Exceptional.

It has now been revealed by the universities across the country the fees that they will be charging students to study at their university in 2012.

Now, I already covered in my previous blog on April 1st (Cruel Intentions) which Northern universities were charging the full amount, or at least very close to it. At the time they were: Manchester, Leeds, Leeds Metropolitan, Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores, Aston, Birmingham, Coventry, and Loughborough.

Towards the end of that particular blog I said the following:

“Should the likes of Salford, Manchester Metropolitan, Sheffield or Sheffield Hallam succumb to charging £9,000 a year then the North of England might as well give up.”

Cruel Intentions.

It was revealed last week that more universities had thrown their hats into the ring of nine hundred tenners and stated their intention to charge forthcoming students the maximum tuition fee available to them.

There are now 24 universities that have stated their intentions in terms of fees. Possibly most significant of all of last week’s announcements was the one made by Manchester University.

Yes, the pompous older sibling of the three Manchester universities became the first Northern institution to state their intent to charge the maximum tuition fee of £9,000 a year. Incredibly bad news for the North West.

Surprise Surprise.

Earlier this week I was sat at home minding my own business browsing the BBC News website when I came across a story so shocking I had to put down my brew to avoid any unnecessary scolding.

Cambridge ‘planning to raise fees to £9,000’

A pledge too far.

Well it’s been a fair few months now of the coalition government in Britain, and I’m not so sure it’s a coalition anymore at all. This week saw Vince Cable, a Liberal Democrat MP and Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, who before the election promised, along with all other Lib Dem MPs, that he would not vote in favour of a rise in student tuition fees, backing just that. A rise in tuition fees.

This is a party who have always opposed student tuition fees full stop. Yet now they’re speaking out in favour of Conservative legislation attempting to raise the tuition fees cap from £3290 to unlimited. Yes, that’s right, unlimited.

You have to feel for British working families who have been smacked in the face with a cricket bat yet again. It’s just relentless at the moment for them. The change in housing benefit, with some people having to fork out hundreds of extra pounds a month just to stay in the house they own. The change in the child benefit system which seemed to have good intentions but instead decimates certain families across Britain. And now this.

Think about it, under the proposed scheme, a seventeen year old thinking of going to university will now have to pay around £7000 a year for the privilege. Now, if that seventeen year old is in the upper class bracket of Britain then that’s fine, the parents can simply open up their wallet or money sack and hand out the sum that is required. So what if the seventeen year old is of a much poorer background, one where neither parent works, and hence cant afford to send them off to university. Well there will be financial help for them. Which is a good thing.

Now imagine the same seventeen year old, who is from what is known as middle Britain where both parents are working (hard I might add). Financial support probably won’t be there for them, at least not as much, so a loan will be in order. Realistically you’re looking at around £30,000 of debt before you’ve even worked a day. And that will have to be paid back, with a higher rate of interest than was previously given.

Now imagine that same hardworking family has a fourteen year old child as well. The family will do its utmost to give the education to their eldest, possibly stretching themselves to breaking point in the process. So child number one manages to get through uni, all be it with massive debt, but they make it nonetheless. What about child number two? Can they afford to do it again for them? I think you’re asking a little much.

Okay, so universities will need to find the money from somewhere as the government is slashing the subs they used to give them. But what about the likes of Oxford and Cambridge? Surely they can just charge whatever they want right? They’ll still have demand for places no matter what they charge. Is that right?

The same goes for other universities who may have an outstanding course running at their institution, let’s say music, and if little Jonny wants to learn how to play the clarinet there really well then they’ll have to fork out a heck of a lot more than let’s say a geography student on a less prestigious course at the very same university. Is that right?

The problem with this is, the already huge gulf between the classes is about to become ginormous. Only the rich will end up going to the best universities and will therefore land the top jobs. Leaving the lower classes and anyone North of Milton Keynes to fight over the scraps. This is all well and good but Britain is already haemorrhaging talent, we cant afford to lose much more. Now it will all be about financial clout rather than your actual ability. The talentless amongst the rich will take jobs that talented poorer individuals could have filled, and done a much better job. Which means we’ll need to immigrate more people, because in a few years time we are going to have a very low number of skilled people in this joint.

The other classes aren’t getting off scot-free however, these cuts can be seen as painful for everyone. Though they are necessary, perhaps not to the drastic length they’re going for but still necessary. I don’t think Labour would be doing much different, perhaps they wouldn’t be as severe. I doubt they’d raise the student fees to unlimited status, and their child tax credits policy would most likely be a lot fairer. But we’ll never know, maybe they’d have gone even further, who knows.

What is increasingly worrying though is the way the middle class is having to get hit the hardest, as if they are just the collateral damage necessary in getting us out of this mess. It’s now more beneficial to rent, rather than own your own home. Jobs are disappearing and university education is slowly becoming nothing more than a pipe dream for the working families of the country. It just doesn't feel fair.

Take a quick look at the new reformed child tax credits. Any family with a member earning £44,000 and over can not get any child benefits. It sounds reasonably fair but upon closer inspection you’ll see that it is harrowingly unfair. A family with two working parents, let’s say the husband is earning £42,000 a year, and the wife also £42,000 (because I‘m not sexist). Combined, this family earns £84,000 plus child benefit. Now let’s take another family where husband earns £44,000 and wife does not work (I flipped a coin). Their total earning is £44,000 with no child benefit. Hitting these people ‘because they can take it on the chin’ is bluntly unfair and simply taking advantage of them.

Soon there will be no incentive to earn at all. The UK is heavily reliant on some people’s work ethic. People who work because it’s what they’ve been brought up to do. People who will never turn down work or overtime. People like carers who work tirelessly saving the NHS millions upon millions of pounds every year, and all for little to no reward. And that’s the problem. Britain, instead of rewarding hard work, rewards laziness. People who wont work, because it can’t match what they receive in state benefits. And who can blame them? Why do something for nothing when you can do nothing for something?

But all this doesn’t answer my question. Why are the Liberal Democrats doing this? Their manifesto at the election earlier this year stated the following:

“Britain, for all its many strengths, is still too unequal and unfair, a country where the circumstances of your birth and the income of your parents still profoundly affect your chances in life….
…We will scrap unfair university tuition fees so everyone has the chance to get a degree, regardless of their parents’ income.”

So how do these statements do complete U-turns in five short months? Jumping into bed with a binary opposite political party is one thing. Turning your back on all your core values is totally unbelievable. I don’t understand what they are getting out of this deal any more (apart from unlimited power of course). They were supposed to be there to provide a leash, to hold back the Tories from going totally wild inside the chicken coop. But that leash is starting to look like a pretty yellow bow around the neck, and feathers are flying.

Are they literally doing all this just to repay the Conservative party for letting them sit at the captain’s table? Or do they genuinely feel that the Tories’ policies are right for Britain? Who knows? Not me. Maybe they’re just political chameleons turning bluer by the day. It would be interesting to hear what the late Sir Cyril Smith would have to think about it all.