Tuition fees undid Paddy Ashdown’s achievements

Paddy Ashdown, the former leader of the Liberal Democrats, who died last week.Paddy Ashdown once said when criticising the EU: “When things go wrong good friends should say so.” In the Lib Dem Nottingham spring conference of 1993, the Lib Dem party members voted for free university education and against the introduction of university tuition fees.Paddy Ashdown (Obituary, 24 December) was furious, lost his temper and vowed the conference vote would not stand.