Student caught in a north-south divide

Jan 11 2007

BIRMINGHAM student Natasha Doran is about to learn a harsh lesson about life in modern Britain - she's a second-class citizen in her own country.

Natasha, from Kings Norton, is preparing to head to Glasgow University in October where, like other students born south of the border, she'll have to pay tuition fees of £1,700 per year.

Her Scottish colleagues, on the other hand, will get their education free.

"It just doesn't seem fair," Natasha said. "We should all be on an equal footing. But there's this whole postcode divide. Why are people treated differently just because of where they live?"

The answer, of course, is devolution, the device by which Scots are allowed to keep all the benefits of UK membership, while going their own way on major issues such as health and education.

If Scottish MPs were forced to keep their noses out of English affairs, that might be fair enough.

But of course New Labour's tartan army has been allowed to foist tuition fees on our youngsters, while their Scottish counterparts enjoy the benefits of a taxpayer-funded education.

In this age of rampant human rights legislation, I'm astonished that no-one has challenged this blatant racist discrimination against the English.

For Natasha, it means she'll be forced to find part-time work to fund her university career while her Scottish pals are free from financial worry.

The irony is that if our Scottish Prime Minister didn't have so many of his "ain folk" to back him up in Westminster, students in England might still enjoy the same benefit.