My tale of me - Chris Jenkinson

“Dear Tony Lloyd,

As an officer in the University of Manchester Students’ Union, I was shocked at the recent announcement by two-thirds of vice-chancellors, speaking anonymously, calling for an increase in the cap on tuition fees to at least £4000 per year, with some calling for it to be £20,000.

I strongly believe that this would be a very regressive move for Parliament to take, and will put off many people from applying to university. Students already graduate with thousands of pounds of debt, and the National Union of Students have estimated that if fees were to rise to £5,000 per year, students would graduate with upwards of £30,000 of debt, a magnitude of debt which is really only on a par with a mortgage on a house!

I am also disappointed that the vice-chancellors are speaking anonymously on this issue, and are not coming out publicly to ask for funds. I support their argument that higher education is underfunded, with class sizes out of control, underpaid staff and a lack of learning resources, but the solution cannot be to pass on the cost to the students.

I would like a debate on funding for higher education, but its terms of reference cannot just be ‘how much more should students pay’, and it cannot be conducted anonymously.

I urge you to oppose any plans by vice-chancellors to increase the cap on tuition fees or pass on costs to students, and I call on you to push for increased funding, from general taxation, for higher education, which must be a priority for this country in times of economic recession.

Yours sincerely,
Chris Jenkinson”

Please write to your MP about this issue as well. Feel free to use some or all of my letter for inspiration or the financial facts within.

I thought I’d put up a photo of the house of the election agent in Withington (south Manchester) for the Labour candidate (I live in the same house). Liberal Democrats winning here!

More authoritarian nonsense, this time giving the police the power to harass anyone they don’t like the look of, whether or not the police officer has a reasonable suspicion that a crime has been committed! If the person objects to being harassed, it’s a £5000 fine due to “obstructing” the police!

Has the government got any ideas about dealing with crime which actually address the problem, which is a lack of social cohesion between communities, a failing education system, and a discredited foreign policy? Whatever happened to tough on the causes of crime?

As it turns out there will be a Labour executive propped up by the Tories in Bristol - one of the suggestions I made previously. Labour and the Tories previously combined to oppose a minority Lib Dem administration continuing in office after we lost two seats. It’s interesting that this new coalition is entirely Labour (the article tallies up the number of councillors wrongly, I blame the Labour executive edit: it’s correct now), so I imagine the Labour group will have given some concessions to the Tories.

I think this is good for both the Lib Dems and the citizens of Bristol. Firstly, the new executive has the support of a majority of councillors so it cannot be sabotaged by the opposition doing political deals - if it fails it will be due the Tories and Labour failing to work together, and given the current direction both parties are going that should not be a problem. The Liberal Democrats will be able to offer constructive criticism and will be properly able to hold the executive to account.

We should take pride in how we’ve turned Bristol around this past few years - especially the dramatic improvement in school GCSE results and the huge increase in recycling rates. Though a Labour/Tory coalition may lead back to the years of neglect before the Lib Dems took power a few years ago, it will not be from a lack of scrutiny - we’ve set the bar high and the Labour/Tory coalition will be hard-pressed to continue at the high standards Bristol’s citizens now expect.

Brown’s the next Prime Minister then. Congratulations I suppose. What’s the point of Tony Blair hanging on for another 6 weeks then? Say what you like about there not being a general election when Thatcher was booted out, but at least the Tories had a contested leadership election back in 1990, albeit one by MPs only.

The Lib Dems have always ensured that our leader was democratically elected, with one person, one vote, since 1976. The Tories’ system of MPs choosing two candidates for the party membership to vote on, and Labour’s system of allowing people extra votes depending on how many trade unions they’ve joined (the more you pay, the more influence you’ve got!), are unfair systems and anti-democracy. If you think that society only works if each person is an equal stakeholder, then the Liberal Democrats are the party to support.

Thankfully John Reid’s going soon. He recently gave a keynote speech in Venice attempting to convince his equivalent colleagues across Europe to change individual human rights law into some kind of system where only the State has the right to exist, to protect itself against oppression, to a fair trial (or even a trial). Is he the most dangerous Home Secretary ever? Hat tip and interesting commentary from Tom.