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What actually makes anything a profession? OED says "The occupation which one professes to be skilled in and to follow. A vocation in which a professed knowledge of some department of learning or science is used in its application to the affairs of others or in the practice of an art founded upon it. Applied spec. to the three learned professions of divinity, law, and medicine; also to the military profession." Nothing there about qualifications or getting paid for doing it. I'm employed in a job that would probably get classed as "IT Professional" but have no formal qualifications whatsoever (though do have knowledge and apply it for others). So what is that distinguishes the keen and knowledgable "amateur" from the "professional"? And what about members of oldest profession - could one of them sign my passport form? I can just imagine it. "You doing business love? Er, how much for a full passport form...?" Peter Higginbotham Oxford University