Readers will recall that Geoff Lennox and Richard Eve of Education Lecturing Services, the private recruitment agency for colleges, were invited into the lion’s den recently to address the executive of the College Lecturers’ Association.

The two duly arrived in Edinburgh after a five-hour drive from Nottingham . . . and waited . . . and waited. The executive kicked off with a challenge to the minute recording the invitation to ELS. Then the suspension of standing orders was called for in order to allow discussion of whether Lennox and Eve should be asked to address the meeting.

The outcome was that they were not, and they were sent homeward to think again. Whatever will the CLA think of next? The wrangle was no new experience for at least one of the two visitors: Richard Eve used to be an official of NATFHE and therefore no stranger to union shenanigans.