The Freshers’ fair hangover  

There is a salutary lesson for politicians of all political parties: don't make categorical promises if you intend to break them, particularly so soon after the election. Sometimes the breaking of election pledges (and we all do it at some time!) marks a parting with the electorate. While they didn't quite take to the streets, John Major was certainly haunted by his ‘no new taxes' pledge in the early 1990s, and especially after his government imposed VAT on domestic fuel. Voters never really forgave him for the ‘22 Tory Tax rises' breaking what they thought was a very specific pledge at the 1992 General Election, where tax had played a deciding factor in the outcome (remember the Tax Bombshell?) Jump forward almost two decades and we have thousands of students in uproar (and a small minority of them behaving criminally) at the Liberal Democrats for their apparent...