Quote Originally Posted by Beskar View Post
Your sister pays the whole 11k per year tution fees that foriegn-students pay? Or are you saying that she pays all the costs herself with no parental support?
Neither, she has a loan, but I was given a grant to cover ALL my undergraduate fees. My sister worked and saved for two years prior to Uni, while savings made when she was born have covered some of the cost for thsi year. However, my parents may have to dig her out and that might involve them having a mortgage for the first time in over 25 years.

If it is the latter, I know exactly what you mean, I study full-time and have a part-time job, so I could continue at University. What is even worse, I was denied a student-loan for my Masters, so I had to pay for that myself without any support.
This is totally notmal, I'm afraid. I saved in order to study my Master's degree, got no help from our overlords, and thence emptied my bank account.

Thatcher's Poll tax says it all. They shift all the "fiscal responsbility" onto the poor people, while the rich get richer. Then the rich complain about the taxes while earning 5 to 6 times more money at least than the average person on the street. It is a joke.
Thatcher's Poll-Tax was 20 years ago now. What's more, the much maliigned tax makes a certain sense, you shouldn't have to sell your home once you retire just because it's nice and you worked hard. In the same vein, a small house full of people puts a greater stress on public services. The Poll-Tax was a means of introducing a per-Capita tax for local services.

The alternative was to raise the base rate of income tax, again.

In any case, ancient political history is not indicitive of the current party. That goes for both sides; one should no more assume the Tories are all Toffs than Labour all Communists and Anarchists.