I WAS sad to hear about the former Lib Dem leader Lord Paddy Ashdown’s death. It’s a shame Tony Blair won a big majority in 1997 as a coalition of the centre left, could have curbed Tony’s excesses and prevented an illegal Iraq War.

It would have filled the gap in the centre left of politics, as the two main political parties appear to be on the extremities of the political spectrum.

George Dunning, Ormesby

PADDY ASHDOWN was a man of many talents but a man of many contradictions also.

In the Nottingham Spring Conference of 1995, the Lib Dem Party members voted for free university education and against the Dearing Committee recommendations.

Paddy Ashdown was absolutely furious about the way the vote went, lost his temper afterwards and vowed the conference vote would not stand.

Every time the issue came up at a Lib Dem conference the delegates always voted for free university education and latterly a cap on fees.

Nick Clegg was Paddy’s protege.

It was a tragedy that they were both part of a small group of Lib Dem party leaders who have continued to subvert the party members’ wishes on this issue.

They jettisoned the policy of free university education in Scotland in 1999 during coalition negotiations with Labour at Holyrood.

They jettisoned the cap on fees policy in coalition negotiations with the Tories at Westminster in 2010.

In so doing they undid all that Paddy managed to achieve.

Now we find ourselves in the incredible position of having Jeremy Corbyn as a weak, elderly and ineffective leader of the Labour Party - because of the issue of university tuition fees - with all the consequences that has had in the Brexit debate.

Nigel Boddy, Darlington