Efficient gains

And whatever scheme finally emerges from the government's deliberations on fees, just hope that the maths of the people running it are better than those of the government whips. The tuition fees debate was prefaced by a touching little scene in which Labour whip Jon Owen Jones approached the chair to sheepishly admit that, in the previous night's division on student loans, the government vote had been underestimated by 10, equivalent to an efficiency gain of 3.4 per cent. Owen Jones is a former science teacher and attended the University of Wales, Cardiff.