Poison pen

The wild and wacky organisation, Higher Education Managers and Liaison Officers for Community programmes, a forum in which northern universities can discuss the European Socrates initiative, delights in its devastating acronym, Hemloc. Antithesis notes with approval its admirably self-confident note-paper, complete with upset wine glass lying in a red puddle. John Withrington, of Lancaster University, concedes that the acronym is "mischievous" and says it has been met with a deathly silence from Brussels.