Decca Aitkenhead seems to be very impressed with David Willetts. She praises his academic bent, talks admiring of his disdain for tribal politics and polishes his Oxford based CV with a nicely damped chamois. Don’t be fooled. She puts the boot in like she’s been practicing down the pub on Sunday nights and had steel caps installed special for the occasion.

Primed for an incisive and well-thought out defense of his decision to raise University Fees to a level that is frankly embarrassing us before the rest of Europe, Willetts parade of excuses, evasions and social cluelessness even more embarrassing for the minister. It was like turning up on the first day of a horrifically over-priced University Physics degree and finding out your tutor didn’t know who Einstein was.

‘Oh, you mean that bloke from the adverts? Genius Bread. Love it.’

Willetts cluelessness is made all the more discomfiting by the air of slightly frantic bonhomie that Aitkenhead imbues the article with. Apparently the figures used to determine the fees and loans were conjured out of thin air. Basically guess-work.

I won’t summarise the article anymore. Go read Aitkenhead herself, it is quite entertaining read. Depressing if you are considering schools for yourself or you children, but there you go.