Money talks 1

It is extraordinary that Keith Hamill, president of the University of Nottingham council, should write without embarrassment to protest that you reported the salary of Sir Colin Campbell, former vice-chancellor of Nottingham, as £585,000 when it was only £308,000. His point was that although Sir Colin did receive the rest of the cash, technically it did not count as salary (Letters, 26 March).

How can he not realise that to make such a "correction" is almost as obscene as the salary figures themselves? At a time when tens of thousands of people are losing their jobs, when many in the academic world face an uncertain future, and when stratospheric, so-called competitive salaries for business leaders are being questioned, anyone with the slightest sensitivity would keep their counsel. Could a more marked divorce from real-world concerns be imagined?

Howard Moss, Swansea.