• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

George Osborne's letter to young constituents comes back to haunt him

Status
Not open for further replies.

pemma

Veteran Member
Joined
23 Jan 2009
Messages
31,474
Location
Knutsford
Someone has posted a letter George Osborne wrote in 2003 on Facebook where he says the Conservatives would scrap university tuition fees when they next got in to power.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...1753467375463.875441.894910462&type=3&theater

This letter has gone viral and been mentioned in all the left of centre newspapers.

I remember getting the same letter but didn't keep it so couldn't remember the exact wording. That letter was a follow up to one where he wrote saying as he was the youngest MP in parliament he wanted to know what the views of younger voters were.

He obviously didn't realise at the time the next time the Conservatives would be in government would be as part of a Coalition with a party who wants to scrap tuition fees and it would be the Conservatives who not only disagree with them on scrapping them but want to significantly increase fees.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

Domh245

Established Member
Joined
6 Apr 2013
Messages
8,426
Location
nowhere
Politician in 'Whatever the other party is doing we'll do the opposite' shocker.

It was apparently conservative policy at the time, but like a lot of things, policy changes. They had 1 general election between this point and their becoming elected, along with the election of a new leader of the party.

Also worth noting the condition tagged on the end there - they would find the money by getting rid of the target to increase the number of people in university. So it would be free, but only for a select few people - everyone else would have to go through apprenticeships and similar (not that that is necessarily a bad thing of course!)
 

pemma

Veteran Member
Joined
23 Jan 2009
Messages
31,474
Location
Knutsford
Also worth noting the condition tagged on the end there - they would find the money by getting rid of the target to increase the number of people in university. So it would be free, but only for a select few people - everyone else would have to go through apprenticeships and similar (not that that is necessarily a bad thing of course!)

Well I finished a Sixth Form in a comprehensive school in 2003 and from around 100 sixth formers who did A Levels that year only around 2 didn't go to university. The target increase in university places related to Foundation degrees and the like so that people who didn't have 3 A Level passes could still do university level education. Those kind of people are probably more suited to suitable apprentices* opposed to university.

* Not things like a 'Grill operating apprentice' in a restaurant where employers are really just abusing the apprentice system and the government are letting them get away with it.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

krus_aragon

Established Member
Joined
10 Jun 2009
Messages
6,042
Location
North Wales
This would have been newsworthy five years ago, when the coalition decided to continue with tuition fees. The timing of this smacks (to paraphrase Douglas Adams) of a man saying “And another thing...” half an hour after he lost the argument.
 
Last edited:

Domh245

Established Member
Joined
6 Apr 2013
Messages
8,426
Location
nowhere
This would have been newsworthy five years ago, when the coalition decided to continue with tuition fees. The timing of this smacks (to paraphrase Douglas Adams) of a man saying “And another thing...” half an hour after he lost the argument.

Sure, but it's come as the conservatives propose another potential rise in fees. It's not as big as the £3000 to £9000 jump, but it's still something
 

pemma

Veteran Member
Joined
23 Jan 2009
Messages
31,474
Location
Knutsford
This would have been newsworthy five years ago, when the coalition decided to continue with tuition fees. The timing of this smacks (to paraphrase Douglas Adams) of a man saying “And another thing...” half an hour after he lost the argument.

A number of people who were Osborne's younger constituents in 2003 would have remembered what he said but either didn't keep a letter where a politician said they would do something they would never do (like me) or didn't want to publicise it because they prefer the Conservatives to Labour.
 

pemma

Veteran Member
Joined
23 Jan 2009
Messages
31,474
Location
Knutsford
Which politician in a position of power said that he wanted at least 50% of all schoolchildren to attend University, quite some time ago?


The Guardian said:
Speech by Rt Hon Tony Blair, The Prime Minister launching Labour's education manifesto at the University of Southampton 23rd May 2001

We believe there is no greater ambition for Britain than to see a steadily rising proportion gain the huge benefits of a university education as school standards rise, meeting our goal of 50% of young adults progressing to higher education by 2010. An ambitious goal because we are ambitious for Britain.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/may/23/labour.tonyblair
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top