This must be one of the most open events of the year, so much so that the usual suspects from the unreconstructed lecturers’ wing of the Educational Institute of Scotland are given almost free rein over every imaginable grievance - and some unimaginable ones.

One highlight was the sardonic intervention from Motherwell College cause celebre Douglas Nicol - cause celebre is not his official title, you understand, not least since he has been demoted by the powers that be, as every employment tribunal watcher knows.

Nicol noted that someone in the audience had praised the role of FE in “transforming people’s lives”. This was all very well, he said.

“Unfortunately my life has been transformed - by the management at Motherwell College.”