The post you are reporting:
Yes indeed it started off with a little bit of jovial banter about his forthcoming wedding....and all lighthearted , but it didnt stay that way for long.
Two burning issues of the moment were featured.
Tuition Fees...oh gawd not that again I hear you shriek
and
Frontline Policing.
I think its almost certain now that frontline police numbers are being cut. I think we all basically recognise it and accept it. Nick Herbert, government minister, was on R4 this morning squirming heroicly or painfully depending on your point of view, under questioning from Justin Webb, and he could not say yay or nay, but prevaricated with lots of figure juggling and semantics.
This policing issue came up under PMQ as you would expect, but again the Prime Minister just as his minister did earlier in the day, could not or did not accept it. Its all juggling isnt it, but the Police themselves have said its a cut to frontline policing and thats it. The rest is wriggling and a failure to admit it.
The other one, Tuition Fees..and I know we are all exhausted on this one. I exhausted myself on this one before. How will I explain it. Well the max a university is allowed to charge students under this new regime, according to Gove again, he of the 'out ot lunch' demeanour..is £9000 with the proviso that they will have to fulfill allsorts of heavy grade and tough criteria. The base line for universities to charge is £6000.
And what have 80-90% of them opted to charge because they all fullfil the 'very tough' criteria...
YES you've guessed it
the full monty of £9000...and why wouldnt they? Its almost like the full ministerial team never had a job in the real world. Tell businesses that they can charge max for a sandwich of £4..then expect them all to charge £2 is not showing much nouse. Of course they are all going to charge £4.
If the tuition fees go to this level at almost all universities and its beginning to look that way then its going to cost the Treasury more money rather than save them money.