The "Freeola Customer Forum" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only. You cannot post here or create a new thread or review on this forum.
On a more political level, the higher education bill will be voted on tonight- It if passes, those of us who plan on going to uni will end up being more so in debt and have to pay in advance too. If it isn't passed then we will not be as much in debt, but some universities will be shut down due to lack of funding - and some subjects such as medicine will be underfunded and have a lack of resources.
Labour want to put the bill through, but the conversatives dont, and nobody invited the Lib Dems to the conference.
The vote is at 7pm, and results will be accounced at about 8 I think.
Personally I hope it doesn't pass, but the labour argument seems to be strong, and they have more seats than the conservatives. The only real way the bill cannot pass is if all the conservatives vote against the bill, and a fair share of the labour MPs vote against their own bill too.
Jammy git
Also, the way i see it like this.
The Government is between a rock and a hard place. The Uni's are banging on for more money, but the average folks on the street already pay 5/6, and don't want to pay any more. So, the Government has to find that extra 6th from somewhere, leaving just the students. It's crap, i know, but life's like that, and as far as i'm aware, there's no good alternative. If that's wrong, please tell me.
All the Tory's have said is, 'Our policy would lead to more money for Uni's, less control by the Government, and less debt for students'. Great everybody sais, what is it? Tory reply, 'Well get back to you on that'.
On another note, the Torys are having a go at Labour for relying on Scottish votes to get it through. But, i'd bet if it were those Scots votes that enabled this bill to be chucked out, they wouldn't say a darn thing.
Labour abstentions: 19
Cowards.
1) have an entrance test to weed out all the timewasters. less people means less expense.
2) reduce the cost of the first year. The first year doesn't count towards the final degree score and a lot of people drop out during that time:
less money on first year=saving
fewer people on 2nd/3rd year=saving
besides, i don't feel i've had the £1200 fees worth of tuition during my first year as it is....
3) legalize and tax cannabis. hell, most students buy it anyways so they'd kind of be paying for themselves in a way :)
seriously though, there's definately money in the notion of legalising and adding tax to cannabis, but not in the foreseeable future of this stoic little nation :(
honestly though, now that this motion has passed, it's just showed us further what a bunch of hypocrits the government are. "More people into universities" they cry, then up the price so no-one can afford it. "We're against Blair" say a group of rebelling MP's, then mysteriously change their minds (probably struck an "except our kids" deal with someone) so once again the working class carry the can. Indeed, this idea works perfectly well for the children of the MP's who passed it, but i'm damn sure neither i nor my parents make as much money as they do.
> Fecking New Labour
Didn't i hear that it doesn't effect scotland anyway?
But they don't want that. They WANT all the idiots at uni, because, as everyone knows, having a degree in a worthless subject GUARANTEES a job!
Blair needs to wake up.
> Arn't the government supposed to be offerering money for students?
Only for the poorest? If your parents have a salary over about 18K then you don't get all that money. And the money you are given in a grant form is countered out by the top up fees meaning that you end up owing more to the government than you would under the old system. Under the current system I pay no tuition fees and get around £3000 in a loan each term. Under the new system I'd get about £1000 in a grant and have pay £4000 in fees each year (though not repaid until later).
>And
> if you actually get a job worth diddly squat, you can repay them?
Yep, except you repay more each month than you would under the old system because you owe more overall.
>If
> you get a bad job, you don't necassairily(sp?) have to pay? That's
> what I understand.
After 25 years the loan is written off. What are the odds that your job stays below the 15K a year level eh, for 25 years? And just imagine what 25 years of interest at around 3% is going to do on a balance of around 12-15K...