Alex White (Labour)

It is easy enough to say about education that there are many who can afford a higher registration fee and perhaps it is the case that most Members in this Chamber could afford a higher registration fee for their children. That is not the point. The point is that higher education should not be the preserve of the well-off. We have made a commitment to higher education and education at all levels, that it is not a commodity to be parcelled up and sold off to the highest bidder and that it is something we believe all children and all young people should have access to irrespective of the wealth of their parents.