State regulation, of course it leads to corruption. It’s lead to a small group of corporations cornering the market.

And let’s not forget that for all they are evolving, HEIs are still houses of progression for academics only – the ‘ceiling’ for administrative staff is around £50k and most will never progress beyond £25k-£30k. Try managing a team who see the academics in their school progressing annually when they’ve sat at the same grade for 10 years.

I’ve been grateful for School Research Leads in every HEI I’ve worked in – without them, the culture is often one of arrogant academics, in ivory towers using public money for self-indulgent research with little in the way of societal impact. Research and Knowledge Transfer Offices will strive to ensure their researchers get money, make the most of collaborative opportunities and understand and practice public engagement. You might be one of the few exceptions who doesn’t need this support but in my experience, you’d be in a very small minority. The research skills involved in a large study are just one set of skills among many. Who recruits the participants? Who oversees and advises on legal and ethical issues? Who handles admin, correspondence, negotiates finances, manages relationships? I work in a research intensive University and know about as many academics who could do all of that as I do administrators who could write up the research.

But good luck with getting a job – my advice would be learn to love administrators, they can make your life so much easier. Start by having a bit more respect for that ‘little’ job of admin support.

I know I’m going to regret asking this. I haven’t wrapped up any Christmas presents yet, the mother-in-law will be here on Christmas Eve and I need to clean the house, and I still don’t have a bird to put in the oven for Christmas Day. So I really, really, shouldn’t be starting this now.

What sort of evidence did you have an mind, and for what religion?

And they wonder why all the maths PhDs end up working for the banks.

Our civilization depends on respect for the rule of law. Obedience to a law must be seen as right by the vast majority. There has to be a sense of trust that the rule is right and enforced fairly and with human common sense. The cameras violate that trust in several ways and dangerously weaken respect for law in general.

In terms of usefulness, the cameras provide no feedback until weeks after the event. This is especially true at times when the road is empty of other cars, whose slowing may alert you to your speed. In fact, under road conditions conducive to going at higher speeds, constant monitoring of the speedometer is needed to keep below a limit which is set arbitrarily low.

One must use common sense when driving. Just because that country road has a sign with an oblique line does not mean it is safe to drive at 60 mph on it. I was recently on such lane with stretches where 30 mph seemed too fast for safety.

There is also a cry-wolf effect of blanket limits. As you know, there are stretches of road where normal speed cues are deceptive, and where a low speed limit is a very helpful advisory. The problem is that one does not know what is real and what is arbitrary. So genuine safety signs get ignored.

Much more useful than cameras are those signs which tell you your speed as you approach. I would like to see them at all deceptive black spots.