Revealed: Lib Dems planned before election to abandon tuition fees pledge

[non sociopath skin]

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 on raising the tuition fee cap, so let us not cause ourselves more headaches."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/nov/12/lib-dems-tuition-fees-clegg

Would the last Lib Dem MP to be voted out of parliament at the next election please turn out lights ...

The Skin

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. "Clear yellow water"?

Now there's an unfortunate image ...

[enlightenment]

2. Rather apt, though.

Why can't US political parties self-destruct as quickly as this?

[T_i_B]

3. We could to with a Liberal Democratic party in the UK

However, the Lib Dems are failing to provide us with a proper Liberal Democratic party and seem content to act as single party pressure group on the fringe of the Conservative Party.

[Jeneral2885]

4. Apples and Oranges

Quite the opposite US Political Parties mutate--the Tea Party being the New Republican Party for instance