My "whiplashes" may indeed have been "badly aimed". But at least one of them seems to have found a target.
That being the case, University College London provost Malcolm Grant would do well to remember that, as chair of the University of London's academic council, it was my sad duty to preside over inquiries into the worst case of academic maladministration I personally have ever encountered - namely in a department of UCL.
The records of these inquiries and their sombre findings are in the archives of the university. Grant might care to peruse them.
Geoffrey Alderman, University of Buckingham.