LibDem former director of policy Richard Grayson said "most Lib Dem members have more in common with their counterparts in the Labour party and the Greens than with their own leadership."
Grayson, who was director of policy between 1999 and 2004, and until October a vice-chairman on the party's federal policy committee, says the divisive issue of tuition fees should make ordinary Lib Dems "sit up and think".
Grayson, a history professor at Goldsmiths, University of London, adds: "Most of the party defines itself as being 'centre-left', so how did the party end up so badly split on an issue which has previously united it? This split stems not just from a different approach to fees, but from a wider division between centre-left and centre-right liberals. Those on the right generally favour privatised and marketised policies. On the left, we really do take the view that 'we are all in it together'."
A poll in the Sunday Telegraph suggested that just 54% of those who voted Lib Dem in May planned to back the party at the next general election!
Richard Grayson is professor of 20th-century history at Goldsmiths, University of London and a former director of policy for the Liberal Democrats
1 year ago
3 comments:
But how much do they have in common with the Labour leadership, who appear to be more right wing than Thatcher, and of course were the ones who introduced tuition fees in the first place?
Good point. For me the big three parties are far too similar.
They all want cuts, their timing is slightly different is all. They all want student fees, and trident, nuclear power, low taxes for the rich.
I agree. You couldn't fit a cigarette paper between them as Nigel Farage once said.
Then you go and spoil it by saying "they all want cuts". No they don't they all want a big state. It is just that it finally dawned on them that government debt (i.e. our debt) was getting too high and the markets were getting jittery. They have marginally slowed down the rate of increase in spending in some departments and called them "drastic cuts" just to pacify the markets.
Have you ever thought about who the wealth creators in this country are? Are they the benefit scroungers? student rioters? illegal immigrants? No they are the rich who have money to risk on enterprise. The more you tax them the less they have to invest, unless they leave the country and invest elsewhere. A course many are now reluctantly taking.
I don't think University students should have to pay fees or be subject to a graduate tax. What I do think is that far too many youngsters with dumbed down A levels expect to go to university to do mickey mouse degrees. Just how many media study and psychology graduates does this country need for goodness sake? A far better solution would have been to reduce the unrealistic expectations of students so that only about 20% get to go to Uni instead of the 50% odd that currently go.
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