Student debt

Well said Robert Rae (‘Monteith’s Tory party spin can’t mask the truth behind Corbyn’s message’, Scotsman let- ters, 9 August). Brian Monteith seems in his article to be so concerned about students’ finances that you’d think he would have written to condemn the Tories and Liberals for tripling university tuition fees in England from £3,000 a year to £9,000 – and the further hike to £9,250.

And you’d think he’d be praising Labour for its promise to abolish those fees from the coming September if it was elected, just as previous generations – including the whole of the Tory Cabinet – did not pay tuition fees.

But no, predictably, he simply writes to repeat a Tory attack line against Jeremy Corbyn.

He’s accused of implying that under Labour, the students who have paid the fees in previous years would have them wiped off the slate. But what did he actually say?

His actual words were “there is a block of those that currently have a massive debt, and I’m looking at ways that we could reduce that, ameliorate that, lengthen the period of paying it off, or some other means of reducing that debt burden.

“I don’t have the simple answer for it at this stage – I don’t think anybody would expect me to, because this election was called unexpectedly; we had two weeks to prepare all of this.”

It’s clear that he was not offering to wipe the debt out. And indeed, a survey has found that 83 per cent of students know that he was not offering a magic fix.

The only people who are determined to misunderstand it are the Conservatives.

So here’s a challenge. Since Brian Monteith is so concerned about student finance, please would he tell us his view of Tory plans to rack English university tuition fees even higher, using a legal loophole to avoid a debate in parliament because they know that Labour would vote it down? I look forward to hearing his opinion on that.

PHIL TATE Craiglockhart Road, Edinburgh