Family values

Alumnus to be proud of No: 168 has been described as the 23rd member of the Cabinet, or at least that is one of the more printable descriptions. Alistair Campbell, Tony Blair's combined rottweiler and spin doctor, proffers one of the more engagingly eclectic sets of hobbies in Who's Who: "family, bagpipes" (not at the same time, we hope for their sake) and "Burnley Football Club". We think it unlikely that Mr Campbell acquired any or all of these enthusiasms at the same time as he was picking up one of Britain's more equivocal academic qualifications, the Oxbridge MA, bestowed in his case via Gonville and Caius, Cambridge.