The three speeches/headings immediately before

1. 1 earlier: Michael Gove

   If he gets here-he is not here yet. I like him, but he is not here yet, sadly. He is still telling it straight, however, because under this Government the so-called September guarantee is a con trick. Even the Prime Minister appears to think so, otherwise he would not have introduced in his speech yesterday another guarantee: the January guarantee-to join the September guarantee and the other 38 guarantees that were already in the schools White Paper. This Government produce new guarantees at the same rate at which Zimbabwe prints dollars, and they are worth about the same.

2. 2 earlier: Bob Russell

   Oh, he will get here, will he?

3. 3 earlier: Michael Gove

   I am so sorry, Mr. Speaker. I was just attempting to deal with the split-personality issues on the Government Front Bench.

   In Hartlepool, the constituency of the Member who, I believe, does sit on the Government Front Bench, although he is sadly not there at the moment, the college principal says that there are more than 50 students in his college for whom he has no funding. The September guarantee does not apply to them, does it? There is a shortfall of £400,000 in the budget, and he says:

   "It's crazy,"

   He goes on to ask:

   "How can I...keep to the September guarantee if I do not know if I am going to get funded to do so? There is a good chance that I will be turning 40 or 50 students away from this college. And, given the absence of apprenticeships in this area, unless other schools and colleges take these young people, they are likely to become neets."

   In Cirencester, the college principal, Nigel Robbins, has not even received enough cash from the Secretary of State to cover a shortfall from last year, when more than 100 students received no funding. This year, another 110 students are unfunded-a shortfall of £450,000. The principal is furious with the Government. He says that

   "young people who fail to get a job...will...ask for a place"

   in his college, and he continues:

   "In the past we would have taken them."

   Now, however, he says:

   "This year I will be saying, 'No, sorry, there is no room. We refuse to take you...because no one is funding us for this place'."

   No September guarantee in Hartlepool; no September guarantee in Cirencester.

   In Scunthorpe, the college principal, Nic Dakin, has also complained. He warns that

   "the situation is...very tight."

   On the question of whether he can accept new students, He says:

   "The reality is that we are very, very full."

   Mr. Dakin is not a Tory troublemaker but the recently selected prospective parliamentary candidate for the Labour party in Scunthorpe. He was chosen on an honesty ticket, because he would tell it straight on behalf of his community. He will be popular with the Whips when he gets here.