NICK CLEGG ATTACKS OXBRIDGE

What a laugh! The coalition increases tuition fees to £9,000 and Nick Clegg, Mr. Trustworthy himself then lambasts Oxford and Cambridge for having the audacity to charge £9,000 tuition fees!

Does he think this attack on the institutions he and his fellow conspirators gave the rise to will win him brownie points with students; or with any of us, for that matter?

If, as he claims, the universities can't decide tuition fees, then who will? And saying they need to open their doors to poorer students is ridiculous. This is only reasonable if the poorer students have the academic ability to study at that level. And if they do then there should be an open door policy irrespective of fees.

But the whole education strategy is designed to see that poorer students- or prospective students- stay that way, with a poorer education to match which will see far fewer at any university.  Nice big pool of uneducated unemployed to hold down wages and keep us in fear of our jobs.

I call for us to stop calling ourselves 'working class' and start to use the more accurate 'mostly unemployed class'.

NICK CLEGG'S NEW YEAR MESSAGE

In Nick Clegg's New Year message to members, he pledged to start 2011 with action on social mobility, civil liberties and the environment.

So will we see-

·         Social Mobility:

 o   Working Class ground down further toward serfdom.

o   Middle Class allowed to prosper from the labour of the serfs

o   Upper Class prosper from the increased wealth of the Middle Class

o   Politicians- some from column a, some from column b… and ensure a knighthood for nothing!

·         Civil Liberties- we will continue to erode them and ensure virtual enslavement of the disenfranchised.

·         The Environment-

 o   Ensure politicians continue to have near-palatial homes and second residences.

o   Make sure the commons is still the place to work

JAM TOMORROW?

VAT increased to 20%- thus reducing sales

Public sector wage and pension cuts- less spending power

Benefit cuts- again, less spending power

How do Messrs Cameron and Clegg suppose this will ease the deficit? These actions may in the short term leave some money spare to pay off the deficit. But long term, they will mean less jobs, less spending, less growth.

More unemployed, so the benefit cuts will be wiped out by more people claiming lower benefits.

History shows us that penalising the poor- no, let’s call it what it is- making poverty a crime- is not the answer and it does not work. It was tried with 17th and 18th century parish poor relief and 19th century workhouses. The early 20th century saw benefits, but only if you could prove you were poor and had to sell anything not absolutely essential to life before relief was given.

In other words, a workhouse in your own home! So what happened? People died or turned to crime. Perhaps that is why Ken Clarke is considering cutting £2bn from the legal aid bill. We all know who that effects. Not Ken.

David Cameron, accompanied by a distinctly uncomfortable looking Nick Clegg effectively said benefit cuts, both in amount and those entitled to them would encourage people into work.

So would removing anti-Trades Union legislation and allowing higher wages thus negotiated. As one would expect in the Thatcherite free market economy. The other nail in this particular coffin is the prevalence of a generation of young people who have never worked or known job security and are perfectly able to make a good living selling drugs. Does he believe this underclass will worry if their benefits are cut?