"Graduate tax" in all but name

[longfingernails]

The press is reporting a Lib Dem "u-turn" but how is what is being proposed anything other than a graduate tax? It seems those in higher-paid jobs will have to pay a higher interest rate on their loans than those on lower salaries.

To those of us who believe in flat taxes, that is fundamentally unfair.

It costs someone earning £50k the same amount to buy a TV as someone who is unemployed. It costs them both the same amount to buy 30 litres of petrol. Why should those who, in the future, earn higher salaries pay more in interest for a fixed number of lectures and tutorials than those on lower salaries? How is that "fair"?

It is just socialist redistribution claptrap - more of this "inequality" nonsense - punishing the successful for being successful. I don't care about relative poverty in the slightest - though absolute poverty is a problem. "Combatting inequality" is just a fancy way to say "more tax".

I understand why Vince Cable wants it, but why are the Tories letting this happen?

My only worry about making people pay back their fees or a graduate tax is that it may put off applicants from poorer families. Although I doubt I would ever have thoguht I would earn what I do, so I would never have expected to be in a positon to pay it back. If we could surprise people by not letting them know they would be paying the money back I would have no objection - although I am not sure how ethical that is!

Maybe to encourage hard work we could say that the top performers in each subject would not have to pay back. Or it could be part of a performance related pay for the best public sector workers.

Why should it make any difference as to their background?

The key to paying back is getting a good job. A graduate from a poor background has the same chances of a good job as an equivalent candidate from a rich family.

There are plenty of 'rich' kids who start their working lives with no help from their families.

I don't want to stop people on good wages from paying back their fees just because of their background.

I do think that students from poor backgrounds may be put off if they think that are going to be building up a huge debt in the future, that is my only concern. I was the first person from my family to go to uni, most of my family did not work and therefore the thought of having to pay back 30K would have added to the idea that was being rammed down my throat that people like me did not go to university especuially atop university to study an Arts Degree.

I am not saying that kids from poor backgrounds should not pay that money back regardless of what they earn in the future. As an adult higher rate taxpayer I a happy to pay that money back. As a 19 year old it would have terrfified me.

But maybe that is where good careers education lies, I did my degree not knowing about my earning potential. I just wanted a path out of my shit existence and uni seemed the best choice.

Has Vince Cable just down a u-turn on this policy and now scrapped it?