U-Turn If You Want To

Some students are on a jolly demonstration 'beer induced riot 'cos it's fun' today campaigning against tuition fees. Now as a former student I have some sympathy with their plight but the arguments for or against the coalition's proposals, and the national debt, is not the point of this post.

No, the point of my post is to laugh. Laugh at their naivety at being taken in by those 'cuddly' Lib Dems, thinking that they would be different from the 'other two':

The National Union of Students is threatening to try to unseat MPs who go back on pre-election pledges to oppose any rise in tuition fees.

It says the Liberal Democrats face an electoral "wipeout" if they break their pledge to vote against higher fees.

The Lib Dems have long targeted the student vote, as Paul Linford writes here:

But Labour's shameless U-turn [on top-up fees] created a huge political opportunity for the Liberal Democrats, which they subsequently sought to exploit to the full in constituencies with large student populations.

Among the seats they targeted in 2005 was Newcastle Central, and it was probably only the personal popularity of the then MP, Jim Cousins, that stopped them winning it.

The Lib Dems were again making the most of the issue during this year's campaign, which they fought on a pledge to abolish the fees in place of a 'graduate tax.'

Now though it is all different:

As one Sheffield student told the BBC's Question Time on Thursday: "Nick Clegg was never out of our student union during the election. Now we can't even get a meeting with him."

And it's not just Clegg who's pusillanimous:

The Business Secretary Vince Cable has pulled out of a planned visit to Oxford University where students were planning a protest.

They're yellow for a reason.

As anyone who follows Lib Dems in Parliament or who has campaigned against them in local elections knows they are the most duplicitous, two faced bastards known to man. (that's why Cameron gets on with them so well) The only principles they understand is that they don't have any.

Still, at least the current students have learnt their Lib Dem 'mistake' early on in their political life.

Update: Clegg is getting a hard time over this at PMQs.