Who’d want to be approaching adulthood today without a private income? Jobs are scarce; wages are stagnant or falling; affordable housing remains way out of reach; and cheap and secure pension schemes that do not rely on the lottery of investment returns are an endangered species.

The term ‘generational theft’ has been coined for the phenomenon whereby the ‘baby boomers’ enjoyed a whole range of economic benefits now denied to those coming up behind.

Whatever you think of that theory, its proponents will cite Lord Browne’s higher education review as fresh evidence of its validity. In proposing that universities be given free rein to charge what they like, students may in future be looking at paying £50,000-plus for an undergraduate degree. Poorer students will repay less than they do now, he insists; but with the elite institutions likely to charge hefty premiums, the impact on access to the legal profession could be profound. The danger is that aspiring students from lower- and even middle-income families (where they are not deterred from going to university altogether by the massive financial hangover that will follow) will choose their courses on cost grounds, regardless of academic ability.

Alan Milburn’s 2009 report on social mobility in the professions showed that the law is becoming more exclusive because of rising material inequality. Browne’s proposals are hardly likely to reverse that trend.