Agog on the Tyne

What does Gavin Williamson have in store for Universities UK this morning?

Few can forget Paul Gascoigne’s 1990 collaboration with folk-rockers Lindisfarne. One a world-class exponent of their art, the other with a history that divided opinion and a future to forget—readers can decide for themselves which was which.

This morning, a similarly ambiguous mash-up is on show, as Gavin Williamson addresses vice-chancellors at Universities UK’s annual conference. That is, of course, if the education secretary is not subject to a rumoured three-line whip that would see all ministers summoned to Westminster this morning ahead of a reshuffle that promises little for Gav—particularly since a press interview was published in which he mistakenly claimed to have spoken with Mancunian footballer and food poverty campaigner Marcus Rashford, when he had actually chatted with London-born rugby player Maro Itoje, who has campaigned for better access to technology for disadvantaged youngsters.