bathimpact issue 4 by bathimpact

Ugandan style

Money Shots

Artistic Rebels

International, page 15

Photos, pages 18-19

Entertainment, page 27

bathimpact The University of Bath Students’ Union Newspaper

Monday 15th November 2010

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Gina Reay

Volume 12 Issue 4

Inside bathimpact

Demonstration Special In News this fortnight, as well as the front page story you will find information on the London and Bath demonstrations against Higher Education funding cuts. You’ll also find photos from the events in both cities on our centre pages. See News page 2 to read all the information about this issue

Aaron Porter interview An interview with NUS President Aaron Porter, who visited Bath for the Funding Cuts Forum, is published in full in Comment. Aaron spoke with passion for the cause and enthusiasm for last week’s protest.

Students protest peacefully outside Westminster early on

Later on in the day riots break out at 30 Millbank, Tory HQ

Student protests go from constructive to destructive »»Bath students join protest against funding cuts at Westminster »»Demonstration turns nasty as anarchy breaks out at Tory HQ »»50 arrests and numerous injuries see student reputations tarnished Rebecca Stagg bathimpact Contributor

t least 14 people, including seven police officers, were injured and 50 arrested in riots that took place outside Conservative Party headquarters at Millbank Tower in the wake of a student-led demonstration against cuts on Higher Education (HE) funding.

On Wednesday 10th November the National Union of Students (NUS) and the University and College Union held a demonstration in London against the proposed cuts to the Higher Education Funding Grant put forward earlier this year by the coalition government. Initial estimates provided to the Metropolitan Police by the

NUS suggested that around 4,000 students would attend this protest. By the day of the march over 24,000 students had signed up, and the final turn-out was estimated by the NUS at over 50,000, presenting a clear organizational and safety issue for the organisers. Bath’s student protesters were issued with “survival packs” outlining potential hazards and

listing important information including what to do in the event of being arrested. 276 students from University of Bath, Bath Spa University and the City of Bath College signed up to join the NUS in the their demonstration, ironically named, ‘demo-lition’. They traveled to London on coaches funded by the... continued on page 3

Flick to page 6 of Comment for the full interview with the NUS President

Geek of the year Entertainment presents geek. co.uk’s “Geek of the Year” awards with a special deal for Bath students who enter. You could get tickets to the awards ceremony, with added prizes if you win. See page 28 for details of the competition and how to enter

Varsity report Joe Dibben, bathimpact’s new Sports Editor, attended last Wednesday’s “varsity” rugby down in Exeter. To read the in depth report fllick to page 35 of Sport

Monday 15th November

News bathimpact Editor-in-Chief Gina Reay editor@bathimpact.com Deputy Editor Hannah Raymont deputy@bathimpact.com Chief Sub-Editor Sam Foxman subeditor@bathimpact.com News Katie Rocker news@bathimpact.com Comment David James opinion@bathimpact.com Features Caroline Leach features@bathimpact.com

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Bath MP Don Foster speaks

Gemma Hazel Isherwood and Sam Foxman talk to Don Foster about his position in the tuition fee debate and on higher education funding

o make up for the funding shortfall created by the planned cuts to Higher Education funding, a rise in tuition fees is set to make the cost of going to university significantly higher. The National Union of Students (NUS) have been firm in their opposition not only to these cuts but also to the proposed increase in fees. In their response to Lord Browne’s report on HE

International Julia Lipowiecka international@bathimpact.com Science Sam Lewtas science@bathimpact.com Entertainments Rowan Emslie ents@bathimpact.com Sport Joe Dibben sport@bathimpact.com Publicity Officer Julia Lipowiecka publicity@bathimpact.com IT Officer Jack Franklin it@bathimpact.com Secretary Nick Hill secretary@bathimpact.com Treasurer Rebecca Stagg treasurer@bathimpact.com Advertising Enquires Helen Freeman H.Freeman@bath.ac.uk 01225 386806

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Don Foster, MP for Bath funding, the government are set to allow fees to increase to up to £9,000. The Liberal Democrats had previously declared their support for a “fully-costed” phasing out of tuition fees before coming into power and 150 MPs from across the country signed a pledge to vote against a rise in fees earlier in the year. It is likely that many of these MPs will come under pressure from the government to back down on their promise. The Liberal Democrats’ coalition agreement with the Conservatives, which the party has accepted, states that their MPs have a choice to either vote for the proposed increase in fees or to abstain; any who vote against will be breaking their agreement with the Conservative Party. Harriet Harman raised the issue with Deputy Prime Minister

Nick Clegg in the House of Commons at Prime Minister’s Questions on the day of the demonstration. She said, “By the time ‘freshers’ week’ [referring to the election] was over they had abandoned their promise. Every single Lib Dem MP signed the pledge not to put up tuition fees. Every single one of them is about to break that promise.” NUS President Aaron Porter, who held a forum on the issue on campus last week, said of the proposal, “we are disappointed and we are angry.” Bath MP, Liberal Democrat Don Foster was invited to come to this forum, but was unable to attend. Mr Porter said of Mr Foster, “if the man’s got any backbone or spine he’ll vote against the government and stick to his words, otherwise a generation of students will never forgive him.” To read the full interview with NUS President Aaron Porter, turn to page 6. In an exclusive interview with

Student Media Don Foster responded to this accusation of spinelessness, “I think that it was necessary to do it [join the coalition with the Conservatives] and with that has had to come compromises. That’s tough for any politician to stomach, but if you do it with a good reason for doing it, as I believe I have, I think it would be ridiculous to describe that as a spineless activity.” Mr Foster went on to explain that he would “not be able to keep the first part of the pledge” to cut HE costs and that the “state of the economy at the present time” should highlight the “need to make a number of cuts across the board… [from which] universities cannot be immune”. The NUS President argued forcefully against this in his speech today and said that the Liberal Democrats and other signatories to the NUS pledge should all be held to account. He said, “We trusted politicians to keep their promises… Richard Guthrie

Aaron Porter speaks to Bath students at the HE forum

we will fight back against the attempt to dismantle the funded education we need for our economic recovery”. Aaron Porter explained that “Politicians of whatever parties [that] break their promises, have lied to students; they have lied to voters; they have lied to each and every one of us and we will not accept it”. Don Foster suggested that he understands the anger that students have expressed, both in London and across the country: “I feel angry; I think that students should feel angry, but let us be clear where the blame should lie - in part, at least, with the previous Labour government” and that “we’ve found a way of [funding HE] that is very much fairer than the current system”. Mr Foster was keen to emphasise that he had not yet made up his mind on this important issue, “I now have the dilemma as to what I do about it within the terms of the coalition agreement”, though his appearance to justify the position taken by the Liberal Democrat leadership makes his position increasingly clear. He stressed that “You’ll have to wait and see how people vote when the time comes”. This issue is far from resolved, as Aaron Porter repeatedly stated: this is not the end of the campaign, this is the beginning. He closed his protest speech today saying, “Our future is at stake and this is the biggest battle of our lives so make sure this is the day where [we] began the fight and we will fight it until the very end and this government will not be allowed to take advantage of us any longer and join on the fight and we will keep fighting”.

Bath Student Media coverage

Sam Foxman Media Officer ’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of those involved in the coverage of the NUS Demolition on Wednesday. Bath Student Media excelled in all areas providing some of the best live coverage in the country of both the event and its ugly aftermath. The eight members of Student Media who went to the protest were able to provide a breadth and depth of coverage with phone interviews, pictures and live audio, allowing 1449AM URB to run a live show from 11am until 5.30pm. CTV News’ coverage of the event has caught the spirit of

the demonstration in its early stages and, thanks to the bravery and dedication of our team, caught up-close the terrible scenes of destruction from Millbank Tower. bathimpact have been able to achieve a similar effect with their front page, and with the pictures that fill the news and centre pages of this week’s issue. The content we were able to get, the up-to-the-minute news feed that we have been able to produce, and the outstanding follow-up coverage in bathimpact and on CTV would not have been possible without this team. Thanks go to Nick Hill, Gina Reay, Thomas Reis, Rebecca Stagg, Katie Rocker, Caitlin Fitzmaurice,

Lizzy Roberts and Marie-Lou Steul. Throughout the day URB produced a live show, going out in the Student Centre and on the Parade which ran for over six hours. The presenters and producers of this show were ceaseless in their commitment to providing those students and others unable to go to the demonstration with the best possible show. Using the content sourced by the team of contributors from across bathimpact, CTV and URB at the demonstration and by our producers on the day, a constant stream of information was made available. Student Media were able, through this show, to get an exclusive inter-

view with Don Foster, Bath’s Liberal Democrat MP, which we broadcast throughout the day. We also had exclusive content from NUS President Aaron Porter and others. Thanks to David James, Tamar Hudson, Simon Rushton, Steven Pagett and Stephen Briscoe who made this possible. Check out CTV’s coverage of this event on www.bathstudent.com. URB will be producing a follow-up show next week, so look out for a podcast of that. And enjoy bathimpact’s coverage of this crucial piece of student news. If anyone feels inspired to be a part of the fast-paced world of Student Media, get involved.

Monday 15th November 2010

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News

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Violent protesters shatter glass with remains of placards continued from front page ...Students’ Union and other unions. At the start of the day, University of Bath SU President Daniel O’Toole was upbeat about the demonstration, saying, “The atmosphere here is absolutely incredible; there are thousands upon thousands of students. The atmosphere from students across the country is incredible. In London, it’s absolutely amazing.” The crowd gathered throughout the morning and left Horse Guards Avenue at approximately 12:30pm. They continued to march the route with many late-comers tagging on to the thousands strong crowd as they went on. Protesters were given sheets of chants and many caught on, the most popular by far being “no ifs, no buts, no education cuts”. Signs and banners displaying a variety of content entered the air, which included “Nick Clegg sold out faster than Muse”, “Admission Impossible” and bathimpact’s favourite “This sh** wouldn’t happen at Hog-

warts”. Though it began as a peaceful, passionate and successful march through the centre of London, things took a more sinister turn when a contingent of demonstrators marching past Millbank Tower began a static protest at the building which houses the Conservative Party’s Headquarters. Minutes after the crowd reached their final destination further along the route, rioting kicked off outside the building, with graffiti sprayed on the concrete outside the building and windows smashed. A student group started a fire using their placards and were soon joined by hundreds of fellow protesters, who began chanting and shouting abuse at those inside the building. As the crowd grew, protesters began attacking the Millbank building, throwing anything and everything they could find. The surprisingly small number of police at the scene - initially about 20 - were soon overwhelmed and after approximately an hour of rioting a gang of demonstrators managed to

Angry protesters took out their fury on Millbank Tower, Conservative Party headquarters break into the building. Shortly after the break-in, others followed and the bullet-proof glass fronted entrance was smashed. From that moment on, the violence and destruction took over and the crowd soon became uncontrollable, breaking through the police line and even reaching the roof of the building. From there, they proceeded to throw objects, including a fire extinguisher, into the crowd below. The dramatic scene was not interrupted by riot police until the entire front entrance to the building had been completely destroyed and one policewoman had been carried out bleeding. Many students claimed they had seen tear gas used to control the crowd. Kat, a student from Leeds University, told bathimpact “we were at the front but they started tear gassing so we left. Things were getting way out of control.” bathimpact spoke to an employee working in the building who told us that no one had been warned about the possibility of a riot. “Some of us had heard about the demo via word

Chunks of glass were used as weapons to attack police, who were expecting a “peaceful protest”

of mouth, but no one said anything about this.” A colleague of his then added, “It’s incredibly intense inside, students have taken over the stairwells and offices are getting trashed. I just want to get home to be honest.” Many workers left the building after the demonstration took a turn

a peaceful protest where 50,000 students came to make a very serious point. There can be absolutely no justification for other people that have come onto this protest to hijack it for their own means to try to create trouble. It is utterly despicable. There is absolutely no justification

Riot police attempted to stop protesters from gaining access for the worse to avoid getting caught up in the violence. The nearby MI5 building was also closed. As the riot went on police managed to bring everyone down from the roof and were seen using their batons with force to control the protesters. One youth who claimed he had been in the building said, “it was crazy, as soon as we got in we just climbed up the stairs... no one was there to stop us.” When asked why he had taken such drastic measures to highlight the cause, he answered, “It’s the police innit [sic], f**k the police!” In fact, as the violence continued, the message of the vandals turned from one of fury against funding cuts to one of simply hatred of the police. One bathimpact reporter saw a member of the crowd throw a 3ft squared chunk of broken glass at a riot policeman who fortunately managed to protect himself in time. In an exclusive interview for Bath Student Media, NUS President Aaron Porter condemned the attack, saying, “Let me be clear that I absolutely condemn the actions of a minority, and that has undermined

for the use of violence or breaking the law.” Speaking about the failure to make provisions for this kind of attack, Scotland Yard’s official spokesperson said the meagre response was, “an embarrassment for us and for London” though they blamed the poor response to the violence on an expectation of a “peaceful protest”. Once police began to get a grip over the violence, the roads surrounding the Houses of Parliament and Westminster became blocked leaving three of the five coaches hired between the students from Bath stuck in the mayhem. 32 people were arrested by the Metropolitan Police, but no students from Bath were involved in any of the trouble. Despite the difficulties at the protest and with the transport from it, all of those involved returned safely. To read a Comment piece on the Millbank riot see page 4. For photographs from the peaceful protest turn to page 18 and for Bath SU’s reaction to the violence see Page 23 Photos taken by Rebecca Stagg.

Monday 15th November 2010

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Comment

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Vandalism isn’t protest. It’s delinquency Rowan Emslie Entertainments Editor ents@bathimpact.com

Gina Reay

he turn of events outside Millbank Towers (Conservative Party Headquarters) at the student protest on Wednesday sullied what was largely a legitimate and justified condemnation of the government cutbacks. The freedom of expression is a vital part of the UN charter for human rights laid out in 1946 to protect and enshrine the basic rights of individuals. The ability to criticise and question governmental actions is obviously important – it is a huge part of how racist and sex-

ist laws have been overturned in the last half century, most famously in the case of the civil rights movement led by African-Americans in the 1950s and 1960s. It is not a coincidence, however, that the most lauded of the leaders of this movement was Martin Luther King Jnr., a man who preached non-violent protest in the face of increasing police brutality. By showing the public that the civilised side of the struggle were the dissidents he managed to swing a significant proportion of the population to his side; of course people will find it hard to empathise with violent, aggressive individuals even if they are the state appointed

Letters to the

CommentEditor

In response to ‘Chaos on the Buses’

ear Editor, I’m writing to express my anger and disappointment on the comment that our new SU president made on the Chaos on the buses (Volume 12, Issue 2, 18th October,2010). This article raised my anger when I read Mr Daniel O’Toole’s comment on the bus issue: “as I have received no complaints today, I think I can assume that at least some people are happier”. This disgusting comment does not make any sense and does make me doubt his ability to fulfil his responsibilities over the year. I have been studying here for 4 years(1 year out on placement) and the bus issue seems has not completely resolved over these years. Last year, I was glad that the U18 were able to partly resolve the overcrowded problem during the peak hour (of course the Bright Orange also run additional services). But this year, I would say it’s worse than ever! I did a test in the first week of the term and checked which bus can take me to Uni from the Abbey to Uni on time during the peak hour(8:30-9:00).

How can I do it? I spent three days (Monday to Wednesday) standing at the Abbey bus stop from 8:30 to 9:00. The test really surprised me there were no bus would stop in Abbey during that period. Why? Because the buses were too full after the bus station stop and they would go straight to the campus. I forgot to mention that students were waiting in the Abbey stop were lucky because they got alternative choice to avoid being late – taxi, what about our fellow students waiting at the Bathwick Hill bus stop? Mr O’Toole’s ‘no complaint’ theory does not make any sense if he can stand right at the Abbey bus stop or the Bathwick Hill bus stop during the peak hour. Mr O’Toole, if you would like to make “at least some people happier”, I doubt that you are right for your position. I would like to find someone who can make “most people happier” In the meantime, I would like to thank bathimpact for highlighting this issue over these years. Thank you for your time and attention. Kind regards Raymond Chan

Rebecca Stagg

Why violence and destruction will tarnish any campaign and has detracted from students’ orginal message

Students protesters take the Tory HQ by force. Many blame the violence on the new CoD: Black Ops video game that was released the day before

face of ‘justice.’ The best example of this was the war of words that he and Birmingham (Alabama) Police Chief Eugene ‘Bull’ Connor carried out. When King spoke he was eloquent, measured and intelligent; when Connor spoke it was with vitriol and hate. Who would you side with? The question of image is one that comes up time and again when the public (or, at least, a significant and vocal minority of the public) faceoff against the government. It has been argued many times that the Vietnam War was cut short mostly because public opinion turned against it, particularly in the wake of the

Kent State Massacre where student protestors in Ohio were shot at by the National Guard, killing four students and wounding nine others. Historians pin-point this as the point where the anti-war movement spread from students and minority groups to the rest of the public because the deaths of young people came home – no longer was it soldiers in a far off land, it was the children of the middle classes at university on home ground. There is definitely an argument for the anger that has emerged in the face of the government’s proposals and it is a cause that I agree with. Not only did the Liberal

In response to ‘Vandalism isn’t protest. It’s just delinquency’

In response to ‘Lord Browne is a genius’

aving left university nearly 30 years ago I cannot pretend to speak for the protesters. I can however understand the rage of anyone who is suffering the consequences of the current economic turmoil when those responsible, viz, the bankers, have not only all got off scot free but are allowed to continue their nefarious dealings and some among the equally repulsive political elite actually argue that they (the bankers) should continue to take millionaire bonuses. I fear that if those responsible for the financial crisis are not prosecuted, other sectors who feel unfairly victimised will also take the law into their own hands as the effects of the crisis are brought home to more and more innocent people. University Staff Member (Anon)

egrees are a waste of time for most. Just a pointless hurdle, gate keeping jobs that do not need a degree away from ordinary people. Any job where the degree subject does not matter does not need that degree requirement. The main purpose of universities, with such a high percentage going, is to get the youth to pay for their own unemployability for a few years, while they will hopefully grow up. Perhaps things will change, perhaps children will go to work for ten years or so and save up for a degree in a useful subject. Or realise it would have been a waste of time and nothing other than an end of life amusement. City of Bath College Student

Democrats run on a manifesto that specifically opposed the changes to tuition fees but, when the coalition was formed, it was touted as one of the things they had succeeded in keeping in the face of Conservative pressure otherwise. Effectively, they have lied to the public and put forward a proposal that I think is short-sighted for the economy in the long run. I want to unequivocally state that my problem is not with protest, it is with delinquency. What the minority of violent protestors achieved when they broke windows, started fires, threw projectiles at policemen and generally behaved as (the tabloids will have a field day) a group of stereotypically loutish youths, was to simply cast themselves as the bad guys in the eyes of the public. Anyone who praises the posturing, balaclava clad vandals who turned the protest into a pathetic show of egos is deluded. Yes, it shows passion; yes, it shows students today aren’t the apathetic MTV generation they are often accused of. What it did was conform to the most popular image of young people propagated by the popular media: a public nuisance.

Monday 15th November 2010

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Comment

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Can I have a career please? Jack Penrose bathimpact contributor

s a Fourth Year, does this story sound familiar? : you come back to Uni (possibly from placement), and the first lecture isn’t a “welcome back” talk, but a stern talk from the Careers Advisory Service that terrifies and depresses you to your very core. However, you go along with it, start polishing the old CV and get cracking. Then it hits you – what do I actually want to do when I grow up? I needed some ideas, and every time I went to the CAS to book an appointment, I couldn’t get one as they fill up pretty quickly. So I decided to go to the Career’s Fair for some inspiration. I was immensely disappointed, as were several people from my course. I study Modern Languages, and there was precious little that was relevant to my course at that fair. If you don’t want to work for a bank or the oil industry, you probably found the same. So essentially, if you aren’t

a BBA or Chem Eng student, you may have left the fair feeling similar to me. Now, I understand that the University of Bath is predominantly a scientific institution, and artsy languages are not high on the agenda. However, there aren’t many BBA students relative to the rest of the University either, and there were a hell of a lot of banks, consultancy and accountancy firms around the place for them. Why does my course have to suffer? True, there was one stall that was very appropriate for linguists, but one isn’t really enough, is it? Yes, my course isn’t as careerdefining as medicine, but it isn’t as abstract as English either. I got a little fed up of representatives who told me “sorry, we don’t employ linguists”. What use is that to me? And how is that fair on my fellow linguists? I’m not the only one who thought this. My friend who studies Psychology said when referring to the fair “it just depressed me”, and my friend who studies

Politics said there was “absolutely nothing” that was particularly relevant to her and a rep from HSBC “didn’t seem to know what their company’s graduate scheme consisted of.” A friend who studies Biology (bearing in mind that the University of Bath is fairly science-based) said that there was “practically nothing there” either. I’m not just going to criticise, I am going to create a solution. These Career fairs should be more relevant to each department. There are many students at this University who don’t want to work in a bank or on an oil rig. There are other careers out there; it’s just a pity that the Fair missed an opportunity to show us such possibilities, I also understand that we can’t expect everything to be put on a plate for us – but in the interest of fairness and representation, I think more could be done. In future, perhaps it could be a little more balanced or it could be specified to a certain department or course. Or I might never know what I want to be when I grow up.

Clowning around: You could always find work at McDonalds?

Monday 15th November 2010

bathimpact

Comment

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The NUS will fight back

Comment Editor David James and URB Station Manager Stephen Briscoe put your questions to NUS president Aaron Porter David James also presents and produces URB’s new weekly news show Buzz, on air every Wednesday from 6-7pm on 1449AM URB. For the full interview and other topical news, check out the Buzz podcast on www.1449urb.co.uk

s the NUS out of its depth with this march? Are you sure all the union members support your personal opinion regarding these tuition fee rises? The London demonstration attracted just over 20,000 [it in fact attracted 50,000 attendees] students which isn’t nearly representative of the entire student body in the UK is it? Well what I’d say to that is 20,000 students going on a march in London is the biggest education demo that’s taken place in 20 years, so I actually think that’s a sign of how angry students are at this particular time. We’ve never seen anything like this in recent times, and students are finally thinking enough is enough. Governments have taken advantage of them. First they introduced fees of £1,000, then they trebled them to £3,000, now it looks like they’re going to treble again! Yes but Bath University is a top 10 university, it makes it onto all the relevant league tables, and we have one of the

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How on earth can students be expected to pay treble the fees for a worse education?

”

highest graduate employment rates of the 94 group. Bath students will be able to fund this increase in debt in the future because this high percentage of students finding work after graduation, why should Bath students be bothered about this march? Well current graduate debt is £25,000 for the average student, and students are already asking, “what am I getting for £3,000 tuition fees?” Some students only get 5 or 6 hours of contact. Students that I visit, and I visit about three or four universities a week, say to me that they don’t think they are getting quality for money. And for those that think that fees may be capped at

£9,000, I say to them that this rise may get even worse in the future. And there’s an added problem here, because if average graduate debt is £25,000 under the current system, and if fees treble to £9,000, that could see average graduate debt soar to £40,000-£50,000 a year. Now for some students at age 16 or 17, thinking about going to university, if their household income isn’t £40,000 they might well be deterred. I think it will be sad day for our universities, and indeed our society, if students who have the ability to go to university felt that they were being priced out by this government. But won’t this fee increase give us a better quality education? No. Just four years ago fees trebled from £1,000 to £3,000 and in that time there was no improvement in student satisfaction, no improvement in graduate employability, no improvement in contact time and no improvement in the staff student ratios. So if universities had a fee treble just four years ago and they didn’t improve the quality of what they were offering, I’m not sure at how trebling them again will make any difference. Bath University specialises in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths) and the UK currently has a shortage of all these skills, a larger fee would increase the quality of education in those areas. It allows us to buy new teaching materials, greater quality teaching staff, and solve the UK’s problems in that effect wouldn’t it?

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Trebling fees won’t make any difference to the quality of education you recieve

”

No I don’t think so. What’s different about this fee rise in comparison to previous increases is that the additional student contribution is just replacing government cuts. So the government cuts to teaching, in the recent government spending review, was about £3billion. What this increase in tuition fees will do is increase the contribution from students by about £3billion. So what’s actually happening is the government are funding universi-

ties less and they’re asking students to contribute more. So students are going to be asked to pay three times the amount for the same quality, or possibly worse, education. How on earth can students be expected to pay three times over for a worse quality education? That cannot be fair. But the UK has one of the largest national debts in the world. The government needs to save money and you acknowledge that cuts have to be made. Now other departments in the government are getting their fair share of cutbacks, shouldn’t students contribute their bit to sorting out the public finances? I agree that universities should have to make a contribution towards reducing the national debt. But, why have universities been singled out for one of the biggest cuts overall? If we’re supposedly ‘all in this together’, surely those that contributed to the economic downfall should be largely responsible for repairing it. The problems came from the financial services sector and they are not paying disproportionately more. Child Benefit is being lost and universities are being cut in a huge way. Now I agree that students and graduates should have to make some of that contribution, but I don’t believe those currently in our schools, future students and future graduates, should have to pay more than their fair share and frankly trebling fees is going well out of their depth. And I think that universities might well have had to take a 10-15% cut in funding and that would have been acceptable, but an 80% cut is a detrimental move by the government and students will have to pay. Ok but it’s not all students who will have to pay is it? This proposal only affects English universities, as Scottish students still don’t pay fees to study in Scottish universities. Do you support a proposal where English and Scottish students pay the same fees rather than the current huge gap between them? You’re absolutely right to point out that these are proposals for English universities and what it actually proves, contrary perhaps to the insinuation in the question, is that it is possible to have a free education, it happens in Scotland! But increasing numbers of first-year students devalue that

Monday 15th November 2010

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Comment

www.bathimpact.com the degrees that current students are working towards. This fee would hurt us financially now but potentially means my degree is worth a higher salary later in the future, wouldn’t you say? No not at all. I think the value of your degree is based on your ability to be employable and not about the number of other people that have gone to university. If you have a talent I think you will be able to get a job. So you don’t think it matters in the job market whether you have a degree or not? Well what I think is important to look at is that there are a number of people who benefit from students attending university. There’s an individual benefit and there’s also a public benefit through public services as people become teachers, nurses, social workers, doctors, lawyers. Now I think we need to think carefully about what people study, but for the UK to remain internationally competitive, we do need large numbers of people going to univer-

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What Don Foster has done is utterly despicable

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sity and for them to study the right subjects. We shouldn’t start saying that the ones that can attend universities are the ones that can afford it, because actually that means social inequality will increase in this country and I think that people going to university should be based on two factors alone; ability and aspiration. That’s all that should matter, not the size of your wallet. You mentioned that it’s important that we don’t deter people from studying nursing. Now of course, I was at the NUS media summit that you presented at and one of the key things you pointed out then was that there were pay grades for various professions and that that would deter people from studying such subjects. One in particular was the arts. Now you mentioned nurses, teachers etc. (which are fairly low-paid professions) and we all agree that they should be financially supported, but how would you defend that for the arts? Well there are actually lots of people who have studied arts and who have gone on to make important contributions to society and the economy at large. I for instance studied English Literature at university and I was quite pleased about the opportunity to do that and I felt that whatever I go on to do next, my skills in communication, my skills in

teamwork, my ability to be analytical and my ability to be evidence-based will make a huge contribution to whatever field I choose to go into, so long as it’s not vocational. I think it’s important that people are supported to study subjects that they think they are good at and also where they think they can make a contribution to the economy afterwards. Do you not agree that some of those skills could be easily obtained by, as you mentioned, vocational qualifications? And in some circumstances can be a quicker way to obtain the relevant skills? No there is something different about the kinds of analytical and particularly the research skills that are not found in vocational subjects. The level of research skill found in further education is actually quite different to that in higher education. So there are some transferable skills like team-working or perhaps communication and I absolutely accept that it can be done better elsewhere. But there are also some skills that are very unique towards a university degree and cannot be picked up elsewhere. There are currently a number of media courses around and bathimpact has learned recently of a student who graduated with a degree in media only to find that there was only one job vacancy for every six students studying his course nationwide. Do you therefore agree that there’s too many people currently studying that subject and that when you grade people’s entry into university just on ability, you are effectively sending five people out of six into a qualification that cannot get them a job? What I would say is that applicants and prospective students aren’t necessarily given all the requisite information when choosing the right university or the right course, and I would absolutely support a proposal where students are given better information about average earnings and employability statistics for their desired career. However, it would be dangerous to go too far. If students are choosing their subjects based exclusively on their graduate earnings then why would anyone study philosophy, or history or physics? I think there is a role to be had for some people to study those subjects, and it should not be just for children who went to private schools or who have the parents with the money to allow them to do that. I came from a state school and my parents are both public sector workers, not particularly rich, and I wanted to study English Literature at university. I got a lot out of it and I believe I could still contribute a lot

to the economy afterwards. Should subjects like that be placed in the same fee category as others that contribute so much more to the economy? I would look at it in a slightly different way. I think there should

be tax incentives or breaks to people who choose particular kinds of courses after they finish. So if you’ve gone to university and you go on to become a nurse, a social worker, teacher, dentist or doctor, then I think that it’s right that the

state should subsidise those subjects slightly more than perhaps someone who goes off into a different field. So I’d kind of approach it from that end. The Australian system actually puts more funding into subjects that they deem to be more economically useful and I think there is a role for the government to say yes these subjects are really important to society, things like engineering, chemistry or physics, and I absolutely support those subjects getting a greater subsidy than English, History or Philosophy. They do already, by the current funding system, as different degrees are funded by different levels through the Higher Education Funding Council. You oppose the Lib Dems increasing fees to potentially £9,000, but compromises in the coalition are needed – this is politics after all. What’s the maximum tuition fee that you would endorse? Well let’s be clear that I actually don’t support the current system of tuition fees at all. I’d like to see no tuition fees and a replacement to the graduate contribution scheme where graduates contribute according to their earnings and not based on the lottery of the university or the course they’ve chosen. But I accept there is a coalition and I accept that there are compromises that need to be made within coalition but lets remember that the Liberal Democrats drew up a proposal to abolish fees and their party policy was to support a graduate tax. They signed NUS’ pledge to vote against higher fees. For me the compromise for them would be to pledge not to see fees rise. Aaron you show a lot of criticism for all the principal political parties. Do I take it that you have no political ambitions yourself? No I’m very happy being NUS president, so that’s all that I’m concentrating on. We did originally invite Don Foster up to Elements today to put across his point of view, but he never showed up. Do you have anything you’d like to say to Don Foster? Well I think it’s utterly despicable that Don Foster has apparently done such a U-turn. Six months ago he was going around shamelessly saying that he wanted fees abolished, that students should vote for the Lib Dems as the only distinctive party and that he was the reason that the Lib Dems wanted to oppose tuition fees in the first place. Now he’s part of a party that want to see them treble. If the man’s got any back-bone or spine he’ll vote against the government and stick to his words or else a generation of students will never forgive him.

Monday 15th November

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Never have I ever… Bottoms up

fallen victim to the relationship diet. We spend an evening Gina Reay explores the perils of get- with Bath University’s Wine Society ting just a little too comfortable...

hakespeare once said ‘if music be the food of love, play on, give me excess of it’. Shakespeare obviously wasn’t on the Special K diet when he wrote this. Relationships should come with a health warning. Eating, drinking, sleeping and slobbing around with a boyfriend or girlfriend means that weight gain is inevitable during a relationship. The results are terrifying. After a wonderful summer of holidays, date nights, takeaways in front of the telly and relaxing day-long lieins, my beau and I have emerged with chubby cheeks, love handles (never has this phrase been more appropriate) and a takeaway belly. Now of course there is nothing wrong with putting on a few pounds here and there. The worry is, however, that the pattern of unhealthy munching will spiral out of control. Of course there are times when you eat more; summer, Christmas, meals out. The point I’m making is that this has to be balanced with similar times when binge eating doesn’t become your coupley ritual. One obvious factor to counteract the unwholesome

relationship diet is sex. Even the laziest of couples must have sex? And the best part is, it doesn’t even feel like exercise because you both (hopefully) get something out of it at the end! So what are the best ways to burn the calories in the sack? Some enjoyable web-based research in the bathimpact office dishes the

Burgers: the new aphrodisiac

dirt on sexercise: Kissing apparently burns between 120 and 324 calories per hour. Having a good smooch sesh is therefore not just good for your libido but can help you shed the pounds. Undressing, often the next step, can be good for the waistline too. According to www. dailymuscle.com unclasping a bra is good exercise, de-bra-ing with two hands burns eight calories, one hand burns 18 and with a mouth… 87 calories ladies and gentlemen! 15 minutes of oral sex can burn off a sip of wine according to the site, but be careful, semen can actually contain between seven and 14 calories per ejaculation. And finally - intercourse. The average lovemaking session burns between 50 and 100 calories, while having sex three times a week burns 7500 calories per year. That’s the equivalent of jogging 75 miles. And if your sex sesh has a happy ending, an orgasm can burn between 60-100 calories. Another added bonus! So next time you and your man are slobbing around on the sofa after munching down a Chinese takeout, get active in the bedroom!

Eva Perrett bathimpact Contributor

ave you ever tried selecting a bottle of wine, for whatever occasion, with absolutely no idea what to choose? My housemates usually resolve this dilemma by the “cheapest is best” strategy, but for events slightly more significant than your average pre-lash, this wisdom doesn’t hold. That is where tasting sessions by the Wine Society come in very handy. “It’s about getting together in a relaxed atmosphere for a drink and a chat” explains Ali Perkins, chair of the Bath University Wine Society. Indeed my first evening turned out to be far from the stuffy event

I’d expected. With about 40 very friendly people there and six delicious wines at a bargain price, these events are a great way to meet a variety of people. My initial anxieties about being relatively inexperienced were calmed by member Paul Griffin. He assured me that the more wines I tasted, the more I’d come to trust my senses. Liking that plan, I have decided to attend the much talked about Wine and Cheese evening on 23 November. Writing this in anticipation of the event, I sincerely vow to spit not swallow. Tastings are every Tuesday at 7.15pm in 4E 3.44 and typically cost between £5-6.

Try wines from South Africa at the next tasting on Tuesday 16th November

Remember, remember, the month of Movember bathimpact contributor Ben Whitney guides us through the murky world of men and their moustaches

istory is rife with famous facial hair, from Hitler to Hulk Hogan, from Einstein to England goalkeeping hero David Seaman. Yet, as a society, there is something we just don’t trust about moustaches; after all, it is hard to identify any modern dictator who didn’t have a furry covering of the top lip. Therefore, it is fair to comment that the moustache is very much a thing of the past, confined to an exclusive club of scientists, evil tyrants, philosophers and photos of your dad from the 1980’s when the ‘tash’ was fashionable. However, seven years ago in the southern Australian city of Melbourne, the moustache was resurrected from its shallow grave to make an emphatic return, all in the name of charity. Not since Magnum P.I. had the moustache been so popularly accepted. For one month of the calendar, society forgets its

hang-ups on the old lip-warmer and allows the cultivation of horrendous facial fur for the thirty days of ‘Movember’. The Movember charity, ‘challenges men to change the face of men’s health’, by growing a sponsored moustache and raising money and

Perhaps a Hungarian style?

global awareness of men’s health issues. Inspired by the globally renowned work of women raising money for breast cancer, the ‘Mobrothers’ sought to create the male equivalent. The charity has grown rapidly, in more than one sense, since 2004 when it raised $55,000 for the Prostate Cancer foundation of Australia. Now with world-wide coverage in America, the UK, South Africa, Canada, Spain, Ireland and around the world, the charity raised £26million in 2009 for Movember beneficiaries. Movember has become something of a cult, especially amongst sports teams which has undoubtedly contributed to its huge success. This year’s rugby autumn internationals is full of examples of 17 stone moustachioed men in competition for the best facial trophy, which is just as well for the Northern Hemisphere teams as it is

unlikely they will pose much competition in terms of the rugby itself. Closer to home, in Bath, the universities Rugby 4th XV have also taken on the Movember challenge and you can support them by joining the Facebook group ‘Team Pezbert’. It is important to remember, de-

Or a ‘natural moustache’?

spite the comedy value of the Movember Charity, the significance of what the ‘Mo’ represents. Men’s health awareness still scores poorly in comparison to that of females, with women’s life expectancy still greater than that of males. Men are often too embarrassed to face the serious health risks that threaten them, but with one man in the UK dying ever hour of prostate cancer it is time for this behaviour to change. So, despite my own feeble attempt, through no fault of my own, to nurture a mossy covering on my top lip it is surely the effort that counts and it is important that we are all aware of the Movember cause. More information of the charity’s work can be found at www.movember.com. We also invite anyone to send in a picture of their Movember efforts to bathimpact at features@bathimpact.com. Have a happy Movember!

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Fashion files : Parade-ing around

This issue, in her new fashion column, some fabulously-dressed Bath students have caught Hannah Raymont’s eye. The Parade really is your catwalk…

ath students, no matter how restricted your clothing budget may be, you still wow me with your inventiveness and chutzpah. The sheer variety of fashion tastes out there is pleasantly surprising given that the academic focus at our University veers slightly away from the arts and more onto science and technology (and before you lash out at this ‘bl**dy linguist,’ I’m certainly not saying that all Maths students are hopeless dressers; I know some very trendy ones in fact, but on the whole arts students are more aware of what they wear; it goes with the territory, n’est-ce pas?) Some of you can successfully pull off the effortlessness look that comes from slipping on a pair of expensive Abominable Snowmanslippers over your pyjama bottoms with bed-head hair to match. Others appear comfortably chic in a cool retro combo of mac, beret and beaten leather satchel. All in all, it goes to show that Bath is a melting pot of fashion tastes. International students flaunt their clobber from exotic climes, while the natives put their own unique spin on Brit-

Fion, a postgraduate student from the Management department, flaunts her stunning Urban Outfitters briefcase ish fashion (which is not just about flashing as much flesh as possible on a Friday night, I’ll have you know). It’s refreshing to see so many students eager to go against the grain and express themselves through their clothing without feeling the need to spend a fortune. As we all know, Bath is a haven for charity shops, with a decent Oxfam shop on George Street, a few on Moorland Road in Oldfield Park and some others dotted around Westgate Street. With all those wealthy

residents around, you’re bound to bag a bargain. Be careful though, some charity shops are wising up and starting to charge through the nose for their stock (yes, we know they exist for a good cause, but you don’t want to be ripped off, do you?). So, for more pointers, we stormed across campus in search of some of you trend-setters for inspiration. I’ll leave you now to the real stars of this page, but before I go, here’s one of my favourite fashion tips: recycle, recycle and recycle (and reinvent your old stuff!).

Myrsini, in her third year studying Architecture, brings a dash of über-cool lavender blue onto the Parade, complemented with a funky and unusual printed scarf .

Soledad, 4th year FIMML student, exudes understated Spanish style with a muted palate of greens and greys, teamed with some gorgeous brown wedge boots (sadly out of view!).

Kilimanjaro and back : Episode 3 In this penultimate excerpt from Jack Barrett’s Kili journal we join him on the final, painful trek to the top

he third day would prove to be the hardest day yet, with most of the group unable to stomach breakfast and all of us facing the longest day of walking. It was the acclimatisation day and so we had to walk to Lava Tower at an elevation of 4630m. Raymond and Herman took us through a comedy yoga class and then measured our pulses and

oxygen levels. To everyone’s relief we all passed and made our way back down to the next camp at Barranco (3950m), bathing in the thick oxygen but wincing at some of the worst headaches we’d ever suffered. After a heavy dose of paracetamol we could lie out in the cool night and marvel at the stars, which we could see in all their beauty as we were so far from any

light pollution. Stomachs started to settle and most slept well in anticipation for what could be the hardest and most challenging 48 hours of our lives. We woke to the sight of the titanic Barranco wall, hundreds of metres of hard, steep scrambling with some seriously dodgy areas and of course, not a rope in sight. As ever the porters and guides were our saviours and we could only look on in awe as they bounded up the wall with at least 25 kilos balanced on their heads. We made it with only a few tears here and there from those who are terrified of heights. At the top of the wall we could finally see what all of us had been waiting for: the summit. All the glistening ice looking out of place in the heat and resembling a melting ice-cream, everyone looked on with renewed vigour and of course the next 30 minutes were spent being trigger-happy with cameras. After 8 hours of walking on the 3rd

day we finally dragged our legs into camp ready for some R & R. At dinner Raymond proceeded to explain how we would be waking up at 1am to start the summit and so, much to our dismay, we realized that we would only have 4 hours sleep if we were lucky. Along with the altitude sickness providing interestingly coloured discharge from all orifices, we also had the cold to contend with. Despite the fatigue, most only managed to grab a couple of hours of kip due to excitement and the -10°C outside. We were woken up and emerged feeling sorry for ourselves but gained strength from knowing we were all in it together. We covered our blisters for the last time and got going. The higher we went the colder it got until it was at least -20°C, but then the sun came up. No words could describe the sight of the orange sphere piercing through the thick cloud, but it was the boost we all

needed as we struggled for breath and were desperately looking for reasons to go on. As the temperature lifted, so did our spirits and we could finally see the finish line. After 10 hours of leaving camp we made it to the top, Uhuru Peak at 5895m. Unfortunately the cloud thousands of metres below us blocked our view of the land, but, to my surprise, we could see the curvature of the earth. Despite the occasional chunder we all got a group photo and some of the lads and I took the opportunity to strip down and get a naked shot of us at the roof of Africa, much to the consternation of our guides. The way down took 1½ days and some unfortunately had to be helped down, but we made it home in time for a cold shower and a few hard-earned beers.... For the fourth and final part of Jack’s Kili journal read next issue of bathimpact, released on Monday 29th November.

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Fireworks go off with a bang! bathimpact Contibutor Rebecca Stagg reports on yet another successful year for RAG’s annual campus firework display

ast week saw the annual RAG firework display on campus, one of few Student Union events open to the public. Although attendance was free, guests were invited to give a donation. The display, generously sponsored by First, managed to raise £5590 for Julian House, a Bath charity supporting the homeless. The impressive showcase went on for at least 20 minutes and was in part coordinated to music, played by URB who helped host the event. Attracting many visitors to campus, the event, said to be the biggest firework display in Bath, was held by the lake and offered fairground rides and temporary food and drinks stalls selling hot snacks to the chilly crowd.

The firework display is one of RAG’s most successful annual campaigns and continues to raise money for Julian House year on year. Ben Cole, a former student and Sabb at the University of Bath, said of the night, 'it's a fantastic opportunity for RAG to raise money for one of Bath's most important charities. As the nights get colder and winter sets in our thoughts turn to those without a warm place to go. It's natural that the fireworks should support such a significant cause.' For more information on RAG don't miss the Societies and Volunteering section on page 25 and check out bathstudent.com/rag. Photos courtesy of Peter Dowell and Fabiana Giovanetti

Monday 15th November 2010

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Eating out in Bath International Taster Week

his week, we decided to dedicate our ISA article to the best eating-out places in Bath. Bath hosts a wide variety of outstanding restaurants, bistros, cafes and pubs that cater to any cuisine cravings: from sophisticated French restaurants to trendy Sushi bars. Of course the common student budget may not allow everyday lunches at the award-winning, Michelin star, Lucknam Park restaurant, however there are many affordable restaurants in Bath that we guarantee will make your evening unforgettable!

Amongst our `not to be missed´ places include Demuths, the only vegetarian restaurant, hidden on the street behind the Abbey, that offers remarkable gourmet vegetarian fusion food inspired by traditions from all over the world. The restaurant was awarded Best Vegetarian Restaurant 2010 by Gourmet Britain and best Vegan Restaurant 2009 by the Vegan Society. Demuths has now opened a Vegetarian Cookery School, for

all those wishing to learn the vegetarian cuisine secrets and also offers part-time employment possibilities for students passionate about food. The Porter offers a much more earthy and grungy vegetarian experience. The iconic vegetarian pub and live music venue serves up houmous, veggie burgers, garden salad rolls and pizzas among various other quality dishes. Another remarkable place is the Nepalese Yak Yeti Yak restaurant. Yak Yeti Yak is located right in the centre of Bath, on Pierrepont Street, in the basement of an 18th Century townhouse. The restaurant is decorated in traditional Nepalese style, with low level tables and floor cushions. The menu contains a wide variety of curries and stir-fried dishes, most at eight pound average. Yak Yeti Yak also serves Nepalese beer and Kagai Pani, a traditional lime based drink. For all those pizza-lovers, we recommend you spend your Wednesday night at PizzaExpress - Orange customers get a 2 for 1 pizza deal as well as a free garlic bread, or dough balls! Not to forget the award winning Bottelinos restaurant, specialising in Italian cuisine, that now offers any pizza/pasta lunch deals for just £4.95! We have conducted an online survey to discover the favourite restaurant of the International Students of our university. The significant rate of voting revealed mixed views: the most votes received the category `other`, as due to the large number of restaurants in Bath, not all were mentioned in the survey. The top four restaurants elected were Jamie´s Italian (Jamie Oliver´s Italian restaurant), Nando´s (Specialises in Portuguese Chicken dishes), Wagamama and Hong Kong Bistro (Asian noodle bars). Next time searching for a nice meal – pick one of our recommendations and we guarantee a splendid evening! Whether you choose vegetarian, Asian or Italian cusinie, we hope that this article will have inspired you to challenge your taste buds and try something new. Bath has some amazing budget eats to offer, so venture with friends for a meal out and you may be surprised by what you find. ISA is always looking forward to hearing your suggestions and comments, so feel free to email us your feedback on our Eating Out article at international@bath. ac.uk.

Elias Nosrati reports on International Student Taster Week organized by the Societies Executive

eek five of the academic year presented a golden opportunity for foreign students to get to know the various societies and feel the student atmosphere at Bath University by visiting the series of diverse and colourful events that had been arranged by the Societies Executives especially for International Students. This was the first year that the Students’ Union had organised such an event with the aim of encouraging International Students to get involved in the many society and club events that are run within the Students’ Union. The International Taster Week allowed for artistic talents to be developed, intellectual abilities to be trimmed and general relaxation to be endorsed. Amongst the wide range of alternatives, musical interests could be thoroughly pursued through Wednesday’s Orchestra rehearsal and the Concert Band’s gathering on the following day. Students from different nationalities attended – some actively participating whilst others coming simply to enjoy the aural euphoria which the two events offered. For those interested in more direct confrontation through sociopolitical discussions, the Debating Society presented an optimal alterna-

International students partying it up during Freshers’ Week tive. Behind the smiling, warm and amicable faces of the multicultural participants, the vigorous and fierce forces of debating soon took over in rapid exchanges of contentious arguments and accelerating flows of eloquent phrases. All ended well and the meeting reached an end when the Parade Bar pub quiz loomed on the horizon. After a long, rich and tiring week, the French Society offered an excellent way to culminate its end. A group of nationally diversely composed participants gathered on Sunday evening to enjoy an illuminating illustration of modern French

cultural history by watching ‘La Vie en Rose’, a film about the life of Edith Piaf. Intensely immersed in the plot, some even forgot to supply themselves with snacks, but luckily the society committee had brought some along. Throughout the week, all over campus, International Students relocated from event to event, slowly but surely growing fond of the taste of the panoply of activities the various societies had to offer. Although foreign, one student had already got the grasp of the cornerstone of idiomatic English when asked what he thought about the week as whole: “Wicked!”

International Photo Competition

To link in with International Student Taster Week the ISA and Photosoc ran a photo competition. Here is a selection of the submitted photos. Winners will be announced next week.

Photos submitted by (from top to right): Dale Koerner, Tino Bezuhanov, Sara Buckow

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Spain: The last stalwart of social democracy

Foreign Correspondent Daniel Pannell examines Spain’s shaky political scene following the hard hit by the world financial crisis.

Zapatero has had immense success in social policy making. Spain has turned away from its Catholic traditionalism and extraordinary things have been achieved, for example the legalisation of gay marriage and the Historic Memory Law which serves to exhume the remains of those murdered during the Civil War and during Franco’s dictatorship, including Zapatero’s own grandfather. These measures and many others, abortion for example, have made Spain one of the most socially advanced countries in Europe and the envy of Italy’s socialists who still bend to the word of the Catholic UGT Madrid

ere in Spain, the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) is halfway through its second term of government and its President, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, is seeing his popularity fall away more and more as the weeks go by. Spain is being hit hard by the recession. Construction, once the firm base for Spanish economic growth, has all but evaporated and half-finished buildings litter the towns and cities. The country has nothing to fall back on - tourism is once again thriving but a 20% level of unemployment makes uncomfortable reading.

General Strike in Madrid on 29 September

Church. These measures are by no means happily accepted. The leader of the opposition (Mariano Rajoy of the Popular Party or PP) has argued that gay marriage is unconstitutional and will change the rules should he be elected in 2012. In terms of economics, Zapatero has showered public money into the education system, the transport infrastructure, healthcare and according to some, anything that was an issue. One of his most famous quotes, ‘under a Socialist government, there will never be a government surplus while there continues to be inequality in Spain’, certainly rings true in a country where government debt is at around 53% of GDP. The Prime Minister has put in place various measures to cut the deficit and come into line with EU targets. This, however, may be easier said than done. The government recently tried to change the pension structure and was met with a general strike on 29th September. With no big industries, no natural resources and a promise not to increase income tax, Zapatero is facing renewed criticism from opponents such as Rajoy that ‘no tax can fill the hole of public debt’ while the Spanish population is growing

increasingly cynical at his endless optimism that everything will sort itself out. The PSOE is likely to lose the election in 2012, assuming Zapatero and the party can hold on to power until then. The PP is growing stronger despite its bad reputation in Spain and the Spanish population are turning to the Right to gov-

ern them out of recession, blaming the Left for the economic problems, reflecting what has been seen in the UK and Sweden most poignantly. It remains to be seen whether Zapatero can steer his country through the hard times it is facing, or whether Rajoy can take the David Cameron attitude - blame it all on the socialists and their reckless spending.

Earlier this year Mr. Zapatero was the victim of a hacker, who replaced the picture of him on the Spanish EU Presidency website with one of Mr. Bean. The parody became an instant internet hit - so many people were looking at the website that day that it crashed. Mr. Zapatero may share Mr.Bean’s eyebrows and his benign smile, but is he as dangerously incompetent as the infamous comic buffoon?

Discovery city and cultural trips offer you the chance to get away for a day, take a break from your studies, meet other people, learn something new, do a bit of shopping.... A cheap, fun and easy way to explore the UK. Tickets for all trips can be purchased at the Students’ Union reception Bath Abbey Tour Saturday 20 November 3:30pm - 5pm An exclusive invitation to afternoon tea and a tour of Bath Ab-

rink, a giant observation wheel, Zippos Circus, a new exciting rollercoaster and Santa Land. There is a Continental Market with over 100 wooden chalets offering hand-

Steam Museum gives you the chance to experience the sights and sounds of the Great Western Railway works at Swindon. The Swindon Designer Outlet hosts

bey by trained guides. Tickets are £1.00.

made gifts, jewellery, clothing and traditional Christmas items. Tickets for the coach from Bath to Hyde Park cost £17.50.

a range of designers including Superdry, Billabong, Calvin Klein, Ted Baker, Bench Gap, Polo/Ralph Lauren, John Lewis, Lakeland and many more. Tickets including coach cost £15.

Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park, London Saturday 27 November 7 am - 6pm Winter Wonderland features London’s biggest outdoor ice-

Steam Museum and Design Outlet in Swindon Saturday 11 December 9am - 4pm

Coming Up: Avenue Q at Theatre Royal on 7 February

Gina Reay Editor-in-Chief editor@bathimpact.com

Many Bath students are lucky enough to have the option to take a year abroad. Loads of you will be in the midst of applying for jobs, university places and teaching assistantships overseas. It’s a stressful experience but is extremely important in sculpting what could be one of the best years of your lives! Thankfully one bright spark, a lady called Lizzie Fane, has come up with a novel idea to help you through all the stress, from the beginning to the end of your year overseas. Lizzie has invented the website www.thirdyearabroad.com. Like Facebook, users can create an online profile and, through this profile, access a lot of information; forums, journals, newsletters and lots more, focussing on every aspect of your year abroad. Users can also use the site to find other students about to go on, already experiencing, or recently returning back from their year abroad. Students are given the opportunity to correspond in the forum, asking advice on anything from sun cream to paperwork. There’s even a Parent’s Section

with tips and advice for worried relatives! Students are also given the chance to keep an online travel journal using the site; a place to write down your memories, not only for yourself, but for other students to gain inspiration from. The key words from your blog will appear as links to the journal so that people can read up on your adventures. Similarly, you can read other people’s likes and dislikes on their destination. If you’re heading out into the big wide world on a year abroad next year, www.thirdyearabroad.com might be able to answer a lot of your questions and give you an outlet to note down your progress.

Gina on her year abroad in Rome

Flickr

Discovery Trips for Students Thirdyearabroad.com

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Road trip to renewal across Sierra Leone Tom Ellum Foreign Correspondent

ising out from Freetown past the imposing US Embassy and IMATT’s alternative Trafalgar Square, the urban sprawl gave way to tree-covered hills about the same time as the tarmac ran out. Taking the mountain road, following the river past waterfalls through the centre of the Freetown peninsula we rejoined the tarmac at Waterloo. Just in time, I was beginning to feel the bumps through the suspension of the hard top Toyota through my not quite so soft bench. Unfortunately, this was only the start of my on-road, off-road experience. I was travelling with Talking Drum Studios (TDS) on a oneweek tour of the country to help organise their Support to Democratic Systems project. Since the war, the country has been undergoing a process of decentralisation to devolve powers to locally elected Councils. The Support to Democratic Systems project aims to aid this process by improving accountability and transparency, as well as seeking to bridge the political divide between regions. The project consists of exchange visits, radio programming, training and town hall meetings

- the reason we were heading to meet councillors, chiefs and civil society across the country. Starting in Bo we would drive to Kailahun, the infamous RUF stronghold by the Liberian border in the far east before switching back on ourselves to drive north all the way to Kabala by Guinea. In a country like Sierra Leone that meant a lot of bumps, a fair amount of mud but thankfully some amazing scenery too. Sierra Leone has a political and ethnic divide between the East, which is predominantly Mende and loyal to the Sierra Leone People’s Party, and the North, where the Tenme side with the

current government, the All People’s Congress. In Kailahun, I was shown the skeletons of buildings burnt down during the war and spoke with residents about their experiences. Whilst the causes of the war are debated, these few conversations did illustrate the immense suffering that the majority of the population suffered as a result. Later, on the road back from Kailahun I saw entire villages that had been burnt as opposing forces traded occupation, assuming the houses left standing were because the inhabitants were loyal to their opponent who they had just ousted. Our trip ended with a pictur-

esque drive through the region of Koinadugu. Cooler than the rest of Sierra Leone, it sits in the shadow of rolling hills. It gave me an opportunity to stare out the window reflecting on my trip. It had given me a first-hand perspective of the decentralisation process and the developmental challenges facing local councils. Overwhelmingly, I was struck by the extent to which the people in Sierra Leone are trying: the Speaker in Blama finalising a rubber plantation which will employ dozens of young men; the District Medical Officer in Kailahun who had rejected the riches of practising medicine aboard to help his country; and the council-

lors of Koinadugu, who despite logistical difficultly were striving to reach out to the remotest of their constituents. However, I also heard of the constraints: councillors paid too little to do their job effectively; cash strapped councils and communities at loggerheads; and officials rich in ideas but lacking the human and financial resources to implement them. Furthermore, I realised that the conflicting priorities of different groups did not make the development of Sierra Leone impossible. But rather, the importance of facilitators, like TDS, who brought groups together to work through these differences were essential.

What are dreams if they are not meant to happen?

M.Kharumwa

loria Wavamunno turned 25 a few months ago at a party in her home town of Kampala, capital of Uganda, the ‘Pearl of Africa’ that Churchill so loved in the 1950s. Kampala today is a very different city: it is still dominated by the great monolithic concrete structures of the colonial British 1950s but they are crumbling facades of empire. Beneath them lies a vibrant city, its popula-

tion having grown rapidly as Ugandans increasingly flock to the city for work. The influx of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), as well as the return of the Indian, Chinese and Middle Eastern communities that were largely expelled in the 1970s has helped to create a multicultural city bustling with energy. Gloria’s first major line L.O.V.E. - debuted at the inaugural Arise African Fashion Week in Johannesburg in Spring 2009 and caused quite a stir. By combining traditional fabrics and patterns with a more Western sense of styling (she studied and lived in London for six years between 2003 and 2009) she has achieved a line of women’s clothing with massive crossover appeal. Women especially have warmed to her style which was designed to ‘celebrate the female body’, complimenting the curves and colours of the individual. In the first year of founding her label one of the dresses has been featured on the cover of Arise Africa Magazine and the label has been chosen to be included in Face of Africa (a new television series the equivalent of America’s Next Top Model).

Gloria initially grew up in Kampala before her move to London. She says she’s often asked why she came back to the relative doldrums of Kampala after working in one of the four great capitals of world fashion and argues that, “all fashion capitals are there for one reason - their creativity and imagination... Who says Uganda can’t be one of them or any other African country?” Quite simply, it is where she feels at home and where she feels her work needs to come from. She works with traditional Ugandan fabrics - like ‘Kitenge’, a kind of cotton wrap - from her own home. She seems to love what she does, pure and simple, not wanting to start “looking and thinking about the future” but rather to enjoy every day that she can create using her imagination. As she said, “luckily there is a job for that kind of thing”. It’s an interesting point. For better or for worse, Uganda has been emblazoned in the imaginations of the rest of the world as the Uganda of Idi Amin and The Last King of Scotland. When most people think of Uganda they don’t think of the success of its young fashion designers (Sylvia Owori is the biggest name) or of its burgeoning hip-hop

scene (subject of a VBS documentary in 2008). They think of tragedy, child soldiers and poverty. Of course, these things are problems even today in Uganda - there has been a terrible, protracted guerrilla conflict in the North for over 20 years, Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army being linked to numerous atrocities, not least the mass abduction and indoctrination of tens of thousands of children into its forces - but it is vital not to define developing countries by their problems, especially their

historical ones. At the very least it is easy to do so; at the worst it is offensive. Gloria sums up a new way of looking at places like Uganda hope. She put it fantastically as a way of encouraging any other designers out there looking to work outside of the four ‘great’ fashion cities bubble: “I’d say as long as you have that real love for what you’re doing and it allows you to express yourself genuinely then never stop - go for it. What are dreams if they are not meant to happen?” M.Kharumwa

Rowan Emslie Ents Editor ents@bathimpact.com

Monday 15th November 2010

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www.bathimpact.com Science Men are from the left hemisphere, women from the right

Could neuroscience explain the gender difference once and for all? Sam Lewtas Science Editor science@bathimpact.com

gain and again, I hear the same thing, “I just don’t get women!,” or “Why do men have to be such dicks?” However you put it and whatever your beliefs, we are all a sum of our nerve endings and physiology to some degree. So what is it that makes men and women so incomprehensibly different, and how does our grey matter define who we, as human beings, are? In terms of neuroscience, you could say quite accurately men’s brains are from Mars, and women’s from Venus. The truth is that we are wired differently, structured differently and we use our brains differently – is it therefore much of a surprise that we act differently? In terms of emotions, unsurprisingly, I’m afraid women may have us lads beat. The limbic cortex in women is proportionally larger than in men, which allows women to be more emotionally in touch. This was shown by a study by Raquel and Ruben Gur, a married pair of German psychologists on the cutting edge of gender psychology (I’m sure arguments as simple as who’s washing up the dishes in that family get very scientific), where women were better at recognising other upset women in a series of pictures. Hormonal differences also affect our relationships. Professor Shelly E. Taylor found

we have very different responses to stress, with male’s increased testosterone reducing the levels of the love and bonding chemical oxytocin, while oestrogen regulates its effects. This led to the idea of females adhering to more of a ‘tend and befriend model,’ which, as lame as it suggests, is where women build and draw upon social networks to cope with stress and eliminate threats, whereas men subscribe to the more primal and arguably less elegant solution of fight or flight, though arguments nowadays can now be solved without bloodshed on Halo or Fifa. Women have also been shown to have more of a flair for linguistics, using both the left and right hemisphere in rhyming tests, where men almost exclusively use the left. This better linkage of hemispheres may in part be down to women having a larger corpus callosum – the cable between the two halves. No worries though because I are better at maths and physics, thanks to men having a more pronounced intraparietal suculus, which is believed to house our numerical talents. If you’re not convinced, Albert Einstein was actually found to have an abnormally large IPS. In a study conducted by Nature Neuroscience in 2007, mice were trained to stick the noses in a machine in order to get a reward pellet. The emphasis was on the sex of the mice, and if they were ‘devalued’ (i.e. taste aversion

trained not to take the pellet). It was found that at first males consumed more, but after more exposure the female consumption rose to overtake them, demonstrating that the female mice were quicker to develop a habit, and less averse to the consequences. And this has also been echoed in humans in patterns of drug taking. Well, what do these rodent experiments have to do with us? It means that women love to shop – compulsively. It’s one of their least endearing habits, and it drives us men to near insanity while falling asleep in a chair at a New Look sale. Men however, generally have different interests. My top 2 personally are food and sex, and apparently this could be down to differences in our hormones and brain. The amygdala, which has been identified for involvements in emotions, sexual behaviour and possibly appetite, is bigger in men; and the preoptic area of the hypothalamus, again is around 2 times bigger in males. It just looks like we’re wired that way. Also men have more androgens such as testosterone, which causes increased an increased libido, and studies show women with high testosterone levels are more likely to be hornier too. It’s a pretty gloomy picture here, and as higher reasoning animals we have a huge deal of power and responsibility over who we are. But we’re human – and our physiology is a crucial piece of that jigsaw.

The perfect model of the male brain.

Britain needs continued R&D investment to stay on the world stage Jess Bean explains how the new cuts could slash deep into the future

ritain prides itself on its history of innovation and its first-class research and development (R&D) credentials. It is a key arena in which the discoveries of the future will take place. In a recent report by the Royal Society, it states that “With 1% of the world’s population, the UK produces 7.9% of the world’s publications, receives 11.8% of citations and 14.4% of citations with the highest impact”. This disproportionately influential country has its roots in science with the majority of its 115 Nobel laureates being scientists. With the 350th anniversary of the Royal Society this year, the scientific breakthroughs and triumphs of the past 3 ½ centuries are now in the spotlight. But the future is not as bright for British science as expected. Science is an expensive business. In both the public and private sec-

tors, billions are spent every year on research and development of healthcare, technology, etc. The majority of this is financed by large multinational corporations which can afford to invest in finding novel

“

With 1% of the worlds population, the UK produces 7.9% of the worlds publications

”

targets. It is in their best interests as the right discovery could return billions in profit. For many years the growth in British science has increased with investment and expertise, however now in these economically unsound times, the experts are feeling the pinch as less investment is being put into key areas. In pharmaceuticals, GSK, AstraZeneca and Pfizer have all announced plans to cut R&D budgets.

Large pharmaceutical companies are in the best of a bad situation as although profits may be down, their products are essentials (people will always need healthcare) and so they will always sell. British technology and engineering prowess however is more vulnerable; car manufacture, aviation and manufacturing are now floundering compared to the US, China and India for example. With loss of government funding, triumphs such as the Harrier Jump Jet are no longer being made, leaving the British engineering legacy at a standstill. The problem comes with smaller companies and research programmes which are more specialised and whose work does not yet affect the general public. University research programs, for example, are doing ground-breaking work but need investment from either

the university, outside companies or government grants. This is not helped by the fact that most university research programs are not commercial enterprises. Essentially, they need all the help they can get. So far, or at least up to the recession, the government has seen the scientific industries as a valuable future commodity and has consequently invested accordingly. This resulted in a blossoming of British science and innovation with breakthroughs in all fields. In 2004 (prerecession) the government committed to increasing public and private sector R&D investment from 1.9% (equivalent to £22.5 billion) of the GDP to 2.5% by 2014. This also included increasing funding to university research programs. Unfortunately this never occurred due to the unforeseen global recession.

In the present day, the amount of investment has drastically changed. After the Coalition Spending Review was published it was announced that the total R&D budget would now be frozen £4.6 billion per annum over the next four years. This relates to actual cuts of about 10%, which is far less than the expected cuts of 25%, but still a large hit. The fact that the government has chosen to still invest and spare R&D the full extent of crippling cuts seen in other areas shows something; that scientific and technological research is still vital to the future economic stability of Britain, and continued investment is critical to ensure growth. If investment does not continue at a high enough rate, science and innovation in Britain will be stifled and Britain will be left behind as other countries push forward.

Monday 15th November 2010

bathimpact

Science

www.bathimpact.com Quintessential Science Fact of the Fortnight Blue whales are thought to produce a whopping 25L of semen in one mating session - even more than Mr T and Chuck Norris while watching Baywatch. - Elephants produce just under 100mls - Humans produce between one and two mls - Unfortunately the myth that blue whales produce 1500L (400 gallons) is untrue. Blue whales DO NOT make the sea salty

What’s all the splash about? Sam Lewtas Science Editor science@bathimpact.com

t seems a new trend is just beginning in Australia, where walking on water is becoming the new ‘in’ thing, and is spreading like wild-fire through dolphin society. Tail-walking, where a dolphin paddles like mad on its tail to stay above the water, has in the past been reserved for spectators of aquatic shows. However after becoming trapped in a marina lock and rescued by the local dolphinarium, wild dolphin Billie picked up the skill during his three week stay by watching her companions performing the trick in return for food. Now, having learned the trick all the way back in the 80’s, Billie is getting together with his mates, other wild dolphins in Adelaide,

and is passing on the torch. Up until recently, Billie had only taught companion Wave his little party trick. Recently, however four other dolphins, including Bianca and her two calves have been seen to be mastering the trick in the Port River in Adelaide. Cultural behaviour between small groups in the wild is reserved to a small number of animals, and almost always revolves around food; for example, chimps utilising twigs to hunt termites in the Gombe Stream Reserve. It seems that the dolphins are just messing about, and could also be part of a cultural badge for these dolphins. Dolphins are also quite remarkable in the fact that they are one of the only animals who engage in recreational sex (outside of ‘season’) and have even been known to play practical jokes on each other and human trainers. Dolphins, it seems, just wanna have fun.

Tik Tok, how long do you need until you’re feeling like P. Diddy? Robyn Brook bathimpact Contributor

recent survey is suggesting that only a tiny minority of us are getting eight hours’ sleep a night. But do we really need that much? It seems like the myth of “Getting your eight hours” is one of those injunctions, like drinking plenty of water or waiting an hour to swim after eating, that most people take at face value. When former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was reported to need only five hours’ sleep a night, it was taken as evidence of a near-supernaturally tough constitution. It’s become an increasingly common sentiment that too much work, stress and missing out on our eight hours is the modern plague. However, good news from the University of Loughborough’s Sleep Research Centre is that we don’t need eight hours at all. The amount of sleep needed varies between individuals. There is a normal distribution with the average sleep length being seven and quarter hours. Assuming that everybody needs eight hours, is like assuming everybody should have size eight shoes, or be five foot eight inches We all need different amounts of sleep to function and factors

You snooze you lose: Sometimes you just need all day that contribute to our needs range from our genetic make-up, activity levels, age, gender or just what we’re used to. This is why it is crucial to figure out what amount of sleep suits you, individually. The US National Sleep Foundation suggests seven to nine hours a night is advisable for adults, and a survey it conducted in 2002 suggested three-quarters of Americans had problems sleeping and a third were so sleepy during the day that their activities were affected. In the past century, we have reduced our average time in sleep. Though our society has changed,

our brains and bodies have not. Sleep deprivation is affecting us all and we are paying the price. The debate about sleep requirements has yet to provide a definite answer. Until then, the basic test of insufficient sleep is to see whether you are sleepy in the day or if you remain alert. Not really rocket science. In a nutshell, if you sleep for eight hours a night, go to work and find yourself lolling and drooling on the keyboard, you aren’t getting enough. If you’re sleeping five hours and running the country, you probably are getting enough.

CALLING ALL POSTGRADUATES Are you doing cutting edge research, but not getting the rock and role fame you deserve? Science at bathimpact is looking to interview students doing research projects in their Masters or PhD, to discuss your work and the rewards of staying on at the university. If you’d be interested, please email: science@bathimpact.com

Steak and Lamb chops proven to reduce aggression Gina Reay Editor-in-Chief editor@bathimpact.com

bathimpact are still in need of more Science contributors! If you feel like geeking it up for the Science section please get in contact. It looks great on your CV and it’s really rewarding to get your name in print! If you’re interested, please email: science@bathimpact.com

ccording to recent research, eating steak and lamb chops will calm down men, making them less aggressive. Scientists suggested last week that eating these two types of meat will actually have a calming effect on males rather than unveiling their ‘caveman instinct’ as was previously believed by psychologists.

Researchers at the McGill University in Montreal, Canada have made the surprising claims. They have observed how meat-eating can trigger a sense of non-aggression because it brings back memories of family mealtimes. Psychological tests were carried out among 82 men to monitor their aggression levels. It was discovered that when most men cast their eyes on the meat they became calmer, reminiscing on family feasts surrounded by friends

and relatives. The researchers had previously believed that during the tests, where males were shown pictures of cooked meat products, they would become more hostile and violent in their mentality. This new information has given evolutionary experts a great deal of insight into new trends in society and personal behaviour. Society therefore may be influencing environmental factors and actually decreasing aggressive behaviour amongst us.

Monday 15th November 2010

bathimpact

Media

www.bathimpact.com

STUDENT

U n i v e r s i t y

o f

B a t h

S t u d e n t s ’

U n i o n

Hello from our new Media Officer

m edia S

Bath Student Media cover London Protests

o… I’m the new Media Officer, and I’m taking the opportunity, generously provided by bathimpact to introduce myself and to talk a little bit about what I’m doing or planning to do this year. Firstly, I’d like to congratulate the other new member of the Media Exec - David James - on winning his election. David and I are grateful to all of the many people who voted. There are a few things that I’m hoping to work on this year with Media. By working together on content, particularly in news coverage, I hope to be able to have Student Media create a product that will be both useful and en-

joyable. Student Media should be your first resource when looking to find out about the things that affect you. I’m also keen that we should encourage more people to get involved, not just in one Media group, but across Ctv, URB and bathimpact. If you’re interested in being a part of any or all of the many brilliant Media Groups, or if you’re thinking of a career in journalism or in production then you should get involved. If you have any queries about what we do or have any questions at all for Media, you’re welcome to get in touch with me. Go to www.bathstudent.com/media to find out more.

BLURB

chance to hear the special Freshers’ Week episodes of Societies Challenge - firstly pitting the Sabbs against each other, then the winning Sabbs vs the Freshers’ Week Event Managers - for the very first time. As a real antidote to the winter blues, the FW Rewind will be full of fun and games - share your Freshers’ Week stories with us, or take the How Much of Freshers’ Week Do You Remember? quiz and you could win a quality prize. So tune in, take part and pretend it’s Freshers’ Week all over again! Fund Our Future The URB Team is dedicated to providing full coverage of the NUS Fund Our Future campaign. We were in London for the protest on Wednesday, aired the HE Funding Forum from Elements on Friday 5th November, and also had an exclusive interview with Aaron Porter, President of the NUS. If you missed any of this, highlights will shortly be available to podcast from our website. Stay tuned to 1449AM URB for all the latest news, as it happens.

1449 URB, bathimpact and Ctv provided extensive, up-to-date coverage of last Wednesday’s protests. Here are our behind-the-scene photos of the amazing day of journalism...

Freshers’ Week Rewind: Wednesday 17 November It’s now halfway through the term, we’re all fed up with coursework and the weather’s miserable…. So here at URB we thought we’d brighten your day with a reminder of better times! Throughout the day we’ll be playing out highlights from the daily activities, your drunken ramblings and interviews with the acts who entertained you each night. You will also get the

Ctv Zap

nother week has gone and still no sign of Ctv Sports... A simple explanation for this matter: the screens in the Student Centre are still not

100 % functional. On the bright side, we are very pleased to announce to you that we are going to start shooting one of our shows called the Student Chef from next weekend. If you are interested in joining the film crew, just drop us an email at ctvmanager@bath.ac.uk. Remember that no matter how much (or how little) experience you have in shooting, editing, or directing, we will be more than happy to count you in. Also being launched next week is a little series of short videos called ‘Behind the scene’ to present societies, once-a-week, to the students. If you want get your society involved, please contact us.

Monday 15th November 2010

bathimpact

Puzzles corner

www.bathimpact.com

Welcome to Puzzles Corner!

Darius G

Every issue we’ll bring you some puzzles, and something to laugh at whilst procrasting - puzzles make you think, so they have to be good for you, right? We’re always on the lookout for people who want to contribute, so if you enjoy making sudokus, crosswords or any other kind of puzzle, or just like drawing cartoons, contact editor@bathimpact.com and help us out!

Down

Across 1. 5. 6. 8. 10. 13. 16.

Main component of cigarettes (7) Winged horse (7) Musical instrument (5) Shortest or longest day of the year (8) Limbless reptile (5) Save (6) Make louder (7)

Easy

17. 19. 20. 21. 23. 25. 26. 31.

Signal fire (6) Size (9) Written version of a film or play (6) About to happen (8) Sift, sieve (6) Quick cut (4) American jam (5) Give out (10)

32. 33. 34. 38. 39. 40. 41.

Keep an eye on (7) Look after (5) Capital of Belgium (8) Gesture (11) Grass type starting pokemon (9) Lion-like (7) Despondent (10)

Hard

2. 3. 4. 5. 7. 9. 11. 12. 14. 15.

Light wind (6) Game with black and white pieces (5) Horse’s pace (6) Have (7) Gain (7) Blue-green (9) Make notes (8) Steepness (8) Equivalent (10) Decode (8)

18. 22. 23. 24. 27. 28. 29. 30. 35. 36. 37.

Mislead (7) Cast; sweet (4) Bird of prey (6) Miniature whirlpool (4) Daytime performance (7) Tiny (9) Bloom (6) Alongside (8) Area (6) Toll (4) Wound, damage (4)

Solution for last issue

Monday 15th November 2010

bathimpact

Sabbs Corner

www.bathimpact.com

Commercial Services – The change explained Daniel O’Toole, SU President, discloses all information on the loss of the SU’s commercial services and outlines why change is good

t its heart, the Students’ Union is a charitable organisation. It exists to represent students; to provide opportunities for students to get involved in a number of activities including sports, societies, volunteering and enterprise; to give support and advice; and ensure that students have a great all-round student experience. In the past, the Students’ Union has received a block grant from the university each year of approximately £600k. The profits made from our commercial operations (including the bars), another £600k, made up the remainder of the budget that the Students’ Union spends each year. As of the 1st of January 2011 the University will assume responsibility for the management and operations of all commercial services, including Fresh, Fresh Oriental, SU Shop (now the Student Centre Shop), Proper Pasty, Costa Coffee, Pitstop and STA Travel. These commercial services will remain a separate entity from the university’s current commercial services. The SU’s bars will remain under the Union’s control. In exchange, the University has guaranteed to fully fund the core services of the Students’ Union through its annual block grant. This new arrangement ensures that

the Students’ Union has secure funding for all of its core activities, and does not have to rely on the variable performance of the commercial services. The new funding model also protects the Students’ Union from hidden staff costs. Our staff are employed by the university, and under the old system the SU had to pay 50% of any pay increases out of its budget without a corresponding increase in the block grant. This bill frequently ran into the tens of thousands of pounds at year end. Under the new system the university will increase our block grant in line with any pay increases. As part of the arrangement the university is setting up a committee with oversight not only over those services being transferred, but all retail and catering on campus, including accommodation rents. This gives the Students’ Union the ability, for the first time, to directly influence their direction. Given the positive relationship between the University and the Students’ Union and all that we achieve, this change is a positive step for students. No longer will the Students’ Union face the dilemma of balancing our own financial viability against student desires for lower prices, and we can move forward firmly representing students in this area as we do in

all others. We and the university saw the bars and entertainments package, offered here at Bath, as an essential part of the student community. This is why we have retained their ownership. It is true that last year the bars did not perform as well as we might hope, but the university has agreed to underwrite any under-performance of the operation for a limited period. This will enable us to position them so they reach their full potential. As much as ever this means that every penny you spend in our bar is reinvested directly into student activities. There may be concerns that this move makes the Students’ Union over-reliant on the university for funding, and in doing so exposes us further to any financial cuts there may be. However, while this may appear true on the surface, the reality is that the Students’ Union has always been vulnerable to such cuts, as the block grant has always taken our revenue from commercial operations into account; the university could easily have simply cut one half more. While we cannot guarantee there will be no cuts in the future (due to the wider cuts to the HE budget nationally), it must be remembered that cuts to the union are not in the university’s interests, as

they will undermine the student experience that both parties are always striving to enhance. The university has not given any specific ‘price promise’, and there is perhaps the fear that under the university’s management the commercial operations may become less sensitive to student needs. It is in the university’s best interest to maintain the current ethos of the services, because it is that ethos that has made them so successful to date. It is also important to note that the strategic committee (as mentioned earlier) will look at benchmarking all services, along with their value for money, against other similar operations locally and throughout the sector nationally. While the Students’ Union’s budget is no longer tied to commercial operations, the university is invested in their success. It must also be highlighted that the leases and arrangements for running commercial operations have been entirely at the discretion of the university. As the university owns all of the buildings on campus, expansion of these services in the past has proven difficult. However, now that the profits are the university’s responsibility, they are much better placed than the union ever could be to further develop the shops and catering facilities.

The Students’ Union prides itself as being a student-led organisation with student opinion at its heart. A criticism of this move has been that students have not been fully consulted. From the very start of the discussions around this change the SU was bound by commercial confidentiality due to the sensitivity of certain matters, particularly those surrounding the affected staff and were therefore unable to consult with students as fully as we would have liked. We outlined as much as we could to the execs of many of the subgroups during Freshers’ Week. The detail remained confidential until an inprinciple decision was reached. The Students’ Union Board of Trustees reached this decision on the 2nd of November, paving the way for the change. This change has been discussed at great length by two successive sabbatical teams and trustees, and we feel it is the best outcome for all students. On balance, this agreement will secure future funding for the Students’ Union which will allow it to focus on its core activities - activities which no one else can do as effectively, unlike commercial operations. Simply put, the overall result will mean a better student experience for all.

James Huelin VP communications sucommunications@bath.ac.uk

The Students’ Union does not condone any violence of any kind and is making a strong stand against those who were involved in the riots that have made today’s headlines. Speaking on BBC Bristol this morning, I had this to say: “Violence is never the answer. Of course I wouldn’t condone anything that happened yesterday. I think it’s such a shame that the few spoilt it for the many, when actually the message of the tens of thousands that were protesting peacefully down the road

got lost. It would have been an extremely effective protest. We were expecting 17,000 to attend; the fact that we got over 50,000 shows how unfair the student body feels these cuts are”. The planned route of the protest started at Horse Guards Avenue and made its way past the Houses of Parliament and down Millbank. The route passed Millbank Towers, the scene of the violent protests. Various newspapers last week were reporting that the violence started when radical groups of anarchists hijacked the protest to incite violence in the crowd. A small group of students broke away from the main protest, which continued peacefully down Millbank, and joined the violence outside the Tory HQ. The Students’ Union appreciates that even though the students may not have started the violence, they must still take responsibility for their actions if they joined in once it had begun. The peaceful protest that continued down the route went off with huge success. There was an almost carnival like atmosphere with drummers and musicians entertaining

the crowds. I even made a bit of a stir in international press, with photos of me making it into the galleries of a lot of the major newspapers and news networks. The photo showed me wearing a suit made of money and holding a placard with the ironic remark: “Do I look like I am made out of money?” I was so proud to be part of the

protest. Our student media groups were there to report on the protest and the violence at Tory HQ. It is confirmed that the rest of the Bath contingent followed the route to its peaceful end and no students from Bath were involved in the violent protest and none were injured or in the group of people detained by the police.

BUSU reacts to London student riots Last Wednesday saw one of the largest student protests in decades hit London to speak out against the cuts to higher education. However, the loud and clear message being sent peacefully from the tens of thousands of students down the road from the Tory HQ has been overshadowed in the media by the few who decided to turn to violence in an attempt to get heard.

Monday 15th November 2010

bathimpact

Arts

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Arts and stuff: Busting a groove or two

Arts Officer Simon King is back again this fortnight with all the updates from the Arts universe. Bath bands, bending bodies, what more do you need? Go Wilde! Care. Well done also to Ch&os for a fantastic Remembrance Concert on Sunday. Alongside a moving performance of Howard Goodall’s ‘The Lord is my Shepherd’ were the orchestra, concert band, Gospel Choir and the Barbershop group.

ances: Bodysoc, Gravity Vomit, Music Soc and a fantastic performance from Andy Liszewski, frontman to band Roadshow. Don’t forget to vote for Roadshow to win website YouBloom’s international songwriting competition from 15th - 22nd November, just go to Bath-

o we’re into the middle of the semester, Guy Fawkes night has been and gone and the winter chill is setting in. As much as I enjoyed watching my friend get chased across campus by a badger and tripping over a bollard, the highlight of the night was the amazing firework display. Big well done to RAG for running a fantastic event, and although it seemed that the weather would be miserable, it cleared just in time for some arts and society perform-

Anyway, I think that’s everything for this week, so signing off with a word of wisdom from my favourite playwright, Oscar Wilde: ‘Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught’

Don’t forget to vote for Roadshow (Bath Uni band) to win YouBloom’s songwriting competition. Check out bathstudent.com or youbloom.com for info. Bottom left and top: Breakdancers from BREAK in action. Student for more information. Congratulations to the organisers and performers of new charity event: Show on the Go! While performing for 4 hours, Bodysoc danced, Breakdancers broke, Cheerleaders cheered and money was raised for Marie Curie Hospice

Wilde Thing: Our old pal Oscar chills out

Monday 15th November 2010

bathimpact

Societies & Volunteering

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Societies: it’s all in the chemistry

Simon Priestley Societies Publicity Officer elcome to this week’s Society section of bathimpact. Society-land is well up and running with many of the societies taking part in International Student Week, on which there is a feature in another part of bathimpact; make sure you take a look! This week we feature a plethora of different societies, with CSS taking pride of place in ‘Expalining Your Society’. The Cheerleaders, as ever, are and have been, extremely busy, with performances at Freshers Week, Bath City FC, GUAPA and at the recent Team Bath Rugby game against UWE, as well as at the Fireworks night. This month they’re performing at another Bath City game, hockey games and are continuing to support the American Football team, the Killer Bees. Bath University Model United Nations (BUMUN) have also been getting their meetings up and running. They regularly meet and discuss and respond to some of the most pressing issues the world faces, be it piracy in Somalia, climate change or the nuclear capabilities of countries. 10 students recently represented the university at OxiMUN, Oxford University’s Model

United Nations, where they represented Panama or Canada on various committees, and plans are already in place to go to CUIMUN, Cambridge’s Annual MUN, where students will have the opportunity to meet and debate with students from Africa to America, and even more exciting trips, as far afield as Singapore could be on the horizon. The society meets alternating Tuesdays and Thursdays, so if you’d like to develop your public speaking, problem solving and negotiation skills, why not join BUMUN? The Chem Eng society (CESA) have also been up to a lot - here’s a report on their recent trip to Dow Corning: “The trip was a fantastic day out. Armed with a mini bus and a Vito we made our voyage to Barry, Wales. During a hectic time on placement applications, 23 students and a placement officer were eager to learn more about this global Silicone production site which has played host to many Bath graduates in the past. “Our journey began with a quick nip across the Severn bridge by our newly qualified society drivers. Time allowed a quick stroll around the immense Barry Island - a treasure in itself! We were warmly welcomed afterwards into the

monstrous site that is Dow Corning. We were first treated to a great lunch followed by a corporate presentation on the business. The many applications of silicone had surprised us with the obvious examples not being the most widely used (unfortunately!). “We were then split into two groups to gain a deeper insight into the opportunities that the industry had to offer and then were whisked around the production site in a small mini bus. “The double distillation columns can be seen for miles however the impact up close is just as daunting. With steam venting into drains and large multiphase reactors towering over you it is hard not to think as this as just a big toy. We were taken to see the raw material, silicon metal, and taken along the trail of production through the grinding process to the second world's large reactor of its type on to the finishing processes. From a shiny coal-like rock to an end product, a clear liquid of varying viscosity or runniness. A remarkable transformation to say the least! “Everyone was so impressed how generous and how much we had been spoilt through the day. With our eyes opened, stomachs full and brains rattling we are truly thankful to the com-

Explain Your Society : CSS

C Subashini Rajananda from BAMSA with her medal pany as we have learnt so much more than would be possible in a lecture theatre. Also a huge thank you to Lars Luckoff for the organisation of the trip!” Meanwhile BAMSA recently went to the Nottingham Malaysian Games, a sports competition between Malaysian Societies from across the country. Highlights included Subashini Rajananda coming third in the Women’s Badminton, Horace Tse being beaten narrowly by the reigning champion in the Men’s Badminton 18-21, and the 5-a-side footballers missing out on progressing to the semi-finals by just 1 point! Well done to all who took part and represented the Malaysian Society and the University!

SS (Chinese Student Society) has been a well established society for over 15 years with members from Hong Kong, Mainland China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Malaysia and all over the globe everyone is welcome to join us! We are one of ONLY two Chinese Societies at the University the other being ChinaRen. Our society’s main aims are to promote Chinese culture in the university as well as providing help and support to Chinese students during their stay at uni. Throughout the academic year, we will be organising regular social and sporting events for members to take part in and enjoy. We try our best to provide all sorts of different activities that will accommodate everyone’s interests and needs. The society has its own website, blog and Facebook group, through which we keep our members up to date with the society’s news and upcoming events.

Volunteering: from RAGs to riches

Volunteering Publicity Officer Naomi Mackrill tells us all about the exciting volunteering opportunities out there. Read on! cember. £1 will be refunded, and the other £1 used to cover the cost of transporting the box overseas. If you would like to volunteer and help the shoebox appeal please again contact Karen Thompson.

DofE update Meetings have changed room and are now in 1W2.6. Head on over at 6.15 on Tuesday evenings to get some more information. This year’s expeditions are Brecon Beacons: 31st Jan - 4th February Snowdonia: 26th April - 1st May Lake District: 6th June - 12th June A great opportunity to start or complete your Duke of Edinburgh award. Student Community Action Off the Record Young Carers Project: Our young carers project is urgently looking for volunteers to work with a group of young carers. You will work in a group to try and organize fun activities to give the young carers a break and to meet new people in similar situations. If anyone is interested please get in contact ASAP as it’s such an amazing project and just needs a little help getting off the

Living in a box: Bath students sleeping rough last year ground! For more information contact Karen (Volunteer Support Officer) at K.L.Thompson@bath. ac.uk. Shoebox Appeal Shoebox Appeal is back! The official launch will be on the 1st December, but there is nothing stopping you from getting started early. Please pick up a shoebox

today as anything you can donate would be greatly appreciated. This is your chance to make someone's Christmas, just by filling up a shoebox and you could make such a difference to a child’s life. All you need to do is come along to the Volunteer Centre with a £2 deposit to collect a shoebox, fill this with presents and return to the Volunteer Centre by the 10th De-

Seasonal Celebrations SCA are once again organising an international event called Seasonal Celebrations Around the world with the idea of exploring ‘How do you celebrate?’ This is going to be on the Parade on Thursday 2nd December, from 11-3pm. This is a chance for all international, cultural and religious societies to inform and spread the knowledge of their background and beliefs. It is going to be similar to the Carnival Day during Freshers' Week but this time societies will be showing what religious holidays are like in their country whether it be Christmas, Hanukkah or Eid. We need volunteers to help run our stands, so if you are interested

in helping out on the day or simply want to get your society involved, please contact Matt (SCA Chair) at mc360@bath.ac.uk. RAG RAG would like to say a big thank you to everyone who helped out with the fireworks, especially our event co-ordinator Ioanna Yiasemi, and to everyonewho came and donated to Julian House on Saturday. We raised almost £6000! RAG is once again putting together its Nearly Naked Calendar with SCA which should be going on sale later this term. We’re currently looking for clubs and societies to get involved so if you think that your group has got what it takes (a good imagination and a little bit of courage) or for more information on getting your hands of one of these limited supply calendars, sign up to our interest list, again at www.bathstudent.com/rag/signups or email Sylvia at calendar@bathrag.com for more information.

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WHAT’S ON: To get you in the know Please let us know about any great things coming up (email: ents@bathimpact.com)

Theatre/Comedy

Will Self doesn’t normally bring his glaring, sinister dog to gigs

heeky comedian Lee Mack will be peddling his wares at Colston Hall in Bristol on November 22nd and 23rd of November. Since coming to national attention in the mid-noughties by appearing on Live at the Apollo, Mack has gone on to write and star in three seasons of the sitcom Not Going Out as well as being a stalwart on various panel shows. He has a laid back, observational style that focuses on real life situations and some clever wordplay. Should be an enjoyable evening. The extremely dry, verbose and slightly frightening Will Self will be unleashing his remarkable intellect and vocabulary at Thunderbolt in Bristol on 24th November as he promotes his newest book Walking to Hollywood. Not technically a

comedy event, but, as all of you who saw him on the classic panel show Shooting Stars will attest, Self is a man with an unusual amount of wit so it will probably be very amusing. Plus, anyone who has been addicted to that many drugs and who can still speak in full sentences tends to have some pretty interesting stories. One of the most controversial comedians around, Brendon Burns, will be at The Comedy Cavern on 28th November. He is probably most famous for championing the cause of anti-political-correctness and mercilessly destroying any heckler who so much as thinks about insulting him. A sample joke: his description of Russell Brand, who he says “looks like the personification of hepatitis” - if that made you chuckle head on down.

Exhibitions/Cinema

Back before their chances of normalcy were utterly destroyed

Music

he freaky electro composer Daniel Snaith will be performing at Thekla on 23rd November under his better known stage name Caribou. Snaith holds a PhD in Mathematics and puts together some incredibly danceable electro tunes, performing them onstage with a live band. Think MGMT but without the insatiable lust for fame. His 2008 album Andorra is a fantastic record filled with interesting samples, intricate beats and spooky vocals that are somewhat reminiscent of TV On The Radio. What’s more Thekla is normally very well attended, energetic and a whole bunch of fun. It promises to be one of the stand out gigs of November - so this should certainly be worth attending. [PROBABLE BIG JEFF LOCATION.] Rousing alt-country troubadours The National will be making bodies sway and ladies swoon on 24th November at the 02 Academy. This Brooklyn four-piece create bar-soaked ballads that demand to be sung along to with eyes closed and fists clenched. In many ways they suggest that they might be the successors of REM in terms of producing peculiarly American anthems that don’t only appeal to men with pick-up trucks. Comparisons could also be made to early Modest Mouse or Grizzly Bear. Gents: this gig is bound to be packed with women so go along and look soulful! Or, you know, take your partner as a surprise if you’re feeling romantic. Attention all medical professionals! The insidious cerebral disease

ut on your robe and wizard hat: the latest Harry Potter incarnation will be hitting cinemas on 19th November. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 is the first part of the seventh film adaptation of the hugely successful JK Rowling franchise. It promises to (as ever) be ‘darker’ than the previous films with all the returning all-star cast returning to bring us the showdown between good and evil. Of course, we’ll have to wait another six months to find out how that ends (obviously no one reads books anymore: it’s the 21st century) because, according to executive producer David Heyman, they need “an extra hour and a half to do justice to all the words

known commonly as Jedward will be occupying Colston Hall in Bristol on 26th November. This particular pandemic has been known to affect the judgement of tens of thousands of Britons when it was last transmitted via X Factor in 2009. Signs of infection include squealing in groups, creating banners professing love for the preposterously blond quiffed pair and, some experts suggest, brain-death. We know you love them secretly, so don’t deny yourselves any longer. Normally we try not to include any previews that come after two weeks of publication but this is SO exciting that we want you, dear readers, to know well in advance lest you be unable to acquire tickets. The Fall will be performing in little ol’ Bath on 30th November at Komedia. The anarchic punk group with more albums and

former members than it’s possible to count, fronted and led by the legendary Mark E Smith (who recently appeared on Gorillaz album Plastic Beach), want to explode your ears and break things for your viewing pleasure. We cannot overstate how brilliant this should be. Mark E Smith is such a bizarre, brilliant figure just a collection of interviews will supply at least a couple of hours of entertainment: highlights include accusing Ray Stubbs of having a haircut that is more suited to “murderers in Strangeways” and proclaiming on the set of The Jonathan Ross Show that he could “tell people’s religions just by looking at them.” When someone asked what religion they were Smith paused for comic effect before saying, “you are a f**cking c**t.” Expect onstage fireworks!

Mark E Smith hasn’t given a damn since before you were born and ideas in this amazing story.” It certainly isn’t to generate another round of sure-fire cinema ticket sales. What kind of cynical mind would suggest such a thing? An ongoing exhibition that has just come to our attention is The Astronomers’ House at the Herschel Museum of Astronomy, which gives an insight into the lives of William and Caroline Herschel when they lived in Bath in the late 18th century. The two siblings made huge contributions to astronomy, discovering Uranus and infrared radiation as well as being the most accomplished telescope makers of their time. Sir Patrick Moore (of The Sky at Night fame) describes William Heschel

as “probably the greatest observer who ever lived” so getting a look at the great man’s life should prove to be a fascinating snapshot of a truly great Bath resident. Of course the Bath Film Festival will continue until 20th November so please do get out there and support this institution. They’re showing films of all different genres from all over the world in multiple locations in Bath. It’s probably about the biggest cultural event of the year (the cider festival doesn’t count, amazing as it is) so this is your chance to get out there and meet all the other artsy types hanging around Bath - sometimes they can be a bit hard to find so don’t miss out.

Big Jeff: The man, the legend He’s a legend in the Bristol music scene. Front and centre of every gig you’ll see his burly frame and wild blond hair, fist pumping and head bopping in ferocious determination. No one is more committed to live music than Big Jeff. Even Flying Lotus name dropped him when he last played in Bristol. Please email us at Entertainment (ents@bathimpact.com) if you see him because, as Flying Lotus said, “the party’s with my man Big Jeff”. Watch the Entertainment column for more news on Jeff watch and, possibly, an interview with this local hero.

Monday 15th November 2010

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Rebels in Art: the weird and the political

n tribute to last week’s massive student protest in London (covered extensively elsewhere in bathimpact) as well as the annual celebrations of Guy Fawkes’ failure to incinerate the British elite of the mid 17th century, we in the Entertainments section have decided to put together a cursory list of great artistic rebels: people who fought against immorality and injustice; artists whose political agitation invoked uprisings; and the people who, simply, were so completely bizarre that they managed to undermine societal norms by just existing. These are people from all over the world who used their creativity and their passion to pursue change. They didn’t do it through violence or economic posturing, what they did was take what inspired them and allow it to get out into their environments and speak to the people - some inspired their countrymen to revolt while other inspired a handful of progressive artists to aggravate against how art was seen. All of them have revolutionary instincts and an uncompromising attitude to maintaining the status quo.

Vaclav Havel - the poet president of Eastern Europe and his rock’n’roll revolution

playwright, revolutionary and statesman all in one, Vaclav Havel is a very interesting character. He was a proponent of the inherently subversive Theatre of the Absurd (where anarchy, illogic and chaos ruled; the Soviet rulers were, naturally, not best pleased with this movement) in the 1960s before being banned from theatre after the 1968 suppression of the Prague Spring by the Warsaw Pact. After this he, along with other anti-Soviet Czech artists like the fantastically named band The Plastic People of the Universe, went on spreading dissidence throughout the 1970s and 80s for which he was constantly in and out of prison and put under surveillance. Eventually he was made the first President of the Czech Republic following the Velvet revolution of 1989 (named after the alternative 1960s rock band The Velvet Underground) which espoused revolution through civic societies and

artists rather than through political pressure. After this he issued a series of sweeping liberal reforms and, briefly, appointed psychedelic rocker Frank Zappa as America’s Special Ambassador to Czechoslovakia without consulting the American government beforehand. Supposedly Zappa’s music was a unifying influence amongst the artists and intellectuals who were the

driving force behind the independence movement within Czechoslovakia. He was the figurehead of a completely unlikely group who achieved the liberation of a country from the state-centred autonomy of the Soviet Union by promoting freedom of expression, creativity and everything that was the anathema of Soviet communism.

Frank Zappa: clearly excellent ambassadorial material

Antonin Artaud - madness, cruelty and opiates make the world a more exciting place

How to survive having so many wives...

Fela Kuti - dissent and idealogy

erhaps the greatest in a long line of post-colonial African artistic rebels (honourable mention must go to the recently Nobel nominated Ngugi Wa Thiong’o whose decision not to write in English opened up African literature to the very people who inspired it) Fela Kuti was something of a phenomenon. He is the godfather of African music, breaking through to Western markets in the 1970s with his infectious ‘afro-beat’ - a combination of traditional West African music, funk and jazz that is practically impossible not to dance to - that garnered acclaim from Lagos to Los Angeles. He used his new-found fame and wealth to open up his own club in Lagos (The Shrine) and hire practically every single musician he could find (his band was often made up of over ninety performers) to perform his overtly political, pan-Africanist, anti-governmental songs. It was one of these songs, Zombie, from the 1977 album of the same

name (criticising the brutal Nigerian army, implying they were a tool of oppression for the then government) that got him in some serious trouble. The phenomenal success of this album infuriated the government to the point that the army went to his home and attacked him, his family and various supporters, eventually entering his home and throwing his mother out of a top floor window, killing her. In response Fela delivered his mother’s coffin to the main barracks in Lagos and played a concert of the anti-army songs in question. Clearly, the man had serious balls. This is just one example of his defiance in the face of oppression. There isn’t room to go into all the various stories that indicate what an incredibly principled rebel the man was. What is so important about him is that at no point in his life did he let his unprecedented celebrity get in the way of what he believed – a true rebel who put his life on the line and a legendary musician all in one.

man whose life was so short, brutal and utterly surreal that the fragmentary literary offerings he did produce opened up a whole stream of artistic vulgarity. This meant a whole swathe of taboos were challenged, changing what could be written and sung about in the decades following his death in 1948. As a child Artaud suffered from a bout of meningitis that left him with irritability, nervous problems and clinical depression - all of which was treated with opium and later laudanum (this was the turn of the 20th

century after all). While he was institutionalised for great periods of time he got massively interested in literature, specifically the gothic, romantic poetry of Baudelaire, Rimbaud and Edgar Allen Poe. Eventually he went off to pursue a career in writing, moving to Paris in 1920. It was here that he began developing his most important works and theories, commonly known as the Theatre of Cruelty. He wanted his audiences to suffer, to be appalled, sickened and shocked by what they saw onstage - manuscripts include fountains of blood, horrifying sound

Artaud probably looking at something no one else can see

effects, lewd suggestions, clothes that become transparent, and perhaps the most insane stage direction of all time, “A multitude of scorpions crawl out from beneath the Wet-Nurse’s dress and swarm between her legs. Her vagina swells up splits and becomes transparent and glistening like a sun.” In 1937 Artaud travelled to Ireland with a walking stick that he believed had belonged to St Patrick and, presumably at different points, Satan and Jesus Christ. While onboard a ship to Ireland he became convinced that a young man also onboard was an agent of Satan trying to stop him returning the walking stick to St Patrick: he attacked the man and stabbed him. After this he was put in an institution in Vichy territory and subjected to electro-therapy for several years – something that sparked a late creative period. He died in yet another psychiatric institution of intestinal cancer allegedly holding his left shoe while sitting on the floor next to his bed. It was a suitably surreal end to a life that opened up the idea of insanity and chaos as a legitimate, preferred form of artistic expression. People like Jackson Pollack, Samuel Beckett and Frank Zappa all owe much to his pioneering work as do the great British comedy troupe Monty Python. Who actually wants to be normal anyway?

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Coldplay need to leave the comfort zone Joe Kendall on why world-famous bands can’t allow themselves a slow but steady detumescence after their early success

ince their breakthrough 2000 Album Parachutes, Coldplay have gone from promising, critically acclaimed indiekids to a national institution so enormous and ubiquitous that people have forgotten why they ever liked them, much like the monarchy. But has this shift in opinion occurred because Coldplay have betrayed their initial values and turned rubbish? Were they rubbish all along? Or has the shift taken place because Coldplay have been so successful, in that they have been difficult to avoid – familiarity breeds contempt etc. Certainly music critics have a habit of turning on once-praised bands who have hit the big time. Often this is because the acts have indeed sold out, à la Dizzee Rascal, but it also a result of pretentious critics nourishing their egos by not allowing themselves to acclaim anything mainstream. They thereby maintain their credibility in the world of people who are not interested in music that’s not new and cutting edge, and consider a band they liked getting popular a personal slight to their own exclusivity.

Personally, I think they were rubbish all along. Chris Martin has the ability to write decent melodies that can tug at the heart-strings, but the music produced has not changed across four studio albums, and most songs tend to follow a template of plinky-plonky piano accompanying Martin’s wimpy platitudes to make a contrived, lethargic sound with a slightly forced emotional edge. They have perfected this formula on certain occasions, creating stirring, cosy songs such as Warning Sign (2002) and Trouble (2000). But too often has the same formula been repeated, never wavering from the general theme of melancholy, miserable or hollow. That said, bands do not need to constantly undergo Bowie-esque transformations to enjoy sustained critical and commercial success. Doves, for example, have stuck with the if-it-ain’t-broke method for ten years, producing consistently similar anthemic guitar-rock whilst enjoying high sales alongside relative praise from most circles. Perhaps the resentment towards Coldplay has stemmed from the wave of

imitators they have spawned. Coldplay are to thank for the Keanes and Starsailors of this world, and it is possible that Coldplay’s sound would be more tolerable if we only had to hear Coldplay trying to produce it. Martin’s songs have also been an ever-present on most radio stations for decade, not to mention providing the soundtrack to innumerable TV montages and the like. Their ubiquity has been central to their demise, and I think I would enjoy their music a lot more if I hadn’t had to hear so much of it in my life. Coldplay have a new album in the pipeline, and I can only hope that they stop striving to refine their blandness and incorporate more adventurous aspects into their music. God forbid they should ever make something with tempo other than pedestrian, include vocals other than Martin’s, or make anything sounding vaguely electronic. I would like to see Coldplay make music for people who aren’t young, white and pensive. Alas, I just don’t think we’ll be seeing that Lethal Bizzle collaboration any time soon...

Coldplay in their hell-raising days, when nothing could stop them

For those about to geek out, we salute you!

Ents Deputy Editor Dave Langdale wants you to enjoy geeking out with him

he concept of ‘geek’ has changed dramatically over the last decade. From the pale cellar dwelling, LAN party stereotype in their fishtank glasses, high-waisted corduroy trousers and their mother’s cardigan; to the millions of subscribers to games like World of Warcraft and the release day sell out of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, being a geek no longer carries the stigma

of awkwardness, eccentricity and perpetual virginity. Being a geek in 2010 is about more than just the unnatural obsession with coloured pixels. It has developed into a celebration of people’s individual interests and the oddities that make them tick. It’s okay to revel in the completion of every Xbox achievement for Mass Effect, know the words to the entire BeeGee’s track

The traditional geeks in their natural habitat of the convention

list, and even dress in your own unique way. Not only has this allowed the masses to enjoy entertainment formats previously restricted to sexually frustrated teenagers; it has allowed people to express themselves in fresh, innovative and exciting ways. To celebrate this welcome shift in attitudes, popular technology, gaming and film website www. geeks.co.uk is hosting a Geek of the Year competition bash in London on 30th November, judged by none other than The Inbetweeners writer Iain Morris. The winner of this prestigious award will be showered with an obscene amount of gadgets, as well as £1,000 in cash and a £5,000 luxury holiday. Performing at the bash itself will be three of the finest comedians this country has to offer including Tiffany Stevenson, Phil Nichol and Chortle Award’s Best Newcomer Carl Donnelly. If that wasn’t enough there will be music by the fabulous Ex Libras and guest DJs A Badge of Friendship and Pipe N’ Slippers.

Email ents@bathimpact.co.uk to get in touch with Dave about the event (and other stuff of course).

These four geeks continue to infiltrate the pages of bathimpact

How to get to this event: exclusively open to University of Bath students Readers of bathimpact have been given a unique opportunity to be among the hundreds of high profile guests and journalists at this once in a lifetime event. Two of the best entries to the Geek of the Year competition from Bath will be given a plus one ticket to the glitzy bash, as well as access to the free bar and VIP areas, and the chance to win the main prize. To enter, simply go to the Facebook page at http://www.facebook. com/#!/GeekoftheYearUK, answer the five questions, upload a photo of you at your geekiest and say you’re from the University of Bath. That’s it! Five minutes of your time and you could be collecting thousands of pounds worth of prizes in front of some of the biggest names in the business.

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Doing extreme sports? Strangers need to know Ents Deputy Editor Dave Langdale takes a look at a pointless iPod app Have you got a technology review? We would love to read it! We at Ents are aware that many people have these new-fangled mobile telephones and portable computing devices - how do you people use them? Get in touch with ents@bathimpact.com

t may seem an obvious thing to highlight, but for applications relying on social-networking activity to succeed, they inevitably need people. Otherwise it becomes a barren wasteland of inactivity, in which the depressed developers constantly check their ever decreasing user base composed wholly of staff members, while listening to The Fray and comfort eating Mr Kipling’s entire range of baked treats. The Extreme Sports App is one of these sorry souls. Like an abandoned car on the motorway, or a closed theme park, it is a desert of missed opportunities. Having said that, it is still only in its infancy and based, at the moment in the US, so if their marketing campaign succeeds, they will undoubtedly be swarmed with loyal fans ready to enjoy the plethora of innovative features the application has to offer. Accompanied with all the bells, whistles and achievements modern

niche networking apps feel they have to provide, such as trophies for completing certain goals and location based ‘check ins’, The Extreme Sports App has clearly done its homework. The basic function of the app is the ability to place your extreme sports activity in which you are taking part somewhere in the world, presumably so that others using the same application would be able to locate you, or you can find a place nearby that hosts your particular event. Accompanying this is the obligatory leader board so you can compare your performance with friends and strangers, the publish-

ing links to Facebook and Twitter, as well as a host of neat little gadgets such as an altimeter (which doesn’t work), a speedometer (which doesn’t work), a g-force monitor and a rotation monitor. Yet, despite these gimmicks, the overwhelming question that presents itself as you delve into the programme is – why? Why make an app that brings together the networking abilities of extreme sports when, frankly, the larger individual companies can do it better? For example, The Extreme Sports App can only show you which places are close to you. So as a reviewer looking at it

Obviously he’s app-ing with his other hand in this photo

I think the number of people this may appeal to are the developer and his team in England, I can see none of the 688 skiing centres the app promises me. Why, then, would you pay £1.19 for information you could find infinitely cheaper, easier and with more extensive results on Google? Similarly, if you are an extreme sports fan and competitor you are likely to know many other people in the same field. As such, it seems obvious to assume they would organise their meets on more popular and established formats such as Facebook or Twitter. Even more problematic is the omittance of a friends section where you can add people you meet at the events it is pointing you to so you can see them again, instead forcing you to do so on Facebook or Twitter. So, instead of a vibrant community of people who enjoy the same activity, it becomes a self indulgent display to strangers of your skill and attendance at a certain extreme sport event and where in the world it was. If you ignore the silly, useless gadgets and fancy jargon this is the shell you’re left with, and it even performs these services badly. Even

if the application suddenly gained an influx of followers and places in the UK were added to the map, it still wouldn’t provide enough of a unique selling point to make it the point of reference you check when locating an extreme sports activity, especially with iPhones possessing a perfectly adequate internet browser to search on Google or any other search engine. Overall The Extreme Sports App is obviously someone’s light bulb brain child, aimed to capitalise at the dramatic increase in social networking popularity. What may have begun as a smart, innovative idea, however, has been poorly executed to the point its main features are utterly redundant in a world where similar information can be gathered more rapidly, more effectively and with richer results. The only way this application can be of any use to anyone is if they simply detest using any sort of internet browser or social networking site and have been crying out for a platform in which all of these facets can be rolled into one single app to become the hub for their love of extreme sports. Because this is the case, I think the number of people this may appeal to can be safely relegated to the developer and his team.

Manic Street Preachers: a bit old hat Fabiana Giovanetti puts feminism to one side as the Welsh trio let her down

’ve been listening to Postcards From a Young Man for almost one month. I naively supposed that Manic Street Preachers would surprise me again after the absolute masterpiece Journal For Plague Lovers. For the people out there who don’t know, that album, released in May 2009, was created in tribute to songwriter and rhythmic guitarist Richey Edwards. The lyrics were based on various writings Edwards gave to the bassist Nicky Wire before he went missing in February 1995. The influence that the Richey Edwards story had on the massive success of the album has been something of a moot point with some critics, postulating that it may just overcome the music itself. The same people are pointing this out again now after listening to the new album. They may have a point: Postcards from a Young Man lacks some of the anger that marked their first works and gets stuck in some poppish sounds crammed with unnecessary strings. This is however not all due to the vanishing of Ed-

wards’ mystical aura. Announcing the album in late summer they declared that this would be “one last shot at mass communication.” This radio-friendly turn may baffle the fanbase who still misses the glory days of the early 1990s. The violence the band vented to society is now a far-off mirage. The attempt to arouse listeners’ emotions is subverted by a plain sound carried to the excess of gospel choruses, strings and the abuse of the guitar. Journal For Plague Lovers has been more than once compared to MSP’s 1994 magnum opus, The Holy Bible, but this album can be more appropriately compared to their 1997 album Send Away the Tigers – but that’s not great. It’s a more contemplative, conventional, and essentially ‘clean’ album. This may be a positive review for many of pop-rock oriented bands, but not for Manic Street Preachers. The militant spirit and the punk revival style seem to be vanished along with Edwards’ legacy. To be fair, Manic Street Preach-

The radio-friendly turn may baffle the fanbase ers have always played with the mainstream audience in a sort of brinkmanship between their punk past and pop present: this is clearly declared in the song manifesto All We Make is Entertainment. The first single, (It’s Not War) Just the End of Love, was fresh and catchy and built up some expectations that were then shattered by some expectable tracks and the abuse of strings and choruses. Songs like Golden Platitudes and Don’t be Evil are good parentheses that prove that the album works, but it’s not enough to reach the high point of the last work that indirectly Richey Edwards left as his own will. Yes, I know that women are nostalgic creatures. Nicky Wire, James Dean Bradfield and Sean Moore tried to do their best and I appreciate the effort, that’s why I still keep listening to it. Or maybe it’s just female nostalgia for a vanishing past.

Richey Edwards (front) before his tragic disappearance

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Be a hero, be a ruler - neither is that difficult bathimpact contributor Alex Grounds gets to grips with Lionhead’s latest flagship Fable series as a vaguely miffed but nonetheless benevolent king Game: Fable III Developer: Lionhead Studios Format: Xbox 360

able 3 is a game of almost majestic proportions. The premise of the game (without giving away too much) is that your tyrant of a brother needs to be overthrown and the people of Albion released from the impoverished near-slavery that they’ve found themselves in. The second half of the game is then spent being king (or queen) and either being a merciful, benevolent ruler or being exactly the same as your brother. Your choice. This has been the premise of all the Fable franchise. Choice. Do you want to be moral or immoral? Do you want to walk through a town peacefully or massacre five hundred defenceless villagers with your colossal war-hammer? Fable 1 really pioneered this type of gameplay – something that has become very fashionable in numerous other roleplaying games (RPGs) such as the Mass Effect series - and the second iteration in the series returned with much larger moral dilemmas. In this game, in the name of accessibility, all in game menus have been removed and replaced with graphical representations of those menus. This means that when you want to change your outfit you go and stand next to a mannequin wearing a smart suit, for example, and pick which parts of the outfit you wish to wear yourself. Rather than old school, geek-tastic lists of points and levelling up choices you get experience in the form of ‘guild seals’ throughout the game that are spent to open chests that make

you better at killing or able to bully innocent civilians into giving you presents. This works very well on a console RPG as joysticks really do not lend themselves to endless lists of 85 books when you want to find one specific thing. My very first impression of Fable 3 was a bad one. When you insert the game and start to play for the first time you are shaken awake by John Cleese’s voice in the shape of your butler, Jasper. As the engine used is the same as Fable 2 the facial animation is beginning to look dated. However once you wake up and explore your palace garden you begin to realise that the beauty of Fable is not in the character models but in the panoramas on the horizons from high points in the different areas. Being able to climb to a snowy mountain top to gaze across a landscape of cities and forests and swamps makes you realise that the designers of the game really have excelled themselves and put a lot of attention and detail into the game One aspect definitely worth noting in this game is the voice acting. With easily the largest, most recognisable cast of any video game I’ve

Gaze accross a landscape of cities and forests and swamps. played. The voice acting in the game is top notch: notable cast members include Sir Ben Kingsley (Ghandi), Stephen Fry and, my personal favourite, Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead). The writing is fantastically funny in a particularly British way – when a recently deceased soldier

Also the lack of a mini map in the game while you’re playing means that finding your way around the world relies upon the the glowing breadcrumb trail given to you to find specific places which is one of the most buggy things programmed into a game I’ve ever experienced. More often than not it leads exactly where it should but sometimes it points just slightly behind you and sometimes it disappears all to-

Massacre five hundred defenceless villagers with your war-hammer?

The woman of the writers’ dreams (and, sometimes, nightmares) turns into an undead monster his commanding officer remarks, “Lieutenant Simmons, I specifically ordered that you remain buried!” The combat system in this game has been revamped meaning that you do not have to unlock all your combat abilities after earning large amounts of experience but you can do forward roles and fantastic looking slow motion kills right from the word go. The new magic system makes the game easier still by being able to combine different spells to

make new super spells. There are a few glaring oversights. First off is the ease of the game. Although it is very difficult to die there are occasions if you wade into groups of enemies with a hammer when you may lose all your life. What happens at that point? You lose a little bit of experience and are reincarnated on the spot. Which gives you almost no incentive to stay alive and does mean the game isn’t challenging and is slightly dull and repetitive in combat.

gether. It is something you can get over but it is slightly annoying. Also it makes finding where you’ve been when you’re exploring very difficult indeed. That said this game is an exemplary example of how a game can be simple and yet addictive and how an RPG can have very few options and yet can still be enjoyable to grind and level up. The first half of this game could be described as Fable 2 with the massively annoying bits replaced with smooth interactive menus. The second half can be described as a scramble for money that can be very easy but is meant to be very hard. In all the game is highly enjoyable and well put together, with a few kinks that are actually very easy to get over.

Four brilliant games on the shelves right now: Super Mario Galaxy 2 - the latest incarnation of the most famous, most succesful videogame series in history. This is the Italian plumber’s second outing on the Nintendo Wii , a platform that has seen his joyfully moustachioed face ascend to the stars in a stylised series of astral bodies a bit like The Little Prince’s home, this time he has his trusty dinosaur steed, Yoshi, with him. Jump around the stars with a wonderfully intuitive control system and a highly inventive series of levels. Halo Reach - the last of Bungie’s landmark first-person shooter (FPS) series, it is the prequel to the original trilogy that followed the ‘Masterchief’ as he singlehandedly saved the universe from wave upon wave of devious alien hordes. This is the story of the first contact between humankind and the aforementioned aliens. As ever it involves beautifully balanced controls, incredible multiplayer content and wonderfully pitched campaigns. Professor Layton and the Lost Future - probably the most charming new character to have appeared in the last few years, Professor Layton is a very English Sherlock Holmes-esque, gentleman detective who goes about wonderfully animated little villages and solves mysteries. With a Bafta winning soundtrack and some fantastic scripting each and every outing of the Prof is enormously enjoyable (it always reminds us of the best of Wodehouse’s Jeeves and Wooster novels stylistically). Dead Rising 2 - blood, gore and comedy have come to video games, taking the turn that horror movies did with Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead films in the 1980s. This game overloads you with zombies (over 7000 can appear onscreen at one time!) and allows you to make custom weapons out of anything you can lay your hands on: an American football with attached hand grenade becomes a the ‘Hail Mary’. (especially when your adversaries are quite so squelchy). This is a game as indulgent and silly as Peter Jackson’s gore-heavy opus Braindead. Get stuck in...

Stephen Fry is one of the allstar voice-acting cast in Fable 3

Monday 15th November 2010

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Formula One season roars to desert climax Patrick Higgins bathimpact Contributor

s the five red lights went out in Bahrain, 600 million people worldwide buckled themselves in for another Formula One season, packed with fuel-filled battles on and off the circuit, which would push the best drivers in the world to the limit. Heading into 2010 there was no bigger talking point than the return to Formula One of Michael Schumacher after a three-year hiatus. Huge anticipation surrounded the most successful and arguably greatest racing driver ever to grace the sport, as he stepped back into the cockpit. Racing for Mercedes GP (previously Brawn GP) and reunited with Ross Brawn, the mastermind behind Schumacher’s recordbreaking five consecutive titles, he quickly became one of the favourites for this year’s title. Right from the outset however, Schumacher struggled to get to grips

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso

with a new era of drivers, cars and racing regulations. All too frequently it has been Nico Rosberg, his younger teammate, who has been stealing the headlines for Mercedes GP; sitting ninth in the driver standings, and 54 points behind Rosberg tells its own story. Under constant criticism from many in the F1 paddock, no more so than from Eddie Jordan who has described his legacy as “tainted”, Schumacher has done well in finishing all but one race, a record matched only by the two current Ferrari drivers, Massa and Alonso. Reflecting on the past season, it is certain that the perfectionist and fighter within will be looking to rectify what has been an average campaign come next season. McLaren also began the year with two title favourites as they boasted an all-British line up of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, the first doublechampion line-up since Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost for McLaren in 1989. On the back of a late season revival in 2009 and promising preseason testing, McLaren started the year with two wins out of four, topping both the driver’s and constructer’s championship heading into the European leg of the season. McLaren’s second half of the season has been poor though, particularly for Button who has made the podium only once in the last ten races and as a result will not be retaining the driver’s title. Following one of the most wide open starts to a season in Formula One history, pressure over who to back for the title bid within teams began to

Fernando Alonso, world champion in 2005 and 2006, is looking a good bet to take the championship again this year, as the Formula One circus rolls into Abu Dhabi for the season finale. mount, no more so than in Red Bull. Both Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel arrived in Turkey level on points at the top of driver’s championship with seven races gone. Red Bull were on course for a routine one-two in the race, when on lap 42, Vettel collided into Webber whilst attempting to pass him, forcing himself out of the race and causing Webber to come in third. It was from this race that the “Red Bull Civil War” was born, a battle that only intensified as a new modification front wing was removed from Webber’s car and fitted to Vettel’s before the British GP – a race Webber went on to win, after which he claimed his performance was “not bad for a number two driver”. Sadly, the in-team conflict has taken the limelight away from what has been

a hugely successful season for Red Bull Racing and with the constructor’s title wrapped up in Brazil, thoughts will now turn to Abu Dhabi and securing the driver’s title. Unsurprisingly, Ferrari’s season has not passed without controversy either. Having previously yielded to teammates Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen to aid their championship bids, Massa was once again ordered aside so that Fernando Alonso could take the race win in round eleven – Hockenheim – as Ferrari made it clear they would be backing Alonso this season. This stunt later resulted in Ferrari being hit with a $100,000 fine. Winning three of the last five races and being on the podium in seven of the last eight, the double world champion

has reinforced this judgement and heads into the final race of the season eight points clear of closest rival Webber. As we head to Abu Dhabi, there are four drivers still in the hunt for the title, (Alonso – 246, Webber – 238, Vettel – 231, Hamilton – 222) although with Hamilton twenty-four points behind Alonso, it is unlikely the McLaren driver will be claiming the title for the second time in his career. If Alonso finishes second place or higher he will become champion for the third time in six years, nevertheless there is sure to be more twists and turns, no doubt determining the outcome of this year’s driver’s title and concluding what has been a dramatic and exciting season for everyone involved.

Bath deliver the goods in opening game against UWE Ioannis Costas bathimpact Contributor

ath Women cruised to victory against UWE in their first game of the season. UWE started strong and dominated early on, taking a four-point lead within the first three minutes. Unphased

by the opposition’s commanding start, Bath retaliated and came within a point of tying the game. It seemed the visitors would end the quarter in the lead, but Charlotte Branchu had other plans. After sinking a tough underpressure breakaway lay-up with a second left on the clock, Bath went ahead 9-8.

Action from the girls’ basketball teams’s 59-13 win over UWE.

The second quarter showcased what was to be expected by UWE’s performance for the rest of the game. The visitor’s only offensive weapon, their technically brilliant point guard, kept crashing into the solid 2-3 zone Bath set up. With the defensive system focusing on stopping her, the home team definitively took off when game MVP Hebah Bibi (19 points) put in two stunning consecutive plays. She blocked the superb number nine and then dished out a quality assist for the easy basket. Soon afterwards, she picked her attacker’s pocket and went coast-to-coast, hitting the lay-up and cementing Bath’s lead: 17-8. There was no news of UWE’s offence until 7:51 in the third quarter, when, as before, they scored by means of yet another of number 9’s supreme individual skills. However, the game was already over - the quarter finished with a bulky 38-12 in favour of the locals. The final ten minutes were a formality in which Bath preyed on their opponent’s demoralisation pouring in

a further 21 points. By the time end-ofgame horn blew, the scoreboard illustrated the gulf between both teams on the day: 59-13. Captain Becky Stevens, who tied Bibi’s game high 19 points, was proud of the team’s performance: “Our defence was our biggest strength with the opposition only scoring 13 points”. Considering this is practically a brand new squad (of the 16 girls on the roster, 12 are rookies), “the new players have settled in well and we’re now looking towards a hopefully successful season”.

Men’s round-up

he Gladiators heaved themselves up to a 2-1 record, both winning one game and losing another during the course of the last two weeks. @University of Southampton: Despite the combined efforts of game-MVP Wybe Blankvoort’s energy and Tom J’s 21 points whilst facing the University of Southampton on the road- the home squad

overcame Bath by only four points. It had been a tough head-to-head game which saw Southampton score a couple of fast breaks during the dying moments of the match, handing the Gladiators their first defeat this year. vs University of Exeter: Bath’s Enrique García is good like grandma’s cookies – through his on-court performance the team bounced back a week later, obliterating the University of Exeter 96-58. The big man (19 points) declared his basket a no-fly zone, as could be attested by his countless blocks and rebounds. The Gladiator’s performance, though initially good after a 15-2 run in the first quarter, started to lose efficiency as the game continued. A combination of foul trouble and somewhat stagnated defence prevented the home squad from cementing a solid lead until midway down the third. From then on, the game had only one colour: the blue and yellow sported by the Gladiators as they comfortably won by 41.

Monday 15th November 2010

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My reasons for cycling up the biggest hill in Bath...! UoB cycling club’s Levi Thompson reveals the truth about his addictive habit to bathimpact...

“

One minute”, he said, about ten minutes ago. I’m regretting signing up for this bloody thing already. Who in their right mind decides to spend six minutes (if you’re lucky) of their Sunday racing up Bathwick Hill for the Bath University Hill Climb Champs?! And I did this last year; have I learnt nothing? For people who don’t know, a hill climb is basically a sprint up a hill on a bicycle. Each person sets off at minute intervals and their time is recorded at the top of the climb. There are a few basic tips to getting a good time. These include keeping a steady pace in a comfortable gear, knowing your limits and staying out of the ‘red zone’, trying not to think about others who could potentially be catching you up and - especially in the case of Bathwick - not letting the enormous orange buses intimidate you too much. Doing this with the Bath Uni Cy-

however, having seen the calibre of some of the riders turning up today, I’ve got about as much chance of getting on the podium as I do of meeting the woman of my dreams in SCORE. Back to the race: I’m much more prepared than last year. I even did a warm-up. My legs feel good. Could those sweet Tifosi sunnies be mine? The timekeeper says “Go”. My initial thoughts of being in completely the wrong gear and nearly stacking it off the line are probably not a great way to start my run. I quickly get into it though; I pick up a rhythm and power past all the other riders waiting at the bus

“

My initial thoughts of being in completely the wrong gear and nearly stacking it off the line are probably not a great way to start my run

”

cling Club means that the race has a really relaxed feel to it. The range of abilities of those who have turned up is vast, giving a cracking representation of the diversity within the club: from freshers to the SU President (and his dad!) and from high spec, full carbon road bikes through to monstrous downhill bikes (each weighing as much as a small motorcycle). The club is always trying to promote cycling to and from the Uni and it’s great to see so many fresh faces willing to give the hill a go. Unfortunately for myself,

stop for their turn. I look strong. I fly past Tesco (Crikey, I’m in the middle ring and feeling great!). That’s when I hit a wall. Well, not literally a wall, thank goodness (although at the pace I suddenly reduced to, nothing would of happened if I actually had done). All those little bits of advice I’d been trying to adhere to suddenly fly out of the window. It feels like someone’s just started a fire in my lungs. The rest of the climb can be summarised in the following words: pain; nausea; face-ache; Granny Ring; lactic acid; slow; must-beatthe-person-dressed-as-a-banana and, finally, John (the timekeeper at the top). That’s the end of my run. six minutes 45 seconds. After a few minutes my body hates me slightly less for putting it through that awful ordeal and I’m cheering on the other riders coming

up the hill – some people smiling, most looking like how I just felt. The expression “pain is only temporary”, which one wise cycling legend once said, suddenly seems to have more meaning than ever. All the riders make it up and we head over to Parade bar to dish out a fantastic array of prizes (the sum total of which is around 300 quid!), courtesy of our sponsor www.road. cc. The fastest person up the hill on the day was Rhodri Buffett with a blistering time of 4:44. The diseased, Monday morning bus doesn’t stand a chance against that kind of behaviour! By the way, I’m not by any stretch of the imagination suggesting that everyone will be able to ride up anywhere near this pace. In fact the slower times were only around the 15 minute mark - which includes a fair amount of walking. Spending less than a semester’s bus pass money will get you a bike that easily gets you up the hill every day. Rhodri gets that snazzy pair of sunglasses I mentioned earlier. I clap along with everyone else, but inside I’m really jealous, and almost find myself planning some kind of training regime for the 2011 Uni Hill Climb. The Cycling Club meets every Wednesday at the 25 metre pool at 2:15 for weekly rides. If you fancy coming along, all abilities are more than welcome and you can even bring your dad! Check out our club website at www.bathunimtb.com or sign up via bathstudent.com.

Levi gives it some beans as he gets comes towards to end of his attempt to conquer that most fearsome of all hills, Bathwick Hill.

Monday 15th November 2010

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Bath outmuscled by Exeter in Varsity clash report continued from back page

The reasons are still unclear, but Exeter prop James Wilkins and Bath hooker Tedd Stagg were then both sinbinned, meaning there was more space to exploit. A resurgent Bath then woke up a bit more and started to exert more power over their Exeter counterparts, and were rewarded with an outstanding piece of magic which led to a try. A lovely offload phase, inter-linking the forwards and backs pushed Bath up to the Exeter twenty-two yard line; the mercurial Vinnicombe then ghosted through the Exeter first line of defence,

popping to replacement Tom Grabham, who fired out a well timed pass to winger Luke Carter for an unconverted try in the corner. With just five minutes to go, the boisterous Exeter crowd had been silenced with the score at 16-13. Bath then hit the hosts with wave after wave of attack, but unfortunately, a handling error and a penalty coughed possession back up to Exeter. The boys in green and white then finished the game in the same way as they had begun it - with a pushover try in the corner from a catch-and-drive maul, with Reakes converting to give the game a

more flattering final scoreline of 23-13. Bath hammered away, but when the final whistle blew, Exeter were the victors. Fair play to the 23 Bath men out there though, as they had to put up with a stream of personal abuse from some Exeter ‘fans’ who were seated behind the away dugout. There were over five fairly serious injuries on the night, which was somewhat unsurprising given the fact that it was 7 30 pm on a cold November night - perhaps next time they could think of player welfare instead of entertainment value? Oh well, that’s another

story entirely... The man of the match chosen by Exeter’s Vice Chancellor was awarded to Exeter centre and fresher Will Dunkley, and Bath’s MVP could probably go to fresher speedster Sam Miller, who showed in glimpses the devastating pace he has. We hope to see more of him wreaking havoc in the future. All in all, Bath showed their evident prowess in short, sharp bursts, and could not be faulted for effort. They deserve praise for sticking at it, but there is still some work to do before they meet with Loughborough in April

for the Real Varsity game at the Rec. If you missed this cracker of a game in the lion’s den that is Exeter University, then be sure to come and support the boys, and make some noise in the springtime at the home of Bath Rugby. will surely embrace the spirit of rugby more than our Devon-based rival rugby club fans did. bathimpact will definitely be there, will you? Exeter University: 1. Peddie, 2. Read, 3. Wilkins, 4. Morris, 5. GJK Fleming, 6. JGK Fleming, 7. Donnelly, 8. Barton, 9. Chalcraft, 10. Reakes, 11. Douglas, 12. Dunkley, 13. Goddard, 14. Canty, 15. Pope, 16. Richmond, 17. Beddard, 18. Marriott, 19. Chambers, 20. Wilmore, 21. Moss, 22. Sandbach University of Bath: 1. Ashcroft, 2. Stagg, 3. Roberts, 4. Davis, 5. Goldie, 6. Heaver, 7. Ellyat, 8. Howard, 9. Keyte, 10. Vinnicombe, 11. Miller, 12. Lilley, 13. Loosmore, 14. Carter, 15. Garner, 16. Bailey, 17. Thomas, 18. Tyas, 19. Sanders, 20. Strange, 21. Grabham, 22. Skuse. Exeter scorers: Tries - Donnelly 5’, Chambers 56’, Douglas 79’. Conversions - Reakes. Penalties - Reakes (2) Bath scorers: Tries - Howard 12’, Carter 75’. Penalty - Vinnicombe.

Exeter kicker Reakes puts the home side into an 8-5 lead at Sandy Park; Bath ultimately went down to a 23-13 defeat.

Economics and Maths make impressive starts in the IDFC »»Group A

Team BEST 4-0 Management Jamie Bolton bathimpact Contributor

eam BEST (Economics) kicked off their season with a solid 4-0 win over Management in Group A. Sporting a fresh side, BEST were quick to take the lead with debutant Courtney Thompson cutting in a shot from the right. Disaster however struck on 20 minutes, with BEST striker Bill Wells breaking his right leg in a disastrous collision with the Management keeper, resulting in an early season appearance for the local Bath ambulance crew. BEST soldiered on though, and James ‘Aucky’ Auckland tucked away from close range to make it 2-0 before half time. BEST continued to push on in the second half, and despite some good football from Management, Greg Clark was brought down in the box for a penalty. Lewis Vincent, another debutant, stepped up and nes-

tled the ball in the bottom right corner to make it 3-0. Almost immediately after the restart, Greg Clark broke away to add one more for BEST. A tidy 4-0 start to the season indeed for Economics, though Management may feel somewhat aggrieved to have not got a little more out of the game.

»»Group B

Team Maths 7-0 Pharmacy Jonathon Farnan bathimpact Contributor

eam Maths gave their new captains Neil Prince and Sean Bannigan plenty to smile about in their opening game of the 2010/11 IDFC season in Group B. Bannigan opened the scoring with a diving header from an expert corner from debutant Dan Haygard after only five minutes. Another corner from the Team Maths fresher resulted in a penalty in the 18th minute which the reliable James King converted with

ease. Haygard soon found himself on the scoresheet in five minutes later as the goal-rout continued with a thunderous volley, before the winger set up King’s second in the 30th minute following an error from the Pharmacy goalkeeper. Old boy Geoff Littler scored the fifth just before half-time with a move that rolled back the years for the side’s sole-surviving member of the 2007 title-winning team. A rejuvenated Pharmacy side came out flying in the second half, however a composed Maths side had their patience rewarded in the 73th minute, when Haygard fully justified his “Man of the Match” award when he slotted home a neat effort into the bottom corner of the Pharmacy goal. Ben Makroum wrapped up the scoring with a volley in the 81st, ensuring Team Maths took their well-deserved three points in style. Want to get involved in refereeing in the IDFC for £17.50 per game? Contact Patrick Balling (pb318@bath.ac.uk). To get your report featured in bathimpact,

RESULTS- 27/10/2010: Group A- Architecture 0, MoLES 2. Economics 4, Management 0. Natural Sciences 0, Chemical Engineering 4. Physics 0, Sports Science 2. Group B- Mechanical Engineering 23, Electrical Engineering 0. Pharmacy 0, Team Maths 7. 3/11/2010: Group A- Sports Science 0, Economics 3. Natural Sciences 1, BUMS 1. Group B- Biology 0, Mechanical Engineering 2. Pharmacy 0, Coach Education 3. Electrical Engineering 1, Chemistry 11. Computer Sciences 0, Team Maths 11. FIXTURES- 10/11/2010: Group A- Architecture v Chemical Engineering, Physics v Management. Group B- Mechanical Engineering v Chemistry, Team, Maths v Electrical Engineering, Pharmacy v Computer Sciences. 17/11/2010: Group A- Economics v BUMS, Management v Natural Sciences, Chemical Engineering v Physics, MoLES v Sports Science. Group B- Chemistry v Pharmacy, Electrical Engineering v Coach Education. Group A

W D

GF GA

Pts

MoLES

Economics

Chem. Eng

Sports Science

Management

BUMS

Architecture

Nat. Sciences

Physics

Group B

W D

Pts

Mech. Eng

Team Maths

Coach Ed.

Chemistry

Biology

Pharmacy

Comp. Sci

Elec. Eng

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Anyone fancy a casual cycle up Bathwick Hill? Cycling, p34 Monday 15th November 2010

Bath outmuscled by Exeter in Varsity clash »» Exeter University 23 - 13 University of Bath

Jack Penrose bathimpoact Contributor

valiant Bath display from the 1st XV wasn’t quite enough against a spirited Exeter side at Sandy Park, Exeter. The visitors showed flashes of what they can really do in patches of the game, but inconsistency and errors from both teams in the biting cold, coupled with a high-powered Exeter side hell-bent on Bath not spoiling their big night meant that the away side came off second best in front of a packed (if hostile) home crowd. The game kicked off with some nervous opening exchanges, and some trademark big hits, forcing the Exeter number eight off the field early on, before Exeter scored an unconverted try in the corner from a catch-and-drive lineout, making the score 5-0 to Exeter. Debutant Bath fly-half Zac Vinnicombe then missed an early kick to open Bath’s account (which is hardly surprising given the hoard of abuse he was getting from the alcohol-fuelled Exe-tah crowd), but Exeter’s indiscipline gave Bath an opportunity to punish them with a well taken try from a rolling maul from number eight Pete Howard. Exeter’s kicker Chris Reakes was able to regain the lead for Exeter through a penalty kick, making it 8-5 (however, Exeter’s tweed-clad muppets were kind enough to keep silent while their kicker was on duty). Exeter almost scored a try soon afterwards, but a handling error denied them, and it was Bath’s indiscipline which enabled Reakes to extend Exeter’s lead to 11-5. Bath began to claw their way into Exeter’s territory with some well worked phase play, and were almost rewarded with a try, only for a knock-on to spoil their hard work. Bath had two more clear-cut oppor-

Varsity action: photograph from last year’s varsity match against a proper rugby team tunities but were unable to convert them; however, the tide was turning in the away side’s favour, but a lack of communication, awareness and decision-making meant Bath couldn’t deliver that knockout blow before half time. In the second half, the roles were reversed as Exeter came out of the tunnel like a bat out of hell to limit Bath’s possession and territorial gains to scraps, although Vinnicombe did manage to claw three points back with a beautiful penalty kick (despite the screaming rahs and the awful conditions), making the score 11-8. Exeter then put together an excellent crossfield kick, gathered and flicked back inside by Exeter winger Mark Douglas, only for it to be intercepted by Bath - de-

nying Exeter what would have been a hammer blow of a try. The Exeter pressure kept coming though and the exact same cross-kick move and flip-pass from Exeter’s Douglas was repeated, this time with Exeter’s Morris dropping the ball with the line at his mercy - a let-off for underpressure Bath. Minutes later, the pressure tolled on the visitors as Exeter breached their line, only for the ball to be deemed held up by a resilient Bath defence. Finally, the brave Bathonian defensive line gave way and 6’4”, 17 stone Exeter replacement Matt Chambers crashed over for another unconverted try to propel Exeter into a more comfortable lead of 168. Report continues on page 35

The Bath squad console themselves after a tough evening