This blog is mystified by the announcement that Labour is going to reduce tuition fees to students then pay for it by raising taxes on pensions. The two are not connected. Moreover money raised in taxes goes straight into Treasury coffers and can easily be grabbed for any number of alternatives.
In principle students do not like the idea of having to take on a debt, although many will probably never have to pay it back. But the policy has provided a proper income stream for universities and the quality of the courses on offer has improved. More students than at any time in the past are going to university and the numbers from poorer backgrounds is going up. So everything is working well for the first time in decades. Why screw it up?
The answer is it cannot be right to set young people up in debt even before they start to earn in a country over burdened by debt in every direction and by every measure. But to put that right all you need to do is change the student loan to a grant and introduce a graduate tax on higher earners to recover the costs. The policy would be cost neutral both to the public purse and to the students, universities would continue to be funded properly and the shadow of debt at the start of life would be lifted.
The Labour plan was attacked not only by their opponents but also by a host of neutral columnists and commentators when it was announced in a great fanfare yesterday. Then it turned out that the only ones who will actually benefit financially (rather than emotionally) are the better off graduates who become lawyers and bankers. But they were never going to vote Labour anyway.
At present this does not look like a vote winner. Milliband and co must hope it is not a vote loser. It just might be.