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Friday, December 24, 2010
Fighting talk from Vince Cable
Vince Cable spoke frankly to two Telegraph
reporters who were posing as constituents, at his surgery. The Telegraph
were reluctant to break the news of the interview, [they are known as
the most pro Tory paper], and decided instead to let the BBC break the
story.
The BBC , who are impartial were pleased to break the
story and run with it., even quoting other senior
LibDems who had also been secretly approached by the Telegraph,
complaining about the Tories. You may remember that when David Cameron
was choosing his cabinet and his ministers, it was Vince Cable who was
called to No 10, early on and stayed there all day, presumably to give
advice to ‘newby’ David Cameron.
Vince Cable expressed some of his personal thoughts to
the two undercover reporters who recorded the whole conversation. It was
the remark he made, that he had declared
war on Richard Murdock over the purchase of
BSkyB, apparently he had discovered a legal precedent which would stop
the deal, hence the terminology ‘ declared
war’.
The
Telegraph reported
that he had been recorded telling its
reporters - who were posing as his constituents - that he had been
involved in a "big
argument" over dealing with the banks.
He said he and other Lib Dems had been pressing for a "very
tough approach", which had been opposed by "our
Conservative friends" and that he had been involved in a "big
battle" over the cap on non-EU economic migration.
He had criticised the speed at which the coalition was trying to push
through changes in the health service, local government and other areas,
which he described as a " kind
of Maoist revolution
", and said it was "in
danger of getting out of control".
Mr Cable said, “the axing of child benefit for
higher earners had been carried out in a rather
cack-handed way", adding: "They
haven't yet done the winter fuel payments, but that's coming, I think
."
Friday, December 17, 2010
Students lose Tuition Fees Fight
Lord
Browne , the former head of BP, was commissioned by the
government to produce a fair report on tuition fees he said in response
to this “
Our higher education system is
world-renowned but too often it enshrines the power of universities and
not the power of students. These reforms will put students in the
driving seat of a revolutionary new system.”
Sally
Hunt, the General Secretary of the University and College Union,
said ‘We
have no faith in the Tories’ muddled plans to fund additional student
places through bonuses for students or families rich enough to pay their
loan debt off quickly.’
But, the students didn’t convince parliament or the House
of Lords to rethink the student loans higher fees.
The Student
Loans Company who administer the scheme has been branded a disgrace.
During 2009 they took an extra £9m from students after they had paid off
their student loans, this year they have taken an extra £15m from
students, after they had paid off their loans. The S.L.C. can then take
up to 11 months to make a partial or full repayment of the amount they
have overcharged students.
The demonstrations were on the whole orderly; a minority
vented their anger by smashing treasury windows, something that cannot
be condoned. The police allowed the royal car to drive passed
disgruntled protestors, resulting in damage to the Royal car. Prince
Charles and his wife didn’t appear to be hurt, and continued with their
official engagement.
The protest was mostly about the austerity packages in
general; very few of the protestors would have been personally affected
by the tuition fee rises. We can consider ourselves fortunate, in so far
as the demonstrations were very low key, compared to those in Greece.
There were plenty of people going on record, saying that
they felt it wasn’t up to them to pay for the student fees. Most
students would agree with this, it was the severity of the increase, and
the blatant attempt to re-establish the upper class as being in control.
The burden for paying for the increased student fees will fall heavily
on the middle and working class, who will have to stump up the extra
money the government are giving to the universities, at a time of
increased inflation, increased unemployment, and with more hardship to
come in January when businesses are expected to increase food and basic
necessities by 10% under the guise of a 2.5% VAT increase.
The extra the taxpayer will have to pay for the tuition
fees, will ease a little when students start paying back their loans in
3 to 5 years time. The government cut university money by 80%, part of
the money saved went to prop up the Irish banks in the form of a £7b
loan to Ireland. The interest charged to Ireland is reputed to be 7%,
against that currently charged to students of 4.4%. As the higher loan
repayments for students kick in the rate is expected to rise to 7% plus.
The figure is currently set by the highest base rate of 5 un-named banks
plus 1%, or the R.P.I. whichever is lowest.
Vic
Farron
RFT
Express.
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Saturday, December 04, 2010
Student fees: Vote
Ian Dunt, writing for
Yahoo
quoted "Despite repeated dismissals by Nick Clegg that these
[Students] are uninformed protesters”. Nick Clegg doesn’t realise that
students are intelligent, articulate people who are not being listened
to by those in whom they placed their hope for a different politics. You
will see from my last blog Nick Clegg's
P.M.Q.
or watch the BBC
TV
recording you will see one uninformed protester,
who is not an intelligent, articulate person who doesn’t listen to those
in whom he places his hope for a different politics.
The Lib Dems are split on what to do about voting
on the tuition fees bill due to be heard on Thursday the 9th
December. Vince Cable was for some time undecided which way to vote, he
now appears to have settled on voting for his bill, but as is typical of
the Lib Dems, he could do anything. The LiBDems are expecting a three
way split in their votes, some abstaining, some voting no, some voting
yes. Nick Clegg is not sure which way to vote.
The reason Thursday was picked, is because the
Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland M.P.s , who were expecting to vote
against the Government, have usually left the commons to travel home on
a Thursday. But it is Fair Government to manipulate the
vote on something so important .
2 E.D.M.s [Early Day Motions] have
been registered, Greg Mulholland Lib Dems on 02/10/10 with 3 signatures
MOTION
ON HIGHER EDUCATION HIGHER AMOUNTS “....
considers
that the proposed motion should not be moved, as the Government has
failed to convince many people that its proposals will be fair and
sustainable....
Thursday, December 02, 2010
Nick Cleggs Smokescreen
Nick
Clegg has been throwing numbers about concerning the proposed massive
hike in University Fees, in the vain attempt that he can convince
himself and his party not to vote against them. You may remember on the
22nd May we reported the LibDems had applied for public money
reserved for the opposition parties to be used for
research. “The Lib Dems have applied for public
money allocated to the opposition
parties for research. In a
Newsnight interview they claimed it was in the public interest. Their
research they used the money for, resulted in Nick Clegg quoting
absurdly inaccurate figures when he took Prime
Minister Question Time last week, He quoted a Graduate care worker
on £21,000 repaying only £7 per month, this would take at least 214
years to repay a £18,000 loan, instead of the current £81 per month [Government
site confirms that you do not start making repayments unless you
earn more than £15,000 gross p.a. then you pay 9% of your gross income
above £15,000.] The amount payable in the example he quoted is 9% of the
difference between £15,000, and £21,000 i.e 9% or £6,000. or £45 per
month, not £81 per month.
He also claimed the
opposition didn’t have an alternative plan, only a blank sheet of paper.
From this blank sheet he quoted the Labour party as proposing a figure
of £36 per month for the above example.
Nick
Clegg also claimed his method was better than the Labour proposed
Graduate Tax. On the 28th July we reported
“Vince Cable the Business
Secretary announced plans for a ‘Graduate tax’ for university students;
Read
the full Article
Vic
Farron
RFT
Express.
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Posted by
Vic Farron at
4:03 PM
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