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January 28, 2004

University fees

The great debate rages still, but, these two timing, double dealing masquerade which pretends to be a government have won this round. They found enough spineless lobby fodder among their backbenchers who simply cannot think beyond “class war” and “labour unity” to ram their latest tax on ability through against all opposition. The only comfort we can draw is that it was a majority of only five turncoats who swayed the vote.

It is a bit rich that a large proportion of those who voted this through come from Scotland where it will not apply. Such is the constitutional mess that Mr Blair has created with his emasculation of the Upper House. At least the Peers used to exercise their independence and they also used to look beyond simple ideology. Not so the poodles who now inhabit it, most of them “no brainers” stuffed in by Mr Blair as trusted “yes” men who will toe the line. Fortunately, most of them rarely turn up – even when needed to vote! As for the preponderance of Scottish MP’s in the Cabinet and those, like Mr Blair and Mr Brown, who are Scottish even if they represent English constituencies, it beggars belief that they have the audacity to pass laws that affect the English, but not their own constituents, in adverse ways.

There isn’t one of them that has not benefited from the existing system of University funding – Blair, Brown and the rest have all graduated, courtesy of the taxpayer, from the Blue Brick universities – though how, when they spent a large part of their time there on “sit ins” and other “protests” such as digging up cricket pitches or lying in the road in front of military vehicles, beggars belief. Our Tone isn’t exactly the brightest of soul’s in the brain department – his wife is far and away the brighter of that coupling and she knows it.

So why all the fuss? After all, there aren’t many countries which make university places so freely available, why not let the user pay? Well, for starters, having a degree does not, in the "New" Britain, guarantee a well paid job. Far from it, unless the degree is in a field in which there is a shoratge of skills, you are increasingly less likely to get a job in the filed in which you have qualified. Yet, these degrees are seen as "bread and butter" by the university authorities and the government, so, on the one hand there will be a drive to maximise the numbers of students on these courses and on the other satisfaction that this stitch up is working.

Once again it is about pushing people into university for all the wrong reasons. They want more people to go to university – regardless of the individuals’ suitability or the appropriateness of the qualification. But, the tax system is already overloaded, so we need a new way to squeeze the middle-income earners and fund our electorate – the “workers”. What we are up to here is that those judged to be from “deprived” backgrounds will get all the help going, those from wealthy backgrounds will hardly notice – most go to really top line (and fee paying universities anyway!) so it will be the middle income earners who will end up paying through the neck yet again to get their children the education that Blair and his cronies have manipulated to favour their own offspring. You don’t find them going to the sink comprehensive nearest their homes – no, at the taxpayers expense they are bussed or driven to the best available school (often non fee paying) some distance away, depriving children from that area the places their parents pay for through property tax. As for the so-called “cap” of £3K, it is totally meaningless as already some Universities are getting set to either charge it across the board, or bust the limit by simply going round it.

There is a name for this behaviour, its called Dynastic Succession. If you deprive your rival peer groups of access to the best education, their children are not in a position to challenge yours for the top jobs. This is why the first action of conquerors in the ancient world was to both emasculate and enslave all boys under military age or to put them to the sword. If your populace can’t breed they’re not a threat! This is a bit less violent and more “civilised” but it has the same effect.

Long live Emperor Tone and the Cronies.

Posted by The Gray Monk at January 28, 2004 10:24 PM