Student finance
Growth in student rents slows
The average cost of halls of residence has risen faster than the cost of flatsharing over the last year
By Alex Johnson | Property | Tuesday, 18 September 2012 at 1:45 pm
Tories gain in post-riot poll
Support for the Conservatives has strengthened to its highest level since October, according to our ComRes poll in The Independent on Sunday tomorrow, shared with the Sunday Mirror. The rioting and looting of a fortnight ago appears to have reinforced support for the traditional party of law and order.
Voting intention:
Con 38% (+2)
Lab [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Saturday, 20 August 2011 at 7:29 pm
Willetts and the Future of Conservatism
I have just been to see David Willetts, the universities minister, deliver a lecture at the Mile End Group at Queen Mary. Which was strange after the flapdoodle all day over his musings about selling extra university places — “on a needs-blind basis” — to the highest bidder.
There was even a protest, consisting of about 12 young [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Tuesday, 10 May 2011 at 10:04 pm
“The Most Annoying Person in Modern Politics”
David Cameron’s loss of temper with Ed Balls, who was barracking him at Prime Minister’s Questions, instantly turned an unmemorable session into one that will enter the folklore.
On the substance of the clash between the principals, I thought Ed Miliband got the better of the Prime Minister on tuition fees, but lost on police numbers. [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Wednesday, 30 March 2011 at 1:51 pm
The Surrey Factor
Just in case George Osborne does it in his Budget next week, I’ll say it here so that I can say I said it. (If he doesn’t, no one will remember.) The news that Surrey University has decided that it, too, is “exceptional” and will therefore charge the maximum £9,000-a-year tuition fee, has made me [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Friday, 18 March 2011 at 3:03 pm
Nick Clegg, heir to Blair
It is not only Cameronian Conservatives who read Tony Blair’s book looking for lessons for government. A Liberal Democrat close to Nick Clegg told me they had just read the bit (pages 482-490) about the tuition fees vote of 2004 – which Blair won with a majority of five and which consumed the entire Downing [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Sunday, 6 February 2011 at 4:06 pm
How the Baby Boomers Stole Their Children’s Future
I have an article in The Independent on Sunday in which I observe that David Willetts, who started the year as author of The Pinch, a polemic subtitled How the Baby Boomers Stole Their Children’s Future, ended it as universities minister, engaged in stealing our children’s future and requiring them to pay for it at 9 [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Sunday, 2 January 2011 at 2:35 pm
Left hand: Make work pay; Right hand: Not
Chris Grayling, Employment minister (right), said it again yesterday:
We are reforming the welfare system to ensure that work always pays.
Perhaps someone could ask him how that principle is compatible with Nick Clegg’s wizard scheme to pay tuition fees, worth up to £18,000, to students from workless households who have been on free school meals.
Update: Apologies for [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Saturday, 1 January 2011 at 4:28 pm
Lib Dems of principle
In my column for The Independent on Sunday today I say that the only Liberal Democrat MPs entitled to hold their heads high (ish) are Charles Kennedy (right), John Leech* and “the third man”.
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Sunday, 12 December 2010 at 10:12 pm
Do university tuition fees deter the poorest?
Might be a good moment to remind readers of number 200-something in my series of Questions to Which the Answer is No, which was asked by Stephen Tall at Liberal Democrat Voice more than a year ago.
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Wednesday, 8 December 2010 at 3:52 pm
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