And so the merry-go-round of coalition government continues. Just weeks after Vince Cable was unceremoniously shot down mid-flow over his advocacy of a graduate tax solution to the university funding supernova, another BIS minister, this time Tory, has said it is his “preferred option” (meaning ‘least unpalatable option’). Dave Willetts, Universities Minister, has now come out in support of his departmental colleague, endorsing exactly the same type of “milch cow” system that poor old Vince was chatting about; the cheek of it. The backlash is already growing, and although very much inkeeping with Liberal Democrat thought, graduate tax proposals go against much of the Tory mantra we have come to expect in the past few years. Toby Young thinks he’s bluffing, do you?
Funnily enough, just as Willetts showed his hand, the University and College Union published research suggesting that teachers, nurses and doctors would be hit hardest by any such tax, with GPs paying as much as £77,500 more for their degree. Now, is it just me or do these studies always focus on the teachers/nurses/firemen/heroes tax contributions first?
Just to warm your little hearts, here’s Vince giving you the lowdown on all this grad tax malarkey:
