Making friends abroad

Anil Seale, head of the Cambridge Overseas Trust, did his bit for elitism on a visit to Ankara this week. Speaking as Cambridge University prepared to sign an agreement for a scholarship scheme for ten Turkish postgraduates, he emphasised the need for a global attitude. "If we have to depend on the local yokels, frankly Cambridge would be a polytechnic of East Anglia," he said, adding, for the benefit of his Turkish audience, "Cambridge... is a low-lying region and so are its inhabitants." The comments were more than a little irritating for the British Council in Turkey, which is also helping the University of East Anglia in the Turkish market.