Off beat

Alumna to be proud of no. 25 is MP Emma Nicholson, recent defector from the Conservatives to the Liberal Democrats. Her alma mater is hard to guess from her subsequent activities, which include computer programming, management consultancy and charity fund-raising. But there is a clue to her past buried in the long list of her commitments as an MP. She is a member of the all-party jazz group and a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music.