Enlightenment was in short supply when a senior member of Clydebank College - not the principal - rose to deliver the vote of thanks at the end of a learning and technology conference in the town’s Beardmore Hotel.
During his address, he made mention of an excerpt from the works of Thomas Paine to which Professor Nigel Paine, now departed from his post as chief of the Scottish Council for Educational Technology, had referred.
Paine was perhaps a bit demob-happy and had referred to his namesake, the illustrious 18th-century radical, as his great grandfather. This humorous touch appeared to be lost on the thanks-giver whose solemn comments on the direct link between the two Paines suggested that the Age of Enlightenment would not not have been his specialist subject should he ever have appeared on Mastermind.
