Of course, that is not necessarily true, as it depends on immigration and emigration. But if we assume for the moment that those will balance each other out, the 18-21yr old band is set to shrink dramatically over the next 15 years in the UK.

Of course, there is also the issue of all those pensioners - life expectancies are rising fairly rapidly, so there is a good chance that we will have increasing numbers of pensioners, in good health, kicking their heels looking for something to do. As their pensions will probably allow them to afford, say, a nice pack of rich tea biscuits once a fortnight, they may well want to go to university to cross skill so they can get some sort of exciting and stimulating job to help them afford the ever rising energy bills. If they are allowed to retire, that is.