A quiet, but major, shift in the nature of the welfare state

Peter Mandelson’s first speech on the universities since they were swallowed up by his department makes it clear that he expects the tuition fees cap to move up or be dumped altogether.

It’s in a sentence about accessibility and making sure universities maintain access for the poorest, but it is there nonetheless.

It comes just after David Cameron’s weekend interview talking about cutting tax credits for the better-off.

A senior centre-left Labour MP told me he thinks tax credits for the better-off have got to go and that he would also suggest chopping child benefit for the better-off.

The government itself announced a “co-payments” approach to social care only the other week, though it didn’t choose to trumpet it like that.

The Treasury document today proposing that the private sector insurance market should work in partnership with the government “to help consumers manage financial distress caused by accidents, ill health or old age” raises all sorts of questions.

Almost everywhere you look, with the exception perhaps of the protective defences thrown up around the totemic NHS budget, we are seeing the beginnings of a major shift in the nature of the welfare state.

It’s very fundamental stuff about the shape of the nation but much of the debate is, for now, buried inside reports, speeches and interviews and not proclaimed.