Thursday 29 January 2009

G. Galloway: I am angry £18m is being snatched from university budget

I AM angered and shocked that London Metropolitan University plans to cut £18 million from the teaching budget and that the Higher Education Funding Council is clawing back £38 million.

I congratulate the students on their protest this week, which has my wholehearted support.

Among the issues I am campaigning on are student finance and ending the chaos that surrounds university funding, which itself is all too inadequate.

The Government boasts of its ‘fiscal stimulus’ and ‘counter-cyclical’ actions in the face of the deepening economic recession. The principle of state action to stave off economic collapse is sound—however late, limited and hobbled by deference to the banks and big business those measures are.

Why, then, for banks and not for jobs?

What logic is there in piling on the public debt by handing money to the City while cutting public spending or allowing it to be cut in vital areas such as education?

These cuts would be crushing anywhere. But they will be devastating for the Met University which makes a vital contribution to the community in Tower Hamlets, helping to raise expectations in one of the most deprived areas in Britain.

I am confident any attempt to push through cuts and job losses on anything like this scale will be met with strong opposition from campus staff, unions and the wider community in East London.

Jeremy Corbyn and I will work as one in Parliament to back the students’ campaign.

George Galloway (Respect)

Bethnal Green & Bow MP

From the 'East London Advertiser': http://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/content/towerhamlets/advertiser/postbag/story.aspx?brand=ELAOnline&category=postbag&tBrand=northlondon24&tCategory=postbagela&itemid=WeED28%20Jan%202009%2023%3A35%3A29%3A817

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