Cambridge seeks new Chancellor

[gurnemanz]

The Senate of Cambridge University has nominated Lord Sainsbury, who has promised £82 million for new science lab, as its new Chancellor.
Rival candidates are:
Abdul Arain, a local grocer opposed to supermarkets taking over the city
Brian Blessed, stentorian actor
Michael Mansfield, Socialist barrister.

This is the first time the title has been contested since 1847. Blessed has surely got it sewn up.

[mercia]

Blessed has surely got it sewn up

but not his mouth

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I think I like the idea of Abdul Arain winning.
Brian Blessed is more of a town crier than an actor. Rather like Robert Hardy, Jennifer Aniston, and Tom Cruise, he generally plays the same "character".

[mercia]

what are the duties of a chancellor?

[mangerton]

what are the duties of a chancellor?

Principally, to pull wool over people's eyes.

"chancellor" is a long form of the word "chancer", qv.

To save you looking it up, a chancer is an opportunist, a wide boy, someone who tries it on, and thinks he is smarter than he really is. Hence many Chancers of the Exchequer, eg, Osbourne, Brown and Major, to name but three recent shining examples.

[amateur51]

Principally, to pull wool over people's eyes.

"chancellor" is a long form of the word "chancer", qv.

To save you looking it up, a chancer is an opportunist, a wide boy, someone who tries it on, and thinks he is smarter than he really is. Hence many Chancers of the Exchequer, eg, Osbourne, Brown and Major, to name but three recent shining examples.

Surely you've missed one, Darling?

[mercia]

ask a silly question and you get a silly answer

[Simon]

Mansfield, millionaire pseudo-socialist barrister, I think would be a more accurate description.

There are few people that I would wish ill to, but I'm ashamed to say that this creature is one for whom I find it immensely difficult to retain any charitable thoughts whatsoever.

[amateur51]

Mansfield, millionaire pseudo-socialist barrister, I think would be a more accurate description.

There are few people that I would wish ill to, but I'm ashamed to say that this creature is one for whom I find it immensely difficult to retain any charitable thoughts whatsoever.

Why so, Simon?

[mangerton]

Surely you've missed one, Darling?

That's ok, dearie. I missed out quite a few, of both hues, including the egregious Lamont who lamentably was unable to pronounce his own name, Healey, who likened his successor Howe to a dead sheep, and Callaghan who was in charge when the pound in our pocket was not devalued, but who resigned shortly afterwards.

Ps, my apologies to the present incumbent for mis-spelling his name

[mercia]

so have you voted? today being result day.

a rather inconsequential discussion about this just now on Breakfast TV, which leaves me none the wiser as to the power / influence / job description / duties of a Cambridge U. chancellor.

[french frank]

Hmmm. Is the £82m dependent on him getting elected?

(I'm just wondering. Either way, I would vote No)

[vinteuil]

... amazing the muddle and kerfuffle these younger universities get into while deciding on their 'chancellors'

[Lateralthinking1]

Be very, very, wary of this appointment. Early in the 20th Century, J Sainsbury had libraries in their shops. For decades, that all went by the wayside. However, there is a Sainsbury Library at the Said Business School in the University of Oxford. Not content just with involvement in Oxford it seems, Lord Sainsbury has now been appointed the Chancellor of Cambridge University. This occurs at the time Sainsbury's are attempting to improve on what were some shockingly awful sales figures. The big turnaround came last Christmas when it did spectacularly well with a new venture. A move back into books and cds - all sales based - in what it has described as a customer "library", principally for the moment organised online.

I have been following these developments closely for some months. The go-ahead for a much delayed application for a Sainsbury's superstore near to me was finally agreed just as it was proposed that a library on the very same road would be closed. It looked like a trade-off. The councillor in charge of library services in the borough is what? You've guessed it. An ex-buyer for Sainsbury's. In parallel, the Chief Executive of the Council was once the Chief Executive of CABE, the influential commission for architecture and the built environment. That was a quango funded by DCMS and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister which reviewed planning applications for large commercial property developments. Around that time, Sir Stuart Lipton of Stanhope, the architects, was also a very senior figure in CABE so the two knew each other well. There were mutterings about a possible conflict of interest but of course this was denied. Miraculously though Stanhope were awarded a contract to build the huge Sainsbury's complex on London's South Bank. And as it happens a company related to Stanhope is the appointed architect for my new local Sainsbury's.

So you could say that there is a great deal more to Sainsbury's than a shelf or two of ready meals. The Labour Government had been a stumbling block to the local development. However, once the Coalition was in place the London Mayor declared he didn't oppose it and the Council could therefore agree to it. As well as having been the Chief Executive of CABE, the Chief Executive of the Council had been a civil servant. Not any old civil servant but the Private Secretary to a Housing Minister in the Major Government. And then five days ago, Sainsbury's snapped up a firm with a database of three million films, games and albums. The £1 million acquisition gives Sainsbury's an entry into the download market, which is expected to double in value from £7.3 billion over the next four years. Luke Jensen, Sainsbury's group development director, said taking full control would enable it to enhance the functionality and would mean customers "will soon be able to buy, rent or stream content from Sainsbury's".

So you can see what is happening here. Sainsbury's are the country's new provider of libraries except we will be paying. Their involvement in universities gives them the aura of the substantial. Hey, we are right at the heart of Oxbridge and its libraries too so we can be taken seriously. Plus it is a commercial lever. If the government backtracked on its policy to close libraries, would there be a pulling out by Sainsbury's from investment in academia? Possibly. Thirdly, there is party politics in these moves. This Conservative doing that Conservative a favour etc. Cambridge have chosen a noose around their necks and also probably ours.

[vinteuil]

... there is some party political stuff there too. This Conservative doing that Conservative a favour. Cambridge have just chosen a noose around their necks and probably ours too.

... except that he is a member of the Labour Party -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Sainsbury,_Baron_Sainsbury_of_Turville