Questions Raised About the Browne Report

The Browne Report, the framework responsible for the new tuition legislation being rushed through Parliament, has been brought into question.

Read it in full.

The main claim is that most of the research money was spent on one opinion poll. The comments on the article seem to describe the situation brilliantly.

Of course, not all of the Browne Report is being implemented. Universities can charge up to triple the current rate rather than unlimited (oh thank you, kind Government!). However, it is pretty obvious this has not been thought through, both by those involved in the creation of the report and by the MPs who decided to vote ‘yes’.

Abstain

You can read the full debate online. The results from the first House of Commons Vote on these proposals are as follows:

Yes: 323 No: 302

The results show that 6 Conservative MPs and 21 Liberal Democrat MPs rebelled, whilst 2 Conservatives and 8 Lib Dems abstained. This resulted in a cut of the government’s majority to 21, although it is hardly going to stay at that level.

Given the situation – how unpopular this, how biased the report is, the cries for more evidence – the option to abstain is not a get-out-of-jail card for any MP who tries to pull that trick. When you’re not sure of something, don’t walk out of the vote, vote no. It really is that clear. I suspect the whips were encouraging the indecisive to abstain rather than vote no (as is the LibDem’s prerogative in this particular vote).

More Protests

All this whilst outside there was widespread anger. The protests had spilled onto Parliament Square (although you couldn’t hear anything from inside Parliament), there were outbreaks of violence and the Camilla got poked with a stick. Read Laurie Penny’s account of her time in the Parliament Square kettle, if you can.

Of course, the media turned this into widespread OMGZ, forgetting some of the earlier names they had called Camilla. This further detracted from what was again a largely peaceful, nationwide protest. Although once again I believe the real anger that is on show at the heart of these protests is something the media will not be able to percolate. Having the complete definition of privilege drive through the middle of a protest against ideological cuts manifested that anger in a way that will hit home for many people.

Later that night, the police decided to employ their good old kettling technique again. This time on Westminster Bridge. Look at that picture. Clearly this is not an appropriate amount of space to squeeze that many people into, yet for the police this is fine. This caused a senior doctor to come out and say this could have caused some serious damage on a Hillsborough scale. If somebody had fallen off that bridge…

End Result

The end result is the same old. We were promised this and that by this party and that party. New new new, get rid of the old. Change not indecision. Blah blah blah. Broken promises and everything stays the same. Of course the government weren’t going to be defeated on this one, but a widespread, nationwide campaign of disruption helped cut the government’s majority and stirred up memories of large-scale demonstrations from the last time the Tories were in power.

The media tried to dismantle this, they have too much to lose going against the government now, and they couldn’t break the protestors. The police tried to dismantle this, and they couldn’t break the protestors – they kept coming back.

I’m a firm believer in gradients of change. These plans aren’t the end of the world, nor are they the worst possible situation. However they are the start of something horrible, and once that snowball has been pushed down the hill… well, let’s just say that’s how the apparent need for cuts myth percolated into everybody’s minds. These campaigns, which will no doubt be joined by teachers, doctors and nurses, and even police officers in months to come as cuts deepen, all form part of an anti-cut movement which is going to define a generation.