Nick Clegg went into Coalition talks with Labour demanding "a commitment not to raise the cap on tuition fees". It means he changed his mind on the issue three times in as many weeks.
The Lib Dem leadership went into Coalition talks with Labour demanding “a commitment not to raise the cap on tuition fees”. The exclusive revelation in this week’s New Statesman means that the Deputy Prime Minister changed his mind on the issue three times in as many weeks.
The New Statesman today reveals:
“Nick Clegg and the other Lib Dem negotiators called for “a commitment not to raise the cap on tuition fees” (a watered-down version of their manifesto pledge to phase out tuition fees over six years), a cut in the number of government ministers, a four year fixed-term parliament and “a commitment to no public subsidy for nuclear power stations”. All of these pledges have since been broken by the government.”
It was revealed in Saturday’s Guardian that the Liberal Democrats were drawing up plans to “abandon Nick Clegg’s flagship policy to scrap university tuition fees” two months before the general election. But on April 13th, Nick Clegg recorded a YouTube video for the annual NUS conference in which said “I really think tuition fees are wrong”. Just a day later, the Lib Dem manifesto pledged to:
“Scrap unfair university tuition fees for all students taking their first degree, including those studying part-time, saving them over £10,000 each.”
It now appears that Nick Clegg changed his mind on the issue three times in as many weeks. The revelation will place further pressure on Nick Clegg after his decision to support a near trebling in the level of tuition fees from £3,290 per year to £9,000. The New Statesman also confirm that “the Lib Dems never had any intention of sticking to their election pledge to delay spending cuts until next year.”
30 Responses to “Clegg wanted Lib-Lab Coalition to commit to cap on tuition fees”
Future Left
RT @leftfootfwd: Clegg wanted Lib-Lab Coalition to commit to cap on tuition fees http://bit.ly/aGNcsl
Wendy Maddox
This guy is losing all credibility: RT @leftfootfwd: Clegg wanted Lib-Lab Coalition to commit to cap on tuition fees http://bit.ly/aGNcsl
Will Straw
Duncan,
Glad you think the Lib Dems have messed this up. In my view that’s true in two ways. First, they’re messing up our Higher Education system by effectively privatising arts and humanities based courses removing much that is good about the culture of universities (as David Lammy writes). But second, because of the emphasis placed by Clegg and colleagues before the election on the tuition fees policy, it risks alienating a generation of voters who think that politicians can’t be trusted.
The 3 u-turns in 3 weeks were:
U-turn 1: The hard line in the YouTube video and manifesto publication on April 13/14 which was at odds with the secret document decided a month earlier.
U-turn 2: The initial negotiation with the Tories where they reverted to the plan in the secret document (since adopted).
U-turn 3: The negotiations with senior Labour representatives where they wanted a “commitment not to raise the cap on fees”
They then, of course, reverted to the position in U-turn 2 (technically a 4th U-turn) in the Coalition document paving the way for £9k fees.
Given that the Lib Dems only prospect of power was in a Coalition, it is extraordinarily cynical that they made their position on tuition fees such as a critical part of their election campaign.
Will
Will Straw
@DuncanStott Thanks. I've replied to your comment http://bit.ly/cCAMUU
Mr. Sensible
What a mess.
We don’t know what Clegg’s view was on fees going in to the coalition nigociations, the Lib Dems seem to be saying different things on deficit reduction…
And we now know that the Prime Minister and business department are saying 2 different things on LEPS…
What a total and utter mess.