this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2025
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UK Politics

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[–] ctry21@sh.itjust.works 16 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (1 children)

The same man who pledged to abolish tuition fees, immediately abandoned that pledge to gain power, tripled them instead, and was then caught afterwards having already scrapped the plan to abolish them internally while still publicly campaigning on it?

However, leaked documents revealed that the Lib Dems had actually planned to abandon their tuition fee pledge before the election even took place.

A month before Clegg promised to get rid of the “dead weight of debt,” senior insiders said the party should “leave” the pledge before entering any negotiations to form a coalition government, saying: “Let us not cause ourselves more headaches.”

That article is an interesting read on how the big three keep lying through their teeth on tuition fees as well. And how the National Union of Students opposed tuition fees for over a decade until the now-health secretary Wes Streeting became their general secretary.

[–] stsquad@lemmy.ml 4 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

I'm still waiting for someone to come up with an alternative policy that keeps the widened access to further education. A graduate tax? More subsidy by foreign students? Government subsidy for strategic skill gaps?

With 50% of school leavers going to further education you need to fund that somehow.

[–] Zombie@feddit.uk 2 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

It's funny how Scotland and most of the EU manage to fund it via general taxation and yet it's a mystery how England could ever manage to do it. Truly perplexing.

There's no way spending 3-4 years paying for education could result in a more intelligent population, that can therefore cover that small additional cost somehow throughout the rest of their working lives...

[–] stsquad@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Scotland did it by reducing the number of students they pay for. It's a perfectly reasonable strategy and arguably the push for greater participation in universities has resulted in a push for everything to be a university degree. There are potentially better options for students as well as the public purse.

While education in itself is certainly of value not everyone can have a career in academia. At the same time I think the state should really think about subsiding some courses. Medical students for example have a longer time training and while eventually there may be rewards later in their careers it can't be very motivating carrying around more debt than your peers.

[–] Zombie@feddit.uk 3 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

That's just straight up misinformation. Every student within Scotland is eligible for funding. Every single one.

Education doesn't mean a career in academia. It means greater critical thinking, greater ability to source reliable information, greater chance of living a long and fulfilling life.

4 years of the government covering £1,800 in tuition is fuck all in the grand scheme of things and has many benefits to society.

[–] stsquad@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 hour ago

You think £1800 covers the cost of tuition? Do Scottish universities get additional funding to cover the difference? The fees in the rest of the country are much higher.

[–] ctry21@sh.itjust.works 4 points 4 hours ago

That's true. I don't know what the answer is there, but I still think regardless of what the solution is, politicians shouldn't be promising one thing and doing another. Especially to a demographic already so cynical about politics.

[–] mannycalavera@feddit.uk 13 points 6 hours ago

‘If the people who ran Facebook ~~were monsters~~ didn't pay me a shit tonne of money, I wouldn’t have worked there

Fixed it for you, cleggers.

[–] LuckingFurker@lemmy.blahaj.zone 25 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Says the man who cosied up to David fucking Cameron for 5 years, I don't think Nick Clegg is a good judge of who exactly is a monster

[–] Infernal_pizza@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

And yet somehow that was still the best government we've had in the last 15 years :(

[–] LuckingFurker@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 6 hours ago

Jesus that's a depressing realisation. How did it get worse from Cameron and Clegg? But somehow it did

[–] stsquad@lemmy.ml 3 points 5 hours ago

I think the tension having coalition partners in the government ultimately led them to make better decisions. We all know what happened when Cameron got his majority and no longer had the Lib Dems to hold him back.

I know tuition fees is the millstone around their neck but considering they were the junior partner they got to enact a fair amount of their policy platform. Indeed most of the more popular acts during that period the Tories like to boast about where Lib Dem initiatives.

[–] jonne@infosec.pub 16 points 8 hours ago

Said the guy whose previous job was to prop up Cameron's conservative government?

monster says people he worked with aren't monsters