Author Archives: Alan Riley

Grants not fees – squaring the Lib Dem circle

Liberal Democrats should not give up the battleground of higher education finance just yet. The Party should counter-attack by arguing the case within the Coalition for substantial maintenance grants for students paid out of cutting university bureaucracy and cross-subsidy from foreign students. The Party will have to take on the red tape merchants of British higher education and the immigration obsessives in parts of the Conservative Party. However, taking on bureaucrats and right wing obsessives in the cause of student grants is a far better place from which to win the higher education argument.

Amid the student demonstrations and party …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 25 Comments
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  • Pawel Urbanski
    John Kelly's point matches what I see on the doorstep. In urban wards, people (predominantly younger professionals) are voting on who they think they are and wh...
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