What is it about education ministers that they have to pose as philistines, tough men of the people innit, who couldn't give a monkey's about yer poncy subjects like history and fine art?
David Blunkett cherished his tough guy reputation, Charles Clarke offended medieval historians when he dismissed the medieval idea of the university and today Bill Rammel, the higher education minister, was at it, praising students for abandoning art history and philosophy.
"An initial reading of figures suggests to me that there is some evidence that students are choosing subjects they think are more vocationally beneficial. If that's what they are doing I don't see that as necessarily being a bad thing," he said.
To which the fastidious philosopher will reply: "Bollocks".
There is absolutely no sign that students are abandoning pure humanities for vocationally oriented subjects. Yes, history applications fell by more than 7% but so did marketing and there are still nearly three times as many would-be historians as marketeers. (Applications are not quite the same as the number of applicants - each candidate gets six choices in the Ucas system, but students tend to apply for the same or a closely related subject at all of them.).
The biggest percantage fall was 53% for business and administration studies, admittedly a very small field with 378 applications. But among large subjects there were massive falls in mass communications, production engineering, electronic engineering, and media studies. The 11% fall in music applications is a bit depressing, whether you think of it as mere civilisation or a potential job.
Business studies fell 3.7%, although it still attracted 46,000 applications this year. English studies fell by slightly more (4.5%) but is still more popular at 51,600 applications.
We trust Mr Rammell is encouraged by the biggest gainer - European languages and literature have almost doubled (94%). The second highest is Chinese studies, though numbers are small (770 for the UK as a whole) - but there has been a corresponding fall in Japanese.
The category called "combinations within law" jumped by 57%, although other types of legal courses showed falls.
There is good news for physics (up 2.3% against a national fall in total applications) and chemistry has shown a very healthy 5.8% increase. The news is even better for maths with an 11.5% boost.
But these of course do not reflect any effect from tuition fees, one way or the other. They reflect choices sixthformers made two years ago when they decided on their A-levels. Once embarked on English and history it's impossible to apply to do a degree in maths or chemistry.
So the rise reflects long term evangelising by university science departments and in the case of chemistry, the influence of Amanda Burton. The popularity of Silent Witness and other TV series about pathologists has fueled student enthusiasm for forensic science - which has been the salvation of many chemistry departments. Analysing bloodstains etc is just chemistry, but lecturers have discovered the subject a lot more fun when everyone can dress up in white suits.
Finally, this year's Ucas figures reveal a Jamie Oliver effect: food and beverage studies are up a pukka 22% while admissions tutors for nutrition are digesting a very healthy 4.7% rise in applications.
