On his penultimate day as First Minister last year, Alex Salmond unveiled a huge commemorative stone at Heriot-Watt University inscribed with the words he uttered in March 2011: “The rocks will melt with the sun before I allow tuition fees to be imposed on Scotland’s students.”
It was classic Salmond, using emotionally charged rhetoric in an attempt to render any dissenting voices illegitimate. It was also a microcosm of how the SNP has attempted to shut down any criticism of its higher education policies, and the choice that it has made to prioritise no tuition fees, something that disproportionately benefits the middle-class.
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