Telegraph View: Nick Clegg should summon up the courage to stick the course on tuition fees.
The Liberal Democrats have always trumpeted the virtues of coalition government, insisting that it would provide Britain with better policy-making and more effective rule. Their deal with the Conservatives after the last election gave them the opportunity to prove the truth of the doctrine they have so often proclaimed. And, for a time, it looked as though they had indeed lived up to their promise. They were required to make some difficult and bold compromises on cherished policies in order to form an administration with the Conservatives, and to their credit, they managed to do so. But their vacillations over increasing tuition fees appear to confirm all the worst caricatures of coalition government.
Robert Frost once wrote that a liberal can be defined as a man too broad-minded to take his own side in a quarrel. As Matthew d’Ancona points out on the page opposite, Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, has been doing his best to live up to that maxim: the man behind the Coalition’s policy of allowing universities to charge higher tuition fees said that he might not vote for the policy he created, before admitting that he probably will after all. As we report today, responsibility for this equivocation seems to lie with a loss of nerve from Nick Clegg, his party leader and the Coalition’s Deputy Prime Minister.
This will, we fervently hope, not be the end of the Coalition: it has begun a welcome process of thoughtful and imaginative reform, and its Lib Dem members appear to be working diligently and effectively alongside their new colleagues. True, the party is spooked by its plunging poll ratings – yet it will only recover if Mr Clegg rediscovers the virtue of courage, and sticks to his chosen course. If he does not, he will cement his party’s position as an object of the voters’ contempt.
No comments:
Post a Comment