We are all inordinately self-conscious about our backgrounds. But whatever unwelcome hand might already have been dealt us in the lottery of class, colour or sex, we now have new statistics categorising our intelligence by birthplace too.

However, while newfigures from the Office of National Statistics might suggest that people from Newcastle upon Tyne are less well-educated than anywhere else in Britain, children from the North-east still have a heart-warming catalogue of role models ... to emulate.

Leader, April 1