The principles that have enabled this "neocon persuasion" to reinvigorate American conservatism are at least as much concerned with domestic as with foreign policy, firmly opposed to the illiberal consequences of a false egalitarianism that denied the spirit of enterprise. Our "Liberal-Conservative" coalition would do well to reconsider the deeply illiberal effects of the policy with which it is now threatening our great universities, especially Oxford and Cambridge. The withdrawal of state funding for the humanities could be justified, and in the long run should even be beneficial, provided that these universities are allowed to charge tuition fees at a market rate. But the government has now decreed that they may only charge up to a maximum of £9,000, and even this inadequate figure is dependent on a discriminatory admissions policy that would give parental poverty more weight than academic achievement, reward bad schools at the expense of good ones, and elevate social engineering above national greatness.

We may still hope that the ancient universities will resist this use of arbitrary state power. Macaulay, in his History of England, recalled the struggle between James II and Magdalen College, Oxford: "The nature of the academical system of England is such that no event which seriously affects the interests and honour of either university [Oxford or Cambridge] can fail to excite a strong feeling throughout the country." But he who pays the piper calls the tune. Andrew Hamilton, the present vice-chancellor of Oxford, is paid £382,000, plus a £3.5 million house. I doubt that he and others like him will wish to put all this at risk by defying the government, if necessary to the point where, like the fellows of Magdalen, he is forced out of office. 

Rather than bully our best universities the government should listen to admissions tutors, who say that many of their successful state school applicants have ignored teachers who told them they stood no chance against privately educated students. State schools that encourage their best pupils to apply should be rewarded financially, while those that discourage them should be penalised. There are plenty of good role models. Last year Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School, an inner-city London comprehensive, got twelve pupils into Oxbridge. If the Vaughan, which is also under threat from its own Diocesan education authority, is allowed to continue to achieve such excellence, there is no reason why other schools should not emulate it.