As a mature student studying at Cardiff University, I am well-placed to see that the loan system of student finance is responsible for encouraging many to drop out of the education system.

As a socialist I believe that there should be a basic right of access to free high quality education for all.

What is needed throughout Wales is a system which provides free education at colleges and universities through the restoration of student grants which are in line with minimum wage levels.

Our schools, like our higher education colleges and universities, are grossly under funded.

Essential services within schools have been cut to almost non-existence - welfare officers, educational psychologists, English Language support teachers, peripatetic music teachers have become almost non existent.

Our children are bribed with McDonald's vouchers to improve their attendance, have Coca Cola machines in their schools, have books which advertise chocolate and pester their mother to shop at Tesco for the school vouchers.

The Wales Assembly Government has not condemned the idea that businesses should sponsor investment in classrooms in return for having their logos prominently displayed.

This amounts to partial privatisation - another failure to spend our taxes in the most productive way.

Our education system should be funded according to need, which means radical changes in the way resources are distributed. How can we be surprised at the disaffection of Britain's youth if we do not even consider their education worth investing in?

For social and economic reasons the Socialist Labour Party believes that all transport systems and industries - on land, sea, rail, inland waterways and air - should be in public and municipal ownership, managed in a fully accountable way and complementing , not competing with each other.

The sell-off of Britain's rail network has proved to be an unmitigated disaster. The SLP wants to see the entire network taken back into public ownership and control.

At the same time we want to see Britain's bus and tram services taken into or back into municipal ownership.

The Welsh Assembly Government has the power to re-regulate transport services in Wales and, in particular, to ensure that rural areas are not left without a service.

They have failed to this.

The Socialist Labour Party stands for the principles of the Labour Party of Aneurin Bevan.

Don't waste your second vote - use it to make a change.