Two and a half years in to the coalition, Nick Clegg has
decided to apologise for his pre-election pledge to scrap university tuition
fees. Not, note, to apologise for breaking his pledge. Not to apologise for
increasing them to £9000 per year. But to apologise for making a promise that
he didn’t think he could keep. His apology follows the same structure as a
cheating husband apologising to his devastated wife for making wedding vows
while knowing that he was prone to infidelity.
Rather than debate the pros and cons of the issue I thought
that I would add a personal perspective, to show why my generation (who
campaigned against the fee rise despite it only affecting those younger than
us) might expect more than a two minute Youtube clip.
During the 2010 general election, I was an undergraduate
student at the University of Brighton. Although I was not involved in student
politics at the time, I considered it vital for the health of our society that
as many people as possible should vote in the election. Low turnout,
particularly amongst the young, was and remains a depressing feature of British
democracy. The National Union of Students was running a campaign to get young
students registered to vote and informed about the policy stances of the major
parties. I volunteered to help with this campaign, and I did manage to sign
some students up, and tell them a little about what the various parties were
promising. The issue that I was asked about more than any other was tuition fees.
How many of those students that I signed up to vote for the
first time in their lives will have concluded that voting is a waste of time?
Why would they be wrong about that? How many will vote again? Why should they?
Nick Clegg’s little video gives no answers to these questions.
Of course this post does allow me to share this little gem
with you (c/o The Poke).
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