Lib Dem Conference: Tuition fees - Leadership considers graduate tax to break deadlock on student finance

THE LIBERAL DEMOCRAT leadership paved the way for a compromise over tuition fees in Scotland yesterday when it stressed that being in government involved "hard choices".

Jim Wallace, the party's Scottish leader and Deputy First Minister, warned delegates at the party conference that "criticism without offering solutions is not a luxury available to governments".

A compromise to save the new coalition in Scotland could be the introduction of a graduate tax, a proposal being considered by the Cubie inquiry into student finance. Andrew Cubie, chairman of the independent committee, confirmed yesterday that the measure was being considered. "We have had submissions about a graduate tax for the future and a graduate tax retrospectively. That clearly has got to be one of the options we will consider," he said.

Under the tax students would not start paying for their university education until they were earning a high enough income. But while Mr Wallace seemed willing to soften his approach, he remained firm that tuition fees in their present form should be abolished.

"We Liberal Democrats believe in the principle of free education ... but government involves hard choices, and broad responsibilities and there are invariably times when the comfort zone of easy opposition beckons. Criticism without offering solutions is not a luxury available to governments. But it was us who fought for the new parliament and the new democracy - and we cannot turn our backs on the consequences," Mr Wallace said.

He added that the party of Scotland had to "match courage with responsibility" to establish itself as a "credible party of government".

Mr Wallace's insistence on abolishing tuition fees not only in Scotland but in the whole of Britain was echoed by Malcolm Bruce, the party's Treasury spokesman. He told delegates: "Can you improve access to higher education by raising barriers to entry - of course not. That is why it is the Liberal Democrats in Scotland who are determined to secure the abolition of tuition fees."

Mr Wallace said during his speech that while the coalition with Donald Dewar's Scottish Labour Party was "based on principle and a radical agenda", it was also part of a "bigger picture. And that is why I want this day to be remembered not as the end of 50 years out of government, but the start for the Liberal Democrats of 50 years and more at the very heart of government," he said.