Guest post from Guys blog

Great guest post from Will Hamilton, a former intern in the office, outlining what he thinks the Big Society means to him.

A Christmas message from Guy and all involved with the Conservatives in Hexham

GUEST POST: Voice of a Student

I’m a student at Queen Elizabeth High School in Hexham and I will be part of the first generation of students that will have to pay the new tuition fees.

I don’t think tuition fees are perfect, I’m not even sure they are ideal – but they do seem fair.

Some one has to pay, and what is fairer; that student’s pay or the tax payer does? As a prospective University student I recognise the benefits it will hopefully bring me in my career – on average around £100,000.

With the proposed plan graduates will not have to pay one penny back until they are earning over £21,000 a year, and then they will be paying back £45 less a month than they do at the present – is that so unfair?

Any university which is charging more than £6,000 a year will have to prove that they are taking in increasing numbers of students from disadvantaged backgrounds. That sounds fair to me.

£150 million being invested into a National Scholarships Programme to get disadvantaged students into top universities. That sounds fair to me.

Would I rather not pay? Sure. But with 45% of us going to university it is not sustainable for the tax payer to cover all students’ fees - and I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask me to make a contribution.

Ed Miliband and Labour have been quick to jump on the band wagon. As a young person interested in politics nothing puts me off more than seeing politicians chasing headlines. This is our future and difficult decisions have to be made.

Labour set up the Browne report, yet have no credible alternative of their own. It may be getting Labour good headlines but playing politics with our future is not winning them support with students like me.

Dan

Shoeboxes delivered!

After a week of cancelled events and misery in the snow, we finally had something to celebrate last night as the last of the shoeboxes were delivered to Mark from SOS.

All in all, over 50 boxes were collected (plus a very generous £45 from one collection) by the wonderful people of Northumberland, and I mean the whole of Northumberland! We in the office, Guy, the Women's Committee and our volunteer interns had great fun packing and wrapping the boxes and everyones hard work has paid off. So this is a MASSIVE thank you to each and everyone who participated in our SOS shoebox appeal 2010, from collecting to wrapping.

Hexham CF will be meeting this Sat to thrash out our plans for the New Year and think about our next couple of social action projects, having marked this one as an absolute success!