With this student visa policy, Cameron is throttling our cultural exports

By Polly Toynbee. The wealth created by our arts and universities is being choked. The US and others are happy to gain from those we shun. Exports plummeted alarmingly in this week's figures, hard on the heels of the credit downgrading. One economic woe follows in another's footsteps, a domino of disasters. This is the death spiral, longer than a lost decade.
Remember when trade was to be our great escape? Government forecasts said net trade (exports minus imports) would rise by 2.4%, as we stole a march on our neighbours. Since then sterling has dropped by a quarter, its biggest fall since 1945. But devaluation has brought no export bonanza, with net trade falling. Yet 70% of government cuts are still to come and David Cameron promises "further and faster" deficit cutting. Read more...