Silent witness

A student has appeared on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square to protest about cuts to language courses at Imperial College London. Justin Sargeant, who is studying for an MSc in scientific, technical and medical translation, spent an hour on the platform with his mouth taped up. The plinth is being used for Antony Gormley's One & Other art project, in which people take turns standing on it for an hour. Courses in Arabic, Italian, Japanese and Russian are to close at Imperial by 2010, with the loss of up to 20 jobs.