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Continuing a series on world leaders, Miles Deverson takes a look at Angela Merkel
Ben Bland examines the fallout from the Iowa caucuses and looks forward to the New Hampshire primaries.
In the first of a series on world leaders, Miles Deverson takes a look at Nicholas Sarkozy
If campaigning strategy is to secure as many votes as possible from an assortment of constituencies, statistics alone demonstrate the electoral importance of university students. While we may not be as numerous as pensioners, general elections are something new and exciting; a chance for many of us to use our newly acquired right to vote. A considerable proportion of students follow the campaigns diligently because observing politicians is an education in itself. As a result, most of us will vote. Could you say the same for pensioners at whom so many policies are aimed?
Perhaps the curiosity of the student population decreases the need for bold, highly publicised promises for our future. Indeed, we have more time to search through the respective party websites to find relevant information. It is perhaps a compliment to be almost ignored, as many more targeted groups complain they are being “talked down to” It’s a rather interesting strategy: aim policies at people who might not otherwise vote but leave the politically active students to their own devices. So with a little online research, The Yorker reveals what will each party do for students entering the “real world”.
The Tory website states that “a Conservative government will not accept another generation being consigned to an uncertain future of worklessness and dependency.” It proposes the creation of 400,000 training opportunities over the next 2 years – half of which will be apprenticeships and pre-apprenticeships, a quarter will be work pairings and the rest further education. 18-25s who have been unemployed for six months will be referred to this so called ‘Youth Action for Work’ programme which sounds like an extension of preparation for the world of work rather than actual employment. Another proposed policy, decisively more enticing, is an early repayment bonus offered to students who repay their student loans ahead of schedule.
The Labour website devotes a whole page specifically to 18-25s stating that “unlike in the recession of the 1990s, young people in Britain today can be assured that with Labour they have a government that is on their side.” Thus claiming that the Tories are no good, they nonetheless propose a similar policy of providing jobs, apprenticeships and work experience to young people unemployed longer than 6 months, admittedly on a larger scale, creating 500,000 apprenticeships to the Tory’s 200,000. No financial incentive though.
The Liberal Democrats will pay young people £55 per month for 3 months if they are completing internships to compete with families who can afford to support their children during internships. Work programmes, training and further education will be provided after a mere 3 months of unemployment. They will create a whopping 800,000 internships and workplaces, putting Brown and Cameron to shame.
With YouGov surveys underlining how closely contested this election will be with the Tories at 33%, Labour at 30% and LibDems at 29%, perhaps candidates should spend a little more time discussing the future for those in higher education. Lewis Bretts, Democracy and Services Officer, is doing his job to make sure students register before the 20th April to vote, now the politicians need to do their job and help us to decide who to vote for.
Aren't the Liberal Democrats pledging to scrap tuition fees over a period of 6 years? They're dropping final year tuition fees in their first year of office and proceeding on to phase them out all together. Surely thats something aimed at students?
Also, it seems as if Labour and the Conservatives are for raising tuition fees:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/higher/will-tuition-fees-return-to-haunt-the-labour-party-1944831.html
Clegg is scrapping tuition fees, but that won't affect many of the students voting next month as they will have graduated by then. Too late to change our uni experience.
Same with tuition fees rising - that's more of a concern to parents with children who will have to meet the payments.
Good article.
That's pretty narrow minded, to decide that it doesn't mean anything to students just because you're graduating. You'd be at least interested in the proposal if you were a first or second year. That's roughly 1.3 million people. Tuition fees still affect that many voters.
Would the LibDem cuts include people already in higher education? Or just new students? Previous changes to tuition fees haven't affected people already at university. Does anyone know?
The Lib Dems don't have any concrete plans on HE funding. They were talking about it a lot over previous years but fairly quickly shut up in the run-up to this election. It's likely that they'll keep it about level, though, which is better than the other two parties. Labour and Conservatives are going to wait for the report and then make their mind up - but it's worth pointing out that of the three parties, Labour have the most MP candidates signed up for the NUS voteforstudents pledge, which is against an increase. So, from that viewpoint, Labour are more pro-student than Lib Dems... but either way there's little discussion of us! More about pensions than students!
The NUS vote for student pledge is less radical than the Lib Dem proposals. Streeting has Labour interests at heart and the vote for students pledge is about backing as many Labour candidates as possible, despite Labour being the party which introduced fees, then hiked them up.
The Lib Dems have plenty of student friendly policies that should go down well in York Uni as well as with 6th form students heading to Uni in the future.
- Abolition of student fees- No tax payable on first £10 you earn - students who work part time and over the holidays will pay no tax- 800,000 internships with grants, so they are not restricted to the wealthy- A peaceful 2 state solution in Palestine. Has been a big issue here in the past.- More investment in science (particularly research), smaller science classes at school, schemes to encourage more girls to take up science.- Votes at 16. Old enough to join the army? Old enough to pay tax? Surely old enough to vote on how those taxes are spent.Young people ARE taken seriously by some politicians, and that might just be reflected in the election results come May 6th. Real change could just happen this time round.
#5: The Lib Dems set out clearly in their manifesto how much extra they would spend annually on universities in order to phase out top-up fees. How is that not a concrete HE funding plan?
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