Timely bust

Academics and the police don't always get on, but we suspect Amsterdam economics professor Rick van der Ploeg must now think quite warmly of the City of London force. His Centre for Economic Policy Research seminar last week on Dutch drugs policy would have been stimulating under any circumstances, but it was given added frisson by the knowledge that, as he was speaking, the narcotics squad were dismantling a car parked outside in pursuit of illicit substances.