The injustice of these Welsh and Scottish student fees is grotesque. Soon the English will insist on THEIR rights.
By Stephen Glover 02/12/10
There is a smug political consensus that (Blair's New Labour) Devolution has worked stunningly well.
So well that Tories, Lib Dems and Labour have joined forces in proposing to hand over more power to the Scottish Parliament. But what is the test of success?
Devolution is creating disparities in public services between the constituent parts of the United Kingdom. Nowhere are these differences more striking than in the area of tuition fees.
Hitherto they have been anomalous. They are about to become grotesque.
Throughout England, students are protesting at being asked to pay £9,000 a year in tuition fees — roughly three times what is paid at the moment.
They are understandably frightened at the prospect of building up sizeable debts, which for those earning over the threshold of £21,000 a year will entail a substantial repayment every month.
This is a big deal for many people…..”
“The rich will be all right, and the poor will be exempted. But everyone else will live under a new shadow of debt as a result of having had a university education.
Unless you live in Scotland or Wales. If you are Scottish, and attend a Scottish university, you will continue to pay nothing.
If you are Welsh, and attend a Welsh or an English university, you will pay the current tuition fees of £3,290 a year.
Free for Jock. No increases for Taffy.
A rise of 200 per cent for John Bull.
Does that seem fair?
Fellow citizens of the United Kingdom will leave university, and start to earn their living, in drastically different financial circumstances. They will pay — at any rate for the time being — the same income tax and the same Vat. They will work for companies paying the same rate of corporation tax throughout Great Britain. But, depending on which part of the United Kingdom they come from, they may incur no debt, some debt, or an awful lot of debt as a result of attending university.
This is so unjust and so irrational a state of affairs that I marvel how ministers in the Coalition can sleep at night….”
“There is not only tuition fees apartheid. There is also health apartheid.
Relative to its population, Scotland has 80 per cent more nurses, midwives and health visitors than England. It also has nearly 50 per cent more doctors and dentists than England.
Prescriptions are free in Wales. Already reduced, they will soon be free in Scotland.
A number of expensive cancer drugs, as well as a drug for rheumatoid arthritis that costs £9,000 a year, have been licensed for NHS use in Scotland but not in England.
The inequity admittedly can happen in reverse, so that cancer drugs available in England have in one or two instances not been prescribed in Scotland.
Health apartheid has undoubtedly caused resentment in England, particularly among those who live close to the borders with Wales and Scotland, and are unable to enjoy the free or cheaper prescriptions available in those countries.
Tragically, a gradual breaking apart of the Union is the likely eventual consequence of imposing much heavier fees on English students
Cabbage Patch Cameron: