Labour's policy on writing off student debt. Clive Lavelle of the English Democrats gives his view.

Clive Lavelle of the English Democrats comments on the Labour Party's change of tune on university tuition fees and student debt, apparently an election promise has now become an "ambition".  The letter below was published in the Western Daily Press on July 12th.

Labour changes tune on university tuition.

I heard the Labour Party’s shadow education minister going on about her party’s “ambition” to write off student debt.  A few weeks ago, during the election campaign, this was going to happen.  Now they’ve discovered that their “ambition” will cost £100 billion and they don’t know where they can find such an eye-watering sum.

She also alluded to a student debt “crisis”, claiming that this was “unacceptable”.  How short these people’s memories (conveniently) are.

University tuition fees were foisted on to English students by Tony Blair’s Labour government.  Despite many of his own MPs voting against it, the measure was railroaded through, thanks to the votes of Scottish Labour MPs who knew that their compatriots would be accessing free university places, paid for by the English taxpayer, through the Barnett Formula.

Clive Lavelle

Weston-super-Mare English Democrats