The last week or two has seen tuition fees making all the headlines. Let us be clear on this issue, Lib Dems opposed them when Labour introduced them and we continue to oppose them. The explanation for the decision to raise tuition fees by so much is quite simple, we did not win the election. As the junior partners in a coalition we cannot expect to get all of the policies we put forward in our manifesto. In order to create a government that can deal with an economic crisis left behind by a discredited Labour administration, we have had to compromise on several key issues, including raising VAT instead of income tax, the promotion of free schools and yes, tuition fees

But we are making sure that we have a say in every decision and that our values play an important role in government. And just look at what we have already achieved:

• Raising the starting threshold for income tax which will take 900,000 low earning people out of the tax bracket from 1 April.
• A £2.5bn pupil premium targeted at children in greatest need
• A big programme of constitutional reform including a referendum on fairer votes
  

These are real achievements that we can be proud of. They would not be in the government’s programme if the Lib Dems were not partners. And as the coalition continues people will see what a positive force we are in government. The Coalition Agreement setting out the plans for the next five years can be seen in full at: http://www.libdems.org.uk/coalition_agreement.aspx

The fact that we are in a coalition does mean that some of our policies, on which we fought an election, are on hold is a consequence of the election results which no party won outright. The same is true for our coalition partners, they have not got all their manifesto pledges written into the Coalition Agreement.