October 12th, 2009
Letter to Student Direct regarding Green party’s attack on tuition fee policy
I have written the following letter to Student Direct in response to a letter by Justine Hall in the 12th October 2009 edition of Student Direct (unfortunately the letters are not available online).
Dear Student Direct,
In reply to Justine Hall’s letter on 12th October, it is a shame to see the Green party negatively misrepresenting the Liberal Democrats. The truth is, our position on tuition fees is the same as it has always been - higher education should be free for all, and those that benefit most from it (financially speaking) will end up paying more in tax with our fairer and progressive taxation policies.
Justine’s mistaken criticism should instead be targeted at the Labour government - their failed stewardship of the economy under 12 years of Gordon Brown, first warned about years ago by Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrats’ Shadow Chancellor, has meant that it is just simply not possible to fix all the problems Britain is facing immediately.
Abolishing tuition fees is a priority, but first the limited resources left by Labour to the next government should be spent on cutting class sizes to 15 in primary schools, bringing the poorest out of tax altogether, and investing in public transport and energy-efficient homes to help people save money and protect the environment.
Chris Jenkinson
Liberal Democrat member, Masters in Environmental Governance, University of Manchester
