WE have an instinctive dislike of university top-up fees. It is a crying shame that young people should have to begin their working lives in debt because they went to university.

But the chronic underfunding of our universities by successive governments has to be addressed somehow if access to higher education is to be maximised. None of the options for doing so is particularly palatable.

Students have to pay, or we all have meet the costs through taxation, or graduate numbers have to be severely restricted.

In coming up with a series of concessions to opponents of its plan, the Government showed yesterday that it has listened to the widespread concerns being voiced around the country.

It had no choice, of course. It had to listen or face certain defeat and humiliation at the hands of its own rebel MPs and that would spell disaster for Tony Blair.

The big question for the Prime Minister is: do the concessions go far enough to avoid that disaster?

The answer looked to be "no" last night with forecasts that more than 100 Labour rebels would still oppose the Bill.

Could it be that some were antagonised by Education Secretary Charles Clarke's decision to end his speech to the Commons with a bruiser's threat which smacked of petulance?

It was, he said, a coherent package which had to be taken as a whole or not at all. It was not a "pick and mix menu".

In other words: we've listened, we've met you half-way - take it or leave it.

That may have been considered to be strong leadership. But if, as seems likely, Mr Clarke's bag of sweets aren't colourful enough to entice opponents to swallow them in sufficient numbers, he may live to regret slamming the pick and mix counter on their fingers.