Solidarity

This is a quote from Liz Rawlings, Edinburgh University Student’s Association (EUSA) President.

“We are marching to show our Scottish MPs that we expect them to vote against increased tuition fees in England.

“Tuition fee increases in England will be disastrous for students in Scotland. Fees of up to £9000 in England will create a huge funding gap and Scottish institutions will struggle to compete with their wealthier counterparts south of the border.

It's difficult to know whether to feel touched by that display of cross-border solidarity (though English students at Edinburgh University will, of course, be affected) or whether to be annoyed that Rawlings is encouraging democratically unaccountable MPs to vote on English matters.

The complexities of the student fees debate are such that it will be used as the scenario by which the West Lothian Commission's recommendations are judged. I remain convinced that there is no satisfactory Parliamentary solution to the West Lothian Question for so long as the Barnett Formula is in situ and Scottish funding is determined as a proportion of what the UK Government spends in England. It's the knock-on effect on Scottish funding that provides the only justifiable excuse that Scottish MPs have for voting on English education. Other excuses are offered (such as the one above from Liz Rawlings) but they are a complete nonsense.

The non-Parliamentary solution is to create an English parliament so that each nation of the UK finances its own students and decides democratically its own mechanism for funding university education. That would be the sensible, democratic and equitable way of doing things. Needless to say that is the one solution that the Government won't be considering.

It has been suggested to me that it is desirable for non-English MPs to vote in the debate on university funding because it is only with the help of non-English MPs that the Government can be defeated on student fees; and I've been told that my opposition to non-English MPs voting on English matters should be put aside in this instance for the sake of political expediency.

No. It was political expediency (Tony Blair's use of Scottish MPs to inflict tuition fees on English students) that got English students into this situation. What Tony Blair's government did to English students was inexcusable, so those Labour MPs who are today gloating about the position that the Lib Dems find themselves in, revelling in self-righteousness and a smug holier-than-thou-ness, should remember that the Labour government lied about fees (Wikipedia terms it a "non-denial denial" but it was a lie).

Another example, characterized by the BBC as a "non-denial denial," was provided by Tony Blair, who was interviewed in 1997, just before the general election, by the British newspaper Evening Standard. The question was: "Will Labour introduce tuition fees for higher education?" Blair's answer was: "Labour has no plans to introduce tuition fees for higher education." No plans does not mean no tuition fees. The Labour Party used the same ambiguous wording in its manifesto for the election in 2001, writing: "We will not introduce 'top-up' fees and have legislated to prevent them." The increase of university fees up to £3000 was voted for before the next election in 2005 but implemented in 2006. Therefore the British government explained that the manifesto in 2001 was only valid for the period up to the election in 2005.

On reflection I'm with Ian Bell:

...this is, beyond argument, an English matter. Whatever the outcome, Mr Clegg and David Cameron have a West Lothian question to answer. Why should Scotland’s LibDems play any role in this argument when Scottish students are not affected? Why should they exercise any sort of vote when the Scottish Parliament is likely to follow the Welsh Assembly in devising a solution to university funding that does not, with luck, wreck the system?

The Welsh solution that Ian mentions is a system by which English students are fleeced to subsidise Welsh students.

THE tuition fee deal for Welsh students that has left commentators in England green with envy will be funded by cutting the general level of grant to universities in Wales, it has been confirmed.

But the Assembly Government said the reduction would be offset by increasing fees to students from England studying at Welsh universities.