Jackboot in waiting

Alumnus to be proud of number 167 may sound like Georges Simenon's most famous creation, but has a rather more sinister significance in France. Bruno Megret, second in command of the French National Front and widely tipped to inherit Jean-Marie Le Pen's jackboots, might have acquired his views on the importance of cultural diversity from his experience as a masters student at the University of California, Berkeley, after graduating from the Ecole Polytechnique.