Going into the last election, many of Nick Clegg’s closest allies and, I suspect, the Lib Dem leader himself found the tuition fees pledge embarrassing. It was precisely the kind of opportunistic policy that they had tried to wean the party off.
But when it came to the election and it was still, despite their best efforts, party policy they decided to run with it. As soon as the election results came in, it was clear that Clegg’s exploitation of the subject was going to cause him problems seeing as both Tories and Labour were committed to the Browne review which was almost certain to come out for higher fees.
But when the Browne review came in with its recommendation for £9,000 fees, Clegg — partly, at Vince Cable’s urging — compounded the problem by not exercising the Lib Dem’s coalition agreement opt-out on the matter.
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