Yes, it's my 'crappy poly' comment. Unfortunately, some ex-poly's are crap and if we are to present to extremes of HE institutions based on prestigious qualities, we are faced with Oxford at one end, and a badly-managed, underfunded crap ex-poly at the other end. This is reality. Another irritating reality is the importance of RAE results.

It's unfortunate Alice that you employ passive-aggressive comments rather than just directly addressing mine or any other comments that you take issue with. It causes confusion.

Personally I would rather sometimes cause confusion, cause people to think "what?", let people try to figure things out, see something that causes offense to a different group, something that goes against the grain, and more importantly triggers thought.