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Researchers who have any involvement with the Department for International Development are rarely complimentary about the department's grasp of science. And many have been looking forward to a particularly acerbic report from the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee, which has been investigating the DFID for some months and is less than impressed.

But disappointed members of the select committee - which is famed for its readiness to knock a few teeth out on the witness stand - have discovered that the DFID has got wise and is sorting out its research operation before the MPs can put poison pen to paper. Surely that's just not cricket?