Gav's View

I am surprised because the Snats are for an independent Scotland as a fully functioning member of the EU and it was EU regulations that meant the rest of Britain had to be charged fees and could not be distinguishaed favourably from any other student coming from elsewhere in the EU. An early draft did indeed “exempt” UK students from fees, but it was ruled that whilst they could pay the fees of people from Scotland whose university costs were funded by the Scottish Office/Scottish Executive anyway previously they could not have different scales of fees for any other EU (including the rest of the UK) students.

So I have a feeling that in order to do what they want to do they would have to exempt all EU students from fees (which may be a good investment in Scottish educational tourism of course).

It strikes me that to pay the tuition fees of Scottish students is to treat Scottish EU citizens differently to English, Welsh or Greek EU citizens…

What do you mean funded through Scottish Office/Scottish Executive? where do they get their money from?

We British are all putting the money into the same pot but it is divided up differently depending on where we’re from. Its nuts. We should either live by the same rules and laws or split up, one or the other.

Dave, your common sense is beyond our legislators!

At present, all EU students are exempt from tuition fees, with the exception of non-Scottish UK students.

The abolition of tuition fees in Scotland was a non-negotiable condition for the Liberal Democrats to go into coalition with Labour. At the time (1999) abolition was favoured by every party in Scotland except Labour.

Tuition fees still exist in the rest of the UK because the undemocratic first-past-the-post system allows Labour to govern with an absolute majority despite receiving a minority of votes.

It’s a shame, Bernie, that like the Conservatives, the LibDems are unable to see that a Scottish Parliament (with the power to make that decision) in the absence of an English Parliament is the cause, not the electoral system which, I agree, does benefit Labour (they’d still have won more seats than any other single party in the UK election on PR).

I don’t think it’s the absence of an English Parliament so much as the absence, so far, of any popular claim to establish an English Parliament. I don’t have any objection to the idea myself. See here for one possible solution.