To say that there was an option of not entering into coalition also ignores something else spectacularly obvious, if we had beaten the government on tuition fees, or anything else, there would have been a very strong call for a new general election.

The only benefactors? The Tories.

Cable ignores all the signed NUS pledges - separate from any manifesto - that said they would specifically vote against, not just abstain etc.

Let's not forget that all MPs were approached by the NUS to sign this pledge. A the Lib Dems all signed it (in front of the cameras) because it was great publicity.

The fact that Cable/Clegg can't even get their story straight regarding why fees have been increased by over 300% rather than abolished suggests to me that very little thought went towards developing this policy in the first place.

Cynical politicking of the very worst kind.

Its all a load of emotional tosh. In the coalition agreement the Lib Dems gained the right to sit on their hands. However, if they had, and stuck to their "promise" or even wrung their hands railing against tory/brown(hired by labour) plans, then any affect they would have had on the outcome would have been ZERO. The ministers, by going along with the majority of the government have ensured the fairest output possible. Not good but at least some good news for the poorest.
Meanwhile students have access by right to EU Universities, and any of them that have bothered to learn a foreign language could go to top universities in Germany, France, Spain Netherlands etc - where they would pay little to no fees.

This whole discussion and others on this subject reveal the extensive lies parroted by the LibDem leaders. They expect us to believe that they did not know the extent of the deficit and so could not honour the pledge about student fees. Please remember that Cable is a trained economist and the extent of the liability would not have escaped his analysis. He is now prepared to wriggle away from his promise but of course he used to work for Shell in Africa so that probably explains a great deal of his behaviour. I have stated on other comment sites that to betray the trust of the young is a terrible thing to do and the LibDems should be ashamed of themselves.

Nick Clegg made a pledge to the NUS to pressure the government into finding a 'fairer alternative' to tuition fees, and that he would vote against any rise in them. If you look at the pledge that the Liberal Democrats signed, it said nothing whatsoever about them winning the election, being a condition of that stance.

And besides, there was absolutely zero chance of the Lib Dems winning the election, and hasn't been for at least the past seventy years. Are we to assume that none of the manifesto commitments they've made in that time were worth anything?

Did Nick Clegg make those pledges thinking that there was a chance that his taking part in government was going to be in anything other than a coalition? Surely he made those pledges knowing full well that his only part in government was going to be as part of a coalition? He must have made the manifesto commitments knowing full well that he wouldn't mind tearing them up.

I really dont think people are that interested in changing the voting system,its not top of the pops topic wise were i live that's for sure.

What people seem to forget is that the Lib Dems have this once in a lifetime opportunity to prove themselves. Clegg has trumped all Lib Dem Leaders by taking his Party into Govt and giving them that experience of Govt and taking tough decisions.
Not all have come up to the mark but some have shown promise that what the Tories or Labour could do as Ministers, so can they. You can't take that away from him.
Its also focused the Party members minds on what the Lib dems actually stand for and question whether they are really in the right Party.

NewStatesman 13th November 2010

From the Guardian front page:

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, secret party documents reveal.

As the Lib Dem leader faces a growing revolt after this week's violent protest against fee rises, internal documents show the party was drawing up proposals for coalition negotiations which contrasted sharply with Clegg's public pronouncements.

A month before Clegg pledged in April to scrap the "dead weight of debt", a secret team of key Lib Dems made clear that, in the event of a hung parliament, the party would not waste political capital defending its manifesto pledge to abolish university tuition fees within six years. In a document marked "confidential" and dated 16 March, the head of the secret pre-election coalition negotiating team, Danny Alexander, wrote: "On tuition fees we should seek agreement on part-time students and leave the rest. We will have clear yellow water with the other [parties] on raising the tuition fee cap, so let us not cause ourselves more headaches."

...The Lib Dem document is disclosed in a new book on the coalition negotiations by Rob Wilson, Conservative MP for Reading East. Wilson, who interviewed 60 key figures from the main parties for Five Days to Power reveals that: the Lib Dems made no attempt to stand by their two key economic election pledges - no deficit reduction this year and opposition to a VAT increase - in the coalition negotiations.

My personal pledge to vote against the increase in tuition fees is not binding but the coalition agreement to vote in favour of an increase is binding. By the way, thanks for your vote which unlike my promises can not be reversed.