I FIND a mixture of irony and bare-faced cheek in Labour Coun Fraser’s finger-pointing on the issue of Lib Dem MPs and tuition fees.

He accuses them of hypocrisy – well let’s not forget it was his party who introduced those fees, and increased them in 2004 when they had at the previous election promised not to do so.

They even did so while in a comfortable majority, and while we were experiencing the boom years, so there was no economic need to do so.

By comparison, the Lib Dems find themselves in the position of being a junior partner in a coalition, and with a sizeable budget deficit left by Labour. In that situation any party would find they cannot fulfil every commitment they would like to.

But I feel those MPs in coalition are not being given their due credit.

In the proposals, we see more being done to support poorer students, a lower week-by-week repayment of loans, and the payback threshold raised to £21,000, the average national wage.

Would these be happening if only the Conservatives were in government?

They certainly never happened under Labour.

James Whiteside, Chair of the University of York Liberal Democrat Society, Melbourne Court, Fishergate, York.