trousers

One could argue that their supporters are being short sighted too in their clamour to punish a party that has admitted they made a mistake in making such an unconditional pledge. You'd have thought people would admire politicians that apologise and admit mistakes given how few do.

So, if tuition fees was a Tory red-line in the coalition negotiations (which it undoubtably was), Lib Dem supporters' preference was to duck out of a chance to have their party in government for the first time in generations? I appreciate that sticking to one's principles is a noble thing, but surely the lib dems stood more chance of promoting their other policies in government than as a minority opposition party. Sounds like cutting off nose to spite face territory to me.

Which is sort of the point....?

And by extrapolation, also pretty meaningless (and equally naive) for their supporters to believe that a minority party can ever fulfill any of its pledges. And then moan about it when the obvious happens after the event....

Analogy-tastic

Anyone know if the runners-up qualify for the Europa League.....?

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/students/student-loans-tuition-fees-changes#multiOne

How would coalitions ever work if each party had to stick to their pledges? Surely that's the point of coalitions - you have to compromise on things you wanted to do?

I wasn't in the initial coalition-forming meetings so I've no idea how hard they tried to bargain re: tuition fees.

They were certainly naive/stupid to make a pledge that they stood no chance of being able to keep in a Tory/Lib Dem coalition situation. Pre-election manifestos should be all about "aspirations" rather than "pledges" as no-one knows what's going to be achievable until they get into power, especially if they are sharing said power with another party.

They're not really 'fees' any more though - its a progressive graduate tax - so they sort of stuck to their word

Mere details old chap. They didn't 'get it' then so they're hardly likely to have 'engaged brain' some 3 years later. I assume Carlsberg have started doing back-handed compliments now?

Yet, despite all the mouth-frothing, what we've ended up with is a progressive 'graduate tax' whereby those who earn more pay more for their tuition, and the majority of graduates will never have to pay back anywhere near the full "debt". So, the Lib Dems inadvertently stuck to their pledge of introducing a fairer alternative (to what was in place before).... And not forgetting that Labour's headline grabbing £3,000 reduction will only benefit the wealthiest graduates.

Blair's speech: "The reasons for staying in the EU are compelling, which is why we shouldn't have a referendum". Erm, if what he says is true then surely the risk (to those wanting to stay) in holding a referendum is negligible...? #rhetoricalquestion Some contorted logic there from Mr Blair me thinks.

Because they realise they'd become even more unpopular (amongst their 'traditional' support base) when in power due to the amount of rationalisation (aka "cuts") they've signed up to....?

Labour wheeling out Blair? Excellent news

...and Swansea to stop winning games of football

Maybe ask your own source (The Collins dictionary) why they state it to be offensive when its used to describe someone who is 'stupid or foolish'?

Why does the Collins Dictionary state that the slang word 'mong' is offensive but the not the slang word 'tw*t', for example? Surely they're both equally offensive words? If not, why not? Just curious.

You're making the assumption that what politicians say in public is the same as they are thinking in private. The best outcome for the SNP, in order to accelerate their separatist agenda, is for there to be another Tory government (regardless of how likely or unlikely that is to happen). Their decades long mantra is: "we've got an evil Tory government that Scotland didn't vote for'. A Labour government supported by the SNP would mean losing one of their aces in their goal to secure another referendum. Its no coincidence that last year's referendum happened at the height of a Tory government in the middle of a difficult economic period. Of course they'll keep peddling the " we'll support labour to keep the nasty Tories out" party line during the election campaign but then watch them conveniently blame labour when the post election cooperation talks break down, paving the way for a minority Tory government. IMHO of course

Southampton FC @SouthamptonFC #SaintsFC boss @RonaldKoeman on today's defeat: "I'm disappointed with the result but not about the performance of the team." "I think we played on a good level, we had some good chances in the first half and we received an unlucky goal." #saintsfc "That made it more difficult but we still did everything and tried everything until the last second but it wasn't enough." #saintsfc "After the 1-0 we kept our organisation on the pitch and we tried everything to score the goal. They defended very well." #saintsfc "The frustration is all about if you get chances and don't score. We deserved more today but that's football." #saintsfc "I'm proud of what the players showed today and the support of the fans. We keep going." #saintsfc

Every chance we'd have got a result if Howard doesn't make a wonder save to deny Pelle early on. And theirs was a soft goal too. Fine lines, but that doesn't disguise a lacklustre performance.

January 1987?

Villa pull one back