Saturday 11 December 2010

Projecting a Good Image

I've just been watching Have I Got News for You and it's got me thinking a bit.

For possibly the first time since Spitting Image left us, I think we can all be absolutely clear about how they would represent a current politician. I suppose we could all come up with ideas for some of the past party leaders or significant figures, but I'm not sure we'd all agree in all details.

However, I suspect that we could all picture the Spitting Image puppet of Nick Clegg. A touch of David Steel's 'in David Owen's pocket', a little 'fawning sycophant' and top up with 'public school fag'. And, I suspect that the fact that we probably all share the same image of this and that all the mickey taking we see on the telly is pretty consistent, is bad news for old Nick. It's early days, but it looks like the mud is sticking.

Of course, some of our other politicians are living up to form too. Our beloved Prime Minister would certainly have a posh toff sort of puppet, with George Osbourne a slightly more whiny version of the same thing. I suspect that Michael Gove and Boris have already been replaced by their puppets! However, none of these stereotypes are far from what we knew before the election. Nick's is a whole other ball game - I don't think there are many people saying 'I agree with Nick' any more.

Wednesday 8 December 2010

I'm Back - Complete with Anger Management Issues

Well, hello all - I'm back!

I thought I'd missed a few months - turns out it's just over a year. Luckily, I am fully refreshed and full with happiness and love towards my fellow man, so expect lots of lovely, positive messages.

...er...this may not be entirely true...

Since I last made a contribution to this bloglet, there have been a few changes in the world. I think you know what I'm talking about, here. A brave, new world was on offer. A fresh faced (too fresh faced?) newcomer sprang onto the stage promising a new approach to politics. I've flirted with the Lib Dems for a few years now. Charles Kennedy seemed like a great chap to me (still does), even when a little under the weather. Straight talking bloke who seems to mean what he says.

I wasn't overjoyed when they dumped him for a model that operated a little better early in the morning but, when I was feeling generous, still gave them the occasional vote. Even when shiny Nick appeared on the scene, while I still pined to have jolly Charlie back, I kept flirting with them. Having been rather disillusioned with Labour (Iraq, an ongoing flirtation with consumerism and big business, a lack of ambition in really transforming the country), I thought a nice Lib Dem/Labour coalition could be just the ticket. So, the Lib Dems got my vote (luckily, I live in Stoke, so it made absolutely no difference to the local MP whatsoever!).

The day after the all-nighter of the election results, I had lunch with a few ex-colleagues and suggested that the only viable outcome was a Lib Dem/Labour coalition and that any flirtation with the Tories could only be political posturing. I don't think I'm ignorant of politics, but I was well and truly caught out.

Since then, I have been highly disillusioned and suffering from severe bouts of Tourettes, hence my absence since the election (I really have no excuse for my absence beforehand).

And so to the point...

Of all the scandalous policies being proposed at the moment in the never ending torrent of announcements we are currently being subject to, my absolute bugbear is tuition fees. I shall be brief...

Education is by far the most effective way of effective social change. Learning is entirely transformative and opens up opportunities to people that they could not have contemplated without it. I speak from experience.

My father used to be a painter and decorator, my mother a stay-at-home mum. I ended up being the first person in our family to attend university (under the grant system) and there is absolutely no doubt that my life is a million miles away from what it would otherwise have been. Given my background, a loan of £30,000 or more would have seemed an insurmountable mountain to climb, however soft and fluffy the repayment terms. I would have gone and got a job and probably pootled along on an average wage or so.

As it is, I do pretty well for myself and, not entirely coincidentally, both my parents now have post-graduate teaching qualifications and have rather transformed their own lives. And, just to be clear, we all pay for our degrees through the larger amounts of income tax that we now pay.

Education, from primary school through to university, is a right not a privilege. It is by far the best possible way of moving people from poverty to affluence. It is also the best way of building social cohesion and challenging preconceptions.

And tomorrow, when parliament votes to introduce tuition fees of up to £9,000 per year (don't forget to add subsistence onto this), everything I said above will be changed. However much later students have to pay back their massive debts, people from backgrounds like mine with be massively deterred from undertaking Higher Education because of the debts that will be hanging over them.

I expect this sort of thing from the Tories - it's exactly what they believe in. However, the Lib Dems have not moderately tweaked their policy. They have totally reneged on it to a degree that really is scandalous.

As a result, any faith I had in the ability of politics to effect the sort of changes our society so desperately needs has totally evaporated.

But don't worry about me, I've already got my degree.

(I imagine there will be more on this theme)