Bailing out
What? Really? Vlad bailed out. He turned up one Monday morning, and while I was otherwise occupied announced his sudden and precipitous departure. We have no idea why, and no one who might know has ever said, which suggests that the only person who knows is Vlad himself. Did he take his mistress with him? That’s a moot point, but, I think, he’d be cold-hearted enough to dispense with her. We were certainly expecting him to last to the end of term, and it’s possible that some personal business affected his decision. He also left leaving various threats in his wake, but like the story last year, it may not be till sometime in the 2020s that the story emerges. No time was wasted in dispatching his replacement, who may not have scrapped all the mandatory extras we’ve been lumbered with, but who has got rid of some of them. He also listens to people (or does a good job of feigning it) where Vlad merely seemed to be waiting for you to stop talking and made you feel that everyt