Link to this page: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/608/8724
From The Socialist newspaper, 19 January 2010
LibDems show their true colours
As part of their 'progressive cuts' agenda, the Liberal Democrats have now backed down from their pledge of abolishing tuition fees. LibDem leader Nick Clegg now claims: "the world has changed" and that "money does not grow on trees".
But the Liberal Democrats have calculated that abolishing tuition fees would cost an 'unaffordable' £3.5 billion, and they backed the bailing out of the banks which cost over £800 billion, showing where their principles really lie.
The LibDems in the past have tried to win over the student vote by putting on a 'radical' front. Sadly this has caused some students to come to the false conclusion that the LibDems are an alternative to New Labour and the Tories. Even though they have never been elected to power, the LibDems have proved many times that they are in the same league as the rich and powerful.
Where they have been elected to council positions they have voted through cuts and privatisation of public services, such as the Tyne and Wear Metro system which is used by many students every day.
The LibDems are perhaps positioning themselves even further to the right in an attempt to show themselves as reliable coalition partners in a Tory-led government, which will inevitably cut our public services. However, no matter which combination of the main parties we get in government, it will only represent the bankers and the rich, making sure they don't suffer for the crisis they caused. Instead it will be ordinary workers and students who suffer.
The cuts, which all three main parties put forward, will put many more working class students off going to university. Unlike the LibDems, the Campaign to Defeat Fees and Youth Fight for Jobs fight for a free, publicly owned education system with living grants for all. The only way we will defeat tuition fees once and for all is by building a mass campaign involving students and linking up with workers in struggle and the trade union movement.
Paul Phillips Youth Fight for Jobs student organiser
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In The Socialist 19 January 2010:
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Socialist Party editorial
Haiti - disaster compounded by capitalism
Socialist Party news and analysis
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Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition gets started
Support grows for new Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition
Donate to help build a socialist alternative
Youth fight for jobs
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Socialist Party workplace news
Civil service compensation scheme: A fight for jobs and services
South Yorkshire firefighters forced to strike again
Virgin Trains ticket office workers walk out
International socialist news and analysis
Obama and the Democrats in power
Sri Lankan government condemned
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LibDems show their true colours
Socialist Party national committee
Education
Education trusts are "academies lite"
Stop the cuts in higher education
Unison witchhunt
Angry reaction to Unison witch-hunt
Socialist Party review
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