It is hard to detect any discernible Liberal Democrat influence in the detail of Wednesday's announcements. One by one, Nick Clegg's reassurances to his MPs, councillors and members are falling to bits, writes Andy Burnham in today’s Guardian.
“It will take time for people to absorb the full impact of Wednesday's spending review, but one thing will be clearer today to many voters. Raucous Tory cheers for deep cuts will have helped cement an impression that had been forming in the public mind. This is no coalition government. This is a Tory government in which Liberal Democrats have accepted jobs.
He’s just having a break from his food, Nick
On Wednesday, his position was severely weakened on two fronts. First, on university funding, the full extent of Clegg's ideological journey was laid bare. When Vince Cable said the Browne report was "on the right lines", it was sold to Lib Dems as practical politics in the current financial climate to revisit their "no rise in fees" pledge. But something completely different emerged on Wednesday. The Treasury green book describes an ideological shift, pledging "major reform … to shift a great proportion of the funding from the taxpayer to the individuals who benefit".
For years, Lib Dems have said the state should bear the biggest burden. Labour has been in the middle, arguing for a partnership between student and state. The Tories have hinted at an individual, market-based approach. In a few short days the Lib Dem leadership has leapfrogged Labour to embrace this ideology.
This intellectual turmoil on fees provides the essential context for what is about to become an even bigger problem for Clegg. Recognising his weakening ground on universities, Clegg has begun in recent weeks to bet the shop on his pupil premium. Bite the bullet on fees, he's been telling his members, because we've got our manifesto commitment on schools.
That was the message behind his "fairness premium" speech in Chesterfield last Friday, as he sought to rally his unhappy troops. He promised that schools will receive "additional funds to offer targeted help to every pupil eligible for free school meals" and "this pupil premium will grow to an additional £2.5bn of investment each year".
It sounded clear enough. But, as with fees, the green book told us something different. The pupil premium would not be additional but would "sit within" a schools budget that, once increases in pupil numbers were taken into account, would see spending per pupil falling in real terms over the spending period.
The political significance of Clegg's failure to fund the pupil premium is huge. It goes to the heart of the politics of the coalition, and raises real questions about Clegg's influence within it. The issue is politically charged because it was one of the points on which the Lib-Lab post-election talks foundered.
Back in May, David Laws told Ed Balls that the Lib Dems had secured a promise from the Tories that the pupil premium would be funded on top of real-terms growth for the schools budget. Balls was never convinced, as this intriguing exchange in the House of Commons on 7 June with Sarah Teather shows:
Balls: "The old chief secretary [David Laws] and the new chief secretary [Danny Alexander] made a commitment to me, Lord Mandelson and Lord Adonis in the coalition talks that there would be additional money, on top of rising spending this year, next year and the year after. Does the honourable lady agree – I will not quote her this time; I will quote the deputy prime minister – that 'without money, that commitment will continue to be meaningless – more spin without substance which will yet again leave thousands of children short-changed'? Are the Liberal Democrats being short-changed by their Conservative colleagues?"
Teather: "The prime minister made it clear from the dispatch box last week that the pupil premium would involve substantial extra money from outside the education budget. Perhaps I should remind the right honourable gentleman that one of the sticking points during the coalition talks with the Labour party was that it would not agree to the pupil premium."
So there it is. The green book confirms that the Lib Dems have failed to nail down promises made to them by the Tories in post-election talks – promises that have been Clegg's fig leaf for staying in the coalition.
I want to be clear that Labour supports the idea of giving more money to children with the greatest needs. It was what we did as a government. But it's hard to accept the policy as it stands as the effect of a new pupil premium within a schools budget that is keeping pace with inflation will be to recycle existing money from one school to another and create lots of winners and losers.
And it gets worse for Clegg. Under the draft terms of the funding mechanism for the pupil premium, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has said that it could have the perverse effect of siphoning funding away from more disadvantaged inner city schools to those in more affluent areas.
It is important to see all this in the context of other education policies announced on Wednesday: the scrapping of education maintenance allowances that help the least well-off stay on; a breathtaking 60% cut to schools capital; the paring back of Sure Start. It is clear that, going forward, remaining resources will be used as bait to lure schools into Michael Gove's ideological experiment of free schools and academies.
Taken all together, I don't think this is an education policy that most Lib Dems can sign up to. We now have not one but two major Lib Dem broken promises on education. Ruthless Tory ministers have chewed up and spat out Mr Clegg. For a party proud of its principled approach to education policy down the years – and which famously promised a penny on income tax to fund it – these are bleak times indeed.”
