On Jul 12, 3:10*pm, Alistair Gunn wrote:
In uk.railway Mizter T twisted the electrons to say:

Which is pretty stupid usage, as my plumber is genuinely a
professional (unlike many!). It's perhaps something of a foil for
talking about class, which we're still to obsessed by.

nods *Another way to look at it, which doesn't suffer from this problem
is when professional means "gets paid to to do it". *Thus you can have
professional $X and amateur $X, without implying that one is of higher
quality than the other ...

This is professional in the 'old' sense of the word, being someone who
can counter-sign your passport application. Helpfully the Government
has a list of professional people here

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAn...ort/Passports/
Applicationinformation/DG_174151 which is a wonderful mix of
professions!! So the landlord at your local can countersign, but not
your plumber (unless he is a director of his self-employed PLC!)