The Boar speaks to the Prime Minister

At an event which saw Gordon Brown launch his four manifesto promises at the University of Warwick, the _Boar_ was able to question the PM on why students should vote for the Labour Party in the next general election.

In an interview, Gordon Brown said, “More people are going to university this year than any other year in the history of our country. In the recession, we increased the number of students by an additional 20,000.” Dodging an invitation to talk about university budget cuts, he added, “We want to make sure there are opportunities available to people who want to take up the chances.”

When pressed, he admitted that “universities should be expected to be more efficient and get better value for money”. However, he also said, “We obviously know the importance of opportunities for young people.”

Liam Byrne, Brown’s cabinet ‘enforcer’, held a tight control on the discussion and added that more people from poorer backgrounds were going to university, “not least because of the Prime Minister increasing the availability of grants.”

On the commercialisation of universities, Byrne said, “We think that universities do have to play their part in doing business differently in the years to come.” He suggested that universities get together and buy some of the things they have in common.

He addressed universities directly when he said, “Think about the kind of savings you can contribute to.”

The Prime Minister criticised the Conservative leader, David Cameron, in both in his policies and values. He said the Conservatives were the wrong choice for Britain: “The support we’ve given for employment in this area is opposed by the Conservatives… [we have] 40,000 more people in work than in 1997.”

Byrne supplemented this by criticising the Tory fiscal policies and saying, “The Conservatives have got to come clean with the British public.”

The event, attended by close to 400 people, was tightly controlled by security and left several Warwick Conservative protesters out in the cold, who jeered as the PM left the venue. Sky News reported that Conservative HQ had issued orders to their youth wing to form their own publicity stunt and act as a demoralising element to Brown’s trip.

Brown’s four manifesto promises clearly aimed to reach out to the middle and working classes: securing the economic recovery, supporting new industries and future jobs, protecting frontline services and “standing up for the many, not the few.”

The organisers of the event, who had played Jackie Wilson’s ‘Higher and Higher’ and Sam and Dave’s ‘Soul Man’ on a nonstop loop before the speakers took the stage, dotted cabinet members including Alan Johnson, Home Secretary, and Harriet Harman, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party throughout the audience.

An assessment by the BBC’s political correspondent, Iain Watson, was that the event “resembled a Jerry Springer-style chat show; with an invited audience of “real people” and a few audience “plants” — in this case cabinet members.”