If Mr Howard is to be a credible leader by the time of the next election he will have to come up with a more convincing policy than this one.The Government's proposals have some important benefits. The universities will start to receive additional funding speedily. They propose to reduce considerably the number of students attending university This proposal has a superficial appeal. To fund the increase in spending out of general taxation would be regressive, placing more of a burden on those who do not attend university. The Conservatives' solution to the crisis is even more iniquitous. He wants more teenagers from poorer backgrounds to benefit from a university education. Yet they are the very people who stand to miss out if they are to end up with large debts at the end of their courses. Opponents of top-up fees must acknowledge that there is no easy solution.

But he risks falling into a trap with his plans to introduce top-up fees. Tony Blair is to be commended for seeking to address the severe under-funding of universities. His aim to increase the number of people who attend them is also highly commendable. Of course there must be strict asylum procedures, rigidly enforced. Sadly Mr Blunkett appears to be more concerned with playing to the alarmists than with working on what those procedures should be..

This is a policy that shows every sign of being hastily cobbled together.Immigration is an unavoidably complex issue. Britain is an overcrowded island with underfunded and overstretched public services. Even so, Mr Howard's signal that he is willing to sound more humane was a moment of significant political symbolism. The Home Secretary has managed to give even Mr Howard some political space to the left of him. Today the Independent on Sunday highlights the consequences of Mr Blunkett's crude populism, revealing his plans to send unaccompanied children back to their countries, clearly putting their safety at risk. Whenever the Daily Mail runs a story aiming to shock, Mr Blunkett surfaces with another headline-grabbing idea for tackling "the problem". Since becoming Home Secretary, David Blunkett, has sought to appease and reassure right-wing newspapers in his never-ending initiatives against asylum-seekers.

In the Commons last week, Mr Howard affected outrage at one of the Home Secretary's more implausibly extreme proposals for dealing with asylum-seekers. We should point out that Mr Howard's current policies are even more implausibly extreme.As matters stand, the Conservatives plan to dump asylum-seekers on an island that has yet to be identified. As a result, most are reduced to hoping that it will not be too long before, at 77, he turns his mind to a quieter life. If it would help, most would gladly contribute to his retirement fund.. The immediate sorrows having been drowned, the quest has already started for silver linings. Perhaps this is always the way it had to be: the peace process is based on inclusiveness, and a settlement would only ever be comprehensive when all the hard men were involved in it.