David Willetts's TV interview on Sunday is now famous for him being told half way through that the government policy of looking at ending free school milk that he had been stoutly defending was no longer operative.
He had rushed to the interview furnished with the previous government line that free milk for under fives was indeed under review, but then duly turned off his Blackberry for the duration of the interview, only to find later frantic messages saying the line had changed.
Fortunately for him, he had not waxed too lyrical about the need to end free school milk, but had instead been sensibly circumspect.
Willetts had also been very circumspect in the interview about a graduate tax. It has been much reported that he conducted a volte face, and came out in support of a graduate tax, so falling into line with the policy of his boss, the Liberal Democrat Vince Cable.
But it is always a good idea to go and read what Willetts said in on Sunday, and the words "graduate tax" never passed his lips, quite deliberately so.
He spoke instead about a graduate contribution, and so far as I can tell, the Conservative part of the coalition still do not like a policy in which graduates are forced to pay more than the true cost of their university education, a cost they recognise is rising.
We may be ending up in a world of definitional split hairs, but the Tories do not regard clawing back the cost of university education once someone is in work, as a tax. Indeed, students already have to pay back the cost of fees after their education by paying back loans.
The Conservatives do not want a situation in which you are punished twice for social aspiration, first through the tax system and then through a graduate tax.
Cable may win in the end, but I do not think there has been a Tory surrender yet.
