Thursday 24th February 2011

"Every young person out of work is a wasted talent." That's Lib Dem Deputy Leader Simon Hughes who was visiting Chesterfield earlier today.

The Chesterfield Post was invited for an exclusive walk about with Simon and his team as he met shoppers in the market and the town.

We managed to grab a few words with Simon (see full video of the interview) before he started and asked him, amongst other things, about EMA and Tuition fees.

He began by saying how impressed he was to be in the town, "On a glorious day, and genuinely seeing the first blue sky in 3 weeks!"

He said he was on a whistlestop tour of the region, meeting residents in local towns, ahead of the local elections and the campaign for the fairer voting referendum, due to be held on the 5th May.



He declared himself impressed with the work of the Council here, calling it, "One of the flagship Councils and one that, even in difficult times financially, has managed to set a budget that has, without raising council tax, managed to protect front line services."

Now part of the Government, Simon admits that he misses former MP for Chesterfield, Paul Holmes, "A good friend and a good MP" and is "determined", he says, "to get more Lib Dem MPs elected in the region. We need our voice to be heard - we need to make sure that young people have work and have the skills to move forward. Manufacturing was hugely important in Derbyshire - we need to get that back and bring back real jobs and bring in real money to Britain. Nowadays we have to compete with Russia, China and Brazil.



"As part of the Coalition, the Lib Dems are trying to make sure that pensioners get a better deal, and that people on lower incomes get a better deal - everyone who earns less than £10,000 will have their threshold lifted and no one will have to pay tax on their first £10,000.

"After the last Tory Government the rich got richer, and the same happened under Labour, they let people get bonuses of millions, which is unacceptable in a modern world and for those who work hard."

On the abolition of EMA he said, "I abstained, as I don't like the idea of Tuition Fees, but Parliament made that decision and we're now working on a scholarship scheme to make sure that, from next year, students from Lower income families will get scholarships of around £3,000 a year which will be helpful.

"We're also trying to make sure that universities don't abuse that by putting fees up above the £9,000.

"I have this message for young people, they should not be put off going to University if that's what they want to do - and to bear in mind that they won't have to pay anything until they earn £21,000 - it's not a debt, it's a tax deduction."

He says that EMA could not have continued given the cost of £55m a year saying, "I'm working to propose a package that I hope the Government will accept and which will help those that started Further Education this year to continue into a second year.

"We have a good system in place and we want students to go on to Further Education. My message to colleges is to open evenings and weekends so that facilities can be used and make your cafe's cheaper. It would also be nice to see more businesses and colleges work together.

"We have developed a culture of thinking that those who don't attend University are second class citizens and that's not true, not everyone wants to go there and if someone is more technical then they should be able to follow that.

"Any youngster out of work is a wasted talent and we need to make sure that they can flourish and become citizens of the future."

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