Singing for his supper

Tuition fees should be doubled... if students were not doing part-time jobs they would only be watching television... higher education is a middle-class tax perk...

Strange that there was no whisper of such strong views, which appeared in a newspaper article this week, when their author, Conor Ryan was advising former education secretary David Blunkett. On the contrary, Mr Ryan was renowned for being tight-lipped.

So is the release of all this pent-up passion a hint that the government has been planning to double fees all along? Or is Mr Ryan simply trying to earn a crust? Six articles by him have appeared in the national press in the past two months - now that Labour is no longer paying his wages.