This article discusses the UK government's consultations on skills policy and further education funding. Adult learning has, throughout the years, been subject to endless strategies and proposed plans--but none of these has fully realised its potential. There are two contrasting attitudes to the outlook for further education and, indeed, the future of public services in general. One side wrings their hands and waits for the axe to fall. The other, which includes the author, sees the need for savings not as an impending disaster but as a golden opportunity for radical and long-overdue reform. The important thing is not that further education should become ever richer, but that it should become ever better. It isn't necessary to spend more if one is prepared to spend wisely. The author believes that people in the field can deliver more and save money. But they will only achieve cost effectiveness by challenging the orthodox assumptions about what skills are for, how they are funded and what role government should play. Those who care deeply about adult learning should be filled with a sense of excitement, not trepidation. It is in this spirit that the consultation proposals from the State for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning have been prepared. Two main themes of the consultation proposals--the transfer of power (and also of responsibility) from the centre to individuals and their employers, and the freeing of colleges from burdensome bureaucracy--are highlighted.