tempted by a cut to 6k tuition fees?

I have as many ill-informed opinions as the next voter, but luckily the only ones I consider writing up here are the ones directly relevant to academia.

A well-publicised Labour manifesto policy is to cut tuition fees from 9k/year to 6k/year, and this is meant to be a positive selling-point of their package.  Much as I disliked the change to the current regime, I can’t get excited about this proposal. Thinking about why not:

• A reduction of 3k is not a very big discount on 9k plus living expenses.
• The 6k proposal lacks detail about the repayment terms and interest rates (I did read the relevant part of the manifesto). Thus, we’re being offered a pig in a poke.
• There is no proposal to refund the students who have been required to take on 9k of debt per year. This shows a regrettable tolerance of unfairness to people who have ended up in greater debt due to sheer bad luck. The 6k tuition fee proposal is not so much about righting a wrong, as about a headline-grabbing policy proposal.
• This article seems to be showing that the current fees have at least brought in more money to UK universities, which is being spent on students. This takes place at a time of considerable international competition between universities, and we cannot afford not to spend more money on facilities at universities.
• While the current fees regime in unsustainable, we should welcome a transient period of stability (“meta-stability” for readers who know about Markov chain mixing…); I think we’re suffering from change-fatigue.

None of the above is supposed to be taken as supportive of the current 9k fees. I could actually feel supportive of this proposed cut to 6k, if it was presented as a step in the right direction; some kind of down-payment on the way to the abolition of fees. But that’s not how it’s being presented.

Added 16.10.15: THES article: Student voters had ‘less impact than expected’ on general election; sub-headline: Lack of enthusiasm for Labour £6K fees policy could have been factor, says Hepi report