Nick Clegg says "Scotland right to have no tuition fees"

[dutchman]

Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, yesterday insisted it was “quite right” to keep free university tuition for Scottish students while their English peers will be forced to pay up to £9,000 per year.



The Liberal Democrat leader said he was firm believer in the benefits of devolution and it was a natural consequence of this that different policies apply in the UK’s four home nations.

He said his party’s promise to keep tuition fees free for Scottish students north of the Border represented a “Scottish solution” to the problem of university funding.

But his comments risk antagonising English students and their parents, many of whom face paying £27,000 in fees for a three-year degree under a new charging regime being introduced next year.

Mr Clegg made the comments on a campaign visit in Edinburgh ahead of next week’s Holyrood election, during which he was repeatedly forced to deny he was a liability to his Scottish party.

Opinion polls suggest the Lib Dems will lose half their 16 Scottish Parliament seats in a backlash against the party’s decision to enter government with the Tories and implement spending cuts.

One of his most unpopular decisions has been to backtrack on a general election promise not increase tuition fees in England, with two-thirds of universities south of the Border announcing plans to charge the maximum £9,000 per year.

In contrast, the Scottish Lib Dems are promising to keep higher education free in Scotland for Scottish students, while increasing fees for those undergraduates from the rest of the UK.

Challenged if this was fair, Mr Clegg said: “There’s no point in having devolution if you don’t have devolved and different policy outcomes and that’s precisely what we have in higher education.

“You either believe in the Scottish nation, as I do, and that you have Scottish solutions to Scottish issues or you don’t.

“We believe that it is quite right, as longstanding supporters of proper devolution and indeed further devolution, that you have different solutions in different parts of the country.”

[rebbonk]

Clegg really worries me. He seems totally out of touch with reality.

[dutchman]

It's not entirely their 'own' spending though is it as most of the devolved assemblies' money comes from the English taxpayer. If the assemblies of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland had to raise their own finance I doubt if they could be nearly so generous.

[dutchman]

The only way the Union can be held together is with ever increasing electoral bribes from the English taxpayer. The nationalists know it and will milk it for every penny they can.

It's still highly hypocritical of Clegg to support free tuition for Scottich students while denying the same privilege to students in England.