This is not a new thought, thinking people have been bothered by it for a very long time. Once there were village children who could read, write and understand Grammar with a capital G. There were people from the lowest walks of life who could rise to take part effectively in a demanding public life and hold the reigns of power; (this is not the time to go into the power issue!). It hasn’t taken long for education to go through a radical, did I say “radical”? Well, it comes from “root” and so it must be correct. Our intellectual capital is about to be grubbed up. For the first time in centuries there will be no place for the pursuit of scholarship; the exploration of culture; the cut and thrust of polemic and the examination of our history through whatever means.

I seem to remember that Humanities became a dirty word three or four years ago. Lampeter University was a Humanities University, and it was good at it. You could read Classics, Philosophy, Languages - and lots of them, History, Geography, Archaeology, English, Religious Studies and Divinity and Theology. I may have left something out, there were a lot of choices. Then it became a University of “Liberal Arts” whatever that may mean and now it has no identity at all, and I don't suppose it's alone.

The people who purport to rule us have no identity as politicians; they are like school prefects trying to run the school. The teachers and Head have all disappeared because no-one has the trained brain or the depth of understanding and, dare I say, scholarship to do the job.

If our leaders condinue to be as intellectually nourishing as a celular blanket, let them. Dont be despondent. If we want intellectual nourishment we'll find it and teach it to our children or grandchildren.