FROM 1996 until October 2009, Liberal Democrat party policy was that university education should be free.

Suddenly, just days after his party’s conference ended in October 2009, Nick Clegg announced the country couldn’t afford free university education.

Clegg didn’t ask his party. He just announced the change all on his own.

The Lib Dem party conference is supposed to make policy; not the leader. There were 66 Lib Dem MPs before the election and 48 Lib Dem MPs after the election. The Lib Dems were expected to win Durham and other university towns.

The day before the election Nick Clegg was booed and jostled in the streets by students at Durham because of his policy change on tuition fees. Twelve years of dedicated work to win the Durham seat counted for nothing because Clegg sold out the students.

It is the Lib Dem party conference next week. I hope the party members remember what happened and why they lost in places like Durham. They lost seats they held in places such as Oxford, too.

The Lib Dem activists have disagreed with their MPs and MSPs over this issue before. In Scotland, the Lib Dem MSPs sold out in 1999 on this very issue when they went into coalition with Labour. They agreed to a system of deferred fees. Only later did the SNP scrap tuition fees. The Lib Dems have fewer MSPs at Holyrood now than they had in 1999.

Unless the Lib Dem party members get their own way on policy, their fortunes will dwindle in the future and they will suffer further losses.

Plaid Cymru in Wales, the SNP in Scotland and the Greens in England will make further gains at the Lib Dems’ expense.

All Lib Dem party members have to stand up to Clegg and hold out for what they believe in next week at their party conference or their party will dwindle and fail.

Nigel Boddy, Darlington