Howard Davies denies he was sacked and claims that he is leaving his post as LSE Director voluntarily to take “responsibility for the damage done to the university’s reputation” concerning Gaddafi’s bloody money. A good start and a good result for those protest groups who went for the kill, but why stop there?

The real sycophant and “friend” of Saif – David Held, who mentored the murderer and oversaw his controversial doctorate is still in his job. As Guido reported last week Held is also ghost writing Miliband’s ideology book while in the pay of the Libyans. If LSE really wanted to get its house in order, sacking the man who lavished praise on the Gadaffi family and took their shilling would be a good start. Ed might want to think twice about his dinner party chum and sage too.

UPDATE: Held is facing questions from elsewhere about his behaviour and especially the favours he does for friends. A former LSE Admissions tutor reports that when former Clinton advisor Sidney Blumenthal’s niece applied, strings were being pulled for old friends:

“…the phone rang. It was David Held, notorious important-person wanna-be. “Did you see the application from Blumenthal’s niece?” he asked. “Yes,” I replied, “it’s right here on my desk.” “Well, you should consider it very carefully,” Held continued, “Just read the name again. It’s BLUMENTHAL, OK? That Blumenthal.”

…I wrote an email to Blumenthal, Giddens and Held and informed them all that I was in charge of admissions and that I resented any external meddling. It was totally out of order to slip handwritten notes into a file or to make phone calls pressurizing me. Besides the niece’s grades were far below what we usually were prepared to accept. I heard back from Giddens within a few hours and he was very apologetic and could not for the life of him understand how that note got included in the application.”

Seems Held had more success fixing things for Saif.