I admire my right hon. Friend's surefootedness in responding quickly to pressures on huge increases in companies' insurance costs, and look forward to learning the details; but may I contrast that with the absence of any comment on the Crisis in University Funding?

In conclusion, my deepest dread is that 20 years from now I shall find myself shuffling down these corridors passing another generation of men and women who express only regret for their missed opportunities, most particularly for the timid and inadequate manner in which they addressed what might well be remembered as the Great University Funding Crisis of 2004.

They have also listened to what this House has been saying about the urgent need to find a solution to the University Funding Crisis.

We agree with the rationale of the policy - indeed, more people from working-class and lower-middle-class backgrounds should be given access to university and to advantages long denied to them - but the Government are driven by artificial targets that distract them from the crux of the issue, which is the need to deal with the University Funding Crisis in a meaningful way.

If the additional funding for which the Bill provides through variable fees is offset by reductions in public funding, we shall be no closer to solving the financial Crisis in University Funding.