Voting highlights government division

There are riots on the streets of the capital tonight as the Conservatives rushed through the tuition fee vote despite protestations from the opposition parties that rushing the proposal would lead to trouble.

The proposals have sparked outrage amongst young people who now see the true malign face of the Conservatives. Cuts to the Education Maintenance Allowance will hurt the poorest pupils, rises in tuition fees will penalise thousands of middle class families. The cuts to University funding which will harm the quality of education.

The actions of a minority of rioters tonight should be utterly deplored but there are reasons why we are observing this type of street protest. When governments mis-manage a legislative programme it hs a tendency to create significant public tension. This is a case of government mismanagement.

When government mis-manage a government programme, MPs who ordinarily vote with the government do not rebel.

The policy was approved by a scant 21 votes, with the coalition's majority cut by almost three-quarters following an impassioned five-hour Commons debate.

Three ministerial aides quit the government in order to vote against it.

The coalition motion, backed by 323 votes to 302, would raise fees to a maximum of £9,000 a year.

The debate took place while thousands of students staged protests at Westminster and after the outcome became clear, violence intensified and windows in Treasury buildings were smashed.

Ministers said that the fees increase was necessary and fair, but Labour argued it would deter the poor from going to university.

Some 21 Lib Dems rebelled, while 27 - including the party's ministers - backed the change, and eight abstained.

Medway Labour have waged a significant campaign both on the doorstep and in the Council chamber to ensure our MPs vote against tuition fee increases. We have publicly called for our MPs to oppose the fee rises and successfully tabled a motion to full council which drew support from across all benches.

Today, Mark Reckless MP, did put residents first and did vote against the fee increases. This blog will no doubt receive a letter in due course as to his motivations. He has, like Bob Marshall-Andrews before him, taken an independent stance.

Tracey Crouch MP faced tough barracking from Conservative whips today and decided to abstain on the issue. She has shown bravery, and has gained some respect from this member of the opposition. Many will perceive an abstention as a tacit approval, but in this case, I believe it was as much as could be delivered, given the pressures she was under.

Rehman Chisthi MP has shown no concern for local residents or young people on this issue and fully supported the government. His careerist ambitions are now all but confirmed and it is expected he will become a bag-holder for a minor minister at some point. Alas, he will likely not survive any local re-selection as a result of boundary changes. His standing tonight stands in tatters locally as he has ignored not only the public but also his own Councillors.

Make no mistake however. It is a Conservative and Liberal Democrat Government which has introduced this regressive policy.

They can not hide from this fact in 2015; the public do not make such distinctions.

Medway Labour Group calls on local MP's to vote against

Student Fees Increases

Today sees Parliament vote on the issue of Student Fees.

The Medway Labour Group has consistently spoken out against the proposals, supporting Universities of Medway Student Union (UMSA) in participating in the recent national demonstration, raising questions and a moving a motion on the issue at full council. In contiuing this position, Medway Labour Group are urging the three Medway MP's to vote against the proposed increases in tuition fees.

Cllr Vince Maple, Labour Spokesperson for Children and Young People's Services, said

"The Tories and Lib Dems seem hell bent on attacking young people, whether it is the scrapping of Child Trust Funds, the abolishing of Educational Maintenance Allowance, the axe coming to school sports partnerships funding, the negative impacts on youth employment by stopping the Future Jobs Fund or the trebling of tuition fees whilst seeing an 80% cut in funding.

The Medway Labour Group are calling on the local MP's to listen to the views of the community and vote against fees increases to allow the talent we have here in Medway to florish and not be halted because of financial pressures."

Steve Topazio, UMSA Representation co-ordinator, added

"The UMSA Student executive recently delivered a petition of 500 Students to Mark Reckless MP calling on him to support students and vote against a rise in tuition fees. Students also call on the other local Medway MP's to consider the impact a trebling of fees will have on their constituents and students alike and urge them to vote against the proposals in the Commons vote"

Press Notes

For Interview or Further Comment please contact Vince Maple on 07981 661 451

Open Letter to Mark Reckless MP on Tuition Fees

Medway Labour standing with UMSA students against tuition fee increases

The following open letter was posted today to Mark Reckless MP requesting he vote against the tuition fee increases.

Bob Marshall-Andrews QC, the former MP for Medway, put his constituents first and voted against policy that was against the interests of our community. He opposed the increase in tution fees under Labour and put his principle above his career.

The letter below requests that Mark puts his constituents first, including those in Grammar Schools who will be left a £27,000 legacy of debt because of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat plans.

The vote is due on Thursday 9th December.

--

Dear Mark,

I am writing as a constituent, former student and tax payer who is extremely worried about future funding for higher education which will impact those from Secondary Modern, Grammar, Further Education and private schools and colleges. A whole generation of young people who are looking at the prospect of having to pay for a University which you personally, and my parents got for free.

It is now clear that the coalition government has decided to push ahead with the legislation on tuition fees, which is due to be discussed in the House on Thursday 9 December 2010. The Government is, in effect, proposing a vote to triple fees before Christmas, a vote to make them ‘progressive’ after Christmas, and a vote on legislation to deliver value for money for those fees much further down the line. This process lacks proper scrutiny or democratic accountability and should be resisted by MPs and Lords of all parties.

I would therefore ask you to vote against this measure in the interests of young people and their concerned families and like the former MP for Medway, Bob Marshall-Andrews, put principle first.

The former MP, Bob Marshall-Andrews QC rightly rebelled on the issue of tuition fees and put his constituents first. He realised that putting a cap on aspiration would harm students from all backgrounds, from the Rochester Girls Grammar school to Mid Kent College. This measure is an affront to aspiration and to the brightest of our students, as many of the leading Universities are likely to raise fees to the maximum level as a response to government legislation.

Bob Marshall-Andrews stood against the Labour Government and put his constituents before other interests. I request that you do the same in the interest of all our young people in Medway, who are now very worried about the prospect of eye-wateringly high levels of debt at the start of their careers. I am asking you to put the people of Rochester and Strood first and oppose a rise in tuition fees.

The main opposition party on Medway Council has already tried to resolve the Conservative administration to oppose the tuition fee increases. If this legislation is not opposed, it will leave an average student from the Maths Grammar School in Rochester a debt of £27,000 and a medical student from Strood Academy a debt of £50,000.

The students of tomorrow, like those who received their education for free, will on average go on to earn more over the course of their careers and as a result will pay higher income tax. The funding universities receive is not ‘dead weight’ but is a good, strong and stable investment that brings huge economic, as well as social and cultural, returns.

The government proposals take an extremely risky approach to funding the higher education sector, with a rapid move to an unconstrained market of universities in which students pick up the bill for almost the whole cost of teaching. They ignore the probability that with much higher fee levels, prospective students - especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds across Medway - will change their behaviour and make judgements primarily on price, cost, and debt.

There will be two votes on Thursday – one to raise the basic fee cap to £6,000, the other to allow for an additional higher fee cap at £9,000. Whatever your feelings about a rise in fees – which I must stress I oppose – there is no justification whatsoever for such an extreme rise in the fee cap as £9,000.

The argument that the proposals to increase the fee cap to £9,000 will actually save money and pay down the immediate public deficit is also in doubt. There is a great cost to the Government, who will have to borrow additional money to provide students with higher loans.

Indeed, The Higher Education Policy Institute's verdict is that the proposals will increase public expenditure through this parliament and into the next. And the Office for Budget Responsibility’s updated November forecast shows that the impact of the Government’s plans to increase fees to £9,000 would add £13 billion to public sector net debt by 2015-16, even after the massive education funding cuts have been taken into account. As such, the argument that these measures are a necessary response to the need to reduce public spending simply does not add up.

There is an alternative to the government proposal. Stand up for your constituents, oppose the bill and request that further options on funding be considered which seek to unite all those behind a consensus position which is fair, funded and equitable for all our residents.

Yours sincerely,

Tristan Osborne

Opposing fee's. Opposing violence

UMSA students with Medway Labour Council candidates

Medway Labour activists stood with the Universities at Medway Students Association (UMSA) today in support of the NUS campaign to oppose the Conservative and Liberal Democrat hike in fee's to £9,000 per year.

A hike in fee's that will leave a middle-class grammar school child in Medway a debt of £25,000 and a medical student a debt of £50,000

This blog believe it is grossly unfair that intelligent people should be penalised at the earliest point in their professional lives with unmanageable levels of debt. This blog does not believe that a 17 year old should face a financial burden which will weigh him/her down for close to two decades, and at a time when leaving University, they are joining an unstable employment market and thinking about housing and perhaps marriage.

The Conservatives opposed tuition fee's in 2003 under Howard and Ian Duncan-Smith. They have undertaken a change in stance, blaming the deficit, knowing full well that the deficit reduction period is driven on an electoral cycle (four years) and not an economic cycle. They have made a political choice out of ideology - marketisation of the University sector, marketisation of trains, marketisation of schools. These are all choices.

Around 50,000 students, lecturers and members of the general public took part in what is being labelled as the biggest student demonstration in a generation, jointly organised by NUS and the University and College Union (UCU). The majority marching were doing so peacefully.

The march covered a route pre-approved by police from Horse Guards Avenue to a rally outside the Tate Britain where protestors heard from UCU General Secretary Sally Hunt, NUS president Aaron Porter and TUC deputy general secretary Frances O'Grady.

The rally focused on the Liberal Democrats who opposed tuition fee's for the General Election in May. They pledged to students they would never support an increase. They pledged to student families that any increase in fee's would be regressive. They have betrayed their voters and for that in May 2011 they face decimation in Medway.

NUS will target Liberal Democrat MPs for a recall ballot if they betray voters trust and vote for fee hikes.

NUS and not one member of its executive team support violent action. It was a minority of individuals who hijacked a just cause for personal ends.

The Tory spinners tonight are making out that the entire NUS protest was violent and was hell-bent on disorder. They can casually sneer at the hard-pressed middle class families of Medway but the fact is Mark Reckless, Tracey Crouch and Rehman Chisthi will leave an average grammar school pupil from Medway a £25,000 legacy of debt, before he/she starts working. If you become a medic, and help save peoples lives, you will have a £50,000 debt. It is the wrong values. It is Tory values.

Next week the windows will be be replaced, the glass cleared, the signs removed - but young people will still have the threat of Tory debt. Parents, pupils, teachers and lecturers all oppose a rise in fee's.

Today, they made that point.

A £9,000 fee is regressive. It is wrong. It is Conservative Party ideology against the interests of the majority of people in this Country.

Lies, Damned Lies and Lib Dem Lies

Nothing more needs to be said... It is the biggest Lib Dem lie...