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1. In praise of common sense -- 2. The limits to markets -- 3. Ecstasy economics -- 4. The role of managers -- 5. Ethics, incentives and affordability -- 6. Justice -- 7. Globalisation -- 8. Labour market flexibility -- 9. On booms and busts -- 10. What is to be done?

This paper makes the case that Stanley Cavell's thinking on conversion, eveloped in"Normal and Natural" in The Claim of Reason, offers resources that can be used to develop a politics that acknowledges the importance of learning from the voice ofskepticism instead of seeking to silence the skeptic through the pursuit of policies andpractices that promise a type of certainty that will forever silence skepticism. I developthis case from my position as a teacher educator who knows very well the desireto silence skepticism in the form of finding a way of teaching future teachers so that I/we can be certain that they will be effective and engaging educators after graduation.Giving up the belief that we can achieve certainty when it comes to teacher preparationdoes not consign us to hopelessness, but it does suggest that teacher educators may have more to learn from listening to the voice of skepticism than is suggested bycurrent discourses in teacher education. Though I write from the position of a teacher educator and my examples are drawn from the work of teacher education, the main goal of this paper is to develop a reading of "Normal and Natural" that may help us appreciate new dimensions of the political implications of Cavell's work.

The UK Association of University Teachers conducted a 2000/01 survey of staff in six British universities to determine the experience of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) employees holding academic and non‐academic appointments. We analyse the salaries and ranks held by LGB individuals, guided by a new model of the interaction of 'tastes for discrimination' and the decision to 'come out'. We find no evidence that LGB staff suffer any disadvantage in salaries relative to heterosexuals. We do find evidence that gay/bisexual men suffer from glass ceilings comparable to those faced by heterosexual women.