We must continue this shift to the right

It is quite often showing when a Labour Prime Minister is clutching at straws for support over a policy which has the potential to become controversial. Particularly when that Prime Minister’s policy has all the makings of a left-wing masterpiece, yet he launches it by publishing an article in (of all places) a right-wing newspaper!

You heard me correctly, folks, our withering Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Tony Blair MP, sunk so low today as to appear under Boris Johnson’s weekly article in the Daily Telegraph, trying, and in my mind failing, to persuade the right-wing faithful that his national scheme to encourage the idea that a “culture of giving” is a vital part of Labour’s changes to higher education. Suffice to say I’m not buying it – mostly!

The Prime Minister is launching what he calls “the first national scheme to encourage a “culture of giving” to universities from businesses, former students and philanthropists”. It is, Mr. Blair says, “a vital part of [Labour's] changes to higher education to ensure universities remain world-class and competitive” because, it seems, the £10 billion currently being provided by the British taxpayer is not enough.

I am both impressed and dismayed by Mr. Blair’s response to the need for increased funding, in which he said “we intend to provide £200 million over three years to stimulate universities to raise at least £400 million more for new facilities, new staffing, new bursaries for students or new research capacity.”

On the on hand I am impressed, because for once the Labour leadership has waved off an ideal opportunity to fleece the British public out of more of their hard-earned money. However, on the other hand, I am dismayed and disheartened by something which, as far as I can tell, rational thinking has majorly overlooked: if Mr. Blair genuinely cared about the state of our universities, he would have pledged the full £600 million plus from the Government!

I am, though, in full support of the foundations that Mr. Blair’s scheme was built on: people, in particular universities and businesses, need to be self-sufficient. I strongly believe that State funding is fast-tracking to the reduction of effort on the part of organisations that, in many cases, provide valuable and necessary services to their local communities. Healthcare and education (to the age of 16) should be free, but the best support the State can offer other organisations (and Political Parties) is the encouragement, particularly to organisations (as Mr. Blair put it) “with no tradition of fundraising”, to help themselves through fund-raising and sponsorships.

For these reasons my personal opinion is that it is grossly unfair to aim the scheme at former students, particularly those who are still paying for their own University education. The ordinary taxpayer already gives enough money to the Government, money which is all too often squandered by infamous mismanagement and ever-increasing MP’s pay packets.

At last the Labour Government has set in motion a shift to the right economically, and by making our institutions and organisations less reliant on State funding, we can make them better equipped to face the Big Bad World.