Just across the English Channel, a less-dovish European Central Bank (ECB) policy stance and the ongoing euro-lending indicator improvements has the Pound Sterling playing second fiddle.

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Other goodies here include a three megapixel camera (a nice bump over the two megapixel shooters found on the IM-R100 and IM U-MU110), PictBridge support for PC-less printing, MP3 playback enhanced by four-channel stereo speakers and an FM transmitter, plus that popular Korean add-on, the electronic dictionary.

ENGADGET: Pantech's feature-packed IM-U410 multimedia phone

Britain, for example, tried for two decades to channel many of the less academic school-leavers into polytechnics that had been set up to provide degrees equal in quality to those offered by the universities, but with a more technical and vocational bent.

ECONOMIST: Higher learning and the middle classes

But in Scotland, slot 8 is already taken by BBC Alba, so any local channels here would appear in a far less prominent slot - possibly as low as channel 48.

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