It was a given that all would be looking to George Osborne as he strolled along Downing Street ahead of the Budget announcement last week, carrying the ever-important, somewhat worn out, infamous red briefcase. Ultimately that which followed was essentially a planned ambush upon the British people, with the aim directed and target fixed firmly on our already vulnerable students. As Osborne unravelled where the £12 billion worth of cuts will fall over the next five years under the majority Conservative Government, it became clear who would bare the brunt of the cuts in a so-called ‘plan for the working class’.
Osborne’s Summer Budget outlined that starting from 2016 the maintenance grant will be replaced by a loan, which is to be paid back once a person earns £21,000 a year, along with the already existing loan and tuition fee. In effect, damning those who work to further their education by going to university, to potentially over £50,000 worth of debt by the time they turn 21. A measure which is simply unnecessary, a measure highlighting the priorities of the Conservative Government, a government that has ruled out implementing the Mansion Tax but will jump at the opportunity to further charge students.
As a second year student myself who juggles with the day to day life of student finances I can confidentially say that this measure will have huge implications, implications that will not be felt immediately but in the future, as students leave and are required to pay such loans back – a fact that I am sure the current government are smugly aware of.
After last week I can thankfully say that I have escaped with merely minor bruises and scratches in an ongoing battle of student finance, dictated by the figure occupying number 10 at the time; others I’m afraid will not be so fortunate. In addition to the replacement of the maintenance grant, it was also revealed that the price of tuition fees is likely to rise alongside inflation, coming into effect in 2018.
Measures such as these will only further divide the rich from the poor in a society already polarized, especially now following the General Election. Many will be placed at a disadvantage simply because they will not be able to repay the loan or simply because they are not able to ask ‘mommy’, over a cold crisp glass of the finest Moët & Chandon for the money.
The Budget unsurprisingly advocates inequality, where, if Osborne and his Eton upper class fellow men have their way, the rich will succeed whilst those less fortunate are left hanging. Although, this will not be the first or last time that student are left hanging by the Tories; they already managed to triple tuition fees from £3,000 to £9,000, taking effect in 2012 under the last, let’s say, heavily influenced Coalition Government.
Ultimately, Osborne’s Budget highlighted the extent to which the Conservative Party truly is out of touch with the British people and British society, in particular our country’s students. This is a government that in no way whatsoever connects or identifies with the young or the next generation. An economic plan set to place extra burdens on our students and the young , almost implying that we as students do not pay enough, which I am sure that when asked, any active member of society with actual experience of the real world would argue is far from the truth.
The Budget for me and hopefully for others, only supports and intensifies the recent and refreshing view that political change is an essential necessity. A view that I can only hope, upon reading the Budget and seeing the extensive impact it will have on those less fortunate, including students, will continue to flourish.
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