Lord Palmerston once said that you can't go on legislating for ever. He would therefore approve of the present position in higher education since there is virtually no legislation on this subject. The 1944 Act barely mentioned it: the great development of the technical colleges was not foreseen: the universities were not then considered part of the national education system. The state administers here in a number of ways. The UGC arose out of a Treasury memo, for example. Most of the further education system can be regulated by circular. But in general, following a concordat reached between the public accounts committee and the Baldwin government, the state does not spend money without legislation. One purpose of the new Act will be to tidy up anomalies like this. The actual clauses in the Act will probably be almost insignificant, along the lines of: the Secretary of State shall give money to the universities. But before an Act confers powers or duties on anybody, a great deal of consideration will go into the issues.