Liberal Democrats here in Brighton are divided on the Clegg tuition fees apology. Most of them feel it was worth a try, that it was necessary if the party is to get a hearing on other issues. But one Lib Dem minister has told me that he worries the apology is too complicated. He fears that anger will bubble back up when people realise what a few newspapers didn’t: that Clegg is apologising for making the promise, not breaking it.
On the Sunday Politics today, Danny Alexander conceded that he had signed the fees pledge after he had warned Nick Clegg that it was unaffordable. This is an embarrassing admission. It emphasies that the party leadership ran with the pledge despite knowing that it was a deeply flawed policy. It perhaps explains why Clegg felt the need to apologise: he had been told that this was a promise any British government could not keep.
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