LONDON: Hundreds of BBC employees are all set to receive pink slips, for the news broadcasting organisation is going to slash hundreds of online jobs as part of swingeing cuts which will halve the size of its website operations.
A number of popular gardening, cookery and lifestyle websites will be axed or dramatically scaled back in economy measures the corporation will announce Monday, Daily Mail reported Saturday. Earlier this year, the BBC's outgoing technology chief, Erik Huggers , had revealed that the corporation would have to lose at least half of its 400 websites by 2012. BBC Online's 126.7 million-pound annual budget and 1,600 staff will also be slashed by a quarter.
The cuts come following last year's strategy review and after years of concern from commercial rivals about the growing dominance of BBC Online and its 'creeping' into areas which have nothing to do with its core public service remit.
Among the websites to have closed already or expected to shut are Street Doctor, Key Skills, Film Festival, Strictly Dance Fever, Celebdaq, Sportdaq and The Last Millionaire. Instead of having costly individual websites for shows, they will now be grouped on a generic site. The BBC will also attempt to make itself friendlier to rivals by providing links to other media websites. "This will directly address the concerns of creep and also concerns that the BBC has become too big. It is about addressing the size and scale of the operation," said an insider.
The job losses risk further industrial action from unions following last year's 48-hour walkout over changes to BBC pensions. Earlier this week, Richard Deverell , chief operating officer of BBC North, suggested BBC One or Two could move to the corporation's new centre, Salford Quays, by 2015.
The move, which he insisted was 'no more than a guess', could mean hundreds of extra BBC jobs moving to Salford beyond the 2,300 already announced.
In 2009, it was revealed that the corporation paid its staff 17.5 million pounds in bonuses as Britain suffered its worst economic crisis for a generation. The payments to 9,777 of the BBC's near 21,000 staff also coincided with hundreds of job cuts and budgets being squeezed on many of its shows.
石油價格上升導致的通脹上漲無疑將對經濟復蘇帶來不利的影響。但到底影響有多大，各種預測不盡相同。比較權威的安永公司最新的預測結果是：如果國際油價上漲至每桶100美元並大致保持在這一水平，今年英國的消費物價將上漲1個百分點，而國內生產總值將相應下降0.1個百分點。具體來說，原先預測今年英國的消費物價大體從3%上升到4%以上，而G D P增速則從原先預測的2 .2%下降至2.1%。如果油價上漲至每桶120美元，情況就將更加糟糕。G D P將進一步下降至2%，物價指數也將繼續升高。2012年的情況也將如此。如果石油價格長期保持在每桶100美元的高價，英國的經濟增長速度將從目前預計的2.9%放慢到2.8%。
Taiwan Trade Centre, London 2011-01-18
英國經濟暨商業研究中心(The Center for Economics & Business Research，簡稱CEBR)預測，2011年經濟成長將為1.1％，較官方預期的2.1％低，經濟二次衰退的可能性由2010年10月的10％上升至目前的20％。
英國經濟暨社會研究機構(National Institute for Economic & Social Research，簡稱NIESR)預估，2010年最終經濟成長率為1.6％，也低於官方預期的1.8％，並預期必須等到2012年才能恢復到經濟衰退前的水準。
很 多間我過去沒聽聞的學校，原來是一些正式大學的「分支」。例如，倫敦商學院（London College of Business）的職員告訴我：「我們是附屬於威爾斯大學（University of Wales）的學校；來念我們學校，畢了業，就可以拿到威爾斯大學的畢業證書。……而且，念我們學校的MBA，只要一年4千鎊（約19萬新台幣），是念威 爾斯大學一半不到的價錢。」我驚訝地問：「你說畢業證書可以拿威爾斯大學的？會一模一樣嗎？」他說：「是的，完全一模一樣。最多會加註學習地點在威爾斯大 學的倫敦校區。」
類似的模式還不少，諸如：展場上的馬麗迪安商學院（Meridian Business School），宣傳唸完可以取得英國保登大學（University of Bolton）頒發的學位。唸大學部一年學費是3千9百鎊。而且，這些學校對國際生（非歐盟學生）和對本地歐盟學生收費都一樣，沒有常見的「3倍學費」差 距。
另外讓我印象深刻的是，展場上有一家從馬來西亞發展起來的「跨國私立大學」，叫做「林國 榮創意科技大學」（Limkokwing University of Creative Technoligy）。他們的職員告訴我，這間學校在馬來西亞是非常有名的好學校，在世界各大城市都有分部，共有3萬學生。如果來倫敦的分部念MBA， 一年的學費是7千鎊。如果再加1千5百鎊，還可以再拿一個英國格拉賽司特夏大學（University of Gloucestershire）的學位。「但上的課是一模一樣的，不會多。……也因此可以申請英國的畢業工作簽證（PSW）。」這間「跨國大學」還主推 了多種「雙聯學位」：兩年在馬來西亞念書，一年到英國、澳洲、或加拿大唸書，但可以拿到兩個學位。
英國老牌私校白金漢大學（The University of Buckingham）也來參展。他們打出「用兩年時間拿到別人得用三年的大學學位」廣告，強調它們特有「一年四學期制」的課程，可在兩年畢業，將可以省 下一年的時間和生活費。展場人員告訴我：「對國際生來說，足足可省下7千4百鎊。」儘管，兩年念下來學費加生活費依然要4萬3千6百鎊之多！
柴契爾的經濟主張受到右翼內閣部長 Keith Joseph 的影響，傾向自由市場的想法，另外也深受美國經濟學家 Milton Friedman 影響，他所提出的貨幣供應理論，也挑戰二次戰後所流行的經濟思潮。1981 年，柴契爾聘用了 Alan Walters 做為經濟顧問，繼續行貨幣政策。
到了 1985 年之後，Macmillan 對柴契爾的批評公開化，怒斥她的企業民營化策略，是「販賣家裡的白銀」。
文件也顯示，柴契爾不滿當時的英國央行總裁 Richardson，指他破壞政府全盤的經濟計畫，並指責他和財政大臣都未能做好控制貨幣供給的任務。
依據文件，柴契爾指責 2 人，並表示國際銀行界都清楚，英國的貨幣供給己經失控了。於是，再下個月，柴契爾就發表了那篇著名的國會演說「本夫人絕不回頭（The lady’s not for turning）」，強硬地說：「你們可以轉彎，但本夫人絕不會回頭！」
由這個角度看，是柴契爾的堅持讓英國走出一度混亂的局面，但也有人認為，如今英國的傳統產業環境惡化，與貧富不均的現象，也是柴契爾新保守主義的做法所帶來的結果。
Re-learning the true worth of an ancient Chinese invention.
“Absolutely zero value” is a sentence I came across three times recently. In two very different circumstances. It isn’t the actual utterances that were significant, it was the relationship between the two times and places in which the sentences were used. The first two times the sentence was used were about design. And that was in Asia. The third time was about paper money and that time it was in Europe about 400 years ago. Its ok I don’t have a time machine, I was reading a Kindle book – although I suppose that’s a kind of time machine too isn’t it?.
Although it is difficult to understand, it was a Financial Vice President in Linkou, south of Taipei who first said to me that design has zero value. I can quote him accurately because his words came rather as a shock. I won’t reveal which company it was except to say that they are rather clever at OEM consumer electronics and their buildings dominate most of Linkou. In an age where all the most successful companies who score above average in growth and profitably - irrespective of their location in the world – all use design strategically as one of their most potent value earners, it is curious to find this attitude from a financial official, of all people. The second “design has zero value” was in Shenzen where a CEO dismissed design totally offhand because he explained, “any design can be copied in 14 days in China.”
Before I answer that one, let me tell you about the Kindle book. As everyone who reads this article knows from school, paper money was invented in China. From the first “jiao zhi” notes of credit, there was regular use of paper money by the Song dynasty and it was widely used in the Yuan dynasty. It took Europe just a bit less that 1000 years to catch up on the innovation from the Orient. Flanders, now part of the Netherlands, was where it got off to a start as the Dutch merchants were then the most adventurous of the Europeans in their early globalization and foreign trade. A bank in Sweden was the next big European mover and that was in 1660. In what was to become USA, paper money had to wait until the 1700’s and the federal government of the United States did not print banknotes until as late as 1862. It is astounding to see these dates today.
What the Europeans had difficulty in understanding was that a very small piece of paper could carry so much value. Today we have to think carefully about that, because bank notes and plastic credit cards are so common. But in Europe 400 years ago people were used to having real gold and silver coins in their pouches. In fact the name of the British pound and the symbol for that currency is still related to a pound weight of sterling silver. A pound weight is about 450 g. The symbol is £ - libre – which is latin for a pound. But a simple piece of paper has zero value. How could it possibly be worth so much? And even if it is worth something, a piece of paper can be copied so easily. Doesn’t that begin to sound familiar?
What everyone knows today is that a bank note has great value because somewhere in the cellars of the imperial palace or the national bank, there is a store of real gold and silver that represents the true value of the currency. When you make a copy of a bank note it goes back to being worthless. Just a piece of paper. So too with design. Design is not just external styling. Design is the same carrier of value as a bank note because it carries the knowledge and the company values of the creator. It isn’t as abstract as it sounds. To design well you need to know who you are designing for, what the user actually needs. You need to put that together with the best appropriate technology and manufactured in an optimal way and then transported to a place within the buyer’s reach. As well as being functional, good design will give status, express lifestyle and a multitude of other immaterial – but substantial - values. In this day and age, product design is THE brand platform and it carries with it the history of the company who makes it, the company ethos and its origins. Look at a Jaguar car and you see the racings cars that won the Le Mans races in France in the 60’s. Buy a bottle of Chanel 5 perfume and you are also purchasing the genius of the French woman Coco Chanel who gave sartorial freedom to the women of the world through her fashions and in the early 1900’s
European companies know this to the extent that design and product branding on a global scale is dominated by European concepts. Having struggled to understand that weird invention of the Chinese – bank notes made of paper – the Europeans took to design as a natural extension of the concept of carriers of value. When South Korean giants like Sansung and LG started to move big time into the global scene, it was European design that put them there. Apple leapt to prominence when London designer Jonathan Ives joined the team. In Taiwan, HTC is quickly becoming a major global player – after they started using good design professionally and strategically. Design has no limits.
Here is a good exercise after you have read this article. Wander around the household departments of Mitsukoshi or the other big department stores in Taiwan and you will find that even kitchen utensils from Europe are thoroughly designed and branded. Check out Bodum or Eva Solo brands or Stelton and imagine the people who design and make these quite normal objects – cups, dishes, teapots. What are they trying to say to you? It’s a communication. It is active. Then try to guess how many dollars they put in the bank from each object. After that go to the local ironmonger and work out how many cheese cutters or salt and pepper pots the guy needs to sell to even get near the same income. Millions. And the difference is not magic. It is originality and good design from designers who are actually thinking about you as an individual as you wandered round the looking at the shelves. Believe me, because I know the designers personally. They are nice guys. And can your company do the something similar? To quote Barak Obama – Yes you can!!!
It seems to be a strange paradox that the Chinese, the actual inventors of the bank note, now finds it difficult to grasp the deeper understanding of the power of design. The best proof of the link between bank notes and good design is to look at the value of counterfeit notes – and copies. Counterfeit notes can fool people but their falsity is often quickly revealed and the notes become valueless – not worth the paper they are printed on. Literally. And the perpetrators are unceremoniously thrown into prison. False products often suffer the same fate. A falsified copy is seen as a criminal act, the goods confiscated and the villain bound for jail. For “inspired” copies and me-too products the sentences are not so severe except that the value of the product is nowhere near the value of the original. Me-too copies of an iPhone, usually at a visually lower quality, are almost treated like junk. Hardly worth the cost of putting the materials together. So why even bother to manufacture them when a modicom of original thinking can increase that value. Which brings me full circle. Even as an author I have in mind who you are, the reader. You are reading this at home, on the MRT or in the office. You are a probably a manager, an ambitious young person, a business student as well as being an experienced CEO. Certainly someone interested in management, otherwise you wouldn’t have parted with your money to buy this magazine. On the other hand you are sitting in the bank waiting your place in the queue. Still you must have some kind of interest in commerce or you would have chosen the attractive women’s magazine or that one over there about motorbikes. You have something to do with business. And I do believe that your career and your business will be more inspired and successful by considering that the values added by good design are similar and have a similar effect to the value of the banknotes in your wallet or purse. From that simple comprehension you can go far.
George Osborne speaking at the Conservative conference this year. Wikileaks cables said his high-pitched voice contributed to view that he lacked gravitas. Photograph: Dave Gadd/Allstar Picture Library
George Osborne lacked gravitas before the election and was seen as a political lightweight because of his "high-pitched vocal delivery", according to private Conservative polling relayed to US embassy diplomats.
In a candid account, senior party figures told the embassy that the future chancellor had been stopped from making an emergency statement at the height of the financial crisis in 2008 in light of his weaknesses.
The striking criticisms of Osborne are disclosed in an account of the 2008 Tory party conference by Richard LeBaron, deputy head of mission at the US embassy. A Cameron insider told US officials in a private meeting that it had been decided Cameron should deliver the speech "as private party polling indicated that the public feel Osborne lacks the necessary 'gravitas'. Somewhat unfairly, party officials thought, polling indicated that Osborne was seen as lightweight and inexperienced, in part due to his high-pitched vocal delivery."
The senior Tory said Gordon Brown's warning at the Labour conference that the financial crisis meant it was "no time for a novice" had struck home. "This party insider also revealed that Brown's charge that Cameron was a 'novice' at a time of crisis had gained significant traction with voters," the cable said. "Internal Tory spot polling had found, worryingly for the Conservatives, that contrary to the general consensus, if an election were held the next day, Gordon Brown would be re-elected, albeit with a vastly reduced Labour majority."
LeBaron said of Cameron's conference speech: "If Cameron's aim was to convince the public that he has serious policies and will bring changes, then he succeeded in the eyes of much of the press. Cameron may have faced criticism that his speech failed to lay out, in specifics, the party's plans for government but no doubt he is trying to avoid the fate of previous leaders who, having set out a detailed platform far in advance of any general election, later had their best ideas taken by the Labour government." SOURCE
WikiLeaks cables reveal that Mervyn King was worried about David Cameron and George Osborne's lack of economic depth. Photograph: Graeme Robertson The head of the Bank of England privately criticised David Cameron and George Osborne for their lack of experience, the lack of depth in their inner circle and their tendency to think about issues only in terms of their electoral impact, according to leaked US embassy cables. Mervyn King told the US ambassador, Louis Susman, he had held private meetings with the two Conservative politicians before the election to urge them to draw up a detailed plan to reduce the deficit.
He said the pair operated too much within a narrow circle and "had a tendency to think about issues only in terms of politics, and how they might affect Tory electorability". He also predicted that economic recovery would be "a long drawn-out process", since Britain had not been through an economic restructuring.
His apparent pressure on the Tories, a few months before the election, gives further credence to the claim that King was central in persuading leading coalition figures to back a far more dramatic deficit-reduction programme than any politician advocated during the election campaign. He has recently been criticised by members of the Bank's monetary policy committee for straying into politics.
The cables released today also disclose:
• Internal Tory polling found Osborne lacked gravitas with the public, partly due to his "high-pitched vocal delivery". As a result, Cameron, not Osborne, made the special address on the economic crisis to the party conference in the autumn of 2008.
• The defence secretary, Liam Fox, told the Americans that the Tories would be tougher on Pakistan because they were less reliant on votes from the Pakistani community than Labour.
• King believes Europe's sovereign debt crisis will accelerate political union. "Leaders in Germany and France have recognised that allowing monetary union to happen without corresponding political cohesion was a mistake and one that needed to be rectified," King told American diplomats.
• The Liberal Democrats' two top strategists, Polly Mackenzie and Chris Saunders, now both working in government, planned to run a fierce anti-Cameron election campaign, describing him as "out of touch with real life". The death of Cameron's son Ivan forced them to drop the plan since it "eliminated these vulnerabilities".
• Referring to Muslim extremists in Britain from Pakistan, Cameron told the Americans at a meeting in April 2009 that under Labour "we let in a lot of crazies and did not wake up early enough".
There is a broad expectation that the governor of the Bank of England will behave with political neutrality, and will not seek to interfere directly in macro-economic policy, the preserve of the Treasury and politicians. Yet the cables reveal he pressed Cameron for details of his deficit plan.
"King expressed great concern about Conservative leaders' lack of experience," Susman wrote in his classified dispatch to the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, after his 16 February meeting with the governor. "[He] opined that party leader David Cameron and shadow chancellor George Osborne have not fully grasped the pressures they will face from different groups when attempting to cut spending.
"In recent meetings with [Cameron and Osborne], he has pressed for details about how they plan to tackle the debt but received only generalities in return. Both Cameron and Osborne have a tendency to think about issues only in terms of politics and how they might affect Tory electorability.
"King also expressed concern about the Tory party's lack of depth. Cameron and Osborne have only a few advisers and seemed resistant to reaching out beyond their small inner circle."
In a section headed "Conservatives: not prepared", the ambassador said King had stated that "hundreds of government officials will make pleas of why their budgets should not be reduced".
A Bank spokeswoman responded tonight: "The governor has a very effective working relationship with the prime minister and the chancellor."
King's defenders would argue he was not seeking to press the Conservatives to follow a specific deficit path, but given the state of the markets it would be legitimate for him to ask them to put detailed plans in place. Arguably this scepticism over the ability of Osborne and Cameron to press ahead with a strong deficit reduction plan has proved unfounded since they have announced a programme far more ambitious than expected.
King told Susman he had fears the "Cameron/Osborne partnership was not unlike the Tony Blair/Gordon Brown team of New Labour's early years, when both worked well together when part of the opposition party, but fissures developed – for many reasons – once Labour was in power. Similar tensions could arise if Cameron and Osborne disagreed on how to handle the deficit, and the lack of depth in their inner circle would aggravate the situation."
The governor was gloomy about economic prospects, Susman reported. "It was hard to be optimistic about recovery in 2010," King argued, and noted "a double-dip recession was still a possibility".
It is known that King, in the wake of the coalition's formation, played a role in persuading the Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, that major steps were needed to prevent bond traders pulling the plug on the British economy after the collapse of confidence in other debt-ridden countries, such as Greece.
Accounts of the coalition negotiations have also revealed that Osborne, in his talks with the Lib Dems, said he had the support of King for his deficit programme. But it is the first time it has been revealed King pressed for a detailed plan.
The cables also reveal King was not the only source of disobliging remarks about the Tory leadership, according to Susman.
The rightwing Conservative MP for Sevenoaks and now Conservative deputy chairman, Michael Fallon, also confided his doubts to US diplomats.
His remarks were detailed in a cable sent in October 2008 titled: "Conservative party caught flat-footed by Brown's quick manoeuvres on financial crisis, says senior Tory MP".
It stated: "The Tories' response to the crisis has been regrettably tepid … The Conservative party felt the absence of a strong shadow chancellor and the party's counter-proposals to Labour's plans have been 'all over the place'. Fallon particularly criticised Osborne's op-ed piece in the October 28 Daily Telegraph as a 'weak', almost laughable, response to the economic crisis."
Mark Tokola, the embassy's economic minister at the time, concluded: "Fallon's comments to us reflected Conservative frustration – and some grudging admiration – for prime minister Brown's skill in seizing the high ground during the economic crisis. SOURCE
Scuffles erupt at Bristol University during today’s demonstrations. Photograph: Sam FrostThe third mass protests against the government's higher education plans took place today as thousands of students took to the streets despite the freezing weather.
Large demonstrations took place in Brighton, Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, Newcastle, Oxford and London. The Metropolitan police said 153 arrests had been made in the capital, 146 of which occurred after a group refused to leave Trafalgar Square at the end of the demonstration in London. Windows were smashed and missiles thrown at police, who charged at protesters with batons.
Students climbed on rooftops, stormed council buildings and stopped traffic in dozens of town centres, many saying they hoped the display of feeling would reverberate in Westminster.
Earlier there had been chaotic scenes in the capital when 4,000 students marching toward parliament tried to evade what they believed were attempts by police to "kettle" them in the bleak weather.
The demonstrators responded by dispersing across the city in separate marches, leading police in cat-and-mouse chases. One "feeder" march headed into the City, while others meandered past bemused onlookers at Oxford Circus and Hyde Park Corner, and near Buckingham Palace, stopping traffic en route.
"This is one of the most bizarre demonstrations I have been on," said Michael Chessum, 21, as he jogged up Regent Street with a group of riot police in tow. "It has been a shambolic policing operation because we agreed with them beforehand that we would march along Whitehall – but the spirit and determination of the students to get their point across has been pretty impressive."
The Met denied it had intended to kettle protesters, despite evidence of metal barriers and rows of officers waiting along Whitehall. It blamed the confusion on protesters, who, the force said, had begun their march earlier than agreed. "We made sure we had a flexible plan and sufficient resources to enable people to come back to Trafalgar Square where the protest was due to be held," said Chief Inspector Jane Connors. "That is what we did, moving around London, encouraging people to come back and meet together. We wanted to minimise disruption."
The mood was more harmonious elsewhere, although in Brighton about 600 protesters marched through the city before trying to force their way into Hove town hall. About 100 people managed to scale the roof of a car park and threw missiles, said police, but there were no arrests. Students also scaled a roof in Liverpool, where there were two arrests. In Newcastle, students occupying a university building marched through the city centre in a peaceful event. Northumbria police said in a statement they had "nothing but praise" for the campaigners. "There were no arrests and no reports of any trouble of any kind," the force said.
Ten people were arrested in Bristol when about 1,000 protesters from both universities lit flares and pelted police with mustard. The M32 was closed when it seemed that the march might go towards the motorway.
In Birmingham, about 40 protesters broke into a council hall building, prompting a standoff with security and police. There were similar scenes in Leeds, where about 40 students occupied a university building, and in Oxford, where students invaded the county council offices.
Video footage showed protesters entering the Oxford building and walking through corridors before being ejected by police. The Conservative leader of the local authority, Keith Mitchell, said on Twitter: "County Hall invaded by an ugly, badly dressed student rabble. God help us if this is our future."
Greater Manchester police said there were five arrests in the city, but that only a "loose cordon" of officers was placed around hundreds of demonstrators who had gathered in the city centre.
About 400 students also walked peacefully through Cambridge, and, in Edinburgh, 300 protesters marched along the Royal Mile in the city and gathered at a rally outside the Scottish parliament. There was also an impromptu sit-in at Queens University, Belfast, and at the Trent building on Nottingham University's campus.
The scale and reach of this month's student protests have shocked the authorities, who fear that mobilisation against cuts could spread. Riot police were called to Lewisham town hall on Monday night when 100 protesters in the London borough tried to force their way into a meeting where councillors were voting to cut the budget by £60m. Police said arrests were made and several officers received minor injuries. The same protest groups are expected to focus on a council meeting in Camden, north London, tomorrow.
Many of the protests were organised by students occupying up to 32 university buildings across Britain. They have largely been independent of the National Union of Students. Threatened with a no-confidence vote, the NUS president, Aaron Porter, recently apologised for the union's "spineless" caution toward student activism and promised more support. SOURCE
Students run through central Bristol. Photograph: Sam Frost for the Guardian
We gather at Trafalgar Square at 12 and run. The protesters say they do not want to be kettled like last week in Whitehall. And so the students, a block of teenagers with a sound system that plays the Imperial March from Star Wars, run under Admiralty Arch and into the Mall, then past the Treasury and into Parliament Square.
Whenever we see a block of police in neon jackets we run, or are chased away, sometimes down boulevards that are closed and empty, and sometimes through traffic-choked alleys. Tourists take photos. The odd white van toots at this mass of running students. An old man shouts: "Go back to bed!"
I do not know who is leading us, but we don't stop running. The march is fracturing – people are going up different streets and getting lost. Texts come through from the front, giving information. There may be a demonstration at Topshop, or maybe at Liberal Democrat HQ on Cowley Street. But no – we just run down Piccadilly Circus and into Regent Street, then Oxford Street. "I don't feel like a protester," says a music student. "I feel like a tourist."The students dance across Aldwych, singing It Must Be Love, by Madness, before breaking again into a run down to the Embankment. It feels like kiss chase – or, when I see a policeman punch a boy out of the way, entirely without provocation, punch chase. "I'm going," says one girl. "I have a seminar."
Soon, we are back in Trafalgar Square. We have played protest Monopoly for two hours and now we have stopped. The banners – Don't Put the Kettle On, Mr Cameron and I Can't Believe It's Not Thatcher – are lowered, and the leaders climb on the plinth below Nelson's column and speak, asking the students to come back next week. If we have been running from – or to – a fight all day, we get it now. A group of boys charge a police line and fall over. A smoke bomb is thrown, then a can of beer. The police move forward to kettle the students. And above us, on the steps of the National Gallery, tourists look confused at this vision of Britain 2010, angry and fighting in the snow. SOURCE
Vince Cable: 'We have got to vote as a group, collectively, and we are discussing how we do that.' Photograph: Alexander Natruskin/Reuters
Vince Cable said today he could be persuaded not to vote in favour of his own plan to increase university tuition fees if it would help unite the Liberal Democrats.
The party's former deputy leader, now business secretary in the coalition government with the Conservatives, made the pledge as the Lib Dem high command struggles to find a common voice in the parliamentary vote on the fee rise, which is expected before the Christmas recess.
Cable's successor as deputy leader, Simon Hughes, has been pressing for the party to abstain. Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister and party leader, today refused to say how he will vote.
Labour kept up the pressure on the Lib Dems today. The party used an opposition day debate to call on the government to publish more information on its proposals and to advertise Labour's view that the rise is being used to plug gaps left by cuts in government spending. Labour wants the white paper on higher education to be published before the house is asked to vote on it.
Cable said: "If we all abstain, then that is the position I am happy to go along with. There is an option that we all abstain together and we are considering that.
"My own personal instinct – partly because I am the secretary of state responsible for universities and partly because I think the policy is right – is very much to vote for it. But we have got to vote as a group, collectively, and we are discussing how we do that.
"My position is somewhat different, but I am willing to go along with my colleagues. We are a disciplined party: we work together. We are clearly going through a difficult period over this issue and we want to support each other."
Lib Dem MPs have been wrestling with a pre-election promise not to support an increase but now find themselves presiding over a near-trebling of fees. The coalition agreement allows them to abstain, but many feel they must be true to their promise and vote against it.
A petition signed by 104 former Lib Dem parliamentary candidates called on Cable, Clegg and their fellow MPs to abide by the pre-election pledge to avert "many more years back in the political wilderness".
Yesterday the Welsh assembly announced Welsh students would not have to pay the increase in fees regardless of where in the UK they go to university. Setting out its response to Cable's proposals, Welsh education minister Leighton Andrews said that universities could charge the £6,000 to £9,000 range being charged by English universities.
"The increase in fees for Welsh-domiciled students, whether they study in England or Wales or Scotland or Northern Ireland, will be paid by the Welsh Assembly government," said Andrews. "They will not have to find either £6,000 or £9,000 to study. The public purse will continue to subsidise them."
The Tories published research suggesting that students paying a graduate tax like that proposed by the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, would end up paying back more money than under the scheme proposed by the government. Analysis by new Tory MP Chris Skidmore suggests the poorest graduates could end up paying back £5,000 more during their working lives. SOURCE
