Studious opposition

Tuition fees are on the rise, as predicted preceding Thursday's vote. There are three key results of this action:

First of all, and they cannot be ignored, are the riots. As controversial as they were dramatic these overshadowed much of the press following the vote. Students showed that they had a protest voice, however the impact of this voice has not been felt yet.

Second it was the first truly divisive issue the coalition faced, losing much of it's majority within the vote. Liberal democrat's (largely those not in office) showed that if the issue was ideologically viable they would stand against the political agreement their party leaders made when they formed the coalition government.

However, the largest impact felt will be that on future students. Currently maintenance loans are barely enough to live on and so parents often have to top this up out of their own pockets. This comes as an unexpected expense to many lower middle class parents who can rarely afford to provide this extra money.

As the upper income level for grants decreases, an inevitable fact when costs are being saved and the price has risen, it is the richer level of the 'poor' that will be unable to afford higher education.

Therefore, although the actual cost of education will not rise until after graduation, the ability of a far higher number to gain a higher education at all will be impeded. It is that which is a tragedy.

Snowed under

This is, in a way, a rather trivial post but then again it's not. When snow falls in the UK we seem to inevitably come to a standstill. That's fine; but when the snow starts to stick, as it is right now, people start to complain. That's fine too; it causes enormous disruptions and we never seem really very prepared.
However, there has been much speculation this week on whether we could be more prepared. There are key issues with this. Even though the snow right now feels (and has been described as) rather Scandinavian, unlike Scandinavian countries we cannot know when snow will hit, for how long and where. So gritting the roads constantly from November until late March would definitely not be cost effective.

We also have the issue of how much government intervention we actually want in natural emergencies. By this I don't mean that they should leave us to it. I admire Philip Hammond for demanding an enquiry as to why we aren't prepared in the reserve for unusually long freezes. However, do you really want a Westminster agency, along the lines of FEMA in the US, to be in control of recovery in your area? What I mean here is that councils are much more aware of the local situation and can assess needs minute by minute. The gritting on main roads in the east, for example, has been particularly effective this year.

It seems that unless we become truly Scandinavian there isn't much of a choice. As long as the gritters are ready to go, which they have been following last year's disastrously poor showing, then the council can't much help that visibility is poor and schools feel entitled to close. For now let's wrap up and hold tight.