Labour manifesto: a weak case for ending fees

Seems a bit odd to pick apart a draft manifesto for not including a thoroughly detailed argument, especially as it is not clear from the article if the author actually disagrees with the policy. I doubt many party manifestos will have in-depth arguments for every policy, they are turgid enough reads as it is. My only worry about this policy is that recent graduates may not be enthusiastic about future graduates being better off than them, so there would need to be some plan for countering that.

Education cannot be commodified. The greatest failures of UK education are rooted in the introduction of fees under a Labour government. As soon as money is exchanged the student-teacher relationship is damaged beyond repair. The greatest gift any government can give to the UK is free education. We had the greatest education in the world. Its time to go back to that again.

The final manifesto also fails to provide details of funding for this proposal. A serious problem for UK universities - where will the funding come from to replace tuition fees? Is abolishing HE fees (for approx £10 billion/year) really the best use of this money? How will this be raised from taxes? I am usually a Labour supporter but question the wisdom of this policy & lack of details. What if we fail to deliver on this policy when we win the election?