Battle lines drawn as date for tuition fees vote set
By Ian Dunt
The vote on tuition fees has been set, triggering a flurry of preparation on all sides of the debate.
The vote will take place on Thursday December 9th, Sir George Young confirmed in the Commons today.
As soon as it was announced, the National Union of Students (NUS) quickly confirmed a protest schedule, with a fourth day of action called for the day before, and a lobby of MPs on the day.
Labour sources suspect the date was set on a Thursday to minimise attendance among Scottish and Welsh nationalist and Northern Ireland MPs, who have usually gone back to their constituencies on Thursday.
The government may have concluded that it had a better chance of surviving a vote where the Liberal Democrats were abstaining when MPs from these smaller parties were not in the Commons.
The Liberal Democrat plan is still unclear, with business secretary Vince Cable admitting he would be prepared to abstain from his own policy to maintain party unity if he cannot convince the party to come with him. Nick Clegg has refused to comment on his own voting plans.
Mass demonstrations will start across the country on the 8th followed by group lobbies in parliament on the 9th, the NUS said.
The student union has struggled to maintain its authority through the dispute as it tried to find a middle ground between the activism of its student constituency and escape criticism in the mainstream media for the violence that has broken out at some demonstrations.
Union president Aaron Porter was forced to issue an apology to student activists in University College London (UCL), whose occupation has become the leading campus movement in the wake of the row.
The NUS dithered for several days as it worked out whether to support the occupation, prompting a focus on other groups, such as the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts.
If the vote passes, the NUS promises to hold a vigil with 9,000 candles, symbolising the top rate of fees universities will be able to charge.
“MPs can be left in no doubt as to the widespread public opposition to these plans or of the consequences of steamrollering them through parliament,” Mr Porter said.
“For the third time in less than a month thousands of students have taken to the streets to protest against the government’s attacks on further and higher education.
“Despite repeated dismissals by Nick Clegg that these are uninformed protesters, students are intelligent, articulate people who are not being listened to by those in whom they placed their hope for a different politics.”
Labour said it would conduct a final push against the plans during the final seven-day period ahead of the vote, in a bid to drum up enough support on the Lib Dem side to prevent it being passed.
But the party is itself internally divided on the issue, with Alan Johnson, shadow chancellor, an opponent of Ed Miliband’s plans for a graduate tax.
