Public servant

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In his review of Paul Johnson’s Follow the Money (The Critics, 10 March) Will Dunn explains how our tax and benefits system ends up targeting the wrong people, but fails to mention one of the worst-affected groups: renters. The financialisation of university values has led to a decline in path-breaking research and teaching about the seismic challenges facing humanity. Pabst implies that REF measures excellence on the basis of publication in highly ranked journals, or by the downloads and citations it receives, and that its quality is an “afterthought”. On the contrary, it was a challenge to reflect on the dehumanising language used and the direction it could take. [Tony Blair](https://www.newstatesman.com/tag/tony-blair) but who stayed silent (while providing the public money), [Gordon Brown](https://www.newstatesman.com/tag/gordon-brown). All work is judged by highly regarded researchers and, as chair of the humanities panel, I can vouch for the integrity and commitment with which this work is undertaken. For the avoidance of doubt, surgeons diagnose, dice and slice. Andrew Marr (Politics, 17 March) sees no distinction between drawing attention to “language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 1930s” and calling someone a Nazi. It is of little comfort to those of us who marched against invading Iraq that we were “on the right side of history”. We share their frustration and apologise for the inconvenience. I cannot in conscience go along with advice – within the Office or to the public or parliament – which asserts the legitimacy of military action without such a resolution, particularly since an unlawful use of force on such a scale amounts to the crime of aggression; nor can I agree with such action in circumstances which are so detrimental to the international order and the rule of law. Elizabeth Wilmshurst resigned from her senior legal position at the Foreign Office in March 2003, for reasons that she made clear in her resignation letter (and later to the Chilcot Inquiry): “I regret that I cannot agree that it is lawful to use force against Iraq without a second Security Council resolution…