Letter: Revenge by refusal

Sir: The refusal of John Patten, the Secretary of State for Education, to meet representatives of the country's academics to discuss his rejection of their modest pay deal (3 August) smacks of more than stubbornness, rudeness, or a belief that academics are overpaid.

Could I be the only academic to think that the decision to restrict the pay award has little to do, either, with concern over levels of national pay settlements, but is motivated by the recent memory that many academics had the effrontery to declare that, to safeguard higher education in the future, voters should not vote Conservative? Is this the Government's revenge? If it is, education is not safe in their hands.

Yours faithfully,

A. T. FLORENCE

School of Pharmacy

University of London

London, WC1