I remember that snow was falling the day the argument for £9,000 tuition fees was lost.

On November 30, 2010, students were on the streets of London for the third time that month. But they did not win the argument.

It was lost indoors in the warmth of a Westminster TV studio, when Vince Cable appeared on our screens and announced he might abstain on the tuition fees policy that, as business secretary, he was actually in charge of.

Tory and Lib Dem politicians have been apologising and hand-wringing about it ever since. Labour politicians go even further and promise to scrap the whole shaboodle. “Actually the system’s working with more poor students going to uni,” say Tories in one breath, before half-promising to cut