In reply to seankenny:
> Some taxpayers, probably not.
Thats the joy of living in a tax paying democracy
> So you'd have no study and teaching of English, foreign languages, the classics, philosophy, politics, economics, international relations, history, art, film, design, music... Well, yes, good luck with a country like that.
There's the problem, it's absurd to class all those things under one broad grouping. We would still be able to teach English to a perfectly acceptable standard without the sort of research highlighted in the OP. An approach that says academics should have financial freedom to research whatever they want can lead to an awful lot of dross getting funded. Everyone including us grubby oiks outside academia should be free to criticise the dross without lazy thinking academics calling us philistines.
> I thought it was relevant, that's all. If you think not, then that's fine of course, but you seem to be hung up on it being a bit hard to read, rather than the content, thereby inadvertantly making the argument for good teaching of the humanities...
That all depends on whether you hold the belief that good, clear, concise writing in the english language is somehow swept up in humanities. I'd say that it's a valuable life skill and we shouldn't be losing sight of that behind the poncy label of "humanities".