ABSTRACT
It may be thought by some that the sentiments expressed in the concluding lines of the previous chapter smack of sour grapes. Some may indeed regard them as politically motivated-a comment on the recent state of Thatcherite Britain, and the inheritance of that. The tendency in England, if not in Britain at large, to depreciate the role of the university academic is no new phenomenon, however, even if that tendency has been aggravated both by the policies espoused by recent governments and by the social values and attitudes that have come about, at least in part, as a result of those policies. The BBC, for example, appeals to a relevant academic when a special need arises, but that is no indication of any permanent regard for the scholar. On the other hand, intellectuals, as such, are certainly distrusted, at any rate, by the English, and, in spite of attempts to bring business into the universities, there still remains a gap between academia and industry in a way that does not hold good in, for example, the USA.
