Membership of the Young Greens, the youth branch of the Green Party, has risen sharply since the Coalition Government voted to increase the university tuition fee cap to £9,000. On Friday night the Green Party announced that all students and people under 30 could join for free for a limited period, and by Monday morning hundreds of people had taken up the offer, growing the Young Green membership by 10% in one weekend. At peak times, up to 40-50 people were joining per hour, and currently the total number of people who have taken up the offer is 414.
Responding to the recent education cuts, Caroline Lucas, Leader of the Green Party and MP for Brighton Pavilion, said:
“The huge hikes in tuition fees, together with the scrapping of Educational Maintenance Allowance and proposed cuts in college funding, amount to nothing less than a Government assault on our young people – and an attack on the principles of universal education.”
She also countered the Governments claims that rises in tuition fees are the only way to fund the gap left by the 80% cut to the teaching grant given to universities. “There are alternatives. For example, a business education tax levied on the top 4% of UK companies would require business to pay its fair share for the substantial benefits it receives from higher education. Tragically, such alternatives haven’t even been looked at. Instead we have this ill-considered policy rushed through in the face of huge public opposition.”
Meanwhile, Adam Pogonowski, a Young Green councillor in Cambridge, said, “This is a shocking and depressing vote against universal free education. The Green Party is the only party who believes in fair and free education for all. I urge all voters to vote for a party who will not break such fundamental promises with such flagrant disregard for those who elected them, in the local elections next May.”
The Young Greens have also responded to the reports that the police have used excessive force in the recent tuition fee protests by calling on the MPA to ban kettling. They have started a petition, which they will present at a meeting of the MPA and have so far gathered over 1000 signatures.
If you would like to sign the petition, please visit http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/ban_kettling/