Political Feature: Mike Dumigan from the Liberal Democrats

What sort of background do you come from?

I was born in Northern Ireland, near Belfast, Lisburn, a town which is where the army are stationed in Northern Ireland. I spent a fair part my youth in the west , Swinford, Co. Mayo. The reason why I don’t have a particularly good Belfast accent is that any time I wasn’t going to school in Belfast, I was off in Mayo.

Where did you go to school in Belfast?

It was LaSalle, which is just off the Falls Road, not a particularly gentle and easy going place. Sort of Jesuitical brothers, it was quite a tough schooling. And then QUB studied genetics, and then on without any break to do an MBA in Manchester Business School.

And what have you done since then?

Then I’ve worked for a living. In advertising agencies and design consultancies and marketing consultancies. That’s my livelihood, so I’ve been doing that for ten years, slightly longer.

How long have you lived in the constituency then?

For 8-10 years, so apart from two years in Manchester I’ve lived in London, and always interestingly enough in the constituency. Well the interesting thing about the advertising world is that it’s all centred around the west end, up as far as Paddington, but never as far as the East End. So you can be in every single one of the top twenty agencies and never leave the constituency.

What about in the constituency itself, have you been active in the constituency?

Yes I’ve been Chairman of the constituency party of the Liberal Democrats for a few years. I’ve stood for a local Council seat, and I wasn’t successful in a seat where there has traditionally been a strong Tory majority.

You still obviously take a very strong interest in the local council?

Well, a constituency MP needs to understand what local issues are. So if the local electorate are allegedly being defrauded of seven million pounds, then whatever your position in public life you should be concerned about it. Particularly if you happen to be a student and are concerned about lack of spending in education, it should be of interest that seven million quid is being pissed away somewhere else.

Well I think the fact that it’s reporting after the general election is clearly an attempt to take tertiary education off the agenda until after that, and that the Conservatives see is advantageous to them. Equally I think Labour sees a great advantage to their party. They have refused to put forward to increase spending on tertiary level education, or indeed on education at any level, and do not have any precise plans on tertiary level education. So yes I think the fact that Ron Dearing will report after the General Election is very much or was very much a political decision.

And what about your party’s submission to the commission, what approach did it take?

Well as a party we have a view that tertiary education is vitally important. We do think our approach is new in that we think that there are three sources of funding for tertiary level education, one is government, two is employers or future employers, and three is the student body and we think that all three have a contribution to make. It’s significantly different in that education in tertiary level will remain completely free under all the Liberal Democrats proposals, but for subsistence, accommodation etc. we believe that students may be making a contribution themselves and that would be funded, rather than the government system where the funding is through high street banks, through a government body and that would be paid back from people’s wages as a percentage of that so that if you’re not working you’re not paying back, so it’s only paid back when some can afford to pay back, when they’re earning at a high enough rate to do so.

Would you accept that there aren’t really major difference between you and Labour?

No, I think there are fundamental differences, I think the fact we have stated that we’ll spend an extra Ł2bn on education and some of that will be spent on tertiary education and that’s a commitment we make is a real difference. Where Labour do not make any actual financial commitment and do not state their policies with any detail then you take the risk, it’s like the lottery.

You’ve committed to spend an extra Ł2bn, you’ve haven’t committed to spend any precise amount of money on existing third level education, is that correct?

We have committed to spend part of those additional revenues we gain on tertiary education, we just haven’t set a sum, not to my knowledge, it may be that our education spokesman has done something in the last few days that I’m unaware of.

You’ve got your pre-primary you’ve got your existing primary and secondary, and you’ve got your extra adult education?

We make a commitment to each of those areas.

You’ve got at least four priorities there before you get on to the existing tertiary structure, so you would accept that the existing tertiary structure is not exactly very high up?

No I wouldn’t, I think it’s absolutely a key priority. Politics is about balances you cannot say that educating a three year old is more important that educating a seven year old, which is more important than educating a seventeen year old or a twenty year old, because you have to educate that person through their life. So if we bolster up one area of education, because we take that what I call the holistic approach we’re naturally bolstering up the rest, otherwise there is a weak link.

Does your party or do you personally have any preference as to reinstating the Science and Technology Minister to Cabinet level?

I’m not absolutely certain we have a view on that. My personal view is that science, technology and information technology is absolute key to the future success of this country and also key to empowering of individuals. This country I think fails miserably in the investment it puts into science and technology and I do think that governments should play a much stronger role into trying to bolster those areas and if that means the Minister in Cabinet then personally I’m all in favour of it.

So you are personally in favour?

Mm.

But your party you don’t think has a position on the matter?

I’m genuinely unsure.

With the Liberal Democrats coming third in this area in 1992, Mr Dumigan denied that hehad no chance of winning the seat and emphasised that he didn’t want people to vote tactically in this constituency. He went on to say that he would "probably" be contesting the next general election in the same constituency and insisted that this was the only seat where had sought to be the Liberal Democrat candidate. On hearing that his Labour opponent had tried "two or three" other constituencies he suggested that Ms Green could be described as a "carpet bagger"