Scholarship stifled by admin

There is no real harm in playing Monopoly with the University of London, as David Cannadine does. But at least two of the pieces on his board - the Senate House Library and the institutes - have been paid for by all the colleges of the university and are supported by the whole HE sector through non-formula funding. Any attempt to annex them to a so-called University of Bloomsbury will be strongly resisted.

B. W. Ife Professor of Spanish and vice-principal, King's College, London.