SIR – There are many indisputable facts as to why tuition fees have to be lifted: 1. With debts of £77,000 for every person in the UK, we cannot carry on spending money we don’t have.

2. Labour encouraged youth to go to university by dumbing down A-level standards and keeping them off unemployment statistics.

3. It was the Labour party that introduced tuition fees.

4. More useless “Jack-and-Jill” degrees had to be funded by hard-working taxpayers.

5. Many third-rate universities were opened.

6. PFIs were financed for new schools by private money with exorbitant interest rates. The country is locked into these for the next 30 years with taxpayers picking up the bill.

7. Labour disgracefully carried on wasting money, knowing they were putting the country deeper in debt.

New Labour swept into power with Tony Blair shouting from the rooftops: “Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime!”

If he had kept his word, the recent vandalism of London may not have happened.

There are plenty of uninhabited Scottish islands which would be ideal for criminals.

Mark Somerville, Boroughbridge Road, Knaresborough