Future historians may well find as much continuity as change in government policies towards higher education between the mid-1980s and the mid-2000s. One exception, however, is likely to be widening participation (WP), which only appeared on the policy agenda after 1997. Moreover, this commitment has been sustained. In this brief survey, the author reviews current Government policies for widening participation in higher education and considers how far they will redress the current imbalances between different social groups. His overall conclusion is that, whatever the Government may say, and however sincere individual Ministers may be, their educational policies taken overall will almost certainly make these imbalances worse before (if ever) they get better. (Contains 2 footnotes.)