Sean O'Grady: Population rise gives India the edge over one-child China

Link to the article: The Independent

One of the more disturbing realities facing the nation this festive season is that the cuts aren't just for Christmas – they're for life.

Face it. Your local library will never reopen; VAT will stick at 20 per cent for ages; higher tuition fees are here to stay. Indeed, I would guess that they could quite conceivably go beyond £9,000 a year, in a second coalition, or Conservative, term equipped with a bigger parliamentary majority.

Complete marketisation of fees might not be practicable, on the grounds, for example that the nation would be left with no doctors if it cost students hundreds of thousands to train. But there is plenty of room for the more rewarding courses (in salary terms) to grow still more expensive. Before any students get ready to push unpleasant parcels through my letterbox, I must stress that I'm not advocating this policy, merely pointing it out. Sadly, even if the parties promise to cap them at that level, who would believe them? Short of the NUS fielding its own candidates in student strongholds, I don't know how they could be guaranteed as reliable allies in Parliament. Even then, it would need young people to remember to register to vote. Pretty hopeless, really.