Labour backflip on tuition fees?

A report in The Telegraph yesterday claims Labour's Shadow Education Secretary Angela Rayner said there are 'no plans' to write off student debt.

In a comment to The Student Room this week, Jeremy Corbyn stated:

Our young people have been held back by debt for too long. We will scrap university tuition fees so that everyone has the chance to go to university, wherever they come from.

What are your thoughts? During the election campaign, what was your understanding of Labour's stance on tuition fees? How do you feel about this now?

Reply 1

sachinisgod

21

Ofcourse they knew what they were going to do ( or not do)

They knew for sure they were never going to win the election even with May being so diabolical. So they started introducing populist policies to buy votes ( especially students) only to strengthen Corbyns position as leader.

Classic Labour lies

Reply 2

ChaoticButterfly

20

Doesn't this apply to already existing student debt?

I'd rather parties bribed voters with tuition fees as apposed to ******** on foreign people.

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/economy/2017/07/abolishing-tuition-fees-wasteful-electoral-bung-it-works

Reply 3

Meany Pie

5

It was my understanding that they were going to scrap tuition fees and look into scrapping the already present debt.

To be quite frank, given her comments that there are now no plans whatsoever, Labour can go **** themselves. They have lost my vote.

On a side note, why doesn't JC get a profile on here and engage with his supporters?

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 4

TheAlchemistress

22

This is why I hate politics it's too corrupt!

Reply 5

RF_PineMarten

18

Original post by BlinkyBill

A report in The Telegraph yesterday claims Labour's Shadow Education Secretary Angela Rayner said there are 'no plans' to write off student debt.

In a comment to The Student Room this week, Jeremy Corbyn stated:

Our young people have been held back by debt for too long. We will scrap university tuition fees so that everyone has the chance to go to university, wherever they come from.

What are your thoughts? During the election campaign, what was your understanding of Labour's stance on tuition fees? How do you feel about this now?

This is very misleading because it's confusing two issues; scrapping of tuition fees, and cancelling student debt of those students who have already paid those fees.

1 - Labour want to scrap tuition fees. If put in place, students from that point on would not pay tuition fees. That is Labour policy and was in their manifesto as a flagship policy. That is still 100% intact as a policy, no change there.

2 - This thing about writing off existing student debt. They never said they would do this, Corbyn talked vaguely in an interview about how he'd like to do something about it but they weren't sure if they could and were still looking at it. It was not Labour policy and was not in their manifesto - you can't backflip on something that was never party policy in the first place.

This "backflip" does not exist; it seems to have been entirely manufactured by misleading media coverage.

Reply 6

ScienceGeek1878

16

Original post by RF_PineMarten

This is very misleading because it's confusing two issues; scrapping of tuition fees, and cancelling student debt of those students who have already paid those fees.

1 - Labour want to scrap tuition fees. If put in place, students from that point on would not pay tuition fees. That is Labour policy and was in their manifesto as a flagship policy. That is still 100% intact as a policy, no change there.

2 - This thing about writing off existing student debt. They never said they would do this, Corbyn talked vaguely in an interview about how he'd like to do something about it but they weren't sure if they could and were still looking at it. It was not Labour policy and was not in their manifesto - you can't backflip on something that was never party policy in the first place.

This "backflip" does not exist; it seems to have been entirely manufactured by misleading media coverage.

This.

Reply 7

Good bloke

19

Original post by RF_PineMarten

it seems to have been entirely manufactured by misleading media coverage.

Or, more likely, a deliberately vague, carefully targetted and misleading aim, from someone trading on his supposed 'nice and honest politics' image, misled the media who in turn misled sections of the electorate who voted for him.

The truth is now clear, but he will do it again in the future, as will all politicians, and many people will continue to believe even the most bare-faced spin.

Reply 8

PilgrimOfTruth

17

It's great that so many young students took an interest in politics this election, but now they need to quickly come to terms with the plethora of lies and duplicity that party politics brings with it.

Young people were duped and badly mislead by Corbyn on student debt and associated issues. The Press is referring to it now as "bait and switch".

Corbyn essentially "bought" the young vote with promises that had no plan and which could never be fulfilled.

Many young students now realise they were taken for muppets and are rightly angry.

As the great song from The Who said,

Don't Get Fooled Again!

Reply 9

Snufkin

Universities Forum Helper

21

Original post by Meany Pie

It was my understanding that they were going to scrap tuition fees and look into scrapping the already present debt.

No, Corbyn said all existing student debt would be wiped. It was after the election that McDonnell and other Labour cronies said they'd only look into doing it.

I already regret voting for Labour, they lied about Brexit and now it seems they lied about tuition fees too.

Reply 10

username2571271

18

I dont remember Labour saying they wanted to write off debt :confused:

Their main policy was scrapping tuition fees (not that it would have been useful to me bc it was only English unis afaik :frown:

)

Reply 11

Meany Pie

5

Original post by Snufkin

No, Corbyn said all existing student debt would be wiped. It was after the election that McDonnell and other Labour cronies said they'd only look into doing it.

I already regret voting for Labour, they lied about Brexit and now it seems they lied about tuition fees too.

I had hoped they wouldn't lie... Then I realised they were still politicians.

Reply 12

PilgrimOfTruth

17

Original post by Meany Pie

I had hoped they wouldn't lie... Then I realised they were still politicians.

Kudos to you MeanyPie for sussing these duplicitous politicians. It's true that to some extent, all politicians lie and mislead but what Corbyn did at this election was totally shameless. He knew that Looney Labour were way way behind the Tories in popularity and he also knew that most young people have better things to do than turn up to poling stations.

So he pandered to the students promising stuff that there was no plan for and that could never actually be delivered and thereby he duped an entire voting demographic.

The more experienced voters (mostly older) knew that Corbyn had a reprehensible history, that he supported the IRA in the 80s, called Hamas and Hezbollah friends and so on. They also knew he has a long history of opposing the EU and thus that his shameless pandering to the Remainers was another big con. The older experienced voters were somewhat aghast that the youth had so easily flocked to this man having the awful history that he does but realise that most students are not properly clued up on his history.

Now that many students are realising they have been conned by this man, I guess many will re-appraise their positions.

The Tories are not charismatic, but then politics itself isn't particularly funky is it?! However the Tories are not duping their electorate. They are simply getting on with the job which is what the people who voted for them, expect. BrExit is important and it needs to be negotiated in the best interests of the UK.

Labour is, and always was, totally unfit to govern the UK. That situation will remain for as long as Corbyn desperately clings on to his "leadership".

It seems that he will say anything to anyone in order to get them to vote for him.

He duped the young voters on student debt.

He told people that the Trident Missile system would be renewed and then told the Glastonbury event organiser that he would actually scrap Trident as soon as possible.

He had the audacity to tell an interviewer that he had never met the IRA.

He simply cannot be trusted.

I expect there will be all manner of similar "vapourware" promises made over the coming months as he tries to canvass and sway the huge demographic of voters that didn't support him. He has an uphill struggle. Few want his hard left militant socialism.

Reply 13

PilgrimOfTruth

17

One more Corbyn Con you should keep an eye out for is a complete U-Turn on the entire BrExit issue.

Corbyn is anti-EU through and through but some are predicting that in order to gain more votes he will shortly pretend all of a sudden that it's actually better to stay in the EU and that he will offer a 2nd referendum if people vote him into No 10.

People should look out for this con and know his history on the EU, thus:

He voted in favour of leaving the European Economic Community - the EU's predecessor in 1975

He voted against the Maastricht Treaty that created the EU saying:

"It takes us in the opposite direction of an unelected legislative body—the Commission—and, in the case of foreign policy, a policy Commission that will be, in effect, imposing foreign policy on nation states that have fought for their own democratic accountability."

He voted against the Lisbon Treaty which is the current constitutional basis for the EU

In an article on his website, Corbyn wrote that the EU was responsible for the gross abuse of human rights in Western Sahara. However, the article was later deleted

Reply 14

username1799249

19

My understanding was that Labour were never going to write off debt. They were going to get rid of it. Most of the debt by current students will be written off in 30 odd years anyway.

Reply 15

RF_PineMarten

18

Original post by Snufkin

No, Corbyn said all existing student debt would be wiped. It was after the election that McDonnell and other Labour cronies said they'd only look into doing it.

I already regret voting for Labour, they lied about Brexit and now it seems they lied about tuition fees too.

The only thing I am aware of him saying was some vague words in an interview where he said they'd like to do what they can about existing debt but weren't sure if they could or what they would do.

Could you direct us to exactly where and when he said that Labour would wipe out existing student debt if they won the election?

Don't confuse this with the policy of scrapping tuition fees, which is still completely intact.

Reply 16

ChaoticButterfly

20

Original post by Snufkin

No, Corbyn said all existing student debt would be wiped. It was after the election that McDonnell and other Labour cronies said they'd only look into doing it.

I already regret voting for Labour, they lied about Brexit and now it seems they lied about tuition fees too.

It will be politically easier to write of debt once tuition fees are are not a thing. What are you going to do? Vote for the lib dems or conservatives?

If you really care about remaining in the EU the lib dems might make sense to vote for. But on tuition fees, labour still want to get rid of tuition fees, if not already existing debt, it still makes sense to vote for labour.

If none of this works then you better be prepared to get the pitch forks out as parliamentary democracy will have demonstrably proved to not be up to the task.

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 17

aware1

11

Meh, I'd still vote for Labour. Better than what we currently have and all other parties by a long shot.

First he needs to rule out tuition fees, which I don't think he should (as education shouldn't be free, but shouldn't be extortionate). Then he can reduce or wipe the debt.

Reply 18

Snufkin

Universities Forum Helper

21

Original post by RF_PineMarten

The only thing I am aware of him saying was some vague words in an interview where he said they'd like to do what they can about existing debt but weren't sure if they could or what they would do.

It was not vague, Corbyn said he would deal with the burden of tuition fees for those students/graduates who have already accrued large debts. The implication was clear, that he'd write off loans - it was misleading and I was a fool to believe him.

Original post by ChaoticButterfly

It will be politically easier to write of debt once tuition fees are are not a thing. What are you going to do? Vote for the lib dems or conservatives?