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Lib Dem 'Red Lines' Seek To Restore Trust

After weeks of only talking about "priorities", Nick Clegg has issued a flurry of "red lines" and is expected to lay down another one this weekend.

The Liberal Democrat leader says he wants to be "categorical" and "unambiguous" so voters know what the issues are that his party will not budge on in any coalition.

His people deny the red line move is because of the fallout from the U-turn on tuition fees last time round but there is no doubt the issue still haunts the party.

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Tim Snowball, an advisor to Nick Clegg until last year, believes the fees issue became about so much more than the policy itself.

It became "emblematic" of compromise. And arguably, voters unused to coalition were unused to the smaller party having to cede ground.

He says: "Tuition fees have really come over as a significant issue for the Liberal Democrats particularly because it was something people associated with their brand.

"And when they went into coalition and weren't able to deliver what they hoped to, it obviously came to symbolise a greater sense of disappointment and the inability to deliver everything they campaigned for."

He thinks those who voted for the Lib Dems as an "anti-establishment" party were particularly vexed by the coalition they formed with the Conservatives - becoming "part of the establishment" in their eyes.

And not being able to deliver everything will have been seen through the prism of not standing up for their principles.

But Mr Clegg - who has repeatedly apologised over tuition fees - insists the party did deliver on its front page 2010 manifesto pledges. Tuition fees was a page 39 entry.

Mr Snowball - who was involved in the 2010 coalition talks - says: "If there was one moment early on when the difference between being in opposition and government hit home it was when hundreds of students protested outside the Cabinet Office about the failure of fees."

With hindsight he says the Liberal Democrats should have realised that it was a policy which would not swing either with the Conservatives or Labour but in the 2010 election the party was pitching to be the government, not a partner in government.

Things are different now and Mr Snowball believes the Lib Dems have done a lot of "growing up" in the last five years.

Mr Clegg has said from the outset of this campaign that the question is not whether David Cameron or Ed Miliband will be Prime Minister (baring some extraordinary development one of them will be).

The question is who will walk into Number 10 with them. Mr Clegg wants to be that person.

But he is taking no chances, already issuing four red lines - to signal not just to voters, but potential partners in government, the issues on which the party will not be compromised.

Education spending, a "stability budget", raising the personal tax allowance and NHS funding (plus what we expect to be a green plan yet to announced) are all "deal breakers" for the Lib Dems.

It may sound like a risky strategy but it's one designed to restore trust in the party.