Concrete 321

Countdown to the 2016 US election >P8

The stories that made me travel >P20 9th February 2016 Issue 321

concrete-online.co.uk @Concrete_UEA ConcreteNewspaper

UEA plans year-onyear rise in profit from halls rent £7m to £10m gross surplus expected by 2017, says students’ union EXCLUSIVE Peter Sheehan and Dan Falvey Deputy editor and Editor-in-Chief The university is set to increase rent for oncampus accommodation by an above-inflation 3.4% each year in a bid to increase the profit it makes by renting rooms to students. The news comes as union research, seen by Concrete, indicates that a third of UEA students think the university should prioritise bringing down the cost of living, and just months after Concrete exclusively reported that UEA was already making millions in profit from accommodation.

According to the Union of UEA Students (UUEAS), the university made a gross surplus of £5.8m on its accommodation portfolio in the last academic year. The union estimates that this gross surplus will rise to between £7m and £10m by 2017, and that it will have doubled within five years. Following the results of a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, Concrete reported in September that the university’s total net profit from accommodation over the last two academic

years was £4.35m.

Profits made from rent are not earmarked specifically for investment in improving and maintaining halls, but instead contribute to the university’s general budget, provoking outrage from the union. Responding to the revelations of the FOI, the union’s Campaigns and Democracy Officer, Chris Jarvis, said that the fees were “A way of universities getting round the [£9,000 tuition fee] cap by propping up their finances through secondary costs on students”.

Following a recent accommodation meeting between the university and UUEAS, Jo Swo, Welfare, Community and Diversity Officer, criticised the way the university determines rent increases: “[UEA] has decided on a massive rent increase behind closed doors, and can’t answer basic questions on the role of rent costs in relation to student affordability”. She called for the university to “open meaningful dialogue over rent setting” and to make affordability a “top priority”.

However, a university spokesperson said that UEA’s present rent policy was part of a Continued on page 5

Norwich voted “happiest city” to work in the country Sam Mckinty News reporter Norwich workers are among the most satisfied in the country, according to a national survey.

Business psychologists, OPP, surveyed 2500 people up and down the country in order to establish levels of job satisfaction.

The survey asked respondents to rate their satisfaction in a variety of areas related to their employment, including workload, salary and management.

The findings, released last month,

indicated that on average 71% workers across the UK were satisfied with their job.

In Norwich, that figure was notably higher, with 77% claiming to be satisfied in their employment, a 6% rise on the national average.

Norwich beat a series of major cities, including Manchester and London and, perhaps most significantly, anywhere in Essex. At the bottom of the table, Newcastle and Cardiff floundered with just 64% of people surveyed currently working in these cities expressing job satisfaction.

Speaking to the Eastern Daily Press, Nova Fairbank, chair of the Norfolk Chamber

of Commerce, said “With Norfolk being a great place to live and work, it is not hard to understand why of employees in Norwich are happy. Our region boasts not only business excellence, but also a lifestyle that helps attract and retain many employees in this area.”

The survey wasn’t all good news for students, with workers within the retail, catering and leisure industries, popular industries for student employment, ranking among the least satisfied. Fairbank added, however, that she hoped “this latest poll will encourage more of the talented young people in Norfolk to take up local employment

opportunities and remain in Norfolk”.

Norwich provides a wide range of opportunities for employment for graduates from the University of East Anglia: from BBC Norfolk and Anglia Television to Norwich University Hospital and insurance company Aviva.

This employment satisfaction report comes in the wake of findings released at the end of 2015 that Norwich residents are among some of the least lonely in the UK. Research done by the Co-op Group found that 57% of Norwich residents never felt lonely, a increase on the national average of 44%.

9th February 2016

2

Editorial Dougie Dodds

COMMENTcartoon

The University of East Anglia’s independent student newspaper since 1992 Tuesday 9th February 2016 Issue 321

Union House University of East Anglia Norwich NR4 7TJ 01603 593466 www.concrete-online.co.uk

Editors-in-Chief Dan. Falvey Joe Jameson concrete.editor@uea.ac.uk Deputy Editor Peter Sheehan concrete.deputy@uea.ac.uk

Once again we are set to witness a showdown over rent The bickering only serves to distract us from the real problem

Joe Jameson Editor-in-Chief

T

here is no way of putting it delicately, but the current financial state of higher education in our country is in a dire mess. Putting aside the ethics of whether university education should be free, or not, the current loans system is simply not fit for purpose and unless it is dramatically altered, we will be facing a serious funding crisis in the next 20 to 30 years because roughly 45% of graduates won’t pay back the entirety of their student loan, having not been able to reach high enough pay grades.

Whilst this is depressing enough in itself, the problem is then amplified at every single higher education institution in the UK as they are then forced to increase their revenue streams in every possible way, which puts pressure on the individual student when they have to pay for not only their tuition fees but also their living costs such as rent for halls.

Our front page story has highlighted how the university plans to increase the profits it makes on halls of residence by 3.4% each year until 2019, in order to pay for planned investments in facilities on campus, which are predominantly designed for the benefit of the student. Obviously, the university has to pay its way, and it has to continue to invest in new infrastructure and resources on campus if it wants to remain knocking on the door of the ‘big kids club’.

However, when a student’s maintenance loan doesn’t completely cover the price of their first year rent, the fact that not all of the rent profits will go back into the

maintenance of halls does present serious questions about whether this increase is actually an indirect course fees charge. It is also interesting that the university has stated that it views the rising cost of living to be separate from any barriers to access of higher education, and that the union believes they are infact dealt with by totally separate committees within the university.

Whether this is simply another case of higher education institutions sticking their heads in the sand over the problems facing students, just like the department of

“If the union was involved in these discussions, it does beg the question, why are they so surprised about the decisions? ” Business, Innovation and Skills has done by cutting maintenance grants, closing a vital route into university for so many students from lower income families.

This disagreement between the union and UEA is not quite a clear cut as one would be lead to believe. A UEA spokesperson explained that the rent increase had been planned in conjunction with the union because of opposition a number of years ago about a proposal from the university to privatise halls of residences.

The original plan would have provided the university with a one off lump sum of money from the sale of all student accommodation, which they could then invest in projects such as the Enterprise Centre, and the new accommodation currently under construction on the old Blackdale site. Yet, if the union was involved in these discussions, it does beg

the question, why are they so surprised about the decisions? This continual discord between the university and the union cannot really be in the interest in students. It is quite right that the union does stand up for students, and ensure that we get the best possible deal out of our time at university, but it is worth remembering that this won’t actually impact anyone directly, because we only ever live in halls for one year of our degree.

The main thrust to this disagreement between our union and UEA is not a particularly unique one, and as our article explains, it isn’t as simple as either party suggests, but it essentially boils down to the fact that the money needs to come from somewhere, and at the moment that’s got to be the students.

M

oving on to a much more positive note, and one which I approach with as much excitement as I do sadness; our time at Concrete is drawing to a close. Luckily for those of us in our final year, the end isn’t quite with us, but we are beginning to start the process of opening applications for next year’s editorial team.

We’re not quite there yet, but do keep checking our website and social media for more information on that front.

If you’re a long term writer, reader or just fancy trying something new, getting involved with Concrete is something which I can thoroughly recommend. We’ll be opening applications for our senior editors, that is Editor-in-Chief and Deputy Editor before Easter and then section editors after the break. We encourage everyone to apply, no matter your level of expeirence. If you do have any general quieries about the application proccess, do drop us an email and we’ll be more than happy to help!

Online Editors Rob Drury Tom Etheridge concrete.online@uea.ac.uk News Jessica Frank-Keyes concrete.news@uea.ac.uk Global Caitlin Doherty concrete.global@uea.ac.uk Features Olivia Minnock Alice Mortimer concrete.features@uea.ac.uk Comment Megan Bradbury concrete.comment@uea.ac.uk Science&Environment Jacob Beebe concrete.scienv@uea.ac.uk Travel Dahlia Al-Abdullah concrete.travel@uea.ac.uk Sport James Chesson Tom Gordon concrete.sport@uea.ac.uk Chief Copy Editor Tom Etheridge concrete.copy@uea.ac.uk Principle researcher Sam Naylor email TBC

Editorial inquiries concrete.editor@uea.ac.uk concrete.venue@uea.ac.uk Complaints & corrections concrete.editor@uea.ac.uk

Front page credits Top bar, left: Wikimedia, Jnn13 Top bar, far right: Flickr, Dimitri B Feature photo: Flickr, Harry Harris No part of this newspaper may be reproduced by any means without the permission of the Editors-in-Chief, Dan Falvey and Joe Jameson. Published by the Union of UEA Students on behalf of Concrete. Concrete is a UUEAS society, but retains editorial independence as regards to content. Opinions expressed herin are those of individual writers, not of Concrete or its editorial team.

News 9th February 2016

3

UK students have the worst literacy and numeracy skills in the developed world >> Page 5

COMMENT Tom Sellars on the costs to the home countries of foreign students who remain in the UK

T Photo: Geograph, NChadwick

New visa plans for international students Isaac Scoulding News reporter International students could find it harder to gain places at UK universities, should new visa plans be approved. The plans, currently being examined by the Home Office (HO), have been put forward despite claims from Universities UK that HO research indicated only 2% of students currently fail to comply with their visa requirements.

The new proposal would mean that international students applying for a visa would be subject to stricter checks if they applied for a university with a high number of “over-stayers,” those continuing to live in the UK after completing their course.

Home secretary Theresa May said: “Too many (students) are not returning home as soon as their visas run out. I don’t care what

the university lobbyists say. The rules must be enforced. Students, yes. Over-stayers, no”.

The Office of National Statistics has published figures showing that between June 2014 and June 2015 130,000 people from outside the EU received study visas, while 38,000 left after completing their studies in the same period. The other 93,000 international students did not return home after completing their course.

The conclusiveness of the statistics has been questioned by Universities UK, who said in a statement that work is currently underway to improve the official data on people exiting the UK, information they say will give a greater understanding of the flow of students.

Current rules allow universities to take students from overseas if they can prove those students have the correct qualifications and will study once in the UK. Officials believe penalties should be given to those institutions

which bring a significant number of students into the country who remain after their studies.

May said she wanted to “bring accountability to the immigration system… by rewarding those who play by the rules, for example with faster processing, lower costs and less onerous inspection” and “cracking down on those who abuse the system... by limiting their ability to benefit from immigration in the future”.

The plans do not match up with the views of Chancellor George Osborne, who rejected suggestions by the Home Office that postgraduates bringing dependants into the UK should be forced to take tougher English tests, calling the suggestion “not government policy.”

Osborne has also stated that the number of people attending university could grow by 65,000 in the next few years.

he statistic that close to 100,000 overseas graduates are remaining in the country after completing their studies, is certainly concerning. This is not because it reflects any instability in the UK’s border system; rather, the problem is both a moral and pragmatic one.

Those talented graduates who have come to study in the UK are depriving their home countries of their abilities.

If all Ugandan medical students, for example, were to not return to Uganda, that would deprive a poor country of the vital skills it needs. Business graduates are needed in Indonesia; chemists needed in Bangladesh; engineers needed in South Africa; the list is endless.

I am not arguing against foreignborn graduates remaining in principle – they are after all essential for the UK’s economy, but we should not be a vacuum for global talent. Whilst it is undoubtedly beneficial to have such skilled people remain, this has a negative effect upon the countries and economies that would otherwise benefit.

93,000 highly skilled graduates staying in the UK every year, will inevitably have a detrimental impact on other countries, as it is extracting the best talent from them.

Non-EU graduates should be welcome to stay in the UK, but I think 93,000 is a lot to take from countries who need these skills more than we do.

EU exit would damage UK’s science research, minister claims Caitlin Doherty News reporter The Universities Minister, Jo Johnson, has suggested that a British exit from the European Union would severely damage the quality of scientific research in the country.

The comment puts the politician at odds with his colleagues in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, despite Johnson declaring “no disagreement between [them] at all”.

Speaking at the annual lecture of the Campaign for Science and Engineering, Johnson questioned whether the potential impacts upon scientific research in the event of a ‘Brexit’ had been properly considered, adding that ‘Out’ campaigners had some “serious questions to answer” about the future of the scientific sector in a Britain outside of the EU. According to the minister, the “free movement of people makes it easier for our universities to attract the best talent and for British students to spread their wings across the continent… the risks to valuable institution partnerships, to flows of bright students and to a rich source of science funding mean that the lave campaign has serious questions to answer”.

Johnson highlighted that Britain currently gets one of the largest research grants from the Union, coming second only to Germany

and receiving more than 15% of the total research funds in the Union. Furthermore, EU governments and citizens account for approximately half of the international contributors to British scientific research.

He also seemed dismissive of the notion that the UK could still benefit from EU research funding, without being a member of the Union, despite agreements struck with Norway, Israel and Turkey. “Non EU countries maybe part of the European research area… but they don’t get a seat at the table when… setting the rules, or deciding the budgets”.

Mr Johnson’s apparently pro-Union stance not only places him in contention with Sajid David, the vocally pro-exit Business Secretary and colleague within the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, but also his brother, the outgoing Mayor of London and MP for Uxbridge, Boris Johnson. Boris has, as of yet, not declared his stance on the referendum; however, his objections to Cameron’s proposals thus far have encouraged the ‘Out’ campaign, who now hope for his somewhat ‘celebrity’ support.

Cameron’s proposed new agreement with the European Union was heard in the House of Commons for the first time last week. The Prime Minister stated that he would introduce measures to put the sovereignty of the UK parliament “beyond doubt”.

A referendum is currently expected on the UK’s continued membership of the EU in either late June or early September 2016.

Photo: Flickr, British High Commision

9th February 2016

4

News

University gender gap remains at record high Jessica Frank-Keyes News editor Female school leavers in England are 36% more likely to apply to university courses than their male counterparts. Data published by Ucas indicates that the gap, the same as last year, remains the highest on record. Results also show that English applicant levels as a whole decreased by 1%, which is lower than expected given that the number of 18 year olds in the UK has declined by 2.2%. David Cameron has set goals for universities to double the rate of those from less advantaged areas who go on to university study by 2020.

The figures published by the admissions service cover those applying to begin undergraduate degrees in September this year and show that nearly 100,000 more women than men have applied to higher education. The data was released on 4th February and shows that 343,930 women submitted an application for full-time study at a UK university, compared to 249,790 men.

Experts have suggested that one reason for this divide is that women tend to achieve higher exam results. If the results are adjusted to take this factor into account, then male school leavers in fact are more likely to be successful in their applications. The chief executive of Ucas, Mary Curnock Cook, has stated that she believes the “potential of young

Photo: Flickr, Hammersmith College

men is somehow being let down by the school system”. Drives to encourage female students into stem subjects were launched, after it was discovered in 2015 that only 13% of science, technology, engineering and maths workers are women. However, there have been no equivalent campaigns to inspire disillusioned male students into higher education. David Willetts, the former universities minister, claimed in 2013 that white, working class boys should be targeted for university recruitment in the same way as “disadvantaged groups”.

However, these statistics into the applications gender gap are published after it was revealed that teachers are “overpredicting” sixth form students A-Level results to assist them in achieving offers from universities and there has been no suggestion of female favoritism in this case.

The results in Scotland show an even wider gap between genders, with girls 55% more likely to apply to higher education institutions than boys. The figure in Wales is 50%, while in Northern Ireland the 39% gap is the largest in 7 years. The number of applications to UK universities from the EU, excluding the UK, rose by 6%, meaning that total numbers of applicants again reached a record high.

School leavers from disadvantaged areas of the UK, however, are now more likely to apply to further education than in any previous year. This figure has risen by 2% in Scotland, 5% in England and 8% in Wales.

The key to quality student homes for over 20 years...

1st choice for students

Just some of the reasons to choose Prolet:

Your own personal student lettings manager At Prolet, we’ve been looking after student homes since 1993. We offer you a wide range of properties – to

Prolet’s full-time maintenance team keeps your home in top condition

suit all budgets – for undergrads, postgrads, and PHD and mature students, all conveniently near the UEA, the Golden Triangle and Norwich city centre.

01603 763363

Competitive rents Houses in all locations ranging from 2 to 9 beds

www.prolet.co.uk

Swansea Road, Norwich NR2 3HU

9th February 2016

5

News COMMENT Meg Bradbury suggests the cause of illiteracy may lie in the failings of UK schools

I Photo: Flickr, Anna Gutermath

British teenagers most illiterate in developed world Lucinda Swain News reporter A global study has revealed that English teenagers are the most illiterate and the second most innumerate in the developed world. There have been calls for a change in attitude towards education to improve basic skills.

The Operation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) has found in a study that English teens “had the lowest literacy rates and the second to lowest numeracy rates” out of 23 developed nations.

Someone who is a “functioning illiterate” has a basic education, but still falls short of a minimum standard of literacy or who’s reading and writing skills are considered insufficient for everyday needs.

The study also discovered that: “university teaching gives limited attention to low levels of literacy and numeracy”. Graduates with low basic skills gain modest returns from their qualifications and will often not be able to repay their student debts. The OECD described students with low literacy and numeracy levels as “undermining the currency” of UK degrees.

The National Literacy Trust state that “less that one per cent of adults in England would be described as completely illiterate, although this absolute definition is not often used”. The latest statistics in education show that “young people aged between 16 and 19 have been found to possess only a ‘basic’ grasp of maths and English, with nine million people of working age having low literacy or numeracy skills”.

Attempts to improve our education system

are underway with the Education Secretary, Nicky Morgan, and children’s author and comedian, David Walliams, last year rallying leading publishers, schools and nurseries to join forces, in an attempt to counteract these statistics.

With links between illiteracy and criminality and low levels of employment, it comes as no surprise that this new target is incredibly important. When the Education Secretary spoke of the new drive to tackle illiteracy she said: “If a child fails to learn how to read, the consequences can be nothing short of devastating, holding them back for the rest of their lives”.

Rachael Jarman, second year History student at UEA described these statistics as unexpected. She stated that: ‘I find this so surprising as it seems people from all over the world come to the UK for education’.

t seems likely the root cause of illiteracy amongst young people in the UK lies in our education system. Nonetheless, it remains to be seen whether the current educational reforms will (as the report suggests) improve conditions.

Requiring pupils to remain in full-time education until the age of 18 could indeed help those 16-19 year olds who might otherwise have fallen through the cracks, but I’m not sure how the changes being made to GCSEs, supposedly making them ‘harder’, are going to achieve the same. To give one example: under the new system, pupils will no longer have the option of sitting a ‘higher’ or ‘foundation’ tier paper for the majority of subjects, English included. Instead, everyone will sit the same exam. In an ideal world, this would be the best way of judging their abilities, but unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that.

How can pupils be expected to perform to their highest possible standard, to effectively demonstrate the best of their abilities, when they’re having to do so under conditions designed to accommodate an entire generation? There’s no ‘one size fits all’ model for education; the report clearly shows this, and it’s time the government got their heads around it too.

Uni claims rent increases were agreed by union years ago Continued from front page deal agreed with the union. “The university, with the support of the student union, took a decision some years ago not to sell its residences off to a third party for a substantial capital sum”. In return for foregoing the benefit of a one-off windfall profit, “it was agreed that UEA would look to raise income from the residences to generate a surplus for re-investment in facilities across campus for the benefit of students”. The spokesperson pointed out that one such investment was last summer’s “£6m refurbishment of Union House”.

When pressed, the university did not directly comment on whether it has plans to increase the number of cheaper rooms on campus: “UEA has a varied portfolio of residential accommodation and rents.

Students from lower income households have access to additional financial support including non-repayable maintenance grants and bursaries”.

Sources at the union have suggested to Concrete that the university does not consider widening access to higher education and the rising cost of living to be linked. Instead, the union believes that UEA is treating the rent of halls of residents separately to ensuring that more students from lower income backgrounds attend university. The issues are presently dealt with by different university committees.

Photo: Jessica Coleslaw

Whale dies stranded on Norfolk beach Jessica Coleslaw News reporter A sperm whale stranded on Hunstanton beach in the early hours of Thursday morning is now the 29th to have died on the shores of Europe since the beginning of 2016.

Kevin Murphy, a co-ordinator for the British Divers Marine Life Rescue, estimated that the whale was stranded on the beach as early as 3.30 on Thursday morning, four hours before it was reported.

Due to the size of the whale, it was impossible to move it. It was hoped that the whale would be able to launch itself back into the ocean with the midday high tide.

However, speculators believe that because the whale had suffered internal damage when it

was first stranded, this was not going to be possible.

Murphy explained why things were already looking bleak for the whale at midday: “within the first hour you have to have everyone here ready, and at the minute, with this species, there’s no set formula or plan because of the weight and size… if it was a 30ft minke you might be able to manoeuvre it out, wait for the tide, stay with it, but this is verging on impossible”.

At 15:00 the whale was submerged in water, watched from afar by a group of dog walkers, families, and wildlife enthusiasts alike, all of whom had travelled to Old Hunstanton beach to glimpse something that apparently only happens ‘once in a lifetime’, but which has already occurred in Hunstanton twice within a fortnight.

The general consensus from onlookers was that the situation was “just sad”. Murphy stated: ‘it is a bit heartbreaking to just stand by and watch an animal struggling… you know you can’t do anything, because anything that can be done we’ve already tried”.

The Zoological Society of London conducted autopsies on the whales stranded in January, and have said they will be returning to Hunstanton in the hope of finding out why this keeps happening. Toxins released suggested that the whales were dehydrated and starving. It is unknown why these animals are continually finding themselves in the North Sea, as their diet is largely squid, which don’t inhabit waters of less than 200m deep.

Experts have suggested the whales may get confused by the shallower depths and lose their bearings.

9th February 2016

6

News

Norwich North MP backs calls for online e-voting Henry Newton News reporter Conservative MP for Norwich North, Chloe Smith, has chaired the launch of a report calling for e-voting to be introduced by the 2020 general election.

The report, by the pressure group WebRoots Democracy, says that online voting could now be made sufficiently secure and would therefore serve as a good way of encouraging young people to participate in politics.

The report has been released amongst a worrying downward trend in electoral turnout. The voter turnout for the May 2015 election was 66.1% which, despite being the highest figure since the Labour landslide of 1997, remains part of the overall downward slope of UK electoral turnout figures. The number is even lower for the 18-24 year old age group, amongst whom over half don’t bother voting. The UK came number 76 in 2015 in the world rankings of voter turnout - the highest was Australia who impose compulsory voting.

Chloe Smith, chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Democratic Participation’, said it is “almost immoral by now to fail to consider online voting”, and that “it is a sizeable project and we should start it”.

The report has gained the support of high

ranking politicians, including the Speaker of the House, John Bercow, who said: “I look forward to the contribution to the discussion the release of the WebRoots Democracy report has, and the debate that will follow”.

However, there are also many opponents of the proposal, in particular those concerned with reliability and security issues. Norway began trialling an internet based voting systems a few years ago, only to abandon it in June 2014 amid security concerns; in addition, both France and Finland have also experienced failed attempts.

As one of the youngest MPs in the House of Commons, Chloe Smith claims to speak for young people, stating: “this is too obvious an area for reform. My generation is politically interested, but turned off by traditional politics. That means that today’s politicians have to engage today’s young people once again in the nuts and bolts of democracy”.

The calls for online voting came just ahead of the announcement that up to 800,000 people have disappeared from the electoral register, around 1.8% of total voters, due to a transition to Individual Electoral Registration. Students in university cities are at the highest risk of being disenfranchised by this change.

Megan Dunn, National Union of Students President, described this change as “shocking but unsurprising news” and stated that: “NUS is calling on students to register now.

Photo: Flickr, Cabinet Office

University applicants with Btecs increase by half Olivia Minnock News reporter 26% of English university entrants now have a Btec qualification, according to a Ucas study. The figure includes both those who study the Btec on its own or in combination with A-Levels. The statistic constitutes a huge ongoing increase, with numbers of students enrolled on Btecs doubling in the past 7 years from 14% in 2008.

Btecs were developed to enhance and reinforce learning, focusing on technical knowledge to create a skilled labour force.

Btec qualifications can be gained in a range of subjects, from business studies and engineering to media production. They differ from traditional GCSEs and A-Levels in that alongside written testing, observation of ability, practical and oral testing are equally emphasised.

These vocational qualifications are awarded the same Ucas tariff points as A-Levels and are widely accepted by Universities with the exception of Cambridge and Oxford, who require additional A-Levels.

Nonetheless, a stigma remains around the Btec as a less stringent test, with “easier” content. Furthermore, a recent study by the Higher Education Academy suggested that Btec qualified students often achieved a lower overall grade upon graduating.

However, Ucas argue that Btec students

Photo: Facebook, University of East Anglia often benefit from a higher level of subject knowledge than their counterparts who only studied traditional A-levels and focused on coursework based assessment, exam revision and technique over detailed knowledge.

Many students at UEA who took one or more Btec qualifications believe they felt more prepared for university.

However, students acknowledge they experience a different route into higher education: one anonymous second year student stated they felt they were “out of practise studying” for traditional exams, while other students felt that they benefitted from gaining a greater subject insight.

Maria, a second year Literature student states she felt able to “work more productively towards graded work,” as well as learning to “discipline myself for independent research.”

Similarly, Liam, a first year International Relations student, states the Btec was beneficial in terms of “gathering information… as opposed to being told what to write”.

The National Union of Students includes Btecs in a vocational category of study on their website, grouping them with similar qualifications such as NVQs and diplomas.

Level 3 Btecs are A-Level equaivalent whereas Level 2 are parallel to an A*-C at GCSE.

They describe the course as “designed to allow you to learn in a way that suits you. Btecs cover a wider range of subjects - offering different skills and incorporating more practical experiences that make students more employable”.

These new figures represent a need for universities to be aware of and support students with different qualifications to traditional GCSEs and A-Levels. Traditional qualifications and routes into higher education are becoming less the norm.

Such statistics also represent an increasing level of acceptance of Btec qualifications at univeristies across England.

9th February 2016

Universities must disclose proportion of ethnic minority applicants who receive places Amanda Ng News reporter Universities must now publish data on the proportion of ethnic minority applicants who receive places. This announement comes as David Cameron launches a new equality investigation as part of his anti-discrimination agenda.

The Prime Minister summoned education chiefs last week to talk with Business Secretary Sajid David and begin a review into barriers to diversity and achievement at top institutions.

Cameron wants to improve discrimination statistics within education, the armed forces and the courts. He aims for equal opportunities for all through counteracting the problems of under-representation of societal minorities.

The Prime Minister recently discussed research suggesting “black people [are] more likely to be in prison than at a top university”.

7

News Oxford University, Cameron’s own institution of study, included only 27 black students out of the 2,500 that were accepted into its 2014 intake and the Prime Minister described the attitudes of univerisities and other institutions as “ingrained, institutional and insidious”.

The establishment of regulations, whereby collections of data would be sub-divided by the applicants course, gender, ethnicity and their socio-economic background is one of Cameron’s ideas to improve conditions.

However, Russell Group director general Wendy Piatt stated that universities “cannot solve this problem alone”. She suggested that schools ought to share in the responsibilty.

In charge of the review release is Labour MP David Lammy, the first black Briton to study a Masters in Law at Harvard. His task is to root out the causes of inequality and lead a sweeping review to show a cause for reform, which will be recommended to the Ministry of Justice in the spring of next year.

At present, a quarter of prisoners in England and Wales belong to black and ethnic minority groups, despite only making up 14% of the population. Downing Street figures state that 61% of black and ethnic minority defendants found guilty in crown courts were given custodial sentences, compared to only 56% of white offenders. Cameron reportedly stated: “I don’t care whether it’s overt, unconscious or institutional - we’ve got to stamp it out”.

Lammy was quoted speaking to Sky News about the planned inquiry. He stated that: “it’s right for the PM to raise the issue of inequality in institutions and universities,” and described the government’s agenda as “a national issue”.

Lammy’s committee is expected to report on its findings in 2017, along with providing recommendation and consultation to address the roots of the issue.

Photo: Flickr, Quick like a mule

a month of events throughout february celebrating lgbt+ history month ueastudent.com

lgbt+

9th February 2016

8

Global ELECTION COUNTDOWN It’s been less than a month since Barack Obama gave his eighth State of the Union address, showcasing his plans for the next 12 months in America. However, attention has now shifted towards establishing who will be making an inauguration speech next January.

Whilst the campaigns in both the Republican and the Democrat camps seemingly began several months ago – it seems that we cannot switch on the television for more than a minute without seeing either Donald Trump or Hilary Clinton smiling back at us. Voting in the ten-month long campaign officially started on 1st February, as caucus voters in the state of Iowa went to the polls for the first round of Primary Elections.

Former Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, and Texas Senator, Ted Cruz were eventually victorious. Nonetheless, if these Iowa results are anything to go by, then we can be sure of two things in this election: it will be close, and we should expect a few surprises along the way.

Primary Elections ultimately decide the two candidates who will fight for the Presidency come the end of the year as members from both the Democrat and Republican parties choose their preferred candidate for the nomination. These votes happen in all 50 states between February and June, always starting in Iowa in the winter, and concluding in the District of Columbia in the early summer, when the two candidates are officially confirmed.

Polls had, for several weeks, predicted that the fight for the Democrat nomination would be a close one, with the previously relatively unknown candidate Bernie Sanders expected to be in close contest with Clinton; the woman who has been expected to run for the first title of Madam President since she left Obama’s cabinet in 2013.

The Republican vote, on the other hand, was predicted to be an easy win for billionaire businessman Donald Trump, who was expected to take more than 30% of the vote.

Clinton’s victory was eventually secured by less than 1%.

However, just as was true of last year’s British election, opinion polls proved themselves to be unreliable once more and Mr Trump did not perform as well as was expected.

Not only did the ‘front-runner’ lose to Ted Cruz, but he only just survived in second place, less than one percentage point above Marco Rubio: a more moderate candidate who will surely gain greater financial support after this initial success.

As a consequence of these results, the remaining Democratic candidates have officially dropped out of the race, leaving Sanders and Clinton to fight it out for the rest of the campaign Several Republican candidates, including Mike Huckabee and Rand Paul, have also declared themselves out of the race. More interestingly, however, Rick Santorum, second placed Republican in the 2012 election, announced his support for third placed Rubio. Attentions have turned to New Hampshire, where the Primary Elections will be held today.

Most analysts are predicting victories for Bernie Sanders for the Democrats and Donald Trump for the Republicans, however, an estimated 40% of voters in the state are, as of yet, undecided.

Caitlin Doherty

Cameron’s EU referendum plans revealed Caitlin Doherty Global Editor Almost three years have passed since David Cameron first promised an In / Out referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union before the end of 2017, negotiations for which began in earnest after last spring’s election.

A draft agreement has been drawn up, and an announcement on a referendum date, choosing whether we remain in a renegotiated European Union or leave for good, is expected imminently.

The draft agreement has finally been presented to the Unionby president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, with just minor “detail to be worked on” before an important summit of EU leaders on 18th February.

Cameron’s proposed changes revolve around four key areas of international policy: migration and welfare, international competition, soverignty, and economic protection for those who reside outside of the monetary Eurozone, yet within the political European Union. Whilst an exit from the EU would obviously signify a great shift in British politics, the proposed legislation for staying ‘In’ could also seemingly greatly impact the public. How does the 16 page proposal measure up?

Migration and Welfare The Prime Minister has secured a ‘brake’ on emergency welfare, preventing in-work benefits for European migrants for the first Photo: Flickr, R-DV-RS four years of their residence within Britain,

a policy that will be revoked slowly in agreement with the rest of the EU. This has been the major sticking point of the campaign so far, given that this rule would flout one of the central principles of the European Union: namely freedom of movement, without discrimination, between member states.

Citizens of other EU nations have taken to Twitter to request similar actions within their country, encouraged by what they believe to be a success on the part of Mr Cameron.

Should such a rule come into place, the economic prospects of Brits, especially students and graduates, abroad may be bleaker.

Given that the ‘brake’ that Cameron has used to secure this particular piece of legialation is free for use by all EU nations, this could, in future, become a point of tension within the Union.

Economic safeguarding The Prime Minister wants an explicit recognition that the Euro is not the only or nevessarily the most powerful currency within the EU, to ensure that countries who haven’t adopted the currency are not disadvantaged.

The policy is being touted as a form of powerful economic protection for Britain, however, critics have been quick to point out that this policy would mainly protect the City and its big industries; those who are already widely criticised for tax evasion and unjustifiabley high wages.

As of yet, Tusk is yet to recognise the EU has having multiple currencies. Cameron seems to have lost on this front.

Sovereignty Cameron wanted Britain to be able to opt out of the EU clause of a desire for “an ever closer union”, effectively emancipating the country from international laws devised by the EU, handing greater power back to British governing bodies. Cameron has been allowed this power by Tusk, effectively granting him the power of a ‘red card’ to any EU policy he desires.

Critics have pointed out, however, that the political influence and power to say no to policies that may benefit other nations could increase animosity between member states and its citizens, fuelling what many believe to have been a growth in xenophobic culture within the region in recent years.

Financial competition The Prime Minister called for a relaxation in the legislation restricting what he called “Britain’s free market economy”. The statement has gone down pretty well with the EU and other European leaders, given that many feel Brussels should be doing less, but doing it better.

These proposals suggest that member states would work together to create one free market. However, the claims have been made previously and have nevercome into fruition, rendering many political analysists sceptical as to how sucessful these plans will be.

A date is yet to be officially set for the referendum, however, analysts and government sources are predicting that the Prime Minister would favour a referendum in mid to late June, specifically June 23rd.

Chinese censorship: Tank Man sold to Chinese firm Daniel Jeakins Global Reporter As one of the greatest tragedies of free speech in recent memory, Tiananmen Square serves as an iconic example of the dangers of peaceful protest in a nation whose government refuses to be defied.

The infamous ‘Tank Man’ photo – which shows a still, anonymous protestor standing in front of a column of armed tanks – immortalised the protest, despite Chinese government’s attempts to wipe it from history entirely.

This is an image of vast historical significance. Just as the image of Aylan Kurdi, washed ashore on a Turkish beach encapsulated the refugee crisis, the 1989 Tank-Man photo embodies the Chinese people’s fight for freedom of the press and a corruption-free government. It is therefore both saddening and worrying to learn of the sale of this iconic image - alongside a collection of others - to a Chinese company, closely associated with its government.

Previously, the freedom of this image has ensured the protests will not be forgotten.

Now the Chinese government have the opportunity to prevent them being shared.

The CEO of Visual China Group, the firm who now owns the rights to the images, said that “the transaction strengthens our dominant position in China’s image industry...and marks a significant milestone on our journey of globalization”. In reality, the purchase of these images is unlikely to affect their distribution in China; censorship is so strictly imposed that few in the country are even aware of the image and what it represents. The trade can, however, prevent

Photo: Flickr, Michael Mandiberg the image from being available internationally.

The government in China have already gone to great lengths to censor media relating to the Tiananmen Square protests and would arguably be compelled to prevent the images from being visible worldwide, effectively removing the events of 1989 from history.

However, many media outlets have pointed out that it was Getty Images, owned

by Bill Gates, one of the most powerful men in the Western world, who sold these images. Gates’ personal responsibility regarding the political implications of this sale is questionable: the Visual China Group in fact purchased a huge picture archive, which includes photographs of Marilyn

Monroe standing on a subway grate and workers eating lunch on a steel girder atop Manhattan’s Rockefeller Centre.

Upon the sale, the Senior Vice President of Business at Getty was confident of the integrity of the deal, assuring the media that the company would maintain “discretion” in the decade-old partnership.

The key issue here is clearly one of free speech: one of the things protestors in Tiananmen Square were killed in the name of.

The possibility of these images being hidden or removed from public view is a historical tragedy, and the fact that governments are able to hide evidence of significant events so easily does not bode well for the future.

9th February 2016

9

Global End in sight for Spain’s political deadlock After almost two months ‘in loco parentis’, it seems that the Spanish political deadlock may be coming to an end as socialist parties attempt to form a left-wing government.

Despite coming second in December’s inconclusive polls, Pedro Sanchez’s Spanish Socialist Party have been invited to try and form a government with two new parties, the radical left Podemos part and the centrist Ciudadanos party. This comes after discussions with the out-going Prime Minister and leader of the party with the most votes – the Popular Party’s Mariano Rajoy – failed to produce a stable government.

Mr Sanchez announced that talks with the other political organisations would begin on Wednesday February 3rd, after having been invited by King Felipe VI of Spain to try and form a government. Sanchez hopes that a left wing coalition could create a “stable government backed by constitutional forces”.

Whilst it would make mathematical sense for the Popular Party and the Spanish

ROUNDUP

360

Socialists to join forces – such an agreement would easily produce a majority government with 213 of Spain’s 350 parliamentary seats this arrangement has been ruled out by both sides, citing ideological differences that would be impossible to reconcile.

Authorities hope that a government will be formed in the next seven to ten days.

Lillie Coles Italian actor decalred dead after stage stunt goes wrong An Italian actor has been declared officially brain dead after a lynch hanging scene went wrong during a live theatrical performance in Pisa, Italy.

Raphael Schumacher was performing one of the lead roles in a production of Mirages at the Teatro Luxo when a medicine graduate in the audience became aware that

SAVE he tDATE

something was wrong. Despite wearing a bag over his head as a part of costume, the audience member realised that Schumacher was in trouble when his lower body started trembling. Thus far, the actor has not responded to any treatment.

The incident occurred during the closing minutes of the experimental production, with scenes staged at various locations around the theatre, with the audience members moving between scenes.

A fellow performer in the production could not understand how the incident happened, stating that: “The noose should have been fake and a harness should have caught him if he fell”.The investigation into the incident continues, but initial reports indicate the authorities believe this to have been a freak accident.

Jessica Frank-Keyes

Photos Graphic: Wikimedia, US government Photo: Wikimedia, King Felipe VI of Spain Cancilleria Ecuador

RECLAIM

he tNIGHT

YOU’RE INVITED 20/FEB 19:00 MARCH FROM FLAUNT TO THE LCR #UEARECLAIM

Zika is declared a world health emergency Zika has been declared as a World Health emergency. Experts have warned of the dire consequences of the virus, which has been spreading rapidly across the globe, especially across the Americas.

The first confirmed case of the virus was reported in Brazil in May 2015, and according to the Centre for Disease Control, outbreaks have since occurred in many other countries including Argentina and Columbia. Some travellers in the US have also been diagnosed with the disease, after having returned from trips to South America.

Following the announcement, the Zika virus has been classed under the same threat level to public health as Ebola, meaning that it will be given priority in research aid in an attempt to find a cure. The most common symptoms of the virus include fever, joint pain, rashes and conjunctivitis. The infection has also been linked to a recent surge in cases of microcephaly, a condition causing underdeveloped brains in new borns.

The virus is normally carried by mosquitos; however, a recent case in Dallas County, Texas suggests that the germ also has the potential to be sexually transmitted. Cases of this nature have also been discovered in Rockland, California, and Spain.

Pregnant women have been advised to asked to consider delaying any travel plans to infected areas; people are also being advised to visit their doctor if they live in or have visited any of the ‘danger zones’.

Lucinda Swain

Features

9th February 2016

11

Aggravated trespass at Heathrow: exclusive interview with Ella Gilbert >>Page 12

Rebecca Graham discusses the damaging pressure put on people by Valentine’s Day

I

t is a much discussed day in our calendars: a day that we either love or to hate, solely depending on our relationship status. If you are in a relationship, close to this time of year, you are bombarded with questions about what plans you have made; what present you are buying your other half and whether you have planned any surprises for them, sexual or otherwise. On the opposite end of the spectrum, if you are single, it can feel as if you are expected to curl up with a tub of ice-cream and indulge in a night of weeping about your own loneliness and watching Bridget Jones on repeat.

It is because of these expectations that Valentine’s Day can provoke anxiety for so many people. Those who are with someone begin to panic over what nice things they can do or get for their partner (or be seen to do and get) , and those who are single begin to dread the day they are expected to feel most pathetic for being ‘alone’. Even younger adults and teenagers are persuaded that being ‘alone’, that is, not in an intensely committed romantic relationship, should be some source of shame or sadness.

It seems ridiculous that a day which is supposed to celebrate love can create so much tension and stress. Many of us know of couples who fought so badly on Valentine’s Day they broke up. Equally we can remember fights with current or ex-partners when they cancelled our Valentine’s Day plans, despite

W

ith university comes a new era.

Learning to become independent, to cook, to clean, to budget, brings a new wave of freedom. You’re finally becoming an adult, no longer treated as a child, with the responsibilities and benefits that accompany this. Is this independence really all it’s cracked up to be? Or freedom just one step closer to us turning into our parents, far earlier than we ever expected?

Everyone remembers their first love.

Whether they become your future partner, or the relationship crumbles into a mess on the floor, the experience is still one never to be forgotten, but can that feeling ever last?

When the topic of sex is brought up with parents in the room, everyone’s mind fills with dread. The horror that fills your mind when your sex life is the agenda, “you mean my parents don’t think I’m still a virgin even though they’ve walked in on me twice?”, is bad enough, but what about your parents sex life? Old people don’t have sex. However if this new found independence means we’re turning into them, does that mean your sex life, and furthermore your love life, will turn into theirs too? It goes through every person’s head at one stage that they will never become too old for sex, but is this already changing?

Whether you’re in a long-distance relationship and don’t see your other half for weeks on end, or you came to university to enjoy the freedom of single life, love becomes a tricky situation. Are love and sex compatible

Photo: Wikimedia, mindmatrix the fact that up until that moment we had insisted and believed that we didn’t care about the day or what we did for it.

It’s a holiday which can suck you in no matter how hard you try to keep your distance. The heart-shaped chocolates, the flowers, the new lines of lingerie that pop up all over the high street as February begins are inescapable. They suggest that, if you are in a relationship with someone then yes, you should buy these chocolates and this card that says ‘I Wuv Woo’. If you are single

mean while then you should obviously feel terrible about it. Yet it is these cards, these flowers, these chocolates and crotchless panties that show just how unpleasant the holiday has become.

Perhaps it’s time that we reclaimed the day. Stripped down from all the commercialisation, Valentine’s Day is a sweet idea to celebrate the person you love. It’s worth remembering that the word ‘love’ can encapsulate a lot. Why does this have to involve extravagant chocolates and

expensive meals? Why do any incredible romantic plans have to be made at all? Of course, there are those of us who take to this sort of thing like ducks to water, but for those of us who can’t even decide what takeaway we want, let alone plan a romantic evening, why can’t a cheap bottle of wine, a meal and a night in do? We should ignore the chocolates and cards that turn the day into a commercial gold mine, and focus on one another, or even ignore the day entirely if that’s what we want.

Billie Andersson and Olivia Minnock discuss the difficulties of finding time for love, and whether it can cause real problems if we don’t

anymore, or are we doomed to turn into our parents where sex is an absurdity?

Aside from a healthy sex life, the meaning we all forget around love when it comes to Valentine’s day is that of platonic love, or the love we share with our families. For many of us, university life brings with it a group of course mates or flatmates who become our “new family”. This can lead to phone calls to our parents being delayed for weeks on end, catch-ups over Facebook becoming a mess of six paragraphs every month with those best friends from school who we simply couldn’t have survived adolescence without. How have those loved ones suddenly become such an insignificant part of our lives?

Furthermore, university life is one full of opportunities. We chase internships, throw ourselves into societies, begin to recognise and develop our own talents and interests, all of which can be healthy in promoting a feeling of self-love. Yet soon, this love of self replaces our inherent need to love and to be loved. In a way, this is positive. We learn to become more independent individuals and many of us tend to seek validation and admiration from others much less in favour of success in our coursework, making a difference on campus through societies, creating art and excelling at sports.

However, when love is left behind, can this also have a detrimental impact upon our lives? In a time-famished generation, the psychological benefits of talking to

people are known by everyone. The NHS offers “talking therapy” to deal with mental health issues, stating that “it’s an opportunity to look at your problems in a different way with someone who will respect you and your opinions”. This is obviously in reference to a professional therapist, and often while our parents and friends might have our best interests art heart, it’s easy to argue that they simply don’t know what they’re talking about. Occasionally it’s a lot easier to talk to someone who knows the whole story. Those who we’ve known us since the beginning of primary school, or since we had to get our first set of braces, or even since before we were born, will inevitably know the background and personality behind any issues we might be experiencing.

Unless they’re evil super villains in disguise, the people who love us probably want what is best. Talking and relaxing with a loved one really is beneficial to our mental health, especially in helping us to maintain a constant such as a parent, sibling or childhood friend in a world full of new jobs, a new home, studying at a new level and other upheavals.

Next time you feel too busy for love, ask yourself if you can really afford not to set aside time for it. If you can squeeze in time for a night of sex with your “new love”, chances are you can also squeeze in a coffee with those who really will listen and who want you to succeed.

9th February 2016

12

Ella Gilbert Features

Features co-editors Alice Mortimer and Olivia Minnock spoke to Plane Stupid campaigner and former UEA student, Ella Gilbert, to talk about her participation in an anti-Heathrow expansion stunt and her subsequent conviction

O

n the 13th July last year, Ella Gilbert took part in a protest against the building of a third runway at Heathrow. She and 12 others chained themselves together on one of the airport’s runways, causing the cancellation of 25 flights. They were convicted of aggravated trespass on 25th January, and must return to court for sentencing at the end of the month.

She was a student at UEA between 2011 and 2015, graduating with a bachelors degree in environmental geography and a masters in climate science.

Tell us more about the protest group you are part of, Plane Stupid. How did the group come about?

Plain Stupid was founded in 2005. One of the other defendants, Graham, was the first person to ever get arrested on a Plain Stupid demo. One of the first major actions was at Stanstead in 2007, I was around and about at that time, but I wasn’t actually involved in the action although I very much wanted to be. I was 17 so they didn’t want to get minors in trouble. But I did know quite a lot of the people that were there – there was 50-ish.

That was in the first wave of the antiHeathrow campaign which flared up between 2002 and 2010 when Heathrow [expansion] was originally on the cards. Then in 2010 David Cameron made his famous election pledge not to expand Heathrow – no ifs, no buts. So that prompted a second wave, hence why we’re here!

How was the protest organised in terms of the physical stunt? It caused quite a disruption with the cancellation of 25 flights – was this intentional?

So we got in with a whole bunch of kit: a tripod made of scaffolding and some fencing, that kind of thing. It’s so they need to get specialist equipment to remove you. And then we were obviously locked on [to each other] so we had lots of people with D-locks and arm tubes around the edges, which prolongs your visit! It means they can’t just take you off immediately.

We were there for about six hours which is the longest any airport demo has ever happened for. The intention was to stay there for as long as possible – to prevent as many flights taking off and to save as many

emissions as possible. Six hours was pretty good, I think! The longer the better in these situations.

What do you see as the main problems with Heathrow’s expansion?

It’s quite a nebulous issue. The main thing is that aviation is inherently bound up with climate change; you cannot de-carbonise aviation because it requires an incredible amount of energy to keep a massive tin can full of people in the sky. It’s just impossible. Any techno-fixes are massively out-stripped by the huge increases in demand for passenger travel.

We’ve got a whole bunch of climate targets that are legally binding: by 2050 we have to reduce our emissions as a whole country by 80%. If we are going to meet the target which the government has set itself for aviation, it will represent a quarter of emissions in 2050 – it currently represents 6%, so that’s a massive increase. And that’s even with massive, massive reductions in emissions from aviation. So essentially it’s a really highly emitting sector – and it’s also causing lots of deaths from air pollution and that kind of thing. Within a 32-kilometre radius [of Heathrow] there are 31 deaths a year from air pollution, and things like nitrous oxides and particular matter and that kind of stuff.

You’ve received support from people such as Natalie Bennett, as well as from many Heathrow residents: how have you found the reaction and publicity?

It’s been insane – actually insane! I’ve had loads of support from really bizarre [people]: Natalie Bennett, the Shadow Chancellor – I’m writing to Jeremy Corbyn today to see if I can wangle him! – loads of human rights lawyers, the head of Greenpeace, head of Friends of the Earth.

We’ve basically just got such a wide base of contacts and networks. We’re such a diverse group – there’s 13 of us – so we’ve all got our own inroads. Everyone’s supporting us really strongly but from really diverse sectors.

It’s been

9th February 2016

13

Features

Campaigning, conviction and climate change

unexpected but incredible.

Although the plans seem to be going ahead, what do you hope your protest has achieved for perceptions of climate change?

A lot of the motivation was because the Heathrow expansion debate hadn’t really focused on climate change at all: it’s always about noise, or air pollution, or compensation for local residents. These, of course, are very important, valid issues and they are legitimate things to be worrying about. However, the elephant in the room is climate change: no one’s been talking about it. You cannot separate aviation from climate change.

I think in terms of public perception, it’s been successful. We’ll be the first people to ever go to prison for aggravated trespass, and some of the first climate protesters to go to prison, and that in itself is a big news story. The coverage has been incredible, so I think it’s got our message quite wide.

Rob Gray of Back Heathrow has said that the actions of Plane Stupid don’t represent the majority of Heathrow residents. Do you agree with this?

Back Heathrow is a group that is funded by Heathrow. It’s presented as a lobby group supported by residents. It’s not a very unbiased source – obviously neither am I – but I think it portrays itself [as being] much more official capacity than it actually is. Its funding comes from Heathrow and big business. All the residents that I’ve met have been unbelievably supportive. I mean, 769 homes are under threat of being bulldozed – if that was your house you’d probably be pretty on-side!

It’s been argued a third runway will boost the economy and create jobs. Do you dispute this?

Investing in alternatives such as green economy, renewables, better railway links – any kind of infrastructure development that is renewable or in someway more sustainable – is also going to create jobs. People are dying as a result of air pollution and climate change. You can always fight statistics with statistics, and you can use them selectively, of course, but you’ve got to look at them in a little bit more depth.

[The pro-expansion lobby] has got a lot more power and influence than we do. All we have at our disposal is traditional campaigning methods, which have clearly not worked. No one’s listening to us; the government says [they are], then they totally U-turn on the matter. We have had to take dramatic action in response to a very dramatic threat, and the only thing we have at our disposal is ourselves. Back Heathrow has a lot of money, influence and political lobbying power.

How do you, and how can we, combat climate change in other ways? Are you just focused on air travel?

Flickr, Phillip Capper

We need to do a lot of different things all at once, and the longer we wait the harder it gets. The Climate Change Act 2008 meant we were the first country in the world with legally binding climate targets, but meeting them requires a concerted effort. Building another runway or expanding airports does the opposite of what we need to do to meet those targets. All other sectors – such as transport, heating, heavy industry – are going to have to cut emissions by 85% in the next 20 years, so that aviation, the only industry allowed to do so, can expand.

It seems very obvious when you look at those statistics but I don’t think most people know that. That’s part of the battle: getting climate change on the agenda and pushing for commitment from the government. We need to be reinvesting in a green economy and lowcarbon alternatives.

Anyone who is aware of the history of

what the government has said knows that it’s just saying a lot of political rhetoric and doing the exact opposite. There’s no way we can meet targets if we carry on [along] this trajectory. I know something has to be done and feel I’ve been pushed to extreme measures.

Would you say the important part is educating people about climate change?

A lot of media representation of climate change is problematic. For example, the BBC has to be impartial, so they need [to interview] one person who denies climate change for every climate scientist.

This does not demonstrate that 99% of climate scientists know this is happening. It’s treated as an argument that could go either way when really it’s unequivocal. It’s important this representation is stopped.

Do you think people tend to bury their heads in the sand?

If it doesn’t directly affect your life – for example, in the West, where effects are minimal and will be until our grandchildren grow up, that’s when the shit will start hitting the fan – then you don’t tend to think about it.

But if you’re living on a Pacific island, by the sea, your home may already be getting washed away. Lots of people see combatting it as: “You need to stop driving, you need to give up this and sacrifice that...” when really it can be much less scary if we just do it properly.

How has studying climate science at UEA developed your views on matters like this?

I studied for both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees at UEA. I have been interested in climate change since I was about 13. The climate science department here is one of the best in the country.

It takes a very special person to be able to look at the overwhelming amount of data and just say “Oh well.” Obviously I have become desensitised to it as well, like when I hear things about having no Arctic sea ice in September in the next 30 years. It’s terrifying and it means the atmosphere is a degree warmer. But honestly, I just try not to think about it, otherwise I’ll spend my life banging my head against a wall!

Are you worried your conviction will put people off further protests?

We are obviously being made an example of.

But I think we’ll be the first of many. In terms of the whole movement, this is probably the best thing that could have happened. It’s been widely publicised and the shock is palpable.

We’ll be the first people to get sent down for aggravated trespass.

It might deter people, but equally I think within the climate change movement it probably won’t. The problem is only going to get worse and it requires sacrifice from people.

Does the prospect of a prison sentence frighten you?

Yes. The prospect of going to prison is something I freaked out about a few months ago when I first thought “Yeah, OK, this is a genuine possibility”. But I feel like I’ve psyched myself up for it now. On a personal level, it’s obviously scary. But in comparison to all the people that are dying every year of climaterelated diseases and extreme whether events, it’s literally nothing. w

What happens now? How does Plane Stupid plan to keep up the media attention on this?

Right now we’re focused on solidarity and support for those of us who have been convicted. Once we’re in prison it’ll be pretty difficult to take part in interviews, so [then] the campaign will be “Free the Heathrow 13”. But we won’t be very involved in that...

9th February 2016

14

Features

Photo: Wikimedia, Pasu Au Yeung

I

n the past, student activism has been on the front line of social discourse. From supporting the anti-apartheid struggle, to standing against racism and the Vietnam War, support for these causes by student activists has been key to their success.

The tuition fee protests in the UK in 2010 and 2015, and the student protests in Hong Kong in 2014 have however, signaled a change in the importance of student activism: whilst students still organise rallies and demonstrations, wider public support for their participation and causes is diminishing. The problem is not that the protests didnít capture the attention of the public and the media, but that the public are beginning to feel apathetic to the causes of young people, partly because sometimes the protests go too far, but mostly because the student movement fails to engage with a broad spectrum of issues in the way that it used to.

In 2010, coverage of the tuition fees

Sam McKinty discusses the lengths young people take to make their voices heard

protests started positively, even favourably, towards the demonstrating students. When violence broke out, public perception quickly changed course as the the students became the ‘bad guys’. The semantics of the media changed; no longer were these student protests, they were student riots.

More recently, students have been better behaved, but the police aren’t taking any chances. Reports from recent student antiausterity protests suggest an overwhelming police presence, outnumbering students two to one.

Activists claimed that the police were stunting democratic process and limiting free speech by limiting protesters freedom of movement. What’s more, the government’s ‘Prevent’ strategy, which requires universities to show “due regard to the need to prevent people being drawn into terrorism”, has been criticised as limiting the freedom to protest. The legislation may provide the best way in which to guarantee a certain degree

of public safety, but that does not extend to the restriction of legitimate protest. A recent report by Vice highlighted instances at the University of Birmingham of students being arrested as part of Prevent, after merely taking part in anti-austerity protests.

What we see here is a new era of student activism, where the once all powerful student protest movement has been targeted and limited to the point of insignificance.

This wasn’t a whimsical decision made by the police and the government, this was a reaction to a string of protests that turned violent.

Student activists lost public support when their focus narrowed to those issues which affected students, and protested a very narrow, student-centric aspect of an issue. Students need to protest peacefully, and protest frequently. That’s the only way to make the student activist movement relevant again, and to regain the trust and support of the public.

Meg Bradbury discusses the importance and impact of word choice illustrated

by Oxford Dictionaries reviewing their definitions

O

xford Dictionaries have been forced to review the wording used in their definitions, following suggestions that some of their content was sexist, sparking a debate about whether or not sexism and other forms of discrimination are inherent in aspects of our language.

The discussion was started when the Canadian anthropologist Michael OmanReagan tweeted the dictionary publisher after noticing that their definition for the word “rabid”, defined as “having or proceeding from an extreme or fanatical support of or belief in something”, listed the phrase “rabid feminist” as an example. After suggesting they change it, Oman-Reagan went on to highlight other definitions which he described as having “explicitly sexist usage examples”. These included, among others: “shrill”, defined as “the rising shrill of women’s voices”; “psyche”, with a demonstration sentence, “I will never really

fathom the female psyche”; “nagging”, which employed the example phrase “a nagging wife”, and “housework”, accompanied by “she still does all the housework”. A number of people went on to join in with the debate; further gendered definitions were later uncovered by Buzzfeed, such as the use for the word “nurse”, which included “he was gradually nursed back to health” and “she nursed at the hospital for 30 years”.

Meanwhile, all usage examples for the word “doctor” used male pronouns in their sentences.

Given that the number of people who actually sit down and read the dictionary on a day-to-day basis is likely at an all-time low, not to mention the fact that most people in the modern world will be aware that “doctor” and “nurse” are not gender-specific roles, this might not seem the most important discussion of the week. Indeed, the initial response from Oxford Dictionaries treated

the matter light-heartedly, responding to Omar-Reagan with the tweet: “If only there were a word to describe how strongly you felt about feminism...”, although they have since issued an apology for the “flippant” nature of their remark.

Nonetheless, this raises a number of interesting questions about linguistic and rhetorical power. Whether the dictionary reflects the way in which these words are most frequently used or vice versa, it is perhaps difficult to expect our attitudes towards gender equality to change if we are yet to update the words with which we talk about them. Why not take a moment to think up, off the top of your head, another common example of the word “rabid” or “nagging” or “housework” being used? The fact that some people will find this difficult suggests that the language we use could carry more influence than we realise.

It was accusations of dictionary sexism

around which this particular incident centred, but it is perhaps equally important to consider the other forms of discrimination which could be at play in our language.

One example is the way the word “black” is employed in various words and expressions in the English language; to name but a few: “blackguard”, “black hearted”, “blacken” (meaning “to defame”), “blacklist” and “black sheep”. Meanwhile, “white” is a colour most often associated with purity and innocence, and a “white lie”, a phrase which Malorie Blackman cleverly parodies in her Noughts & Crosses series, refers to a dishonest statement spoken with good intentions, and thus a lesser sin. When we use these words, we aren’t consciously intending to be racist, but the implication remains all the same.

“Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me”: now, Oxford Dictionaries have provided us with further proof of the falsehood of this idiom.

NO TO EXCESSIVE STUDENT MONITORING

STUDENTS

NOT

SUSPECTS opposing Prevent

9th February 2016

16

Comment

Alice Spencer examines whether Barbie’s new look goes far enough

A

resident in the bedrooms of young children worldwide since her arrival in 1959, Barbie has long been a toy giant to be reckoned with. In her biggest makeover yet, it was revealed last month that Barbie’s creators, Mattel Inc., will be introducing three new body types for the traditionally long-legged, big-busted doll. Now available in curvy, petite and tall, as well as with seven skin tones and 24 different hairstyles, it seems this children’s toy might be finally growing up.

The saying goes that a Barbie doll is sold every three seconds, yet for the past few years, Mattel Inc. have been struggling in the midst of other toys better tailored to today’s children. In October, Mattel recorded a 14% decline in global Barbie sales; when set against the huge popularity of the empowering champion of sisterhood, Frozen’s Elsa doll, which overtook Barbie as the best selling doll in 2014, it is clear Barbie’s original look is dangerously dated. The slimhipped blonde has long attracted criticism for projecting an ‘unrealistic’ image on its impressionable target audience, which is putting it generously; Barbie’s original body proportions are anatomically impossible. With a waist six inches smaller than her head and almost half the size of the average 19 year-old woman, research suggests that Barbie would only have room for half a liver; she would also have to walk on all fours, on account of her uselessly skinny legs and ankles.

It comes as no surprise, then, that the introduction of body types more familiar to the majority of women has been lauded as a sign Mattel is finally opening its eyes to reality. Nonetheless, it is questionable whether this change genuinely comes from a desire to protect children from a harmful body image. Remarkably, Barbie is already reaping the financial rewards of her new look: shares in Mattel have gone up, and Barbie has reported its first quarterly sales gain since 2012. “Realistic” body shapes certainly seem to be doing the trick in convincing many previously sceptical parents.

All the same, “curvy” Barbie is still only the tip of the iceberg. Despite claims of a “Barbie revolution”, this new doll flagships one of the major ongoing grievances people

T

wo weeks ago at PMQs, David Cameron referred to the refugees living in the squalor of the Calais ‘Jungle’ camp as a “bunch of migrants”. This is not the first time the PM has demeaned the plight of refugees.

In the past, he has dehumanised the people fleeing from war as a “swarm” and spoken of making “sure our borders are secure so you can’t break into Britain”. Such associations are dangerous; they imply a reality of Britain versus an invading criminal force, rather than of Britain and the role it must play in this unprecedented humanitarian crisis.

This time, however, the impact of his comment will go even further. In describing the refugees as a “bunch of migrants”, Cameron was not only playing on society’s fear of otherness, and consolidating his far-right support; he was simultaneously diverting the public’s attention from other, more important matters than a verbal own-goal during PMQs. In the same week, the government had to contend with the High Court ruling which stated that their draconian Bedroom Tax policy was illegal in at least two cases, relating to domestic abuse and disabled children. Perhaps even more significantly, tax authorities struck a 3% corporate tax deal with Google, a multinational company which generates profits of around $66bn each year.

When questioned on this latest outrage, Cameron dismissed Jeremy Corbyn’s legitimate line of enquiry through a

have with the toy: its backwards emphasis on labels and looks. In naming the new ranges “curvy”, “petite” and “tall”, Mattel manages to imply that the original, malnourished stickthin Barbie is somehow “normal”. Why the need for the differentiation? Why, instead of “curvy” Barbie, is she not “healthy” or “realistic” Barbie? Furthermore, why do these dolls have to be defined by labels in the first place? The new shapes could potentially be even more harmful to young children’s perceptions of themselves.

Even more worrying is the media’s reaction, which has far outweighed what the change deserves. Flashback to 2014, when Barbie decided to expand her career

“The announcement has opened up a discussion on the approriateness of toys in general” horizons and become a computer engineer, a seemingly progressive move soon floundered by the book series in which she repeatedly infects computers with viruses and can’t do anything without her male co-workers.

Compare the drama caused by “curvy” Barbie with the tumbleweed reception this received, and it’s clear where our values lie.

Cutting Barbie some slack, Mattel’s big announcement has opened up a discussion on the appropriateness of toys in general. For example, “curvy” Barbie has been followed by calls for a “dadbod” Ken to replace the standard model, with his washboard abs and golden tan. What’s more, with Barbie turning 57 this year, maybe it’s time for Mattel to introduce the idea of a middle-aged Barbie.

Nevertheless, this move to a more allencompassing view of beauty comes too late.

The name Barbie is already too poisoned by connotations of general sexism to ever find its place in the bedroom of today’s children; we are, after all, talking about a doll that originally came with an instruction manual on how to lose weight. Barbie is a dying phenomenon, and it remains to be seen whether Barbie’s new look can salvage a brand so steeped in controversy.

Illustration: Amelia Morris for Concrete

Cameron’s “bunch of migrants” comment is a deliberate distraction, argues Lucas Cumiskey combination of sensationalist and historically emotive associations. He refused to directly answer Corbyn’s question of whether “the Prime Minister thought an effective tax rate [for Google] of 3% was right or wrong”; instead, he attacked Corbyn for his association with “the unions”, “the Argentineans” and the “bunch of migrants”, claiming that Corbyn prioritised the above over “hardworking taxpayers”. The statement was likely tactical, a distraction from questions about the hegemony of multinationals like Google, the ones who pose a real threat to taxpayers, and it is vital that his divisive rhetoric should be disseminated, in order to fully grasp its implications.

Firstly, it seems farcical that unions (including, but not limited to, the striking teachers, doctors and steel workers) should be treated as a separate entity to “hardworking taxpayers”, and it is extremely telling of Cameron’s detachment from the real world.

Secondly, Cameron is pandering to the residual sentimentalism of the Falklands war

by saying that Corbyn’s democratic dialogue was giving “them the Falklands”. The use of “them” is particularly telling; it denotes an alien other, separate from the ‘us’, which, in Cameron’s mind, is defined as his government

“The statement was likely a distraction from questions about the hegemony Google” and a selective proportion of “hardworking taxpayers”. The “them”, meanwhile, refers not only to the 323 young men killed aboard the General Belgrano, the Argentinean warship sunk by the Royal Navy in 1982, but also to the unionists and the aforementioned “bunch of migrants”. It seems he is associating refugees with armies and acts of war, consequently implying they are an invading force, an existential threat to Britain and its selective

assortment of “hardworking taxpayers”.

In reality, these taxpayers should be asking themselves why a multinational corporation like Google is being taxed through its Dublin office (Ireland has a corporate tax rate of 12%) rather than in England, where the rate of tax stands at a still comparatively low 20%, especially given that Alphabet, Google’s parent company, has just been valued as the most expensive tech. multinational, having overtaken Apple. In Germany, the strongest Eurozone economy, the corporate tax rate is 33%, yet throughout its European operation, Google redirects all sales to Ireland, thus paying the minimum tax possible on every transaction. The French, Italian and German governments have all proposed harmonising tax rates in Europe, so as to close up multinational loopholes, but the Conservative government is still resistant.

The ‘other’ the public need to fear is not the unionists, Argentineans or refugees; it’s the big multinationals, and the corporate politicians protecting their interests, who are the real threat to taxpayers.

Why should a society as wealthy as our own be throwing people who are disabled and abused out onto the street? Why are we cutting the public sector to the bone, and dismantling the NHS? Why are we dehumanising and ignoring refugees who have already suffered so much? If you want the answer, then you need to ask the Tories.

9th February 2016

17

Comment

T

he questions over Britain’s increasingly anti-Muslim attitude cannot help but be divisive. Immigration and integration have been complicated by troublesome debates for decades, and the latest disputes over the government’s education and antiradicalisation policies are no exception. Whilst the existence, unconscious or otherwise, of an inherent bias against Islam held by the British government cannot be conclusively proven by a few statements of policy intention, a series of incidents over the past few weeks have made it clear that this is a question in need of addressing – and fast.

The announcements which have provoked this statement range from David Cameron’s plans for English lessons for Muslim women, to an announcement from Ofsted that UK schools can fail an inspection for permitting female pupils to wear the full-face veil, or niqab.

According to the government, 22% of Muslim women currently living in England speak little to no English. Nonetheless, Cameron’s suggestion that limited language skills may increase the susceptibility of individuals to radicalisation has been heavily criticised, and has been described by Baroness Warsi, the former Conservative Minister for Faith and Communities, as “stereotyping”.

That lacking a basic grasp of the language of the country where you live can contribute to isolation and loneliness is unsurprising.

Yet do we really believe Cameron’s assertion that this move to improve the English skills of a group unlikely to ever vote for his party is purely designed to increase integration? Can we accept this as a concerned and considerate action, from a government that has proved itself ever more blind to the ways it has harmed the lives of its citizens?

The announcement from Ofsted is further implication that the government and its agencies are deliberately and openly targeting Islam. The claim that the Islamic veil, when worn in the classroom, can act as a “barrier to learning” is certainly a worrying one, if this is the case. But I would hazard a fairly well-educated guess that this is not the government’s primary motive, and is more of a convenient excuse. It seems absurd to claim that a school is failing to provide adequate education to its pupils due to a minority of them choosing to wear a religious garment; a successful school may equally have pupils who attend – and succeed – in classes whilst wearing exactly the same veil.

Why shouldn’t we have a debate on legalising incest?

Thomas Gymer

T

Photo: DavidDennisPhotos.com

Is Britain becoming anti-Muslim?

Jessica Frank-Keyes A final, telling indictment of the ugly nature of the government’s blatantly anti-Islamic bias can be found in Nicky Morgan’s interview with Channel 4 News a few weeks ago. Discussing the launch of her new website, Educate Against Hate, the Education Secretary was questioned as to whether one of the potential warning signs of radicalisation, “a recent and rapid conversion to any new religion”, could be equally applied to Christianity; when asked, “If a teenager comes home and says they want to be a member of the Church of England, would teachers be expected to press alarm buttons?” Morgan instantly responded, “No, of course not”. Morgan’s reply reveals the deceptiveness of her earlier arguments: that the dangers of extremism are to be found equally in Christian fundamentalism, and that the government aims to tackle those dangers with an equal level of seriousness.

On the one hand, Christian fundamentalism does not pose any great, immediate threat in Britain. There is no Catholic equal to the scourge of Islamic State no Jehovah’s Witness

equivalent to Boko Haram, or, at least, not one that is high enough in the news agenda to occupy a space of comparable urgency and fear. Nonetheless, to suggest that joining – or merely expressing an interest in joining – the Islamic faith is the only possible path to dangerous religious extremism is profoundly wrong.

It is becoming increasingly unpleasant to confront the realities of our world. It is heartbreaking to witness the suffering caused by religious war and brutality, and frustrating to feel powerless in the face of international politics that seem beyond our ability to change, yet it is vital that we do so. To hide behind lazy and misinformed assumption and ignorance is to be complicit in problems which we have a responsibility to solve. Cameron may truly believe he is doing the right thing in allowing British Muslims to be targeted and discriminated against; we can only hope he becomes aware of the potentially irreversible damage he could be causing before it is too late.

Corbyn isn’t the only leader living on borrowed time Jake Thomson

T

he Labour party are critically split under Jeremy Corbyn: not exactly a surprise revelation. Since Corbyn’s election in September, much media attention has been diverted to Labour’s internal divisions, cultivating an image of the party as a fractured, disaffected 80s throwback, with an infinite number of headlines following the same basic format: ‘Should Labour split?’, ‘Labour goes to war with itself’, ‘Labour in turmoil’. What’s more, the party have done little to discourage them; Corbyn’s leadership has heralded a “kinder, gentler politics” in which moderate Labour MPs are visibly disaffected on the backbenches, cabinet reshuffles take days and shadows ministers stage mass resignations in protest against decisions made by their elected leader.

Even so, this considerable evidence of rifts within the party is no reason for it to be relayed to the public practically every day.

Labour’s various divisions are perpetually featured in the press, but what about splits amongst the Conservatives? Aren’t they also heavily divided on several key issues?

Since their surprise election victory in

May, however, there have been a number of instances of ruptures within Cameron’s Conservative government. In October, George Osborne was openly defied by over 20 Tory MPs concerning his proposal over tax credit cuts, effectively ensuring the bill would never pass through the Commons, given the Tories’ razor-thin majority.

2016 has also begun rather dismally for the Tories in terms of unity, with Europe, as usual, being the dominant topic for discussion.

Last month, whilst Corbyn was desperately reshuffling his cabinet in order to consolidate his authority, Cameron sneakily used this news story as cover for the revelation that his cabinet has been given a free vote on the EU referendum. Boris Johnson, Chris Grayling, Liam Fox, Theresa Villiers and Iain Duncan Smith are all top figures in the cabinet expected to join the ‘Out’ campaign, but this has not been nearly as extensively covered in the newspapers as the perceived divisions within Labour. Nor has there been much coverage of the PM’s renegotiation with the European leaders, not until now, as the cracks are really beginning to show within the Tories.

This is, as anyone interested in political history will already be aware, déjà-vu for the Conservatives. In the last three decades of the 19th century, party divisions over Europe helped to ensure the Tories remained in the political wilderness, as did the implosion over the Maastricht Treaty under John Major. Like Major, Cameron only won the election with a small majority, which could easily deteriorate over the course of this parliament due to byelections. If Cameron’s authority wanes, then the more right-wing spheres of the media, and indeed the news in general, will have an easier time criticising him; there’s always interest to be found in situations where politicians find themselves vulnerable, no longer indispensible to their own party or to the electorate. This is why Corbyn is easy flak for the press - either that, or Cameron is simply blessed with far more competent spindoctors.

Either way, as unpredictable as British politics was last year, it’s looking like 2016 may be the year of Westminster parties becoming more anarchic than ever before, and of leaders living on borrowed time.

here is a law in the UK which criminalises sex between consenting adults, based purely on out-dated social prejudices. To clear up any confusion: the law I’m talking about is the one which criminalises incest.

Recently, the Scottish parliament had to consider legalising incest. This was due to a petition, calling for consensual incest between adults over the age of 21, which exploited a legal loophole that requires the Scottish parliament to consider any petitions which call for a change in the law.

Unsurprisingly, the committee of MSPs who had to examine this petition did so for as little time as possible; after having considered it for less than a minute, they threw out the petition, claiming there was no public desire for incest to be legalised.

This argument is somewhat limiting. For starters, several people have been arrested in Scotland for incest over the past few years; I imagine many of them would be happy to see the law changed. Additionally, a recent poll in the Mirror showed than 14% of people would support the legalising of incest; not an especially high proportion, perhaps, but it does show that there are people who care.

Furthermore, the number of people who are calling for the legalisation of incest shouldn’t be a concern. When the US first legalised inter-race marriages, the majority of people opposed it. That was one instance of the majority being wrong; this is another. No amount of opposition to something should

“There’s a word for laws that try to control who can and can’t breed: eugenics” make it illegal if it’s harming no one. If the majority of people wanted homosexuality to be illegal, that wouldn’t be a reason to make it so, and it should be the same for incest.

The opposition often focuses on claims that incest leads to genetic defects. However, this argument no longer holds up, for three simple reasons. Firstly, we now have the ability to screen embryos for genetic defects.

Secondly, it doesn’t account for why incest in cases where reproduction is impossible (such as same-sex incest, or incest where one partner is infertile) should be illegal.

Lastly, there are other couples, those who themselves suffer from genetic diseases, whose children are at far more risk of developing genetic problems, yet there is no law preventing them from being together, and there’s no reason there should be.

There’s a word for laws that try to control who can and can’t breed; it’s called eugenics.

The fact that any politician standing up in favour of eugenics would be out of a job, yet the Scottish parliament is at liberty to fail to debate legalising incest for more than a minute, is nothing short of ridiculous. What’s more, it’s cowardly. Other countries have legalised incest, an extensive list including France, Turkey, China, Japan, Brazil, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Thailand, Spain, Portugal and the Ivory Coast.

The current law is based on social prejudices. If incest weren’t taboo, it wouldn’t be illegal. The chair of the committee that considered legalising incest (albeit barely) described the practice as “abhorrent”, but that response simply isn’t good enough.

18

9th February 2016

Science&Environment

Outbreak of the Zika virus in the Americas Nick Brown Sci&Env writer At the beginning of the month, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared that the disease linked to the Zika virus had reached the level of a global emergency. This infection has been linked to cases of microcephaly, a condition where babies are born with underdeveloped brains, causing the head to be smaller in size compared to that of a healthy infant. Since October last year there have been 4,000 reported cases of this condition in Brazil alone.

Currently there is no vaccine or medication to treat Zika, but health professionals have advised against all travelling in this area to avoid getting bitten by the Aedes mosquitos that are transmitting the infection.

Aedes mosquitoes which are characteristically active during the daytime.

The virus is related to other vector-borne diseases such as dengue fever, west Nile virus and Japanese encephalitis. The symptoms are similar to that of mild dengue fever, and as a result can only be treated by rest, as treatments are not yet available.

The virus was originally discovered in Uganda and its surrounding countries in 1947. Throughout the next decade, it was discovered to occur within an equatorial belt from Africa to Asia. In 2014, the virus spread

4

000

The number of reported cases of Zika infection in Brazil alone since October last year

towards the Pacific Ocean to French Polynesia, and subsequently Easter Island. From 2015 onwards, this virus was transported over to the Americas, causing the outbreak to be classified as a pandemic.

As was seen at the start of 2015 during the Ebola epidemic, the WHO has started to concentrate on this disease with utmost importance. Unlike Ebola, which included a ‘boots on the ground’ approach to combatting the disease, the focus for the Zika virus is to understand the link between the virus and microcephaly. By working with the countries affected, it is hoped that a more accurate determination of the risk that this virus is posing to the citizens will be uncovered. Efforts are also being focussed on removing the

Photo: freestockphotos.biz. Below: Flickr, theinvinciblemom intermediate host of the virus, rather than solely focussing on curing the disease. It has been proven that removing the breeding habitats of the mosquitos can reduce the incidence rates of contraction. Methods include drying up stagnant water beds which are home to the mosquito larvae, as well as trying other ways to decrease the size of subpopulations.

It has been discovered in the US that the virus has been sexually transmitted to people who have not visited infected areas. Although it seems to be a rare occurrence, some countries are recommending men returning from affected areas to utilise condoms.

One of the big talking points in the media is how this outbreak may affect the Olympic

Games, which are to be held in Rio later this year. Brazilian authorities are working in close contact with the International Olympic Committee and Rio organisers; venues will be checked daily to ensure that all risk is at a minimum. Combined with the fact that there will be fewer mosquitoes in August, this will hopefully allow for an incident-free Olympics

Breastfeeding benefit: preventing child and breast cancer deaths

W

e all have embarrassing pictures of ourselves as children, as innocent as the day is young. But we tend to overlook how vulnerable children are at that age to illnesses. The cause for concern here is regarding breastfeeding. Only one in five children in high-income countries are breastfed to 12 months, whilst one in three children in low- and middle-income countries are breastfed for the first six months. A simple increase in breastfeeding could prevent 800,000 child deaths across the globe, and 20,000 deaths from breast cancer every year.

Unfortunately, “there is a widespread misconception that the benefits of breastfeeding only relate to poor countries.

Nothing could be further from the truth,” says Professor Cesar Victoria, of the Federal University of Pelotas in Brazil. She continues: “our work clearly shows that breastfeeding saves lives”. This is because breastmilk is known to strengthen a child’s immune system. It helps fight off future illnesses,

Sophie Christian investigates news about the global benefits of breast feeding

and the importance of this cannot be understated.

Analysis of data from 28 systematic reviews indicate that breastfeeding has a positive impact on life expectancy and increases intelligence. Furthermore, in high-income countries, breastfeeding decreases sudden child deaths by more than a third. In low and middle-income countries, approximately half of diarrhoea episodes and one third of respiratory episodes could be avoided.

Aside from there being numerous health benefits, there are economic advantages for encouraging this practice. Modelling studies estimate that global economic losses of lower cognition from not breastfeeding reached an

alarming $302bn in 2012 – 0.49% of the world’s gross national income.

There are ways to significantly improve breastfeeding practices, such as countries scaling up interventions, policies and programmes. A prime example is in Bangladesh, which has increased exclusive breastfeeding rates by 13%. This has been achieved with six months of maternity leave, comprehensive health-worker training, community mobilisation and media campaigns. This shows the rate of breastfeeding can be improved if enough interest is in the cause. If a country that has less money to spend can help newborns survive, then there should be no issue for a nation as wealthy as Britain. Encouraging more women to breastfeed will have farreaching benefits, as it will improve the health, nutrition and development of children.

The last thing a parent wants is an unhappy infant, so breastfeeding may provide a simple solution.

9th February 2016

Why are so many whales washing up on beaches?

Louise Fitzgerald Sci&Env writer Five young male sperm whales all washed up along the east coast in one weekend, which has left people intrigued?

The three whales which washed up in Skegness, as well as the whales which washed up in Hunstanton and Wainfleet are all thought to be from the same pod. It is possible that more of this pod have died after 12 other whales were washed up on the Dutch island of Texel and the German islands of Wangerooge and Helgoland in January.

Sperm whales are deep-sea mammals and can become easily disorientated in shallow waters. It is not yet known what made the whales enter the shallow waters around Lincolnshire and Norfolk. Investigations are underway to check for marine earthquakes and to examine whether there was any unusual underwater noise. It is also hoped that scientists will be able to determine whether there has been any change in the distribution of prey which may have made the whales enter the Wash.

What caused the death of the Skegness whales? The bodies were too badly decomposed to establish a cause of death, but very little was found in their

19

Science&Environment intestines suggesting that the whales were malnourished. When this happens, whales become dehydrated, as they acquire fresh water from their food. The whales were alive when they became stuck in the shallow waters of the Wash. The weight of their own bodies then crushed their internal organs and caused them to fail.

The build-up of gases within the whales as they decomposed caused one of them to expolde during the post mortem. The decision was then taken not to disect the other two whales for the safety of the researchers and the public.

It is highly unlikely that any of the numerous wind farms and oil rigs in the North Sea disorientated the whales. Once wind farms and oil rigs are established they create artificial reefs which are rich in fish and are therefore likely to benefit the whales.

It is also unlikely that the whales were disorientated by sonar. Almost ten years ago, when a bottlenose whale swam up the Thames, a post-mortem found no evidence that her auditory functions were affected by noise. It was concluded that the whale probably went up the Thames by accident and then got disorientated and too weak to swim back out.

What’s new in science Trackers on 300 honeybees reveal they forecast the weather to plan their work day Copenhagen set to withdraw the city’s £700m investment in fossil fuels An expedition has revealed a hidden population of up to 200 lions in a remote part of Ethiopia By 2050, floods in Europe will cause five times more damage The NHS will soon be using drones to help chemical, biological and nuclear response teams Preliminary trial of opioid in tiny doses could lead to the development of the first fast anti-suicide drug Age-preventing drugs have moved a step closer as scientists extend the lives of mice by 35% Greenhouse gas emissions in the UK have dropped by 8%

Photo: Flickr: Harald MM

Ship noises and underwater

08.03.16

sound pollution may prevent orcas communicating to one another.

Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are visible together for the first time since 2005 A way to warn of an impending earthquake is being developed Photos Top: Pixelbay: Kaz Bottom: Wikipedia Robert Pittman

9th February 2016

20

Travel

Photo: Dahlia Al-Abdullah

Photo: Flickr, Dimitry B. Below left: Flickr, Alberto Carrasco-Casado. Below right: Wikimedia

The stories that made me a traveller

What are the books and films that inspire us to travel the world?

I

have always been an avid reader. When I was younger I would devour book after book, never getting enough of the fictional worlds I could so freely explore with my infinite imagination. However, I had never read a book that had made me want to step out and explore new places – that is until I read Memoirs of a Geisha by the American author, Arthur Golden.

I couldn’t get enough of this new world, a place I had never come across, even in my imagination. It was not simply the mental scenery, but also the difference of culture that completely fascinated me. Descriptions of lanes lined with sakura blossom trees, water gardens with golden temples at their centre, and sloping hillsides alight with the colours of autumn captivated me. The world and culture I lived in was so different to the one I was experiencing through the book, I could hardly believe that they both existed on the same tiny globe.

The story centres around Sayuri, a young girl growing up in rural Japan. After her parents pass away, she is taken from her home, separated from her sister, and sent to work in a traditional geisha house. The story follows her battles with other geisha whilst struggling to become a geisha herself. Her

Dahlia Al-Abdullah on Memoirs of a Geisha and her journey to the heart of Japan

biggest problem, though, is not being able to pursue the man she loves, due to the nature of her job.

There are moments in the book where Sayuri will go to the Shinto shrine to ring a bell and pray about the situation that she is in. It was in these parts of the book that this overwhelming urge was ignited in me: to get out of my small village and begin to explore the world outside. I wanted to feel that culture shock in real life, to immerse myself in a place that I had never previously explored. This mysterious world was so far from everything I had always known, and I was hungry to discover it.

Once I realised that a film, based on the book, existed, I was full of that familiar excitement and dread that book lovers know so well. I was keen to see a visual interpretation of the story, especially as I had spent so long trying to picture it in my head. However, there was also a part of me that was incredibly worried that the version I had created, knew, and loved would be shattered and that the film would do no justice to the story that I had envisioned for so long.

On watching, luckily, I was completely

blown away. The film was a tangible version of the story that had captured me and given me so much to dream about.

The film was controversial in Japan because of its presentation of geisha culture.

This made me realise how important it is to avoid romanticising another culture without researching it and seeing for myself.

I have often looked at photos of modern day Tokyo, and wondered how such a seemingly futuristic city could have been produced from the same country that produced the world of the geisha. It absolutely fascinated me that one country could have so many different personalities, and I was keen to explore the lesser-known, traditional world that was saved for the backstreets of Kyoto. The day I finally got to explore the same streets I had read about for so long was magical: I was able to see the culture in my own unique way, no longer through the eyes of others.

Sometimes, we may not be able to actually get on that plane, train, boat or bus to go somewhere phsyically. As someone who is constantly seeking adventure, immersing myself in travel, literature and film, are perfect ways to remain continually inspired to get out of my familiar bubble and adventure whenever I can.

9th February 2016

21

Travel

Hong Kong and Carolina: studying all over the world Amelia Glean Travel writer

How does one compare two very distinct experiences? It seems almost impossible, and I will never be able to judge a winner or loser.

In 2014-15 I spent five months studying at UNC Chapel Hill in North Carolina, and six months at the University of Hong Kong (HKU). The differences in culture might be the best place to start, although you may be surprised to find I often felt more homesick in the US! Exploring Hong Kong’s “Asian” areas such as Mong Kok – the most densely populated area in the world – was a total contrast to the fusion of East-meets-West in a place called Central. Here, the obvious British influence meant I was able to dine at pubs such as the Yorkshire Pudding that serve British classics such as traditional fish and chips, and apple crumble. Yet in North Carolina I struggled to get hold of a tin of Heinz baked beans, real dairy milk chocolate, or even just a good slab of cheese! Instead, it was peanut butter everything and deep-fried you-name-it.

My university experience at UNC was absolutely incredible, however. If I could go back and study there for three more years, I would do so in a heartbeat. The school spirit is evident when you first arrive and see students frequently walking around in Carolina tees and short. This carries into the sports culture, where the atmosphere at college football or basketball games is electric. The American emphasis on competitiveness intensified the bubble of energy and was something I fed off.

By comparison, the time I spent in Hong Kong never felt like home. It was wonderful in its own way, don’t get me wrong. I really enjoyed my time in the city, but the lack of collective school spirit and charismatic teaching meant I was often left feeling uninspired. In hindsight, I’m glad this was the case: I often had the chance to travel at the weekends, something that is much cheaper to do in Asia. I was able to travel to Thailand, Japan, Taiwan and Vietnam to name but a few, experiencing things I would never do in the West, such as hunting for hours to find a public toilet, and bathing wild elephants. I travelled well in America too, visiting DC and Chicago, as well as ice-skating in New York and walking across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

Overall, my UNC college experience was superior to that of my time studying at HKU. As a city, Hong Kong has so much more to offer than a small college town in Chapel Hill can never hope to compete with. The thing is, I don’t want to compare them. The way I see it, I was lucky enough to have had the opportunity to experience both – I just wish I could do it all again!

Photo: Flickr, Moyan Brenn

Barbara Ashby discusses The Last Emperor and the beginning of her lasting love affair with the Far East

E

ver since watching The Last Emperor, I was intrigued by both the storyline and the film’s setting. It focused on a unique city, one which was untouched by the outside world, one which evoked mystery. That place is the Forbidden City, and I knew I had to see it for myself. So began my utter fascination with the Far East, and my dream to one day visit Beijing’s famous World Heritage site. However, that dream would not be realised until May 2008, when I celebrated my 40th birthday.

From the very beginning of the film I was captivated by the life of the three-year-old boy emperor, Puyi, who grows up in the Forbidden City under the rule of the eunuchs. The story revolves around the forced abandonment of an old order and the acceptance of an emerging new regime. This eventually leads to the Emperor’s abdication and collaboration with

neighbouring Japan. In the end, this brings him the freedom he craves to live his own life as a gardener.

In many ways, this is an incredibly sad film when focusing on the aspect of this lonely child, and the imperial life he has been forced into from birth. Yet its attraction for me is in the aesthetic presentation of the Forbidden City itself. The contrast between the bland, cold prison walls pictured in the opening scenes and the wonderful array of colour in the walled city later on is spellbinding.

What we are presented with is a backdrop of palatial buildings with a mass of imperial staff and religious priests in the foreground.

The mix of reds, gold’s and blues was alluring, and there were the men sporting strange hats, pigtails, and beards. This was a mysterious place, different from anything I had encountered before and one that was crying out to be explored.

When the day came of my visit to the Forbidden City in 2008, the wait had been worthwhile. As I walked through the gateway and into the main courtyard, I found myself catching my breath. Seeing it in reality was amazing, it lived up to my expectations and more. I will never forget such a wonderful day; the day I had the privilege to walk where The Last Emperor, and those before him, had walked. It was a sight to behold, an overwhelming experience and one I will never forget. What made it just that extra bit more special was that this visit occurred on my 40th birthday – what a treat indeed.

Photo: Wikipedia, MGA73bot2

Photos: Wikiepdia, Pasu Au Yeung

9th February 2016

22

Sport UEA sport round-up Hockey University of Lincon Mens 2nd University of East Anglia Womens 1st University of Birmingham Mens 4th

0-7 3-1 8-0

Basketball University of Nottingham Womens 1st University of East Anglia Mens 2nd

68-35 64-55

University of East Anglia Womens 1st Anglia Ruskin University Mens 3rd

Rugby Union University of East Anglia Mens 1st University of East Anglia Mens 2nd University of East Anglia Womens 2nd

42-17 29-19 10-37

University of Northampton Mens 2nd University of Bedfordshire Mens 2nd Coventry University Womens 1st

Football University of East Anglia Mens 1st University of Nottingham Womens 2nd Anglia Ruskin University Mens 1st

1-2 2-0 4-0

Staffordshire University Mens 1st University of East Anglia Womens 1st Anglia Ruskin University Mens 1st

Lacrosse University of Leicester Womens 1st De Montfort University Mens 1st

20-10 3-9

University of East Anglia Womens 1st University of East Anglia Mens 1st

Netball University of East Anglia Womens 1st University of Nottingham Womens 4th

34-40 43-23

Notts. Trent University Womens 2nd University of East Anglia Womens 2nd

Tennis University of East Anglia Mens 1s University of East Anglia Mens 2nd Anglia Ruskin University Womens 1st

2-1 4-8 4-8

Golf University of East Anglia Mixed 1st

4.5-1.5

University of East Anglia Mens 2nd Loughborough Womens 4th University of East Anglia Mens 1st

University of Cambridge Mens 2nd Anglia Ruskin University Mens 1st University of East Anglia Womens 1st Anglia Ruskin University Mixed 1st

UEA 2s football victorious against Hellesdon in decisive match Andrew Wells Sport writer In what may prove to be a decisive match in the season for both sides, UEA 2s eventually came out on top against Hellesdon 2s after a hard-fought game in treacherously slippery conditions.

Both sides started at a quick tempo and neither team were able to hold onto possession with the ball constantly being regained and then lost in the middle of the pitch. UEA looked the most threatening early on and good interplay between Jimmy Dalton and Will Hanson saw Hanson have the first shot of the game, though he could not get enough power behind it and the shot went wide. Dalton also had a seemingly harmless shot from outside the box soon after, which the Hellesdon keeper made a hash of. It could easily have been 1-0 had another UEA player been there to follow up the original shot.

After another period with little action of note, Hellesdon started to build some possession, but resolute defending from UEA’s excellent back four ensured nothing came from it, and indeed UEA eventually launched a counter attack. The ball was pinged forward and eventually fell to Will Hanson out wide who played a one-two with Dalton before drilling the ball across the face of goal. Hellesdon’s defence were in disarray but just managed to scramble it clear. UEA had a couple more half-chances, but the game was 0-0 at half time.

The second half started quietly, though UEA had most of the possession with the midfield, particularly Groves, tracking back well when the ball was lost to regain possession and preserve UEA’s territory. Eventually, however, the tide began to turn, and midway through the second half Hellesdon cut back a cross to the edge of the box for their centralmidfielder, whose shot looked dangerous, but went high and wide. UEA soon recovered their composure, and had a golden opportunity when Mark Allen found himself with a closerange free header from a corner, but he could not quite get the direction on it.

For the next 15 minutes, it was fairly even and Jonathan Steventon and Jono Parker in the centre of defence were called upon to make some important interceptions as Hellesdon tried to find a way through with their direct style. However, the game wore on and UEA’s superior fitness showed as they dug deep for the final period, piling on the pressure.

With five minutes to go, captain Mark Allen drilled the ball at the Hellesdon defenders, one of whom lunged in clumsily as he entered the penalty area. Allen went down and was justly awarded a penalty for the poor tackle, which ended his daring run. Hanson coped with the pressure far better than anyone on the sidelines, and hammered it home.

Victory was assured when Hellesdon, pushing for an equaliser in the dying seconds, gave away possession cheaply on the halfway line and found no defenders back to prevent Dalton slotting a second goal past the keeper for 2-0.

Pirates look to correct weaknesses for season finale Matthew Brown Sport writer The UEA Pirates’ main weaknesses this season were very prominent in their games against Brighton Tsunami and Sussex Saxons, causing them to fall to an ignominious record of two wins, four losses. The record meant that the Pirates are now officially ruled out of playoff contention, however, the Pirates are looking to ened the season on a high having won their second to last game against Cambridge University Pythons on 7th Feburary.

Hosting the Brighton Tsunami on 24th January, the Pirates got off to a terrible start, conceding 14 points in the first 16 minutes of the game. The defence, after a slow opening, played superb football, making some remarkable plays to shut-out the Tsunami offence for nearly three quarters of the match.

One example of such brilliant defending was when Longkai Fer chased down Tsunami quarterback, Matt Coburn, to tackle him from behind, preventing a sure touchdown. Coburn looked certain to score, as he faked a handoff to running back Zach Smith-Bubbins and rolled out right. Yet Fer, showcasing excellent speed and awareness, managed to catch Coburn after the rest of the Pirates were out of play. In the secondary, cornerback James Rushmere played through a hip injury to force a fumble, stripping the running back in a tackle to negate a huge Tsunami play.

The offence started to move the chains in the second half, with the offensive line improving on their first half showing to dominate the run game. They showed fantastic effort, displaying tremendous physicality into the second level.

Right tackle Jason Howe—a defensive line convert—was particularly dominant.

The Pirates’ lone score came from a Ross Aveyard catch in the corner of the end zone.

Aveyard, lined up in the slot, ran a wheel route as outside wide receiver Charlie Guest ran inside to open up the defense. Quarterback

Photo: UEA Pirates Francis Hughes displayed great touch, lofting the ball perfectly for Aveyard to register a brilliant touchdown: his first this season.

However, despite their attempted fightback, the Pirates’ initial sluggishness ultimately cost them the game.

Departing at 06:20 for their game against the Kent Falcons, the Pirates looked to right the wrongs of their previous defeat. Alas, on a terrible pitch not conducive to passing the football, the Pirates fell to an 18-0 defeat; their offense being shutout for the first time this season.

The conditions made it exceptionally difficult for both teams to hold onto the football. In addition, footwork became an even more important skill, as players struggled

Hiddink’s revival at expense of club legend Tom Gordon Sport Editor In typically unpredictable Premier League terms, when a mere matter of weeks can see the table upend itself, it seems an age since Chelsea’s erstwhile Iberian gaffer proclaimed that were the West London contingent to fire him they would “sack the best manager this club had”. Yet after two months and all the flux it brings with it, the board elected to do just that. Although the Blues, now 14th in the table, are only two places higher in the table since Mourinho’s typically truculent challenge to the board, it is a remarkably more confident looking Chelsea team under interim manager Guus Hiddink.

Theories aplenty abound as to what precipitated Mourinho’s exit from the club, beyond the awful string of results of course.

The prevailing narrative that has sustained the voracious sports media for the last two months is that the bullish Portuguese managerial kingpin had lost the dressing room. Like Jesus to Judas or Othello to Iago, here was a leader unable to inspire the requisite level of loyalty and confidence in his fellows. In the end there was nothing as certain as 30 pieces of silver to point to, but it certainly did seem as if player power at Chelsea had once again forced out another manager.

It was telling that the club’s statement after the sacking of ‘The Special One’ concluded by informing the fans that the “focus is now on ensuring our talented squad reaches its

9th February 2016

23

Sport

Photo: Flickr, Airwolfhound

England’s cricketers triumph in series against South Africa Richard Ewart Sport writer

with sharp cuts and movements in the mud bath. Both quarterbacks had huge difficulties in setting their feet due to the slippery mud, leading to wobbly, inaccurate throws. With the ability to run the football effectively being extremely important, the Pirates struggled.

Numerous turnovers were committed, halting any previously gained momentum and often occurring in positions deep in the Falcons’ half.

The defence, stopping the Falcons’ offence for the first quarter, gave up two big plays in the second to fall 12-0 behind. In spite of this, their performance was largely faultless. They conceded no more points in the contest, whilst continuing their impressive streak of forcing at least one turnover per game.

The first forced fumble came courtesy

of linebacker Mike Pearl, as he skilfully shot through his gap to strip the running back.

Diving on the loose ball was rookie defensive end Harvey Green.

The second turnover was caused by defensive captain Gabe Ruane, who powered past a tight end block to tackle the running back, jarring the ball loose. Four Pirates swarmed onto the ball.

However, the Pirates have managed to bounce back from their back to back losses after they convincingly defeated Cambridge University Pythons on Sunday 7th Feburary.

Touchdowns from Patrick Marchington, Lewis Reekie, Francis Hughes and team captain Henry Schoen saw the Pirates beat their opponents 24-0.

potential”. From a modern football club as PR-trained as Chelsea, this seemed a lazilyveiled jab at Mourinho’s managerial style that supposedly shackled the players. It seems bizarre to declare this squad has not yet reached its potential when more or less the exact same collection of individuals won the league under Jose Mourinho only last season.

Of course, from the board’s perspective, it is far easier to sack one manager than ship out every player bar Courtois, Zouma, Azpilcueta and Willian.

The fan’s bewilderment and anger at the decision was clear. Chelsea’s first game without the most successful manager in their history was marked by a wholesale rejection of the majority of the 11 players in front of them.

Despite beating Sunderland 3-1 and playing a markedly less enervating and dispiriting brand of football, the fans were livid. Indeed the understandable anger of the fans seemed to increase regardless of how well the team was playing; the general perception being that the players had consciously refused to play to the best of their abilities for the fan’s beloved Special One. As a supporter, it is certainly hard to get behind a squad that puts its qualms with the manager ahead of the badge, especially so if that manager, along

with in-flux captain John Terry, seems the only remaining representation for whatever the spirit of Chelsea Football Club is.

Fan and player favourite, Guus Hiddink, seemed mindful of the toxic atmosphere between the Stamford Bridge faithful and their far less faithful footballing counterparts, saying the squad should ‘look at themselves in the mirror’. A look at recent results implies the squad appears to have done just that. Oscar, whose erratic form seems so inextricably linked to Chelsea’s results, put in excellent shifts against Sunderland and MK Dons. Costa has elected to return to his role as a striker, rather than a crèche escapee.

Even Fabregas, the recipient of the greatest amount of ire from Chelsea fans this season, has looked far more than just a shadow of his former self. Chelsea’s linchpin Eden Hazard, finally managed to bag a goal against MK Dons, gratefully converting a penalty and dutifully kissing the badge.

The fans will no doubt take solace that the torpidity of the players that dragged the Champions down into the mires of 14th place appears to have been shaken. But with the departure of a manager who most certainly bled blue, it is hard to shake the feeling that Stamford Bridge feels a little emptier.

Stuart Broad’s second innings heroics in the third test at Johannesburg ensured England won the Basil D’Oliveira trophy against South Africa, simultaneously dethroning them from the top spot in the test rankings. Broad’s figures of 6-17 helped give England an unassailable 2-0 lead after three tests of the four match series. This was a thoroughly deserved lead, as Broad’s spell followed an impressive allround performance in the first test and Ben Stokes’ explosive batting in the second.

South Africa can take some consolation after comfortably winning the final match, however it was still a disappointing series for the previously number one side. England, on the other hand, continue their upward curve with an outstanding away performance from an inexperienced test team.

The series started well for England with a big partnership between Nick Compton and James Taylor justifying their selection ahead of Gary Ballance and Ian Bell and ensuring England scored a respectable total against the likes of the ever-excellent Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel.

The scars from South Africa’s drubbing against India certainly still seemed fresh. The team failed to banish their batting demons as only Dean Elgar offered resistance, carrying his bat with 118 not out, over half of the total score. Compton and Taylor contributed again in the second innings and 73 from Root left South Africa with 416 to win; an academic total as they collapsed to 174 all out, heading to Cape Town with confidence low.

The second test will forever be remembered as one of the most memorable draws in test history for several reasons. Ben Stokes was the first of many to take centre stage during the match after he exploded into life during the morning of the second day, reaching both his century and double century before lunch, after being 74 not out overnight.

Numerous records were broken during his innings of 258, including it being the fastest double century by an Englishman, having reached the milestone after 163 balls. His partnership of 399 with Jonny Bairstow was also the highest ever partnership for the sixth wicket. Bairstow, whose contribution should not be forgotten, scored his maiden century and finished on 150 not out.

Hashim Amla, under pressure after a lean period with the bat, crafted a double century of his own in South Africa’s reply. However, arguably more significant than Stokes’, Bairstow’s and Amla’s innings was Temba Bavuma’s maiden century. He became the first black South African to score a test hundred, an innings of huge social significance. Despite an exciting final day with England losing regular wickets, the match ended in a draw.

Hashim Amla resigned the captaincy after the second test with De Villiers taking the reins. This, alongside an assured batting display ensured South Africa had started to regain confidence. However, no South African batsman made a half-century in the first innings of the third test and Joe Root scored an excellent hundred in England’s reply.

Despite this, the scores remained almost equal after the first innings.

With everything to play for, Stuart Broad stepped up and decimated the South African top order, taking five wickets for one run, with that run coming off a dropped catch.

He finished with figures of 6-17 and helped bowl South Africa out for just 83, their second lowest test total since readmission. England easily chased down the target of 74, securing an excellent away series win and the regaining of the Basil D’Oliveira trophy.

A much improved South Africa turned up for the final test. Debutant Stephen Cook scored a century in his first innings of test cricket, raising the question of why he hadn’t been picked earlier. Quinton De Kock also made a maiden hundred and alongside a century from Hashim Amla, South Africa made 475. Several English batsmen made starts but none contributed significantly and some hostile bowling from 20 year old Kasigo Rabada meant England fell well short of South Africa’s total; Rabada ended up with figures of 7-112.

After setting England 382 to win, Rabada again ripped into the English batsmen with even more impressive figures of 6-32 as England collapsed to 101 all out, meaning the series finished 2-1.

The English test team will be delighted with their overall performance although the questions from before the series have yet to be answered, most significantly the opening partner of Alastair Cook after Alex Hales failed to impress. South Africa remain in transition, although the performance in the last test will have buoyed them going into the One Day International series.

Sport 9th February 2016 Issue 321

Room for improvement for UEA Pirates

>P22

England-South Africa series review

>P23

UEA’s first and second korfball teams finish in top four of regional tournament Christopher Freakes Sport writer After strong performances by both UEA 1s and UEA 2s at the preliminary round of Bucs in Norwich in late 2015, the UEA Korfballers headed to Canterbury on 30th January to compete against teams from Kent, Cambridge, Bedford, De Montfordt and Essex for places in the Bucs Nationals in early spring. Unfortunately, due to the rules regarding progression to the final round of the competition, UEA 2s could not qualify for a place in the top tier. However, a strong performance would result in a higher seeding for them in the Trophy Competition.

The eight competing teams (UEA 1s and 2s, Kent 1s, Cambridge 1s and 2s, Bedford 1s, De Montfordt 1s and Essex 1s) started the day in two pools of four with UEA 1s competing against Cambridge 2s, Kent 1s and Bedford 1s.

After each team had played against the three other teams in their pool, the two top teams moved on to compete in semi-finals, leaving the others to compete for 5th to 8th place.

UEA 1s finished top of Group A, comfortably beating Cambridge 2s (17:2), Kent 1s (13:0) and Bedford 1s (11:4). UEA 2s were competing for a place in the semi-final against three first teams (Cambridge 1s, De Montfordt 1s and Essex 1s). After initially beating De Montfordt (11:6), drawing against Essex (2:2) and losing against Cambridge (16:2), UEA 2s place in the semi-finals was

ultimately decided in the match-up between Essex and De Montfordt. A win for Essex by a margin greater than 5 would see UEA 2s knocked out. After the final whistle, the score line read Essex 8, De Montfordt 3. UEA 2s went through on goal difference. UEA 1s finishing top of Group A and UEA 2s finishing second in Group B meant the two teams would face each other in the semi-final, an interesting pairing indeed, not just because the two teams train together every week, but also as the UEA 2s coaches play for UEA 1s.

After an interesting match, in which both teams demonstrated impressive skills both in attack and defence, 1s progressed to the final, leaving 2s to compete for third place.

UEA 2s went on to face Bedford, who had finished in second at the regional stage the year before. A closely fought match ended with Bedford snatching the win. The final score was 6:7.

After one of UEA 1s boys, Salman Saleh, sustained an ankle injury earlier in the day, a weakened UEA 1s faced Cambridge 1s in the final. Clearly showing signs of fatigue, UEA 1s were unable to secure the top spot after a strong performance by Cambridge. The final score was 12:6 in favour of Cambridge.

The results meant that Cambridge 1s, UEA 1s, Bedford 1s and Kent 1s move on to compete at Nationals and UEA 2s move on as highest seed to the National Trophy Competition, along with Essex 1s, De Montfordt and Cambridge 2s.

Overall, both UEA 1s and especially UEA

A UEA player lines up a pass during highly successful tournament Photo:Alice Johnson 2s can be proud of their achievements in Canterbury. The squads of both teams are both relatively young, with less than half of the UEA 1s team that finished second at Nationals in 2015 returning to the team this year. Indeed it was virtually a brand new UEA 2 team, consisting to a large part of players who hadn’t ever played Korfball before last

September, definitely a team to watch at the Trophy Competition.

UEA 1s Bayley Wooldridge was voted female Most Valued Players. Both teams have just over a month to prepare for the next stage of the Bucs competition and both are hoping to return with silver wear, an ambitious but realistic target.

Terrible defending undermines decent Norwich attack Isabelle Wilson Sports Writer In recent years Norwich-Liverpool fixtures have rarely disappointed. The last five games have seen a total of 25 goals scored, including three back-to-back games in which Liverpool managed to put five past Norwich.

For the neutral, their last meeting certainly didn’t fail to live up to expectation.

Norwich threw away a 3-1 lead, eventually gifting Liverpool a 4-5 victory.

Initially the Canaries did everything right.

After conceding before the 20-minute mark at the hands of a neat team goal finish by Firmino, Norwich fought back well. Dynamo Kiev loanee Mbokani scored a classy back heel to get Norwich back in the game, highlighting Liverpool’s inability to deal with set pieces this season.

Steven Naismith had a dream debut and 41-minutes in he put Norwich in the lead.

Wes Hoolahan should have put the game to bed at 54-minutes after converting a penalty.

However, celebrations did not last long.

After allowing Norwich to dominate them Liverpool suddenly found their feet. A minute later Henderson brought Liverpool back into the game, and then Norwich’s defence completely fell apart at 66-minutes

Carrow Road, the site of Norwich’s 5-4 defeat to Liverpool Photo: Mls11, wikipedia.org as Firmino found himself one-on-one against keeper Declan Rudd. He simply couldn’t miss.

Norwich then seemed to fall apart and captain Russell Martin gifted James Milner a goal at 75-minutes with an appalling attempt at a back pass.

Norwich fought back and Sebastien Bassong struck sweetly from outside the box

to level the score in extra time, but it was not to be.

Heartbreakingly, just three minutes later, Norwich failed to clear the ball from their penalty area and Adam Llanana stole the victory for the visiting side, and once again Norwich conceded five goals against Liverpool.

Norwich manager, Alex Neil, accepted

that “when you concede five goals you deserve to lose the match.” Norwich have now conceded 11 goals in their last three games, and quite simply something has to be done. Liverpool had far too much time in the box and Norwich were slow in closing players down. Martin’s back pass was a thing of nightmares, and hopefully something never to be repeated. Norwich fell apart after Liverpool made it 3-2 and gave away sloppy goals. So far in the season ,only Sunderland have conceded more goals.

However, there were certainly positives.

As well as scoring and winning a penalty for his side, Naismith’s performance was highly encouraging. He worked hard and was involved with most of Norwich’s key moments. In terms of attack, Norwich have much to be happy with and statistically the two teams were closely matched, with Norwich having had 48% of the possession, and five shots on target to Liverpool’s seven.

Whilst it will be a hard result to swallow for many Norwich fans, it is not all bad news. Naismith will add a much needed new attacking dimension to the team. But if Norwich cannot sort out their defensive problems, relegation will remain an everpresent threat. Currently two points and one place above the drop zone they will have to work hard in the next few weeks.