Live in Watford. Work in London. These are my thoughts.
A rather good commentary on the group which thinks continuing to spend more money than you have coming in is a good idea.
I was going to see what their official position on “uncutting” actually was but their website appears to have been, ahem, cut.
Well Wikipedia says they exist to “protest against tax avoidance in the UK and to raise awareness about cuts to public services”. Nothing about “uncutting” there!
This seems far more sensible IMO.
Yesterday was the start of the Guild of Students election campaigning period. You can always tell this time of year because on the way into University you are greeted by a multitude of candidates wearing ridiculous costumes. There is normally a tenuous but not in the slightest bit amusing connection between the name of the person standing and the seemingly random character they dress up as or have on their banners.
When you get closer you will hear shouts of “Vote ABC for some position” from the candidates and their minions.
I haven’t heard anything of policies though. It’s like this every year and it is becoming an obstacle course to get to lectures. After only two days I have heard a lot of other people expressing their dislike for the way these elections are run – perhaps because we are now third years so the novelty has now worn off for everyone.
On a normally peaceful walk through the leafy campus to lectures you are met with “Vote XYZ” signs littered across campus. They look hideous.
There are 43 candidates standing. Voting doesn’t even open until next Monday AND it lasts a week. I imagine I will get far more annoyed even as I do my best to ignore them all. Imagine if a serious political party ran their campaign in this way.
Apparently the turnout last year was 18%. And I voted (for the least annoying candidates!). The two candidates standing for president (only two!?) are apparently called Rachael ‘Super Rae’ Twumasi and Mark Harrop ‘Potter’. That about says it all.
These clueless rioters bore me now.
“Student protests” pretty much summed up by the question of a BBC reporter to a ‘protester’ earlier today: “Can you tell us why you’re here” Response: ”Umm… No”
Mildly amusing comment earlier by a BBC guest opposed to fees/cuts who clearly thinks that we should continue to spend more than we can ever pay back: ”Concrete breeze blocks aren’t particularly constructive”. Tell that to someone in the building trade.
Yes the maximum amount Universities will be able to charge is much higher but to be honest I don’t really see why there has been so much fuss. Not all Universities will charge the top fees. Students already pay fees. The new system means that you don’t have to start paying them until you are earning £6,000 more than currently. If you don’t pay them off in full they get written off after 30 years. Pretty good deal if you don’t actually make good use of your time at University and if you do well it shouldn’t be a problem.
When I (hopefully) graduate I will owe the Government about £20,000 in loan repayments. That’s a lot. Tomorrow a report is due to be delivered to the Government which is expected to recommend the removal of the current £3,300 odd tuition fee loan cap. It has been suggested that may see University tuition fees rise to around £7,000 a year.
In comparison with countries such as the United States the British system is cheap but I don’t think landing graduates with a huge sum of debt is the right way to go about funding the higher education system.
The Lib Dems played with the idea of a ‘graduate tax’ which would see those who received the benefit of a free University education (so not me) pay a higher rate of income tax for the rest of their lives. If the University system is working then surely graduates will pay back far more tax anyway from the greater wages they can command (provided the graduates aren’t all working in call centres). I think the problem is that the previous government wanted more people to go to University than was and is necessary which has led to the creation of degree courses in downright ridiculous subjects (pdf).
Foreign students already pay higher fees and make up an increasing proportion of students at UK Universities, I imagine because of the larger fees they are willing to pay. The amount Universities receive in fees from students is less than 30% of their total income.
The repayments for student loans are currently 9% of all income earned over £1,250 a month. On average UK salary (£25,428 a year) on a £20,000 loan at current rates of interest it will take 16 years to pay off. 16 years in which I imagine most graduates will want to buy a house.
Is my degree is value for money? Impossible to tell until I’ve got it and a job but I am pretty confident it will give me much greater opportunities than most other subject choices.
Results of the Conservatives campaigning: +5.3% gain. From third place to taking the seat.
Results of the Liberal Democrats negative campaigning: +1.1% gain. Remain in second place. Oh and the “can’t win here” Conservatives won. Here.
A standard A4 sheet made from 80 grams/m² paper weighs 5 grams. I counted the equivalent of 14 A4 sized pieces of paper being delivered by the Lib Dems in Watford whilst I have been there (either addressed to me or not addressed to any particular member of the household). That’s 70 grammes.
Based on one person per house (in reality some of the literature was received in our house multiple times as it was addressed to each voter in the household) the paper usage comes out at:
(55,208 / 68.3) * 100 * (70 grams) = 5,658.21376 kilograms
(I couldn’t find the registered number of voters in the constituency anywhere so I calculated the total potential voters figure – 80,831.6 – from the BBC total votes and percentage turnout figures)
That’s 5.65 metric tonnes of paper or 1,131,64.75 pieces A4 paper delivered across Watford.
Also worth noting that these figures exclude leaflets/letters that arrived before I came back for Easter or after I left to go back to University. I wonder how this compares to the local paper’s usage throughout the year, just a fraction of it I suspect.
