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bathimpact The University of Bath Students’ Union newspaper
Volume 11 Issue 11
Monday 15th March 2010
www.bathimpact.com
Sabb elections now open Voting has opened for this year’s Sabb elections, and will close on Friday; the winners will be announced during the evening’s Flirt. See pages 18-23 for a full list of candidates and their manifestos
Olympic gold for Bath’s Amy Williams A former student from the University won gold in the Vancouver Winter Olympics, Britain’s only medal of the games. See page 2 for the full story, or page 35 for an interview
RAG Week a success Competitors in the Bath Half show signs of fatigue. See page 3 for the full report, and page 24 for Josie Cox’s diary of the event.
Battle lines drawn in tuition fees debate • Breakwell and Streeting face off
• Three main parties also represented
O
n Tuesday 9th March, 8W1.1 was virtually full for a debate between Glynis Breakwell, Wes Streeting, and representatives from the three major parties. Each participant was given seven minutes to speak, and questions were taken from the audience afterwards. Professor Breakwell spoke first, saying that funding helped to reverse a “major decline” in university funding since 1991, and arguing that fees had helped raise revenue to 85 percent of that year’s level. She then raised a point which proved one of the more contentious of the debate, arguing that there is “no evidence that [fees] have damaged participation levels” of students from low income backgrounds. Wes Streeting was next to speak, and directly contradicted
Breakwell’s assertion. He then accused Labour and the Conservatives of using the tuition fees review as a way to delay taking a stance on fees until after the election. Liberal democrat Nicholas Coombes then took the floor, and
“
One of those glorious Conservative WTF proposals
”
Nicholas Coombes continued Streeting’s attack on the two main parties, interspersing this with details of his personal life. Fabian Richter responded to Coombes’
criticism by alleging that the Lib Dems’ pledge to scrap fees was impractical, and implied that the party were likely to renege on it if they were granted power. He argued that the Conservatives do have a solid position on fees: to oppose fee rises unless stringent conditions were met to provide assistance for poor and part-time students. Labour Councillor John Bull then spoke, asserting that he was in a position of some experience, as he used to lecture at Manchester Metropolitan University. He felt that university funding and participation rates had gone up, and so tuition fees were reasonably successful. Bull defended his party’s decision to wait until the report of the independent commission investigating fees, as there is, in his view, little point creating a committee to investigate something and then deciding your opinion of the issue before their report. He then criticised the Lib
Dem policy on fees as unrealistic, claiming it was irrelevant as they were not going to win the election, a joke poorly received by the audience. The question and answer session saw more sniping from Mr Coombes, who
This year’s RAG Week, as well as the three student awareness weeks happening at the same time, has finished. Full story on page 2
LGBT week starts soon Next week is LGBT awareness week; the LGBT society will attempting to raise awareness of sexuality-related issues. See pages 2-3 for more union news
“
[That’s] cuckoo land economics
BBC to axe 6 Music
”
Wes Streeting referred to a policy suggestion as “one of those glorious Conservative WTF proposals”, and Wes Streeting, who criticised the view that fees encourage university attendance as “cuckoo land economics”. Nationally and locally, the fee debate shows no sign of losing steam in the run up to the election.
The BBC has announced plans to scrap radio stations 6 Music and the Asian Network. See page 31 for two contributors’ views
Clarification Our last issue implied that the Lib Dems no longer plan to abolish tuition fees. This is not the case; the party’s policy is still to remove tuition fees, but not immediately.
Monday 15th March 2010
2
News bathimpact Amy Williams takes Editor Tim Leigh editor@bathimpact.com
Deputy Editor Josie Cox deputy@bathimpact.com News Steve Ramsey Debora Sönksen news@bathimpact.com Opinion Emma Simmons opinion@bathimpact.com Features Siân Lewis features@bathimpact.com Science Professor Science Edward Johnson science@bathimpact.com
Olympic gold
• Team GB’s first individual medal since 1980 • Welcome celebration held on campus
T
he Vancouver Winter Olympics 2010 are over, and while the American team can celebrate its 37 medals, the British team returns with only one. The winner of this treasured and well-deserved award is Amy Williams, a Bath graduate who tried Bob skeleton for the first time at the University and is now the source of British winter sports fans’ pride. The “Golden Girl” deserves her praise: she is the first British female individual Winter Olympic gold medalist since Jeannette Altwegg
won the figure skating competition in Oslo fifty-eight years ago. The last British men’s individual gold was also in figure skating, claimed by Robin Cousins in the 1980 Lake Placid games. At the age of 27, Amy has good reason to be thrilled, as she broke her own track record in a time of three minutes 35.64 seconds. After beating a German competitor by 0.56 seconds, Amy said “I didn’t think I’d be standing here, it’s all such a blur, I can’t remember most of the last run.” Shelley Rudman, Team GB favourite and also a
bathimpact www.bathimpact.com Bath alumna, finished in sixth place. Bob skeleton is a winter sliding sport in which an individual competitor navigates a frozen track while face-down on a sled, at speeds of up to 140km/h and centrifugal forces approaching 5G. Skeleton is run on the same track as Bob-
0.56
Seconds separating Williams and the silver medallist
sled and Luge, and the competitor needs to use his or her body weight to help steer. There are no brakes. The University’s celebratory reception took place last Wednesday in the Sports Training Village, where Amy received a “Book of Congratulations”, with messages written by students and staff.
Entertainments Phil Bloomfield Alex Drake ents@bathimpact.com
News in brief Postgraduate students are being offered the opportunity to give feedback on their ‘student learning experience’ via the Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey, which will run until May. Prizes of £100 and a pair of summer ball tickets are being offered to respondents. The survey is open to all postgraduate students on taught courses, and can be found at http://www.bath. ac.uk/learningandteaching/surveys/PTES/200910.php. Several changes have been made to union policy as a result of previous surveys, details of which can be found at http://www.bath. ac.uk/learningandteaching/surveys/recentenhancements.php. The ten day Festival on the Hill began last Wednesday, and will run until Friday. Events include a global market today on Parade, a discussion in 1W2.4 based on the 2007 Romanian film 4 months 3 weeks 2 days, and a Japanese night in the Chaplaincy on Friday evening. All students are welcome, and admission to events is free.
Sport Sean Lightbown Sam Foxman sport@bathimpact.com IT Officer/Treasurer David Kennaway online@bathimpact.com Chief Sub-Editor Katie Rocker subeditor@bathimpact.com Advertising Enquires Helen Freeman H.Freeman@bath.ac.uk 01225 386806 VP Communications Ben Cole SUcommunications@bath.ac.uk 01225 386679
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Williams greets fans at the STV
Rag Week triples last year’s revenue • Organisation now looks to Paris Hitch
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his year’s RAG Week was generally well-recieved, and raised £3,500. Events included a Disney film night, Silent Disco, and ‘Mega Quiz’. Elements hosted the Auction of Promises on March 5th, in which people pledged various services to the highest bidder, none of which were sexual, though our esteemed editor sold his services as an ironer. As is traditional, each Sabbatical Trustee was ritually humiliated by being covered in rotten food in the famous ‘Gunk-a-Sabb’ event. Other events had a more sexual theme, and did not involve macaroni cheese: on Monday the newly-formed Polesoc gave a per-
formance in Po Na Na; three days later, Elements hosted a speed dating event. Organiser Hanna Wade said “The week was a great success;
£3,500
Amount raised
thanks to everyone who made it happen”. RAG’s next major event is the Paris Hitch, for which students will try to get to Paris for free. Students wishing to participate, or help with one of the many administrative duties involved, on the day or before, should contact hitch@bathrag.com
Nominations for the University’s teaching awards are now closed, and the results will be announced soon. Winners of each of the four awards will receive £750 and a certificate. On Wednesday the Assembly Rooms will host a fashion show in aid of a Malawian aid project being run by Sue Ryder Care. Last year the event raised over £2,500. Student tickets cost £12 and can be bought at http:// www.fashionbath.co.uk/, a site which contains more information about the event. Chancellor Glynis Breakwell has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Malaysian government which will allow the country’s athletes to use the University facilities while training for the 2012 Olympics in London and the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, and may give Bath-based athletes the chance to train in Malaysia.
Monday 15th March 2010
bathimpact www.bathimpact.com
Wes Streeting - Interview • Hear the full discussion on the Politics show with Lewis and Laura on URB next week.
H
igher education is due to face budgetary cuts in excess of £1 billion or 30 percent over the next three to five years. What is your response to this? When we heard about this we were taken massively by surprise. Universities seem a strange choice for cuts as they don’t only contribute to society but to the economy on the whole. We do expect this to have detrimental effects. Much of the progress we have made over the last years will be set back. For this reason we are determined to take strong steps to prevent this from happening.
mean that our system has become one in which students are being granted access to education based on how rich they are and not how intelligent they are? There is certainly a threat of the system becoming one in which the rich get the best and the poor get the rest, but we are mobilising as much as possible on this issue. One of our long term aims is also to offer greater support to students who come from lower-income backgrounds. These people should not be disadvantaged.
In our current education system, different universities are charging different fees for the same course. Does this
Voter apathy is particularly high amongst students. How can this be combated? Students do have a huge influence and the key things students
Running news
can do are sign up to vote and then actually go to the polls on the day. They can’t sit back and complain of being screwed over if they never even used their vote in the first place. I know it’s a bit clichéd to say it nowadays, but just look across the pond. Barack Obama won the vote off the back of the students. There’s no reason that can’t happen here. We are currently block registering students and encouraging students. Politi-
“
Just remember, the student vote could easily be the deciding vote.
”
Wes Streeting, NUS President cal societies at universities are also mobilising students and encouraging them to cast their votes. It’s a good time to be a student and a good time to be a voter. Just remember, the student vote could easily be the deciding vote. What are yours and the NUS’ key aims for the future? Working towards a good relationship with the incoming government, making sure that unis don’t face further budget cuts, ensuring student support, especially for students from low-income backgrounds. Aside from that, just the broader bread and butter issues of education: retaining a high-quality system of education accessible to all.
Yearbook being organised • Sign up online
W
ith summer looming on the horizon, final year students are not only worrying about what’s next, but also about how to remember the last couple of eventful years they have spent at university. In order to allow students to take a future trip down memory lane wherever and whenever they want, the University’s Alumni Relations team annually organizes the Yearbook – a book filled with photographs of friends, course mates and colleagues to be remembered when everyone embarks on their separate paths in life. The Alumni Relations team is currently encouraging all final years to register with the Yearbook provider, GradFinale, and submit photos of
their friends and societies. The final product will then be available to purchase at www.gradfinale.co.uk nearer the end of the academic year. “Last year approximately one third of all students participated, though of course the more that do,
the better the yearbook is,” Alumni Relations Manager Molly Porter told bathimpact. If you are a final year student and want to take part, simply register your photos on the website by the 26th of March. For more information, go to www.gradfinale.co.uk.
Bath Half
O
n a dreaded sunny day a couple of weekends ago, eleven thousand people took to the streets of Bath for the 29th annual Bath Half, a 13.1 mile run around the city. The event was well organised; with roads closed many hours in advance, it was able to begin on time, contrary to tradition. Many charities took part, and several competitors could be seen in fancy dress outfits; bathimpact observed two Spidermen, two Borats, Pac-man, Wilma Flintstone, a Roman Centurion, and a tin of Spam, among others. These were popular among the crowd, several members of which chanted motivational slogans at competitors, such as “go on [name removed for privacy]” and “wooooo”. As well as charity participants, which included two Sabbs, some more serious athletes took part, among them Ezekiel Cherop, who won the race with a time of one hour three minutes; Josie Cox, bathimpact’s Deputy Editor, put in a strong performance, finishing in two hours sixteen minutes and fifteen seconds. Last year’s event raised £1.3 million, and organisers hope to have raised even more this time.
News
3
The event is organised by the University of Bath Student Community Action (SCA) group to raise funds for the Romanian Aid Project, which each year, sends two SCA volunteers to work in Romanian orphanages To register for the race, complete the relevant paperwork and hand it in to the Volunteer Centre in Bath University Student’s Union. A deposit of £10 is required, but this can be reclaimed by anyone raising £20 or more in sponsorship money. Prizes will be awarded for male and female winners, and for best fancy dress, best team, and most sponsorship raised; one participant will be given the not particularly prestigious wooden spoon award. The overall winner will recieve the Bathwick Hill Fun Run Trophy. For more information please e-mail kf233@bath.ac.uk, mc360@bath. ac.uk or visit the Volunteer Centre (located in between Joblink and AWARE along the 1E SU corridor).
Bathwick Hill Fun Run On April 18th 2010 at 11am, the annual Bathwick Hill Fun Run will return for its 28th year. The event will see students, staff and locals running from campus down North Road and back up Bathwick Hill.
Too many 8:15s? • Timetabling changes proposed • Proposal to stop students switching units In light of persistent issues relating to lecture timetabling, the University is considering changes to the way in which students are allocated to modules. Currently each semester begins with a grace period in which students can switch units; this has been problematic because some courses end up with more students than can be seated in the lecture room, and rooms must be reassigned. This, as well as the significant shortage of rooms caused by the University’s increase in intake outstripping its building of new classrooms, can make it difficult
for lecturers to book rooms during peak times. These trends are thought to be partly responsible for the large number of lectures scheduled at 8:15 and 6:15, which, according to surveys of student opinion, is an issue of considerable concern to students. Under proposals which have been passed by the University’s Academic Council and Senate, the grace period would be scrapped. It is argued that the period would not be necessary if students were given more information on optional units, or offered sample lectures, an idea the Uni is considering.
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Monday 15th March 2010
bathimpact
News
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Ceasefire in Darfur
• Govt. signs deal with main rebel group • Other groups boycott talks
T
he government of Sudan has signed a ceasefire agreement with the country’s main rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), a development which President Omar al-Bashir described as a “major step towards ending the war”.
The deal involves a power-sharing agreement with rebels, some of whom will be given seats in the government. As a further concession, the government of Omar al-Bashir will release 57 prisoners held since 2008 in connection with a rebel attack on Khartoum.
The agreement was signed on February 20th following a year of negotiations. Soon afterwards rebel forces claimed to have been victims of a military attack, though the army denied this. Sporadic reports of renewed fighting in the wake of the deal reduced levels of optimism about Sudan’s future. While JEM is the largest rebel group, there are others which have not yet been brought into the deal: the Sudan Liberation Movement, a large rebel group, has refused to
participate in the peace talks. Previous ceasefire agreements have not been successful; it is too early
“
The crisis in Darfur is finished; the war in Darfur is over. Darfur is now at peace
”
Omar al-Bashir to tell whether this one will be. Both the government and rebels have been accused by Amnesty International of “killings, torture, rape, detentions, forced displacement, the burning of homes and villages, and the theft and deliberate destruction of crops and cattle”. The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant on President Bashir last year, accusing him of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his involvement in the counter-insurgency campaign, in which it is alleged there were thousands of civilian casualties. Between April 11th and 13th, the country will have its first presidential election since 2000.
World news in brief the Serbian cause in the war as ‘just and holy’, and claimed their forces had acted in self-defence.
T
he Hague, Netherlands: Radovan Karadzic, who, along with Slobodan Milosevic, led Serb forces during the Bosnian War of 1992-5, is currently standing trial at the Hague. He is accused of genocide and crimes against humanity for his actions during the war, particularly relating to his role in the Siege of Sarajevo. Defending himself, he first claimed that the atrocities committed during the siege were invented by the media, and, later, that Bosnian Muslims in Sarajevo killed their own people in order to ensure NATO intervention in their defence. He has described
Havana, Cuba: Political prisoner Orlando Zapata has died following an eighty-five day hunger strike. He was one of 75 dissidents arrested in 2003, and was striking in protest at his treatment, although the government denies accusations of torture. His funeral was well-attended by security forces, who expected anti-government protests; at least fifty dissidents had been arrested earlier in the day. Niamey, Niger: A military coup has overthrown President Mamadou Tandja, following his attempts to extend his term of office. His efforts were prevented by a court ruling last June, after which Tandja declared emergency rule and dissolved parliament. Military leaders deposed him on February 18th, a move welcomed by street celebrations in the capital city, but criticised by France
1820: Egyptian ruler Muhammad Ali invades northern Sudan, running it as a colony. 1881: Muhammad Ahmad declares himself Mahdi (‘redeemer of Islam’), and starts a four year war against the Egyptians, culminating in a siege of Khartoum. The victorious Mahdi sets up an Islamic regime. 1896: Herbert Kitchener begins a successful three year military campaign to seize the country. The country is run jointly by the British and Egyptian governments. In the 1920s, the colonisers began to run Sudan as two separate entities; the north was mostly made up of Arabs, while the south was mostly black. 1953: The British promise independence to Sudan, and prepare for this by gradually transferring power to the Northern Arabs, excluding the southerners from power. 1955: A year before independence, this imbalance of power was one of many factors creating tensions between north and south, which erupted into civil war. 1972: A ceasefire is arranged in which the south is promised a degree of autonomy. 1983: Conflict over power sharing and revenues from recently-discovered southern oil fields reignites the civil war, which runs until 2005. 2003: War breaks out in the Darfur region of Sudan. done in the name of medical science”. The experiments involved vivisection and aerial spraying of civilian villages with pathogens. The Japanese government managed to hide details of the experiments, allegedly with the assistance of the US, until the 1980s.
and the African Union, which suspended Niger’s membership. The new leaders have promised to hold elections, but have not specified a date.
Pyongyang, North Korea: A dissident has been executed for passing information on living conditions to a friend in South Korea. He is said to have passed the details via his mobile phone, breaking restrictions on the phone’s use.
Former President Mamadou Tandja, who is being held captive by the military junta
Timeline: History of Sudan
Tokyo, Japan: Authorities announced an investigation into the notorious ‘Unit 731’ medical experiments carried out during World War II, which are regarded as “some of the worst atrocities ever
Kunda, India: At least sixty people were killed in a stampede at the Ram Janki temple, which occurred during a ceremony marking the anniversary of the death of a religious leader’s wife. The cause of the incident is disputed; some sources described the incident as a ‘stampede for free clothes’, while others claimed that it was the result of mass panic following the collapse of the temple gate. The owners of the building are being investigated by the police for negligence. Jos, Nigeria: Further religious violence has claimed at least another one hundred lives. Nigeria’s president recently made his first public appearance since going missing last year, though it is feared he is too ill to rule the country, and there have been calls for him to step down.
15- 26 MarCh www.BathStudent.com/entertainments
Mon. 22nd February Downtown @ Po Na Na 10pm - 2am Mon. 15th March Downtown 10pm-2am Tues. 16th March Bingo (fundraiser for childreach) 7pm Wed.17th March St. Paddy’s Day SCORE! 9:30pm-2am
Club N ights
Thurs. 18th March Haiti Happening (fundraiser) 7:30pmMidnight Fri 19th March flirt! Election Special 9:30pm-3am Sat.20th March Comeplay 10pm-2am Mon. 22nd March Downtown 10pm-2am
live sports Mon. 15th March Liverpool Vs Portsmouth 8pm (Premier League) Tues. 16th March Chelsea Vs Inter Milan 7:45pm (Premier League) Sat.20th March Wales Vs Italy 2:30pm (Six Nations Rugby) Ireland Vs Scotland 5pm (Six Nations Rugby) France Vs England 7:45pm (Six Nations Rugby)
Wed.24th March SCORE! 9:30pm-2am
Sun. 21st March Man. United Vs Liverpool 1:30pm (Premier) Blackburn Rovers Vs Chelsea 4pm (Premier)
Thurs. 25th March Battle of the Bands (heat 2) 8-11pm
Tues.23rd March West Ham Vs Wolves 8pm (Premier)
Fri. 26th March Easter flirt! 9:30pm-3am
University of Bath Students’ Union
6
Monday 15th March 2010
bathimpact
Opinion
www.bathimpact.com
Warning! Rahs are at large on campus
H
ave you ever been studiously sitting in lectures, only to have a mass of backcombed hair obstruct your view of the screen? Have you ever walked along Parade and heard the “yah, yah” sounds of rah girls talking on their Blackberrys? Have you ever been shocked at the sight of seeing a Rah walking around in Jack Wills pjs and flip flops when it’s snowing? If so, don’t worry, because you are not alone. The Rah population at Bath University is on the increase and is certainly starting to stir up major friction within freshers halls this year. I suppose, at this point, I should probably make clear, to all those who are still feeling slightly confused, what a Rah actually is. Generally, they are those students who were privately educated and are normally seen sporting Jack Wills or Abercrombie & Fitch, big messy hair and a double-barreled surname. Girlrahs are commonly seen swishing their hair from side to side and flashing around daddy’s credit card. Manrahs are the guys who find it perfectly acceptable to pay £25+ for a pair of boxers and think that towel-whipping, communal showering and funneling beer into another guy’s mouth is as important to rugby as scoring a try. However, following the breaking
news that Rahs have recently infiltrated the most northerly of northern universities, Newcastle, the Bath Rah population has begun causing quite an irritation this semester. There have been instances where Manrahs have been watching ‘Deal or No Deal’ and shouted at the TV, “… it’s only twenty bloody grand you commoner!” I even heard a Rah girl outside Woodland Court say, “I’m not spoilt, my daddy just loves me!” So if you are one of the victims of the Rah invasion, annoyed by their popped collars, holiday homes and dependence on daddy, I’m afraid the worst is yet to come. The number of Rahs on campus is rising, so you better get used to it, dah-ling.
“
I’m not spoilt, my daddy just loves me!
”
Female student If you are still unsure whether you qualify as a fully-fledged Rah, take the test below, counting the number of statements that apply to you. Girlrah (Grah) •You refer to your father as DADDY!!
•You pronounce darling (dahling!) •The Jack Wills catalogue has become your new Bible. •You have a hairbrush, but what’s the point? Messy hair is cool. •You think that wearing multicoloured scarves and pashminas is just so… now. •You constantly use “yah” instead of the more common “yes”. •You always flick your hair from left to right (mandatory). •You fancy Manrahs.
W
hat makes you feel good? Is it expensive underwear? Expensive clothes? Is it the latest Xbox game? Tickets to see your favourite band? The things that make us feel good are specific to the individual, as the old saying goes “one person’s rubbish is another person’s treasure”, and as such should not be judged by others. Recently, however, I had a conversation with a fellow student about the luxury underwear brand Agent Provocateur that quickly descended into quite a heated debate about the ‘point’, as this particular student worded it, of the brand and the people that buy and enjoy it. As a fan of Agent Provocateur myself, I was quick to defend my right to enjoy such underwear and the legitimacy of the enjoyment and pleasure one can receive from buying a silk and French lace thong for instance. My compatriot, however, continued to ridicule the idea
of any enjoyment experienced by wearing the expensive underwear and, to my horror, declared it a “waste of money”. His enjoyment of attending concerts, on the other hand, was a perfectly understandable and reasonable way to part with his cash (even if a ticket to see Green Day or R.E.M can cost up to £200). This got me thinking, can pleasure and enjoyment be measured and placed in categories or are all
Is spending money on concerts superior to spending money on underwear? pleasures equal? Is spending money on concerts superior to spending money on underwear? The philosopher John Stuart Mill argued that pleasures could indeed be distinguished and categorised as being ‘higher’ and ‘lower’ pleasures. Mill argued that
equal to my companion’s enjoyment of attending concerts as there can be no way of measuring which is ‘better’, so to speak. So the next time someone attempts to ridicule the things that make
you feel good, or you feel the urge to mock another’s enjoyment of something, remember that their pleasure is the ‘higher’ pleasure and yours the ‘lower’ in their mind and vice versa.
3-5: You are well on your way to becoming infected with Rah-itus.
Manrah •You wear your beanie half-off, sunglasses in lectures and flip-flops all year round. •You joined a sport/society just for the stash and then wear it for at least six days every week. •You were annoyed about the ban on fox hunting (damn rodents!) •You cannot help but pop your collar. •You think tweed is definitely back in fashion. Period. •You think opening a bottle of Dom Pérignon to celebrate exam results is just good taste. •You own an unthinkable number of gilets. •You fancy Grahs. Less than 3: Well, you are definitely not a rah
Measure for pleasure Sarah Aston Opinion Contributor
6 or more: Dah-ling! Pour out the Pimms and get the Range Rover to Henley, you couldn’t be more of
a Rah! Oh, and if your name is Percy, Hugo, Quentin or Arthur (male) Daisy, Poppy, Georgie or Hattie (female), then automatically add 3 ‘yes’ answers to your score. If your name is Tarquin, I wouldn’t suggest shooting yourself with daddy’s shotgun. A deed poll is a lot less messy.
the things that made the general public happy: gossip, scandal and raucous plays (which in our day, roughly translates to the enjoyment of Eastenders and, for my companion at least, the enjoyment of Agent Provocateur), should be considered to be ‘lower’ pleasures due to their lack of intellectual development and purpose. The ‘higher’ pleasures were then, of course, the pleasures of the intellect. Being an intellectual himself, it is not difficult to see the foundations of Mill’s theory. Bias. It is inevitable that each person will view their method of enjoyment and pleasure as superior to, or ‘higher’ than, others, but it appears that this is a fallacy. If even the renowned philosopher John Stuart Mill is not immune to subjectivity when talking about pleasures, it seems almost impossible that we can objectively measure pleasures against one another. My enjoyment of lacy underwear, therefore, can be considered
Monday 15th March 2010
bathimpact
Opinion
www.bathimpact.com
Why it’s time to give up giving up
Jonathan Gleave argues that there really is no point trying to give things up for Lent
L
ast week I came across an article arguing that you cannot give up giving up something for Lent, but I am here to argue exactly the opposite! Easter is upon us, and with it comes elongated church services, mental depictions of bunny rabbits bounding around in lands of candy and the eventual promise of oversized novelty chocolate eggs which only serve the purpose to see who can slip into a diabetic coma faster; you - or your flatmate. However, this time of year also brings the woes of
I’m not saying that diabetics should see how long they can go without insulin Lent. Lent is, and always has been, a completely baffling idea to me. Far be it that my peanut-sized manbrain cannot cope with the complexity of a four letter word, but more so that it cannot wrap itself around the concept that for forty days and nights you are supposed to give up
something which you supposedly would not be able to live without otherwise (although I am not saying that diabetics should run out and see how long they can go without insulin, or heroin addicts without their heroin, that would just be stupid...). Typically you will perceive Lent in one of two ways; either as a Christian tradition where through prayer, penitence, almsgiving and self-denial you can prepare for the annual commemoration during Holy Week of the death and resurrection of Jesus, or for those without a religious disposition, you will see it as an opportunity to exercise unnecessary and pointless levels of self-control. I however, fall into neither of
these categories, but into a third; reserved only for weak-willed individuals who find that the lure of a forbidden article far outweighs the drive to maintain bragging rights over whoever may be interested in the fact that you have gone a fortnight thus far without munching on
In the end I settled on spam... I figured I would be safe giving that up a doughnut (or another sugary sweet thing). This category is dubbed ‘the loser category’; members give up something for Lent only to ‘forget’ weeks, days, or even minutes later that you had given said thing up. The usual culprits are sweets or other fat generating foodstuffs. This year for example, I gave up chocolate, and then foolishly staggered into the confectionary aisle in Sainsbury’s to discover that they did a basics chocolate bar for 27p. Yeah, you heard me... 27p! That trumps their offer on cola/battery acid which is cheaper then water! Natu-
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rally I gave in and broke my promise to myself within 3 minutes and 22 seconds of having made it. Chocolate bar in hand and vow successfully ignored, the next thing down on my banned substance list was tea - then I remembered that 9:15 labs when you live in town just fail to materialise without the stuff, so that was out. The list went on and on: alcohol, pizza, and lectures were amongst the proposed candidates. However each one was ruled out seconds later as I convinced myself that they were just too essential to my lifestyle to go living without (although arguably it would not kill me to miss all my lectures for six weeks, but my parents would if they found out). In the end I settled on spam which was three years past its best. I figured I would be safe giving that up, because I have never, nor do I ever plan on delving into a can of spam this lifetime. Now, even though I have convinced myself that for the first time in 15 years I have picked something that will stick (when I was five I went the whole forty days without spinning around in circles until I threw up, and that, at the time was deemed to be an essential part of my life, so woo - go me), I feel I may have missed the point of Lent entirely and would probably be doing myself a favour by just forgetting
the whole thing rather than spend the next few weeks trying to avoid anywhere that sells dodgy spam. I would like to point out now that this article really did not have a point and you have effectively wasted three minutes of your life, which could have otherwise been more productively spent on reading up before your next lecture or chatting to that really hot girl across the room (go on, do it!). This little segment of literature only served to bemoan the issues surrounding Lent. If, however, along the way I have managed to keep people’s
minds so focused on the thing that they were meant to be giving up that they have subsequently run out to buy and consume whatever sweet they had banned from their lips, then ha - all the better, join the club!
Monday 15th March 2010
bathimpact
Opinion
Time for a change of heart
Sydney Handjerker argues that organ donation should be on an opt-out not an opt-in basis
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human is made of two parts: the personality (the bit comprising your music tastes, general outlook on life, and fear of test tubes) and the body, which isn’t nearly as interesting on its own and would probably never get invited to parties. Death is the moment at which the two separate, usually following a row over whose turn it is to buy toilet paper. Death’s a real inconvenience and people tend to spend a lot of their time trying to avoid it, particularly if they have dinner reservations. It’s not known what happens afterwards but, as Woody Allen advises, it’s best to bring a change of underwear. As far as I can see there are two possibilities for the personality: 1) it ceases to exist or 2) it goes to a special place, either Heaven, in which everyone is happy, except journalists who are bored, or Hell, which is a place of eternal suffering and damnation, and where they don’t serve breakfast after 9:30. You may notice that in neither
scenario does the ‘soul’ have much use for the body and rarely returns its phone-calls. Nor do the family make much use of it, usually incinerating or burying it as one might do with incriminating evidence.
400
The number of people who died waiting for a donor in 08-09
the dead), while about 400 people died waiting for a donor. 25% of the population are on the organ donor register and it’s not unreasonable to suggest that far fewer people would die waiting if this figure were 100%. I don’t see any logical reason somebody would care about what happens to their body after they die, any more than they’d worry about the future of air they’ve breathed out, or a swimming pool they’ve finished urinating in. However, it would be a
In light of recent allegations about cheating footballers, Alex Drake ponders why these prima-donna millionaires think they have the right to sleep around and get away with it
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little harsh to force people to donate their organs, particularly if they’re alive at the time: thankfully, compulsory donation is unnecessary as a simple policy change could significantly raise the rate. In the UK, to donate organs you need to tell the NHS you want to do so. Under an alternative system people are automatically donors unless they specifically ask not to be. This is known as ‘opt-out’, and provides
In general people stick with the default option much higher rates of donation. This doesn’t rely on some Kafkaesque bureaucracy in which
The hiding or flambéing of corpses is universal and in many cases it has become a religious ritual. The reason we initially did it though was not to please a god but to prevent the corpse spreading disease. This is now a bit of an anachronism, as doctors can do this more effectively: as a bonus they make better use of the flesh-lump than the earthworms would. In the 08-09 financial year the NHS saved 977 lives by transplanting organs (half of which were from
Sleazy Cheats United n recent months, it’s been tough to escape the media hoo-hah surrounding the private lives of some of this country’s prime footballing role models, as their ‘extra curricular’ activities off the pitch have started to get the better of them. This is probably linked to our nation’s media obsession with a good scandal but it seems to have reached fever pitch and is starting to overshadow the events within the game itself. Not only has this started to annoy and bore me, but I keep wondering what gives these overpaid professionals – many of whom are married with children - the right to think they’ll slip under the radar and reject their positions as role models. The whole ordeal started in January when exclusive news that John ‘JT’ Terry had had a humiliating extra-marital affair with his teammate Wayne Bridge’s ex-girlfriend. The news shook the tabloid press like an earthquake sizing its way up the Richter scale. Whilst the next dramatic episode was the unsurprising allegations that Ashley Cole had cheated on the adorable Cheryl Cole, yet again. You would have
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thought he’d get the message after being caught on his first few counts of adultery but Ashley proved to be nothing if not persistent. Furthermore, a mere Google news search of the last few weeks reveals that Carlos Tevez (whose wife had just prematurely given birth to their baby son), Patrice Evra (who has also got a wife and child) and many others have been enjoying a bit of hanky panky on the side of their duties as professionals and idols.
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Newspaper page on which footballers find slutty women to bang
So, this is all said and done, but what gets me is why do footballers do it? Well, that’s a no-brainer considering they’re young, rich, famous and in their physical prime. More pertinent is the question of why they think they’ll get away with it. They are obviously not the only segment of the male population to lack morals
and the ability to remain faithful but there is this certain arrogance that comes with being a footballer that society does nothing to counter. We – as well as kids all over the globe look up to them on the pitch, idolize their lifestyles as they go ahead and leave their wives behind as they shag Page 3 girls like the world’s about to end. The general view is that the career path of a premiership footballer might not coincide with that of higher education, but is it too much to ask that they act somewhat responsibly and stick to the newspaper’s back pages rather than their front pages? The sad truth is that footballers are surrounded by agents, media gurus and tag-alongs who’ll do anything to cover up the misdemeanours of their moneymaker. Are their lives made any easier by the fact that becoming a professional WAG has turned into a viable employment opportunity? Cleary not. But turning down a little attention and resisting the clichéd affair shouldn’t be too much to ask. As a little munchkin I always dreamt of pulling on my favourite team’s jersey, slipping the captains armband
on and leading them to sweet victory. The knowledge that these socalled idols partake in the ‘no pants dance’ with handfuls of women taints that naïve image of mine. If anything, I should probably accept that footballers are anything but role models and that my faith in them should lie solely on the green turf of the football pitch. It’s not like history is in their favour either, with the likes of David ‘Goldenballs’
anyone can opt out but no-one knows how, or a Stalinist system in which you’re free to opt out provided you don’t mind being taken on an extended holiday by the KGB. Instead it simply takes advantage of human irrationality. Psychologists have discovered that enrolment in pension plans depends heavily on whether they are opt-out or opt-in; in general people stick with the default option, apparently through trust in the experts in charge of the situation or simple laziness. The same applies to organ donation: Johnson and Goldstein’s 2003 survey found that 42 percent of people would opt-in to being an organ donor, while only 18 percent of people would drop out after having been automatically enrolled. Their survey of European countries (see graph) found that those with an opt-in system (coloured white) had a significantly lower consent rate than those with an opt-out system (coloured grey). Changing the UK’s policy would be simple and cheap, save lives and, most importantly, irritate the Daily Mail which opposes the change for no apparent reason other than that they enjoy objecting to things.
Beckham starting off the sexting craze with a Ms. Rebecca Loos and Ronaldo’s (the Brazilian one, not that slimy Portuguese fellow) cancellation of his engagement to a Latino model due to a scandalous ‘incident’ with three transvestite prostitutes! From now on, I suppose that providing they continue to produce magic on the pitch, I’ll turn a blind eye, just as their WAGs tend to do.
Flickr
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I can’t imagine that she’ll have to try too hard to replace Ashley
Monday 15th March 2010
bathimpact
Opinion
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Are you having a quarter-life crisis?
In the first instalment of a two-part article Sam Watson argues that coming to the end of student life ends up being very similar to having a mid-life crisis for many of us
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efore the final bell rings signalling the end of youth and the beginning of the perceived drudgery of adulthood, a certain state of limbo imposes itself on many a student emerging from the warm, embracing and protective cocoon of university life. The sweet, liquor soaked, carelessness of the first stages of this ‘higher’ education are ebbing away while students are overcome with sobriety as they become overwhelmed by the reality that the dreams of becoming an astronaut or world renowned DJ are probably unobtainable. With this in mind, it becomes patently obvious that the search for a job, much like those of our parents, is resolutely unavoidable. As a reflex reaction, a student in this situation will seek new endeavours to repel the juggernaut of horrors which includes mortgages, tax receipts and, God forbid, two point four children. These adventures may take the form of planning an extended world trip visiting ninety per cent of the world’s surface paid for by nothing more than six months menial labour or maybe more simply a foray
into the world of dating, itself an inevitable consequence of maturation. Thus, it is here, without subtlety, that we find the quarter life crisis. In the beginning life was good.
A week was measured in bottles of off-brand vodka On arrival at university, opportunities were abound, the shackles of an oppressive parental regime shed and a student unleashed upon an unsuspecting town. After a brief period of time it dawns on a student that his energies need not be focused on work but on the marvels of unabashed hedonism. A week was measured in bottles of off-brand vodka, unnameable cider/beer/brandy/cocktails and clumsy rides upon other boozeaddled students whose names were as important as the following day’s deadline. This, paradoxically, is considered the high point of the university career. One year progresses to two and the novelty of this unbridled and ungoverned life dwindles slightly,
although not to the extent of actually diminishing the desire for alcohol’s lubricating effects or for some good, wholesome penetration. This is now routine. Work may find itself a small place each week and then suddenly exams come and go and yet another year swiftly passes by with no souvenirs except an average mark, a scar from a night out and quite possibly chlamydia. For many a student the third year is a foray into the world of work or to foreign climes. Horizons are expanded and important responsibilities are professed to have been imbibed, despite the acutely observable fact that the only difference this
Weighting most of a four year course on the final 9 months initially seemed like a gift... year has from university life is the pressing need to actually turn up at the right time in the morning. Thus we enter the final year. Weighting most of a four year course on the final nine months ini-
tially seemed to be a gift. However, upon entry into this period it becomes apparent that actually the gift is just faecal matter wrapped in some pretty paper. A huge number looms over the student’s head, seventy per cent. That is seventy per cent of a degree in twenty five per cent of the time. The thought of the sheer volume of work required sits at the pit of the stomach like undigested cabbage and in panic a vast raft of lists is hastily drawn up detailing each week’s unachievable workload. However at some point a horrifying realisation becomes apparent, the end is in sight. The next forty years or so are inching ever closer. It is now more obvious why there were careers fairs and cold people distributing dodgy, branded biros with leaflets around the University; a misshapen bar of chocolate may indeed entice a student to apply for a company in his state of blind panic. There is no time on any of the precompiled lists and schedules to apply for jobs and investigate graduate schemes. It is highly possible that said student might think that consultant is a grand title, why
not apply for that, despite the fact there seem to be more people consulting on certain areas of enterprise than actually working in them. Every suggestion seems appealing for a fleet-
You flirt briefly with many career ideas until beside every option is marked ‘probably not’ ing moment until the brain casually asks if this is really what you wish to occupy yourself with for the rest of your natural life. The cycle continues as you flirt with many briefly exciting career ideas until beside every option it is marked ‘probably not’. And in making this life changing indecision no progress has been made toward the seventy per cent. Depression, or rather more aptly, pessimism and premature world weariness arrive and the excitement of university finally abates. So, how best to deal with this melancholy? (Read the next issue to find out!)
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Monday 15th March 2010
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Features
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The secret diary of a
3.Better safe than sorry
SEXAHOLIC Via Donna Jenkins and Anna Kasari’s naughty minds.
The sexperts’ guide to staying safe!
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ear Readers, now that you are familiar with us and our mission to sex up the University of Bath, we would like to remind you about a few issues that we think are of the utmost importance. We are all up for going out, having fun and finding someone to snuggle up or even share your wildest fantasies with - however, we also want you to feel in control. With this in mind, here are the Sexperts’ top tips.
1. Watch out, date rape’s about You feel on top of the world. It’s Friday night, you’ve finally managed to drag your friends from the library to the dance floor, and the drink offers ensure that you get merry without breaking the bank. Just when you thought it couldn’t get any better,
Horoscopes
your favourite tune comes on. You leave your drink on the side and run to the dancefloor singing ‘I’ve got a feeling, that tonight’s gonna be a good night!’ The next thing you remember is waking up the following morning, not knowing how you got back home. This time you were lucky -
Know your limits and don’t let your drink out of your sight. your friends carried you back and put you in bed, but these stories don’t always have such a happy ending. You should never underestimate the danger of having your drink spiked. For your own safety, know your limits and don’t let that drink out of your sight!
Madame Soufflé mme.souffle@bathimpact.com
Greetings from the heavens my star children. I am Madame Soufflé and I will traverse the astral planes in order to guide you through the year. Fear not; for Madame Souffle will shepherd you through the darkest patches. Remember, these predictions do not apply if you have recently suffered a haemorrhage. Capricorn (22 December-20 January): Your Bath Half time was unbelievable: you finished two weeks before the race. Next time, be a little subtler with your cheating. Aquarius (21 January-19 February): In the wise words of Dwight Eisenhower, “The world is more like it is now than it ever has been before” Pisces (20 February-20 March): It’s easier to seek forgiveness than to ask permission, but easier still to deny it ever happened: just ask Radovan Karadžić. Aries (21 March-20 April): If you can’t see the appeal of autoerotic asphyxiation, try pretending you’re Rod Liddle. Now it makes sense... Taurus (21 April-21 May): Don’t be afraid to experiment, but putting butternut squash anywhere other than your mouth is asking for trouble. Gemini (22 May-21 June): Lighten up, learn to laugh at yourself. Then learn to give yourself a wedgie and flush your head down the toilet.
Cancer (22 June-22 July): Your prison sentence will give you time to think about the importance of dialling correctly before initiating ‘phone sex’. To be fair, the kid could have let you know sometime before the 143rd call. Leo (23 July-22 August): This week, make spontaneous your middle name: at least it’s better than ‘Mr Incest’. Virgo (23 August-21 September): If you’re struggling with a task, try breaking it into smaller parts, and then giving them all to someone else. Libra (22 September-22 October): Your manifesto pledge to rename one of the lecture theatres Fred West 1.1 may have been an error of judgement. Scorpio (23 October-21 November): This week’s theme: using food in sex. Next week’s: fungal infection. Sagittarius (22 November- 21 December): whatever doesn’t kill me can only make me more hubristic.
2.
How to get home
We’ve all been there: it’s 3 am, your feet hurt, and all you want is to get back home. Your friends don’t want to leave yet and having spent so much already, you grudge paying for the taxi all by yourself. In your drunken state, you decide to take off those uncomfortable heels and walk back. When you’re knackered and wasted, you don’t always come up with the best ideas, and have to suffer the consequences the morning after (like that drunken text you sent earlier...). Before going out, make sure you plan how to get back and who with. Bath’s so small that if you can afford to drink, you can afford to pay for the taxi and both the Blue and Orange Bus run till 3 am. Use that magical ten journey pass and bypass that dark and lonely walk home!
Mission accomplished: you’ve pulled. In your lustful state, you rip each others’ clothes off and you’re at it like rabbits - just one thing, you forgot the condom! The little voice in your head tells you that you really shouldn’t do it without one but you’re half way there already and it feels so good... so who cares, and you promise yourself you won’t forget the rubber sheath next time. Unfortunately for us girls, we wake up the follow-
ing morning faced with an unpleasant detour to the pharmacy for the morning-after pill. And it doesn’t end there - we spend the next days or even weeks wondering if we belong to those unlucky 5 percent for whom the pill doesn’t work, even if taken within the
first 24 hours after unprotected sex. It gets worse; the success rate drops to 85 percent if taken after 24 hours and 58 percent after 48 hours. Guys, how can you be sure that someone you randomly picked up didn’t always have the intention of getting pregnant? If there’s gonna be affection, cover your erection!
4. Time for a spring clean Spreading the love sometimes comes with unexpected side effects. You’ve read articles about it, you’ve seen the free chlamydia test kits in the gym changing rooms, and noticed the posters hanging on the Medical Centre’s walls but still, you think it won’t happen to you. Most STIs can also be symptomless, so the fact that you’re not suffering from unpleasant itches or blotches doesn’t mean you’re clean. Left untreated, they could have longterm effects, even leading to unfertility. The Sexperts recommend you get checked up regularly no matter how careful you think you’ve been. The actual procedure is easy, fast and free. You’ll be doing yourself a big favour, and you’ll come out feeling more than relieved. If you haven’t done so already, contact the Bath GUM Clinic at the RUH on 01225 824617 for a good spring clean!
The Chronicles of Siânia
Episode 11: In which I am on a quest for happiness
Siân Anna Lewis Features Editor features@bathimpact.com
W
hen moaning to the bathimpact office at large this morning about my usual complete lack of inspiration for column ideas, the helpful Phil ‘Philistine’ Bloomfield over in the Ents section suggested that I follow my usual tried and tested routine: figure out what it is that is getting my goat this fortnight and then gripe and bitch about it in the hope that people will identify with my rage. Phil is, however, wrong about this method being the limit to my columnistic scope. Since we’re here, I would also like to take this opportunity to point out in print that he and all of his ilk (that includes you, Editor Tim) are also heinously wrong when it comes to their hostility directed at the musical joy that is The Beatles. You’re not allowed to hate The Beatles - it’s like treason. To quote John Hannah in Sliding Doors: “Eve-
rybody’s born knowing all the Beatles lyrics instinctively. They’re passed into the foetus subconsciously along with all the amniotic stuff. Fact, they should be called “The Fetals””. Desperately clawing my way back to the actual topic now: so, this time oh readership, instead of me having a hissy fit, we are going to talk about that fuzzy little pink ball of endorphins and seratonin that is happiness. Everyone wants a bit of this oh so elusive of feelings (except for the Emos, of course, but they don’t deserve it due to writing such bad poetry). A lot of people’s time, however, seems to be spent not being fed strawberries by cherubs on the Cloud of Cheerfulness but vanishing instead into the mires of Stress and the dark seas of Despair, perched perilously on the rocky rowing boat of Sanity. What you have to do is figure out how to cope with the bad stuff, right? Most people do have joy-inducing buzzwords (or in my case, usually buzzfoods) that will instantly pick them up when sadness comes their way. Let’s do a quick whipround of team bathimpact, shall we? What makes you instantly more cheerful? Hugs (Katie the Sub Editor), chocolate raisins (Ents Ed Philip) sex and electric blankets (Josie, Deputy Editor, who should probably be wary of short circuits) and class A drugs (your Editor in Chief himself, Tim).
Mine are Crunchy Nut Cornflakes, buying new socks and watching The IT Crowd reruns so often that I can perfectly mouth the lines. When quick fixes like these don’t have an effect on your woe you know it’s time to crack out the industrial strength Dairy Milk (or vodka or other stupefecant of your choice) and wallow in a sea of self pity. The problem is that there’s massive pressure on us all to be happy, all of the time. Even Freshers’ Week isn’t the massive joyride people make out (come on, I had to learn to wash my own clothes. I still haven’t gotten over the shock). I get a bit sick of people’s constant need to affirm their jocular state to others - often when you admit you’re down, a surprising number of merry-looking people admit to some deep-seated shit messing up their consciousness. What actually makes us happy, anyway? Love? Money? Cheese and pickle sandwiches? Having friends who want to give you a cuddle when everything gets a bit messy? I only have about five friends that I truly feel I can get tears and snot all over should my cup not so much runneth over as be bone dry. Perhaps we should be a bit less hard on ourselves when our brains don’t produce enough seratonin and not beat ourselves up if we don’t constantly feel like we belong in a Disney film. Okay? Or at least give me more hugs.
Monday 15th March 2010
bathimpact
Features
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Food For Thought
This week Elinor and Charlotte have decided to explore the culinary prospect of hearty food, perfect for chilly evenings! Ellie reviews the vibrant Banglo (Lower Bristol Road), whilst Charlotte explores a pretty nutty dish...
The Hearty Issue By Elinor Huggett and Charlotte McCulloch
Banglo - Review
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at, drink, smile: that is how Banglo, on the Lower Bristol Road, advertises itself. When seven of us arrived for a birthday meal, the venue was surprisingly empty. Although this resulted in a slightly muted atmosphere, we felt in no way inhibited - particularly as we were allowed free control of the sound system! The birthday girl was greeted with a personalised, complimentary and utterly delicious cocktail, which set the scene for a thoroughly enjoyable evening. The menu at Banglo changes every day, as was discovered when an environmentally conscientious (cheeky) member of the party asked the waiter whether the paper menus were recycled. As a result, all of the food is freshly prepared in small quantities, and is consequently extremely fla-
voursome. Wine starts at a friendly £13 a bottle: the birthday girl and I shared a very delicious Merlot, while the others saw off their bottles of white and rosé with no complaints. Of course, being students, this means nothing at all, other than that it was drinkable! While awaiting our main courses, we shared platters of bread and home made pesto, which, as well as being home made and quite spectacularly tasty, was also incredibly garlicky. So, perhaps not somewhere to take a fussy eater or a first date! The bread did not last long, and soon it was time for the real food to appear. Three of us (including myself) went for the butternut squash and rocket risotto, which was utterly fantastic: a drizzle of fragrant truffle oil finished the dish perfectly, and it was of an impeccable consistency: neither too sloppy nor too chewy. The burgers (both beef
and mushroom were sampled) were apparently delectable, with particular emphasis being placed on the virtues of the (again home made) onion relish accompanying them. Once we had all cleared our plates, the friendly and attentive waiter left a
Philip Bloomfield has a vegetable revelation
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ou know how it is: if you can’t beat them, join them. And that’s exactly what I’ve done after around a decade browbeating vegetarianism. That the turning point should come one Sunday evening, in a Masonic Hall, is as much a surprise to you as it was to me. For the man who got through to me, past the delicious flavours and the tantalising wafts, has turned out to be a most unexpected hero within vegetarian circles: novelist Jonathon SafranFoer, the author of two of the best novels of the past decade in the dark and hilarious Everything is Illuminated and the challenging and touching Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. And whilst I went to his talk at the Bath Literature Festival purely to see one
suitable period of time before appearing with the birthday cake, complete with candles spelling out my friend’s age (which, for the sake of discretion, I will not reveal). We sang a lusty chorus of “Happy Birthday”, and then tucked in. Although the cheesecake was delicious (Sainsbury’s best), it did mean we couldn’t sample the dessert menu. However, I have complete faith that they too will be fantastic! The bill came to £20 each, including wine and a tip. I thought this was more than reasonable for an entirely pleasant evening, and I would definitely recommend a visit. Although you may decide to avoid pesto if you have imminent designs towards intimacy, the relaxed ambience and variety of foods on offer would make it a lovely venue for a date. For a group of friends such as ourselves, it was great: we felt able to behave entirely naturally, and a lot of fun was had.
The relaxed ambience and variety of foods on offer would make it a lovely venue for a date
You can’t quit meat, baby of my favourite novelists of the past few years in hope of understanding what exactly makes him tick, I come away feeling slightly shellshocked but with a burning desire to actually act on what I’ve heard; an odd feeling for a diehard
I’ve determined I must become a vegetarian, or at the very least, a more conscientious and frugal meat-eater exponent of the ‘what does it matter anyway’ philosophy. Because Jonathon has come to Bath to talk about his latest book, which is a non-fiction work about the meat industry called Eating Animals.
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And talk he does, when the increasingly irritating interviewer will let him (no-one cares that you can make references to Brecht in your haughty tones, dear), becoming increasingly convincing without laying the rhetoric on too thick. What becomes clear is that Eating Animals was a personal voyage of discovery for Jonathon. A several-times-lapsed vegetarian, from a meat-eating Jewish family, who even now relishes the taste of meat, he set out to investigate the meat industry from an entirely objective perspective, and instantly found himself confronted with suspicion and obstructions. What he eventually found, often through illegal or secretive means, horrified him, despite the fact he is ‘no animal lover’. Yet he does not let his disgust with the industry cloud his performance today: he is the idealised philosophy graduate, serene without appearing supercili-
Scrumptious Nut Roast
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he connotations that I have regarding the word ‘hearty’ often involve a slightly large portion of piping hot food, a burning fire in the hearth and an even larger tipple. The dictionary kindly informs me that it means: “abundant, rich, or flavoursome enough to satisfy the appetite”. Thus my task was to provide a unique, satisfying and tasty recipe. This is easier said than done. Originally I considered Sunday Roast, pie or soup, but they would fall down on the ‘uniqueness’ front and having sampled a delicious specimen this weekend, I therefore decided on a nice (vegetarian friendly) nut roast, with a side of vegetables. This loaf-shaped concoction of nuts and vegetables forms a rather tasty Sunday treat (fire optional). The recipe serves four to six people and although not as simple as previous recipes, it’s well worth the effort. There are lots of different variations on this recipe and I seriously encourage experimenting with different ingredients, including adding mixed seeds, fruit and nut mix or sultanas. Side dish: Whatever vegetables you like, or if you don’t like vegetables, a vitamin supplement pill. Cook some brown rice. If you don’t know how to do this, don’t bother reading any further. Or Google it and pretend you knew
all along... Fry the onion, the grated carrot and the crushed garlic in some butter for five minutes on a low(ish) heat. Then add in the diced mushrooms and stir frequently until soft. Remove from the heat and stir in the cooked brown rice, the breadcrumbs, the chopped almonds and Brazil nuts, the cheese, 2 beaten medium eggs, 1tbsp of chopped fresh oregano and basil, salt and pepper. If all the grating and chopping is a pain, chuck it in a food blender, or make somebody else do it. You will end up with smaller pieces, but it really makes no difference to the final result. Bake in a greased 900g loaf tin at 180ºC, gas mark 4 for 1 hour or until browned and firm. Serve hot or cold with fresh tomato sauce. Not tomato ketchup, or else.
ous and never succumbing to the temptation of telling his audience what to think. And it’s exactly this which probably keeps so many within the audience interested: rather than lecturing us on the ills of society, Jonathon’s approach is simply to say: this is wrong, I think it’s wrong, we all think it’s wrong when confronted with the facts, so let’s act on it. Admittedly, the animal rights side of the argument isn’t what grabs me: call me coldhearted, but I’m not the type to worry too much about that. What gets to me are the environmental arguments: referring frequently to the UN report Livestock’s Long Shadow (which I highly recommend you read), he lays out the harm done by an industry which rips down rainforests, creates over 40 percent of annual global emissions, and sells a hamburger which would cost over $200 if environmental causes were factored in for
just 49 cents. Our quest for cheap meat is killing more than just animals: it’s killing the planet, more than any other industry or practice in the world. What is also refreshing is his refusal to parcel vegetarianism into a lifestyle: he recognises that human beings have limited time, money and energies to devote towards causes. This is not something which needs to be done as part of a fair trade, anti-sweatshop, anti-globalisation crusade or a smug, selfsatisfied Islington lifestyle: it is a simple act that stands alone on it’s own merit. Such is the fashion by which I’ve determined I must become a vegetarian, or at the very least, a more conscientious and frugal meat-eater. For anyone who is considering a similar step, I can’t do anything other than recommend you get hold of a copy of Eating Animals.
Ingredients: 1 onion 2 carrots, grated 1 clove of garlic 115g chestnut mushrooms 175g cooked brown rice 115g brown breadcrumbs 55g finely chopped almonds 55g finely chopped Brazil nuts 115g grated Cheddar cheese 2 eggs 1 tbsp fresh oregano 1 tbsp basil 1 tbsp salt 1 tbsp pepper
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Monday 15th March 2010
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Features
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Foreign Correspondence The travel bug - a weekend in Berlin Gina Danielle Reay on long-distance loving in Rome
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fter a fabulously loved up pit stop in England between the two halves of my year abroad, I have set sail (or flight) for the lovely city of Rome. The second half of my year will be spent here in the Italian capital, where I am embarking on an Erasmus exchange at the unbelievably disorganised Roman University, La Sapienza. Despite a wonderful first week, discovering the delights of the city (mainly pizza) and enjoying the highlights of the Erasmus experience (mainly strong drinks and long lie-ins) I am also dealing with getting back into the routine of a long distance relationship. Now don’t believe what people say, a long distance relationship is not as bad as it sounds and there are rather a lot of positive aspects. I know loads of couples from Bath positively dealing with the experience and my advice for those of you who will embark upon one is, do not stress! So of course there are drawbacks: kisses and cuddles are obviously a less than regular occurrence
(not to mention anything else). But the old saying ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’ also does come into play. When you don’t see someone for a long time, whether it be a lover, a friend, a sibling or a parent, you appreciate the time together so much more and try to make the most of it. Personally, it also does wonders for my independence. No longer do I have to organise myself around my other half (who I hope isn’t reading this or I’ll get a mouthful) and it’s great to be able to go out and make friends without the inevitable drunken row with the mister that comes after too many Jagerbombs. Contrary to popular belief, a long distance relationship does not necessarily mean an instant Skype addiction and a virtual tattoo of social recluse in the middle of your forehead. If both parties involved have the right attitude and there is enough love and trust between the two of you, it is an experience that can be likened to Brad Pitt in Fight Club: extremely do-able.
Chris Wotton Travel Contributor
total cost, including flights and transfers
F
ly on the Friday night from London Stansted with Ryanair - keep an eye out for their frequent sales, with flights as low as £5 each way. Take the train from Bath Spa to Stansted (advance fares from £8.60), and grab an early morning flight which will have you at Berlin’s Schönefeld airport just after 9am. Hop on the S-Bahn train to the city centre (single €2.80), and check in at St Christopher’s youth hostel on Rosa-LuxemburgPlatz (dorms from €9 per night). Dump your bag in the luggage room, freshen up in the toilets and hot-foot it to the Brandenburg Gate to join the New Berlin
Canary Wharf binmen clean up after recession Josie Cox Deputy Editor deputy@bathimpact.com
T
The doldrums of the economic downturn have become common knowledge for everyone from the postman to the Prime Minister, but you wouldn’t expect that there would be people working on Canary Wharf who actually applaud the recession. Josie Cox went to track them down. Wanderson has lived a ten-minute walk away from Canary Wharf ever since moving to London in 2006. When asked how the financial crisis has affected him personally, a grin spreads across the Brazilian’s face: “not at all.” The 31-year-old works as a waste collector on Canary Wharf five days a week. Although the credit squeeze has not left him personally cash-strapped, he admits that it has impacted his work. “When big companies closed
down, there was suddenly much less rubbish,” he explains in broken English, referring to September 2008, when hundreds of businesses in and around Canary Wharf - like Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy in the face of the subprime mortgage crisis. In the aftermath of mass jobslashing on the Wharf, which recently had a working population of close to 95,000, fewer people were around to buy lunch at the cafes and nearby Jubilee Place retail mall, just to throw away the leftovers on their way back to their office. Since September 2008, some 1.3 million people have been laid off in Britain as unemployment peaked at 7.9 percent in October 2009. Fewer people working in London means less waste, and therefore less work for street sweepers and bin men in the most populous city of the European Union. Almost 18 months on, Britain is recovering. Last month the
£99.52
free tour (3 hours; tip the guide at the end) from outside Starbucks, taking in all the city’s highlights. Afterwards, take time to wander through the Checkpoint Charlie museum (admission €9.50 for students - expect to show some ID), then head back to the hostel for dinner (currywurst and schnitzel from €3.50) and drinks (cocktails, spirits and beers from €2). Rise and shine early the next morning for free breakfast at the hostel, and head back to the Holocaust memorial to take in its sobering museum (admission free). Make a stop for hot chocolate and apple-crumble-like streusel cake at the café on the little row of shops behind the memorial - grab
cheap postcards and stamps next door, and maybe a cheeky currywurst for lunch. Head back along past the Brandenburg Gate and towards the Reichstag - take a free audio guide up through the dome
government announced a revision of economic growth in the final quarter of 2009 to 0.3 percent from the initial estimate of 0.1 percent. Although analysts are warning that the market remains shaky, many are confident that easier times lie ahead. Not Wanderson though. Paid by the hour, and therefore financially unaffected by how many bags he ties up and disposes of daily, he knows that, as people return to their pre-crisis spending habits, pre-packed lunches will start flying off the shelves and their wrappers into his bins. “I always work the same hours, so I didn’t get affected by the crisis. I had less work and it was more relaxing, but my boss said summer will be busy again,” he explains. And he’s not the only one dreading a return to economic prosperity. On the other side of Canary Wharf, in the shadows of the colossal structures housing corporations like Barclays, Credit Suisse and HSBC, Marco goes about his
and admire the view over the city. In the evening, hop on an UBahn tube train from opposite the hostel, and make for Warschauerstraße. Grab food at one of the many restaurants in the Kreuzberg area - you can’t go wrong with veggie joint Seerose, (47 Mehringdamm; www.seerose-berlin. de), which serves up buffet-style meals from €4 a plate. After dinner, head back to the hostel and get your gladrags on before making for trendy weekend club on Alexanderstraße (entry a steep €12), which keeps going until well into Sunday. Treat yourself to some retail therapy on the Sunday - check out at the hostel but leave your luggage, and browse the shelves at department store Galerie Kaufhof on Alexanderplatz, before jumping on the U-Bahn to Zoologischer Garten (day ticket €6.50 for zones ABC, including to the airport). Here, gaze at the remains of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, which was bombed during WWII, then walk to Tauentzienstraße (or be lazy and hop on the tube to Wittenbergplatz) and gaze equally at the shelves in the food hall of KaDeWe, Berlin’s answer to Harrod’s. Treat yourself to a souvenir or two and grab lunch from a street stall on the way back to the tube. Head back to the hostel for luggage, and then it’s off to the airport for a mid-afternoon ride home.
everyday job of changing bags in dozens of bins strewn across what up until the 1950s was one of the world’s busiest docks. “Definitely a lot less rubbish than three years ago, but I think it’s increasing again,” the Romanian states with a frown. Since starting work, his economic indicator has always been the number of sandwich wrappers and free newspapers
When people are rich, they are messy. When they are poor, they are clean. discarded by busy bankers and managers. “When people are rich, they are messy, when they are poor they are clean,” he cynically sums up, and has nothing but a chuckle in answer to my question of whether it would be good if the inverse were true.
Monday 15th March 2010
bathimpact www.bathimpact.com
Puzzle corner
Our guest this week is Zav Naveh, landscape theorist
Crossword
Puzzle Corner
“
To meet the challenges of the emerging information-rich society, landscape ecology must become a holistic problem-solving oriented science by joining the transdisciplinary scientific revolution with a paradigm shift from conventional reductionistic and mechanistic approaches to holistic and organismic approaches of wholeness, connectedness and ordered complexity. Its central holistic concept is the Total Human Ecosystem as the highest level of co-evolutionary complexity in the global ecological hierarchy, with solar energy powered biosphere, and fossil energy powered technosphere, landscapes as its concrete systems. Landscape ecology could contribute to their structural and functional integration into a coherent sustainable ecosphere and thereby to the establishment of a sustainable balance between attractive and productive biosphere landscapes and healthy and livable technosphere landscapes for this and future generation. By utilizing new insights in self-organization of autopioetic systems and their cross-catalytic networks in the Total Human Ecosystem for synergistic benefits of the people, their economy and landscapes, such holistic landscape ecology together with other mission-driven transdisciplinary environmental sciences could serve as a catalyst for the urgently needed post-industrial symbiosis between nature and human society. This would ensure also their further biological and cultural evolution.” This is from the delightful ‘What is holistic landscape ecology? A conceptual introduction.’ Readers will be forgiven for not being quite sure after finishing the paper, or for not finishing it. Last week’s winner: Congratulations to Sao Tome McAndrew, who translated Mr Danos thus: “While some would say that ‘linear logic’ is not exactly a new concept, I stand by my discovery; my undying pity is reserved for people who lived before my invention of linear logic, as they had immense trouble making simple deductions, for example, that Socrates was a mortal because he’s dead, and that Richard Littlejohn is a massive distended rectum because during the Rwandan genocide he wrote “Does anyone really give a monkey’s about what happens in Rwanda? If the Mbongo tribe wants to wipe out the Mbingo tribe then as far as I am concerned that is entirely a matter for them.”
Sudoku
Across
Down
4. Darwin’s theory (9) 6. Disrespectful; Anag: emdtpiun (8) 7. Position (9) 8. Youth (9) 13. Two wheeled transport (10) 16. Orange preserve (9) 17. One followed by one hundred zeros (6) 19. Lack of order (5) 20. Unexpected good fortune (11)
1. Conclude by reasoning (6) 2. Red fruit (6) 3. Gives Popeye his strength (7) 5. Study of humanity (12) 9. Public speaker (6) 10. Capital of Romania (9) 11. Test (11) 12. Liberated (4) 14. Admission of a crime (10) 15. Starship on Star Trek (10) 18. Parade (5)
XKCD While these are clearly taken from the archives of webcomic XKCD, it’s ok, because its creators have waived most of their rights with a Creative Commons license. Also, they don’t read bathimpact.
Each Sudoku has a unique solution that can be reached logically without guessing. Enter digits from one to nine into the blank spaces. Every row must contain one of each digit. So must every column, and every 3x3 square. This one is possible, but difficult enough to cause internal bleeding in some invertebrates.
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Monday 15th March 2010
bathimpact
Sabbs’ Corner
www.bathimpact.com
How the Sabb elections work Alternative vote
S
tudents’ Union elections use the Alternative Vote system. This works as follows: Imagine there are three candidates for the position of SU President: a stapler, a pencil case and an eraser. After a week of campaigning, the voters (that’s you!) all go to BathStudent.com to vote. They put the candidates in their order of preference, starting with 1 as their favourite, 2 for second and 3 for their least favourite. Once all the votes have been cast the count begins. All the number 1 votes are tallied and after this first stage the results are as follows:
Pencil case – 150 Eraser – 350 Stapler – 400 So, after this first stage Stapler is in the lead with 400, but does not yet have over 50 percent of the
votes, as the other two have 450 between them. Under the Alternative vote system, Pencil Case, who has the lowest number of votes, is now eliminated. All the ballots on which PC was number 1 are now recounted and the number 2 votes are distributed to the other two candidates. After these have been counted the results look like this:
Pencil case – Eliminated Eraser – 475 Stapler – 425 Of PC’s 150 votes, Eraser was number 2 on 125 giving her an extra 125 votes, taking her total to 475. Stapler only got 25 more votes so his total is only 425. Eraser has more than 50 percent of the votes and has more votes than Stapler, the only other rival, so he is crowned SU President. What this shows is that despite Stapler’s lead in the first round of counting, the victory was not as-
sured. The overwhelming majority of Pencil Case supporters preferred Eraser as their second choice, so their preferences were transferred, giving him the win.
RON You can vote to Re-Open Nominations in the same way as any other candidate, by including it in your preference list. The votes are counted as though Re-Open Nominations is a real person. You should list Re-Open Nominations as a preference if you feel that the candidates you have not yet listed are unsuitable for that
George Charonis provides an update on his pet project
I
Staff Liaison Committees at the start of the 2009/10 academic year to encourage students and staff to discuss exam feedback on a departmental level. Discussions focused on what measures were already in place (if any), what could be introduced and how feedback on exams could be improved in a way that was agreed by students and staff alike. Responses to the questionnaire, received in December 2009, were generally very positive with interesting and productive discussions having taken place in most
2,000 Number of people who
joined a Facebook group advocating better feedback
departments. Examples of good practice were identified across the University. In recognising a commitment to exam feedback that meets the needs of students, the Students’ Union has identified the SSLC for the BSc Sport and Exercise Science where students and staff discussed and drew up a
position. If you feel none of the candidates are suitable then list Re-Open Nominations as your first preference. If you wish, you may continue listing candidates after you have voted to Re-Open Nominations. If Re-Open Nominations wins an election then nominations for that position will be re-opened for other students to become a candidate. The election will be run again at a later date. Essentially, by voting to ReOpen Nominations, you are saying that you would like to see different candidates.
Possibly not the actual Presidential candidates.
The exam feedback campaign n December 2008, exam feedback was a closed case as far as the University was concerned. When standing in the Sabbatical Elections last year, my main manifesto pledge was to improve exam feedback across all departments. Great progress has been made in less than 12 months; the timeline displayed provides an overview of the key highlights from the campaign. Students have been demanding more feedback for some time and the exam feedback campaign began in May 2009, led by the then VP Education, Katie Mabery, with students across the University uniting to request more feedback. A Facebook group entitled ‘Exam feedback helps me learn’ was created, reaching just over 2000 members during the summer exams last year. Additionally, 3000 exam feedback stickers were given to students to attach to their exam papers as they walked into the Sports Hall. As a result of these actions the University decided to re-visit the case. A questionnaire was sent out jointly from the Students’ Union and University to all Student/
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‘feedback agreement’. Members of the SSLC (featured in the photograph) were thanked for their efforts. A ‘feedback agreement’ similar to that of the BSc Sport and Exer-
cise Science is what will be implemented across departments from 2010/11 onwards. Departments have been contacted and will be drawing up policies on exam feedback, with the exact details to be informed by your Academic Reps at Student/Staff Liaison Committees and approved at a Faculty level. Feedback policies will be reviewed regularly (up to annually) such that they are fit for pur-
Hustings On Monday 15th and Tuesday 16th at 1.15pm, candidates will be in Elements responding to students’ questions, some of which will be pre-set; the rest will come from the floor. While they can usually be found individually on parade, this is a rare opportunity to pitch questions to all the candidates, and watch them try to remember exactly what it was they put in their manifesto again.
Results Following a week of campaigning, which usually involves affixing posters to every flat surface, flyering and standing on parade trying to attract the attention of harried and busy students, the results will be announced in this week’s Flirt. This will inevitibly include portions of loud celebratory shouting, and has been known to end in one or two of the winners becoming a little tired and emotional, which is understandable given how demanding it can be to run a succesful campaign. After the announcement, our editor will be carrying out a Paxman-esque interview with each candidate for our results special, released next Tuesday.
pose and meet the needs of current staff and students. While this is a great success for all students we always look for ways of improving or lobbying the University to voice student opinion and make sure things are done. If you have any further feedback, queries or comments please feel free to e-mail sabbs@ bath.ac.uk.
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Monday 16th March 2010
bathimpact
Science
www.bathimpact.com
Trouble at the top
Edward Johnson takes a personal look at mental health
L
ast week, I talked about the myths and legends surrounding the topic of immortality. It is fitting to change tact this week, and discuss a more important and vital issue - mental health. As a final year undergraduate biochemist I have gained a basic understanding of the pathology of neurological conditions. Chemical pathways, routes of action and a large amount of well researched biological detail has recently been ingrained into my memory (due to a highly detestable set of exams); so much so that I’m personally afraid that I will never be able to forget about the synthesis of glutamate (an important molecule in nervous system signalling - aka a neurotransmitter). Despite knowledge of how a disturbance in mental health may arise from a molecular level, the only way of understanding the effects of a mental disorder is to come into contact with that disorder yourself. For example, let’s look at Alzheimer’s disease. It is the most common cause of dementia, a gradual but unfortunately worsening condi-
1906 Year Alois Alzheimer first described the disease
tion that affects 1 in 14 people over the age of 65. Other symptoms include confusion, long-term memory loss and mood swings. Essentially, neurons in the brain are damaged and lost which upsets the levels of acetylcholine (another important neurotransmitter), which results in the aforementioned symptoms and eventual death. The exact mechanism of how neurons are damaged is still debated, with a wealth of current research presenting new evidence for proposed mechanisms - even our own Biology & Biochemistry department is involved. I have witnessed the effects of Alzheimer’s disease first hand. A close relative developed the condition near the end of her life, and it’s only from seeing her that I started to understand the reality of mental illness. To see a loved one enjoying herself - even sharing an amusing anecdote among family - all of a sudden become scared and vulnerable, actually fearful of those caring family members around her: it’s a shock that really strikes home.
Happy occasions would become harrowing ordeals for all involved. If anything it was the sense of unpredictability with regards to her moments of sheer doubt and fear that were genuinely terrifying. Yet throughout the onset of her condition, she was able to cherish the moments of stability and knew that she would be able to rely on her close family for the support and assurance she needed. The honest support of a family to a dearly cherished one is crucial in managing problems in mental health. Reader, I must apologise if I have bummed you out! Admit-
1/14 Proportion of over 65s suf-
fering from Alzheimers
tedly the subject of mental health is not to be taken lightly, but there is good news. The volume of research regarding the development of diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s and Parkinson’s is constantly increasing. Although there is no “magic bullet” for curing these diseases, treatments are becoming more reliable and widely available that can ease suffering and slow the progression of memory loss. It has also been shown that regular exercise, a healthy diet and plenty
of mental stimulation (hint: read bathimpact more!) may have roles in preventing some neurodegenerative diseases. Management of mental health disorders with the help of outside sources is fortunately extensive: Mind, Alzheimer’s Society and
60,000 Annual number of deaths
caused by dementia
Rethink are third parties that offer valuable information and support on a personal level, and genuinely care about those who seek help. Unfortunately, even in this modern day issues regarding mental health are still sometimes regarded with a sense of unfounded prejudice and ignorance. Media coverage and derogatory labelling are often detrimental and insulting to those who have to live with mental health problems. It could be suggested that such a sense of flippancy regarding mental illnesses is most prevalent in stories covering the personal lives of our beloved celebrities. Some magazines and tabloids just love a breakdown - after all, what could provide juicier gossip than hearing about how Owen Wilson is dealing with clinical depression? Without trying to sound holier than thou, an individual’s
battle with depression should not be bantered about the world willynilly. Living with depression can be
“
Bonkers Bruno Locked Up
”
A not particularly sensitive
Sun headline
a constant struggle, and should not be taken so light-heartedly. Leading a normal life is what any sufferer of depression desires, and the stress of knowing that the glossies are lapping at every detail in your life cannot help matters. Of course, a story is a story in terms of filling pages and attracting readers. Considering that our nation’s newspapers are rife with “shock and awe” pieces commenting on just about everything - ranging from boys in balloons to babies named Megatron (I kid you not) - perhaps it is worth reading the news with a pinch of salt. You may be questioning the validity of this article, and that’s a good thing. It is important to draw your own balanced conclusions about topics, especially with regards to mental health issues. If you have any worries about mental health, stress or anxiety, then our own university is wellequipped to help you. The Student Health & Wellbeing Service based in 4West is on hand to listen to any of your troubles, and can provide a one-to-one appointment with a qualified counselor. After all, the first step in getting help is asking for it.
In other news... Headline of the week: the Mirror, for “Tebbit chases the dragon”. Runner up: the Torygraph, for “New Zealand man tries to sell two ghosts on internet”. Shock of the week: “World’s fattest man in heart attack scare”. Scoop of the week: the Mail, for the exclusive revelation that singer David Essex, 62, doesn’t look as young as he did when he was younger. Noam Chomsky grammatical diligence award: the Mirror for the latest of their perennial Alex Reid/Jordan stories, headlined: “‘She sprang it on me... her ring cost £60,000... my parents are & there gutted is no pre-nup’.” Pun of the week: the Sun, reporting on the Vatican’s list of the ten best albums ever, went with “Top of the Pope’s” Tarantino thriller award: The Torygraph, for the scoop “Hen lays giant egg”. Runner up: The Mail, for ”Lily Allen posts picture on Twitter of bandaged pet dog Mabel following attack”. Expert of the week: defending Angela Sullivan, accused of having sex with a twelve year old boy almost 200 times, lawyer Andrew Turton said “What Angela Sullivan did was wrong...” Philip K Dick robot sex fantasy award: the Sun, for revealing that “RIHANNA’s been touched up by a randy robot live on stage”. One of her songs “must have got to the android’s head, as the creature couldn’t resist grabbing her bottom while she looked on with a smile.” Roman Polanski child protection award: the Mail, for again publishing long lens photos of three-yearold Suri Cruise online. Quote of the week: “this is a fairly boring and tedious paper, and is intentionally so. [It] provides no new interpretations… no new theoretical implications… and draws no new policy implications” from a 1995 paper by Alwin Young.
Nick Drake: suffered major depression throughout his life
Runner up: Mr and Mrs Przeslawski, of London, who failed to spot Jacob Zuma as he walked by them in Sainsbury’s, and later commented “We didn’t notice anybody, we were too busy choosing our cheese, we didn’t see the president at all.’’
Monday 15th March 2010
bathimpact
Science
www.bathimpact.com
Professor Science’s sex tips
The Prof, an accredited 7th Dan in Rumpy, guides you through some lesser-known sexual practices
I
t’s near the end of March, which is, of course, ‘sexytime’, as was Christmas, early autumn, the 17th Century, and 5pm on June 3rd, 1974. If you’re feeling bored of standard forms of intercourse, here are some suggested ways to spice up your lovelife without the use of an MRI machine: Qualping: It’s possible to achieve sexual pleasure through the inappropriate use of the word ‘whither’. The passive voice can also be sexy, and, at the first ever showing of Hamlet, many people in the front row climaxed during the famous soliloquy. Chendring: Some couples find it exciting to copulate within ten metres of an attaché briefcase. Pleasure can be magnified if the case contains a piece of rump steak or documentation relating to the Corn Laws. Andringing: The attainment of sexual climax by reciting the court transcript of McCullock v. Mary-
land whilst stroking a bag of incorrectly sorted recycling. If you get off to Gibbons v. Ogden instead, this is a dangerous perversion, and you should seek help. Flarping: Seeking erotic fulfillment by kidnapping a barbershop quartet and demanding Grover Cleveland’s shoelaces as ransom. This perverse practice is declining in popularity since the Scramble Hill incident, in which two doctors were struck off for copulating while performing appendix transplant operations on a troupe of circus jugglers.
Playing doctors and nurses can be fun, but if your partner is a devoted method actor, and insists on undertaking a seven year degree and performing several major operations before he can ‘get into the role’, you might want to try something simpler: • Pretend you are both at a pub quiz in which the quizmaster asks ‘of which Australian state is Darwin the capital?’ You realise it is Northern Territories, which is not technically a state, and the inevitable argument ensues, culminating in a group orgy between you, your partner and the original line-up of Jefferson Airplane.
• After walking in on your partner in a compromising position involving a ferret, some glue, and Terry Venables, you punish them by refusing to share your recipe for Penne Arrabiata. Remember to have a safety word in case it gets out of hand. • You and your partner are military dictators of neighbouring countries at a trade conference. While disputing the finer points of import substitution policy, you inexplicably feel the need to have sex. Afterwards, to overcome your embarrassment, you go home and crush some pro-democracy protests.
In the old days, male homosexuality was banned because their beards got tangled up.
Editor Tim Leigh bemoans media distortion in discussion of mental health
M
Bohming: Once a niche movement, but becoming increasingly mainstream, bohming is the achievement of sexual climax on incorrectly deriving Boltzmann’s constant. Anthony Eden was a known practitioner of this, and it is thought he started the Suez crisis in frustration after a secretary caught him with a scientific calculator down his trousers.
Roleplay suggestions
Gonding: The garnering of sexual pleasure through talking to a sheet of metal gauze. Among the things gonders like to say to the objects are ‘my, you smell very little like the Orkney Islands today’, and ‘In my younger years, I had a cracking anecdote about Alexandre Dumas’ unicycle, which I’ve sadly forgotten.’
The last taboo ental health is perhaps the last great taboo in British society. Whilst great progress has been made in dealing with issues such as racism, homophobia and the like, mental illness is still a subject few people are comfortable discussing. Revealing that you have suffered from it is even less likely to happen. Depending on which statistics one looks at, either one in four or one in six adults in Britain are suffering from a form of mental
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illness at any one time. Taken in context, this means that one person in every kitchen group at this University, statistically speaking, will be suffering from some kind of mental health issue. The prevalence of mental health conditions are on a scale that one would never guess at from reading the newspapers or watching television. Mentally ill characters are not often depicted in film or in literature, and when they are the conditions are often sensational-
Albert Camus: The Stranger is a classic portrayal of a depressed, disaffected youth.
ised or misrepresented. A noble exception is the author Sebastian Faulks, who has explored the issue of mental illness in several of his novels. Why is there still such a taboo surrounding it, particularly as the incidence rates suggest that it is a subject people should be fully aware of? In many ways one of the problems is self-fulfilling: people are uncomfortable talking of subjects about which they understand
“
Shall I kill myself or have a cup of coffee?
”
Albert Camus very little, but this very feeling means their understanding is less likely to increase. It would obviously be remiss of me to argue that life-threatening illnesses such as cancer and strokes do not deserve the attention they get, but given the impact mental illness can have not only on the person but on the people around them, the silence over this issue has to end. The most common cause of death for men under 35, according to a 2005 De-
partment of Health report, is not a heart attack or a car crash, but suicide. Mental health problems, if ignored, can in some cases snowball. This is perhaps particularly important for students. University is often described as the greatest time of people’s lives, and in many cases this is accurate. However, it can also be an exceedingly difficult time. Managing your finances, living on your own for the first time and the pressure of exams where success is paramount to justify the increasingly large investment being made are just a few examples of the pressures that can cause students problems.
My point here is that universities do offer support services for anyone who might need it. There is no shame at all in admitting you need help, far from being weak, it is one of the bravest things you can do to admit you are struggling. The services at the University of Bath, I can personally attest, are excellent, and it is of course completely confidential. It costs you absolutely nothing and it gives you somebody sympathetic and non-judgemental to discuss your problems with. At the end of the day, if you are feeling miserable or stressed, you have absolutely nothing to lose, and potentially everything to gain.
Science says: plants understand music I recently stumbled across a revolutionary but little appreciated paper from the 2004 Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. It found that plants germinate faster when being given ‘healing energy’. Even more interestingly, their growth can be accelerated by music, but not by non-musical noise. Thus the researchers have inadvertently discovered a new and objective way to rate music. We thought it only apt to ask some plants to rate a few pieces of popular music for us. Here’s what they said:
Stevie Wonder - Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants: ‘insightful’ Rimsky-Korsakov - Flight of the Bumble Bee: ‘sexy’ Bob Dylan - A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall: ‘terrifying’ Enya - Watermark: ‘I do nothing but photosynthesise all day, and even I find this new age toss boring’ Jonas Brothers: ‘pass the Roundup, I can’t go on’.
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Monday 15th March 2010
bathimpact
Sabb elections pull-out President
Sam Gillies Politics with International Relations Proposed by: Constantin Wiegand Seconded by: Fionnuala Collins Are you fed up of the distance between you and your Union? In that case, you need a President who represents you, a President with a fresh perspective and an understanding of your issues. I’m Sam Gillies and as a final year Politics Student, I have been at the heart of university life and in my three years I have noticed many things about how the Students’ Union could be improved. I see the Union through the same eyes as you as a participant in its activities. I have organised successful socials for politics students, which led to the formation of the Politics Society. The membership of this society has more than doubled since it was created. Like many of you, I have been involved in a number of sports activities including lacrosse, football and tennis. Through my involvement in these activities I know how important the Students’ Union can be for the average student. I believe that the Students’ Union needs to do more to engage with and consult you and I plan to use all my experience from my three years to be a President who is of the Students’ Union, not from the Union. Objectives: • Fairer prices for you – Pricing on campus affects all of us. The majority of commercial outlets on campus including Fresh, the SU Shop and Plug Bar are operated by the Students’ Union. I will work closely with the VP Communications to carry out a full review of prices on campus. This will ensure that prices are fair and that you want to make use of the Union’s bars and shops. • Student Centre: responding to your needs - It is important that the £5.5 million development of the Union is responsive to your needs. I want to make sure that you, the students, are central to this process. • Ticket machines for Buses – Tired of waiting for the bus? To avoid the wait caused by people purchasing a ticket from the driver, ticket machines will be introduced on campus to speed up queuing. • Activities: semester 1, not week 1 –The Societies’ and Sports’ Fairs during Freshers’ Week are the best opportunities for people to get involved and for groups to promote themselves. I will work closely with VP Activities & Development to make sure that a new fair is introduced a month into term, when people are settled and ready to try new things so that as many people as possible can take advantage of the opportunities available. • Bringing the Sabbs back to you – I will make sure that myself and the rest of the Sabbs have a presence in the student community. Each Sabb will spend at least two hours a week on the Parade chatting to students so that we are aware of current issues and are best able to represent your needs. Bringing the Union back to you will be my priority as SU President and I will re-energise the efforts of the Students’ Union.
President
President
David Kennaway Computer Science Proposed by: Rehana Nanji Seconded by: Katherine Rocker
Rachel Spry Coach Education & Sports Development Proposed by: Tom McGee Seconded by: Kate Aldridge
Who is Kennaway anyway? Hi, I’m David ‘DK’ Kennaway. I am currently a final year Computer Science student and have been heavily involved in the Students’ Union throughout my time at Bath. You may have seen me out and about on campus either delivering the redesigned newspaper Bath Impact, or more recently during this year’s RAG Week that raised 300% more money for charity than last year’s. I’ve been on the committee for Bath Impact for the past three years and RAG for the past year. I am also involved in various other ways such as sitting on the environmental and ethical committee and web steering group. Key points Fees - With a general election looming and an important review into University funding underway, the topic of tuition fees will be pushed to the top of students’ agendas once again. Inevitably there is a threat of increased tuition fees to £7000 or even higher. In the past few weeks I have been involved a SU backed campaign against raising tuition fees and I will endeavour to push this point at a local and national level next year. Student Accommodation - The idea of an SU run letting agency has been suggested in previous years. If elected I will take this forward. I have heard many stories of students being ripped off by some agencies and even international students being left to run around house hunting on their own, requiring them to make numerous flights back and forward just to secure accommodation. Student Centre - One of the Students’ Union’s success stories in recent years has been the approval of the new Student Centre. A tight timeline has been scheduled for the construction to get the centre into operation by next year. If elected I will ensure that the SU does everything possible to allow construction to continue as scheduled and most importantly that the finished building meets both students’ needs and expectations. Increase involvement and accessibility of the SU - It is a sad fact that the majority of students don’t know anything about the SU and there is a particular lack of involvement from international students. I’m not going to promise to get more students involved, as many candidates in past years have. Before I can do that, we need to understand why the lack of involvement exists, and then decide how to tackle it. Vote Kennaway #1 for SU President, but even more importantly, just vote. Have your say, don’t lose your voice.
VOTE SPRY...I’ll tell you why... I’m RACHEL SPRY and I’m running to become your SU President for 2010-11. I want to make your Students Union better than ever before and with your help I hope to achieve my aims and goals to make your University experience even more unforgettable. So why should you vote for me? Since starting University my involvement with Students’ Union activities has given me valuable experience with student media, volunteering, sports and societies. I’m currently Chair of Kickboxing, one of the biggest clubs on campus and believe my determination and motivation has helped make the club a huge success. I’m also Vice-chair of Student Community Action (part of the Volunteer Centre) and have project managed many successful events such as The Bathwick Hill Fun Run. As a Student Ambassador and Campus Brand Manager for Teach First and makemysummer. com I am able to balance competing demands and fulfil all roles to a high standard through effective time management. What do I want to achieve? Improve communication links between students and the Students’ Union. The student has been removed from the Students’ Union through a lack of communication and I’m passionate about increasing the student voice. It’s essential that I should be there for you, the students, and that you should know who I am and what I can do for you. Through dedicating a large amount of my time to communicating with students, and through regularly publishing my availability I will be accessible even out of office hours and will welcome anyone at my door. Promote healthy living on campus I will increase the provision of free sport for every student while also improving the availability of healthy, affordable food all around campus making it easier for you to stay healthy and keep active. Ensure current Students Union plans are fulfilled to a high standard I will ensure that all current SU plans, including the new Student Centre, lecture theatre redevelopment, a reduction in 8.15am and 6.15pm lectures and the improvements to the Combe Down pathway are completed on time and to a high standard, making sure they fit your needs. Improve links between the university and the local community Having won the Eric Snook prize for building links with the local community, I’ve realised the importance of cooperating with local organisations. I will therefore make volunteering and community projects a key priority through the promotion of student involvement in the media and by working with organisations such as SIFE. Improve University bus services I will campaign for more frequent buses and lower ticket prices while improving links to Combe Down and Odd Down. I will make the campaign for a new bus shelter a high priority. I am passionate about improving your Students’ Union and making the changes that you want. With my dedication and appetite for hard work I will ensure that I fulfil my mission in bringing you, the students back in to your Union! VOTE SPRY...Now you know why!
Monday 15th March 2010
bathimpact
19
Sabb elections
www.bathimpact.com
President
VP Activities and Development
VP Activities and Development
Daniel ‘dot’ O’Toole Sabbatical Officer Proposed by: Tom Price-Stephens Seconded by: Daniel Broadberry
Mathieu Bewer Computer Sciences Proposed by: Elizabeth Hill Seconded by: Benedict Howell
Ann Howell Physics Proposed by: Aurel Diamond Seconded by: Tim Lai
Hi! My name is Daniel O’Toole, but everyone calls me dot, and I’m your current SU President. I have always had an avid interest in the Students’ Union, and since being elected as your SU President this time last year, that interest has grown exponentially! After a year in the position, I feel I am a much better candidate now than I was a year ago. I hope I can prove that as well as being a good representative of the student population, I also now have the expertise and experience to further excel in the role of SU President. I’d love to have the opportunity to build on this year’s work and to help finish the projects that need another year to complete. With the Union undergoing so many changes this year, I believe that given the chance to stay in my role, I would offer the new team a year’s worth of invaluable experience. Objectives Student Centre – I have been heavily involved in the Student Centre’s planning process; I will endeavour to ensure it is delivered on time, and that it meets your needs, providing fully accessible non-commercial social space, water fountains and vending facilities. Buses – I will maintain the strong relationship with our bus service providers, and will continue to strive for improved University transport. Entertainment – I will scrap Flirt! and launch a new student night in the revamped Plug Bar and Elements, look to improve our reputation for entertainment using the sports hall as a venue, and provide more entertainment in the form of open mic nights, comedy nights, quizzes and more. Library printing facilities – I will lobby the University to reduce its printing costs, and to ensure departments are more considerate when requiring their students to print materials. Food Provision – I will endeavour to improve food provision on campus, seeking a wider choice and lower prices. Cycling to campus – I will work towards developing cycle routes to campus, and will lobby the University for better cycle facilities. Lockers – I will push for departments to provide adequate storage facilities. Fresher Community – I will aim to run events throughout the year that will integrate different halls of residences, creating a more united fresher community. Communication – I intend to improve communication between the Sabbs and you, ensuring that the Union’s priorities continually match yours. International Students – I aim to break down barriers between international and home student populations, and provide more opportunities for the interaction of the two. PGs – I will continue to engage with Postgraduate students and aim to provide more postgraduate activities. ‘Town and Gown’ relationship - I will continue to improve the relationship between students and the local community. National representation – I will ensure that, as one of the best Students’ Unions in the country, Bath is at the forefront of issues affecting students on a national scale, like tuition fees.
Hi, my name’s Matt and I am interested in becoming the Activities and Developement Sabbatical Officer. Over my four years at Bath I have become involved in a variety of sports clubs and societies, mainly in my first year due to work commitments, but I have really enjoyed the atmospere and enjoyment of society life and I feel that I would not only like to give back to the SU and the university the good memories which it has given to me but would also like to engage more with societies to improve their reputation, the publicity and quality of events so that we help create more awareness to encourage more people to come to your events!
Any Questions? Want a chat? Come visit the dot pod... arriving Monday! Check out THE DOT SONG on facebook; search Re-elect dot
Here’s what I am proposing to do if I am elected as A&D Trustee: • Creare more poster boards and A-Frame stands on campus as there does no seem to be enough available given the large number of societies there are on campus. • Encouraging all societies to share positive and negative stories between each other by electronic and interpersonal discussion forums, in order for the experiences and feedback from events to be thoroughly communicated in order to improve how each society can better organise events and come up with new ideas for future events. • Increase the range of Sorted courses on offer and include society-specifc courses. Suggested titles include: ‘Making the Most of a budget’, ‘communicating and co-ordinating events’, ‘risk planning’ and ‘how to organise and use constructive feedback’. • Encourage all socieites to inform us of major upcoming events so we can put them on the Societies’ page calendar and have contact information more readily available so that others can find out more about the event in advance. • Clarifying to societies on where to look for funding opportunities and how to make the most their budgets. • Introduce promotions for and improve the availability of minibus hire and encouraging more societies as well as sports clubs, to train for MiDAS, so that, should they wish to hold events outside the university, this will not be an obstacle from doing so.
Ann “Queen of Clubs” Not just the Queen of Clubs - Queen of Societies, Volunteering, Sorted and Joblink! Extra-curricular activities add to student employability whilst providing opportunities to have fun and meet new people. These experiences have defined my time at university and led me to the role of SU Arts Officer this year. As VP A+D, I would promote and expand these horizons for all students with boundless levels of energy and enthusiasm. My goals My foremost priorities as VP A+D would be to: - Build International Opportunities: As Arts Officer, I have met with the Chair of the Bath-Kaposvár Twinning Association with the aim of developing ties between the activities in the Hungarian town and our university. I will continue advancing the twinning to offer international travel and experiences for society members and volunteers. - Upgrade Finance: I want to give society committees more regular financial advice and easier access to their finances, especially when claiming back money. - Increase Postgraduate Student Participation: I want to work closely with the Postgraduate Association to encourage more Postgraduate involvement in SU activities. - Expand Sorted and Joblink: I will work with the Careers Service to promote and enhance the current services already offered by Joblink and Sorted. - Develop Inter-Society and Volunteering Links: Clubs and societies could achieve more if they worked together! With a more detailed events calendar, improved publicity, and forums on bathstudent. com, we can widen the participation between clubs and societies at Bath. Why Vote Ann “Queen of Clubs”? As Arts Officer, I chair the Arts Exec and General Meetings, write the Arts column for BATHIMPACT and make improvements to issues (such as publicity and room booking procedures) for the Arts Societies. I have also organised large-scale events such as “Show in a Week”, the Arts and Media Day, RAG Arts Variety Show and music for the homecoming of Amy Williams. Last year I was nominated for the award “Outstanding Contribution to the Arts” as a result of my management of the Orchestra, Gospel Choir and as a member of the BUSMS committee. My endeavours included entering both ensembles into a local festival for the first time, as well as directing and producing student musicals! I also got to know local councillors and discovered the importance in maintaining strong links with the public. My volunteering experiences have included Freshers’ Crewing and working with RAG. I have been involved with Swimming and Snowsports since my first year. I have also crewed BUST plays as a member of Backstage, and worked in Campus Media with CTV; the culmination of these experiences has taught me the importance of being able to network and run societies efficiently, making me a great choice for VP A+D! PLAY YOUR CARDS RIGHT VOTE ANN “QUEEN OF CLUBS” FOR VP ACTIVITIES AND DEVELOPMENT!
20
Monday 15th March 2010
Sabb Elections
bathimpact www.bathimpact.com
VP Activities and Development
VP Activities and Development
VP Welfare and Diversity
Steph Moodie Mathematics Proposed by: Hanna Wade Seconded by: Naomi MacKrill
Arthur Gordon-Wright Physics Proposed by: Jennifer Peed Seconded by: Adam Finlayson
David Howells Mathematics Proposed by: Charli Reynolds Seconded by: Cameron Westwood
Throughout my time at university, I realise that it is my experiences of being involved in the Students’ Union that have been most memorable to me. It is because of this that I have decided to run for the position of VP Activities and Development, so that I might be able to help students overcome some of the barriers that previously may have prevented them from getting involved. This is especially important after the initial sign up during Freshers’ Week.
Who am I? My name’s Arthur and I’m running for VP Activities and Development. I may not be the loudest guy, but I’m friendly, a good listener, and willing to look at any argument from both sides, so if you’ve got any questions about my campaign don’t hesitate to ask me! Of course, if you elect me, I’ll always be available to listen to any problems or suggestions, whether you’re on a committee, a group member, or not yet involved in my area at all.
I’m David, and I need your vote for VP Welfare & Diversity. I’ve had four great years at Bath, and now I want the opportunity to make a difference before I leave.
It wasn’t until the end of my first year that I finally got involved in anything, but since then I have been on the RAG Committee, been an active member of BUGS, organised joint events with SCA and currently sit on the Volunteer Exec. I have even been to lessons provided by the ICIA and attended a number of their events. From this variety of positions that I have held, I have obtained a good insight into the day-to-day running of the Students’ Union and with this have reviewed what I think the VP Activities and Development needs to improve on in the coming year. Through my role as RAG chair, I have proved myself to have high levels of commitment, and dedication necessary to make the group successful. I have also been involved in a number of projects run jointly with several different groups, and it has shown just how valuable links between the Activities are, a role that the VP Activities and Development is vital in. As well as links between the large numbers of groups within the Students’ Union, it is important that a good relationship is maintained with the community outside of Bath University. Through volunteering I have met many people outside of Bath University, and it is links like these that help to promote a more positive image of the students and the hard work contributed by all the volunteers involved in societies and groups. By voting for me, Steph Moodie, I would aim to - Promote integration between all societies and groups that fall under the activities umbrella - Broaden links between all exec. committees to get everyone to help each other - Create a welcoming atmosphere within Activities with taster sessions throughout the year to encourage wider participation - Keep an online calendar up-to-date and easy for members to use, so that they can see key dates as well as when taster sessions are happening - Ensuring sufficient space and resources are provided for ALL groups and societies in a fair and equal manner, especially during the redevelopment. If there is one thing I could change about my time at university it is that I got more involved earlier on. By voting for me I hope that I can help all the Activities within the Students’ Union grow from strength to strength. Vote MAD, you know it makes sense!
I’ve been involved in the inner workings of the SU since being on the Real Ale Society committee in my first year, and have followed that up with two more years on this committee, as well as a year as Floorball Club secretary and a year as a floorball team captain. I hope this experience will help me give the right advice to anyone who asks for it, but I’m sure I’ll learn and be able to help you even more as the year progresses! Why do I want to be VP A&D? The A&D area has come a long way in recent years, with a good increase in the number of people involved, but there’s still plenty of room for improvement. I really believe every student has something to gain from being involved, whether it be personal development, something for your CV, or just plain fun! I want to help activity groups develop the tools they need to recruit as many members as possible, and to encourage much more participation from non-members in events. Through this, I also want to increase the social cohesion of the student community. I believe A&D can be a powerful tool to promote interaction between people of all social, ethnic and national backgrounds, and I want to strongly encourage this. What will I do to achieve this? - Put together detailed guidance for group committees on ways to increase membership, with info from: o focus groups with the most popular societies, to see how they go about recruiting members; o engagement with all students, especially those not currently involved in the A&D area, to see what they want from it and what would encourage them to join. - Develop a series of regular short lunchtime events run by activity groups, which can be attended by anyone. These would: o give those who don’t feel they have much time to spare the chance to try interesting new things; o provide an environment where non-members don’t feel intimidated coming to society events for the first time, and don’t feel pressured to join; o allow societies to give a taste of what they’re about, to aid in continuous recruitment of new members. - Provide more training for committees on running and promoting events and socials, and help to coordinate event dates between different groups, to ensure there’s always something great going on! - Establish a small fund available for groups holding joint events to bid for, to encourage cooperative events.
Without further ado, I stand for . . . The best in student housing. Let’s face it, the housing process will always be stressful. But I want to pull out all the stops to make sure as much help as possible is there for you, especially if you have extra complications. Got a six month placement? Then the University and the Union need a better system for helping you find housing outside of a normal student contract. A ‘Be aware of AWARE’ campaign. The AWARE centre offers a host of support services for us, but many of them go underused. Sure, a lot of students know about the condoms, but what about free legal advice? AWARE run many campaigns, but I propose we focus on one they are lacking: a proper campaign to promote themselves. Making involvement easier. During my four years here I’ve had many great opportunities to get involved in our Union. These opportunities are out there, but are too difficult to find. If you’re interested in welfare, in the environment, in the SU’s ethical practices or in student campaigning, you shouldn’t have to fight to be involved. I want the SU to bring those opportunities to you. Our diversity. Our student community is varied and diverse, but this isn’t always reflected in those who take part. Many international students are missing out on even the simplest Union activities such as clubs and societies. These invaluable members of our community need to be included. I will work with the International Student Association to make that happen, starting with more union events aimed at our diverse student body. Less paper! Over the last few years the SU has been working to improve its environmental standards, but there’s still much more to be done. The amount of paper the Union uses is frankly ridiculous. I want across the board commitments to cutting waste of all kinds and further improvements in the SU’s recycling facilities. If my proposals don’t convince you, then perhaps I should tell you why I think I’m the one for the job. Welfare and Diversity isn’t as sexy as sports or the presidency, but it is something close to my heart, and I want to make sure it gets proper attention. I’ve been involved in the area since my second year, including being on the LGBT group committee (two years, chairing for one), the student support executive (two years), union council, and both the university and the union’s E&D management groups. I’m approachable and friendly, but not afraid to speak my mind, and the minds of students, whenever necessary. I want a chance to make these things happen, so make sure you don’t forget to vote David for Diversity!
Monday 15th March 2010
bathimpact
Sabb elections
www.bathimpact.com
VP Welfare and Diversity
VP Education
Shreyas Reddy Aerospace Engineering Proposed by: Ali Abdul Rahman Seconded by: Andreea Alecsandru
Matt Benka Computer Sciences Proposed by: Geoffrey Gilley Seconded by: David Hutchinson
During my time at Bath, I have been a part of numerous groups and been ac-
My name is Matt and I’m running for VP Education. Over the last four years, I’ve been heavily involved in the SU in a variety of positions, including Academic Rep, Student Support Exec, and Union Council. All of these have been incredibly rewarding and have given me the insight and experience needed to act as a Sabbatical Officer. There are currently a wide range of issues affecting the educational experience of students, but the major ones that I plan to address are: Exam and Coursework Feedback There is long-standing issue of insufficient feedback for students. It has been my experience that while both students and the university want to improve on feedback, there is no shared view of what feedback is. If elected, I will strive to reconcile this and continue the work that has already been done in the past on this issue, pushing strongly to ensure that Bath has the highest standards in giving feedback to students in whatever form they desire it. Tuition Fees The upcoming general election will be one of the most decisive events on the issue of higher education funding. I am currently helping run a campaign to inform students about issues surrounding higher education funding and encouraging them to make their voice heard by voting. If elected, I promise to push for solutions that will not put further financial pressure on students. Academic Representation While the process of electing academic reps has vastly improved over the last few years, there is still a lack of knowledge about the purposes and duties of reps. While most students are now aware of the existence of their reps, this is not enough. In order for academic reps to work to the best of their ability, students need to be aware of the support structure in place. In order to achieve this, I will work to educate students on what reps do and why they are important, especially to first years so that they know who they can go to right from the start of their university life. Group Work I’m sure that most of you have had bad experiences when working in a group. I will aim to improve the assessment processes for such work so that it is fair to all people in the group, and that you don’t feel like you are receiving a bad mark because of others in your group. Module Information Lastly, more information should be provided to students when they are choosing their optional modules. I will make sure that you will never feel that you do not have enough information when choosing a module. This includes not only details about the content of the module, but also information about the assessment breakdown, lecturer, lecturing style, as well as when lectures take place, all of which are critical information while choosing modules. I want to know your thoughts on these and other issues you may have, so please come speak to me so I can earn your vote.
tive in the Union in various ways. It is on the basis of this experience (below) that I am running for Vice-President, Welfare and Diversity (2010/11). •
International Chair, Global Group (2008/09)
•
International
Student
Representative,
Union
Council
(2008/09) •
Union representative, University Equality and Diversity Net-
work in 2008/09. •
Student Support Executive (2008/09)- Exposure to support
groups/services: LGBT, Access, Nightline, AWARE (also the Global Group coordinator) •
Worked with the Postgraduate Association (PGA)
•
International Student Helper (2008/09, 2009/10)
During this period, I have had many opportunities to develop a working relationship with AWARE, and been fortunate enough to interact with two VPs (Welfare and Diversity). My experiences in these positions have highlighted a few issues, primarily regarding communication and engagement with certain student segments and the work by some groups not being highlighted enough. Furthermore, the needs of some categories of students tend to go unnoticed (e.g., Mature students). As an international student interacting regularly with most of these groups, I am well placed to identify with the needs of the position. Areas of focus: •
Increased engagement with students- Build on the Engagement
strategy to keep students updated on what is going on and to give them a voice in the Union. •
Better communication- Certain segments of the student population
have traditionally been harder to engage with. Based on the Engagement strategy, I seek improvements to the means of communication within the Union and University. •
Integration- I aim to spread the message that it is a global world we live
in and there is only benefit to be had from interacting with people from all over the world, and improve integration based on models at other universities. •
More information, diverse events- More events acceptable to vari-
ous groups of students are needed to promote diversity. In addition to building on the Festival on the Hill, a festival highlighting the diversity at Bath, I seek to introduce regular evenings of a diverse nature. •
SU Discover trips- Wider variety of excursions to appeal to all stu-
dents, and better communication regarding the trips. The introduction of other sources of information, e.g., a facebook page, could help ensure that students are aware of what’s on. •
More attention for support groups- The good work being done
should be highlighted and more people should be made aware of what’s going on. •
Awareness- AWARE campaigns, forums to be highlighted more.
o
Health/wellbeing (physical- nutrition and diseases, mental- stress and
disorders, alcohol and drugs, misc.) o
Sexuality
o
Financial awareness, debt management
o
Environment, Community awareness
o
Housing forum, information
•
Language swaps- Set up a unified service between the Union and the
concerned University departments to enable language swaps, for those attempting to improve language skills in English and/or other languages. •
VP Education
Sam Lawes Politics with International Relations Proposed by: Stephen Brown Seconded by: Irina Pencheva I’m Sam Lawes and I can do more as your VP Education! Midway through my degree, I’m in an ideal position to represent all students: •
I’ve been elected Academic Rep for the second year running;
•
Fellow academic reps voted me onto the Academic Executive to
represent them; •
I speak for the entire academic representation body, on the SU Fi-
nance & Commercial Services Advisory Group. I spend time representing undergraduates in these roles – as well as the large group of Masters and PhD students. I’m familiar with the latter’s situation through sitting on my faculty’s Teaching and Quality Committee. While all this has given me the knowledge to be a great VP Education, other activities have given me the skills. •
I have direct experience of leading committees, not just taking part
in them: I’ve been elected chair of my Staff Student Liasion Committee for consecutive meetings. •
I’ve gained administrative experience as secretary of People
and Planet society. Any Sab will tell you this is essential. •
I’m used to dealing with day-to-day matters through sitting on my
faculty’s Board of Studies. This experience is hugely valuable. Last year I campaigned against a university move to freeze hiring of staff in my department. Working closely with my fellow students, staff and the VP Education, I had the decision reversed. What do I want to do? •
I know that next year, tough teaching cuts and even £7,000 fees
are a serious possibility. As a dedicated Politics student, I have a deep understanding of the situation and strong arguments against either proposition. I’ll campaign against cuts and higher fees nationwide. •
I want to sort out the library book deficit through reorganisation,
selective ordering and use of online resources. •
I’ve seen and participated in our current VP’s efforts to improve
feedback. He has achieved significant improvements but I’m confident we can go much further. I’ll work to get us more feedback – more individual, more relevant and more of it! •
I want to ensure that international students are able to partici-
pate fully in their courses, and are given support where necessary. Whether assistance with language, individual support or group integration, it’s a priority for me. •
I want to clarify, solidify and improve the role of our per-
sonal tutors. Some departments have excellent practice in this area – I want to help departments to learn from each other, adopting good measures across the university. •
I want to institute more paper recycling, less waste and more ener-
gy-efficient practices wherever possible. So why vote for me? I’m approachable and always happy to hear what you have to say – and act on it. I’m confident and able to argue a point. I know how the university makes decisions, and have proved myself able to work with them. With me you can demand more from your university, achieve more and ensure that Bath maintains and strengthens its reputation for excellence.
More Union involvement for International students (with better
support for the International Student Association), Postgraduates, Lifelong Learning students.
Reddy for change!
21
Vote for Sam Lawes and achieve more!
22
Monday 15th March 2010
bathimpact
Sabb Elections VP Sport
www.bathimpact.com
VP Sport
VP Sport
Matt Shepherd Computer Science Proposed by: Victoria Jones Seconded by: Richard Nutter
Andy ‘Crawsh’ Crawshaw Chemistry Proposed by: Gareth Kitson Seconded by: Thomas Trevelyan
Max Fernie Sociology Proposed by: Daniel Bradshaw Seconded by: Helen Whateley
Hi, my name is Matt Shepherd and I’m a final year Computer Science student. I want to run for the position of VP Sport to help make a difference at the university in the area that matters the most to me.
I’m sure that like me, one of the reasons that you chose Bath was because of the opportunities given by the sports clubs. I believe I can be YOUR next VP Sport because of my passion for sport and the expertise I can bring to the role. I have represented the university for 3 years with the Rowing club and for 2, through the Snowsports and squash clubs. I have experience in many other areas including: SU-university relations, to academic areas, to societies, to the Blues Awards. These have shown me how the SA, SU and university work individually and together, and how they work to represent you. Two roles that have given me great insights into how the SU and University work are my positions firstly, as Events officer on the SA exec, where I organised the Snowball 2009; and secondly as a Freshers’ Week Event Manager 2009 which introduced many of you to Bath and the activities on offer. The sports day on parade in Freshers’ Week was hugely impressive and I want to make sure next year’s will be bigger and better! There are a number of things I would like to change and introduce, including: SOCIAL SPORT FOR ALL Many clubs have introduced rec clubs which are proving to be very popular activities. I want to fund those clubs willing to create, further and run their own rec clubs; this will enable all students to play a sport they enjoy on a social level. VARSITY WEEKEND ‘The real Varsity’ and ‘Varsity fight night’ are two very successful events. I want to extend this to other clubs and hopefully create ‘The Varsity Weekend’ to help boost the profile of sport both within the university and also Bath itself. STUDENTS FIRST Many of you will have been affected at the start of the year by a loss of facilities time. This disrupted training, which is imperative to competing to the highest levels. I will ensure that the university know your needs must come first, otherwise we will risk slipping further down the BUCS table. ONLINE FACILITY BOOKINGS Most of you should know about the room booking system. I would like to work with the sports department to introduce a similar system for the sports facilities on campus. Allowing you to see when facilities are free with ease. TRANSPORT COSTS Many clubs are crippled by the costs of transporting members around the country, I want to give regular users cheaper transport and also look to find funding to buy some new vehicles. CLUB COACHING Your club may not have a decent coaching set up or even a coach at all whilst others do, I will work with the sports department to work to release maximum funding so every club can afford a coach. The university council have sport high on their agenda, I will keep pushing it higher. I want to ensure that YOU get the most from the sports services offered here at Bath. THINK SPORT, VOTE CRAWSH
Who am I? Hello, my name is Max Fernie, I am currently studying Sociology in my final year. If I am perfectly honest - Sport is my life! During my time at Bath I have been heavily involved in the Cricket club, in which I have been club Chairman and Captain of the 1st team in successive years. I also have been involved in the Golf club and Snowsports club at Bath, so understand the level of commitment students put into their sport, and it is this high commitment level that I will apply to my role. Why am I standing for VP Sport? I would say that without sport, my life would be very different, and I feel that everyone should get a chance to enjoy sport as much as I have – because it no doubt enhances your university experience. I would be great for this position since I’m passionate about sport and I’m motivated to make a change here at the university. I feel being greatly involved in the cricket club’s success in the past 3 years, I have developed the skills as a person, as well as a leader/ administrator that are required to bring about change for all sports at the university.
In the time I’ve spent at university I’ve been involved in a number of sports at a variety of different levels. This means I understand a lot of the concerns felt by many of the clubs and teams and I have a personal interest in solving these problems. One of these worries is the lack of space that is being made available for training and matches. To counter this I want to protect the outdoors space currently available while pushing for a new 3G astroturf pitch and better maintenance of the existing astroturf pitches. The grass pitches also need protecting. The University wanted to build over several of the grass pitches as part of their 2020 masterplan. This plan has been halted by students but could feasibly be put forward again. My concerns don’t just lie with the outdoor spaces. The Founder’s Complex and 25m Pool are both still massively important to many of the clubs and teams at Bath. If elected I would want to make sure these facilities aren’t neglected in the shadow of the STV. We also need to increase the accessibility of all the facilities to all the students. As well as the facilities at the Founder’s Complex, I will work to reject any plans to charge fees for the use of facilities that are currently provided for free in the STV. I’m also aware that it is a concern of many students that the fees they pay to use the gym in the STV are not being put to the best use. I would endeavour to make gym prices as fair as possible and ensure that a high enough proportion of the membership revenue is spent maintaining the top-class equipment available to us. Participation is essential to all sport, and so would be a cornerstone of my role as a Sabb. We should be encouraging people of all ages and backgrounds at the university to participate whenever they want in whatever they want and not to feel outcast by the pressures of competition. To make it easier to partake in sports at Bath I want to help support the introduction of the online booking system that is currently in the works, thus enabling students to book facilities more easily. Finally, I am aware that the University of Bath has a strong reputation for sport and that for many students it is a key factor in their decision to study here. I want to make sure that the University retains this status in the views of current and prospective students as well as enhancing our reputation at a national and international level. For VP Sport, follow the Shepherd! ;-)
I also feel I’ve a substantial amount of sporting experience, relating to all levels at the university. I have played cricket at county level and know individuals in the international field in various sports, so I understand some of the support elite athletes require and I plan to provide this support as much as possible. Together with this, having been the Chairman and Captain of the Cricket club, I understand the responsibility clubs have to support those students that just want to participate for enjoyment, and the difficulties finding facility time and space to play - making these facilities available is also a prime aim. What I’d like to do… • Transform the attitudes of students into caring more about being the top university in the country at sport, as well as improve the opportunity for all students to get involved in sports – through providing more support, facility space and awareness of inter-mural events, as well as ensuring clubs have the right number of teams that are competing at BUSA level – which will also link to budgeting problems faced by clubs. • Attempt to liaise with nationality societies and introduce an ‘Olympics style’ event that includes sports like badminton, table tennis and basketball, for all countries to get involved in. • Create a university wide varsity plan that involves a number of different sports against rival universities such as Loughborough and Bristol. • Develop more effective and creative methods of club recruitment and promotion. • Develop better support networks for athletes and coaches. • Increase the awareness of the sports teams by getting match reports and photos of teams playing in Impact, as well as feeding video coverage and match facts on the screens in Score. BE A WINNER! – Vote Mighty Max for VP Sport!
Monday 15th March 2010
bathimpact
23
Sabb elections
www.bathimpact.com
VP Communications
VP Communications
VP Communications
Sam ‘Foxy’ Foxman Economics & International Development Proposed by: Laura Craine Seconded by: Holly Dale
Ali Abdul Rahman Computer Science Proposed by: Fabio Nemetz Seconded by: Mayuree Srikulwong
James Huelin (“Julie”) MSc Management Proposed by: Daniel Broadberry Seconded by: Henry Davies
I am highly qualified to be your VP of Communications because I understand the university inside-out. I have worked with every major component, including the Accommodation Office, the RAG, Media Societies (specifically CTV), the International Office, the Postgraduate Association, the Global Group, as well as my academic department (student, tutor, SSLC Rep). I believe that the University has all the resources it needs to solve all its problems and improve student life. The fact that it does not do so is due to problems in communication. Some of the problems I have noticed include: • Students are bombarded with too much unwanted and unneeded information. As a result they filter out potentially useful bits. • Societies do not have effective communication with other students, leading to lack of student awareness of these societies’ existence and purpose. • Societies do not have effective communication with each other. Many projects can be improved (or in some cases, even started) if better communication was fostered. • The Student Union is not connected with other parts of the University effectively enough. As a result, sometimes different parts of the University end up competing with each other or sending students redundant information. Some of my specific ideas:
Hey! I’m James, although some may know me as Julie (or maybe another ridiculous
Who am I? Hi, I’m Sam Foxman, or Foxy, and I’m a final year economics student. • I am dedicated, enthusiastic and driven, with heavy involvement in Union activities. • I have worked with VP Comms to set up better links between different types of student group. • I have taken the lead on Bath’s campaign against tuition fees – one of the only student-run campaigns currently taking place. • I have worked with VP Education to promote an important debate on higher education funding. • I have been elected as Media Communications Officer and worked to develop Student Media at Bath. • I have promoted sporting events and activities, such as tennis, netball and rugby in my role as Deputy Sport Editor for Bath Impact. Why am I running? I’m running for VP Comms because communication between you and your Union are vital if we are going to work for you. I want to raise the profile of the Students’ Union to keep you better informed about what it’s up to and to let you know how you can change the way it works. My main objective is to increase opportunities for you to get involved with the Students’ Union. I will demonstrate how important the Union is and to give you the chance to be as involved as you want by improving transparency and accessibility. Your ideas and opinions should be the basis for everything that the Union does, and only by better engaging with you can this be possible. I will: • Conduct a full review of prices on campus. Most of the shops and bars on campus are operated by the SU, and it is important that the Union should provide you with the services you want at prices that you can afford. • Have the Sabbs come to you to find out what you want. Each Sabb should spend time on the Parade and elsewhere out on campus to talk to you to strengthen your relationship with the Union. • Encourage and support campaigns and events run by you. This is a much more effective way to raise the profile of important issues and events and is a better way to promote entertainment on campus. • Make BathStudent.com easier to use, but also help to keep you informed about the Union through Facebook and other online methods. • Use Student Media to keep you informed about what we are doing for you. Media will be better supported and informed by the Students’ Union and will form an important part of any communications plans. • Ensure that the Student Centre is a useful and attractive space which raises the profile of the Students’ Union and encourages your involvement.
nickname!). After 5 years at Bath, I’ve returned to study my Masters in Management. What’s Wrong!?... What’s Changed!? Bath’s Students’ Union has given me the best 6 years of my life. However, I feel efforts to reach out to students have dropped. It saddens me to think that newer students don’t take full advantage of the union anymore because they just don’t realise the potential it has to be an engaging and popular place. This MUST change! Who Do I Represent!? -Nearly everyone…(no, really!...) - I understand problems faced by Freshers, Undergrad, Placement AND Final-Year students having completed my undergrad here. - Socially I consider myself a UK-Student, but I was an international student for my undergrad, so faced the same financial issues. - Now that I’m a Postgrad Student, I can represent this under-represented student group! Why Me!!? I have vast and varied experience in representing you locally and nationally: - 2yrs Academic-Rep and Council, NUS-delegate - 1yr
Union-Council, Council-Senate-Students’Union committee (with the VC
and other VIP’s) - 6 yrs In Plug Bar Working in Plug as a duty manager has given me a comprehensive understanding on…
• Change Ways Students Obtain Information Students need to know where to get their information from, rather than being constantly pestered about it. I aim to replace the tired, old “email to death” strategy with less intrusive alternatives. The main method would be an improved Bathstudent.com, in which users can search for events and notices more readily. I will also work closely with the media societies, and utilise newer technologies such as Facebook. I will also work with other parts of the University which organise events and send notices, to reduce the amount of redundancy.
- How BUSU’s departments co-operate, - BUSU’s finances, - What’s holding us back, and so, more importantly… - What needs to change! I understand the importance of the media outlets in BUSU (e.g. URB, BathImpact, CTV, BathStudent.com etc.) having worked with them on events like Fresher’s Week and the Summer Ball. Mix my ambition to work closely with the media groups and my experience in commercial areas (the two main remit areas for VP-Comms) has meant it was an easy choice to run for VP-Comms!
• Connecting Societies I have recently directed a feature film in which I obtained resources from different societies, including actors from BUST, singers from BUSMS, film crew and equipment from CTV, and sound engineers from BUMPS. Yet, it took me years to realise all this was possible!! I want to get more projects running in which different societies utilise their specific skills to get things working.
So… What are my plans!? With the new student centre coming next year it’s more important than ever that we listen to YOU, the students who’ll use it! So on top of the usual areas, like continued work on bus services, community integration and the upcoming fee’s debate, I want to look at providing… -
A more accessible Sabb team… - Question-time lunches (approximately 2 Sabbs a week) - Easy suggestion and contact pages on BathStudent.com
• Incentivising Student Membership of Societies and Productivity of Societies I believe societies work better when they have goals to strive for. I would like to showcase more of the societies with monthly exhibitions. These include booking a room every month to show CTV videos, getting studentwritten music on URB, as well as more cross-cultural shows, in the vein of the Festival on the Hill.
- Online elections giving you more say on smaller things -
Better provisions for entertainments… - Start a STUDENT LED Ents Committee - More prominence on ticket sales - Post-event publications (like Minty Fresh, but for all big events)
-
More ways to get and stay in touch - A Fresher-Second Year “mentoring” system - Ways for graduates to stay in touch
All areas of the Students’ Union should be more aware of your needs. The Students’ Union should respond to what you actually want, not to what they think you want. Vote Foxy for Comms!
• Other Ideas As a final point, some of the things I would like to add include usercreated media, organised debate (political or otherwise), better awareness of the RAG and society-run charity events, and general recognition of user creativity and achievement. I would also like to instate a “good idea” award for students who help the S.U. by contributing with clever ideas.
-
A wider reaching more diverse media group… - I have tons of ideas here! (e.g. Why Bathimpact is not delivered to campus kitchens baffles me!)
The list goes on!….. I’m a chatty and approachable person, so if you see me, come and talk to me, or check my website! (http://web.mac.com/jph24) VOTE JAMES VP-COMMS and make YOUR UNION listen to YOU once again!
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Monday 15th March 2010
bathimpact
International
Diary of half a marathoner Josie Cox Deputy Editor deputy@bathimpact.com
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hat’s your time? How did you do? I overtook you! Did you see me? Are you doing it next year? The questions echo around campus as a surprisingly large number of students hobble across parade on Monday morning. Some sport their official Bath Half 2010 Tshirts like trophies, others are still bleary-eyed from the comatose sleep they drifted into just hours after crossing the finish line. My personal favourite was a co-student who stumbled into an 11.15 lecture twenty minutes late offering the feeble excuse that he had “done the Bath Half”. Well
done hun, so did we. Not a first-time runner, I have come to observe a significant increase in the cool-factor of running and a boom in the number of former couch potatoes slipping into their trainers to earn themselves what has become a medal of bravery. Hats off. It’s a good achievement, and even if you hated every minute of it, it’s a story you can tell and something to be proud of. We were all part of one of the SouthWest’s biggest sporting event and those of us who raised money for charity, you deserve an even bigger pat on the back. Let’s do it again next year!
www.bathimpact.com
LOST
IN TRANS LAT
ION
Tagebuch eines halben Marathoners Josie Cox Deputy Editor deputy@bathimpact.com
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elche Zeit hattest du? Wie warst du? Ich hab dich überholt? Hast du mich gesehen? Machst du nächstes Jahr auch mit? Dieses Fragen hört man überall an diesem Montag Morgen an dem zahlreiche Studenten sich holpernd über Parade schleppen. Einige Tragen ihre offiziellen Bath Half 2010 T-shirts wie Trophäen, andere immer noch Schlaftrunken von dem Komaähnlichen Schlaf in den sie Kurz nach dem sie die Ziellinie erreicht haben versetzt wurden. Besonders lustig war ein Mitstudent der mit 20 Minuten Verspätung ein Seminar betrat, mit der schlappen Ausrede er hätte beim „Bath Half mitgemacht.“ Gratuliere Schnecke. Haben
wir auch gemacht. Da ich nicht zum ersten mal dabei bin, konnte ich die Beobachtung machen dass immer wie mehr Leute ihre Vorliebe fürs Laufen zu entdecken scheinen. Eine zunehmend Anzahl an ehemaligen Sportmuffen schnüren die Schuhe zu in der Hoffnung eine Medaille des Mutes zu gewinnen. Hut ab. Es ist eine solide Leistung. Und auch wenn du jede einzelne Minute des Laufs gehasst hasst, ist es trotzdem eine Geschichte die du weitererzählen kannst und worauf du stolz sein darfst. Wir haben alle an einem der größten Sportereignissen des Sudwestens mitgemacht. Und für diejenige die auch noch Geld für einen guten Zweck gesammelt haben: Ein extra lautes Bravo! Auf nächstes Jahr!
How I experienced Blood Diamond
In an exclusive article, fresher Shailly Gupta tells bathimpact about one of the scariest moments of her life; a moment which many of us only know from the movies.
F
reetown, Sierra Leone, 1997. I was six years old. I considered Sierra Leone as my only world, my universe. Never in my dreams had I imagined leaving my school, my friends, my home... and then the tsunami of terror arrived and changed my life forever. We were having lunch next to the window. All of a sudden, my brother asked Papa why the army helicopters were heading towards our house. Although Dad replied that it might be the weekly patrol, he had never looked so uncertain. However, there was no time for suspicion. Gun shots. Our house got raided with bullets in all directions as the helicopters came nearer. Mom and
I leapt in one direction and Dad and my brother in the opposite. Mom picked me and ran towards our bedroom where we hid in the safe trying to save our lives. The firing continued for hours and then stopped. Our door bell rang. A few shots came
Mom picked me and ran towards our bedroom where we hid in the safe trying to save our lives. again and then we heard Dad answering the door. It was the rebels (our security guards had fled). They wanted one million Sierra Leone dollars. They left satisfied. Dad tried
contacting the head office. First, there was no communication but then a signal came. A coup had begun. The next three days were spent in hiding with candlelit dinners. The background echoed horror. During this period, the rebels came again, this time standing below our balcony and asking for car keys. Our neighbor had just been shot; he had refused. Our turn, and we felt that Death awaited us. If we obeyed, we could not escape. Else, we were finished. Dad did as he was told and we were together again. I had lost my favorite Land Cruiser in which I used to play hide-and-seek with Mr. Henry, our driver. They snatched my
power over the car radio and my education. They took away everything. All UN officers’ families were being evacuated. Mr. Henry risked his life to ensure that we left the country. Fortunately, he found our car near our house unoccupied. Dad immediately left for his office to get our documents, and returned from a near-death escape from a car swerve confrontation between him and the rebels; they had come for our office resources. Meanwhile, Mom and I distributed our property to our helpers, who had also risked their lives, and were bidding them farewell. It was time to leave. Mom hid my face from what was brutal bloodshed and cried. I wanted to console the
people outside but couldn’t. Only women and children could leave but the UN Chief allowed Dad and my brother to join us. We embarked on a small boat, heading to Guinea, as refugees. A little girl, with bronchitis, was in a storm in the Atlantic Ocean at midnight, mourning the bombing of her school, and her separation from friends and land, lost for life. We reached India, my country. We survived Blood Diamond. If you have experienced something life changing or simply incredible abroad which you would like to tell us about, simply email deputy@ bathimpact.com
Monday 15th March 2010
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25
International
www.bathimpact.com
Chatting up around
the Globe
Heading abroad? Or just fancy wooing the object of your desire in an exotic, impressive foreign tongue? These should help you get on the right track, or at least spark that imagination of yours…
E
E
i, a? i?sirengimas jums mano akis vis? nakt?, ir manau, kad laikas pamatyti, jei a? esu teisus. Hey, I’ve been undressing you with my eyes all night long, and I think it’s time to see if I’m right. (Lithuanian)
r flugvelli nágrenninu eða er það bara hjarta mitt hrífandi burt? Is there an airport nearby, or is that just my heart taking off? (Icelandic)
C H
ormamin
P
äivän sana on jalat. Mennään takaisin paikkani ja levittää sanaa. The word of the day is ‘legs’. Let’s go back to my place and spread the word. (Finnish)
lindua
ele
lle
My heart sings to see you
(Elven)
aai, dat die rok lyk mooi. Kan ek daaroor praat jy uit kom? Hey, that dress looks nice. Can I talk you out of it? (Afrikaans)
International Students
WE NEED YOU If you fancy writing an article for these pages, either about your experiences as an international student in Bath or about your home country, simply email deputy@bathimpact.com or pop along to our meetings on Tuesdays at 18.15 in 1W2.5.
A
n toir thu dhomh pòg? Will you give me a kiss? (Scottish Gaelic)
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Monday 15th March 2010
bathimpact
Arts
www.bathimpact.com
Profile: Neil Poole Joys and challenges Course: Mathematics, first year Hometown: Hersham, Surrey Instruments: piano, piano accordion, tin whistle
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hy those instruments: I was inspired to take up the accordion by a great folk musician, John Kirkpatrick, with his lively and jolly squeezebox tunes. I started learning the whistle when I saw one on sale at a festival for just 3 quid - I couldn’t resist! Piano: I can’t remember... Previous performances: The first performance that I can remember was on the accordion to my classmates in Year 7, playing ‘Married to a Mermaid’! I’ve played in lots of concerts and a recital at school, folk clubs, folk festivals and at several day centres. Debut at Bath: Apart from various messing around on instruments in my room, my first performance at Bath was on piano at the Chaos Recital in February, where I accompanied two fantastic instrumentalists, Gowri on clarinet and Peter on violin. I’d heard Csárdás by Monti before, and I really like the exotic scales and the slight craziness of Hungarian gypsy music, so when I was offered the chance to play it with Peter, I jumped at the chance. I’m glad I did - it was a fantastic night with lots of top quality and entertaining acts.
arrive in the Sports Training Village, and we played for the media and other guests in the Blues Café afterwards. Another was the Arts Variety Show that was part of Rag week. There were some brilliant acts, such as Doug’s guitar piece which contained unfathomably many harmonics, BodySoc’s mesmerizing dance performance and the Sabbs’ medley of lots of different dances to finish off the night. I played Liberty Bell on the accordion, and apart from messing up the very first line of the piece, thoroughly enjoyed it. What next: I’m looking forward to looking at Festival on the Hill, as I like to learn about and enjoy music and other arts from different cultures around the world.
Favourite musical moments at Bath: One of them was to play at Winter Olympic gold medalist Amy Williams’ homecoming - it was a great honour to play at the event. There was an excellent atmosphere too: hundreds of people were there to watch Amy
Arts Societies Calendar 15/03/10 17th-20th March –
BUSMS: Footloose Venue: Arts Lecture Theatre Time: 7:30pm Tickets: £7, £5 Student/Conc.
20th March –
Chamber Choir: Concert Venue: St. Michael’s Church, Broad St. Time: 7:30pm Tickets: £5
21st March – Ch&OS: Spring Concert Venue: Holy Trinity Church, Combe Down Time: 7:30pm Tickets: £3 Advance, £4 Door 25th–27th March – BUST: You Never Can Tell Venue: Museum of Bath at Work, Julian Rd. Time: 7:30pm Tickets: £7, £5 Student/Conc.
of stage directing
Katie Colthurst tells us about her latest project for the ICIA.
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hen first asked to write an article for bathimpact on being a director I could only really think of one popular phrase that appeared to relate, namely “Keep calm and carry on”. However this motto, whilst accurate, is admittedly not particularly informative for the majority of readers. Fortunately my play of choice “You Never Can Tell” is a comedy and therefore has kept us all smiling for the majority of the rehearsal process. Written by George Bernard Shaw in 1897, You
I am still resisting the urge to show up with a megaphone and folding chair Never Can Tell is a four act comedy of errors. The play is set in a seaside town and depicts the story of the Clandon family following their return to England after an eighteen year stay in Madeira. The family encounters many unusual situations including unrequited love, mistaken identity, and social differences overseen by their friendly waitress eager to impart her knowledge with the popular phrase “You never can tell”. The play itself makes the process of directing much easier (you could write a novel from the stage directions alone!) as it is a fantastic text and of course written by one of our literary legends! Our theatrical journey began in January when Giles Partington (director of the hugely successful Agatha Christie “And Then There Were
None”) and I held open auditions for both the plays, successfully casting both of them within a week amidst a flurry of fantastic performances, jelly babies and Lucozade. After the nightmare exam fortnight was over our rehearsal process began, and I distinctly remember standing in the first rehearsal and thinking: “Oh no, I actually have to know what I’m doing from now on!” Fortunately I have a fantastic cast who are receptive, dedicated, and great fun to be with! The rehearsal process has been both exciting and terrifying and as we near the end I must admit I won’t know what to do with myself when it is all over (a bit more work would probably be a smart move though). Aside from the rehearsals the acquisition of props and set for any play is a very time-consuming job, and
Eve Elwell speaks about her personal highlights what she’s particularly looking forward to in her last few weeks of being an Arts Representative.
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1897
Year Shaw wrote You Never Can Tell
and a brilliant experience, and as we near performance week (the 25th, 26th and 27th of March) I am still resisting the urge to show up to rehearsal with a megaphone and personalised folding chair. Essentially every director will approach a project in different ways, but personally I believe if we enjoyed the process and created something we are proud of then it’s definitely a success. Tickets for You Never Can Tell are available now from the ICIA Box Office and from Monday on parade, concessions £5 and nonconcessions £7, after all “Laughter is the corrective force which prevents us from becoming cranks.”
George Bernard Shaw, whose play You Never Can Tell BUST will soon be performing.
The perks and pluses of being an Arts Executive he highlight of my experience on the Arts Executive Committee has to be Show In A Week. For those of you that didn’t see it (and why not, I ask you?) the theme was the 1990s and it was just so much fun to be involved in! After an exciting launch party, all of the arts societies involved had one crazy week of rehearsals followed by a one night only performance on the Saturday which was a huge success! Right from the initial
logistically our greatest production challenge has definitely been locating an 1890s dentist chair. Fortunately, I have a truly amazing producer Suzanne Ipe, who can track down impossible props, work wonders, and keep me (relatively) sane at the same time! The play itself has been a joy to direct
planning stages through to the final performance I had a lot of fun organising, participating and meeting so many new people. The rest of the year I have been involved more generally in supporting, advising and developing arts societies, as well as organising joint socials - such as going to the Cider Festival - and getting the inside scoop on all of the latest arts events on and off campus. I’m now looking forward to or-
ganising the Arts Extravaganza which will be an amazing afternoon of fun and frolics in the sunshine down by the lake on Friday 30th April where lots of the arts societies will showcase their work from the year so make sure you’re there! I would definitely recommend
6
Number of members of the Arts Executive
running for Arts Representative because in addition to the obvious benefits it brings to your CV it is a lot of fun and you can meet so many new and like-minded people, as well as having your say in the organisation of your Arts Union.
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27
Media
www.bathimpact.com
BLURB
SINGLE OF FORTNIGHT
THE
Nevermind the Stars -Holiday
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he past few weeks have seen a handful of days worthy of cracking out the sunglasses, not necessarily enough for the flip flops and shorts to join the ensemble but still enough for a glimpse of what spring might have in store for us. ”Holiday” is a track that, despite getting a little ahead of itself, will gear you up for sunnier times and lift you out of the gloomy winter blues. An upbeat little tune with an interesting bassline (!) that is guaranteed to get you tapping your feet and humming along.
WHAT’S HOT ON URB:
THE CHARTS
The chart is URB’s chance to play all those tracks that have been a favourite for our presenters and listeners in the past week. It is compiled using the amount of airplay and votes via the Soundtrack selector. This does not stop there; our chart then gets sent on so that a national student radio chart can be compiled, allowing the music industry to see what we’re playing.
CTV Zap
A
NaSTAs here we come!
fter CTV’s flamboyant success at the NaSTAs last year (winner in the light entertainment category and highly recommended for the news category) we are giving it another go this year in Glasgow with more amazing videos. This time we are putting up four of them for the competition, one in each of the following categories: ‘music’, ‘video-to-music’, ‘title sequence’ and ‘open’. The submission for the video-to
-music category is going to be the Thursday refresh video, so for those freshers of you out there, you might soon be in an award winning video! As for ‘music’ and ‘title sequence’, it will be the Good Shoes episode of the rather successful CTV/URB unplugged sessions. Finally the Killer Bouncy Ball video - which you can enjoy in its entirety on YouTube will be CTV’s last competitor. So let’s hope that we’ll be able to once again bring home a shiny trophy!
1. Owl City Fireflies 2. Ellie Goulding Starry Eyed 3. Hot Chip One Life Stand 4. Marina and the Diamonds Hollywood 5. Biffy Clyro Many of Horror 6. Plan B Stay Too Long 7. Bombay Bicycle Club Evening/Morning 8. Mumford and Sons The Cave 9. Iyaz Replay 10. Lady Gaga Bad Romance
11. 3OH!3 Starstrukk 12. Lady Gaga Telephone 13. Vampire Weekend Cousins 14. Grove Armada Paper Romance 15. Ke$ha Tik Tok 16. Example Won’t Go Quietly 17. Florence and the Machine You Got The Love 18. Alexandra Burke Broken Heels 19. Glee Cast Don’t Stop Believin’ 20. Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip Get Better
It’s that time of year already?
Y
es, nearly 12 months have passed since this year’s lovely Sabbs were battling it out for your votes at the annual Sabbatical Elections. This means that very, very soon some eager beavers will be donning fancy dress and filling the parade with a festival atmosphere. What this also means is that URB will be ultra-busy covering the events and keeping the University of Bath informed with what’s going on. The Sabbatical Elections Coverage is always a massive project for URB and we need YOU! If you want to be a part of this or merely want some more info on the kind of thing URB will be doing that week, email urbmanager@bath.ac.uk.
Covering the battle
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ast Wednesday and Thursday, the CTV crew filmed the candidates running for the sabbatical elections this year. It’s really important that the student body at the university votes; however, in order to do that, it is vital for you to know who the candidates for this year are and the ideas and agendas that they have in mind. So in order to help you to get to know who the candidates are, each of the eighteen hopefuls have recorded a video manifesto introducing themselves. To make your life really easy, they are posted on the elections website at www.bathstudent.com/votenow! Go and watch them – then make sure to cast your vote! Stay tuned for our post-election re-cap video and manifesto bloopers later this month.
Join media: you’ll learn why not to lick t-shirts
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Monday 15th March 2010
bathimpact
Careers
www.bathimpact.com
How to get a job
A rather successful Bath Alumna gives her view
“
So?!” I hear you ask, what qualifies this girl to give me career advice exactly? If you’re not asking that question, you should be. (That’s lesson number 1). My name is Jay Cooper, I am a University of Bath Alumna, having graduated in 2006, and am now working for one of the largest IT companies in the world. I have worked for my current employer for a total of five years. I did a sandwich placement in 2004/5 and then came back seven months after graduating from Uni. I was asked to come back, I did not apply. I have had three roles in the past four years, led multiple teams and projects, been promoted three times, given several awards, put on a career acceleration program and am now in control of 24 people and circa $10 million dollars
7.9%
Graduate unemployment rate
per year. I’m 26 and terrified after putting that in writing. The reality is I am just like you. I remember well the mixed feeling of excitement of what life after university held and the dread of how to find it. Lets be honest here, you guys have it tougher than I did four years ago; the market conditions have changed, employers can be ruthless with who they do and more importantly do not select to join them. There is an abundance of potential in the graduate recruitment market. I’m
here to try and help you understand what it is employers look for and how to make sure they see it in you. I’ll be talking you through the mindset of graduate employers, CVs, application forms, interviews and assessment centres, making a good impression, career progression and most importantly, success for the long-term, not just the next five minutes. I will be using my experiences (good and bad) plus that of my peers to give you real-life exam-
What will set you apart from the competition? ples of what I am talking about. I will keep this industry agnostic. This stuff is good the world over, not just for Bath grads, or the IT industry or whatever... So, lesson number one, put yourself in the mindset of an employer. For the purposes of this I’m specifically talking about graduate employers. Why is that important? Because they are not looking for experience, they are looking for transferrable skills. Now we venture into the wonderful world of recruitment lingo. What I am describing here is your ability to learn ‘stuff’, to be flexible in your approach, to try to anticipate risks and plan accordingly, to recover when you’ve made a mistake, to be keen and enthusiastic… basically, you want to show them that you are a worthwhile investment, because that is what you are to them, an investment in the company’s future.
Competition Win a case of Ubuntu Fairtrade cola
W
e at bathimpact have teamed up with Ubuntu Fairtrade Cola to give you the chance to win a whole case! Ubuntu is the UK’s first Fairtrade cola and fizzes with Fairtrade sugar from the Kasinthula Cooperative in Malawi and from the Kaleya Cooperative in Zambia. Here in Bath you can buy it in the Union Shop, Fresh supermarket and 4 West café. Ubuntu is named after a concept of kindness, humanity and interdependence from sub-Saharan Africa, trans-
lating as ‘I am what I am because of who we all are’. Archbishop Desmond Tutu has described Ubuntu as ‘the essence of being human. I am human because I belong, and my humanity is bound to yours.’ It is a give-and-take concept where everyone depends on everyone else; it links everyone and everything is shared. Nobody is left wanting. For your chance to win a case of 12 bottles of Ubuntu Fairtrade Cola, just send your name and degree programme to editor@
They do not expect you to be an expert in the area you have applied to, nor do they expect you to have relevant work experience,
£20,000 Average graduate starting salary
they do however expect you to display the skills to learn how to be an expert. So what will set you apart from your ‘competition’? Take these two example CVs: Example 1: 2 years experience working behind a bar pulling pints 3 years experience in retail as a shop assistant selling clothes 1 year experience as a waitress serving fry-ups
Member of teams and clubs 10 GCSEs A*-C 3 A-levels A,B,B 1 AS-level C Predicted 2.1 at Uni Example 2: 6 months experience volunteering Member of a team 11 GCSEs A*-A 4 A-Levels A,A,A,B Predicted 1 at Uni Example 1 if you hadn’t already guessed it was a snap shot of my CV during my time looking for a 12 month placement, Example 2 is a snapshot of one of my best friend’s CVs. He was miles ahead of me academically, yet on more than one occasion when applying for the same placement roles (he also did a sandwich degree) I would be offered an interview and he wouldn’t. Why is that? I had a wealth of experiences where I could demonstrate the types of skills employers were
looking for. Was I a team player? Could I take ownership, responsibility and lead/direct tasks? Could I manage my time, work well under pressure? Did I have the dedication to apply myself to learn new things? I could far more easily prove I could answer yes to those questions in multiple situations where my friend really could only prove yes to the last question as he only had one example outside of academia to draw examples of skills. Don’t be concerned about the ‘quality’ of your work experience. I worked because I needed the money, not because I was building a CV. My friend didn’t need the money; he was exceptionally fortunate that his family were wealthy and were able to fully support him without needing a part-time job. Please do not mistake my intention here, you do not need to wait on tables and serve fry-ups, volunteer at your local youth club, sports centre or outdoor activities club, or if you are more academically focused volunteer to help younger children with reading and literacy. It doesn’t matter what you do or where you do it, it all proves you have the transferable skills an employer is looking for and multiple examples you can talk about proving you consistently demonstrate these skills; it wasn’t just a fluke or happy accident. Take a critical eye over your CV; taking the content away, can you honestly demonstrate these transferable skills? If you can, excellent, if you can’t, it may be that you need to think about it more carefully because you do have examples, or it might be that you don’t, in which case - go and get them.
The job interview didn’t go as well as had been hoped. bathimpact.com by Wednesday 24th March. And for the latest news, offers and competitions, follow Ubuntu on Twitter @ubuntubath or become a fan on Facebook at www.tinyurl.com/ubuntubath The winner of the Youth in Revolt merchandise was Wafi Albedewi, who correctly identified David Cross as Tobias Funke’s co-star in Arrested Development. Congratulations also go to Ben Sutton , who knew that Lynx were recently sued by a customer who claimed the product failed to help him succeed with women. He wins some Lynx produce. Please could both our lucky winners come up to the Impact office on Norwood level four to collect their winnings. Ubuntu Cola: Like Coca Cola, but with less evil
Monday 15th March 2010
bathimpact
Entertainments
www.bathimpact.com
The Good
L
adies and Gentlemen, sit back, pour yourself a whiskey and exhale deeply before hearing this news: Avatar only won three awards and was resoundingly beaten in the Oscars by The Hurt Locker. It might not be much, but as Mike Patton might say, it’s the small victories, the cankers and medallions, which keep us going.
Mark Lanegan: voice of a fallen angel Good news, Mark Lanegan fans. The uniquely gravelly voiced former Screaming Trees man and sometime Queens of the Stone Age collaborator is returning for a long overdue solo tour, following a stint with fellow drug-bruised antihero Greg Dulli as The Gutter Twins. He’ll be calling at Bristol’s ‘bar’ Academy 2 on the 23rd of April. Pour yourself another whiskey, it’s only fitting. In further news that makes our Ents Editor weak at the knees, longtine American rock survivors Melvins are
29
releasing their 18th album of sludgy riffs on June 1st. The album, catchily titled The Bride Screamed Murder will be their fourth for Mike Patton’s Ipecac imprint and their 3rd with the double drummered set up featuring Big Business. Well we’re excited, so you should be too.
The Bad
W
e really wish that musicians would stop dying, so it’s with great sadness that we ask that Mark Linkous, better known by his recording name of Sparklehorse, is allowed to rest in peace. Mark was found dead since we last went to press, having shot himself with his own rifle. An extremely talented artist who transcended traditional concepts of Americana by peppering his compositions with darkened lyrics and otherwordly echoes, he was a wonderfully powerful live act when impact experienced him. His last album, a collaboration with Austrian electronic musician Christian Fennesz, was a
his life story and the term “The Hurt Locker”, which he claimed was his own creation. Writer Mark Boal has denied the claims, despite admitting that he followed Sarver and his team for 30 days in Iraq in order to write the Playboy article which was the basis for the film script.
fitting testament to his versatility and skill. As many have said, it was his ability to make the ugly and the twisted feel beautiful that is the ultimate and saddest irony about his passing. Uh-oh, Hollywood’s running out of ideas again. This week it’s the Police Academy and Honey I Shrunk The Kids franchises that are being repackaged and revamped. Still, at least we get the guy who does the sound effects back on our screen. He was great.
ed that she probably owes them a little money for the privilege, given how successful she’s made their idea. So Sue Me, Part 2: Pink Floyd have successfully sued EMI to stop them packaging their songs online as individual downloads, arguing that it was a violation of their contract with the company which states that all tracks must be sold as an album. Shine on, you crazy diamonds.
& The Ugly
S
o Sue Me, Part 1: Brooklyn art rockers Gang Gang Dance have claimed royalties from Florence Welch and her Machine for rather cheekily nicking the hook from their brilliant, desert blushed ‘House Jam’ track to use in her very own ‘Rabbit Heart’ number. Florence has admitted she intended the intro to her massive hit to be a homage to the innovative threesome, but has conced-
PINK FLOYD: Set the controls for the heart of the system, man So Sue Me, Part 3: The Hurt Locker might have won six Oscars but it isn’t stopped them being sued. Sgt. Jeffrey Sarver is claiming that the film’s characters were based on his three man bomb defusal squad and is asking for compensation for both
We’re certain you’ll already be aware of this , but it needs saying anyway: BBC Director General Mark Thompson has announced the closure of radio stations 6music and BBC Asian Network. These stations provide some of the most interesting and diverse content which we feel should constitute the mainstay of a public service broadcaster’s output, and we’d encourage our readers to sign up to any one of the numerous petitions online protesting against the cuts. Our own Ents Editor Philip Bloomfield takes on URB Station manager Lewis Brimblecombe and argues that this is the beginning of the end of radio: turn to page 31 to see them duke it out.
800 sweaty strangers? Music to my ears... Laura Craine argues that whilst musical beauty might not be skin-deep, it’s definitely thicker than a CD case.
P
icture yourself in an arena packed with people swigging Stella from plastic cups, sweat dripping off their chins and seeping through your clothes. A bloke, a good foot taller than you, has been nudging your head every time he feels the need to quench the thirst you know he doesn’t have as he’s already on his 6th pint of cheap continental lager. You’ve been in this situation for a good hour and just as you’re starting to wonder why you pay to put yourself through this at least twice a year, the lights fade; people start jostling to see the stage and the band attempts to nonchalantly saunter on but don’t quite manage it due to their much-too-tight skinny jeans. You’re sufficiently battered and bruised after the concert, soaked with what you can only hope is your own sweat and with one ear ringing so loud that you know you won’t be able to hear anything properly for a week. But it was worth the feelings of exhilaration and exhaustion flooding over you
as you queue for your coat. Suddenly, you are hit with indignation as you overhear some ponce announce that he’d rather sit at home and listen to the CD. Is such a statement justified? Can a digitally enhanced recording of an artist truly reflect the passion they attempt to instill in an audience during a live gig? Cynics will tell you that artists write
A true music lover cannot sit at home listening to a studio recorded album music to sell music and they perform in order to advertise what they’re trying to sell. And yet, I stand by my pledge that an artist’s main desire, true to the definition of art, is self-expression and the need to communicate to an audience. A true music-lover will not and cannot sit at home listening to a studiorecorded album and be satisfied. I listen to these digitally manipulated
“Traitor!” Iggy Pop accuses Matt Bellamy of preferring to listen to CDs on his Bang & Olufsen hi-fi (and I believe therefore spoiled) tracks because they remind me of seeing the artist in person, sweating, red-in-theface and happier than they sound on the CD. Fundamental expressive qualities inherent in music appeal to inherent human qualities and these are lost in translation during studio recordings. Notes are tweaked to sound ‘perfect’ but the spontaneity and personal touch of the artist is lost in the process. In my opinion, humanity is anything but perfect so why should the music we create be?
Furthermore, the anticipation of waiting for a gig to start and the amazement felt when you can say you saw Radiohead perform Creep live or saw Matt Bellamy’s Kaoss Pad being manipulated expertly could never be substituted by a recording. A pleasure that’s repeatable loses all illustriousness. For those who play it safe and buy music in HMV or online, let me tell you, you’re missing out. BIG! Take a chance on live music, you’ll never feel the same about recordings again. And if they really do suck live, then that’s
not really the sign of a brilliant band. According to Tolstoy, ‘Music is the shorthand of emotion’ so go to a gig and let the sound overwhelm you. Laura Craine co-hosts ‘Bring the Ruckus’ on URB every Tuesday from 12-2
“
Music is the shorthand of emotion.
”
Leo Tolstoy
30
Monday 15th March 2010
bathimpact
Entertainments
Whitaker looks at one of the best performances Style & Substance Laurence of the year, in Colin Firth’s portrayal of A Single Man
Film: A Single Man Director: Tom Ford Starring: Colin Firth
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ith Gucci’s ex creativedirector-turned-fashionentrepreneur Tom Ford as director it was to be expected that A Single Man would feel as much like an intense perfume advert as it would a powerful drama. Adapted from Christopher Isherwood’s 1964 novel the film follows English expatriate George Falconer (Colin Firth) on his final day as he plans to abandon the struggle to cope with life after the untimely death of his gay lover in a car accident. Firth brings a wonderful repressed polite Englishness to this role with intense emotion and confusion bubbling beneath an exquisitely composed exte-
THIRD
rior; it reminded me of Alec Guinness’s portrayal of George Smiley in the TV adaptation of John Le Carre’s Smiley trilogy. Set in 1962 with America tense and
Firth brings a wonderfully polite Englishness to his role in a film that’s a powerful drama with all the beauty of an intense perfume advert jittery after the Cuban missile crisis, Ford’s direction captures the desperation and consumerism of Cold War America. A neat opening scene shows George covering himself in the mask of normality as he dresses in an immaculately pressed white shirt and perfectly
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polished black brogues whilst walking around his open house much in contrast to all the anxiety locked within himself... similarly close female friend Charley (Julian Moore) drowns herself in the glamour of gin, nicotine and mascara whilst never leaving her ‘AbFab’ grotto of a house complete with a citrus tree-lined hallway. The simple irony entailed in the plot shows George the bespectacled English lecturer despairing at the uninspired conformity of those he teaches and yet it is his boyishly handsome student Kenny’s (Nicholas Hoult) fresh fascination that saves him from his intended suicide. Critical acclaim has been lavished upon Firth deservedly but Hoult warrants recognition too as he demonstrates ever increasing levels of maturity in his performances.
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In a film that is set and shot perfectly throughout, complete with a scene where George stares wistfully out of a bathroom window at the stereotypical normality of American suburban life playing out before his eyes (smiling beauty pageant children, doting mother and short mown sprinkler watered lawn), it is Firth’s reservation, his control and coolness that gives gravity to the film. It’s as though the film’s very essence is the American dream and all the substance is the American dream and yet all that we are left with is the Englishness, the drama, the unspoken emotion, the order and the composure of a life that has been reinvented just for show whilst the reality crumbles and dies, harrowed within. Aside from the film review I feel the need to make a plea to anyone who has actually made it through this review and is still reading. Start visiting the Little Theatre Cinema. Nestled behind the Roman Spa this twoscreen independent cinema shows all the latest films as well as some classic arthouse offerings, you get a wonderful velvet clad seat and a much better ambience than soulless multiscreens and best of all, with a student card it’s only four quid!
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www.bathimpact.com
Cinema Listings 15/03
Dirty Oil @ Little Theatre Cinema, Bath
15/03 - 18/03
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Hurt Locker, The Last Station @ Little Theatre Cinema, Bath
15/03 - 18/03
Alice In Wonderland, Green Zone, Shutter Island @Odeon, Bath
17/03 -18/03
I Love You Philip Morris @Odeon, Bath
17/03
The ICIA presents Couscous (La Graine et Le Mulet) @ 3WN 2.1, University of Bath
New Releases 17/03
The Bounty Hunter I Love You Philip Morris
19/03
Old Dogs My Last Five Girlfriends
26/03
The Blind Side Clash Of The Titans 3D Shank Extract
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Monday 15th March 2010
bathimpact
31
Entertainments
www.bathimpact.com
Philip Bloomfield argues that the impending closure of 6 Music and the BBC Asian Network heralds the beginning of the end for radio as we know it, and that we should have seen it coming a long time ago.
“
It’s the end of radio The last announcer plays the last record The last watt leaves the transmitter Circles the globe in search of a listener Can you hear me now?
”
- Shellac
N
ot my words but those of Steve Albini, front man of Shellac and one of the world’s most famous record producers. But when Albini penned those lines three years ago, he probably didn’t realise it would come so quickly. Yet over the past few weeks, a veritable furore has erupted since Mark Thompson, the Director General of the BBC, announced a range of cuts which have hit the alternative spectrum of Auntie Beeb’s radio frequencies particularly hard, and it seems that it might well be the end of radio’s
Web services such as Last.fm and Spotify have replaced the likes of John Peel and DJ/Rupture century-plus long run. And whilst I’m naturally outraged at the idea that BBC Three is more worthwhile than 6 Music (or indeed, Asian Network), I find myself coming to the realisation that as a pretty determined music fan who rarely listens to 6 Music or any of its brethren, I’m actually one of the people who’ve killed innovative radio. Because the fact of the matter remains that it’s rare that I’ll be found listening to 6 Music, or any radio at all. And whilst I could seek to wash this blood clean from my hands, I’d prefer to try and logically
explain who or what killed radio. The internet is the short answer. Or more accurately, high speed in-
Radio used to be trusted to keep you ahead of the curve: now the tools for DIY cratedigging are widely available ternet. Radio used to be the portal for music lovers, culture enthusiasts and anyone who wanted to ride the very crest of the wave. There was a
voice, perhaps a John Peel or even a Tim Westwood or Zane Lowe, who you could trust to stay ahead of the curve for you, to get their hands dirty on your behalf. But now the tools for DIY cratedigging are widely available: Last.fm, Spotify, YouTube, music blogs and aggregation services such as hypem.com. The internet has enabled the rise of a user-orientated service for cultural knowledge acquisition, which places the onus on a fickle public in a fast-paced world. A public who don’t have the ‘time’ to sit in and listen to a radio show, to listen to the next Studs
The End of Radio?
Terkel or Alistair Cooke deliver their narratives and communiqués from the ether. Yet this latest round of fiery debate has prompted me to listen again to radio. Perhaps I feel guilty, but my ears have been re-opened amount of quality programming available for the discerning listener: from Stuart Maconie on 6 Music, through to our very own URB (with a particularly excellent hip-hop show every Thursday evening) and across the pond to freeform oddity broadcaster WFMU and indie rock station WOXY, radio remains as diverse as it ever was. The problem is, nobody’s listening anymore. And my own re-conversion will remain a tiny drop in an ocean where somebody’s pulled the plug. It’s the End of Radio.
There’s no longer ‘time’ to listen to the next Studs Terkel or Alistair Cooke Philip Bloomfield is the Entertainments Section Editor and a bit of a music nerd. He co-hosts the URB Culture Show every Friday , 8-9pm.
Lewis Brimblecombe defends a medium that retains dignity in a telecommunications world that does not.
I
n 1979 The Buggles preached that “Video Killed the Radio Star”, reflecting on the end of the golden age of radio and the advent of regular TV viewing in the 1950s. Yet I would argue reports of the death of radio have been greatly exaggerated. Of course the proposed shutting down of 6 Music and the BBC’s Asian Network is indicative of a shift in the company’s long term strategy; but let us not let it cloud our vision of public, student and commercial radio. The UK is a bastion for some of the best broadcasting in the world, aside from having some of the most varied and up to the minute music shows radio, also uniquely has a legacy of providing documentaries and current affairs analysis in an entirely unpatronising and constantly innovative way. Internet radio sites are great, but they are great in the way Wikipedia is great. Sure, popularity from specific demographics can be a decent indicator of what music you would like, but as in the political sphere popularity is
Undermining the system that has brought us music for the last 50 years undermines everything that has come out of it
The Buggles: video might have killed the radio star, but it couldn’t kill John Humphries not necessarily a mark of excellence. choose who to take on, well versed years. You undermine the system, you In the modern age we spend so much record companies choose who to sign undermine everything that has come time searching for individualism and and promote, and the heads of radio out of it. Radio is not just about the music are on the hunt to make our own choic- stations choose who to take to the top es, but it seems to me we descend into of the charts. Theoretically it’s nice to either. What internet radio station following the voice of the mob. With think of a world in which this was not has the funds to produce an hour long internet radio, rather than having an the case, but this is a system that has cutting-edge documentary on war expert on the world of music feed you brought us the best music of the last 50 crimes in Rwanda? Even if you want to explore the world of internet music their carefully researched and lovingly radio, you should never discount the put together show, all you’re getting is Internet radio is, and education and information that radio a mish-mash of other people’s crappy will remain, a mish provides. Whilst television seems to be music taste. Sure this is elitist, but in the world mash of other people’s exponentially dumbing down and the web seems to be filled only with spuriof music, elitism has always been crappy tastes ous conspiracy theory docs, radio cona mainstay; well versed producers
tinues to produce programming that has integrity, gravitas and the ability to be played whilst sitting in gridlocked traffic on the M1. Radio survived the onset of TV and sure its golden age may have long passed, but radio in the UK still has millions of loyal listeners. I don’t mean to damn progress, I simply would not wish to see an elder medium rejected without consideration of its true merits. Lewis Brimblecombe is the Station Manager for 1449AM URB, and one half of URB’s The Lewis Show , which airs every Thursday , 1-3. He also hosts The Difficult Solo breakout Project every Thursday from 12-1
Monday 15th March 2010
32
bathimpact
Entertainments
www.bathimpact.com
Peter Brook’s Theatre of Africa Entertainments contributor Rowan Emslie takes his seat at the Barbican to catch a fine theatrical production courtesy of one of the nations most acclaimed directors. Play: 11 Or 12 Director: Peter Brook Venue: Barbican Centre
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eter Brook’s newest (and possibly last; he is 84) play is called 11 Or 12 and it is on at the Barbican Centre in London. For those of you who don’t know, Brook is just about the most important figure in theatre since Bertolt Brecht, who completely revolutionised theatre in the first half of the 20th century while bedding lots of mistresses and somehow getting away with it. Brook released his first, and probably best remembered, book, The Empty Space, in 1968. The oft-quoted line from this book has become the mantra of site-specific theatre companies all over the world: “I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across this empty space whilst someone else is watching him, and this is all that is needed for an act of theatre to be engaged.”
A West African fable about religion, truth, misinformation and colonialism In the Noughties, it was the theatre company Punchdrunk who became
best known for this in the UK with shows like the mesmerising Faust in 2005. Not content with virtually founding an entire type of theatre, Brook then went on to form Theatre Des Bouffes Du Nord (initially founded as the International Centre for Theatre Research) which has been massively influential in expanding the horizons of theatre, touring extensively in Africa and the Middle East since the 1970s. The 1989 film - which followed from a theatrical production - The Mahabhadatra which Brook (who directed it) adapted from an unbelievably long and ancient Sanscrit epic
PETER BROOK: the director has had a profound impact on theatre in past decades
poem is probably the best example of this inter-cultural approach. 11 Or 12 is a play in the vein of this latter development. It is a West African fable by Amadou Hampâté Bâ that looks at religion, truth, misinformation and colonialism. The story it is pinned around an argument about a Sufi prayer and whether or not this should be said (can you guess what it is yet?) 11 or 12 times. Imaginative name right?
The production was filled with numerous magical Brook moments The production was filled with magical Brook moments: a piece of cloth was a canoe; a large floor mat was a dune, the desert, a French colonial office floor, a graveyard. The eerie sparseness of the staging coupled with the desert wisdom completely at peace in the face of colonial bluster was fantastic. The standout line (my viewing companion was compelled to shuffle through her bag in the dark of the circle for a notebook to write it down which helped me remember it) was just one example of many enig-
The costume designers ran out of outfits and had to resort to bed sheets
matic statements that I felt too dumb to understand completely: “There are three types of truth. Your truth, my truth and... the truth.” I thoroughly recommend seeing it - it’s on in London til the 27th and then it goes on a UK tour stopping
“There are three types of truth. Your truth, my truth and the truth”
in Glasgow, Nottingham, Newcastle and Kingston from the 30th March to the 1st May. Book tickets. If only to say you’ve seen a Brook production; you know, for when you get into oneupmanship contests with theatrical types who wear interesting scarves. P.S. This play will make you feel intellectually inadequate. Some people are just better at the whole thinking thing than you are. Brook is one of those guys.
Monday 15th March 2010
bathimpact
Entertainments
www.bathimpact.com
Tour de Force
Gig Listings
Luke Walsh gets backstage at the NME Awards Tour and interviews a chirpy member of The Maccabees... Artists: NME Awards tour 2010: The Maccabees, Bombay Bicycle Club, The Big Pink & The Drums Venue:02 Academy, Bristol Date: 14th February
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hile honouring the perhaps stereotypical indie rock look (including trademark black skinny jeans, dishevelled hair and a rather funky pair of thickrimmed glasses), it is the guitarist and backing vocalist Felix White’s easy and down to earth nature that makes him instantly likeable, not least when he kindly obliges me with a sound check as I (overcautious by nature) nervously prod my voice recorder. Laid back and confident in speaking his mind, White immediately objects to the critical consensus that The Maccabees adopted a darker sound in Wall of Arms to its predecessor (though with the exception of ‘No Kind Words’, which he considers to be “obviously the darkest thing that we’d done”). Instead, he prefers to see the album as “a light spirited pop record” and “more three dimensional and maybe less lightweight” than their debut Colour It In. Ultimately, he is keen to add, “It’s a lot better.” It is refreshing for an acclaimed artist not to take himself too seriously, yet he is understandably concerned about how their upcoming third offering will be received following such success. “I think we feel pressure in terms of quality of
output because we don’t want to be a band that just churns out crap. . . I’m just looking forward to it, man. I think we’ll make our best record next up.” As for when to expect the new material, he hesitantly suggests that “It’ll hopefully be out this time next year.” When questioned about the still topical debate of music piracy, White refuses to jump on the bandwagon of
“
We don’t want to be a band that just churns out crap
”
Felix White slagging off Lily Allen, insisting that she “has a right to an opinion. . . and all the more to her for voicing it”. He compares the public’s illegal downloading to “biting the hands that feed it”, seeing it as “a reaction to record labels ripping off bands for decades”. Therefore, he thinks it’s “totally acceptable that people would say ‘fuck that, we’ll take it for free now’”, but warns that “the people that end up getting hurt the most are the bands, and people aren’t realising that”. However, whereas Allen infamously blasted Radiohead as “arrogant” for letting fans choose how much (if anything) to pay for their last album In Rainbows, White states “That’s fine for Radiohead to do. . . It’s great.” In fact, he is clearly a huge fan of the be-
Naysayer
I
The Maccabees: Five guys from London, not a Jewish rebel army hemothic band, which headlined the Reading and Leeds festival last summer where the Maccabees also played; he goes as far as to describe them as “definitely one of the best bands of all time. They’re unbelievable”. He also praises Jamie T, and Richard Hawley and Micachu and the Shapes of the current crop of talent for making “great records” in 2009. When asked if there were any plans to do the festival circuit again this year, White hints at “a couple of festivals, but it won’t be the same thing. We can’t do them every year because then they won’t feel special.” And right now it’d be a tragic state of affairs for the British music scene if the Maccabees lost what makes them so special. As for the gig, New York-based The Drums opened the show with a set that was nothing if not memorable, as flamboyant front man Jonathan Pierce leapt from stage left to stage right while the band belted out highlight track ‘Let’s Go Surfing’. Next up were The Big Pink, accompanied by a darker, rockier sound before end-
The Drums open in flamboyant style and Bombay Bicycle Club almost rival the headliners...but The Maccabees who generate the most excitement ing with the anthemic crowd-pleaser ‘Dominos’. Bombay Bicycle Club almost rivalled the headliners with a diverse set list that brilliantly showcased their debut album, leaving me (and much of the audience, I suspect) eager to see a full gig by the up-andcoming group. The crowd reserved the majority of their excitement, however, for the Maccabees’ arrival on stage, as they enthusiastically combined favourites such as ‘Toothpaste Kisses’ with standout tracks from Wall of Arms (including ‘Can You Give It’, ‘One Hand Holding’ and ‘Love You Better’), along with a surprise cover of the 1980s hit ‘Rip It Up’ by the post-punk band Orange Juice. The Maccabees were evidently having just as much fun as their fans were as they continued to set the benchmark for the current generation of British indie rock music.
15/03
Josh Pyke @ 02 Academy, Bristol
16/03
A Silver Mount Zion Orchestra @ Fleece & Firkin, Bristol Brother Ali @ The Croft, Bristol
17/03
New Young Pony Club @ Thekla, Bristol
18/03
The Haiti Happening @ Elements, Bath Jethro Tull @ Colston Hall, Bristol
19/03
Frank Turner @ 02 Academy, Bristol Chumbawamba @ Folk House, Bristol
20/03
Four Tet @ Fiddlers Club, Bristol Why? @ Thekla, Bristol Rox @ Folk House, Bristol
21/03
The Album Leaf @ Thekla, Bristol Nachtmystium @ The Croft, Bristol
22/03
Babybird @ Thekla, Bristol
25/03
Upcoming: Haiti Happening
Rowan Emslie hates to rock the boat, but he liked Yeasayer better as a three piece...
Artist: Yeasayer Venue: Thekla Social, Bristol Date: 25th February first saw Yeasayer in 2008 for their first UK show and absolutely loved it so, just to warn you, I am something of a fanboy. At Thekla on a Thursday evening there was much to enjoy about the harmonising indiepop group: if you want to get a roomful of people to reinforce white-dancingstereotypes then you really can’t go far wrong with newest single ‘Ambling Alp’. Curiously, the band seems to have gotten another member, at least during live performances, perhaps to accommodate their more synth-led sound of their second album, Odd Blood. Occasionally those synths had a real swagger to them, as in opener ‘I Remember’ and, most especially, on ‘One’ which is sure to become an indie dancefloor filler very soon. But all too often the sound was left feeling a little
33
Who? The Iconyx, Nicole Fermie, Ocean Thief, Illustrated Men When? 18th March Where? Elements, Bath
YEASAYER: brought the noise, left the harmonies at home thin especially in comparison to the multi-layered more folk styled songs from their first album, All Hour Cymbals. It was telling that the biggest cheers and most frenzied out-of-time limb movements came when they acquiesced to requests to play ‘Sunrise’. Despite many shouted demands – prompting lead-ish singer, Anand Wilder, to comment, “oh Bristol is one of those drunk towns!” – they did not play probably their biggest hit (again from the first album) ‘2080’. They were tighter and more willing to experiment than the first time I saw them but, in the end, the album they’re touring just isn’t as good as their previous one. Here’s hoping they don’t drown in buzz-bandetry and come back with a third album that sees them write more four-part harmonies.
26/03
D
oubtless, like many of our editorial team, you’ll have been deeply affected by the events and images from the Haiti earthquake, as horrifying a natural disaster visited on a blameless populace as there ever was. And like many of our section readers, you’ll be interested in some of the homegrown talent in and around Bath. So why not kill two birds with a single £3 (or £4 on the door) and buy a ticket for the Haiti Happening, a live music event created by students Anna Georgieva and Bianca Harris, in Elements on Thursday 18th March, all proceeds from which will be donated to the Concern Worldwide . But what bang do I get for my buck, you might ask? Four bands, is the answer, with Torquay’s spiky indie pop The Iconyx headlining the bill. Theirs is a frenetic take on The Kooks, with the everyman lyricism of
Thomas Tantrum @ Start The Bus, Bristol Kill It Kid @ Moles, Bath Ellie Goulding @ Thekla, Bristol MusicSoc Battle of the Bands Heat 2 @ Elements, Bath Tunng & The Besnard Lakes @ Arnolfini, Bristol The Joy Formidable @ Start The Bus, Bristol Chase & Status @ Komedia, Bath
Theatre & Comedy
Arctic Monkeys. Bath’s own are well represented in the form of sassy female fronted rock and soul trio Nicole Fermie and the swooning melodies of Ocean Thief, whose sound has a hint of flavour-of-the-moment US indie giants The National. And of course the mariachi influenced country of another Bath band, Illustrated Men, will be opening proceedings. So all that’s to do is buy your ticket. After all it’s not every day that you get to see four bands and support a good cause for just £3...
17/03 - 20/03
BUSMs Footloose @ ICIA Arts Theatre, Bath
22/03 -27/03
Spike Milligan’s Adolf Hitler: My Part In His Downfall @ Theatre Royal Bath
25/03
Chris Addison @ Komedia Bath
25/03 - 27/03
BUST You Never Can Tell @ Museum of Bath, Bath
27/03
Lone Twin Theatre: The Festival @ ICIA Arts Theatre, Bath
Monday 15th March 2010
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bathimpact
Entertainments
When The Chips Are Up
Sean Lightbown is on hand to hear Hot Chip’s change in direction as the geeky quintet head towards poppier pastures with their latest opus Artist: Hot Chip Album: One Life Stand
Alternative Lyrical Poetry
Hazell Moore listens to a breath of fresh musical air Artist: Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip Album: Logic of Chance
E
F
rom the singles of previous albums, I came into this review expecting to talk about how their electronic-dance shtick was bound to have you piling onto the dance floor in a matter of moments, throwing limbs around like the possessed to the tune of irreverent beeping and jangling. One Life Stand isn’t this at all. Sure the opening track, ‘Thieves in the Night’, lulls you into that false sense of familiarity. Sounding like it was surgically removed from the eighties, in parts it could have easily have been commissioned by Nintendo to soundtrack a new Super Mario game. Same, same, but different. And then, the realisation. It was hinted at in the second track, ‘Hand Me Down Your Love’: the kind of aggressive piano number Cold War Kids wish they’d written when they were flavour of the month. Further suggestions came soon after; the steel drums and irresistible funk of the album’s title track consolidating the notion that Hot Chip have gone exploring all four corners of the earth for inspirations. This drastic spreading of direc-
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This is a pop album, that sees a risky change of direction but ends up smelling of the finest roses tion may be of worry to some. Don’t fret. This is working. In fact, this is working so well, it’s frightening. Sure, ‘Slush’, with it’s background of “huhmuhnahhuhmuhnah”, renders the track almost a parody. But when this is sandwiched between ‘Brothers’ - a nostalgic, atmospheric number which can’t help but make you smile in memory - and ‘Alley Cats’ - a song Bloc Party could have made if they had decided that they actually gave a shit after two albums, combining taut guitar, permeable vocals and whimsical, almost heartbreaking lyrics – it really doesn’t matter. In fact, it fits.
This is a pop album, make no mistake. As such, it’s a risk; they’re never going to have the appeal for a mass audience, and if this stank it could’ve seen them alienate the majority of their original fanbase. But it doesn’t stink; in fact, the quintet come up smelling of some of the finest roses produced. The album’s a journey, from fun-filled to doom-mongering, from mournful to wistful, from predatory to cornered. I’ll finish by giving you a tip; patience is a virtue. After the first spin, I wasn’t sure. The second made me think there was something in this. The third and beyond, I’m pretty sure we have an early contender for album of the year. And you know what? I’m pretty sure you’d agree. One Life Stand is out now on DFA Records
veryone is always talking about the power of the media, but i’ve never understood how music can be part of this…until now. Dan le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip offers true thought provocation with superfluous lyrics complimented with a catchy beat. Sure it doesn’t have the same impact as a Live 8 gig, but if everyone were to listen to the lyrical genius of this duo, society could be marginally better.
An album full of wit, clever lyrics and catchy choruses Dan le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip stormed the underground indie scene in 2007 with their single ‘Thou Shalt Always Kill,’ giving young people a modern 10 commandments to live life by. The success of the pair has been most noted through their strange amalgamation of hip hop and indie, with poetic spoken word layered on top. I guess like a younger version of Faithless. The duo has an extensive range of songs varying from those about politics to ridiculing the unoriginality of hip hop’s Dizzee Rascal, through the same beat as ‘Fix up, Look Sharp’. It’s bloody brilliant, jus-
tifying their claim that “hip hop is art.” With such an epically inspiring first album, I was skeptical as to whether they could do it again. Logic of Chance still produces that same high caliber of depth within music, but at the same time offers some progression to their style. ‘Cauliflower’ gives a sweet echo of a Lily Allen sounding female voice, and I think this is the slight variation that the album definitely needs. If you’re looking for a typical Dan le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip song, hit the likes of ‘Get Better’ and ‘Great Britain,’ which both have amazing lyrics that hold too much truth. A lot of the descriptions could be seen as fairly bleak, but I think it’s healthy that for once we’re not talking about getting our iPods stuck on replay. This is the sort of album that sticks with me and I can’t imagine giving it up in a couple of years. I strongly recommend this album for their witty and clever lyrics, but also for their catchy backing and choruses. Logic of Chance is out now on Sunday Best Recordings
Here Come The Girls: Ellie & Marina
Britain’s incredible production line of pop superstars continues full flow with the anticipated arrival of two females, Alex Drake writes Artist: Ellie Goulding Album: Lights
A dramatic adventure through the mind of a quirky and confident girl
Artist: Marina & the Diamonds Album: The Family Jewels
I
t’s been hard not to hear the likes of Ellie Goulding and Marina & the Diamonds, even amongst the massive hullaballoo of hype in the UK. Both have been tipped as the new leaders of a pop movement started by the likes of Florence & the Machine and La Roux last year. In the process they’ve managed to bag themselves a host of awards without having released an album between them. They’ve been bundled together but they’re two different sorts of pop star. While Marina & the Diamonds is the unabashed, outspoken queen of her pop realm, Ellie Goulding is the cute and shy folk-girl turned accidental star. No matter what their personality differences, the time has now come when they both drop their respective works of art and see what the masses make of them.
Marina is the outspoken pop queen, whilst Ellie is the accidental sensation
Marina & the Diamonds is a Londoner by way of Wales and Greece, who came to the capital with booming vocals, an uncensored attitude and the sole objective of making it in this cutthroat industry. The net result of her record deal is The Family Jewels, which plays like a dramatic adventure through the mind of a strangely confident and quirky chanteuse. The 13-track listen has tons of personality and yet manages to find a good balance between MTV-friendly hits and left-field pop. Similarly to Florence & the Machine, she has powerful lungs and isn’t afraid to use them. Asking ‘Are You Satisfied?’ on the
record opener, Marina starts as she means to go on, with a flurry of vocal acrobatics on top of a soaring pop beat. Meanwhile, ‘Numb’ starts off slower and builds as she questions the sacrifices of the musical profession. Other highlights include ‘I Am Not a Robot’, ‘Hollywood’ and the undeniable ‘Obsessions’, which displays a more vulnerable side of her personality. Meanwhile, on the other side of the pop spectrum, Ellie Goulding has turned into the nation’s new favourite with her instantly likeable electronic pop numbers. After dropping out of Kent University she has managed to make the transformation from folk singer-songwriter to electro-pop songstress with the help of a couple key producers in the form of Frankmusik and Starsmith. On her debut, Lights, she has taken a slightly more mainstream approach with the obvious objective of appealing to as many ears as possible. This tactic has worked both for and against her because on one hand,
she will easily make it onto Radio 1’s playlists and appeal to a massive cross section of the population. But on the other hand she is caught in the crossroads between a true folk singer (see: Laura Marling) and a sensationalist pop diva (see: Bjork), which has unfortunately seen her labeled as the new mid-market Dido. Such critiques are harsh though, because Lights is an easily accessible slice of pop goodness with effortless commerciality. Early tracks such as ‘Starry Eyed’ and ‘Under the Sheets’ not only got the buzz going but are really super pieces of music, blending killer hooks with soaring and sweeping vocals. Further demon-
strations of the album’s quality come with ‘Wish I Stayed’ and ‘Guns and Horses’, where Goulding sings about leaving home and the allure of the city on top of soft building ballads. She’s lucky to be in possession of a beautiful voice that doesn’t outlandishly demand attention but gradually earns it. Overall, both female artists have
An easily accessible slice of pop goodness with effortless commerciality produced very promising debuts that have been well crafted and come across as genuine – which can’t be said for a lot radio fodder these days. I thought I would be able to choose between the two by the end of this review but to their credit both starsin-the-making have lived up to expectation and have come up with contrasting records that travel down their own poppy paths. You get the feeling both of them have more albums in them and could be around for a little while. I for one, won’t be complaining. The Family Jewels is out now on 679. Lights is out now on Polydor
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Sport
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Return of the Golden Girl After winning gold in Vancouver, Bath’s Amy Williams takes time out to chat to our very own golden girl, Georgina Cotton.
A
my and Arthur: A match made in heaven.
No, we’re not talking about a couple attracted by alliteration. We’re talking about a girl and sled. An Olympic champion and the board on which she drove to achieve every athlete’s dream: An Olympic gold medal. She’s been hailed the Golden Girl of Bath and was Britain’s only success in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, yet she doesn’t really see what the hype is about. This is exactly why everybody loves Amy Williams.
90mph
Average speed on a skeleton bob run
bathimpact joined Amy at her homecoming, which was held at the University of Bath Sports Training Village last week, to see her return to the place in which she has spent so many long hours working towards the goal she has, at the age of just 27, already achieved. “It’s just an absolute shock to see so many people […] I’m honoured to live here,” remarked a very nervous, shaking Amy at the sight of the hundreds of people who had turned up to welcome her back, Union Jacks in flag - and face-paint - form galore. Along with the row upon row of fans lining the STV entrance were members of the national media (not forgetting bathimpact) and BBC Bristol who were doing a live feature on the 18:30 news from the champagne reception. So what on earth was it that encouraged Amy in the first place to throw herself head first down a tunnel of ice on nothing but a baking tray reaching speeds of up to 90kph? This was, after all, the reason we were there. “I started off as a sprinter and seeing as the facilities at Bath were available, thought I’d give it a go,” Amy explains nonchalantly. And she hasn’t stopped since. “The adrenaline rush is incredible, driv-
ing a sports car would just seem so boring. And no doubt I’d end up with too many points on my license!” But the fact that Britain came away with just the one medal - and a gold one at that - has meant that the media focus on Amy, Queen of Speed, has been incessant. You couldn’t help but feel slight sympathy for the girl with the gleaming smile. Having flown home just 24 hours prior to her party she admitted that maybe she was just a little bit bored of answering the same questions, but that the most difficult thing of all was smiling so much. “My cheeks are aching!” She laughed as, once again, those very muscles were put to use. Amy seems unfazed by the fascination surrounding her sport, the skeleton. With the death of the Georgian athlete, Nodar Kumaritashvili on the same course the day before the Olympic opening ceremony, the world watched in tense anticipation as each and every one of both the Luge and Skeleton athletes took their turn, Miss Williams winning the title by 0.56 seconds on her Olympic debut. But, Amy believes, each and every sport has its risks. Intrigued as to whether or not any other winter sports had taken her fancy over the years, her response to my question was quite amusing. “I’ve never been skiing in my life. And I never would. I’d be too scared of breaking a leg or something.” You can’t help but laugh at the irony.
“
I’ve never been skiing in my life. And I never would. I’d be too scared of breaking a leg or something.
”
It is her trusty sled, nicknamed Arthur, which has helped her get where she is today. “He’s called Arthur because obviously I had to have a name that
Amy Williams proudly displays her gold medal during her welcome home reception at the University’s Sports Training Village. began with ‘A’,” she clarifies, “but it’s a sturdy name, a reliable name.” Just what the only thing between a sheet of ice and a body hurtling at 90mph should be. As well as Arthur, manufactured to the highest specification, the only other aid Amy has to improve her speed is her all-in-one, aero-dynamic skinsuit. Convinced that every time she hit a corner, some form of
protection must be preventing her shoulder from dislocating on impact, I ask her about her protective clothing. “Oh no, on the corners it’s the sled which hits the wall first, I wear absolutely nothing underneath my suit… well, except underwear, obviously,” she backtracks at the thought of the recent splitting of one of the British bobsleigh team’s suit at a very, ahem, unfortunate angle.
Free from embarrassment and with no regrets, Bath’s very own golden girl is left to mingle with family and friends, her older brother putting a protective arm around her. Grinning once again from ear to ear, the only way she can describe the whole experience is as, “the best feeling ever.” Amy’s back. And boy does she know it.
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Monday 15th March 2010
bathimpact
www.bathimpact.com Sport Rugby at the Rec should be cherished; enjoy it while you can Ben Cassels Sport Contributor
I
t has been years in the waiting but the future of Bath Rugby and their spiritual home, the Recreation Ground, will soon be confirmed. A new £50 million stadium within the city has become the focus for Nick Blofeld, the club’s new Chief Executive, with a planning application for the new development set to be submitted later this year. This means that final consultation is just around the corner and should bring with it the answer that has eluded the city for so long. The new stadium is likely to be built at the Western Riverside site off Lower Bristol Road. While this will come as a relief to those who feared that the new stadium would be built in Bristol or Chippenham, it is unlikely to allay the great disappointment of the Bath Rugby faithful. Wherever the final location, the club will be desperate to ensure its completion before rugby’s World Cup arrives in England in 2015 – another reason why the planning application cannot be too far over the horizon. Bath will continue to play at the Rec in the intervening period. The Rec, Bath’s home since 1894,
currently holds 11,700 spectators. By the time Bath’s new stadium is built, Leicester Tigers, an ideal benchmark for the successful modern rugby club, will have increased their capacity from 24,500 to 31,000. This reflects the growing feeling that Bath must expand and break away from
Why move away from the Rec? The small size of the ground does not reflect the stature of such a prominent club in the professional era. The facility needs to be profitable all year round. This means conference, banqueting and hotel facilities which the Rec cannot accomodate. Extra seats translate directly to extra tickets sales and extra revenue for the club, who are currently struggling financially. their beloved fortress on the River Avon if they want to move forward. The situation has been aptly de-
The Rec, Bath Rugby’s home for over a century, seems to have its days numbered. scribed by Mr. Blofeld as a case of ‘the head and the heart’. Two opposing local action groups are adding their weight to the debate. ‘The Friends of the Bath Residents’ Recreation Ground’ are against any new development on the land, whilst the ‘Real Friends of the Rec’, created to counter the influence of the Friends group, lobby for getting the best possible sporting use out of the land, ideally, if not necessarily, professional rugby. To this end, the ‘Real Friends...’ group have decided to make use of talent within the University to help find a solution, commissioning
Jonathan Crossley, a fifth year architecture undergraduate, to draft plans for an alternative, rugby-based use for the Recreation Ground which is respectful of the high degree of sensitivity of the site. Needless to say, this is no easy feat. Another issue of great uncertainty lies in the future use of the Rec. Many of the unanswered questions involve Bath City football club, who have sold Twerton Park for housing. Two scenarios seem likely - City taking Bath Rugby’s place at the Rec, and a sharing arrangement between the two teams at the new stadium. Meanwhile the land has been linked
with cricket, youth and women’s rugby and even boules. While the final answer has not yet seen the light of day, what is more certain is the great sadness which will accompany the club’s departure from the Rec. Can you imagine a crisp winter’s afternoon in Bath, sunlight illuminating the perfect Georgian stone, without the deafening roars and the flashes of colour from the Rec to which we have become accustomed? It is truly one of the sporting world’s most spectacular settings and the heartbeat of the city as we know it. Enjoy it while you can.
Monday 15th March 2010
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Sport
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Bath delivered knockout blow by Manchester Men’s Tennis 1sts exit BUCS Championships at quarter final stage. Bath University 1sts
4
Manchester Uni. 1sts
6
James Mott Sport Contributor
T
he University of Bath’s Men’s Tennis 1st team took on Manchester University in the quarter finals of the BUCS national premier men’s championships. The team of Richard Abbott, myself, Steve Knowles and Pete Hoyland had earned a spot in the quarter finals after a 6-4 win over Sheffield Hallam, which came down to the final rubber which I won in three sets. Bath’s quarter final tie got off to a disappointing start with the second pairing of me and Hoyland losing their doubles pro set eight games to one. Bath’s 1st pairing of Abbott and Knowles looked to be in control racing to a 4/1 lead but squandered a set point at 7/6 only to be pegged back on serve with the match needing to be decided in a tie break which Manchester’s 1st pair took seven points to three.
This slow start meant Bath needed to win three or more of the remaining singles matches to win the tie. In the first of the four singles matches, Bath’s Richard Abbott took on Manchester’s number 1 George Kallis, who in 2008 represented Cyprus in the Davis Cup. From the outset Abbott took control winning the 1st set 6-4. In the second set Abbott took an early break and continued to use his backhand up the line to great effect, firing a number of flashy winners. It was only
Ellie Dowling
Men’s Tennis
Bath’s Richard Abbott beat Manchester’s George Kallis, who represented Cyprus in the 2008 Davis Cup. at 5/4 in the second set whilst serving for the match where Abbott showed some signs of nerves and was eventually edged out in a tense tie break. In the third Abbott managed again to take control of the match with some strong serving winning the final set 6/4. In the second singles Steven Knowles was edged out in a tight three set match with both players playing some fine all court tennis. This meant Bath
Team captain James Mott plays a backhand during his singles rubber. needed to win the remaining singles rubbers to win the tie with a draw being mathematically impossible. In the 3rd singles match, I took an early break and served out to take the 1st set 6/4. In the second I dominated from the outset with my opponent becoming increasing frustrated with the 50 plus Bath supporters that had gathered to cheer on the team.
My straight set win meant Bath’s hopes were in the hands of fresher Pete Hoyland. The 1st set was a tight affair, with both players looking nervous, and Hoyland was edged out in a tie break. The 2nd set was won by Hoyland 6/1; he dominated play and produced some fine all court play whilst utilising his left handed serve to great effect. Hoyland raced to a 3/1 lead in the
final set only to be pegged back by his opponent. Both players seemed to revel in the atmosphere with each rally being hotly contested and lasting 10 or more shots. Hoyland eventually came unstuck serving to stay in the match at 5/4 as his opponent struck a number of punishing blows with his forehand which had seemingly deserted him earlier in the match.
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bathimpact
Sport
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Group A
Group B Group B
Group A
Team
P
W
D
L
+
-
+/-
Pts
Team
P
W
D
L
+
-
+/-
Pts
1
MoLES
8
7
1
0
44
2
42
22
1
Team Maths
7
6
0
1
28
4
24
18
2
Economics
8
6
1
1
39
8
31
19
2
Education
4
4
0
0
25
3
22
12
3
Mech. Eng.
7
4
1
2
27
11
16
13
3
Architecture
5
3
1
1
30
9
21
10
4
Sports Science
6
4
0
2
18
11
7
12
4
Chem. Eng.
7
3
1
3
34
20
14
10
5
Management
7
3
1
3
27
16
11
10
5
Biology
5
2
0
3
17
20
-3
6
6
Comp. Science
7
3
0
4
14
27
-13
9
6
Pharmacy
4
1
2
1
12
6
6
5
7
BUMS
8
1
0
7
14
37
-23
3
7
Elec. Eng.
6
1
0
5
14
38
-24
3
8
Physics
7
1
0
6
8
34
-26
3
8
Nat. Sciences
6
0
0
6
6
66
-60
0
9
Chemistry
6
1
0
5
14
59
-45
3
Highlighted teams have qualifed for the quarter finals. Tables correct as of 12/3/2010.
Top scorers so far (as of 12/3/2010): Simon Holdsworth, Management (13); Paul Davies, Chemistry (10); James Auckland, Economics (9); Dave Mills, MoLES (9); Hendrick Ache, Economics (8); Michael Balling, MoLES (8); Orlando Pedretti, MoLES (8); James King, Team Maths (8); Nadir Nadhi, MoLES (7); Jack Boddy, Chem. Eng. (6); Peter Storeng, Team Maths (6); Brywon Godon, Chem. Eng. (6). Joe Welsh Chem. Eng. team captain We started off with a 12-0 defeat to Coach Ed., so we could only get better from there. Went on to record three wins, a draw and two losses, giving us a very middle of the road 10 points. Some dodgy penalty decisions, and a goal we conceded where the ball hit the crossbar and bounced off the line probably cost us in the end where’s the goal line technology when you need it! Our player of the season is Jack Walker - he could literally play anywhere, even going in goal for a half... and saved a penalty! Michael Balling MoLES team captain It has been a brilliant season so far. Securing the top spot, we’ve finished a lot higher in our group than expected and hopefully we can carry that form forward into the knock-outs. Players of the season so far have been Ben Williams, a veteran of the IDFC who has played in two finals already, and Orlando Pedretti, who is playing his first season for MoLES. Both have been outstanding. We have had two really tight games this year against Economics and Management, so the final whistles against these two sides are definitely the highlights so far. There have been some great socials and classic misses, with centre-back James Murray responsible for events in both those categories. We want to win the IDFC, no doubt about that. We just know we have to produce what we’re capable of when required.
Best moment of the season was when Jack Walker picked up the ball at left back against Elec. Eng., then ran 70 yards with the ball and scored... think Ryan Giggs v Arsenal in that FA Cup Semi Final! The funniest moment of the season was when our star Nigerian central midfielder, the next Michael Essien, was refused entry back into the country after the Christmas break because his Visa had expired - doh! We’ve finished the group stages with ten points, and so are unlikely to qualify for the quarters. For the future, we are looking to build on from this season’s efforts and strengthen the squad in the summer transfer window.
Edward Matthews Pharmacy team captain At the time of writing, we’ve only managed to play three games. However of the games we have played, prospects for qualification look positive. Wins against Chem. Eng. and Biology will see us through to knockout stages. We are yet to hit top gear with our form, but can be seen as dark horses for the competition I feel. Player of Season: Darren King. Moment of season: Ibrahim: “that social was poor to average.” Funniest moment: Fancy dress training. Hopes for competition: Semi finals.
IDFC The story so far...
With the knockout stages just around the corner, bathimpact asked the teams how their seasons have been. Here are the answers...
Pete Scull & Luke Hedges Coach Education Consistency has so far been key, with three clean sheets from four games and plenty of goals going in at the other end. It is fair to say it has been a promising start to the campaign. In terms of best players so far, once again Simon Leach has been scoring goals regularly, but now he is fully fit and has got the captains armband he will only get better as the season progresses. Jason Hillis scored five goals in 60 minutes on his Education debut, which will take some beating as our moment of the season. These goals all came from the centre of midfield as well. Daniel Gwyn Hughes missed an absolute sitter for his hat-trick against Elec. Eng., it was so hard to miss that it was actually impressive when he did! In terms of our aims, we hope to reach the final for the third year running and this year reclaim the IDFC title Matt Cooke NatSci team captain After six games this season, scoring 6 and conceding 66 in 6 defeats, we are unlikely to go far in this season’s competition, unless several teams go into administration. Our player of the season so far is ‘keeper James Fenton, who in 4 games conceded fewer goals than second choice, myself, managed in a game and a half. Also credit to our 3 goalscorers, Tom Sanderson, Moritz Ehrlich and Mark Ward. The best of our several own goals was a fantastic volley from
Jon Hilsden Team Maths team captain We’ve qualified for the knockouts with 6 wins and 1 defeat. More than just results, we have a great squad togetherness, and have had some brilliant nights out. Everyone of our squad performing really well, from goalkeeper to assistant manager, from centre back to social secretaries. Everyone has put in 100% effort, making the team a great success. Moment of the season so far: James King’s penalty at 1-1 against Chem Eng, he was really nervous, but put it in the bottom corner for the winner. A great result against Architecture was another highlight. The e-mails from our social secretary always make me laugh. Also some of the oneliners from the gaffer! We aim to take each round as it comes, and hopefully go all the way this year.
the edge of the area by Chris Hughes; also impressive was the 10-1 defeat to Elec. Eng. - the one game we were confident of winning. Also, Chris James almost decapitating himself for a one yard tap-in in training was amusing. Our hopes for the future are that somebody actually wants to play next year. Most of the team are graduating or going on placement, so anyone willing to continue NatSci’s glorious run (three wins in six years), should get involved. Simon Holdsworth Management team captain Our season has been plagued by inconsistency. A brilliant draw against Economics left us rueing missed chances and a missed penalty, but content with a point. We responded to a loss against Mech Eng with big wins against Physics, Chemistry and Comp. Sci. Again, however, losses against MoLES and BUMS have left our chances of qualification hanging by a thread. It would be unfair to single out any individual players in what has been a great team and squad effort so far. However my 13 goals in the first 5 games are worth a mention (Ed - cheeky). The 8-0 rout of Comp. Sci. showcased the talent in our squad and what could have been if a full squad had been available and playing together regularly for the whole season. A win in our final game against Sports Science will put us into a qualifying position, but dependent on other results going their way in the last round of fixtures.
Monday 15th March 2010
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Gold glory for Bath shooters Sean Russell
Michael Patrick Sport Contributor
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Lisa Thomas on her way to an unbelievable 89, a score which secured the Bath shooter first place in the Women’s Individual category. within a very short space of time if the competitor were to achieve significant success. This format tries the concentration and the mental stamina of even the best of shooters, but Bath was ready for this challenge.
At the time of 8:50 AM, with ears covered, ammunition purchased and shotguns loaded, the peaceful winter morning was brutally shattered with the sound of gunfire - which would not cease for another nine hours. The Bath comSean Russell
he University of Bath Clay Pigeon Shooting Team are this week celebrating in style, after an outstanding performance at last weekend’s BUCS Clay Pigeon Shooting Championships saw them bring home a record-breaking five gold medals. After the event, club Chair Sean Russell congratulated the whole team for their efforts, saying that he was extremely proud that they had all performed so well in the face of such heavy competition. Team spirits (and banter levels!) were high on the morning of the Championships. Bath had a long tradition of doing well in such competitions and team confidence was high after a particularly satisfying thrashing of Bristol the previous weekend. The format of this shoot itself was straightforward: Each competitor would have to fire at a total of one hundred clays, which were spread out amongst a total of fourteen stands. Of course, until the competitor got to the stand and saw its respective clays for the first time, s/he would know nothing at all about the behaviour of said clays. Their speed and trajectory would remain a mystery that would have to be very quickly analysed
The Bath University Clay Pigeon Shooting team squad, minus shotguns and other weaponry.
petitors shot steadily throughout the day, encouraging and cheering each other on as each sought to give his very best for the team. The results were suitably spectacular. Topping the Bath men’s leaderboard was James Garlick with an
exceptional score of 78, narrowly followed by Shotgun captain, Daniel Stephens, with 77. Just below them were veteran shooters Myles Corbett, Sean Russell and Olly Griffin, each with excellent scores of over 70. Experienced shooters, Harshal Kubavat, Michael Patrick and James McGarley, along with new shooters, Simon Burr and Phil Egan, had also posted strong scores
of at least 60, very closely followed by James Turner, Ed Davison and Tito Beckles. But the women were not to be outdone. Veteran shooter (and general goddess) Lisa Thomas produced the performance of a lifetime, ratcheting up a phenomenal score of 89 and thus securing first place in the Women’s Individual category. Fellow shooters Rebecca Statham, Katrina Packer and Alice Walters had also posted impressive scores, with the result that the women’s team achieved a very well-deserved first place in the women’s category. Sadly, this is the final year in the club for many of the senior shooters, most of whom are graduating this summer. Whilst it will be very sad to see them leave, they can do so knowing that they leave behind a successful and friendly club, rich in camaraderie, ambition and talent.
canes - contact ball performances, Ben Morgan’s diabolo (including the Compere’s impromptu song to Ben’s mum) and a ‘serious’ act from The Void, which was anything but. Humour was key to many of the performances; the final act, Haggis and Charlie, had many people in stitches with their comedy routine, which they have been performing for twenty five years. Their seven club passing was impressive, and their finishing act - Charlie cutting a news-
paper page repeatedly in half with a whip as Haggis held it - had people on the edge of their seats as it shrank to the size of a finger. Although cool, not something that should be tried at home. Gravity Vomit hope to make UpChuck an even greater success next year, and as such are already looking for people to run next year’s event. Anyone interested should contact the current Chairwoman, Kate Aldridge, at ka230@bath.ac.uk.
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Gold medals won by Clay Pigeon Shooting Team
Gravity Vomit circus skills event a great success Katie Rocker Chief Sub-Editor subeditor@bathimpact.com
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rganised by the University’s Juggling and Circus Skills society, Gravity Vomit, UpChuck, a one day festival for all kinds of circus skills, was held on February 22nd. The Founder’s Hall was filled with 250 jugglers and circus performers from around the country, all willing to learn new
tricks and show off their skills. One of the most popular items of juggling kit at the festival was the unicycle, with adults and children alike using them, and some attempting to ride the ‘giraffe unicycle’, which is five feet tall. The compulsory games were extremely entertaining, particularly for those watching - the ‘unwrap a crème egg while juggling two balls in one hand’ and the pirate juggling game were new additions which caused
great amusement, and the traditional ‘club gladiators’ went on for at least twenty minutes. The evening show was well received, described by one audience member as “spectacular”. A last minute drop out from one of the acts on the Friday night meant an emergency replacement was needed, in the form of the Pantaloonies, a very entertaining pair of hula-hooping acrobats. There was Gentleman Juggling - involving hats, cigars and
impactsport
“It’s just an absolute shock to see so many people... I’m honoured to live here.” Interview with Amy Williams, page 35
Bath show their class to demolish Bristol
Rugby Ladies run in a cricket score to advance to the quarter finals, and send an ominous message to their rivals in the process. Bath University 1sts Bristol University 1sts
Fliona Sim
Women’s Rugby 98 0
Fiona Sim SA Sports Reporter
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ath have played Bristol twice already this season and have won convincingly both times. So drawing them in the 1st round of knockouts put the whole team in good spirits. With perfect conditions for a game of rugby, Bristol kicked off and were quickly put under pressure by Bath’s strong attacking line. A mistake from Bristol at the breakdown gave the first scrum of the match to Bath. Due to Bristol not having an experienced front row the scrums were uncontested. This left Bath to prove that the other aspects of their game were good enough to really test Bristol. A great set piece off the back of the scrum saw no.20, Danni Gagne, make a break through Bristol’s weak
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Number of tries scored by Bath against Bristol without reply
defensive line. She was a metre from the line when she managed to trip over her own feet, inches from scoring a try. Bath were quick to support her at the breakdown and a rapid recycling of the ball saw no.15 Becky Harrison score the 1st try for Bath. With an impressive conversion from the sideline by no.10, Sarah Graham, Bath were 7 points ahead in just four minutes. Only five minutes later, after multiple errors from Bristol, no.11 Alice Higdon raced over the line for a try under the posts for Bath. Bath 12, Bristol 0. Bristol were yet to even have possession in Bath’s territory and were disheartened further when Bath’s no.13, Ali Burnett, single handedly
Bath Women’s 1st XV in action during their excellent performance against West Country counterparts at Bristol University. ran from her own 22m line around the whole Bristol team to score under the posts. With an easy conversion by no.10, Bath raced to a 19-0 lead. The rest of the 1st half followed a similar pattern. With Bristol constantly on the back foot, Bath were able to rack up another 15 points with tries from their no.8 Davinia Monteiro, no.10 and a second from their no.20. Smooth, flowing set pieces and great drives took the score line to Bath 34 Bristol 0 at half time. If Bristol wanted any chance of winning this match then they really needed to be more disciplined and
to cut out the errors in the 2nd half. With Bath kicking off and making a strong chase, the errors however once again came from Bristol. Five minutes into the 2nd half, Bath’s no.8 broke through Bristol’s sporadic defence to score another try which was easily converted. With more points on the board for Bath, and one of Bristol’s strongest players now on the ground with an injury, a comeback for Bristol was seeming more unlikely by the minute. Bath 41 Bristol 0. The restart from Bristol did not test Bath at all and the no.14, known
to her team as Pegs, scored an easy try to increase the lead by 48 points. Just when Bristol seemed out of the game for good, they made a break through Bath’s defensive line and managed to gain a good position in Bath’s half. However, an error at the breakdown gave away a scrum which soon resulted in Bath putting more points on the board, with a second try from their no.11. Bath 55 Bristol 0. For the remaining of the 2nd half, Bath dominated the game and managed to score another 7 tries, with their no.20 scoring a hat-trick. With the other tries coming from their
no.8, no.14 and no.9, Katie Mason, the final score was Bath 98 Bristol 0. Bath’s coach Jason Wheatley, said he was very impressed with his team’s performance and described it as a “workmanlike free flowing, awe inspiring game of rugby”. After this massive win for Bath, the whole team was delighted and the high moral and spirits with certainly be taken into next week’s match. Their opponent Warwick will have to be disciplined and clinical for the entire match, if they want to have any chance of winning.