In the person of John Hayes, Minister of State for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning, the coalition government has someone no less committed than was Labour's David Blunkett to the value of expansive and inclusive lifelong learning, as has been attested to by his various speeches and articles since first being appointed. Not surprisingly, his "bons mots" on this subject have been seized upon by the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) and other organisations and individuals striving to defend adult learning as evidence that they have a friend at court in these straitened times of cuts in public expenditure. So what's to doubt, fear, or criticise in this open endorsement of several of the core aims, values and aspirations of adult learners, teachers, practitioners and campaigning bodies? The author argues that one needs to set the passion and self-evident commitment inscribed in the powerful rhetoric of John Hayes against one immediately visceral response and three other pieces of empirical evidence. Despite the coalition's commitment to the value of an expansive and inclusive system of lifelong learning, the author contends that there is little in its strategy to suggest a radical change in direction from the previous government's flawed policy on skills or to address the needs of the least skilled who continue to get the fewest chances to learn through work.