School Fuel

Education is, as we know, a purely commercial matter in which governments should not interfere except when maintaining the nation's intellectual purity by kicking out the wog students. It is therefore only natural and British that our world-beating universities should accept sponsorship from some of Her Majesty's Government's favourite people. Oxford, Cambridge and the nominally Victorian-valued Imperial College London are among thirty-six prestigious institutions which admit to taking money from the fossil fuel industry. As always, the squillions in question have no effect whatever on curriculum or research; which doubtless explains why the London School of Economics was so parsimonious with the facts as to refuse any disclosure, on the grounds that it would prejudice the university's chances of raising funds in the future. Similarly, although the actions of the University of Surrey are not in the least straitjacketed by sponsorship from BP, the university declined to provide details of its BP sponsorship after BP decreed that it would be "commercially sensitive" and therefore educationally unsound.