That article is terrible. I don't want to defend the Tory / Coalition governments but the phenomenon that O'Hara describes there (that the centre is too powerful so it makes decisions that are demonstrably wrong and harmful in spite of reality, the law and advice and survives the ensuing disaster without learning anything) has been present at the heart of the English state for as long as its existed; it isn't ten years old. It is the common denominator between 1857, the Somme, Gresford, Appeasement, Aberfan, Ibrox and Hillsborough, CJD and the contaminated blood scandal, miscarriages of justice generally, Iraq, the Postmasters Trials, Windrush, Grenfell, probably above a hundred other catastrophes that I've forgotten to list here and now this.
I also strongly disagree with this bit:
The university sector as a whole is addicted to debt, and has been since the Major-era reforms introduced it. They (government and management) know what would have happened if no students attended for a term; the system would collapse and the reality of the £100 billion plus student loan debt that they've all been telling us will never need to be repaid in full would become apparent. Saying that they should have stumped more money up to keep it going is just kicking the can down the road; that sector needs proper reform (ie: not just cuts but to put it on a sustainable footing).
www.gq-magazine.co.uk
All it really needed was Dunked-in-Shit pointing at something. Presumably he wasn't able to look sad AND point at the same time 
