Londoner’s Diary
Stop that man! This has been the reaction of some high-minded Oxford dons to the news, first reported in Londoner’s Diary, that former Conservative MP Rory Stewart has been mulling a run in the race to become Oxford University’s new chancellor.
The presitigious ceremonial role is about to made vacant with the resignation of Chris Patten, and university graduates will be invited to vote online on who should succeed him. Candidates only require about 50 nominations and a clean bill of health to get on the ballot but few have been forthcoming at this early stage in the race.
Thus Stewart is now the bookies favourite to become Oxford’s head honcho. He says he is “beautifully avoiding the question” of whether he will actually throw his hat into the ring, but that it’s “a very interesting idea and an amazing role”.
Some dons disagree. These Stewart-sceptics think that allowing another politician to lead the university in such divided times might turn out to be a disaster.Instead, they are coalescing around Lady Elish Angiolini, the lawyer who has just chaired the Sarah Everard inquiry.
Though every chancellor for the last century has been a politician, the Stewart-sceptics say Angiolini, who currently serves as president of St Hugh’s College, would be a breath of fresh air. She would also be the first woman to serve as head of the university in its thousand-year history.
How Abbott that then
George Galloway has at least one champion in parliament: Diane Abbott, the Hackney MP booted out of Labour last year. She was spotted welcoming him to parliament yesterday and praised his “thumping” win. “Yet some want to shun him, and his voters, in the name of… democracy. Bizarre,” she tweeted afterwards. Shunners of Galloway cite his denial of alleged war crimes in the Ukraine war and his claims that the 2020 US election was rigged, among other things. Not so bizarre, but Abbott didn’t get the memo about all of that apparently.
