You are here: Home » Video »

Clegg apologises for the pledge – but not for raising tuition fees

September 19, 2012 6:31 pm

Author:

Tags:

Share this Article

There’s lots of interest in this “Clegg apology” video this evening. Let be clear about what Clegg is apologising for though. He is not apologising for trebling tuition fees. What he’s apologising for is signing the tuition fees pledge.

Here’s the video:

What Clegg says is:

“We made a promise before the election that we would vote against any rise in fees under any circumstances. But that was a mistake. It was a pledge made with the best of intentions – but we shouldn’t have made a promise we weren’t absolutely sure we could deliver. I shouldn’t have committed to a policy that was so expensive when there was no money around.”

That’s not an apology for raising tuition fees. That’s an apology for signing the pledge. Signing the pledge isn’t the bit that many of those angry with Clegg are angry about. In fact, it’s the bit that most of them probably agree with.

Clegg also says:

“I will never again make a pledge unless as a party we are absolutely clear about how we can keep it.”

Which is quite redundant, because no-one would ever believe a pledge Nick Clegg makes ever again.

Update: In a tweet in response to David Aaranovitch, The Lib Dem Press office confirm that this is an apology for signing the pledge, not an apology for voting for trebled fees:

Update: Here’s a video from before the last election in an interview with Dermot O’Leary (aimed at younger voters?) in which he describes their plan to cut all fees as “a costed plan”. He even links debt through student fees to the poor state of the economy:

Update: Nick Clegg has already expressed his regret for signing the pledge back in November 2010. So what’s new today? Was it because no-one heard him the first time?

Related posts:

  1. Nick Clegg’s Tuition Fees Weasel Words
  2. Clegg under pressure over fees
  3. Nick, if you believe in the new politics, vote against tuition fees
  4. Tuition fees demo – liveblog
  5. Lib Dem MEP labels his own party ‘clueless’ and ‘a joke’ on tuition fees
  • Just_Another_Voter

    I can’t remember Labour  apologising after introducing tuition fees after saying they wouldn’t. Nor can I remember them apologising when they tripled the fees a few years afterwards.
    Also Labour said they would also have increased fees had they won the election but to only £6000.

  • NT86

    Beyond parody. If any of his remaining credibility wasn’t already somewhere in the sewers, the toilet was well and truly flushed today.  Satirists are going to have a field with this one.

    To think, I used to respect him some years ago.

  • Serbitar

    Apologising two and a half years after breaking your word betraying the many who saw fit to vote for you based on such promises ain’t saying sorry in my book. Clegg’s hair-shirted hand-wringing is beyond parody. 

Latest

  • Comment Where are the women over 50 on our TV screens?

    Where are the women over 50 on our TV screens?

    By Harriet Harman

    Most people like to think that we live in a society that is fair and equal but for some it is still not equal at all. When it comes to TV presenters, women disappear when they reach over the age of 50. As part of the work of the Older Women’s Commission, I wrote to the six main UK broadcasters asking them how many older women they employ on screen and behind the camera. The figures provided by broadcasters show [...]

    Read more →
  • Featured The Loneliness of the Long Distance Leader

    The Loneliness of the Long Distance Leader

    By Stefan Stern

    That’s it. Enough is enough. I try to be reasonable. But you can only push somebody so far. It’s time to sort this out once and for all. I am fed up with this huge and growing army of sycophants and cheerleaders constantly bigging up Ed Miliband, and making helpful or supportive interventions on his behalf. The list is endless. Let’s shine a spotlight on the guilty men and women. There’s… well, there’s… er… you know… er… thingy… on a [...]

    Read more →
  • Comment Europe We do not stigmatise your country, Deputy Prime Minister. It is you and your party we find distasteful

    We do not stigmatise your country, Deputy Prime Minister. It is you and your party we find distasteful

    By Rob Marchant

    Last Saturday a senior European politician wrote an article in the British press which made you want to shout at the computer screen. Not such an unusual event, you might think, but this was not a debater’s disagreement as one might have had with the viewpoint of a Tory, a Gaullist or a Christian Democrat. It was one which also left the reader feeling a bit nauseous. And that is because, rather than an honestly-expressed case justified with some evidence, it was [...]

    Read more →
  • News Watson urges investigation of “supressed” Leveson evidence – Media roundup: May 21st, 2013

    Watson urges investigation of “supressed” Leveson evidence – Media roundup: May 21st, 2013

    Subscribers to our morning email get the best of LabourList – including the Media and blog round up – every weekday morning. If you were a subscriber you would have already received this in your inbox. You can sign up here. Labour proposes teachers spend time in industry “All teachers involved in vocational education would have to spend a period of each year in industry, under Labour plans to integrate further education with emerging skills gaps identified by businesses. The strategy – announced on [...]

    Read more →
  • Comment Featured Is party politics dying out?

    Is party politics dying out?

    By Mark Ferguson

    This week has brought the role of party members and activists back to the front pages. That’s rather unusual to be honest – and rightly so, as party members (swivel eyed and otherwise) make up only 1% of the British population. Being a party member is already a niche interest. You are somewhat odd if you’re a party member – sorry to break that to you, but of course I’m odd too (and quite possibly odder than you). What swivel-eyed [...]

    Read more →