AFTER a hard day's work, frequently getting soaked through to the skin, you didn't seek shelter in the 1940s and 50 when a cloud appeared in the sky.

It was home on the bus/tram, a change of clothing, a meal and then off to the "Tech" three evenings per week. This was hours of hard slog, dictated notes, then homework on Sundays.

Most ex-servicemen were then living in rooms with their families, when it was normal for a man to support his wife and children, while saving for years on end to raise a deposit on a house.

We paid our own course fees, examination fees too, unless good examination results won a "free admission".

Apprenticeships/traineeships that were interrupted by military service, had to be "picked-up" again. The hard-won City & Guilds Full Technological Certificates, Higher National Certificates, Professional Institution Examinations demanded years' of study. Ten or 11 years was commonplace!

Why should old-age pensioners be expected to contribute through the taxation system, to the course fees of young people fortunate enough to find themselves in a university?

I find rebel New Labour enthusiasts for a two-tier higher education system nauseating to say the least.

COUNTY COUNCILLOR TOM WAREING,

Redditch.