Cambridge is elitist. That's the point.

Today a whole bunch of whining liberal idealogues have got all upset because Cambridge have done the logical thing. They've seen the introduction of the new A* at A Level and decided to use it as a way of differentiating between the best and the second best. 

The big complaint seems to be that this is elitist. But Cambridge has always been elitist - it selects the intellectual elite. If it did anything else it wouldn't be the top university in the country; it wouldn't be one of the top universities in the world.   

One of the whingers, John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “I am extremely concerned about this. The effect of the A* on the system is unknown, so at the very least this decision is premature. I trust it will not be followed by other universities. There is plenty of other evidence on which we can discriminate between candidates.”

Like what? Their sock drawer? Or should we just ask them if they promise to work really, really hard?

None of this would be necessary if A-levels hadn't been getting easier for the last twenty years. Anyone who says they haven't is kidding themselves: kids certainly haven't been getting cleverer, and schools haven't, in general, got better. In the meantime, let Cambridge use the A* grade. The best thing about it is that you can't get it if you resit any module of your A Level - so the now-standard resitting-to-get-a-better-grade is eliminated. Worth a go, I say. 

Modernising Royal Mail is a contradiction in terms

Our government have now decided that, because all their previous attempts at public-private partnerships have been such overwhelming successes (I travel on the Tube more or less every day, so I know what I'm talking about) they are going to part-privatise the Royal Mail.

My experience of the Royal Mail over my lifetime has been this: it used to be reliable; it had some problems; they reorganised it (losing second post, for instance) and it got worse. Now it is not reliable. I live in North London and my post arrives anywhere between 10AM and 2PM; things get lost; there are no apologies or even admissions of liability.

The Royal Mail is not a modern invention and its service is not something that can be improved by modern methods beyond the internal combustion engine. If we actually care about it, we need to accept it must be properly funded and organised. Organising a national postal service is one of the few things central government can usefully do - and ours can't even do that.