The letters columns of the Observer have been much enlivened in recent months (and your readers much enlightened and educated) by the regular effusions of Professor Christine Wheeler McNulty. Her offerings bring a breath of fresh air to the paper, and take your readers out of their comfort zone of high rise buildings, traffic congestion and town hall politics. The world, it seems, is her stamping ground; the environment, the national political scene, the planet itself, all fall under her gimlet gaze. She expresses her views with authority and certainty, so that it ill becomes any to dare to dissent.

So it was a surprise last week to find her referring to the recent Justice Secretary, David Gauke, as a ‘lawyer’. So he is. But, as the professor will acknowledge, ‘lawyer’ is an imprecise term. It can cover anyone engaged in the world of the law; a judge, a barrister, a solicitor, a legal executive are all ‘lawyers’ and where the level of expertise requires a knowledge of the maxim ‘justice delayed is justice denied’, I certainly wouldn’t know.

But thinking of her loose use of the word ‘lawyer’ my mind turned the similarly imprecise title of ‘professor’; just who is our professor? Christine uses this title in all her letters, so it’s apparent that this is intended to add weight and academic authority to her views. But you can have a ‘professor’ in any academic discipline. No doubt there’s a professor in canine dentistry in the veterinary world, but would you attach added importance to such a professor pontificating on world peace in our Observer columns?

Most academics will, for reasons of professional advancement, be quick to place particulars of their expertise in the public realm. Yet, although I search for details of Christine’s academic career, I can find no link to her professional qualifications nor to any institution at which she holds (or has held) a professorial post. I imagine that it is a becoming and personal modesty which leads her to this unusual secrecy. But it detracts from the authority which she seeks to assume.

So, come on, Christine, tell us a bit about yourself and then let us judge the value of your views.

(Oh dear, we also had a ‘Dr’ writing to the Observer. Now would that be a medical doctor, a doctor of philosophy, or a witch doctor?)

Anthony Bramley-Harker

Hibbert Avenue, Watford