All we seek is for the Prime Minister to look at alternatives. At the moment, with this take-it-or-leave-it proposition, the PM seems to be pursuing that syllogism “something must be done; this is something; therefore this must be done”.The latest twist to the horror stories being put about by whips is that, with the Hutton report coming out the day after the vote, we mustn’t do anything to weaken Blair’s position over Hutton I don’t see it Top-up fees are to do with policy. If the loss of any vote in the Commons were to oblige the Prime Minister to resign, every debate would be all-or-nothing – no room for dissent or even discussion. It would be a negation of representative democracy.Nor is it true that those of us who oppose top-up fees want rid of Tony Blair He is the most successful prime minister of modern times.
A defeat for the Government would mean that the House of Commons had rejected one of many alternative ways of finding more money for higher education. Both these lines have been taken up by Tory newspapers and some of the more gullible souls on television and radio.Both ideas are ridiculous. Prime ministers don’t resign if they lose a vote in the House of Commons. They are expected to resign if they lose a formal vote of confidence, and the vote on top-up fees isn’t that. A more paranoid minority have even been suggesting that this is what motivates those of us who oppose variable top-up fees.
Tony Blair owes his success in getting foundation hospitals on to the statute book to Michael Howard. Government whips persuaded enough Labour backbenchers to ignore their personal concerns and better judgement by conjuring up the spectre of the Leader of the Opposition gloating at the Prime Minister’s discomfort. “I was given a bit of paper and in a stroke the rest of my life had been taken away. What I saw around me was it – for ever, finished.”Harry MacKenney was released by the Court of Appeal last month after they ruled that the evidence against him was “worthless”. “The belief that one day I would prove my innocence prevented that.