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Here we go again!

Another flat, another flatmate. Though since I haven’t known this one for a few years, it’s a bit more … interesting. So far, flatmate seems pretty cool – well, as cool as an Accounting student can be. –cheeky grin- I’m going to be here until at least 31st of May next year, so that means no stressful flat hunting or tiring junk moving until then, at the earliest. Phew.

The flat itself is awesome. It’s actually in the East End of Glasgow, rather than the traditionally student-y West End, but it’s a really nice part of town. Good sized bedroom, bathroom all to myself, massive living room/kitchen which, best of all, since it’s a fifth floor flat, on a hill, surrounded by smaller buildings, I can see right across the south of the city from it – only slightly marred by the fact I can’t see the Clyde, too much in the way . It’s a pretty nice view, the picture really doesn’t do it justice;

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It’s no further than a couple miles from Uni, and I walk at a fair clip, so I can probably cover that in less than half an hour, when I’m back at Uni in September. Hopefully meeting up with a Uni pal or two in town tomorrow, so I’ll be able to get a trial run of getting into the city centre from here. We’re hoping to all get together and go down to Alton Towers for at least one night, but given we can’t all find time to get together and discuss when we’re going, it’ll be a miracle if we actually make it down there.

Of course, it’ll still take me a couple of weeks – at least – to sort everything about the move out – if my experience with the last flat is anything to go by, it’s going to take at least a couple of months to get Glasgow City Council to accept that I am, in fact, a student, and my flatmate is, shock and horror, a student, so they can piss right off with their council tax. It also doesn’t help that the energy company who were supplying me at Sutcliffe sent me a final warning to pay a bill… despite the fact I hadn’t received any bills from them. That might be Royal Mail’s fault, it might hae gotten lost, but ugh, I’m going to have to phone them up and try and get it through to them that they will get their money, just not quite on time.

Awcht well, I never thought this whole being an adult thing was going to be easy. It’d be nice if it came with a manual.

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Zombie Politics

Just like the man involved, it seems like American suspicion about the release of Al Megrahi just won’t die. With BP now America’s public enemy number one, a group of American senators seem to have decided to get in on the action, and are suggesting that BP had some involvement in the decision last August for the Scottish Government to release Al Megrahi, the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombings.

I’m not going to get bogged down in whether or not his release was right or not – people are very set in their beliefs, and no one who believes it was right to release a terminally ill man is going to convince someone who thinks it wrong to release a convicted terrorist otherwise, or vice versa. Likewise, I’m not going to suggest that his conviction was in any way unsound, that a few of the British Families of victims believe he wasn’t the right man, that even the UN observer to the trial isn’t convinced of the mans guilt. No, these aren’t going to be argued beyond here, because that’s not what this is about.

What it is about, at least in my perception, is a lack of understanding on the part of these senators – a lack of understanding both about Devolution, Scots Law and Scotland’s politicians. There’s also a touch of arrogance, I feel, particularly in mounting an investigation into the decision of a foreign government, and expecting ministers representing that Government to attend such. As the First Minister has made clear, they are answerable to the Scottish Parliament and ultimately the Scottish people – all the relevant information they could release has been, and all a trip to America would achieve is them restating the points they’ve already made.

Though, to be fair, at least they did invite the Scottish First Minister and Justice Minister. The way they were talking before, about the British Government, they didn’t seem to understand the decision had absolutely nothing to do with the British Government.

The worst thing about it, though, is their sheer bloody mindedness. They can’t accept that it was a compassionate release. I almost imagine their train of thought to be as follows; Well, it can’t have been because it was the right thing to do. We don’t think it was, and we’re Americans. We’re the most powerful nation on the planet. Ergo, if we think it’s wrong, it is wrong, as we are the world’s moral authority. Nor could it have been to boost popularity. The SNP did not sit down and say “I know how to get some more votes, let’s release a convicted terrorist.” Everyone knew, even before the release, it would not have been popular. So it wasn’t for power. So that leaves economic gain! They must have done it due to BP lobbying them!

No. They did it because they believed it was the right thing to do, morally, and because it was the right thing to do under Scots Law. It’s one thing to disagree with the moral aspect of the decision – disputes will always arise between nations, and they have every right to criticise any decisions they disagree with. But to persist in this line, to so be so flagrantly disrespectful of another nations justice system because you can’t accept or fathom their system and morals shows an immaturity that has come to be expected of America – that they say jump, and Britain says “How high?” and if they don’t get their way, they throw a tantrum.

Fortunately, the Scottish Government is not the British Government. Whilst Cameron was in the states wrapping himself as firmly as possible round Obama’s little finger, whilst Brown was hiding in his wee bunker at Number 10 last year, refusing to make any sort of comment, Salmond’s Government stood up for what they thought was right, against the fury of the American Government. They continue to do so, and these Senators in the US can stamp and shout and cry all they want, they are going to find nothing more than a Government acting according to their laws and morals.

Stercus Stercus Stercus

I wish it was six months ago. Life was easy. Sure I was finding it a bit of a pain trying to get BT to get my bloody phone line installed, but I had a flat and a flatmate, and my only worry was when we’d finally get internet. Times were good. Most of my time was spent bantering with Mairi and watching DVDs.

Now I’m living in my Aunt’s flat whilst they are away on holiday, desperately trying to find somewhere to live by the 28th. My deposit for the last flat still hasn’t come back, though I am assured it will soon (it bloody better be.) There’s almost nothing within my price range and area going, and the one place I did see I didn’t get.

At least, that is my assumption based on complete silence. I mean, seriously, if someone has expressed an interest in your flat, and you said you’d get back to them, then get back to them, regardless of outcome! Flat sharing is a big undertaking, so if you felt you’d get on better with one of the people who viewed your flat later, that’s perfectly understandable. Just have the decency to let me know this. What happened to manners, eh?

As far as staying with family goes, that’s pretty much a closed book. Not enough room in my Aunt’s house for me when they get back, my Grandparents don’t have enough space either, and quite aside from both my parents living some way away from the city, living with my mum and her new partner would be awkward, and on my dad’s side, my step-sister’s  baby is due any day now. I really don’t fancy living there after that, likely to cause tension between my dad and step-mum. Plus my little step-brother drives me up the wall, and the younger step-sister apparently has quite an attitude. Now that I’m twenty I have every right to dislike teenagers, I’m just done with that, I know exactly how shitty they can be. On the flipside my actual brother seems alright these days, if rather obsessed with football and nearly mute.

So once again, it’s back to being stressed the hell out. I’m reduced to refreshing Gumtree every few minutes, in the hope that if something good comes up, I can make a move on it instantly. Even then, it’ll probably end up being a case of viewing the flat the next day, by which point plenty of others may have been able to arrange to view it, making it that bit harder to get it.

It’d be really nice if Scotland would grant us some nice summer weather, at least that way I could get out on my bike, maybe cycle down to Loch Lomond and back, relieve some stress by enjoying the sunshine and having some exercise, but alas, it just pours and pours with rain. I’m beginning to think my love for my country is totally irrational, given the terrible climate and the general apathy of most of the population. But that’s a rant for another post, there’s been enough misery from me today.

I’m beginning to say this so often that it’s almost like my catchphrase, but here’s my advice to young students, wherever you may be; Do not move out. Leech off your parents as long as possible. Moving out is only likely to have you tearing your hair out. You have been warned.

Farewell tae the wee flat (but it’s no aw bad!)

It’s a sad time for me. I’m moving out of my flat on Wednesday, due to all the nonsense about the boiler, and it’ll be a shame to leave it. Obviously, as my first place of my own, I’ve grown quite attached to it. I’ve also had pretty much no luck finding anywhere else – me and Jean couldn’t agree on which of the two flats I’d seen to go for, so it’s back to square one, and for the past week I’ve just been hiding from the whole thing because it was stressing me out.

Looking like I’ll be living with family for at least part of July, though at least that’s free, since I’m strapped for cash due to not having a job. My excuses are that there’s nothing really going anyway, and that I’ve not had time to look since it’s rather hard to have a job when you don’t have somewhere to live in between shifts. This being an adult crap isn’t all that easy, I’m finding out.

On the upside, I’ve otherwise had quite a good week this week. Went to see Coheed and Cambria on Tuesday with a couple of friends from University. They were really good, especially for a tour in support of their most recent album, which I’m not hugely keen on. While they only played three songs between my two favourite albums (both volumes of Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV), one of those songs was my absolute favourite, and they also played a lot from their second album, which was excellent.

Naturally, the actual video for the song has embedding disabled. Still epic. I’m still not in the habit of lifting my bloody camera if I go to gigs, so I didn’t get any half decent shots of the band playing. Friends with the smart phones did, but you cannae rely on them to get anything up on Facebook.

In even better news, I got my overall result for this year at University. Not got a module-by-module breakdown yet, but I’m going to assume that I did about as well in my second semester as I did in my first, because my result for the year as a whole is “Eligible for Level SHE1 Award with distinction.” In other words, I passed first year with distinction! Pretty proud of myself, though I know I’m going to have to put in even more effort next year and the years after if I want to keep that kind of thing up.

Also because I’m a nosy bastard, I did a cheeky wee look through the entire document we were sent, which had the results for everyone sitting the BSc Engineering courses in First Year. There were 75 people sitting such courses, and 9 of those passed with distinction. 4 of those passes were in my course, which only has 7 people on it. Looks like the brains all lie in the Mechatronics course, eh? I reckon a wee night out in celebration is in order!

Tuition Fees – the politics of “now”

Today, much to my chagrin since I am a Scottish Student, the think tank Reform Scotland have stated that they believe Scottish Students should pay towards their tuition. A bit of background; The first Scottish Executive scrapped up-front tuition fees shortly after the UK Government had introduced them across the entire UK, replacing them with a £2000 payment, the Graduate Endowment Fee, payable at the end of your degree course. In 2008, the SNP Government in Scotland scrapped that, too, restoring the principle of free Education in Scotland.

The argument of this think tank is that it is unfair that taxpayers should subsidise University graduates – after all, those graduates will go on to make more money after university, ergo they should pay back the cost of their tuition. Of course, this is mired in the politics of “now.” Taxpayers are paying for these students tuition now. It’s dreadfully unfair now. Those Students should pay it back as close to now as possible. No one really stops to consider that, since these graduates will be, in theory, earning more than the average taxpayer, they will also be paying more taxes than the average taxpayer.

Lifting Reform Scotland’s own figures out of that article, they say the average graduate earns £129,000 more over their lifetime than a non graduate. They suggest that when a graduate starts earning more than the average salary in Scotland, which is roughly £23,000, that they start paying back the cost of their tuition. Let’s do some cheeky calculations. Firstly, some assumptions; that a student starts university at 18, does a four year long Honours degree, and leaves at 22. Let’s also assume they work constantly for 43 years, from 22 until they are 65 and retire. Obviously, we also have to ignore inflation, since I’m no economist.

Dividing the £129,000 figure they earn in their lifetime by 43, gives us a figure of £3000. This is how much more per year, on average, this average graduate earns than the average non graduate. This puts their average salary over their life at £26,000, which means that none of this extra income falls into the 40% income tax bracket, making the next calculation incredibly simple.

Since we know that this £129,000 over the years is, on this average graduate, not going to ever push their wage into the 40% income tax bracket, we can safely say that all £129,000 is going to be taxed at 20% tax. Dividing £129,000 by five (or by a hundred and multiplying by twenty, whichever tickles your mathematical pickle) gives us £25,800. That means that this graduate pays the equivalent of an entire years worth of work in tax more than a non-graduate.

Currently, tuition fees in Scotland are £1,820 for most courses, which the Government pays for Scottish students – at least, that is the cost of mine. This is possibly a subsidised cost in and of itself, but we’ll put that aside for now. Multiplying the tuition by four for each year of studies means the total cost of tuition per student to the taxpayer is £7,280. Taking that figure away from the extra tax the graduate will pay over their lifetime, and we find that the average graduate will not only pay back the cost of their tuition, but pay on top of that an extra £18,250 in taxes than a non-graduate. Just to put that into context, that is enough to fund a standard 4 year honours course just a bit more than two and a half times over.

In short, the taxpayer is only paying for a students tuition now – when they graduate, they will, over the course of their lives, pay the cost of their tuition back more than threefold, which, in theory, allows for the next generation of students to be educated without cost. It is absolutely ridiculous, at least in itself, to charge a student for University, whilst also quite happily taking from them taxes that are more than three times the cost of their tuition.

Of course, the problem is it’s all rooted in the here and now – university funding is in trouble at this moment, so if we start charging new graduates for their degrees as soon as possible, we get money for them now, on top of the gradual flow of extra taxes they will pay as graduates, and on top of the interest they will be paying on their student loans. As far as people calling for abolition of free education see, it’s a winning idea. As far as students are concerned, it’s just a way to get us to pay for our education multiple times over.