COLOURFUL candidates are expected to battle it out on the hustings for the post of rector of Edinburgh University.
COLOURFUL candidates are expected to battle it out on the hustings for the post of rector of Edinburgh University.
George Galloway MP confirmed he will put himself forward against former Hearts chairman Lord Foulkes, while Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson and Herald columnist and broadcaster Iain MacWhirter could also be in the running.
A spokesman for the university said last night nominations would not be confirmed until later this week, but both Galloway and Foulkes have said they will apply.
Mr Galloway, the independent MP who attracted criticism for his performance on Celebrity Big Brother, said the move offered an opportunity to send a message that students do not support top-up fees or international military and political aggression, and want to see "our government take a constructive stance in the Middle East, rather than acting as the poodle of Washington and its alliances in the region".
Mr Galloway, himself a former Labour MP, said: "This is going to be a referendum on peace and war, justice and hypocrisy - a University of Edinburgh that is a beacon of light for students in far more difficult conditions elsewhere in the world, or one that is represented by a cipher for the established party machine.
Lord Foulkes said that his links with the university, which go back to his time as student president 45 years ago, made him an ideal candidate for the post and added that "there is a job to be done and it should not be treated as a gimmicky thing".
He was president of the university's Student Representative Council in 1963 and later served as president of the Scottish Union of Students for two years before embarking on a career as a councillor, MP, government minister, life peer and now MSP for the Lothians.
He said: "They need someone who is prepared to do a job of work."
Other names floated are Tory MP David Davis and television presenter Clarkson.
The current rector is former Lothians Green MSP Mark Ballard, who beat Tory Boris Johnson, now Mayor of London, and Times journalist Magnus Linklater for the post in 2006.
The rector is elected every three years by the 24,700 students and nearly 9000 staff to represent their interests.
Previous rectors have included Winston Churchill (1929), William Gladstone (1859), Gordon Brown (1972), Magnus Magnusson (1975), Earl Kitchener of Khartoum (1914), Archie MacPherson (1985) and Sunday Herald columnist Muriel Gray (1988).
