We should be encouraging foreign students to come here and spend their money in our university towns and cities, not penalising them for doing it.

People should know that foreign student fees cross-subsidise inadequate home student funding very heavily. There are no free lunches in British Higher Ed.

The other striking point was the speech lingered on Europe's role, with heavy emphasis on the importance of European support

For all the talk of Europe being sidelined, it's to us that Kyiv is looking

Meanwhile, universities are in financial trouble, with domestic tuition fees not rising enough to pay for growing costs, and government bearing down on international students - an important source of export revenues for many smaller cities.

Salami slicing your way to fiscal headroom introduces more tax complexity, likely means poorly targeted measures increasing deadweight costs, raises uncertainty (where might they look to tax next?), and reduces flexibility going forward (pulling all but the obvious levers sends a signal in itself).

That's a good point but my pet peeve, living and working in Cornwall and Devon, is the shorthand use of 'the North' to mean 'not London'.