CONSIDERING what happened in the House of Commons, through the abuse of the democratic process by the ConDems in passing legislation a fortnight ago to treble tuition fees - for which they had no electoral mandate - I think it would be appropriate for me to take up from where I left off in my column last month.

The legislation was passed by a paltry majority of 21, thanks to the betrayal of the Liberal Democrats.

The issue of tuition fees will not just go away.

Neither must we allow it to be buried under the propaganda against the majority of law-abiding students, who took to the streets on the day of the vote to demonstrate peacefully against the legislative vandalism being visited upon them.

Nor can we blame the deficit caused by greedy bankers, whom the government continues to protect.

What should we expect from a government whose cabinet contains 18 millionaires?

They have no understanding of the daily struggle by ordinary folk to make ends meet.

Hardship does not exist in their vocabulary.

There has never been any need to treble tuition fees, and the only explanation for it is that the government decided to cut investment in university education by 80 per cent.

As announced in the Comprehensive Spending Review, there will be no real terms increase in the larger education budget itself.

So it all boils down to the centre-piece of ConDem policy: cuts all the way across the board.

As I write, the latest casualty is the education maintenance allowance, against which students aged between 16 and 18 from further education colleges are protesting.

It is being scrapped amid the impending negative impact on low income families. Savage cuts affecting school sports have already been announced in addition to the cancellation of the school building programme.

Other sectors and front-line services will not be spared. The Local Government Association has announced that thousands of jobs could go in the next 12 months because of cuts.

Nobody looks forward to difficult times, but we are in for a very rough ride and a bleak future, through no fault of ours, under this ideologically driven coalition.

While the country is being subjected to a depressing catalogue of negative announcements and a dose of insensitive actions by a government infatuated with a one-dimensional policy - cuts, cuts and cuts all the way, to which the residents of Hillingdon are not immune - we need to show our true spirit during the festive season by helping one another.

Christmas is a time when those who are better off should help those who are less able to help themselves and give generously.

So let good neighbourliness and friendship prevail within mankind during the festive season.

On behalf of the Hillingdon Labour Group, I wish to extend to all Hillingdon residents a very merry Christmas and a splendid new year.