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Excitement at Guardian towers: this newspaper's feature writer and former literary editor Stephen Moss has, "after some havering", sent off his nomination papers for the Oxford poetry professorship, where he will be standing for election against such candidates as frontrunner Geoffrey Hill and Sean Haldane, a clinical neuro-psychologist. Moss's campaign slogan? "Yes we scan!"

The election for the post, second only to the poet laureateship in prestige, is being carried out in the wake of last year's fiasco, in which Derek Walcott resigned after 20-year-old sexual harrassment allegations were aired. The elected professor, Ruth Padel, then resigned after only nine days, when it emerged that she had tipped off journalists about the accusations.