The unlikeliest graveyard of political ambition is university tuition fees. Labour broke a 2001 manifesto promise not to put them up, Michael Howard was saved from his reckless pledge to abolish them only by losing the 2005 election, and Nick Clegg has never recovered from his university apostasy. Tuition fees is one of those policies that the opposition opposes and the government implements, irrespective of which party is playing which role.
It is therefore in a spirit of helpfulness that I offer a left-wing university funding scheme for Ed Miliband to announce today. It is a capped graduate tax that ensures the least well-off students are not deterred from a college education. No fees are charged up front and the cost is recouped, like tax,