Normally broken promises don't come back to haunt MPs or parties, but this is different, younger people are much more willing to switch party allegiance than those set in their ways.

Oh, like Labour was haunted by it's failure to honour it's manifesto promises on tuition fees. Or on having an ethical foreign policy, etc etc

Please try and live in the real world.

Oh yeah the lib dem manifesto was full of promises to hump the NHS and all public services yeah i really think its the likes of you and your chums ought to be living in this real world as you put it,i fear your party may well not be around in its current form for much longer if things go badly.

Calamity Clegg had already backtracked just before the election when he said that the financial crisis had meant that their flagship policy on scrapping tuition fees would have to be put on the backburner. Yet, during the election he still went to Student Unions and signed these pledges, and slammed the Labour government for the way they've treated university students. That criticism would have had merit if Calamity Clegg and his party weren't such hypocrites themselves. And I believe it is right that the New Statesman is scrutinising the Lib Dems. In opposition they were able to get away with potraying themselves as "whiter than white", but now they're in government they need to be put under pressure.

Yes and Labour won three terms after going back on the tuition fee's.

anyway the way it's going all those Lib Dem's who have joined Labour will be running like hell once David has taken over as leader, kiss Blair at number ten and open the door patting Blair backside, business and normal

@Ed. Depressingly true.

It has been 'said' above and will be said by many more.

Clegg ... read your own manifesto , revisit the promises made to deceive people into voting for your party, then oppose, not just abstain from , any vote for increased fees.

You only have a role in parliament because of deluded voters who believed your manifsto.

You signed a pledge. What a shame that does not constitute a legal contract. Hang on though , it was signed and witnessed.
Any solicitors experienced in contract law in the house ?
Here we will see exactly what level of little whore Clegg has become.

Not only did ALL LibDems sign the pledge, a lot of Labour MP's also signed along with members of SNP,PC and the Greens. There were also 16 Tories who signed the pledge.
It will be interesting to see who carries out their pledge and what sort of campaign the NUS will come up with to put pressure on them to stick to their promise.
To answer the question, I'm sure that pictures of MP's holding their NUS pledges will only come back to haunt them if they go back on that promise.

As a mugged constituent of the Cleggster in Sheffield Hallam it is interesting to note that the Chuff is flogging the Clegg Bunker ASAP and preparing to retreat "daan saaff" prior to the "Nuking of the North".
He certainly won't win this seat again........

It's an uttewr travesty that as a result of banks'playing 'monopoly' on the international money markets, a generation of young people- essential for the future of this country's economy, are being made scapegoats for such voracious yet ironically faceless vultures.
I is an enormous understatement to say 'I feel cheated by the Lib-dems'. Intellectual rape may be more accurate!

Wasn't it a Liberal of the old school, Lord Acton, who commented - "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
Gilbert & Sullivan's 'Trial by Jury' a comic opera about a breach of promise case, was a roaring success in the 1870s.. I wonder if Acton, then about 40, had a sense of humour.
D'OilyCart

err for everyone that was like 'raah labour tuition fees' , the fundamental difference is that tuition fees are a lib dem flagship policy. once you go back on a flagship, you are dead meat.

Brownes recommendations stink. A free market in universities mean that the less fortunate students, and universities, lose out. There must be a cap of say £5K on all fees. And the salary to pay back the loan raised.

You can find the Liberal democrat manifesto here: http://network.libdems.org.uk/manifesto2010/libdem_manifesto_2010.pdf

Relevant passages:

"We will scrap unfair university tuition fees so everyone has the
chance to get a degree, regardless of their parents’ income." (Page 33)

"Scrap unfair university tuition fees for all students taking their first
degree, including those studying part-time, saving them over £10,000
each. We have a financially responsible plan to phase fees out over six years, so that the change is affordable even in these difficult
economic times, and without cutting university income. We will
immediately scrap fees for final year students." (Page 39)

That's what Lib-Dem supporters voted for in May.

What about some of the good people of Sheffield Hallam getting a petition together to recall their MP? I seem to recall such an idea being talked about in those TV debates, in cases where an MP is 'corrupt'. What we are witnessing is straightforward fraud. If little Nicky finds that he can't keep the promises on which he was elected, he should go back to the electorate and ask for their mandate again.

Well, well, well, the plot thickens. This is what you get for voting the Tories back in. What is it that they say about leopards changing their spots- A fairer society for all, pah!!! What a bunch of nonsense.