Imagine this scenario: a Labour MP is approached by a family that lives in her constituency, claiming that their talented child will not go to university because tuition fees and student loans are unaffordable. How should the MP respond?
It is an entirely plausible scene. Should the MP sympathise and remind the parents that, if elected to power, the Labour Party will scrap fees? Or, tell the family that their child can and should go to university, because the fees are not payable upfront and the benefits from attending are tremendous?
It is obvious what the ethical course of action is: people’s lives are far more important than party politics. But the official policy of the Labour Party—to scrap tuition fees and student loans, on the basis of them being too much of a burden for young people—puts these MPs in a quandary.
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