In many former communist countries, particularly in Eastern Europe and Africa, governments offer a "dual-track" tuitionpolicy, where tuition is provided free to the nation's top students but a fee is charged to everyone else.
And yes, Tony Blair may have won a majority of seats in England but he had to rely on the votes of non-English MPs to get his university tuition fee policy through the Commons.
Former Conservative chairman Chris Patten, speaking on the same programme, criticised his party's policy of scrapping tuition fees and cutting numbers of students.
He was prepared to stand up to the teaching unions - which sometimes heckled his speeches - and his policy of charging university students for tuition fees was not popular.
He then angered many Republicans when he said in a recent TV debate that anyone who opposed his policy as Texas governor of giving in-state tuition to illegal immigrants' children was heartless.