The Government need to think really carefully about intergenerational inequality and the social contract between young people and the state.
I was impressed with Emma Reynolds MP – (my MP’s) contribution in the debate in the House of Commons January 19th 2016, when she supported the Labour Party Resolution opposing the replacing of Student maintenance grants with loans for lower income students.
By all accounts the speech she gave was powerful and very much to the point. I particularly liked this portion of her speech and I have taken the extract direct from Hansard. I feel that there will be families in Wednesfield that will be pleased that Emma made these important comments.
Well done Emma, there will be plenty of parents and friends, students in Wolverhampton, and across the West Midlands that will be very appreciative of your support for Student Maintenance Grants. Here is a portion of the speech that Emma gave –
Emma Reynolds: “We had that debate in the previous
Parliament and in Parliaments before that. We are
talking about the very, very poorest students. Their
parents do not have a penny to give to them in support
and they will graduate with a huge level of debt.
I say this again to the Government: since the election
of the Tory majority Government and the previous
coalition Government, the younger generation have
been hit with the removal of the education maintenance
allowance, the trebling of tuition fees and now, for the
poorest students, the removal of grants. The Government
need to think really carefully about intergenerational
inequality and the social contract between young
people and the state. If the state no longer supports the
aspirations and opportunities of the poorest students,
the social contract will break down and we will all be
poorer for it.”
