Interim cap on non-EU migration bad news for Higher Education

There are many reasons why the Libservatives cap on migration is a badly thought out policy, but the reason which concerns me the most is the effect it will have on Higher Education.

Universities and colleges are already facing hardship, closing departments and making wide spread redundancies, and this is before the implementation of the 25% cut on the Department of Education announced in the budget.  With the cap on migration it will also limit the amount of non-EU students who can attend UK universities.  This will have a devastating effect on university funding if it loses the income from overseas tuition fees.

To quote the article from the BBC News article on the interim measures which are being introduced:

Tim Finch from the Institute of Public Policy Research, said the measures were just a stopgap and would have a detrimental affect on the higher education sector.

He added: "Do we really want to have restrictions on foreign students at a time when the higher education sector is facing funding cuts and is going to rely on the fees that those students bring in?"

According to the Guardian there are 250,000 non-EU students.  This wreckless move will have a devastating effect on higher education.  I hope when the full policy is implemented the government think twice about include non-EU students in their cap, or we may begin to see the closure of whole universities rather than just departments, as there will simply not be the demand out there for the current number of student places.

Do you believe this man when he says 'We're all in this together'?

I feel nauseus each time I hear him say 'we are all in this together'.  The government has a majority of millionaires in the cabinet completely out of touch with real life.

The Lib Dems put out the following poster during the election:

They have now let down those who voted for them who believed they would not raise VAT.

VAT hits all regardless of income and raising it to 20% will hit the poorest the most, where as capital gains tax was only raised to 28%.  Raising this higher would have been fairer as the it would not affect the poorest in the country unlike VAT.

On top of this public sector workers are faced with a pay freeze for two years. Considering RPI is currently over 5%, this is in real terms a significant pay cut.  On top of this many are likely to lose their jobs in the public sector due to real terms cuts across all government departments of 25% over four years (with the exception of health and foreign aid).  How can making thousands of workers redundant and putting them on unemployment benefit help the economy?

The Tories have always been in favour of rolling back the public services and now they can use the fig leaf of the economy to do just that.  Harriet Harman was right when she said that the budget was driven by "ideology not by economics". 

Why I'm supporting Diane Abbott for Labour leader

Today Diane Abbott launched her campaign website at http://www.diane4leader.co.uk

I was very pleased to see her reach the required amount of nominations to enter the race.  If Diane becomes leader of the Labour Party we will see a real difference between Labour and the Con Libs, a difference which I believe will bring many more people back to the Labour Party who have either stopped voting or voted for minor parties in recent years.

I stopped voting Labour after the Iraq war and refused to vote for party again until Blair had left office.  During this time there were still many Labour MPs who inspired me, who voted against the exceses of the Blairite era, such as Diane who voted against the Iraq War, tuition fees, Trident and ID cards.  These are not radical views, a large amount of the electorate were against these policies.

I also greatly respect Diane's position on immigration.  Some of the leadership candidates have chosen to empathise with Mrs Duffy and argue that we were wrong on immigration and that it helped us lose the election.  I do not believe this is the case, and it is good to see a candidate who is willing to challenge the misconceptions about immigration and to focus on the core issues behind discontentment amongst the electorate such as housing and jobs.

I feel it is important that we focus on what Labour did right in the past 13 years such as the minimum wage, equality legislation, Northern Ireland peace process. improved public services.  I feel Diane is best placed to carry on this agenda, and to steer us clear of unpopular policies.

Diane for Leader Facebook group
Diane Abbott Twitter feed

Demonstration against Israeli attack in York

With just a few hours notice around 150 demonstrators attended a protest in York over the Israeli attack on the peace flotilla, which resulted in the deaths of at least 10 peace activists, quite likely many more.

Israel attacks unarmed humanitarian flotilla in international waters

I could not believe the news when I woke up this morning.  Earlier this morning Israeli troops boarded the international aid flotilla to Gaza.  So far it is reported 16 peace activists are dead.  Even for Israeli this is a new low.

This action is in direct violation of international law.  An unarmed ship attacked in international waters.

Many of the activists were Turkish, and the Turkish government have strongly condemned the attack, saying they:

"strongly condemn[ed] these inhumane practices of Israel"

I would hope other governments will now not sit on the fence and strongly condemn the actions of Israel.  If this was any other country there would be international outrage at a unarmed ship being attacked with its passengers being killed in international waters.

David Laws is arguing over semantics

David Laws was entitled to a private life, and his relationship with another man did not need to be made public.  Unfortunately David made an ill judged decision, and he alone is reponsible for the repurcussions.

In his statement on the BBC News website he says:

At no point did I consider myself to be in breach of the rules which in 2009 defined partner as "one of a couple … who although not married to each-other or civil partners are living together and treat each-other as spouses."

Although we were living together we did not treat each other as spouses - for example we do not share bank accounts and indeed have separate social lives.

This is simply playing with the semantics of the term partner.  Many who have come to his defence in the media this morning talk about his great intellect.  Surely a man of such intellect should have realised that what he was doing was at the very least bending the rules.

According to a recent article in the Times he is worth an estimated £1.3 million.  If David had wanted to keep his relationship private, he should have made the decision not to claim expenses to give to his partner for rent. 

Interim Libservative plans for House of Lords are an undemocratic stitch up

I failed to spot the following Guardian article when published last week. It is certainly a worrying move:

Coalition deal 'to bring 172 peers'

The coalition agreement between Conservatives and Liberal Democrats could result in the parties appointing more than 100 new peers, despite being committed to a largely or fully-elected upper house, it is reported.

The agreement, published last Wednesday, states that a committee will be set up to come forward with draft motions by December to create a reformed upper house elected by proportional representation.

In the interim, the document states that "Lords appointments will be made with the objective of creating a second chamber reflective of the share of the vote secured by the political parties in the last general election".

With Labour currently represented by 211 peers, on a strict mathematical calculation, this would imply an increase from 186 to 263 in Tory numbers in the House of Lords and a boost in Lib Dem places from 72 to 167 - a total of 172 new peers.

This is a blatant attempt to ensure the government can push all of their legislation through without facing opposition. The Libservatives claim to be introducing us to the "new politics" when in fact this is the worst kind of example of the grubby old politics.

By awarding Tories and Lib Dems many more peerages it will not reflect the will of the UK electorate. For a start there are 208 crossbenchers and 26 Lords Spiritual there is a chance many of these peers could be classed as being on the right of the political spectrum, particularly when it comes to issues on equalities.

If they really believe in political reform they should make reform of the House of Lords a priority and bring us an elected second chamber as soon as possible, rather than rushing to cram the Lords with political allies.

Lost:The Unanswered Questions

This video sums up many of the questions I had after watching the series finale.  This being said, it was still one of the best series of the noughties.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Libservatives announce badger slaughter

Listening to Farming Today this morning I was saddened  to hear that the new government has decided to go ahead with a 'cull' of badgers to reduce TB in cattle.

This move is all about appeasing the National Union of Farmers and little to do with scientific evidence.  Hilary Benn was rightly not convinced by the arguments, and it is a shame our new government have decided to ignore the facts.

Find out more about the Save the Badger campaign at

Take Back Parliament Demo - York

Around 150 people attended the Take Back Parliament demo in York today, one of many events taking place across the country, call for a fairer voting system.  Among the speakers at the demo were, Hugh Bayley MP (Labour), Cllr Dave Taylor (Green), Cllr Christian Vassie (Lib Dem) and Dr Simon Parker from University of York Politics Department.  The Conservatives were conspicuous by their absence.

More photos are available on the Facebook group.

I am still personally not sure if STV is the best voting system.  Having such a voting system would mean having much larger constituencies, like we have with the European Parliament, to allow MPs from several parties to represent the same area.

What is clear is that the current system is ludicrously unfair and needs changing.  I currently feel that a system of AV Plus may be the best solution.  This will allow us to maintain a constituency MP and top up parliament with a second vote based on PR.

Have we been here before?

Meet our new minister for equalities

As well as becoming Home Secretary Teresa May has also been awarded the position of Minister for Women and Equality.  Presumably she was given this post as only one of two women in the cabinet, the other being Cheryl Gillan as Welsh secretary.  Every other member of the cabinet is a white male.

A quick look on the public whip site shows that Teresa May is no fan of gay rights, having either voted against or being absent when most gay rights legislation of the last government was tabled.

She voted against:

• Crime and Disorder Bill — Reduce age of consent for homosexual acts to 16 
• Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill 
• Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill — Reduction in age at which certain sexual acts are lawful 
• Local Government Bill [Lords] - Prohibition on promotion of homosexuality: bullying 
• Adoption and Children Bill (Programme) — Consideration and Third Reading 
• Adoption and Children Bill — [2nd Allotted Day] — Applications for adoption 
• Adoption and Children Bill — [3rd Allotted Day] — Clause 131 — General interpretation, etc. 
• Adoption and Children Bill — Suitability Of Adopters

I do not have the confidence in her to be a true champion of equality.  This is one post where the Libservatives could have gained a little more credibility by appointing a Lib Dem with a much better voting record than Ms May.

Here come the Libservatives

Will anyone trust the Lib Dems again?

So it's finally happened. After days of playing the Tories off against Labour, the Lib Dems have finally gone into coalition with the Tories.

During the election the Lib Dems continually brushed off suggestions that they would go into coalition. With such statements as:

My message to Mr Brown and Mr Cameron is simple: the Liberal Democrats are up for real change. We are not up for sale. - Nick Clegg, The Times - Jan 5th 2010

The Liberal Democrats would refuse to enter a coalition government with Labour or the Tories in the event of a hung parliament, it is being reported. - Sky News, Feb 15th 2010

I would have thought that most voters who voted Lib Dem will be horrified at the thought of a Lib Dem/Tory coalition. This move is likely to serisoully deplete their vote at the next election. I would also not be surprised if some of those on the left of the Lib Dems quit the party as they simply cannot stomach their party being in government with the Tories.

This is a sad day for those of us in favour of progressive politics.  Only 36.1% of those who voted, voted Conservative, yet they are now our government.  They have become our government by the decisions made by a party with only 23% of the vote and 57 seats in Parliament.

So, the campaign to get Cameron out of No.10 starts now.  Hopefully there will be an election within the next year, and we will have a chance to remove the Libservatives from power.

Why I have cancelled my membership of the Green Party

Today I have cancelled my membership of the Green Party. Many of you may be surprised by this announcement, especially after the success of electing our first Green MP.

Despite our success in Brighton, I do not feel confident about our future growth as a party. Our share of the vote actually fell in the election from 1.1% to 1.0%. This is lower than UKIP (on 3.1%) and BNP (on 1.9%). Out of the 300+ seats we stood in we only managed to save our deposit in 6 constituencies.

We did not fare any better in the local elections. Although we gained a few seats we ended up with a net loss of 4 seats.

Proportional representation may help the Green vote, but I don't hold out much hope of seeing it arrive in the near future. Even with PR, there is no saying that it will help increase our number of elected representatives. The last Euro Elections, carried out under PR resulted in no extra seats.

I do hope I am wrong in my predictions and wish the Green Party ever success in the future. However, after spending 8 years on the political sidelines first with the Socialist Alliance, then Respect and finally the Green Party, I feel the time has come to move on.

I will especially miss my involvement in Green Left. I greatly admire the activists in Green Left and if not for GL I may have moved on earlier.