In 2001, the Labour/Lib Dem coalition government in the newly devolved Scottish Parliament, replaced tuition fees with a ‘graduate endowment’ payment to be made after completing a course. They did not abolish the cost of higher education tuition, they merely delayed it as a compromise to avoid clashing with the UK Labour Government which first introduced the fees.
In 2008, the first SNP Government abolished the graduate endowment and in effect abolished paying for higher education tuition.
Source:
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
I cannot keep up with this .
#MakeItAllStopPlease (Ha Ha, not funny Ha Ha BTW).
It’s a full time job keeping tabs on the BBC is it not , actually it also involves a fair amount of overtime too Ha Ha.
Is it not enough (pain for us) that we now again have to listen to MAGA speeches on a loop via the UK media, who I am sure are delighted that the more newsworthy candidate won in America, I mean how much mileage will they , the UK media, get form him on their news coverage going forward.
Probably the same amount , maybe a little less, than the mileage we get from all of the constant BBC lies that they tell on their BBC website Scottish pages , Reporting Scotland news programmes, GMS Radio programmes, BBC Debate programmes and also BBC Scotland Political programmes.
#MakeScotlandFreeAgain
LikeLiked by 5 people
Labour were liars and ‘masters of deceit’ then
and thus remain
Liars and ‘masters of deceit’.
Since inception, the FOREIGN EBC/aka bbc, has never stopped/diverted from
being the mouthpieces/liars/’masters of deceit’
for the FOREIGN ENGLISH Government/Establishment et al.
HASTE THE DAY,
when Scotland will be well rid of these lying/lowlife/corrupt scum, along with their cohorts IN Scotland.
HAST THE DAY
Liberation Scotland/Salvo
Independence for Scotland Party (ISP)
New Scotland Party (NSP)
ALL SCOTTISH INDY-SUPPORTING PARTIES
who will have on their Manifestos
“Sovereignty of the Scottish People”
to whom they’ll Swear their Oaths
(and will be held thus accountable).
(All Parties must ensure that they oust from these Parties, ANY/ALL infiltrators.)
LikeLiked by 2 people
ConDems increased fees in the rest of the UK. Cut Education £6Billion a year. Half the loans will never be paid back.The Student Loan book is now £87Billion. It was sold by the Tories. Resulting in higher interest charges.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Can I be first to address the (American) Elephant in the room aka Trump Ha Ha.
(Though by the time I finish writing this looooooooooong comment others may have beaten me to it, actually I did mention him in other comments I wrote on here today -via other posts- Ha Ha).
So Trump has won again.
Now we will all have to witness a subservient political class within the UK all telling us, the UK public, that we , like them, should now “respect” the democratic vote (or will) of (some of) the American people in them (yet again ) electing Trump as their new President.
So we are to forget all that happened with Trump, for example the terrible events in January 2020 on Capital Hill in Washington and also the various charges and court proceedings against him.
Seems so, as apparently in Politics, we now see that abnormal is the new normal.
Capital Hill rioting in 2020 , which was incited by Donald Trump’s reluctance to accept the result of the USA 2020 Presidential election that he lost but that he said was stolen from him.
Also that speech that he gave prior to that very undemocratic and violent incident.
Does anyone else also just long for some actual principled politicians to publicly reject pretend politicians like Donald Trump and Nigel Farage and all that they represent, which is mainly hate and division (and money & greed).
Trump & Farage’s focus being mainly demonising immigrants to their countries (namely America & England).
However do we also not recognise how Keir Starmer is attempting to mirror what they both have said and done and also which the Tories formerly tried to do as well, as in blame those they refer to as being ‘illegal’ immigrants for much of the problems within their UK, or rather in England (as we all know who they blame for everything in Scotland).
However instead of attacking immigrants and accusing them of being the supposed real problem facing their ‘country’ aka making them, immigrants, the scapegoats.
What about the Bankers and greedy corporations.
Was it Immigrants who caused the financial crisis in 2008 ?
Or was that greedy Bankers, the same ones that the new Labour UK government have decided not to cap their bonuses.
Or the greedy corporations who do not want to pay higher taxes as the bottom line, as in profit, is their only concern (for their good not for the good of the public in their UK).
The Labour budget did not raise Corporation tax.
Starmer is still trying to appeal to and appease those voters in his UK who voted for Brexit.
Same ones who may again add MAGA onto their twitter profiles .
However they only want America to be great again if it is with the type of President they prefer, as when it is another type of president that they do not like then they lose interest in wanting America to be Great again. (seems rational not).
Maybe as evidence to Labour’s hypocrisy and lack of principles I can show you an example via David Lammy who formerly was 100% against Brexit when his party were in opposition to the Tories.
Now Lammy is another Labour ‘Born again Brexiteer’ because now Starmer’s Labour party support Brexit.
However David Lammy was also formerly 100% against Donald Trump.
Now he ,David Lammy , is the new Labour Foreign Secretary well it is a case of……
A 2017 Then tweet & a 2024 Now tweet .
2017 Tweet by David Lammy as a mere Labour MP in opposition to a Tory UK government:
“Re Daily Mail story today. Yes if Trump comes to the UK I will be out protesting on the streets. He is a racist KKK and a Nazi sympathiser”
2024 Tweet from same David Lammy (now the Labour Foreign Secretary)as part of the new Labour UK government.
“Congratulations to @realdonaldtrump on your victory”
“The UK has no greater friend than the US, with the special relationship being cherished on both sides of the Atlantic for more than 80 years. We look forward to working with you and @JDVance in the years ahead”
What a difference a ministerial position in a Labour UK government makes.
Well for David Lammy that is , as in as far as a dramatic conversion is concerned. (in his opinion being so dramatically changed on Trump from saying he, Trump, is a “racist KKK and a Nazi sympathiser” to then gushing about he and his Labour government “looking forward to working with you and @JDVance in the years ahead”.
His former supposed principles be damned as self interest takes precedence also known as him putting his Party before his country really.
Indeed one could be forgiven for assuming that in 2017 David Lammy was just ‘playing to the crowd’ and now in 2024 he is playing to a very different crowd who are no friends to the previous crowd that he was playing to.
Confused ?
You should be because even I cannot keep up with some Labour politicians hypocrisy, duplicity and general conflicting opinions that seem to “Change” dependent on whether it suits them, from a purely selfish perspective, to alter their supposed previous convictions and supposed hard line position.
You will now hear on various UK debate programmes all of the various Labour panel members say that they , as the UK government , must respect the American people’s democratic vote in electing Donald Trump (again) as their new President.
So they, the Labour UK government, must then apparently work with Trump and America in the best interests of the people of the UK.
Yet why then will Labour (and also formerly the Tories) as the UK government not respect the Scottish people’s vote in us democratically electing the SNP to be our Scottish government for the past 17 years ?
Where Labour as the new UK government are not wanting to work with our Scottish government but instead are actively working against them.
They, Labour, are quick to blame the SNP for what they, Labour, say is a Scotland that is #BAD because of the SNP yet they are also willing to ignore , as in not blame, Trump for all of his obvious flaws and also his bad character in him generating so much division and hate within his country and also against other countries too.
So now they, Labour, as the new UK government , will continue with what the Tories started , in them bypassing our democratically elected government and instead passing on money directly to Scottish councils (will that be SNP Scottish Councils or mainly Labour ones).
As they, Labour, will act against the Scottish government and so will then also be acting against who, we the public in Scotland, democratically elected as our government.
That is , in them as a UK government , now withholding money from our Scottish government and so they are then going against devolution that we in Scotland also voted for.
Of course what with Brexit , and with Labour supporting and continuing with it, then Labour have little choice but to kowtow to people like Trump , as their UK has now lost the best trade deal they had with the EU , that is our closest neighbours.
Labour have boxed themselves into a corner with Brexit and now they will have to eat all of Trump’s American (Humble) Pie and so abandon their non existent principles and morals and so help to Make America great again (Has Starmer added that onto his Twitter profile yet Ha Ha) while simultanously making their own country #Sh*te.
One wonders then if some voters in Scotland are still sleep walking and so will make the same mistake in 2026 in voting FOR Labour (again) in the Scottish elections.
A mistake that we have now witnessed happening with some Americans voting for Trump (again) in the American Presidential election.
I , for one, would not be surprised if some in Scotland did vote again for Labour in 2026 , as it seems some in Scotland have no real pride in their birth country or indeed any desire to ever see Scotland at least trying to attempt to be “great again” as a newly independent country free from bad UK politicians and also a bad UK media.
Currently we, Scotland, are in a UK that feels very much like a prison that confines us within it’s borders, borders that they control .
Also with the rules that they impose upon us , as per the various UK governments who dictate that , our current position in Scotland , will be an ongoing situation.
That is until more in Scotland finally wake up to reality and begin to support and then vote for independence and who will then hopefully vote for principled politicians to govern us who will not seek to pander to Jeremy Hunt’s like Donald Trump as in do what Labour are doing now (Starmer also sent a congratulations tweet to Trump- #SqueakyBottomTimeForLabour).
Sorry for too long comment but I do feel cleansed Ha Ha (kind of).
#TrumpsWinInspiredMe
LikeLiked by 2 people
Lying scheming thieving Labcons & Libdems ratb*gs. They won’t stop there, I know someone who is politically illiterate who said recently, ‘the Ukgov tell the Scottish gov to give us free prescriptions though’. Yep, that’s what they believe.
The LabCONS and their dodgy Libdem pals will attempt to claim the credit for all good policies by the SNP, while at the same time making up stories and lies about Scotland’s NHS and every public service and we all know the EngGovs’ BBC are experts at that sort of disgusting propaganda.
Not even going to start on the horrors of the US today…oh my how utterly terrifying.
LikeLiked by 1 person
As quite a number of family members and friends have gone on to university I have been aware of the deterent effect of tuition fees and have been at length to point out that Labour did not introduce tuition fees for students in Scotland in the Education (Graduate Endowment and Student Support) (Scotland) Act 2001.
The objective and reasoning behind the Graduate Endowment fund has never been explained, at first sight it looks like a repitition of the English student fees but students don’t pay and universities don’t benefit.
It is more than likely that the Labour Party didn’t want to share the animosity generated in England and expected to use the ministerial freedom in the act to gradually incorporate student fees in Scotland.
It’s all there on paper, in fact this appears to be a benevolent piece of legislation, encouraging the many Scottish students from rural areas to take up courses that would involve daily travel or living away from home.
Graduates, who are carefully defined as students who have successfully completed their academic courses, were to make a single payment to be used to help current students with their living expenses and for good measure the Scottish Labour-Lib Dem Government exempted students from paying Council Tax.
Why was it not been publicised from the perspectivethat former students who were reaping the benefit of education their were making a personal donation to encourage their successors?
After all they appear to be quite happy to pay a little more now in Scottish income tax that goes towards paying student fees.
Maybe it’s just because I don’t trust the London based parties and there really is nothing behind it, other than that incompetent Scottish Government trying to be clever before the public rumbled them and the SNP put an end to any possibility of students paying for their own education in Scotland.
LikeLike
Correction for mistyped paragraph.
Why was it not publicised from the perspective of former students who were reaping the benefit of their education making a personal donation to encourage their successors?
LikeLike