Is the Pope a Catholic?

I wonder why the Daily Telegraph thinks it is front page news that British universities have lower entry thresholds for students from outside the EU who come clutching large wads of cash? I used to work in a department with a tiny "quota" for EU postgraduates and a much larger "target" for non EU students. Failure to meet the "target" was punished by an "adjustment" to the overall  number of students we were allowed to admit. Now what would you predict given those incentives? First class degree from Bristol? Sorry we're full up. Mediocre degree from No. 3 Inner Mongolia Polytechnical Institute of  Yurt and Yak Studies, a bogus language certificate and £24,000? That will do nicely.

As we wanted others to see us

The ever observant Edmund Chattoe-Brown pointed me in the direction of this wonderful archive of British Council documentaries from the 1940s. You might save The Life Cycle of the Newt for another time but check out The Second Freedom - for the sense of optimism about the welfare state (still being planned) and The General Election - about the 1945  General Election  contest in Kettering  where the the incumbent  is none other than one Colonel John Profumo, later disgraced in the Christine Keeler Affair and then redeemed by 40 odd years of quiet  good works at Toynbee Hall.