Chancellor George Osborne’s recent public spending review and action plan to improve the current condition of an ailing British economy was always going to be ruthless.
But there was just one small measure, an unexpected one at that which puts a deafly dagger into the futures of Britain’s next generation. The government’s decision to raise tuition fees, possibly to an unlimited level depending on the stature of the University is a policy which will surely stop youngsters moving onto Higher Education, especially if they are not from an affluent sprung background.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Cleggs pre-election Liberal Democrat mandate of not indulging in fee hikes was clearly a ploy for votes, as the cracks begin to open in a coalition government whereby differences of opinion look like dividing Britain, not collaborating.
As a third year student at Winchester, the proposed hikes will come too late to affect me but not the thousands of young people looking to Higher Education in the coming years.
It is agreed, and I would not hesitate to argue that a towering amount of students are not using their University opportunity to the maximum and are purely there for the social excerptions, a point which in some cases can be argued, but for the government to enforce rulings to scupper Britain’s next generation of workers to learn and to demonstrate cuts harming people and families in current full time employment is disastrous.
We all knew the cuts were coming, and there is no easy way out. But there is a feeling students appear to be tarred with the same brush yet again.
In Winchester generally, the cuts could hit home with distinction. The City Council recently announced there will be around 70 job cuts in November this year, but there are other public sector services in the city like the NHS trust which could also be hit hard.
It is difficult times ahead, but there seems little choice but to rely on the dilly-dallying of the coalition government to sort Britain out of this mess, well perhaps.
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