Advertisement
The power is in your hands
Reporter: Lewis Jones
Date online: 11 January 2011
Election 2011
A HIGH-PROFILE Labour MP has urged local voters to issue a blow to the coalition and send a message that broken promises will not be tolerated.
John Denham, Shadow Secretary for Business, Innovation and Skills, said voters must hit their opposition in the polling booths during Thursday’s by-election.
During a visit to Uppermill cafe Jamaica Blue yesterday, he spoke to concerned students from the Oldham Sixth Form, University Campus Oldham and Hulme Grammar.
Slamming the coalition he said: “They have broken promises on tuition fees, on policing and on VAT and Thursday is a chance to send a clear message about that.
“Nick Clegg is breaking a promise that he made and introducing an unfair system.”
He argued that programmes due to be scrapped by the coalition such as Aim Higher, that encourages local school pupils to go to university and EMA, the Educational Maintenance Allowance, had encouraged Oldhamers into higher education.
He said: “The number of students increased by over 60 per cent here.”
“If you kick away those ladders my worry is that growth in the increase in numbers in this sort of area will grind to a halt.”
Candidate Debbie Abrahams, said: “It is severely affecting students in terms of the course that they do or the university they are selecting.
“It’s grossly unfair.”
Umair Naheem, an 18-year-old student from Oldham Sixth Form, said: “I’m worried, by the time I finish I will be in at least £70,000 to £80,000 worth of debt and there are already rumours about a lack of jobs.
“How am I going to be able to pay that off?”
However when questioned over Labour’s role in introducing the tuition fees in the first place, John Denham argued that the coalition’s move to increase the cap on fees to £9000 per year is on a different scale.
“When we introduced top-up fees we had record levels of funding in universities, every penny went to increase student numbers and improve the quality of higher education.
“That was fair.
“This is completely different, the fees students will now pay is to replace the cut in higher education funding.
“It doesn’t bring new money into the vast majority of universities.”
Introduced by Labour in 1998, the party also increased the cap for universities to be able to charge up £3000 a year in variable fees.
The MP argued that the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats had singled out Higher Education for the biggest cuts of 80 per cent.
Comments
Yes, let's forget about all the money squandered by Labour in office; the billions spent on US wars, the billions spent on 'foreign aid', and how they allowed the banks to be largely unregulated to wreak havoc and then land the tax payer with a £845 billion bail out bill; to forget about the 3 million immigrants they let in - estimated to put £100 billion on the education budget alone over the next decade. 1.8 million of the 2 million new jobs under Labour were taken by immigrants.
How about we remember the illegal wars (I think B Liar led us into 9) the uncontrolled immigration, the 92% of new jobs going to those immigrants, or the newly qualified doctors who couldn't find placements because Liebour had allowed in so many immigrants?
And if you don't agree with the party 100% they see you as a bigot and the leader is quite prepared to call you, only not to your face!
Have Your Say
Denham is still playing the maximum amount card and it's basically a lie. The maximum charge is £6,000 and only on application can universities charge £9,000. How many did Labour put off with introducing fees? If the cost of a course makes a student think of choosing the right course and making damn sure they do not mess it up, well the responsibility of paying for it will. Let's not forget, earn less than £21k and you don't pay it back, it was £15k under Labour.
By ProDriver @ 11/01/2011 20:30:19