound familiar?

In their election campaign the Lib Dems ran on a platform of free education for all but because there was a recession on, they proposed to phase out tuition fees over 6 years rather than scrapping them over night. Here’s Nick to explain more.  

But now we see the leaders of the Lib Dems, not only arguing for tuition fees but actively raising the debt burden that young people will face if they want to get an education. This is more than just a U-turn. That is someone else’s policy.

And it’s not the first time we have seen this from the Lib Dems while they have been in coalition. I am sure we all remember this picture (although I am sure Nick would like to forget)

Hum there does seem to be a trend emerging.

The Lib Dems have one view the Tories have another.  Dilemma! Oh no it isn’t the Tory view simply gets swallowed by the Lib Dems and all is right with the world.

But why? What’s in it for them? Is the allure of Government so strong that they will support any policy, even the opposite of what they say they believe in? Is power the ultimate prize so much so that it is valuable as an end in itself?

And to think there was a time when we all thought that the Lib Dems might actually take some of the sting out of Tory policies. (Ah those heady idealistic days)

But seriously what are they getting for their trouble? They can’t honestly think they are creating a fairer Britain, as they rip up state funded education at all levels (remember free schools) and preside over ruthless and ideological cuts to public services that are quite likely to devastate our whole economy.

I can only think of one thing that they are actually getting out of all this: a referendum on voting reform. Yes, they are getting the chance to ask the country to make coalition Governments a reality forever and perhaps for them this does make this soul sacrificing process worthwhile. They would, after all, hold the balance of power for the foreseeable future.

But all this makes me wonder, what happens if they lose this referendum? What happens if one term is all they get before being cast out to be the junior opposition for another fifty, sixty, even a hundred years?

Will their shot at Government have been well used or will their lasting legacy be easily summed up by a satirical poster?

Helen Martin- STUC

Calling all Lib Dems

The STUC today wrote an open letter to all Lib Dem MSPs and MPs in Scotland. Their conference begins tomorrow in Liverpool and we hope that Scottish Liberal Democrats will join us in rejecting calls by George Osborne and Nick Clegg to remove an additional £4 billion on top of the £11 billion that they have already taken out of the welfare budget.   

In our letter we condemn Nick Clegg’s comments that welfare payments should be “an engine of mobility...rather than a giant cheque written by the state to compensate the poor for their predicament," and we make the point that with long-term unemployment on the rise there simply aren’t enough jobs to go around.

Here is an extract from our letter:

STUC is receiving a very clear message from its own members particularly its disabled members, not to mention our sister organisations in the Scottish Campaign on Welfare Reform. People are becoming increasingly fearful for their futures and increasingly angry as it is insisted ‘that more people must find work’ when so little is being done to tackle unemployment.  Figures released this week by STUC showed a 132% increase in long-term unemployment across Scotland with the highest regional increase of 475% being recorded in the Scottish Secretary’s own constituency.

It remains the fact that benefit payments in the UK are low compared to most other countries, income inequality is stubbornly high and work is not the automatic route out of poverty that it should be with the incidence of working family child poverty on the increase.

Two thirds of the UK welfare budget goes to those above working age, with just one third being spent on those of working age and children.   Whilst fully supporting the pledge to safeguard elderly benefits, STUC is horrified to contemplate the cuts that will be borne by the others.

The letter ends by calling on Scottish Liberal Democrats to join us in our Better Way campaign in order to ‘buttress the most draconian attack on welfare in a generation.’

Along with the open letter the STUC also unveiled its campaign banner which is a humorous depiction of the respective roles of David Cameron and Nick Clegg. The banner is currently hanging on the outside of the STUC building and is designed to raise awareness of the Better Way Campaign and challenge the myth that there is no alternative to the Government’s cuts.

Helen Martin – STUC.