RSS
Hypocrisy of university places for children of fallen soldiers…
Posted by Darrell Goodliffe
Tuesday, 12th January 2010
The Conservatives have announced that they would offer the children of fallen soldiers university scholarships. Impossible to argue against, surely? Well, no; this is the latest in a long-line of Conservative policies that is cheap and gimmicky. It’s easy to oppose because put plainly and simply it isn’t fair.
Sure, children in this situation have had no choice and on that level I feel sorry for them; however, their parent/s made a conscious choice to enter a vocation where their life would be in direct danger. Yes they do so in the ‘public service’ but so do other professions. What is true of an army soldier is also true of a fireman or police officer and their children will not benefit from this proposal. The reason they wont is because the costs would spiral and the logic behind this Conservative pledge is cheap-sop to the right-wing press and its sense of idiotic patriotism. This is the same press that routinely expresses its support for the ‘war on terrorism’ and the failed Afghan adventure. An adventure that the recent polls show the public don’t want and whose end would end the unnecessary fatalities and stop families being deprived of parents. How hypocritical can you get?
What about the children of parents who die in an accident? The adults involved had no choice and their striking down is no less injurious to the children in question. Will they be given scholarships? Of course they wont. Furthermore, what about the bright student who gets nowhere because of their background? Will they benefit from the Conservatives largess? Again, to ask the question is to answer it. What if these scholarships deny a place to a more-able student? What if the children in question don’t want to attend university?
These examples illustrate how manifestly unfair the policy is and its trashy nature. Of course, this didn’t stop Conservative bloggers celebrating the idea; Oxford Spring gleefully informs us this policy is ‘why he votes Conservative’ while amazingly in his next blog post takes Labour to task for playing politics with war.
If the Conservatives were really concerned about the children of these families then the solution is simple; argue for a complete withdrawal and on a wider-scale say its time for an end to the ‘war on terror’. No easy opinion poll points in that so don’t hold your breath on that one…
