Thoughts about universities as the students go back
Sanctuaries for obsolete systems and exploded prejudices
Adam Smith
The true university these days is a collection of books
Thomas Carlyle
It was characteristic of the Scots to leave the young men to themselves, to teach them self-management and self-discipline
Benjamin Constant (18th century)
A sort of high-grade liberal arts college
Douglas Young on St Andrews University
A university which does not have a philosophy section has lost the right to be known as a university
James Kelman on Strathclyde University
We want ‘safe’ men here, you know, and we generally get them
Sir Patrick Geikie on Edinburgh University (early 20th century)
Universities must be in the forefront of development, must meet social needs and not lag behind them
Jimmy Reid (Glasgow rectorial address)
6
Position of United States in medal table of Paralympic Games
7
Number of expenses claims of British MPs refused last year (out of 35,315 claims)
10
Percentage of secondary schools in Britain which have no CCTV cameras
18
Percentage of urban dwellers who ‘love’ their neighbourhood
26
Percentage of British workers who are trade union members
31
Percentage of children who read books in their own time (down from 38% seven years ago despite Harry Potter)
The Reverend Sun Myung Moon, leader of the Unification Church, had a wealth estimated at almost a billion dollars. He owned hotels, an arms company and a right-wing newspaper. Moon claimed to have met Jesus on a hillside and declared himself ‘humanity’s saviour, messiah, returning Lord and true parent’. Worryingly, millions of Americans believed him. His first wife believed him when he said he was popping out to buy some rice, but he never returned. The founder of the Moonies has died at the age of 92.
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Today’s banner:
Girl on the bridge,
The Mound, Sutherland,
by Islay McLeod
The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas.
(Karl Marx, The German Ideology)
The outrage and apologies by the authorities following the Hillsborough revelations suggests that society has changed, progressed and that nothing like this would or could happen again. However the reality for football fans is that they face an ever increasing barrage of laws and regulations many of which criminalise their behaviour way beyond anything the Thatcher government ever dreamt was possible in the 1980s.