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David Davis 'urging Treasury to write off historic student debt'

https://www.politicshome.com/news/uk/ed ... udent-debt

wutang wrote:

David Davis 'urging Treasury to write off historic student debt'

https://www.politicshome.com/news/uk/ed ... udent-debt

Even a broken clock is right twice a day

Labour aspired to it, but found that with the economy in Brexit turmoil the policy was simply unaffordable.

This, of course, spawned a series of Conservative Central Office inspired lies saying that Labour HAD promised to write off student debt

However, it seems that the ever-bountiful Tory Magic Money Tree has bloomed again, at least in (thick as mince) David Davis's mind...

Cannydc wrote:Labour aspired to it, but found that with the economy in Brexit turmoil the policy was simply unaffordable.

This, of course, spawned a series of Conservative Central Office inspired lies saying that Labour HAD promised to write off student debt

However, it seems that the ever-bountiful Tory Magic Money Tree has bloomed again, at least in (thick as mince) David Davis's mind...

A one of cost of £10billion is hardly unaffordable considering how much is spent on shyte like Tridents, or the latest international bomb dropping/regime change endeavour.

And the economic benefits he outlined - unburdening people of repaying what are essentially junk loans would mean more money being spent on the economy and as a result more tax income.

And the student debt ticking timebomb is gonna go tits up anyway. May as well do something decent now and alleviate the burden for those hamstrung by it.

wutang wrote:

Cannydc wrote:Labour aspired to it, but found that with the economy in Brexit turmoil the policy was simply unaffordable.

This, of course, spawned a series of Conservative Central Office inspired lies saying that Labour HAD promised to write off student debt

However, it seems that the ever-bountiful Tory Magic Money Tree has bloomed again, at least in (thick as mince) David Davis's mind...

A one of cost of £10billion is hardly unaffordable considering how much is spent on shyte like Tridents, or the latest international bomb dropping/regime change endeavour.

And the economic benefits he outlined - unburdening people of repaying what are essentially junk loans would mean more money being spent on the economy and as a result more tax income.

Interesting - the original cost quoted by the Tories when Labour mooted writing off student debt was £100bn. Suddenly, the IFS says it is around £10bn - a reduction by a factor of 10. So, suddenly, when THEY suggest it, it has become more affordable.

Quel surprise.

Cannydc wrote:
Interesting - the original cost quoted by the Tories when Labour mooted writing off student debt was £100bn. Suddenly, the IFS says it is around £10bn - a reduction by a factor of 10. So, suddenly, when THEY suggest it, it has become more affordable.

Quel surprise.

You are right the current figure is 100bn. The 10bn is apparently cost of wiping off new debt since 2012 (when fees were trebled) but not sure how the IFS got that figure because student debt was only 45bn in march 2012.

Its unsustainable - projected to reach 160bn in next few years - and more and more of it is bad debt that cant be repaied. As Davis pointed out a private company would have written a lot of it down by now.

Still hard to say unaffordable to write off when...

Lifetime cost of replacing Trident at least £205bn, latest estimate suggests

wutang wrote:

Cannydc wrote:
Interesting - the original cost quoted by the Tories when Labour mooted writing off student debt was £100bn. Suddenly, the IFS says it is around £10bn - a reduction by a factor of 10. So, suddenly, when THEY suggest it, it has become more affordable.

Quel surprise.

You are right the current figure is 100bn. The 10bn is apparently cost of wiping off new debt since 2012 (when fees were trebled) but not sure how the IFS got that figure because student debt was only 45bn in march 2012.

Its unsustainable - projected to reach 160bn in next few years - and more and more of it is bad debt that cant be repaied. As Davis pointed out a private company would have written a lot of it down by now.

Still hard to say unaffordable to write off when...

Lifetime cost of replacing Trident at least £205bn, latest estimate suggests

Then there's HS2

£65Bn and counting, just to go from London to Birmingham 20 minutes quicker (strikes, leaves on the line, wrong kind of snow permitting)

Cannydc wrote:Then there's HS2

£65Bn and counting, just to go from London to Birmingham 20 minutes quicker (strikes, leaves on the line, wrong kind of snow permitting)

Yeah. It seems that finding the money is impossible, until its something they want.

Sort of like the benefit cuts that end up costing more than what they were supposed to save. If saving money and getting the debt under-control was the priority then they wouldn't be doing these things.

Its almost as thought the 'debt' issue is just a red-herring to be used to push the real political agenda

wutang wrote:

Cannydc wrote:Then there's HS2

£65Bn and counting, just to go from London to Birmingham 20 minutes quicker (strikes, leaves on the line, wrong kind of snow permitting)

Yeah. It seems that finding the money is impossible, until its something they want.

Sort of like the benefit cuts that end up costing more than what they were supposed to save. If saving money and getting the debt under-control was the priority then they wouldn't be doing these things.

Its almost as thought the 'debt' issue is just a red-herring to be used to push the real political agenda

Let's just say it was politically convenient to marry Tory austerity with Tory dogma.

Cannydc wrote:Labour aspired to it, but found that with the economy in Brexit turmoil the policy was simply unaffordable.

This, of course, spawned a series of Conservative Central Office inspired lies saying that Labour HAD promised to write off student debt

However, it seems that the ever-bountiful Tory Magic Money Tree has bloomed again, at least in (thick as mince) David Davis's mind...

It is entirely affordable. Scrap the Corporate Welfare budget, which is around £90-180 Billion a year depending on who you believe.

Punk wrote:

Cannydc wrote:Labour aspired to it, but found that with the economy in Brexit turmoil the policy was simply unaffordable.

This, of course, spawned a series of Conservative Central Office inspired lies saying that Labour HAD promised to write off student debt

However, it seems that the ever-bountiful Tory Magic Money Tree has bloomed again, at least in (thick as mince) David Davis's mind...

It is entirely affordable. Scrap the Corporate Welfare budget, which is around £90-180 Billion a year depending on who you believe.

Plus the loans were created by the administrator bank - Nat West. Mine would be cancelled. Not that I have paid a penny back since I took out the first one 20 years ago.

The daft thing is that they know that an awful lot of this debt won't be repaid and are making huge provisions against it.

I attended a briefing at the Treasury a couple of years ago to talk about the Whole of Government Accounts (WGA) and a senior bod actually said that he wondered how the current model could continue to be politically sustainable, given that it advanced a loan with one hand and then provided against it a few years later. They might as well avoid the costs of all the admin and just go back to the old system of grants.

The other interesting thing is that, although the cash for (e.g.) fees, goes to the university concerned, the cost of the provision against the corresponding debt is not charged to the university. So some Vice-chancellors have been trousering huge salaries off the back of big university fee income figures that, in many cases, simply won't actually be repaid. Fucking disgrace.