Low modesty count

Alumnus to be proud of No 155 clearly needs more to do. Count Yves-Thibault de Silguy already has one job that many might regard as full-time: European commissioner in charge of monetary union. But finding this too little to occupy himself, he decided this month to become leader of the regional assembly in Brittany as well despite objections that this civil servant who is supposed to be impartial was planning to run as the Gaullist candidate.

The count has been told to abandon the idea. His ideas of his own importance may have begun to form at his local university, Rennes, and been sharpened at the Ecole Nationale d'Administration, which has never been noted for instilling modesty and self-effacement in its alumni.