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Congratulations to political scientist Ivor Crewe for moving one step closer to the top of academia's own greasy pole with his appointment as acting vice chancellor of the University of Essex. Maybe Professor Crewe was too busy with the local elections, where he was one of the limited number of tipsters to predict the full extent of the Tory wipe-out, but the university announcement lacked some of the touches you would expect him to bring to the job.

Did the appointing committee swing to left or right, what was the behaviour of the C1 electors who have bought their own council houses and what can we project from this for Labour's prospects at the next general election? We think we should be told.