Martin Bright

It’s quite something when the editor of The Spectator concedes that revolting students (if not the rioting ones) have a point. Fraser makes a persuasive point that no government department should have been immune from cuts. The political fallout from the decision to slash university budgets and hike tuition fees will continue long after the students withdraw from the streets. The devastating hit on higher education makes the coalition look like just another crew of right-wing philistines. One of the curious aspects of this fiasco is Nick Clegg’s attempts to represent this as his Clause Four moment, when the Liberal Democrats finally became a grown-up party of government.

Lots of discussion of ITV's Downton Abbey on Radio 4's Broadcasting House and in the Sundays. There is a fascinating piece by Simon Heffer in the Sunday Telegraph extolling its virtues. It turns out that two of his friends are involved: writer Julian Fellowes and actor Hugh Bonneville. He concludes that the acting is excellent and the 1912 setting assiduously accurate. He adds that it is a shame that the series will only run to seven episodes. As I look forward to tonight's fourth episode, I have to agree with him on all counts.  But there is much more to the success of Downton Abbey than mere technical excellence behind and in front of the camera. Like all good period drama, this has a resonance far beyond its own setting.

No one would begrudge Ed Miliband the plaudits for his fine first performance at PMQs. He has made a good start and seemed to take David Cameron by surprise. The Labour leader has a small, under-resourced team, which has been devoted much of the last week to preparing him for the task of his first confrontation with the Prime MInister. This is simply not sustainable. The weekly duel, terrifying though it may be, cannot come to dominate his thinking - however good he comes to be at it, He should always bear in mind the figure of William Hague, whose Labour mirror-image he risks becoming.  It has become a tiresome platitude, reinforced by New Labour rhetoric, that political parties must occupy the political centre ground in order to win elections in the UK.

So Ed Miliband told the Parliamentary Labour Party that he and they need to show humility. He is right, but this is easy to say and much, much harder to do. We shall see whether he has managed it at the despatch box tomorrow when the tackles David Cameron at his first PMQs. The feeling power gives politicians seeps into their bones and they get used to the trappings of deference. Ed Miliband has been close to significant power for most of his adult life, as have many of the people around him.  They need to realise that for a while - about 18 months probably - no one will be seriously interested in what Ed Miliband's vast new team of shadow ministers has to say. The lobbyists have long gone and soon the hacks, once so sycophantic, will start postponing lunches.

It's no surprise that the Coalition's plans to take child benefit away from higher-rate taxpayers is dominating the news. It's the boldest move the government has made so far and may yet prove to be the most reckless. So far, this attempt to sell social justice to the Conservative base has spectacularly backfired. I am beginning to wonder whether the Tories do fairness and equality as badly as the Labour Party does immigration. The volume of hostility to the plans means that almost every other policy announcement has been drowned out. However, Iain Duncan Smith did something really remarkable today by reviving the 1980s Enterprise Allowance Scheme.