G HARRIS (HAS, July 21) writes a typically biased letter and he obviously has not looked hard to find any Lib Dem successes in the Coalition.

Yes, the promise not to raise university fees was a disaster. The mistake was in not explaining we could only fulfil that promise if we were the Government and both the other parties were in favour.

In coalition negotiations we were forced to concede this issue even though it had played a big part in our campaign.

However, we were able to win improvements.

The figure at which repayment started was increased from Labour’s £15,000 to £21,000, the number of scholarships and bursaries was increased and a cutoff figure at which payments cease was introduced. As a result it is estimated that only 45 per cent of students will pay back their loans.

Being the the minor partner it was a matter of negotiating our priorities.

The biggest success was the introduction of the “pupil premium”, one of the key elements in our manifesto.

This year primary schools will get £935 and comprehensives £900 for every pupil eligible for free school meals. Even in its early days this is proving a tremendous success.

Recent figures show that there has been a big increase in the number of children on free school meals getting five or more A to C GCSE passes, including Maths and English. This figure will obviously increase as children who have had more years of support pass through the system.

Mr Harris mentions taxation but omits to mention that each year the start point for paying tax has been raised by £500 so that many more low-paid workers no longer pay tax.

Also, we stopped the Tories from reducing the upper rate to 40 per cent.

Again we protected pensioners from proposals to abolish free prescriptions, bus passes and free TV licences for the over-80s.

I suggest we have more than punched our weight.

Brian Fiske, Darlington Lib Dems.