Education! Education! Education!

Written by David Chappell and published in Bury Free Press on Sun 27th Dec 2009

Education! Education! Education!

That was the claim by Tony Blair when he led the Labour party back into power. Perhaps someone should have reminded Peter Mandelson when he threw his hissy fit into the university's as his Xmas present to the academic establishment. Fines! Fines! Fines! seemed to his mantra this Christmas as he does his best to add a place for Mr Scrooge in the cabinet. Doesn't he knows we are struggling to get out of a recession? Does he want students, lecturers, university staff propping up the dole queue and collecting benefits rather than help create the skilled trained workforce this country needs to work our way back into a fully functioning economy.

The Labour policy is 50% of school leavers should go to university. It's not the most practical policy as this country need plumbers, electricians and carpenters etc so we don't have to rely on foreign workers to do these skilled jobs, but it is their policy. Currently 43% of school leavers go to university at the moment so if universities take more students they are working towards the Labour policy, so what is Mr Mandelson's problem?

His problem is that what Labour says and what Labour does are two entirely different things, and Labour's Dark Master of Spin has no one to blame but himself.

In 1997 Labour 'earned' the 18,670 votes they gained in the County Elections in the Bury St Edmunds Constituency on the basis of the promises given to the electorate. The 3,814 votes cast for them in the same areas in 2009 reflect diehard Labour voters who did not care that the promises had not been delivered. What the 14,856 voters who have abandoned Labour do at the General Election will determine if we have a Tory Government, or a hung parliament at the General Election.

So what would the Liberal Democrats do? It is no good criticising others without saying what we would do! Lib Dems would create 10,000 new university places, and 50,000 new college places, and we would pay the training costs for employers to send trainees on courses to develop their skills and we would help fund it by increasing the costs of permits for foreign workers. Lastly and most importantly we will ensure every school leaver has a job, or place in higher education within three months ending the cycle of failed hopes and vandalised communities.