Brand squeezes in appeal before deadline

Chris Brand, Edinburgh University's self-styled "scientific racist" this week appealed against his recent dismissal, two days before the deadline for appeal ran out.

Mr Brand was sacked last month after a university tribunal found him guilty of gross misconduct, saying he had courted controversy, and that his public comments on paedophilia had apparently been clearly chosen "to inflame an already difficult situation". The university court will now appoint a senior legal figure, not a university employee, to hear the appeal. He or she can choose to sit alone or with two other people. See letters page 13.