[M] For 48 points. Campaigning for bigger pint pots and free pizza the PPE gang led by John Absolute had once again creamed the slate in the JCR elections, and the five of them sat down to divide up the spoils of office. Not surprisingly, wheeling and dealing was the order of the day, and it took until midnight to hammer out this consensus:
If Absolute was not President, Bstaad would be either Quizmaster or Rents Officer
If neither Dribble nor Earwax was Treasurer, Cringe would be President
If Dribble was not to be Quizmaster, then either Bstaad or Cringe would be President
If Earwax was not Rents Officer, then if Dribble was not President, Bstaad would become Secretary
If Dribble was not Treasurer, then if Earwax was not Secretary, then Cringe would be Quizmaster
All well and good, but they were now too befuddled with beer and bloated with pizza to work out what it all meant. And this despite advice from their old Logic tutor that 'If P then Q' neither means nor implies 'If not P then not Q'.
Can you help them?
[N] For 25 points. Decanal Disaster! The security code has had its annual change, and the poor Dean is out in the cold again. He has tried the following:
1 2 3 4 5
1 4 1 5 3
2 5 4 3 3
2 4 2 4 1
1 3 5 5 3
No luck yet, but at least he's doing better than before. This time each attempt has two digits in the right place. So what code should he try?
[O] For 20 points. The National Curriculum has at last arrived at University level, and the PPE Schools timetable is now a logistical nightmare. There is a fortnight available, and three optional papers are to be set in each week. The Third Way must be set in at least one of the weeks, and The Forces of Conservatism in exactly one. If The Forces of Conservatism comes in the second week, then so must The Poverty of Socialism, whereas if it comes in the first, then so must The Third Way . But The Third Way cannot go in the first week unless The Poverty of Socialism goes in the second.
And then there's Elitism for the Masses, which must be set in the first week if The Third Way is to be set in the second, and must be set in the second week if The Poverty of Socialism is not set in the first.
It gets worse. The first week is not to include both The Poverty of Socialism and The Third Way. Nor the second both The Poverty of Socialism and Elitism for the Masses.
It all looks pretty tricky. But luckily there's Constitutional Tinkering as a standby.
What is the exam timetable?
As always, solutions should aim for accuracy, rigour, brevity, elegance and wit. The Editor's decision is final.
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