Made in Glasgow: the new Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani

It’s official – Hassan Rouhani has been declared the new President of Iran with 51pc of the vote. He’s a cleric, a moderate and a polyglot (speaking English, German, French, Russian and Arabic). “Let’s end extremism,” he said during a campaign speech. “We have no other option than moderation.” He took swipes at the Basij, the Islamist morality police who go around asking women to veil up. He’s spoken about releasing political prisoners, and lifting internet censorship. But what jumps out from his CV is that he’s a Glasgow graduate – and very proud of it. He even boasted about it in his campaign video.

In this video, he cheekily truncated his alma mater to “Glasgow University”. The ensuing controversy seems to have established that he studied at the old Glasgow Polytechnic in the 1970s. But he seems to have enjoyed Glasgow so much – understandably – that after his MPhil in law he returned to study for a PhD in Constitutional Law.