What did it mean to be a Lib Dem in 2010?

2010 was a fraught year for members of the Liberal Democrat party. On the eve of  last December’s tuition fee vote, I spoke to UCLan graduate and Lib Dem Preston City councillor John Potter about his politics, activism, the trials and tribulations of the past year, and what this means for the party. How long [...]

Read Full Post »

Students! Don’t lose your head in all the protest hype

More protests and demonstrations are planned for later this month, which is great. You may be involved in the planning of something along those lines. Perhaps you’ve even seen this facebook event, that recommends students to ‘walk out of  your school, college or university’ in protest to education cuts. Earlier this week, about 40 Manchester [...]

Read Full Post »

So- what exactly happened at #Demo2010?

I couldn’t tell you what happened at Millbank yesterday- I wasn’t there. I and other UCLan students were due to catch our coach back to Preston at 3.30pm- in fact, many students had been coached down to London as part of their student unions. None of us had time to hang around in London burning things. But [...]

Read Full Post »

Diary of a disadvantaged student: starting below zero

Recently, much has been made of disadvantaged students in the press. I’m not ashamed to say I’m one of them- currently, I receive the maximum maintence loan and grant payments from the student loans company. I received £60 combined from each parent on the very first day of uni, and made my own way from there. I’m [...]

Read Full Post »

The thorny issue of positive discrimination

At the recent Liberal Democrat conference, the thorny issue of positive discrimination reared its divisive head. The majority of party members voted against using positive discrimination when short listing MP candidates. The reasoning behind the decision was clear- positive discrimination is still discrimination, and discrimination is wrong. Unfortunately, the reality of the issue isn’t that [...]

Read Full Post »

Hands up if you feel betrayed!

In light of our new Conservative universities minister, Mr David Willets, branding university students ‘a burden on the taxpayer’, it was only a matter of time before the tuition fees debate reared its ugly head again. As soon as the Conservatives chose to form an alliance with the Liberal Democrats rather than forming a minority [...]

Read Full Post »