5 min read1 hr The issue of student loans has recently exploded into life, with the government’s decision to freeze the repayment threshold prompting outrage and a debate about major reform. Now that more than 15 years have passed since their highly-damaging tuition fees U-turn, are the Lib Dems ready to talk about student loans again? Ahead of the 2010 general election, the Liberal Democrats, under then-leader Nick Clegg, made a bold and memorable promise: a Lib Dem government would scrap university tuition fees. But just seven months after Clegg’s party entered government as part of a coalition with David Cameron’s Conservatives, a motion to increase tuition fees in England to £9,000 was narrowly passed in the Commons. The move split the parliamentary party, with more than half of Clegg’s MPs voting against the policy or choosing to abstain. Clegg, then the deputy prime minister, was moved to film an apology video in 2012, telling the camera through a downcast expression: “We made a pledge, we didn’t stick to it, and for that I am sorry.” The U-turn was later seen as a …