The Government’s new policies will, finally, open doors that were closed to them.Yet the world that figures like Tony Benn are nostalgic for is precisely the world that denied university places to my mum and dad. Benn boasts that “when I was sent to university, the country was bankrupt after a world war, but they still paid all of my fees and gave me a big grant to live on”. Yes, Tony, but you were one of a tiny 5 per cent who went to university, and, like you, the others were almost all the children of the rich. It is simply absurd to suggest that we could achieve 50 per cent of 18- to 30-year-olds in higher education while retaining funding structures designed for a tiny clique.

If the choice is between a tiny ?te given generous bonuses and a great mass who have to pay a little back once they’re earning, then for me the choice is obvious.The old system of funding – the one which the Government is dismantling, to the howls of conservatives of the left and the right – was based on a disgraceful redistribution whereby working- and lower- middle-class people paid through their taxes for upper-middle class people to reinforce their already-privileged place in our society. It is the desire to pick this apart that is driving government policy today, and anybody who doubts this should dig up the book A Class Act by a radical centre-left journalist called Andrew Adonis. It is a rant against precisely these appalling class inequalities – and its author is now the main Downing Street education advisor. As Andrew Grice revealed in The Independent yesterday, it is Adonis who has persuaded Blair and Clarke to adopt the new policies.You can march against this package of reforms if you really want to, but don’t kid yourself that you are acting in the interests of poor students.johannhari johannhari
More from Johann Hari.

I have to confess to being distrustful of the modern idea that a demise is not a demise until a few minutes of silence have been observed. But in the case of Tupperware parties, I’m willing to make an exception. Quite a lot of minutes of silent bafflement are in order, as we contemplate the fact that Tupperware parties, until March, will still exist. Apparently 1,500 demonstrators, 160 managers, and 20 distributors continue to chase the dream of snap-top sociability For them, sadly, redundancy will mark the end of an era.