The official student newspaper of the University of East Anglia | Established 1992 | Issue 398 | 12th December 2023
Would you spend Christmas in the sun?
pg. 20
Interview with Alice Macdonald
pg. 12-13
Venue:
Norwich Film Festival: An overview pg. 15-16
UEA's annual report reveals former VC's £97k final pay Matthew Stothard
Co-Editor-in-Chief
UEA’s Annual Report and Financial Statements covering the period of 1st August 2022 to 31st July 2023 were released at the end of last month, with the university reporting positive financial progress whilst acknowledging that the Accelerated Strategic Review Programme and cost reductions have “had a negative impact on staff morale.” The report also outlined that in making the required savings, University Council recognised that there would be an “impact on the teaching and research performance of the University,” but that they have put performance monitoring processes in place around areas including ‘Research and Innovation’ and ‘Student education’. The report reiterates the university’s success in making the required £30.1m savings for the year without making compulsory redundancies, and that the “budgetary forecasts are expected to improve steadily in the next few years, with a pathway to breakeven in 2025/26 and a surplus by 2027/28.” The university does acknowledge that “Continued improvements in the financial operating model for the University are required and these are being embedded in the strategic priorities for this and subsequent years.” The statement also addresses for the first time the renumeration made to the former ViceChancellor, Professor David Richardson, on his resignation in February this year. It confirms that he received a payment of six months salary in lieu of notice, at the value of £97,000. This was in line with his contract. The report
also outlines that the Deputy ViceChancellor, Professor Christine Bovis-Cnossen, received a pay uplift during her time as Acting Vice-Chancellor between 23rd February and 21st May, “equivalent to 50% of the difference between her substantive salary and that of the former Vice-Chancellor.” New VC Prof. Maguire Image: UEA
(including the number and quality of appropriate candidates), and the considerable financial challenges being faced by the University.”
Also addressed is Wood Hall, the oft-cited property which UEA holds as a residence for the ViceChancellor. The report outlines that “At the start of the year the Vice-Chancellor ceased to use the property as his primary residence but the property remains available as a residence for him and his successors if required. The University is unable to use the property for any alternative purpose and the future of the property is currently under consideration in accordance with the terms of the original conveyance.” Away from the Vice-Chancellor, the university had 54 members of staff on salaries of £100,000 and over for the period covered by the report, up 3 on the previous year.
Meanwhile, the new ViceChancellor, Professor David Maguire, has “received a total salary package matching that of the former Vice-Chancellor in accordance with the terms of his appointment approved by [the Senior Officers' Remuneration Committee].” Prof. Maguire received a salary of £66,000 between 22nd May and 31st July. For this period, Prof. Maguire’s basic salary was 10 times the university’s median pay of staff (where the median pay is calculated on a full-time equivalent basis for the salaries paid by the provider to its staff). The report outlines that to reach these terms, the “SORC considered the market for such appointments
The real terms value of home tuition fees is now circa £6,000. The university recognises that the “proportion of international students at UEA is below that of similar institutions and activities are in place to grow this proportion further in the short to medium term both with existing and new international partners.” The report also outlines that in the last few years UEA has seen “a reduction in the numbers [of students] arriving from China and a rapid increase in students arriving from India.”
Looking forward, the report cites concerns around significant increases in energy costs for the period 2023/24, as well as other general price increases, such as “rapidly rising” estate
maintenance costs. The 2023/24 pay settlement will also increase staff costs by c.6%. The report also provides an update on the current situation with the accommodation buildings which were identified to contain RAAC in September. It details that whilst the affected areas of Nelson Court and Constable Terrace are expected to reopen during this academic year, the Ziggurats are “likely to remain vacant for some time whilst we work through the capital impact and structural engineer survey results.” In terms of the financial impact, “There is a net loss of income to the university whilst the residences remain unoccupied, which we are confident that we can absorb.”
The report also confirms that as a result of the student recruitment numbers for 2022/23 being lower than planned, the intake targets for future years have been revised downwards. It also highlights that the financial impact of the “challenging” 2022 recruitment cycle was “mitigated by a significant increase in post graduate recruitment from international markets.” In 2022-23, UEA recorded a fall in income from full-time home student fees (2022: £115,317,000, 2023: £107,078,000), but an increase in income from fulltime students charged overseas fees (2022: £37,775,000, 2023: £41,306,000). Tuition fees and education contracts overall represent the largest proportion of UEA’s £314,970,000 income.
Image: Concrete/Innes Henry
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Editorial
12th December 2023
A Christmas reflection Matthew Stothard
Co-Editor-in-Chief
The Christmas cone has been erected in the Square, Mariah Carey’s on the radio and I’m totally overwhelmed by uni deadlines… it must be nearly Christmas! Seriously though, some festive spirit is always helpful when you’re snowed under by work and it’s come to the Media Collective in abundance this year! Firstly we’ve got a Christmas tree in the Media Office (thanks to Jade for that!) which has brought some much needed sparkle to our long lay-up days! It has been joined by an impressive build up of donations for Livewire’s Christmas hamper campaign from societies across campus (in support of Nourishing Norfolk) and multiple plays of their charity festive single, which we’re actually all pretty impressed
by (the vocals are a notable improvement on their previous efforts!)! You can find out more about that in my article on page 10, where you will also see the single cover. You may notice my face poking in from the back – I’m not on the song, that’s just the result of spending an evening at the bar with the Livewire committee! I’m also thrilled that we’ve been able to bring back the tradition of a joint Christmas meal with Livewire after a long Covid break (and a massive thanks goes to Livewire’s Social Secretary Anna for making it happen)! Christmas can also be a time of reflection, and I’m so proud of the four issues we’ve put out this semester! Our amazing team have come on such a long way, producing outstanding content
December on film
for each issue which constantly amazes me in its ingenuity and imagination. They have also taken to InDesign very well, which is no mean feat! This issue in particular has seven interview pieces across Concrete and Venue, talking to the NUS President and the Labour candidate for Norwich North among others, which really show off the team’s skills as journalists! One of those interviews is written by me, as I continue my mission to get as much history content into the paper as I can! I got to speak to Dr Sarah Spooner, who is one of the landscape historians at UEA (if you’re in History definitely consider taking one of her modules – I’ve got lots of fond memories of Heritage and Public History and English Landscape) about ways you can explore the
landscape close to home (p.8). It might be a bit cold to go out and about at the moment, but hopefully it can give you ideas for some 2024 adventures! One of the joys of being at UEA is living in historic Norwich and beautiful Norfolk, and exploring the landscape is a great way to get to know them better! Concrete has got lots to look forward to in 2024, particularly the annual sex survey (look out for that on our Instagram in the New Year) and issue 400 (which anyone who knows me will probably be unsurprised to know I’m very excited for!). For now though, enjoy issue 398 and enjoy the holidays – I think we all need them!
Solutions for puzzles on page 21
Co-Editor-in-Chief
This issue is jam packed with great content for you to all enjoy. For starters, we have Jamie and Molly’s brilliant interview with Norwich North Labour candidate Alice Macdonald, as well as Eleanor’s interview with NUS President Chloe Smith. There is of course a festive theme running throughout our sections this issue, which we hope you’ll appreciate. The team have definitely been making an effort to get into the Christmas spirit, even with summatives and exams looming. Despite the fact Christmas is my favourite time of year, I also want to highlight that for many people it isn’t, and in many ways, it can be an extremely difficult time. Christmas can often remind us of those who we have lost in our families, those we are grieving. It is also a time
Tuesday 12th December 2023 Issue 398 Union House University of East Anglia Norwich NR4 7TJ www.concrete-online.co.uk Editor-in-Chief Eve Attwood Matthew Stothard concrete.editor@uea.ac.uk News Molly Warner Senior Writer: Jamie Bryson Home of the Wonderful Fiona Hill Senior Writer: Linda Vu Global Syed Hamza Senior Writer: Sankavi Naresh Features Eleanor Radford Comment Sam Slade
Eve Attwood
My favourite season has finally arrived, and even though it’s so cold you can barely leave the house without a pair of gloves, I can’t complain. With the Autumn term having gone so quickly, I’m finding myself feeling more and more nostalgic. It is strange to think about how time passes, when last year I sat in the Media Office working as Comment Editor, and I now sit with Matthew as Co-Editor, getting to lead this amazingly talented team. It feels as though time is moving so quickly, I can hardly believe December is already here. When I look back on how many things in my life have changed just in the past year, it feels slightly surreal.
The University of East Anglia’s Official Student Newspaper since 1992
Science Rana Dawood Senior Writer: Max Todd Lifestyle Mia Galanti Anne Glia: Jadyn Lansana Travel Cordelia Gulbekian-Faram Puzzles Cal Paul-Moola
many families who are suffering financially cannot enjoy in the same way. For many international students having to stay in the UK over Christmas, it can be an extremely lonely time, one where it is more important than ever to be surrounded by friends when family is absent. In the midst of the Christmas consumerism and marketing, it is important to remind ourselves what makes Christmas a holiday to cherish – the time we spend with family and friends. Yes, I know it sounds cliché, but this really is time you will never get back. You can always buy more material goods, but you can never get back the time or the memories of being with your loved ones. These are preserved in photographs and handwritten cards, and their importance is invaluable, it cannot be bought or exchanged.
Sport Sofia Royal Senior Writer: Felix Sumner Online & Copy Editors Dan Laughlan Lisa Melo Konrad Social Media Lizzie Bray Daisi Parker Ellie Dharamraj Concrete Photographer Innes Henry First Year Rep Abby Eastwick Venue Team Millie Smith-Clare Tshequa Williams
December also means the final issue of the year for Concrete in 2023. Looking back on the work that the team has produced from the summer to now, I’m so proud of the creativity and dedication of our team. I won’t try and list some fanciful resolutions, so instead I’ll cheers to a great start to the new year for Concrete and Venue in 2024. Our team has so much more to share in the new year, particularly with the upcoming 400th issue, as well as the Sex Survey! Whether you’re reading this issue tucked up with a cup of tea, on the train home or on campus, we wish you a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Lily Glenn Sara Budzinska Sophie Handyside Caitlin Bennett Will Muncer Lily Taylor Ore Adeyoola Lucy Potter
Photos: Unsplash, Clean png, rawpixel
Cut-outs: Unsplash, The Labour Party, Unsplash, Clean png
Editorial Enquiries, Complaints & Corrections concrete.editor@uea.ac.uk
No part of this newspaper may be reproduced by any means without the permission of the Co-Editors-in-Chief, Matthew Stothard and Eve Attwood. Published by the Union of UEA Students on behalf of Concrete. Concrete is a UUEAS society, but retains editorial independence as regards to any content. Opinions expressed herein are those of individual writers, not of Concrete or its editorial team.
News
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COP28: What's happened so far Molly Warner News Editor
From the 30th of November to the 12th of December, COP28, the UN Climate Change Conference, will take place in Dubai. The United Nations Climate Change Conference is the world’s largest international meeting, as well as the highest decisionmaking body on climate issues. In July 2023, a letter to the parties was sent by the Incoming Presidency, announcing the specific areas that will be discussed and examined throughout the summit. Those were: “Fast-tracking the energy transition and slashing emissions before 2030; Transforming climate finance, by delivering on old promises and setting the framework for a new deal on finance; Putting nature, people,
lives, and livelihoods at the heart of climate action; and Mobilizing for the most inclusive COP ever.” The provisional total for COP28 suggests that 97,372 delegates have registered to attend in person, whilst an additional 3,074 will be attending virtually, taking the overall total of attendees to 100,446. Over one hundred world leaders will be in attendance, including King Charles III, Rishi Sunak, Humza Yousef, Emmanuel Macron, and Kamala Harris. US President Joe Biden and Premier of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping, presidents of the world’s largest emitting countries, will not be attending the summit. Instead, the two leaders had a meeting in November, agreeing to cooperate on addressing climate change. On the first day of the summit, a crucial decision was made regarding the countries which are more vulnerable to natural
disasters caused by climate change. World leaders have agreed to launch a fund that will pay for the damage and the loss that have been caused by climate-driven storms. The United Kingdom, the European Union, and the United States have all announced the contributions that they will make to the fund, which in total, is up to £317 million. It is believed that the UK will contribute £60 million into the fund. "It is encouraging to see that the UK Government is committed to making the Loss and Damage Fund a reality, but this pledge is simply not enough and crucially, it's not new money," said Chiara Liguori, Oxfam's Senior Climate Justice Policy Advisor. In other news, King Charles III was the only head of state who was invited to give a speech at COP28. In his speech, he said that the world is currently “dreadfully far off track” on addressing climate change, and
urged the world leaders to ensure that COP28 will be followed up with some clear change. He said, "I pray with all my heart that COP28 will be another critical turning point towards genuine transformational action, we are seeing alarming tipping points being reached." Elsewhere, the president of COP28, Sultan Al Jaber, claimed that there is “no science” that indicates that a phase-out of fossil fuels is needed to restrict our global heating to 1.5C. Al Jaber also said that a “phase-out of fossil fuels would not allow sustainable development, unless you want to take the world back to caves”. Al Jaber spoke with Mary Robinson, the former UN special envoy for climate change, at an online “She Changes Climate” event. Robinson said to him: “We’re in an absolute crisis that is hurting women and children more than anyone … and it’s because we have not yet committed to phasing out fossil
fuel. That is the one decision that COP28 can take and in many ways, because you’re head of Adnoc, you could actually take it with more credibility.” Al Jaber responded: “I accepted to come to this meeting to have a sober and mature conversation. I’m not in any way signing up to any discussion that is alarmist. There is no science out there, or no scenario out there, that says that the phase-out of fossil fuel is what’s going to achieve 1.5C.” COP28 will continue until the 12th of December.
Cambridge graduates create app to boost student safety on university campuses Katherine Hutchison News Writer
Three Cambridge graduates have developed their first digital application, ‘Flare - Stay Safe’ with the aim of improving safety on and around University campuses. Flare is the first digital application of the Cambridge Universityfounded start-up CAUSE. CAUSE has developed new ways to do target advertising and gives users agency over their data, allowing users genuine privacy and ownership of their targeting data. Morgan Saville, Geno Racklin Asher and Gabriel Brown are the management team and creators of Flare, and hope that CAUSE can solve the issue of wide scale data collection that is then being used to target advertisements. This new app, focused on student safety, allows users to send pre-written and customisable emergency messages to chosen contacts over text in situations where they may feel unsafe and uncomfortable. The creators, all Kings College Cambridge graduates, all hope that the app would be able to offer an
alternative to students who do not feel comfortable calling the emergency services in situations. The app allows the users to send pre-written emergency messages to trusted contacts over text, either through the app or by tapping a permanent notification on their phone’s locked home screen. The emergency messages are sent via SMS, meaning the trusted contact doesn’t need to have Flare installed themselves. The SOS message and the trusted contact can be altered and changed at any time for different situations.
University of Exeter, mentioned when talking to BBC that “she felt it would provide a ‘safety net’ for students attending protests” as well as on nights out.
Gabriel Brown, CEO and CoFounder of CAUSE, has said that “A lot of people might feel unsafe but not want to bother the emergency services and that is where the app is designed to offer another layer of protection”. Brown also recalls his own situations where he wished the app existed, remembering “feeling incredibly uncomfortable” whilst also “thinking this probably isn’t life-threatening” as he was struggling to dial 999. While the app is in use at several different universities, Naabil Khan, a third year Medicine student at the
The app has been incredibly successful so far, with a growing list of partnerships with youth and community led organisations - 15 so far since the launch. The Trinity College Students’ Union President, Naomi Vince, described how “enjoying nightlife is a staple of the university student experience and with Flare, safety is made a priority so students can go out and have fun worryfree” and that “supporting a platform that helps our students was an obvious decision”. SASHA (Students Against Sexual Harassment and Assault) at the University of Leeds, is a
Sammie Chudley, a third year media student at UEA, says she would use Flare, and “often avoids going out at night alone if its dark, so having this app would ease my fears slightly”. Sammie also describes how “it reminds her of life360 or find my friends” and that she “likes the added addition of sending friends or loved ones an alert if you feel unsafe”.
founding partner with Flare; it’s Secretary, Kay Corbin describes how “Flare’s innovative solutions and proactive approach to align seamlessly with our commitment to student support” and that they are “confident that this collaboration will help us foster a culture of safety and well-being within the student community”. Other partnerships include with the Amnesty International Society at Roehampton University, and It Happens Here at King's College London - these partnerships form the advisory board for the app going forward, where suggestions (like adding
a location element) can proposed for development.
be
Flare - Stay Safe is available for download on the app store for anyone interested.
Image: Unsplash
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News
12th December 2023
Norwich North Conservative Israel-Palestine candidate resigns after 3 ceasefire comes to weeks an end Jamie Bryson
News Senior Writer
Molly Warner News Editor
On Friday the 1st of December, fighting resumed between Israel and Gaza, ending the seven-day ceasefire. During the ceasefire, we saw hostages and prisoners released from both sides, as well as some much-needed humanitarian aid delivered to those in Gaza. During
the
seven-day
ceasefire,
stand together, support one another, and strive for understanding, empathy, and acceptance.” In addition, Professor David Maguire, Vice-Chancellor of the UEA, sent an all-student email on the 30th of November,, which said " In recent days, I have spoken to students and staff who are personally affected by the conflict in Israel and Gaza and by heightened
Hamas agreed to release 110 people from Gaza, including 78 Israeli women and children. As part of the deal, 240 Palestinians were also released from Israeli jails. Many of the Palestinians released had not been convicted of crimes and were being held on remand while awaiting trial. It is estimated that about 140 Israeli
tensions across many communities. This is a long running and complex issue affecting many people and testing world diplomacy to its maximum.
hostages remain in captivity in Gaza.
We share a common and profound concern for the loss of life and injuries to people experiencing this terrible conflict.
The war has since resumed, and aid to the 2.3 million people in Gaza has been stopped as a result of the ongoing violence. The head of the Red Cross, Robert Mardini has warned that the “nightmarish situation” has returned for civilians. On the recent events, the UEA SU Officers have released the following statement; “Please remember that you are not alone, and your welfare is important to us. If you are in need of emotional support, or simply want to connect with others who may share your concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out to us via our social media, email, or in person. We are here to listen, provide guidance, and create unity within our diverse community. In these challenging times, let us
I have offered support and will continue to listen to all associated with our University.
i know that for many in our community this is a deeply distressing time. I want to assure you that our top priority is to keep all students and staff safe and ensure your wellbeing on campus. This requires all of us to act respectfully and compassionately towards others, especially those with whom you might have differences. As a university we will not tolerate antisemitism, Islamophobia, or any form of racism, hate crime, harassment, or discrimination here." If you have been affected by any issues raised related to the ongoing conflict, please use Report and Support https://reportandsupport. uea.ac.uk, or contact the SU directly. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Photo: Unsplash
After only three weeks in post, the Conservative parliamentary candidate for Norwich North, Nick Rose, has resigned after a series of disputes over his use of discriminatory language in public. The former Bournemouth City Councillor was hit with a series of complaints from both the public and other local politicians - over his controversial views on climate change, transgender rights and immigration throughout November. Following a ‘Question Time style’ event held at Thorpe St Andrew School and Sixth Form, Norwich Conservatives received an official complaint from the school’s leadership. During the session with sixth formers, the candidate was asked about whether transwomen should be admitted to female prisons - in reference to comments made by former Home Secretary Suella Braverman - on which she said, “Transwomen have no place in women’s [hospital] wards or indeedanysafespacerelatingtobiological women.” Mr Rose proceeded to add, “A bloke wearing a dress who identifies as a woman should not be in a woman's
prison and should not be allowed in women's toilets”, and added, “How on earth can all of you ladies here allow a bloke in a skirt into your loos? It's disgusting”. Furthermore, when questioned on Ms Braverman’s comments over immigration, including her referral to small boat migrant crossings in the English channel as “an invasion on our southern coast”, Mr Rose said, “We've got too many illegal migrants coming in. It is an invasion. We are being invaded.” In response to the complaint, a spokesperson for Norwich Conservatives said,“Weareawareofreportsofcomments attributed to Nick Rose during a hustings at Thorpe St Andrew School and Sixth Form. The matter is under investigation. Norwich North Conservative associations firmly condemn all forms of hatred”. Finally, in a now-deleted post on X, the candidate expressed, “Lots of people supportive of @RishiSunak and @Conservatives for hard work reducing inflation and for pushing idle benefit scroungers back into work”.
The resignation leaves the Conservative candidacy unfilled in Norwich North, with its current Conservative MP, Chloe Smith, announcing earlier in the year that she would not be re-standing. In a press statement, the Chairman of Norwich Conservatives, David CampbellBannerman, said, “We are looking to select a new candidate very early in the new year and are continuing to campaign in the interim as one big team”. OnNovember22nd,MrRosetoldNorwich Evening News, “I am today resigning as the Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Norwich North…I appreciate the opportunity to have participated in the political process and wish the party success in the upcoming election.” With the parliamentary seat held by the Conservatives since 2009, Labour Party candidate Alice MacDonald (see Concrete’s feature Interview) is seeking to overturn the current 10% majority held by ChloeSmithMP.NorwichGreenPartyhave recently selected current city and county councillor Ben Price as their candidate.
Autumn Statement 2023: What it means for Britain Sunny Driscoll News Writer
At the end of last month, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, released his Autumn statement on behalf of the Government.
also be extended to 21 year olds, which will start in April next year.
Following the opening speech, Hunt started with talking about Inflation, stating that “by the end of next year, headline inflation will be down to 2.8%”, whilst also noting that inflation has fallen to 4.6%, putting the UK on track for the 2025 target of 2%.
The state pension is being increased by 8.5% as well as a 6.5% increase in benefits. The increase in benefits is joined by stricter requirements to look for work by those claiming them. People claiming benefits will face mandatory work experience if they do not find a job within 18 months. Hunt claims these welfare reforms will get 200,000 people in to work stating that “these are the biggest set of welfare reforms in a decade.” The Chancellor stated that the UK’s economy is set to grow by 0.6% by the end of this year and 0.7% next year. GDP is also set for a steady increase until 2028 with a growth of at least 1.4% each year including peaks of 2% in 2027.
Hunt's reforms on tax include a 2% drop in Employee National insurance, taking the tax rate down to 10%, which will take effect in January next year, he claims this will benefit 28 million people, and could save some individuals up to £450. Another aspect of Hunt's statement, is the rise of the national living wage, which is going up to £11.44, and will
In terms of public spending, Hunt wants a responsible approach which will focus mainly on tackling waste. The Office for Budget Responsibility say this will result in a £19billion cut in spending on public services. Hunt prepares to invest an extra £4.5billion into manufacturing between 2025 and 2030. £1million of this will be invested into
In his opening speech, Hunt claimed that the current government has made tough decisions in order to better the UKs economy, and that the “work is still not done.” He stated that “these are reforms for the long term”, whilst also claiming that the aim of his statement is to reduce debt, cut taxes and reward hard work.
aerospace companies and green technology. As well as this, there will be new ‘investment zones’ in areas such as Wrexham, Wales, Greater Manchester, the Midlands and the West, all to increase employment for these areas. Hunt claims that the willingness to stick to a system is working. He says, ‘This Autumn Statement for Growth will attract £20 billion additional business investment a year in the next decade’. The Chancellor states that this statement will bring tens of thousands more people into work and support our fastest growing industries. It will leave borrowing low, debt lower and prevent inflations fall. The statement also delivers the biggest tax cut in modern British history, in addition to the biggest ever cut to National Insurance, making it the biggest group of tax cuts to be implemented since the 80s. Hunts statement promises some great aspects for the people of Britain, with increases to the living wage, along with reductions in inflation, in order to pull the country out of the current cost of living crisis.
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12th December 2023
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2023 Covid-19 Inquiry continues Eleanor Radford Features Editor
While Covid-19 may feel like a distant memory for some, the independent inquiry, chaired by Baroness Hallett, continues. Announced under Boris Johnson, the inquiry seeks to look at the decision-making during the pandemic by the UK Government. Alongside the devolved governments and assemblies of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The inquiry is chaired by Baroness Hallett, who became a crossbench life peer, after a long career in law. She has covered high profile inquests previously, such as the 7/7 London Bombings. So far, since starting on 28th June 2022, several preliminary hearings have taken place as well as one round of public hearings. At this first round of public hearings, on the topic of the UK’s resilience and preparedness, evidence was taken from sixty-nine independent experts and current government officials and ministers.
The second hearing, taking place between 3rd October and 14th December this year, is specifically looking at decision making in Westminster between early Jan 2020 and Feb 2022, when the final restrictions ended in England. The second round has heard from government officials and advisers, as core participants, many of whom criticised the way decisions were made, and information was provided to the public. Michael Gove, cabinet minister during the pandemic, gave evidence to the second round of public hearings. He apologised to the ‘victims and families who endured so much loss’ due to mistakes made by the government during the pandemic. The inquiry also heard from Dominic Cummings, former adviser to Boris Johnson, who said that he regretted the trip to Barnard Castle during the first lockdown but felt that his actions hadn’t damaged public trust. Instead, he put blame on the ‘dysfunctional’ government that had said no to a lock down for the country or to shield the vulnerable as the virus spread across the United Kingdom in early 2020.
The inquiry will also hear and take evidence from academic experts and representatives of bereaved families. England’s chief medical officer Professor Sir Chris Witty spoke about the tensions created between their advice to government and its political priorities. The former chief scientific adviser- Sir Patrick Vallance, agreed with Professor Whitty, saying that ‘they had not been consulted about the Government’s ‘Eat out to help out’ scheme’. This contradicts what Boris Johnson had said in written evidence claiming, that it had been ‘properly discussed’. Text messages between government officials during the Covid pandemic have been included as part of the inquiry. Some of these officials are Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson and former No10 communications director Lee Cain. In one text message, Dominic Cummings stated that the former deputy cabinet secretary, Helen MacNamara’s propriety and ethics “b***s***” was “designed to waste huge amounts of my time”. He also said she should be removed
from her job. While Dominic Cummings admits that his language was ‘appalling’ he denies any form of misog yny as he has been just a brutal to other male and feel government officials. Looking into the next year the inquiry will set out to look at other important areas such as the care sector, PPE, testand-trace, health inequalities, young people and education. This third area of examination is expected to run for ten weeks in Autumn 2024. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will have their
own inquiry on how their governments acted between January 2020 and February. These will take place between January, February and April of 2024 respectively. There is no set timescale for how long the inquiry will last. However, Baroness Hallett aims to publish the report for the first area of work ‘as soon as possible’, which will most likely be some time in Summer 2024.
Image: Unsplash
Labour denies abandoning £28 billion Green Prosperity Plan Jamie Bryson
News Senior Writer
Following an investigation by The Telegraph and the BBC, The Labour Party has denied allegations that it plans to further water down its flagship ‘green prosperity’ package. A senior party source told the BBC that a previous pledge of £28 billion a year (should the party be elected to government next year) would likely never be reached. However, an official party spokesperson said, if elected, Labour would “ramp up investment in jobs and energy independence” to a “total of £28bn a year as planned” in the second half of their Parliamentary term. Labour sources also further denied reports that its leader, Keir Starmer, had personally requested for the funding pledge to be watered down. This scepticism followed an announcement by Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves in June when she told reporters the party would invest this
fund over time, only reaching £28 billion a year after 2027. Labour had initially promised to spend the sum every year until 2030 on the flagship green project, which would be funded by borrowing. Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Ms Reeves said, “No plan can be built that is not a rock of economic and fiscal responsibility” and added, “I will never play fast and loose with the public finances”. The policy was originally announced at the Labour Party Conference in 2021, with Rachel Reeves stating her ambition to be the UK’s first “green Chancellor”. The Green Prosperity Plan, she explained, would see public money invested in offshore wind farms, planting trees and developing battery plants. Another senior source in the Labour leadership’s office told the investigation that the watering down of the fund was due to the reality of the state of the public finances. The party's new ‘fiscal rules’ - including a promise to see debt falling within five years - are allegedly referred to as the “North Star”, the source continued to detail, and are “more important than any policy”.
Such reports align with Labour’s current determination to rebrand itself as a party of economic credibility ahead of a general election in 2024 - even if it means altering previous flagship policy proposals. However, several leading climate policy experts have criticised this approach when it comes to ‘greening’ the economy. Hannah Martin - a co-director of the campaign group Green New Deal Rising - expressed how a Labour u-turn on the Green Prosperity Plan would be “a disaster”. Furthermore, she said
“A previous pledge
of £28 billion a year
would likely never be reached”
Labour “should be going much further” by promising to implement a range of methods to tackle the environmental inefficiency of the British economy. Speaking exclusively to Concrete, the
Green Party’s parliamentary candidate for Norwich South, Jamie Osborn, commented, “The climate emergency demands urgent and far-reaching action from political leaders. Not only do we need huge investments starting right now to insulate homes, build renewable energy capacity, and expand public transport options, but these actions would make life fairer and more affordable for the vast majority of people,”. The current Norwich City councillor added, “A bold climate programme could be funded in part by a wealth tax on the top 1%, those who own mansions and super yachts, but Labour refuse to back this and instead are abandoning ordinary people and our environment”. Conversely, the Conservative Party have previously warned that such far-reaching policies would only add to extra borrowing costs and could increase interest rates and mortgage costs. A Conservative Party spokesperson told the BBC how even Labour's current approach would present “a major risk” to the economy at a time when the cost of borrowing is
already “so high”. Image: Google Images
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FEATURES
12th December 2023
In conversation with Chloe Field Eleanor Radford Features Editor
Our Features editor sat down with Chloe Field, the new Vice-President of Higher Education at the National Union of Students. She previously represented students at the University of Liverpool as the Vice-President Sabbatical officer. They discussed her new role, renting reform, and what the next general election means for students.
Image: UEA SU
Q: What initially drew you to the role? What keeps you motivated?
At the second reading, Michael Gove decided to get rid of no-fault evictions until there is a whole new reformed legal system, which is to be decided by a future government as to when that has happened.
A: We try to provide a megaphone for students, we don’t speak for students, it’s providing a voice to them. This is incredibly important in this day and age, when cost of living is drastically affecting student experience and rent is going up far more than student loans.
The biggest exemption added, that matters for students is the proposal to make students exempt from the ban on fixedterm contracts. This is something that landlords really benefit from as they can charge for over the summer and lessens the likelihood that student will complain.
Q: What are your primary goals or focussesonyourroleasVicePresident?
Q: There has been a recent report on antisemitism within NUS and failings by the organisation for Jewish students. What’s happened since then? What has been done to help the situation?
A: One main focus for me, and NUS, is the run up to the next general election. I think this is a really historical moment. We are clearly seeing the demise of the current government and a change in hands of power. This is such an important opportunity to grasp and put forward what students need and want right now. The university system is on a downwards spiral, and has been for years, especially with the cost-of-living crisis. For the general election, we need to show how radical change is needed, otherwise we are going to have no accessible higher education system left. For example, we haven’t always had to pay university fees and we don’t have to continue.
Image: Unsplash Image: Wikimedia Commons
Housing and Communities, by the Renters Reform Coalition, something NUS is part of. It mainly seeks to ban no fault evictions, get rid of fixed term contracts for rolling contracts, and create an ombudsman for landlords to be held account to.
Q: Cost-of-living is a major issue for students at the moment, do you think there are any other serious issues that aren’t getting enough media attention? A:Rent is covered a fair bit by the media, but politicians seem to completely disregard it, despite it being a day-to-day issue. For a lot of students, it takes up most, if not all, of your maintenance loan. The renting market has become super unsustainable with landlords dropping all their houses on one day. This stops students from properly checking out the house and having a proper look at the market. Q: You spoke in Parliament recently on the Renters Reform Bill. Could you explain alittleaboutwhatthisbilldoes? A: It was proposed to Michael Gove, as Secretary of State for Levelling Up,
In 2022, at the NUS annual conference, a number of complaints were raised to do with antisemitism within the organisation and frustration from the Jewish student community. A: NUS commissioned a Kings Council report on antisemitism in the organisation and the student movement. It was found that there were a number of things that NUS had failed on. It was also important to highlight that antisemitism doesn’t exist in a vacuum and it was important for other student unions to learn from our report, as there were similar problems across the country. We created an action plan based of the recommendations from the report. Antisemitism is embedded in our society, the same as all prejudices, and can’t be solved overnight, but we have put things in place that are on track with the action plan.Wealsocreatedanantisemitismadvisory panel, which aims to add longstanding accountability to the organisation. We’ll also be working closely with the Union of Jewish Students to make sure we are on the right track. We want to create a culture of learning and growth. Q: Covid-19 and its aftermath has affected massive parts of people’s degrees and lives during their time at university. Is there anything being done to help those looking to get compensation for this? A: A law firm have set up a group claim at certain universities for test cases. University College London was a test case, the court recommended that you
need to go through the proper processes of complaining to your university and exhaust all other methods then go to the OYA as an independent adjudicator. We are advising students to see what the court comes out with and see how the test case goes at UCL. These disruptions wouldn’t be so negative if universities prioritized student experience over income and fees. Q: Labour for a long time has been seen as the ‘party for young people’, with the recent U-turns and votes. Do you think that that may lead to students voting for a different party than before? Or not voting at all? A: One side of our campaign is student registration. Students need to see themselves represented to go out and care to vote. It’s so understandable that students don’t feel like they care about voting as there’s nothing to vote for that’s better than what we have experienced for the last fifteen years. We want to shift that by getting people registered, which influences manifestoes and what politicians do. We need to show that the student voice is strong. Q: How can NUS support students who find themselves with a lack of trust in the current system? A: We are talking to candidates, especially those in large student populations, about why higher education and students are so important. We’re also trying to get local candidates to get more involved with the student unions. This helps to humanise the candidates and approach the candidates and hold them to account. Q: What do you hope to see from parties running in the next general election? A: An attitude change around students needs to happen. They work, live and invest in the community they are near. Just because they’re young doesn’t mean that they should have to live in shoddy accommodation or being paid barely anything. We are the workers of tomorrow.
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12th December 2023
concrete-online.co.uk/category/features/ | @ConcreteUEA
Closer than you think: The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Eve Attwood
Co-Editor-In-Chief Since October 7th, the IsraeliPalestinian War has dominated news outlets and social media platforms globally. Many have reposted and retweeted in support of either Israel or Palestine from the comfort of their own home, watching and swiping on footage of war-torn cities and crying children. In the midst of this however, it felt as though something was being lost in the frenzy of media coverage about bombs and artillery – the experiences of people suffering, and the stories they had to share. Last issue, our amazing Global Editor, Syed Hamza, wrote an in-depth history of the Israeli-Palestinian War. This issue, I wanted to investigate the human side to this conflict, how it is directly affecting students on campus, those right on our doorstep. I spoke with the Presidents of UEA’s Jewish Society (Bailey Prevezer) and Arab Society’s President (Ameer Al-Magidi) to discuss the concerns and experiences of students on both sides of the conflict. In terms of how both Presidents became involved in their respective societies, they both cite the community aspect as a motivating factor. Bailey, Jsoc’s President, is a fourth year at UEA who told me she became involved as a result of being ‘really good friends with the whole committee’ around two years ago, and wanting a space to celebrate her Jewishness with others. Arab Soc’s President, Ameer, a third-year Pharmacy student, similarly shared when he joined UEA in 2019, ‘one of the first things [he] did was help reactivate the Arab Society with a group of friends’. He emphasised the committee’s priority had been to make sure ‘it represented all Arabs regardless of faith, the country they’re from, different traditions[...] to give them a sense of belonging on campus’. Both Presidents also shared with me their personal ties to Israel and Palestine. Bailey spoke candidly to me about her friends and family in Israel. She joked, ‘I have five/six cousins [in Israel] … maybe more. I’m meeting new cousins every time they come over’. She spoke fondly about how last summer she was in America with her friends from Israel and the great time they had. Ameer on the other hand was ‘born and bred in Baghdad, Iraq’. He shared about having moved to the UK ‘back in 2016 after losing [his] best friend in a terrorist attack’. These personal ties the presidents hold to Israel and Palestine have encouraged their participation in cultural activities and events. Ameer highlighted that his background and ‘seeing how the
media portrays people from [my] region has made me stick more to my culture and traditions’, wanting to create a safe space for others in his position. When looking back on the effects of October 7th, both presidents shared the anxieties and emotional turmoil members of their community had been experiencing. ‘I woke up on October 7th and the first thing I did was I messaged my parents,’ Bailey told me. ‘I was like “Have you heard from my family?” I messaged my friends and was like “I hope you’re okay”’. She reiterated that it’s not just people within Jsoc who have been suffering, ‘there’s people on the other side and in between who have family around there [Israel and Palestine] who are also in the same situation. Knowing people in that area, having physical people who have meaning to you and you don’t know what’s happening is one of the most terrifying things that you could go through, save from being in that zone yourself.’ She also highlighted that not everyone supporting Palestine was automatically ‘a Jew hater’. ‘I believe some of them are just seeing something and thinking, “I want freedom for every person”, which is valid. But they don’t seem to get the nuances of the situation, and that’s what is really difficult.’ Ameer shared the experience of his best friend, whose name he could not mention for the sake of his safety, who has firsthand ‘experience with the [Israeli] occupation since he was born’. He showed a great deal of empathy for his friend, admitting: ‘I can’t even imagine the stress and depression he’s going through during these tough times. He has been avoiding coming to campus, he stopped going to the gym with me, and he missed a lot of lectures this semester[...] his mental state has not been good’. For members of Arab Soc who have family in Gaza, Ameer expressed the fear they are harbouring, not knowing whether their family is ‘alive or not (due to Israel cutting the internet in Gaza)’. Despite the war continuing with no clear end in sight, both societies have done everything they can to support their members during these unprecedented times. Bailey spoke to me about Jsoc’s film nights and their successful Friday Night Dinner event where 54 people attended. ‘The biggest event ever for Jsoc,’ Bailey told me, ‘That was incredible’. I asked both Presidents whether such events helped boost morale, to which Bailey confirmed that ‘In difficult times, [Jewish people] come together. It’s really supportive’. In a similar way, Ameer spoke of the collaborations
Arabsoc has been doing ‘with many societies on campus to hold informative events and fundraisers for Palestine’. He cited their most recent events, ‘an exhibition for Palestinian children in the Hive’ and a ‘huge fundraiser on Sunday the 3rd [December] which was also open for the public. It was great seeing that big of a turnout from members of the community on a rainy Sunday, [...] united in support for Palestine’. Nonetheless,bothPresidentsexpressed to me how discrimination and prejudice against members of their society has continued on campus despite their efforts. ‘Personally,’ Ameer told me, ‘I was called “Taliban” in the square right after putting up some signage in the Hive stating, “From Kashmir to Palestine, occupation is a crime”’. He also shared that Arab students have reached out to him after being ‘asked to take scarves off which have the Palestinian flag on it at the UEA Library’. Bailey has similarly been overwhelmed by how many people have reached out to her since the conflict’s escalation. ‘I didn’t think that I’d have to be in a situation when I’m President[...] getting messages at 11 o’clock at night all the way from when I wake up in the morning[...] having to comment on all this stuff[...] I didn’t think I’d ever be in a position where Concrete would reach out to me[...] I’ve done things I never thought I’d have to do’. In terms of anti-semitism faced by members of Jsoc, Bailey revealed she had a ‘whole sheet of examples’. She spoke to me about some of the messages put up in the Hive, as well as someone they know having a doughnut thrown at their window. ‘They had a menorah in the window and someone threw a doughnut at it,’ she told me. Overall, both society presidents expressed frustration with the lack of support they had received from the university for their members and cause. Ameer claimed ‘The Student Union has been quite supportive, taking the issues we raise with them seriously’, but that the University, ‘as an educational institution’, has shown ‘silence regarding the ongoing crisis in Gaza. [...] We were expecting the university to take a clear and principled stance in support of Palestine.’ He compared the way the university had handled the Israeli-Palestinian War to their handling of the Russian-Ukraine War, when UEA ‘rightly condemn[ed] Russia’s invasion’ and ‘raised the Ukrainian flag on top of one of the buildings on campus’. ‘We expected the university to do the same in this instance,’ he added, ‘instead of being neutral all of a sudden.’ Bailey acknowledged ‘there’s only so far
the university can go[to protect Jewish students] they have to tread lightly because you’ve got freedom of speech, freedom of expression’. However, she still claimed the university had not done enough to protect and support Jewish students. ‘I’ve been trying, and I’ll keep trying[...] But there is so much more that could be done,’ she said. The Presidents differed in how they believed their members could be supported by the university. Ameer spoke about wanting UEA to adopt the Jerusalem Declaration on AntiSemitism, cut ties with Barclays Bank and raise the Palestinian flag as a gesture of mourning. Bailey, on the other hand, spoke about conversations she had been having with the Vice-Chancellor to protect and support Jewish students on campus. The future for both communities remains in an uncertain position, but what is certain is that neither society will allow its members and their concerns to be ignored. A UEA respondent told Concrete ‘Vice-Chancellor Prof David Maguire has met students who have been personally affected by the conflict and heightened tensions on campus. In a recent message to all students and staff, he reiterated calls for respect and compassion. He said: “I have offered support and will continue to listen to all associated with our University. We share a common and profound concern for the loss of life and injuries to people experiencing this terrible conflict. “I know that for many in our community this is a deeply distressing time. I want to assure you that our top priority is to keep all students and staff safe and ensure your wellbeing on campus. This requires all of us to act respectfully and compassionately towards others, especially those with whom you might have differences. As a university we will not tolerate antisemitism, Islamophobia, or any form of racism, hate crime, harassment, or discrimination here. This also extends into the digital world, including social media. We recognise that members of our diverse community will hold different perspectives but as a university our responsibility is to ensure we maintain an environment where staff and students can feel safe and comfortable to express lawful opinions.”’ If you have been affected by any issues raised related to the ongoing conflict, please use Report and Support https://reportandsupport. uea.ac.uk, or contact the SU directly.
Image: Unsplash
Image: Unsplash
Image: UEA Arab Society
Image: Concrete/ Eleanor Radford
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HoMe of tHe Wonderful
12th December 2023
Exploring Norfolk’s Landscape History with Dr Sarah Spooner Matthew Stothard Co-Editor-In-Chief
For this issue, I had the pleasure of speaking to Dr Sarah Spooner, Associate Professor in Landscape History in UEA’s School of History. For those new to her field, she outlined that landscape history is “the study of our environment and our landscape from prehistory onwards and the impact that people have had on it. We look at the rural landscape – woods, trees and the structures of the countryside, and urban landscapes – how cities developed with roads, streets and buildings. “We look at the archaeology of buildings and of the landscape itself. We don’t do any excavation or digging – we look at the upstanding remains of the past. One of our biggest sources is the landscape itself – buildings and what is still there to be seen, but we also use historic maps (dating from the late medieval period onwards) and written sources.” We then spoke about where interested UEA students could explore local landscape history. Starting with our own university campus, Sarah pointed out that “UEA is built on a historic landscape. The most obvious thing to
go and see is Earlham Hall, a country house built in the Elizabethan period and changed later on in the 17th century, and its gardens.” Earlham Park meanwhile “is full of ancient trees and archaeological earthworks from the medieval period.
“The rest of the university is built on the landscape that surrounded Earlham Hall, so lots of the trees on campus are actually hundreds of years old and are marked on quite early maps. The main university buildings (the Teaching Wall, the Square and the Ziggurats) are all built on fields and a historic landscape that probably dates from the Tudor period, if not earlier. You can still see fragments of that if you wander around, and if you walk down between the Ziggurats and Broad, you’re walking through these old Tudor fields.” On the more recent history of campus, Sarah said that “the Broad is really recent. It’s not a natural or old feature – it was dug out in the 80s. That part of the landscape was designed in the 60s by a really well-known (to landscape historians, but not wellknown enough generally) landscape designer who was a woman (which was quite unusual then) called Sylvia Crowe. She designed it to look like an 18th century landscape park, so she planned the area from the Ziggurats down to the Broad with that in mind.” We then moved onto Norwich more broadly, and Sarah described how “for landscape historians Norwich is really interesting, because [in the city centre] you’re effectively still walking around the medieval street pattern and lots of the buildings that we see are still medieval buildings. You can read the history of Norwich from its street pattern and the surviving historic buildings – if you just look up above the shops you can see what’s going on.” “The area around Lower Goat Lane and Pottergate is really interesting for
its medieval churches and 16th and 17th century buildings. If you like the Georgians and the 18th century, the other side of the river and Colegate near Anglia Square is a really good bit of the city – that’s where all the big Georgian merchants lived, and they built these beautiful, big Georgian houses. They have their nonconformist chapels up there as well, like the Old Meeting House. “If you like the Victorians, then Prince of Wales Road is where it’s at! It is a big Victorian set-piece from the Station up into the city.” Sarah jokingly asked, “What would those Victorians think if they could see what it has become? It’s meant to be this grand entrance to Norwich from the new railway station and it’s just not very nice [now].” Sarah’s research specialism is in 18th
“You can see the whole history of England just in Norfolk” and 19th century country houses and their landscapes, and she told me about two good Norfolk examples. Firstly, Blickling Hall, a National Trust property to the north of Norwich is, “an amazing, early 17th century, country house, with a park and garden that’s developed over a long period of time, so you can see all the different phases of its development archaeologically in the landscape. “Another really good one is Holkham on the North Norfolk coast. It’s got this amazing park around it, developed in the 18th century by Capability Brown. It’s a super landscape that embodies all the political, social and economic ideology of the Georgian period.” Elsewhere in Norfolk, Sarah pointed out that “there are loads of great
places that you can go and walk from Norwich. There are also good castles to go and see – Castle Acre is a really good place to go, because it’s got a Norman motte-and-bailey castle with amazing earthworks, and the medieval priory ruins. “If you get the train you can go to King’s Lynn [which has] lots of really interesting historic buildings. They’ve got Seahenge there, a prehistoric Bronze Age henge made out of timber, which they dug up and moved to Lynn Museum, where you can go and see it in its tanks of formaldehyde – it’s very cool! “Cromer is very interesting as a typical Victorian seaside resort. We can think about that as a historic landscape too, and then you can walk from Cromer along the coastal path to Sheringham [Park], an 18th century park with a little country house in it. “South Norfolk is also really nice to go and explore – it’s very medieval, lots of old trees, greens and commons, and pretty villages full of timber-framed buildings.” Although some of these places can be inaccessible from Norwich, Sarah highlighted that the UEA Day Walks society sometimes offers excursions to the Norfolk countryside. Coming back to her academic work, Sarah explained that Norfolk and Norwich are “great places to work on landscape history, partly because Norfolk is well-known for having really good surviving archival material, particularly from the medieval period. The landscape itself is very varied – you can see the whole history of England
Society Spotlight: Taylor Swift Soc Linda Vu
Home of the Wonderful Senior Writer
Taylor Swift has amassed an international fanbase since the beginning of her career, and she’s currently at her peak of fame. And what better way to be in the loop with Taylor Swift than to join the Taylor Swift society here at UEA? The Taylor Swift society was founded in October 2022 and since then, Swift Soc has grown so much, going from roughly 65 members to surpassing 100 members! A part of this has to do with the marketing done on the official TikTok account of UEA, @uniofeastanglia, where a video of students conducting
interviews at the society fair taken place during Freshers week went viral, garnering over 30,000 likes and 530,000 views. In the comments of the video, people were most intrigued by the Taylor Swift society, some commentators expressing their surprise that the university even has a society dedicated to Swifties, by fellow Swifties. I spoke to the president of Swift Soc, Katie Fletcher, to get more of an insight. “When did you guys see large growth and participation in Swift Soc? What has been done differently to cause this growth in memberships and participation?”
“The society’s fair caused our society to grow a lot, and the transition from
having free socials for all to priced for non-members and free for members saw a lot of growth. I think our social media presence has grown a lot too, as we have double the amount of Instagram followers we had last year. I think all this growth is due to having super frequent, inclusive socials with a good balance of sober and alcohol related and working hard on publicity.” “What most
has been the memorable event?”
“Our most memorable event so far, in my opinion, was our 1989 (Taylor’s Version) listening party! It was so much fun listening to the album together for the first time and we went all out with decorations, costumes and snacks
all 1989 (Taylor’s Version) themed. The turnout was great that night!” Being a part of the Swift Soc myself since its founding, I have seen massive growth over the past year and it’s wonderful to be able to see this growth firsthand. What Swift Soc does well, aside from the fun socials, is the marketing. The committee works tirelessly to ensure that people are caught up with socials, ensuring that there will always be something for everyone, and what is happening in the Swiftie World, encouraging members to engage with the Swiftie World amongst each other. If you or your friends are Swifties and would like to meet other Swifties, it’s not too late to join!
just in Norfolk.” Features particularly unique to Norfolk and East Anglia include the use of flint as a building material, and churches with round towers. Finally, I asked Sarah about UEA Landscape History’s social media presence, which she primarily runs. She has dabbled with TikTok (@uea_ landscape), including a great video following the Wes Anderson trend earlier this year which she “really enjoyed”! Whilst she finds it time-consuming, she told me it could be her New Year’s resolution to make some more! Most popular though is the group’s Instagram account (@uealandscape), where you can currently find daily ‘Landvent Calendar’ posts. Sarah told me that “I love Instagram! Landscape is a really visual subject and we like to connect with [current and former] students and people living in Norwich, Norfolk and all over the world,” showing them “the lovely county and city that we live in.”
Photo 1 and 3: Concrete/Matthew Stothard Photo 2: Concrete/Innes Henry
Photo: Unsplash
12th December 2023
9
Student Memories
Fiona Hill
Home of the Wonderful Editor
2023. What a year! It doesn’t seem that long ago that UEA was reawakening after the Christmas slumber, ready to trace out a faint idea of what 2023 could look like for our community. I think it’s safe to say that a lot has been happened in the past 12 months, with the strikes, student welfare campaigning, elections and graduations all taking place in the same university. However, I believe it’s important not only to focus on big events, but to give some space to our personal favourite memories; little student stories that go completely unnoticed. Therefore, I want to thank everyone who shared these beautiful moments with HOTW and wish all our readers a very happy, very memorable year to come!
3rd Year- Law Student ‘During exam season, my friends and I were all sat cramming in Earlham Hall. We were going so completely crazy and they were studying for those awful 24 hour exams. One of the guys said we should sit in Earlham park for a bit. Instead of opening the door and being normal, he opened the window and just climbed straight out of it into the park and we played this throw and catch ball game. It was one of the best days of my life actually in the end. The sun was so warm and there may have been exams coming but in that moment we were just kids again playing throw and catch!’
2nd Year- Accounting Student ‘The best memories I’ve had over the past year include setting up a six-a-side football team (twice) with my friends and playing pretty badly every week. Then there was having to sleep in Britten House after a night out with three others (the worst accommodation on campus in my opinion) and walking around campus at night was also pretty special.’
2nd Year- Physiotherapy Student ‘I really liked going on long walks around the lake, definitely when it was a bit warmer though! It’s beautiful, especially in early autumn when the leaves are red. I really remember this random swan flying around once and how I was just there, with a friend, chatting about our most embarrassing stories.’
1st Year- Computer Science Student ‘I think ‘Welcome Week’ stood out to me. I mean there was a lot going on so that was kind of overwhelming, but a couple of my flatmates saw how I was feeling, and we ended up taking some time out and going to the ground floor of the library together. It was really nice just laughing at everything that had happened and made it all feel a lot less intense. I’d say that they’re probably my best friends now and we still go to the library together when we get stressed with the flat...’
2nd Year- Creative Writing and English Literature Student ‘I met my boyfriend on my very first day working at UNIO! I was in a really bad mood so I walked right past him but he stopped me and asked me my name. Then one day, for some reason I decided not to go home after class and I was walking through the Hive and then I thought- this is silly I don’t know why I came here. I started leaving when someone tapped me on the shoulder! It was him and he asked me if I wanted to go for a quick walk. I said yes! I was so awkward, even though I’d worked a couple of shifts with him already. He would say now that he fell in love with me on our first shift together, hmmm… but he asked me on a date and I said yes and the rest is history!’
2nd Year- Liberal Arts Student ‘There are moments when you look around and notice the others around you and you realise how much you care about them. Those moments when you are lost in giggles, when you don’t know entirely what you are laughing about, but anything added makes your stomach ache and tears swell. On Sundays watching films, cringing at Daniel Radcliffe’s crying face in Prisoner of Azkaban and mocking each other – finding each other’s quirks in each story.’
Masters- Economics Student ‘Derby Day this year was amazing- UEA absolutely thrashed it ;). Really chuffed to represent the uni and there was a great vibe all round really. Went with my girlfriend to go watch the football and to be honest I think she got more into it than me, cheering really loud and everything. It was really cool to see because I’ve always been a big football fan.’
2nd Year- English Literature Student ‘My fave memory probably has to be a karaoke night with some of my friends in the city!!! Was so much fun and we were back home by 2:30 -- so it was perfect for me hahahaha! I also really enjoyed visiting Winter Wonderland last winter with some of my uni friends too!’
3rd Year- Film Student ‘We had a BBQ down by the lake in the summer where everyone brought one item of food to cook. However, when we got to the BBQ we realised one, it was tiny and two, It wasn’t strong enough to cook everyone’s food quickly. So, we had to run up to the Aldi and buy some disposable BBQs and restart. But it was so much fun even though everyone was starving by the time we ate. It was such a hot day- it just felt like a little moment of heaven post summatives where everyone could stop and breathe.’
2nd Year- Psychology Student ‘I’d have to say my favourite memory was probably pancake day. My flat spent ages collecting everything we needed and ended up with way too many ingredients. It was just really nice seeing everyone coming together and spending time as one big group- even if the pancakes weren’t that great. We pretty much made pancakes every day after that!’
3rd Year- Biochemistry Student ‘I think my favourite memories consist of going to the SU bar with either one of my flatmates or my course mates. It was so nice to go after classes and just relax and talk with everyone about how their day had been and all the tea that was happening!’
2nd Year- English Literature with Creative Writing Student ‘I’d been waiting all summer to move into my new house, but I think it scared me a bit because I knew how different it would be from the year before. However, I remember one night I was scurrying around the kitchen trying to make a cake with the ingredients that I had in the cupboard. I’d completely forgotten that it was the Autumn Equinox and I really wanted to mark the day. It was then when all my housemates came in and helped me and we made the cake together. The cake itself was really disgusting, but I’ll never forget how that sense of home hit me -- simply through my friends helping with something that was important to me.’
Home of the Wonderful
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12th December 2023
Spread the Joy: A Livewire Christmas Smash Hit! Matthew Stothard Co-Editor-In-Chief
A yea r l y UEA C h r i st m a s t ra d i t i o n continues this D e c e m b e r w i t h L i v e w i re 1 3 5 0 ’s 2 0 2 3 C h r i s t m a s s i n g l e, S p rea d t h e J o y. I n c o l l a b o rat i o n w i t h U E A’s M u s i c P ro d u c t i o n S o c i e ty, i t i s t h e f i r st t i m e t h e ra d i o s ta t i o n h a s re c o rd e d a n o r i g i n a l s o n g fo r t h e c h a r i ty i n i t i a t i ve, w h i c h t h i s yea r i s ra i s i n g m o n e y fo r t h e N o r fo l k C o m m u n i ty Fo u n d at i o n
Photo 1: Unsplash Photo 2: Livewire1350
and their Nourishing N o r fo l k fo o d h u b s s c h e m e. L i ve w i re’s H ea d of P ro d u c t i o n , J a s m i n J e s s e n , w h o c o - p ro d u c e d t h e s i n g l e with A n d re We b e r, told C o n c re te t h at “ E v e r y pa r t o f t h e p ro c e s s h a s b e e n g rea t fu n , f ro m s c h e m i n g u p i d ea s to e d i t i n g t h e s i n g l e c o ve r. I t wa s s o fu n t o re c o rd w i t h eve r yo n e a n d I ’m t h r i l l e d s o m a n y p e o p l e go t i n v o l v e d . T h e re c o rd i n g i t s e l f t o o k m e
a b o u t 2 5 h o u r s , a n d i t’s b e e n m i xe d b y t h e w o n d e r fu l fo l ks f ro m t h e M u s i c P ro d u c t i o n S o c i e t y. I t h i n k w e c o u l d h av e a h i t o n o u r h a n d s h e re. ” T h e t ra c k wa s w r i t t e n b y l o ca l s i n ge r- s o n g w r i t e r N i k R i c h a rd , w h o s a i d “ I ’m s o g rat e fu l t o b e g i v e n t h e o p p o r tu n i t y t o w o r k w i t h s o m a n y ta l e n t e d p e o p l e o n s u c h a brilliant Christmas song… a n d a l l fo r a g rea t ca u s e ! ” R e f l e c t i n g o n t h e p ro j e c t , L i v e w i re’s S ta t i o n M a n a ge r G e o rge C o o ke s a i d “ T h i s y ea r ’s C h r i s t m a s p ro j e c t i s our most ambitious in a long t i m e. S i n c e t h e pa n d e m i c , L i v e w i re h a s b e e n s l o w l y r i s i n g f ro m n ea r- d ea t h , a n d t h e h a rd w o r k t h a t’s go n e i n t o t h i s yea r ’s c h a r i t y s i n g l e fe e l s l i ke w e’re f i n a l l y rea d y t o b e ba c k o n t h e m a p ! We’re h o n o u re d t o b e s u p p o r t i n g N o r fo l k Community F o u n d a t i o n t h i s y ea r… w e h o p e t h a t t h e w o r k w e’re d o i n g ca n go a s m a l l way t o wa rd s s p rea d i n g s o m e fe s t i v e j o y. ” Billie
L aw l e r,
c o o rd i n a t o r
o f t h e N o u r i s h i n g N o r fo l k Network, sa i d “With the N o u r i s h i n g N o r fo l k N e t w o r k s u p p o r t i n g ove r 8 0 0 0 fa m i l i e s c u r re n t l y, w e k n o w m a n y o f t h e m w i l l st r u g g l e w i t h C h r i s t m a s fe s t i v i t i e s . T h e g i f t s fo r c h i l d re n , t reat s a n d a C h r i st m a s D i n n e r a re j u st n o t i n t h e i r b u d ge t s - n o t ta k i n g pa r t i n fe st i v i t i e s ca n m a ke p e o p l e fe e l i s o l at e d , a s h a m e d a n d “ l e s s t h a n”. “ M a n y o f o u r fa m i l i e s a re ro u t i n e l y c h o o s i n g b e t w e e n h ea t i n g or ea t i n g , many pa re n t s a re go i n g w i t h o u t a p ro p e r, n u t r i t i o u s m a i n m ea l
s o t h at t h e i r c h i l d re n ca n ea t w e l l . D o n at i o n s o f a n y k i n d go s u c h a l o n g way t o h e l p i n g t h o s e fa m i l i e s t o m a ke a C h r i st m a s to re m e m b e r. And we all need those h a p p y m o m e n t s d o n’ t w e? ” S p r ead t h e J o y i s r e l ea s i n g on all major p l atfo r m s , a n d a l l r o ya l t i e s w i l l b e d o n at e d to Nourishing N o r fo l k . In ad d i t i o n , p e o p l e c a n d o n at e t o t h e c h a r i ty t h r o u g h L i ve w i r e’s J u st G i v i n g pa ge - h t t p s : / / www.justgiving.com/ page/spreadthejoy1350.
Concrete Archive: 03/12/2003 Fiona Hill
Home of the Wonderful Editor
For this month’s Christmas investigation into the deep vaults of the Concrete Archive, we’re travelling back twenty years to the 3rd of December 2003. Although the paper doesn’t look particularly festive if you only glance at the front page, inside is a whole treasure trove of Christmas celebrations and ‘Concrete humour’ (a specific sort of tone that was used in many of Concrete’s papers around this time- half sarcastic, half empathetic and all in all very lighthearted!). Page 10 and 11 are particularly hilarious, with a group of Concrete writers and editors coming together to pitch ‘a guide to making gifts and decorations that you could, but probably shouldn’t, give to those you love this Christmas’! They start the piece by describing the art of making a Christmas reindeer. If any of you are interested, apparently this is what you will need,
‘One wire coat hanger (We know you haven’t listened to Mommy Dearest and should have one in your wardrobe), One
pair of ruined (not soiled) panty hose or stockings (Please do not use new stockings, you are a student after all and cannot afford it), Paper, Glue or a stapler if you are a real heathen’. Throughout the article, the crafts get progressively more bizarre, with plenty of innuendos being made about the fairy on top of the tree and even a Christmas robin made out of brown sugar and kidney beans. Still, the instructions for the knitted penguin are remarkably instructive- I mean, who knows what you’ll learn in Concrete?
On a more serious note, the paper has several exceptionally well-written articles. Perhaps the most poignant is Edward Mooney’s look into ‘Christmas with a twist in China: the festive season without religion’, which is a particularly thoughtprovoking and poetic opinion piece.
‘[On the Forbidden City] It’s empty. In the frost and snow it becomes every Chinese painting you’ve ever seen. It’s the empty heart of China; the carefully controlled remembrance of times past, with a healthy dose of rejection’ However, the UEA didn’t freeze in time during the Christmas period, there was
still very much going on in terms of final essays, union council meetings and the ever-growing challenge of a rapidly growing university. To aid this, Vice Chancellor David Eastwood introduced the four faculty school system that is in place today. Needless to say, at the time it was not very popular, with the Dean of Economic and Social Sciences, Barbara Goodwin being quoted as saying,
Image: Concrete/Fiona Hill
‘There is no single way of organising a University which is better than others...It would be folly to undertake reorganisation for its own sake.’ Out of everything though, what caught me most by surprise was an article called ‘UEA Years: We Trawl Through Concrete’s Archives to Reveal UEA’s History’. I would very much like to have seen the writer’s reaction if they were told that a baby of three months old at the time would have been writing an archive article about their archive article in 20 years’ time- it’s all very meta isn’t it? Still, it’s a brilliant way to end a truly ‘Wonderful’ year and as we look to the future of the UEA and of Concrete, it begs the question... will a baby of three months old today be writing an archive article about this archive article in 20 years’ time?
Issue 158: 3rd December 2003, Ed. Jim Whalley
Global
11
Spanish far right politician shot in Madrid Sankavi Naresh Senior Global Writer
On Tuesday the 21st of November, three people were arrested in relation to the shooting of a Spanish right-wing politician, Alejandro Vidal-Quadras. On the 9th of November, the 78-yearold was shot in the face in broad daylight in Madrid. The incident took place in the affluent neighbourhood of Salamanca on the street of Núñez de Balboa. The shot was fired by a helmet wearing gunman who was on a motorbike. El País stated that Vidal-Quadras was being treated for a wound to the face and was in stable condition. The hospital said he was making “good progress” on the 21st. The National Police force’s press department reported that two suspects were detained in the city of Lanjaron located in southern Spain and the third in the city of Fuengirola.
According to Spanish national news agency, EFE and other media outlets, none of the three are accused of firing the shot that hit Vidal-Quadras. EFE have said that the two people arrested in Lanjaron were a Spanish man and his partner, a British woman. The third suspect arrested in Fuengirola, was also a Spaniard - he was arrested in connection with the motorbike used in the shooting. Alejandro Vidal Quadras is a former leader of Catalonia’s centre-right People’s Party (PP) and the founder of Spain’s farright Vox party. Between 2009 and 2014, he served as Vice President of the European Parliament. He has not been involved in politics for several years but has continued to be a prominent figure in the media as a commentator and a columnist.
The Associated Press reported earlier this month that VidalQuadras suggested that he was targeted because of his links to Iran’s political opposition. Police have not confirmed the theory and investigators were looking into a possible Iranian link but so far have not discovered evidence of one. The Iranian opposition group, The Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, located in Paris delineated him as a reliable ally and blamed the attack on the Iranian government. Iran’s Embassy in Madrid did not immediately reply to a request for comment but stated that it “firmly condemns any kind of terrorist operation”. Vidal-Quadras was included in an Iranian sanctions list in October 2022 in response to European Union sanctions imposed on the country following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-
old
Iranian
Kurdish
woman.
The shooting occurred on the same day that a deal was reached between Spain’s Socialist Party and a fringe Catalan separatist party to grant an amnesty to potentially thousands of people involved in the region’s failed secession bid in exchange for its key support of acting Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez in forming a new government.
Picture credits: Unslpash
Responses to the incident include those from the King of Spain, Felipe VI who has sent a telegram to Vidal-Quadras condemning the attack and the current leader of the People’s Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, abhorred the shooting and wished for his recovery. Picture Credits: Unsplash
Libertarianism comes to Argentina - armed with a chainsaw Leo Henry
Global Writer
One hundred per cent inflation. Interest rates as high as 78%. More than four in ten Argentines living in poverty. Mass currency depreciation and capital flight. These were the issues dominating the Argentine presidential election, and from the tenth of December it will be up to 53-year-old Javier Milei, the first international head of state who identifies as a libertarian, to prove he can succeed where his Peronist predecessors have failed. If you’ve heard about him in the news, you may know him by another name – Chainsaw Man. Libertarianism, for those of you unaware, is a political ideology promoting freemarket capitalism and minimal government intervention, especially in terms of taxation. Crucially, however, while Milei is conservative on social policies such as abortion and has been labelled a populist by many news outlets, he
has no intention of playing the authoritarian strongman role or make the kind of populist rhetoric spouted by the likes of Geert Wilders up in Holland a cornerstone of his platform. He did, however, call Margaret Thatcher ‘one of the great leaders in the history of humanity’, which given his stance on the Falklands (firmly committed to their status as possessions of Argentina) is a little ironic. So, what are his policies? It is difficult to separate rhetoric from fact, and until he enters office, we can’t establish for certain to what extent Milei pursues his promises. For example, a recent video on X (formerly Twitter) shows Milei tearing down multiple government ministries, represented by bits of paper on a wall. On the campaign trail, he claimed he would “torpedo the central bank”; it’s difficult to say how literal he was being. That being said, dollarisation, the proposal to switch his country’s sovereign currency from the Argentine peso to
the US dollar, seems relatively feasible – Ecuador did the same thing back in the early 2000s. He has also promised a program of mass privatization, including and up to education, which in a period of economic crisis could prove to be very risky – selling off state assets on the cheap to a handful of wealthy speculators could have major ramifications down the road. A level of corruption and lack of political will does provide a greater impetus for this approach, especially as investor-friendly Uruguay to the south (increasingly regarded as the Switzerland of South America) attracts more and more Argentine capital at the expense of the Argentine nation by the day. Yet even at the best of times, Milei’s policies would be raising more than a few eyebrows, but given the dire state of the Argentine economy buyer’s remorse could set in very quickly. However, Milei appears to be willing to roll back some of his more interesting policies
- dollarisation has been put on the back burner, and he seems to have realised antagonising China, a crucial trading partner for Argentina’s exports, during an economic crisis, does no one any favours. Moreover, his lack of a majority in the National Congress will make passing any substantive legislative package very difficult, even with support from conservative elements. Still, keep an eye on Argentina – there’s a lot of spinning plates in the air, and the incoming President might be too focused on juggling chainsaws to pay attention to them all.
Picture credits: Unslpash
Interview
12th December 2023
12
News Team, Molly Warner & with Parliamentary Candidate
With a general election campaign heading our way in 2024, News Editor Molly Warner and News Senior Writer Jamie Bryson spoke to the Labour Parliamentary candidate for the Norwich North constituency, Alice Macdonald. While the UEA campus stands in Norwich South (the seat currently held by Labour Clive Lewis MP), half of Norwich - including an increasing number of UEA students and staff - live and work in Norwich North. As a ‘swing seat’ (closely fought parliamentary seats between two different parties), Ms Macdonald hopes to overturn incumbent Conservative Chloe Smith’s marginal majority of 10% (or around 4000 votes). With this in mind, we discuss personal principles, party politics, and the increasing mistrust in our central political system. What values and experiences make you stand out from the crowd, and what made you choose to stand for The Labour Party in Norwich North? I’ve been a Labour Party member for a long while now, and I think Labour does continue to stand up for progressive values and for a better society. This is ultimately why I joined and why I’m standing for the Labour Party. In terms of my own values and experiences, I think it’s really important that we’ve got politicians and people putting themselves forward from all walks of life - [politicians] that people really identify with. I did some work at the Labour Party with Harriet Harmen championing women’s rights. I was a local councillor in London, where I had a brief that included opening new libraries, which was a brilliant and real ‘Labour’ achievement. Then, I spent most of my career in the international charity sector. I’ve worked for organisations like Save the Children and with the United Nations. Here, I’ve seen the challenges in fighting poverty and inequality. The main reason why I’m putting myself forward is that politics is ultimately what changes things. Whether it’s International Development - you don’t change that unless you get the right leaders in countries who really care about the fate of their populations and are prepared to take action as a counsellor; or with local public services - if you don’t have a government that prioritises investing in local services, there’s always a limit to what you can do. Furthermore, I
meet so many peoplewho’ve been on the housing waiting list for so long... there are thousands in that situation in Norwich. We need that action at the top. At the end of the day, I feel like it’s what I’ve always wanted to do, and when you see things getting worse and worse in the UK - fundamental poverty and inequality - that’s why I really want to really focus my efforts on this role. The Labour Party is really focusing on its five missions - Clean British energy, the highest economic growth in the G7, securing the future of the NHS, providing opportunity for all and fighting for safer streets. We are going to have an election in 2024 (unless they hold on until January 2025), so it’s key we set this out clearly. And why Norwich North? Well, I’m from Norfolk - I grew up in West Norfolk. My mum was a leader of the local West Norfolk Council when I was growing up, so I also saw locally what Labour could do in Norfolk when in power. Ultimately, I love Norwich and Norfolk it’s the area I’m really passionate about.
•
Get Britain building again •
Switch on Great British Energy
•
Get the NHS back on its feet •
Take back our streets
•
Break down barriers to opportunity
What could you contribute to rebuilding essential trust in politics from the people of Norwich? I think you can see that in the last few weeks with the COVID inquiry how we’ve had ‘government by WhatsApp’ and some really awful language being used. Personally, I believe in both individual and collective responsibility in how we restore trust in politics. If I were elected, it’s really important that I’m visible, accountable, and accessible to the people I would represent. Some of that is just making sure you’re updating people regularly on what you’re doing and holding constituency surgeries that people can access. But it’s really all about delivering for
people, and I think I think the worst thing politicians can do over promise and underdeliver. We have to be realistic about what we can and can’t do, and I think people really appreciate that honesty...so I think individually, there’s a lot that you can do there.
“What will ultimately
restore trust in politics... is that services and
“The Labour Party website details how it wants to devolve Education out of Westminster in order to “join up jobs and trainign with colleges and university”
people’s lives are
positively changed” I think collectively, when we do have to see changes to the system, there are ‘the Nolan principles’ of public life that all politicians should be upholding and we haven’t seen that be the case in recent years. That’s why we need we do need some reform across the system, but it’s everyone’s individual responsibility, to live up to those values. I think what will ultimately restore trust in politics - or one of the key things is that services and people’s lives are positively changed, and they see that it’s politics that makes that difference. I was approached by a woman recently who said she needed an emergency operation; she’d been told she’d have to wait for 18 months for an emergency operation. If you don’t see the services that are meant to serve you working at all, then no wonder people lose trust in politics. And that’s why for me, it’s so fundamental that we get a Labour government so that we can start to deliver things that will make a real difference in people’s lives. Could you outline one Higher Education policy proposed by Labour, and suggest how this could actively improve life for our students if it’s elected to government in 2024? As mentioned, Labour has set out five missions for the government, and one of those is breaking down barriers to opportunity, which is really focused on education. I do think we have to look holistically at our aim to have an education system that genuinely works for every child and young person. With this in mind, we’ll be looking really broadly at how you break down this glass ceiling which stops so many young people from advancing. UEA is a brilliant university.
I remember coming here for a science fair back when I was 13 or 14. We’ve got such an amazing institution in Norwich, and we have to value our institutions and work with them. So I know that’s not one policy, but I think it’s important that it’s about a holistic approach to education that starts right from the early years, all the way through and continues through to adult learning as well. How would Labour make student housing more affordable, and will it make the aspiration of home ownership an achievable reality for graduates? Housing is so important, and I know in certain areas of Norwich North, there are more and more students living here. I think there are a number of areas we have to look at. First, we have to get Britain building again. We need more affordable and social housing, and Labour has said we would build 1.5 million homes within the first time of a Labour government (5 years). We also need to help first-time buyers get onto the property ladder with things like a mortgage guarantee scheme. Furthermore, Labour has set out some measures that we would bring in a private rental charter which would, for example, end no-fault evictions to make sure landlords are delivering better. Indeed, the City Council is also currently looking locally at how they can do that sooner by licensing every landlord - particularly houses of multiple occupancy where obviously a lot of students will live. It’s really important that we have decent housing and decent landlords - and there are many great landlords - it’s just making sure that people are not being taken advantage of.
12th December 2023
13
concrete-online.co.uk/category/interview/ | @ConcreteUEA
Jamie Bryson, in discussion
Alice
Last month, 56 Labour MPs defied Keir Starmer’s request and voted in favour of a ceasefire in the current IsraelPalestine conflict - how would you have voted and why? I think we’ve all been hugely upset by the suffering and the violence we’ve seen in Gaza and in Israel in recent months. It has been really appalling, and everyone wants to see an end to this. What we’ve seen in recent weeks with humanitarian pauses initially being extended was really welcomed. But we need to see many more of those to allow in vital aid and see the release of hostages. The Labour Party has been repeatedly advocating for humanitarian pauses and longer pauses. I think that is the right approach at the moment. We all want to see an end to the violence, but how do we get there? Longer humanitarian pauses are, hopefully, going to be the step to getting towards that cessation of hostilities. Ultimately, we need a political solution and for too long, the international community has spoken about a two-state solution without really putting the effort into achieving it. If we were in government, Labour would really be focusing on how we get to that political solution of a two-state solution.
Macdonald
like I do like the UEA pool as well! Alice has been the Labour candidate for Norwich North since July 2022. You can keep up to date with her campaign by following her on social media, as well as on her website https://alicemacdonald.org To find out which constituency you are eligible to vote in, visit: https://www.parliament.uk/ a b o u t / h o w/e l e c t i o n s - a n d - vo t i n g / constituencies/ To register to vote, visit: h tt p s : / / w w w. gov. u k / re g i ste r- to - vo te
Last month, 56 Labour MPs defied Keir Starmer’s request and voted in favour of a ceasefire in the current Israel-Palestine conflict
Image: The Labour Party
“The Labour Party
has been repeatedly advocating for
humanitarian pauses,
I think that is the right approach”
And lastly, what favourite pastime in
is your Norwich?
Well, at the moment, on the weekends, I’m mostly canvassing! But one of my favourite pastimes otherwise is tennis...I love being outside. I normally go to Heigham Park and play there with the National Tennis League. They do really quite affordable coaching in groups. So I try to play as much tennis as I can, though it’s a bit harder in the winter. Generally, I just like being out and about; I went up to Mousehold Heath this morning, which is near where I live. It’s great that we’ve got those wonderful parks and open spaces in Norwich, and again, the Labour Council has invested in a lot of these. I do really
Image: Unsplash Image: Unsplash
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12th December 2023
COMMENT
Spotify Wrapped: is it for us, or for our followers? Mia Galanti
Lifestyle Editor
The last Wednesday of November has come and gone, which, aside from the ominous sound of sleighbells in the background as every Christmas-lover starts bringing out their wreaths, means one thing: Spotify Wrapped. Even if you aren’t a Spotify user, Spotify Wrapped is inescapable. Social media erupts as everyone eagerly clamours to post their most listened-to artists and songs across their Instagrams. In fact, it has become such a phenomenon that even non-Spotify users get to join in on the action, with platforms like Apple Music and YouTube Music coming out with Replay and Recap, respectively. For 364 days a year we are wary of our Internet footprint, refusing cookies and forging names to avoid being traced or hacked,
but on Wrapped day we celebrate the terabytes of data corporations have gathered on us. In fact, people live in an anticipation of Wrapped for sometimes up to months before it launches. So surely you’ve heard the laments. “Wrapped is coming up soon, I need to try and get this artist out of my top five.” “Wrapped is coming up soon, I want to try get this song onto my top one hundred.” On the surface, these sorts of comments are amusing and relatable: who among us doesn’t have a guilty pleasure or two that we’d rather keep quiet? But it also makes you wonder: who is Spotify Wrapped really for, then? A guilty pleasure is still a pleasure, after all, so if an artist like Glee Cast makes your top 5 for the fifth year in a row, should it matter aside from you knowing that statistically, you listened to them a lot? (Not that I’m speaking from experience, or anything.)
Yet it does matter. People will go as far as doctoring their listening habits, even in small, inconsequential ways like avoiding certain show-choir versions of songs (again, not from personal experience) just so the colourful infographic they receive is one culturally cool enough to showcase.
Somewhere along the way, the intention of Spotify Wrapped has become performative.
Somewhere along the way, the intention of Spotify Wrapped has become performative. How many indie artists can you get into your
top five? How many streams does your top song have? Hit singles in a top five is frowned upon, deemed ‘basic’ or ‘unoriginal’, yet simultaneously millions across the globe scramble for the coveted top percentile favourite artist’s listeners. Already the Internet is birthing infographics about how to get into Taylor Swift’s 0.01%, from leaving Spotify playing overnight to conceiving complex code to bypass the data measuring. This performativity is fed by Spotify, from the way their Spotify Wrapped slideshows have the exact downloadable extensions for an Instagram story to top listeners being rewarded with personal videos from artists. Spotify Wrapped is one of the most incredible marketing campaigns in the world, and it’s orchestrated almost entirely by users, but it also feeds into the maxim of social
media being a mere highlight reel of people’s lives. There is the keen awareness that Spotify Wrapped is yet another facet of this doctored Internet presence—one obsessed with being perceived, but only from a distance, and only through carefully curated images to give an idea of wholeness. We’re all guilty of swiping through strangers’ Wrapped posts and making snap judgments based on top artists or genre, so of course it is natural people are accordingly trying to manipulate their listening to fit an image they are trying to portray, one that is discordant with Glee Cast being in their top five.But I’d argue we need to go back to the days of un-self-conscious music consumption, for enjoyment rather than what it will make people think about us. After all, if we have to be performative even in our headphones, where can we truly be authentic? credits: Adobe Firfely
The Commuter Conundrum: My Experience as a UEA Commuter Hannah Jones Comment Writer
“Am full
I missing ‘university
out on the experience’?”
This question has frequently entered my mind throughout my first year at UEA, and I still find myself confronting it now. Every student chooses between living on campus, in the city or at home when preparing for university, though this decision is easier for some than others. After weighing up my options based on my circumstances, commuting, for me, was a no-brainer. My commute, from a little village within walking distance of the North Norfolk coast, is around an hour and twenty minutes each way and sometimes involves getting five buses in a day. It has taken some getting used to and I freely admit to making some
of these journeys quite literally with my eyes closed, given the effects of a busy day, a sprint from Red Lion Street to Castle Meadow to make my connection, and the lack of view from the bus window with the nights drawing in. Around 20% of UEA’s student body are commuters and there is some overlap with mature students. In my experience of attending a few commuters’ breakfast bars, most attendants are mature students. While I’m happy to have made some good friends who are mature commuters, the low attendance of young people (aged 18-25) who commute is a bit disappointing, though they are about. When I have met a commuter around my own age, it has been by chance. I’m lucky to have lots of acquaintances from my course but my close friends from
university are fewer. The clubbing, drinking and hook-up cultures that make up a significant part of student life do not enter my world as a commuter. They don’t need a place there, to be honest, as I just haven’t felt the attraction to these aspects of student life.
have a laugh with my family at the quiz nights in my village. My simple answer to the classic commuting question, then: yes. But there is more to it than that. Being a commuter has its limitations but, at the end of the day, we’re all at UEA to get a degree.
But it’s another social pressure, that non-commuters feel as well, where not participating can make connecting with people more difficult. Clubs and societies pose a similar problem for me as there are few where members have the freedom of flexibility. It’s very easy to feel isolated but I’ve found my tribe with Concrete this year! Connection to my local community has also been a social lifeline.
We all start university with the notion of it being the beginning of ‘the best three (or more) years of our lives’ but I think the reality of commuting means that many commuters are brought back down to earth and recognise this myth as a myth earlier than most students. After freeing myself from the mental struggle against this truth, I now find the ability to maintain connections with my family and local community and still be independent (including working part-time) in the real world, while studying at university, very liberating.
It’s lovely to be able to remain close friends with some of my schoolmates, who now work locally, and I always
credits: Tom Juggins, Unsplash
15
12th December 2023
concrete-online.co.uk/category/comment/ | @ConcreteUEA
Why is Christmas Suddenly So Stressful? Cordelia GulbekianFaram Travel Editor
Remember when you were a child, and you would stay wide awake waiting for Santa Claus? All the little festive things that you used to look forward to all year: decorating the tree, playing Christmas music nonstop, giving and receiving gifts? Instead, I’m sitting here, staring out of the window at cold grey skies, thinking that I’m excited for the end of term because it means no more assignments, no more exams, no more deadlines. Instead of counting down the days until Christmas, we’re counting the days until our exams and assignments are over. Well, for a couple of weeks at least. Talking to friends, the phrase ‘it doesn’t feel like Christmas’ is said more as we grow older. Every year, it seems to come around so fast, and we’re left
balancing a range of varying levels of stress, that on top of our assignments, bills, money struggles, seasonal depression, we just don’t have the space or time to feel ‘Christmassy.’ As adults navigating the pressures of university life, how do we discover the ‘Christmas spirit’ again?
wondering why we don’t feel the ‘Christmas spirit’ anymore. Our ideas for the feelings Christmas should bring us, as we’re often reminded in Christmas music or movies, just don’t seem to come to us as naturally as they once did. The piling of expectations - of festive time with family and friends, romance, continuous celebration - seem to build into a mountain which we can never quite reach the peak of.
As we grow older, it’s more of an effort to find the ‘festive spirit,’ and it’s something we must actively seek out. It’s about fulfilling our inner child again, discovering the things that bring us those little bits of joy.
Especially in the context of the darkness and dampness of an English winter, where a ‘rainy Christmas’ doesn’t quite have the same ring as a ‘snowy’ one. As the days of December near Christmas, our brains are a swirl of gifts we need to buy, food we need to make, people we need to see, on top of everything else that we are facing in our lives.
credits: Adobe Firefly
There is something so cosy about the city at Christmas, with its lights, narrow cobbled streets, independent cafes, restaurants, and bars. It is a city that embraces the winter months, and I felt like I needed to make the most of that. As a student facing a barrier of assignments at this time of year, it’s about finding those little moments of joy. Whether that’s an evening in with your friends, creating a cosy setting for a meal, or walking around the city at night enjoying the lights. So even if you’re going to the library every day, what about arranging an evening with friends?
This has been the case for me this semester, with assignments feeling non-stop, and most days As adults navigating repetitively spent in the library; it was a shock to realise that we are the pressures of uniso close to the end of term, and that Christmas is right around versity life, how do we the corner. It hit me that as a discover the ‘Christmas final year student, this could be Spirit’ again? my last winter spent at university in Norwich with my friends.
As students, we are constantly credits: /sdesigns via PNGTREE
My Experience Looking For Work as a Student With a Sensory Disability Ore Adeyoola Film Editor
I never considered myself ‘disabled’ until I started applying for work. I’m partially sighted and have been since birth, but my parents never raised me to treat my affliction as a disability. This outlook had its pros and cons -- sure, I needed things printed out larger for me in school, but loads of my friends wore glasses, what’s the big deal? The opticians told me I’d never be able to drive, but the thought of driving had always made me anxious anyway (besides, public transport is easy and affordable). None of the supposed setbacks felt like a big deal to me until the summer before sixth form, when I was finally old enough to earn my own money. I sent out loads of job applications
and got a response! My local McDonald’s was hiring, it was a ten-minute walk from my house and paid fortnightly. That’s all a sixteen-year-old could ask for. As I stood behind the register, ready to smash my trial shift I suddenly realised: I couldn’t see the screen where orders appeared. I couldn’t read the text on the till. I couldn’t do two of the most basic requirements for any simple part-time job.
Once my maintenance loan ran out in first year, I started the process again. I tried applying for jobs that would give me reliable hours, paid fairly, and would also accommodate my disability. The latter was incredibly difficult to find.
For the first time, my disability was introducing limitations that felt real, and it would only get worse from there.
For the first time, my disability was introducing limitations that felt real
A combination of a low student loan and parents with several other financial responsibilities means that throughout my three years of university, I’ve had to work without a break. This is the reality of most students.
Most student jobs either require proficiency with till work, the use of some sort of display screen, or the ability to drive.
I ate plain pasta and walked to town to save money, but no matter how much effort you put in, money never lasts forever, and I needed a job urgently. I only found luck when I decided to start leaving out my disability in my application process. I didn’t mention it in my CV, cover letters or even interviews. Only then did I finally secure a job that had no choice but to accommodate me when I eventually came clean about my disability after completing training and onboarding. As an adult in the working world, I’m entitled to Personal Independence Payment and other disability-related government credit. But as a student, none of that applies. I still have many of the responsibilities adults with fulltime jobs have, such as bills and
rent. The level of stress I carried with me in that final semester of first year, when no one was responding to job applications and my accommodation fee was overdue, has led to a long-lasting sense of financial anxiety. I put up with mistreatment longer than I should have simply because I didn’t want to go through the hell that was the job search again. The lack of accessibility in the world of student jobs is not something you truly understand until you experience it. As I learn to navigate the world as someone with a disability, I’ve already come to the heart-sinking conclusion that despite the well-intended promises of 2010’s Equality Act, discrimination in the workplace is a reality that I, and many like me, have to face.
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Science
12th December 2023
The Easy Alternative: An accessible grocery item to lower your cholesterol Photo: Unsplash
Shakeera Garratt Science Writer
Have you ever wondered how someone with a lower body fat percentage could have the same cholesterol levels as someone diagnosed as medically obese? Contrary to popular belief, having a low body fat percentage doesn’t necessarily mean you’re safe. High ‘inner fat’ is a hidden high risk for heart disease, no matter your body fat percentage from the outside, high cholesterol doesn’t discriminate. Worldwide, high cholesterol levels play a role in a third of heart diseases caused by the lack of oxygen to the heart and are estimated to cause 2% of total disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) globally. Cholesterol is a fatty substance in your blood, involved in building healthy cells, but high levels may cause the substance to sit within blood vessels, potentially leading to a heart attack. Causes of high
“..high cholesterol levels play a role in a third of heart diseases..” cholesterol levels include inheritance, a poor diet, or a lack of exercise. There are two main types of cholesterol. Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol is known as the ‘bad’ type of cholesterol – the cholesterol that can cause heart diseases with high levels from blocking arteries within your body. The second type of cholesterol is high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, which is known as the ‘good’ cholesterol. HDLs can carry LDLs from the blood to the liver, to be removed and excreted from the body.
So, are you likely to develop high cholesterol levels? The risk factors for a high cholesterol level include obesity (BMIindexofover30),littletonoexercise, smoking, alcohol consumption, and a poor diet (high in saturated fats). However, an easy everyday food item that can be added to your diet are plant-sterol-infused butters. A key component, these plants contain a natural compound called ‘phytosterols’. Butter manufactured with these can reduce your cholesterol levels by 10%, depending on how fast your metabolism is as well as your age.
body allows for cholesterol to be removed as a waste product and therefore further decreases the risk of heart disease to those with high cholesterol levels. But, how much is necessary to lower high cholesterol levels? It is recommended to consume 2-3g of phytosterols daily by eating foods such as cereals, nuts, low fat milk, yoghurt, and plantbased butters (e.g., ‘Flora’ or ‘Benecol’). A balanced diet with low levels of saturated fatty foods is also beneficial. The total cholesterol level for a healthy adult is below 5 mmol/L, and anything
But how do phytosterols lower our cholesterol? They both have very similar chemical structures. In the gut, phytosterols can compete with cholesterol for absorption, meaning less cholesterol will be absorbed into the bloodstream, therefore less health risks to those already with a high cholesterol level.
above this is considered high. With foods rich in phytosterols, plant sterol butters can lower cholesterol levels back to normal alone after just three weeks, with a total cholesterol of up to 5.55 mmol/L. Other lines of treatment may be recommended for higher levels even than this, such as statins. So, for those who have high cholesterol, it can be difficult navigating food choices, but just adding this simple everyday grocery store item into your basket is a great step forward to getting your cholesterol levels back to normal with ease!
Photo: Unsplash
The digestion of plant sterols within the
The Clearest Code is the Most Efficient
Photo: Unsplash
Zak Steventon-Barnes Science Writer
Until you know which bits of your code are causing a performance problem, your focus when writing code should be clarity, not efficiency. Over the summer I went to the Museum of Technology in Berlin where I saw a display about Konrad Zeus, an engineering student who really hated doing maths. Instead of shrugging his shoulders, he instead embarked on a path of building increasingly more advanced programmable calculators and then computers. As he once remarked, “You could say I was too lazy to calculate, so I invented the computer.” But these machines were quite unlike our modern computers. The Zeus Z1, his first machine (completed 1938) could do only one operation each second. These operations were fed to it on a piece of film tape with holes punched into it. However, very few people want to get the answers to their maths homework by punching holes in punch tape, so Zeus suggested a system of writing operations in something readable to a human (at least one with good maths knowledge), which he called Plankalkül (plan calculus).
This idea caught on, today we call these “high-level languages” where each instruction is converted into multiple operations on the computer. However, the user would have to be careful which instruction to choose as the Z4 was designed to carry out 40 operations a second. This has long since changed, a modern computer can carry out billions of operations a second. But this concept has embedded itself firmly into a sort of collective memory that
“ ...the most efficient way of doing something is the clearest one.” programmers have, and programmers are inclined to spend a lot of time figuring out which instruction converts into the fewest operations. One video from popular Pythonfocused YouTube channel b001 suggests one particular operation because it is a few percent faster. But this can be counterproductive
because it misunderstands where performance issues come from. Most performance issues on modern computers are generally not the culmination of hundreds of suboptimal instructions, but a handful of design decisions. Poor performance might be caused by frequently accessed data being located using a linear search or for loop creating a new object each time just to call a particular function. Therefore, my ‘hot take’ on efficiency is that until you have identified it as causing a real performance issue, the most efficient way of doing something is the clearest one. This is because the design issues that cause the majority of performance issues are made harder to identify and fix, by choosing the more confusing instructions that people who fixate on highly optimised code recommend. Software engineers have a term for this optimisation fixation: ‘premature optimisation’. On this subject, YouTuber Code Aesthetic remarks on two different instructions in C++ that accomplish subtly different things: the post-increment (e.g. i++) and pre-increment (e.g. ++i) operators. Without getting bogged down into
exactly what they do, pre-increment should be slightly faster. But, Code Aesthetic objects, those differences are likely to be removed when a program is compiled before being run, and even if it isn’t, running i++ takes three-thousandths of a thousandth of a thousandth of a second. While the idea that each individual instruction had to be carefully chosen was true for a time, unless those instructions are run millions of times a second or run on some type of device with very limited computational power, they no longer have to be.
And if either of those things are the case, you probably shouldn’t be writing in Python anyway. Being a fan of both computer science and fantasy literature, my favourite author for this is Jeremy Kubica. In Best Practices of Spell Design, he remarks “You shouldn’t optimise low-level details until you’ve finished the high-level design and measured the actual performance. Otherwise, you could just be wasting time.”
12th December 2023
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concrete-online.co.uk/category/science/ | @ConcreteUEA
This Month in Science : Unlocking the Quantum Realm
Photo: Wikicommons
Max Todd
Senior Science Writer
Quantum physics might seem like a topic approachable only by the academically elite and Marvel’s director teams, but the concept isn’t difficult to grasp at all. The term ‘Quantum’ is derived from ‘quantised’ meaning ‘fixed’. The theory, backed up by endless experimental evidence, states that particles at the smallest scale can only have fixed levels of energy. So,
what
does
that
mean?
Imagine you’ve bought a brand new, very unusual car, and want to take it onto the road. In your old runaround you would
expect to apply the accelerator and slowly move from stationary all the way up to 70mph. In other words, your speed would occupy every value between 0 until 70. Sounds obvious, right? Well in your new car, the speed is ‘quantised’. Imagine you’re stationary and applying the accelerator, but the car isn’t moving. In fact, it doesn’t even move until you’ve pressed the gas a third of the way down when suddenly you’re moving at 30mph. No, you haven’t accelerated quickly, you have actually moved instantaneously from 0 to 30mph. This is what particles at the subatomic level behave like. This mad phenomenon explains why substances are certain colours. In order to gain more
“...might seem like a topic approachable only by the academically elite and Marvel’s director teams...” energy, subatomic particles have to absorb the exact right amount, just like your new car needs the exact right amount of gas to move. When energy containing light reaches a substance, the amount of energy that is absorbed is equal to certain energies on the light spectrum. The colours that aren’t absorbed are then reflected back out and into your brain, which
interprets that information visually. Insane right, so who discovered all this?
The theory awkwardly matched the data, but Planck was hesitant to drop classical views on physics.
On December 14th 1900, Max Planck presented his findings to the German Physical Society, many of whom his respected colleagues. In it, he skeptically lays the foundation of what now has is known as the revolutionary field of quantum physics, essential to the transistors in all modern computers and fibre optic 2 cables.
It was actually Albert Einstein who corrected and expanded upon this body of work, however Planck will be forever immortalised for his contributions to this incredible field and studied by any dedicated student of the natural sciences worldwide.
Bizarre Science: First CRISPR Gene Therapy Approved in the UK for Blood Disorders
Photo: WikiCommons
Rana Dawood
Science Editor
Our genetic code is so innately personal to us, we may not understand much about it but the thought of someone digging their hands in there and meddling with your DNA sequence may seem a bit bizarre. But, for those with few options, it is revolutionary. The UK has now become the first country in the world to approve gene editing tools. The therapy, named Casgevy, is a collaboration between Vertex Pharmaceuticals and CRISPR therapeutics and was authorised by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) after two global clinical trials. It is intended as a treatment for Sickle Cell Anemia and Beta-thalassaemia which are two genetic blood disorders, both affecting haemoglobin, which is essential in the transport of oxygen around the body. With currently, the only permanent- treatment option being bone marrow transplants, which run a high risk of immune system rejection. Manipulating our DNA sounds a
bit scary, so how does it really work and what even is CRISPR? CRISPR/ Cas9 gene editing works like genetic scissors in a way, snipping a part of the genome sequence out and gently placing a different segment in. Like performing an insanely precise and intricate micro-surgery. Technology that, believe it or not, is actually an antiviral technique taken from bacteria! It’s a defence mechanism used by bacteria to fight back against viruses that invade them. They take these genetic scissors from the CRISPR region of their DNA in complex with the Cas9 protein, that together, gives us the remarkable ability of gene editing. Almost similar to the way that our lovely white blood cells can remember when we’ve been ill, and if the same pathogen tries to infect our bodies they immediately surround and shut it down. Bacteria act in the same way, remembering when a virus has infected them, and they have programmed this within their genetic code (in the CRISPR region!). When the first virus infects them, they sneakily take a snippet of this virus’s DNA, and store it in the CRISPR region for later. If the same virus attempts to hijack the bacterium again, the CRISPRCas9 complex is quick to act and
hunt for the same DNA sequence in the virus, completely snipping through the DNA double helix, and leaving the virus limp and inactive.
Professors Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna identified this mechanism and reprogrammed it to cut DNA, leading to the development of CRISPR/Cas9 which won them the 2020 Nobel Prize in chemistry (the first to go to two women!). This achievement, as you can image, absolutely blew up in the scientific world. The ability to alter DNA with such a unique precision was unheard of and its applications have numerous possibilities, spanning from medicine
“The ability to alter DNA with such a unique precison was unheard of.... ” to
agriculture
to
biotech,
etc.
Now we’ve covered our bases on the complexities of CRISPR/Cas9 tech, it’s important to take into consideration all of the ways it can be applied. Manipulating DNA in such a way as this comes with its own load
of ethical considerations/dilemmas. In fact, one of the most controversial genetical experiments utilised this exact tool. In China, November 2018, an uproar was fuelled when He Jiankui, a CRISPR scientist, experimented with the birth of the first genetically modified babies, in an attempt to make them HIV immune. Leading to many debating the ethics of this procedure and resulting in his imprisonment, whilst some of those working alongside him completely flipped their ethical stance when all eyes were on them. With further worries in the possibility of ‘designer babies’ and human enhancement approaches. The announcement of a treatment such as Casgevy is revolutionary for those suffering with sickle cell and beta-thalassemia, who currently have few other options available to
them. Yet, as you can imagine, it is quite costly, at an estimated US$2 million per patient, heavily limiting who is able to benefit from the discovery. Sickle cell anaemia is most prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa, where most patients reside in low-income countries. Unfortunately meaning that the majority of people suffering will not have access to this therapy. Future applications of this extraordinary treatment are exciting, but we need to tread lightly by taking the correct ethical approaches in our research direction and hope that we make the most of its potential. I’m certain that in the coming years we will sharpen our genetic scissors and cleanly snip our way into the next generation of gene-targeted therapies.
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Lifestyle
12th December 2023
Getting the most out of the Christmas season Eve Colabella Lifestyle writer
Twinkling lights begin to invade the high street. Cheesy Hallmark movies are playing on a loop. Christmas has rushed towards us once again, and the pressure to throw ourselves into festivity so as not to waste the season away is imminent. For a lot of people, getting older means that the magic of Christmas fades. With deadlines looming and lectures to catch up on, it’s hard to feel the joy of the approaching holiday in its entirety. But there are still many ways you can implement festive cheer into your life, even if that old, childlike excitement has been buried beneath your responsibilities. One of the easiest ways to feel the familiar warmth of Christmas is (ironically) to go outside. Bundling up under an astronomical number of layers and venturing out into the cold not only lets you take in sights of house decorations and Christmas trees glowing through windows, but also allows you to experience the relief of
returning home to pyjamas and a hot drink. Online Christmas shopping may be more efficient, but it doesn’t measure up to trailing around the crowded stalls of a Christmas market or having Michael Bublé sing to you through a shop radio as you spend an hour deciding whether to buy your dad socks or aftershave this year. If you (understandably) decide that braving that harsh winter chill is not for you, there are numerous festive alternatives that you can implement at home, whether
"There are still many ways you can implement festive cheer into your life" alone or with friends and family. Christmas movies are a classic choice – the more nostalgic the better. Gather under blankets on the sofa with a tower of snacks and indulge in the festive movie
night your childhood self would have begged for. Reigniting your inner child is the key to enjoying Christmas, and another way you can do this is through being creative. There are so many festive recipes, bakes and crafts circulating on Pinterest or TikTok, so why not spend a day trying one out with some friends? Christmas is all about keepsakes, and this can be in the form of something physical, (like a handmade bauble), or through the memories you form (like a very rowdy gingerbread decorating session with your housemates). You don’t have to execute these to the highest, most professional quality; the best Christmas stories are the ones built on mess and imperfection.
"The best Christmas stories are the ones built on mess and imperfection" to bring you comfort. (If you’re feeling extra rebellious, you could be so daring as to watch it in January!) The point is, putting pressure on yourself to “feel festive” is only going to create disappointment. You should try not to set too many expectations of how your December will pan out; life often defies us when we try to control it too closely.
The most important thing to remember is that Christmas comes this time each year (to quote The Beach Boys). There is no need to push yourself to commit to every festive tradition, movie and activity this December. So, what if you skip Love Actually? Hugh Grant will still be there next year with his perfect hair and charming grin
There is no law that says your Christmas must be overflowing with festive cheer, despite what they tell you in the adverts on TV. There are many reasons why the holidays may be a difficult time for you, all of which are valid and can’t always be solved with tinsel. Instead, focus on slowing down and being kind to yourself as the days are swallowed up by frost and long nighttimes. You’ve made it through another year, and you must reward yourself! Use this final month to rest, enjoy time spent with loved ones, and treat yourself to the indulgences that remind you personally of the festive season. You deserve it.
Credit: Pexels
Should I call him? Ellie Dharamraj
Lifestyle writer
Let's talk about sex, baby! More specifically, let’s talk about the benefits of maintaining a healthy sex life and how your body is yours to do whatever you want to do with it; whether you are in a relationship, experimenting within hook-up culture, or have no interest in either! At the end of the day, the main thing you should take away from this article is ‘your body your choice!’ For people who have vaginas, there are so many upsides to having a regular sex life. For starters, it can improve your bladder control. I’m sure right now you’re wondering how this has anything to do with you, but incontinence will affect 30% of vaginas. Sex is like a workout for your pelvic floor muscles; when you orgasm it contracts those muscles which strengthens them. Those who also continue to stay sexually active post-menopause are far less likely to suffer from vaginal atrophy as a direct result of strengthened pelvic floor muscles. Even if you don’t orgasm, neurochemicals can be released through skin-toskin contact, sexual talk, kissing and sexual satisfaction. Another
Credit: Unsplash reason to have sex regularly now for the protection of your future self is a study that found that those who remained sexually active into old age had far better cognitive functions than those who didn’t. Those sexually active performed far better on the ability to recall words. This same study even found a correlation between sexually active youth and memory retention. Struggling with cramming for the summative season? This might just be the trick! But what about the benefits for those with penises? Research shows that those sexually active, who remained sexually active into
old age, were considerably less likely to experience depression or loneliness. In 2015, a study
"Your body, your choice!"
published in the American Journal of Cardiology discovered that men with a regular sex life had a much lower chance of cardiovascular incidents, such
as heart attacks and strokes than those with an irregular sex life. There is even a correlation between frequent sexual activity and lower rates of prostate cancer! Another study showed that simply looking at somebody they found attractive would significantly increase pain relief. So next time you are soldiering through a tummy ache, and no one knows how brave you’re being, maybe take a peek at your crush from across the lecture hall; respectfully of course! Giving someone the Joe from ‘You’ glare definitely won’t increase your chances of having sex! But what about all genders in general? A 2019 study discerned that sex releases the hormones oxytocin and prolactin, whilst inhibiting cortisol which ultimately becomes a combination that makes you drowsy. Whether you are partaking in hook-up culture, or if you have a partner, oxytocin can play a role in developing relationships; consistent, mutual sexual pleasure results in bonding. Oftentimes collective sexual satisfaction between casual hook-ups can lead to relationships forming. Sex doesn’t replace a treadmill,
but it definitely counts as exercise! And just like exercise, the more you practice, the better you will be! It increases your heart rate, gets your blood pumping, and can use various muscles! If, like me, you’re not a jogger, maybe you should consider sex as a replacement instead! However, some people don’t want to have sex and that’s great! Sex isn’t the only indicator of health or pleasure. Happiness can come from any aspect of your life: be it your loved ones, your pets, or your hobbies! My personal happiness comes from my wonderful partner, who makes me feel good every second of the day. So, to conclude, perhaps tonight you should grab yourself a glass of wine, take out your phone and give them a call to come over! If you’re looking for a sign, this is it! There is nothing wrong with hookup culture when both members of the party have the same intention. Sex can be empowering, healthy and, most importantly, fun. You can have sex in a relationship, with a one-night stand or with a regular hook-up. There is nothing wrong with taking a chance at a night of enjoyment as long as you feel good and are safe. Say it with me: my body my choice!
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12th December 2023
concrete-online.co.uk/category/lifestyle/ | @ConcreteUEA
Anne Glia Your Agony Aunt, Jadyn
Q: I feel like I'm living in a constant state of existential crisis about who I am and what I want to bring to the world. I want to accept who I am and not try to be someone else, but this is made increasingly difficult by not knowing who I am in the first place. A: Perhaps it’s a cliché to say so, but I don’t think you have to know who you are with total clarity – or any clarity at all for that matter. Of course, there’s a level of frustration to that because we’ve been socialised up until now into believing we need to find our ‘category’ or place where we slot into or otherwise there must be ‘something wrong’ to whatever degree. But I think it’s unrealistic to expect this of us when our brains are still forming, and our surroundings are constantly asking for us to adapt to them. Why do we need to? Identity is tricky because it feels like it should be this static tangible thing that you can present to someone without any difficulty. But why does it need to be? you don’t need to bring anything to the world yet if you aren’t able to ! you only need to bring yourself and that’s enough. You can, and are allowed to, still be a whole person without knowing what ‘I’ or ‘me’ means. It doesn’t mean you’re
lacking; it just means you’re still gaining! And that is what identity should be really - the interpersonal discovery of our intrapersonal existences. And vice versa. Also, hobbies! Latch onto the things you like and/or are interested in and channel yourself through them those are part of your constituent, too. And I don’t think ‘someone else’ has to be ‘not yourself’ either. Human experience is infinite and meticulous. You are allowed to be multiple
"It doesn't mean
you're lacking; it just means you're still gaining!" versions of someone. It doesn’t mean you are any less someone. Besides, people are all just big collages of fabric borrowed/taken/adopted/ adapted from others anyway, and I think that’s quite beautiful. I think accepting that you don’t have to be any specific thing at all is a step in accepting and finding who you are, or who you might want to be.
Credit: Unsplash
Q: My best friend dumped me for a boy she started seeing. Things ended badly recently with him and she is trying to rekindle our friendship. I really love her but I can’t help but feel hurt over how she treated our friendship over a boy… she said a lot of hurtful things to me across this time and I’m not sure I can just forget them but I really value our friendship and I have missed her. What do I do? A: My first line of advice with such situations is always to just communicate with your friend about what it felt like on your side. I know this may feel difficult as you could feel worried about adding extra pressure to her during a hard time, but communication is always important! If you were to rekindle your friendship without talking to her about how you felt, your feelings could very easily begin to turn into resentment which would only hurt both of you further. It’s okay to tell her that you missed her and value her whilst also making clear that her actions impacted you too – it doesn’t have to be accusatory for it to be heartfelt and honest. How she responds will likely make it easier for you to decide if this is a friend you really want to keep, or one you can allow yourself to let go of. I would also suggest evaluating whether this is someone you feel fulfilled by too – this is really important. Friendships shouldn’t be conditional or about convenience. You should both be able to feel safe,
secure, and valued with each other. I.e., there should be reciprocation without it feeling like the friendship is a commodity. If you find that this is something that’s lacking, then maybe it’s better for you to take a step back. Sometimes people simply don’t do what they know to be right or good just because of whatever mind frame they’re in, but I think what can help you differentiate between mistake and habit, is whether she actively acknowledges that and tries to do better.
because love sometimes recolours things for us, but it’s okay for you to love someone and still know that you are someone who should also be loved and appreciated. if you aren’t being, then you can take a step back from people who don’t fulfil that. Friendship breakups are painful but there are other people who will return love to you in a way that makes you feel like a valued half of the relationship. Love can be found and cultivated anywhere.
It’s hard to do all of this of course
'Tis a hard season to get into a routine Iona MacRobert Lifestyle writer
Sticking to a routine in the winter season is hard and can seem impossible, but there are solutions. We are commonly told the pros of daily routines for students, yet the winter months strip away time when it's dark by 4pm. Then, by 7pm we question whether it is too early to get into bed as it is so dark outside. Yet, getting out of bed is even harder as the frost starts to make cocooning in the blanket more tempting. But we shouldn’t be hard on ourselves for feeling this way. Typically,
the
months
November and December go by so quickly as the calendar is filled with many social plans. The shops are filled with glittery Christmas dresses and beauty gift sets, which fills us with panic that we haven’t bought enough stuff yet. A podcast I listened to recently talked about being able to slow down in order to regulate the nervous system, and this is what we need to do in the Christmas period. Yes, the Norwich Primark might be
claustrophobic and we feel in a hurry to escape but actually not feeling the need of urgency might help us. So creating a consistent routine is hard in the flurry of the holidays and every day is a different plan. Currently, my Tik Tok feed shows an aesthetic array of ‘winter days in my life’. A typical video shows an influencer waking up on time, making their perfect room look tidy and then having coffee in the
of
most ‘Christmassy’ mug. These videos can be relaxing to watch, however, as a third year student, I can say that not every day feels like this. I have seen some routines of people ‘getting out of a slump’, which is refreshing but not 100% relatable. Ultimately, what we can do to
"Don't stress about getting everything right" make ourselves feel better is most important and not always inspired by the internet (for me it’s mulled wine at a cosy pub).
"We shouldn't be so hard on ourselves for feeling this way" Credit: Unsplash
Some of the past Sundays, around 6pm, are where my brain is filled with all the things I should have completed that day. The looming pressure of Christmas and New Year makes my brain think I should plan
months ahead. Ironically as the sunlight slips away, so does motivation. Upon reflection of my mental chaos, thinking day by day is a much less stressful approach (tell that to my diary). There is something about only having a month left of the year which makes you feel like you are already in 2024. Months seamlessly slip together as your diary pages are only a few away from planning January. However, I think enjoying all the festive moments for what they are is important - otherwise Christmas is over before you know it, so don’t stress about getting everything right. If anyone is reading this thinking, ‘I don’t just want to fall into an unstable mess without a routine’, then fear not. For the most part, I tend to wake up most days around the same time and generally do the same things (such as make a coffee). However, my advice is to pause the podcasts on ‘becoming the best you for 2024’ and just enjoy being the best you for the rest of the year.
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TRAVEL
12th December 2023
concrete-online.co.uk/category/travel/ | @ConcreteUEA
Wo u l d y o u s p e n d C h r i s t m a s i n t h e s u n ? Cordelia Gulbekian Faram
Travel Editor
I’m dreaming of a white Christmas… a dream that is usually crushed as the rain continues to drizzle in England. How about a wet, cold, grey one? No? Then why not try a sunny one? If you’ve seen the movie 'The Holiday,' you may have already contemplated spending Christmas by the pool. As the weeks count down, countries all over the world are getting ready for festive celebrations. But not everywhere celebrates it the way we’re traditionally used to. As all the classic festive movies and music depict, we find ourselves hoping that the UK will deliver us a white Christmas. A December spent wrapped up in layers playing in the snow, curled up by the fire with a book, eating roast turkey and other warm and comforting foods. Yet we barely ever get the snowy Christmas we collectively dream of. So, why not scrap all your expectations of what the festive season should look like and imagine yourself somewhere warm this December. On the opposite side of the
Photo: Cordelia Gulbekian Faram
world, Australia has its own unique way of celebrating Christmas. As the seasons are reversed to our own in the UK, they experience Christmas during the peak of the summer season. Imagine spending Christmas day laying by the pool, dressed up in your best Hawaiian shirt, eating seafood. Then boxing day spent with a BBQ on the beach. Sounds like a pretty good way to spend your time. But, as it’s so far detached from our idea of how Christmas should look, it feels almost impossible to imagine
"Withdraw yourself from traditional expectations of Christmas " spending Christmas like that and feeling festive. Having spent a Christmas in Los Angeles, I have on a much less radical scale, experienced a different way of spending
Christmas. Although the festive traditions in America don’t vary drastically from our own in the UK, it did feel like a shock to spend December wandering around in the sun in a T-shirt and jeans or eating Christmas dinner in a hotel with the sun shining bright and warm outside. I think the phrase, ‘it doesn’t feel like Christmas’ was repeated constantly between me and my family, because it felt like such a dramatic switch from our expectations of the winter season. One thing I noticed was how we were constantly greeted with the expression, ‘Happy Holidays,’ rather than ‘Merry Christmas.’ They made a conscious effort to withdraw any religious feature of the holiday and make it a celebration for everyone. All these aspects, especially the warmth of the sun and lack of layered clothing, removed us from our expectations of what Christmas looks like for us in the UK. So, given the choice, would you ever consider withdrawing yourself from the traditional expectations of a cold and cosy Christmas and spend one bathing in the sun?
P a l l ia t i ve care in E thio p ia Ellie Dharamraj Travel Writer
Travelling to Ethiopia was my first experience of Africa. I went alongside Kit Forrester as trustees and representatives of the charity Hospice Ethiopia UK (HE), which aims to bring palliative care to a population of 27 million but with only one hospice. Guerrilla warfare is rampant in the north of the country, particularly in Tigray. A 21-page report documented by the Commission reported mass killings, starvation, destruction of schools and medical facilities, and atrocities I cannot write. Soldiers lined the streets of Addis holding guns the size of toddlers, and I was warned not to make eye contact with them. Bodies lay on the sides of the roads, wrapped up entirely in blankets, and children as young as two years of age would follow you for miles, begging for food or money. We gave all that we had, but it was not nearly close to enough. Largely due to the war, and partly due to the trip being for charity, we were unable to explore very far outside the centre of Addis Ababa. We were accompanied by HE representative Nurse Kalkidan
to conduct home visits with several patients. As a non-government organisation, HE receives no funding from the Ethiopian government and is therefore entirely dependent on funds and donations from outside of the country to provide care. Originally, in the early stages of the charity, home visits had to be conducted by foot. The first patient we saw was a woman suffering from rectal cancer. She looked older than 60 but was
"Hospice Ethiopia UK aims to bring palliative care to 27 million" only 29 years old. Her home was made from sheets of scrap metal and was only large enough to fit her bed in, nothing more. Twice daily she would have to travel 600m, relying on the kindness of strangers, to reach the health centre to access morphine
injections. It costs roughly the same as a loaf of bread to prescribe oral morphine for a week, so eight years ago, when the Ethiopian government pharmacy was privatised, companies stopped producing it as they didn’t earn enough profit. Upon her diagnosis, both her son and her husband abandoned her, as did her parents. She told us that she had begged her son to return to her, to say goodbye, but he refused to see her. She went on to inform us that her landlord had threatened to kick her out into the streets so as not to be left with the disposal of her corpse. The role of the brilliant Nurse Kalkidan is to provide her with comfort, food and pain relief. This patient will die, but nobody should have to suffer when resources are available. One aspect that particularly stood out to me were the rules of the road -- there didn’t appear to be any. Minivans were so densely packed with people that they were practically hanging out of the windows, and many would be piled onto the roofs! Taxi drivers would swerve their vehicles so closely together on main roads to chat between cars. Locals would call out to us, and I felt like a spectacle. We spent an afternoon walking around
The National Museum of Ethiopia (home to Lucy, a fossil of one of the oldest known human ancestors), and, as though we were behind glass ourselves, a young boy shyly approached us to ask for a photo with him. The culture is so rich and beautiful, and the people were so welcoming and accommodating. I was honoured to have had the opportunity to travel there. However, though we successfully brought comfort to several
Photo: Ellie Dharamraj
patients, the trip felt overall frustrating. There is still so much that needs to be done and so many people who need our help. Hospice Ethiopia UK provides free medication, medical care, home-based care and training to doctors, nurses, and other such medics about palliative care. Please consider donating during this festive season to give the relief that we can provide to those in pain and suffering at www.hospiceethiopia.org.uk!
PUZZLES & GAMES
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12th December 2023
WORDS:
Bread sauce Gammon Nut Roast Roast potatoes Brussel sprouts Goose Pigs in blankets Stuffing Turkey Cranberry sauce Gravy Roasted parsnips Yorkshire pudding
@ConcreteUEA
SPORT
12th December 2023
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News Editor Molly Warner in conversation with Nor wic h S w ans’ swimmer Timon Chapman Molly Warner News Editor
N or w i c h Swa ns’ sw imm e r Tim on C ha p ma n is wo r king toward s his inter natio na l debut nex t yea r, a nd is ho ping to succe e d at t he Pa ralympic tr ials, in an atte m pt to co mpete at the Pa r is Para lympics 2 024. Just a f te r ac hieving both B ritish and Eng lis h reco rds in his eve nts, I sat d own w ith Timo n to learn s ome mo re abo ut whe re it a ll sta r ted, w hat’s to com e, a nd ever ything in betwe e n. What got yo u into swim m ing ? How o ld were you and w h e re did it a ll begin? “S o, I ’ve sw um all my life, b u t I didn’ t sta r t com peting u nt i l I wa s just three m onths away fro m tur ning 17. I sta r te d tra ining bac k hom e in C o r nwa l l, just sw immi ng twice a we e k . I grew up sur fing too, p retty m uch ever ything was s ea- ba s e d, but then I joine d t he l o ca l sw imming club, I had two o n e-ho ur lessons, and f rom t h ere, it just we nt on.” What d oes yo ur sw im tim etable c u r re nt l y lo o k like? H ow of te n d o yo u tra in, whe re is you r t raining, how ofte n do you have co mpetitions etc. “I c u r rently sw im with the N or w i c h Swans. I o nly joine d t he m i n June, I wa s at City of N or w ich befo rehand , but I move d fo r a bit of a change. At t h e m o ment, I’m swim m ing nine s es sio ns a week, and I a ls o go to the g ym thre e tim es a we e k o n to p of that, so ove rall 1 2 t ra ining ses sio ns a we e k c u r re nt l y. All of the sessions a re two ho urs lo ng. We have fou r m or ning tra ining sessions f rom 5 : 30-7:30, and the n we t ra in ever y evening exce pt on Image: Unsplash
Saturdays -- I get my S atu rd ays fre e from train i n g wh i c h i s nice. We’re in t h e W i nter Season right n ow, s o t h at’s the ‘short course’ s ea s on a s such, so racing i n a 2 5 m et re pool. Com petiti on s n or m a l l y com e once eve r y t h ree weeks roughly. The n after t h at , i n t h e new year, we’ll m ove onto t h e long course season , s o t h e 5 0 m etre pool. That wi l l n or m a l l y be about one c om p et i t i on a m onth. The re are b u s i er t i m es and q uiete r tim es , b u t I a i m for one com petition a m ont h . I t’s a lot, but I e njoy it, I l ove rac i n g. ” What do you do to stead y t h e ne rves for a c om p et i t i on? “I get ne rvou s at the com petitions, bu t t h en I l ove getting in and just d oi n g i t . To he lp with the ne r ves , I ’ve b een se e ing a sports Psyc h ol ogi st
“At BUCS- 3 gold medals, 100 back, 100 fly, 100 free (PB’d all three)” re ce ntly throu gh the scholarship I have wi t h UE A . I se e he r once a fo r t n i ght , we’ve be e n working th rou gh s om e te chniq ues like grou n d i n g, getting a routine, a n d f i n d i n g things that can h el p m e to shut out the stim u l u s a rou n d , so that I can b e a s foc u s ed
a s p os s i b l e, i t’s d ef i n i tel y h el p i n g. I n sta nt l y b efore a c om p et i t i on t h ou gh , I l i sten to m u s i c . I h ave n oi s e- ca n c el l i n g h ead p h on es – ever yon e i s gett i n g b l oc ked ou t , I ’m j u st t h ere i n t h e zon e, read y to go. ” C a n you exp l a i n a b i t m ore rega rd i n g t h e d i sa b i l i ty you h ave, a n d h ow/ i f t h i s h a s a f fec ted you r swi m m i n g ? “I ’m kn own a s a ‘ Pa ra S wi m m er ’, I ’m c l a s s i f i ed a s S 14 , s o, t h at’s my d i sa b i l i ty c l a s s i f i cat i on . T h ere a re fou r teen c l a s s es for d i sa b i l i t i es , m i n e c om es u n d er i ntel l ec tu a l d i sa b i l i ty. Becau s e I ’m au t i st i c , I ’m p u t i n t h i s c l a s s . I h ad to go t h rou gh s om e psyc h ol ogi ca l test i n g, d o a n I Q test , a l l to get c l a s s i f i ed . I t d oes n’ t a f fec t m e too m u c h , i t’s m ore j u st t h i n gs l i ke my reac t i on s p eed ca n b e q u i te s l ow, wh i c h ca n m a ke a b i g d i f feren c e to wh ere you p l ac e i n t h e rac e. A l on gs i d e t h at , t h e way I t ra i n i s ver y d i f ferent to ever yon e el s e, s o i t’s b een ver y c h a l l en gi n g a s I ca n get s l i ght l y c on fu s ed by t h e s et s I ’m gi ven , b u t S tewa r t , my c oac h at S wa n s , i s i n c red i b l e wi t h m e. H e wi l l a l ways ta l k to me on e- on - on e a b ou t wh at I ’ l l b e d oi n g a n d h e j u st kn ows b efore I even h ave to ta l k to h i m i f I ’m goi n g to b e c on fu s ed , s o h e’ l l j u st rem i n d m e a s we go wh at we’re d oi n g, rea s s u r i n g m e c on sta nt l y. H e j u st u n d ersta n d s h ow I wor k, wh i c h m a kes t h i n gs a l ot ea s i er i n t ra i n i n g. Bu t , overa l l , I wou l d n’ t say t h at b ei n g d i sa b l ed h a s stop p ed m e i n a ny way. Li ke I sa i d , i t d ef i n i tel y
Image: BUCS/Timon Chapman
h a s i t s c h al l e n ges , b u t i t’s easy to n av i gate aro u n d t h e m o n c e I kn ow w h at I ’ve got to d o. I t’s j u st f i n d i n g t h at ro u t i n e f i rst , t h at’s a l i tt l e b i t h ard .” W h at h ave been yo u r m ost re c e nt s u c c es s es? H ow d o yo u fe e l to h o l d t h es e c u rre nt re c o rd s? My re c o rd s fal l u n d e r t h e d i sa b i l i ty c l as s i f i cat i o n I ’m i n , s o a l l t h e re c o rd s I m e nt i o n wi l l b e u n d e r t h e Para M al e, S 14 cl as s i f i cat i o n . Re c e nt l y, I b roke t h e B ri t i s h Re c o rd fo r t h e 1 00 m et re I M , sw i m m i n g t h at i n 1 .02.07. I was ove r t h e m oon w i t h t h at , i t was ju st s o s u r real gett i n g t h at re c o rd . A l on gs i d e t h at , I b ro ke t h e E n gl i sh re c o rd fo r t h e 1 00 m et re b rea stst ro ke, c o m p l et i n g t h at i n 1 .09 .5 5 . Agai n , i t ju st fel t s o s u rreal , an d I was s o h a p py to ac h i eve t h es e t i t l es . I ’ve al s o b ro ke n t h e East Regi on al re c o rd s , c o m p l et i n g the 50m breaststroke in 31.84, as wel l a s t h e 200m b reast st ro ke, wh ere I we nt a 2.4 4 .6 0. La st l y, I ’ve re c e nt l y ac h i eve d s om e p e rs o n al b est s w h i l st swi m mi n g fo r U EA. U EA S wi m mi n g ju st atte n d e d B U C S
East Regional Records 50m Breastroke 31.84 - “I broke my own record for that event”
s h or t c o u rs e, w h e re I cam e away w i t h t h re e go l d m e d al s for t h e 1 00m bac k , 1 00m f l y, a n d t h e 1 00m f re e. I al s o got my p e rs o n al b est t i m es fo r t h os e eve nt s . We h ad o u r m ost s u c c es sfu l B U C S yet . I al s o
British record 100m IM – 1.02.07 English record 100m breaststroke- 1.09.55
ac h i eve d ‘ To p Para M al e’, I got a t ro p hy w h i c h was p retty c o o l , b u t I was n’ t al l owe d to ke e p it u n fo rtu n ate l y. W h at d o yo u b e l i eve h as l e d yo u to yo u r s u c c es s? M ov i n g to swan s . I real l y e n joy t rai n i n g w i t h S wan s , an d I get a l ot o u t of i t . What has swimming taught you? C o m m i t m e nt , d ef i n i te l y. O bv i o u s l y with t rai n i n g a l ot , c o m m i t m e nt is a m as s i ve o n e. I ’d al s o say res i l i e n c e an d c o n f i d e n c e. I t’s d ef i n i te l y m ad e m e m o re c o n f i d e nt i n c e rtai n as p e c t s , an d as a p e rs o n , d ef i n i te l y. W h at can we ex p e c t to s e e f ro m yo u i n t h e fu tu re? I ’ve got my f i rst i nte rn at i o n al m e et i n Fe b ru ary 2024 . I ’ve b e e n i nv i te d to go an d rac e w i t h G reat B ri tai n i n Ab e rd e e n , w h i c h w i l l b e my i nte rn at i o n al d e b u t . Af te r t h at , t h e p l an i s to ke e p wo rk i n g toward s t h e Paral y m p i c t ri al s I ’ve got c o m i n g u p i n Ap ri l . S o, u l t i m ate l y t h e goal i s to m ake Pari s , w h e re t h e Paral y m p i c s will be held n ex t year. F i n al l y, d o yo u h ave any ad v i c e fo r i n d i v i d u al s read i n g t h at want to get i nvo l ve d with sw i m m i n g ? G i ve i t a go ! As l o n g as yo u e n joy i t , ke e p d o i n g i t , t h at’s w h at I l i ve by.
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concrete-online.co.uk/sport/ | @Concrete_UEA
The Cricket World Cup Retrospective Vardaan Pandey
Sports Writer
Wit h a heave of Gle nn M a x we ll’s bat, the story of t he 2 0 2 3 ICC Cr ic ket World C u p wa s w r itten, a s a jubilant Au st ra lian side ce le brate d i n f ront of a stunne d crowd of 1 32 , 000 India n s upporte rs o u t i n Ahmedabad. The I ndian c o nt ingent were in s hock. H ow did they let this one slip through t he ir f i ngers? How did they e nd u p losing a to urnam e nt w h e re they did not put a s i ng le fo ot w ro ng throughout? In d ia went into th e final a s favo ur ites , w inning all 1 0 ga m es , and in rathe r c o nvinc ing style. They l o o ke d a c o mplete and we lld r i lle d o utf it fro m th e start. The bats men were putting ru ns on the boa rd and the b ow l e rs were preventing the o p p os it io n f ro m do ing so. Virat Ko h l i, Ro hit Sha r ma, KL R ahul a ll h ad great to ur naments with t he bat and M o hamme d Sham i wa s a c lass apa r t w hen it cam e to t h e bow lers. They re cord e d b ig w i ns against E ngland, S ou t h Af r ica and Sri Lanka a nd s howed their c lass in the ga m es against Australia and Ba n g l ad esh, w here they we re
really teste d. T h ey p u t 399 on the board in t h e s em i f i n a l against New Z ea l a n d , a n d even if the K iwis d id p u t I n d i a i n a spot of bothe r, i t wa s n’ t for long. I t looke d as i f I n d i a c ou l d finally put the pai n of 2 0 1 5 a n d 20 19 be hind the m. Bu t i t wa s n’ t to be, as they were c om p l etel y outclasse d by a n Au st ra l i a n side gunning for b l ood . Australia’s de cis i on to f i el d on a slow pitch p roved to b e a m aste rstroke, as t h ei r b owl ers we re able to m ake i n road s a n d ke e p the I nd ian bat s m en q u i et , espe cially in the m i d d l e overs , which is whe re I n d i a were at the ir m ost d an gerou s . T h ey bowle d we ll and f i el d ed wi t h d esire, sav ing bou n d a r i es h ere and the re and prevent i n g I n d i a from gaining any s em b l a n c e of control in the f i n a l . A s t h e pitch got easie r to bat on , Trav is H ead took t h e ga m e away from I ndia wi t h a rat h er fine d isplay of st roke m a ki n g and e nsure d that I n d i a’s wa i t for a m ajor trop hy c ont i n u ed . I ndia would fe e l d i sa p p oi nted in the m anne r of t h e l os s , but should now foc u s on build ing on the c on s i sten c y
a n d r u t h l es s p er for m a n c es t h ey s h owed t h rou gh ou t t h i s tou r n a m ent a n d tu r n i n g t h ei r attent i on to t h e u p c om i n g I C C Wor l d T 2 0 n ext yea r a n d t h e 2 0 2 5 C h a m p i on s Trop hy. Af ter a stu tter i n g sta r t , Au st ra l i a reb ou n d ed i n rat h er s p ec tac u l a r fa s h i on to s h ow why t h ey were t h e forem ost c r i c ket i n g n at i on i n t h e wor l d . While t h ei r middle ord er sta b i l i ty wa s exp os ed a fa i r few t i m es , t h ei r top ord er
"They bowled well and fielded with desire, saving boundaries here and there"
h ad cau s e d to o m u c h d am age for i t to b e a p ro b l e m , b u t i t s h o u l d b e an area fo r t h e c h a m p i o n s to fo c u s o n fo r t h e u p c o m i n g c o m p et i t i o n s . A s i d e t h at d o es n e e d a ret h i n k a n d re b u i l d i s En g l an d . T h e d efen di n g c h am p i o n s c ras h e d ou t of t h e to u rn am e nt , w i n n i n g j u st t h re e of t h e i r n i n e gam es a n d l o o k i n g a s h ad ow of t h e i r for m e r s e l ves . A l ot of t h i n gs went w ro n g fo r t h e m i n t h i s tou r n a m e nt . T h e tac t i c s we re q u est i o n ab l e, l i ke p u tt i n g S ou t h Af ri ca to bat o n a s u r fac e t h at was a batte r ’s parad i s e. D es p i te a ve ry st ro n g l i n e u p on pap e r, ve ry few p l aye rs ac tu a l l y p l aye d ve ry we l l i n t h e tou r n a m e nt . B e n S to kes , w h o h ad ret i re d f ro m t h e fo rm at al l toget h e r, was t h e i r b est batte r, wh i l st Dav i d W i l l ey, w h o was a b ou t to ret i re, was t h e o n l y b owl e r c o n s i ste nt l y gett i n g wi c ket s . T h e i r team s e l e c t i o n s were a l i tt l e s u rp ri s i n g an d t h ey we re d eal t c ru e l i n ju ry b l ows w i t h Jas o n Roy, a star i n I n d i an c o n d i t i o n s , an d Jof ra Arc h e r b e i n g ru l e d o u t
an d Re e c e To p l ey retu rn i n g h o m e w i t h an i n ju ry. H av i n g n ot p l aye d an O D I i n I n d i a fo r ove r two years m eant t h at , as a team , t h ey we re u n fam i l i ar w i t h t h e c o n d i t i o n s t h ey we re p l ay i n g i n . En g l an d n e e d to wo rk h ard to b ri n g t h e m s e l ves bac k u p to s p e e d an d f i x their d am age d re p u tat i o n an d t h e i r fan s wo u l d b e h o p i n g i t’s ju st a b l i p i n fo rm .
S ave a few f l owe rs fo r t h e l i kes of Afg h an i stan , w h o s h o c ke d En g l an d an d Pak i stan an d al m ost b eat Au st ral i a i n a rat h e r e nte rtai n i n g cam pai g n . T h ey c o nt i n u e to s h ow t h at t h ey are n ot p u s h ove rs an d can b e a c o m p et i t i ve s qu ad w h o can go to e -to -to e w i t h t h e b i g gest s i d es i n t h e wo rl d . An d Un S o u t h Af ri ca, w h o p u t i n s o mPhoto: e s c i nt i l l at i n g d i s p l ays w h e n t h ey batte d f i rst , b u t n ow n e e d to fo c u s o n h ow t h ey can b e c o m e a b ette r c h as i n g s qu ad . I f t h ey d o t h i s , t h ey ’ l l avo i d re p eat s of t h e e m barras s i n g d efeat s t h ey s u f fe re d at t h e h an d s of I n d i a an d t h e N et h e rl an d s , an d f i n al l y h ave a s h ot at an I C C t ro p hy i n t h e fu tu re.
Nothing unlucky about these Magpies: The success of Newcastle United Felix Sumner
Sports Senior Writer
It is all high flying for the magpies especially after this weekend with a huge 1-nil victory against Man United but where did it all begin? With the takeover of the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia concluding an 18th takeover process in October 2021, it marked a new chapter in the story of Newcastle.
"In the space of two years, the Magpies have been able to go toe to toe with some of England and Europe’s greats."
The first order of business had already been predicted with the mutual dismissal of Steve Bruce, who had served the club for two seasons. His replacement
was none other than former Bournemouth manager, Eddie Howe. Howe’s performance speaks for itself in terms of achievement, with so far, the pinnacle being qualification for the Champions League for the first time in 20 years. He also guided them to runners up of the 2022/23 Carabao Cup after facing defeat to Manchester United in the final. Howvever, this wouldn’t have been impossible for the club had the investment in signings not happened. Key assests such as Kieran Trippier, Alexander Isak, Dan Burn and Nick Pope have simply transformed the club into potentially a title contending powerhouse. In the space of two years, the Magpies have been able to go toe to toe with some of England and Europe’s greats. A fairytale for the players, managers and fans can surely only get better.
Image: Unsplash
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12th December 2023
F1 Recap: ‘tis the season finale in Abu Dhabi Sofia Royal
Sports Editor
22 races, 1,273 laps, 20 drivers, 10 constructors, 1 winner. The 2023 season of Formula One has been one to forget for those who don’t support the RedBull outfit. Unless you were watching the Singapore Grand Prix, RedBull have struck pole position a total of 21 times this season, with three-time championship winner Max Verstappen being the only driver to have completed all laps. Having won this year’s Driver’s Championship during the Qatar Grand Prix’s sprint race, Verstappen’s success meant all was to play for in order to get second. Who were the contenders? Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton. With the former attempting to prove himself to his team and the latter aiming for second best after a two-year win hiatus, all was to race for at the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix. As F1’s most expensive grand prix to date, with VIP ticket packages costing a whopping $5million, the Las Vegas Grand Prix was set to become an iconic track in the world of F1. With views of drivers
“RedBull have struck pole position a total of 21 times this season”
speeding across 50 laps of the infamous strip, passing landmarks such as the MGM Sphere and the Bellagio Casino, the 6.2km street circuit proved to be an
overrated flop. Qualifying took place in the early hours of Saturday morning for us Europeans. Cool conditions meant that track temperature was too low for drivers to warm up their tyres enough for substantial grip. Whilst track times were slower for most drivers, it was Verstappen who struggled the most as he tried to gain pace during Q3, placing him in third with a time of 1:33.104. For Hamilton, the hopes of a decent starting position for Sunday’s race wasn’t to be, as he was seen struggling, once again, after a tough year with Mercedes. This meant seeing the seven-time championship winner exiting Q2, placing him in 11th. His competition, Perez, was forced to settle for 12th in front of Haas’ Nico Hulkenburg and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, who was given a five-place grid penalty for a yellow flag breach during free practice. It was a successful qualifying for the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, with Leclerc taking his fifth pole of the season. Sainz’s qualifying success was short-lived due to a ten-place grid penalty as a result of an energy store replacement. It was during Free-Practice 1 that Sainz’s car had succumbed to the damages of a faulty drain cover that had caused damage to his engine, energy store and control electronics. Following the impending penalty, Ferrari submitted a request to the Stewards to pardon the penalty, asking for a ‘derogation of the Sporting Regulations’. The Stewards swiftly denied this, adding in a statement: “The Stewards know/ note that if they had the authority to grant a derogation in what they consider in this case to be mitigation,
unusual and unfortunate circumstances, they would have done so, however the regulations do not allow such action.” Into the highly-anticipated race day, it was unsurprisingly Verstappen who got the upper hand going to turn one, swiftly
“I can’t see Max and Lewis working out together. We are 100 percent happy with what we have.” overtaking Leclerc before he was slapped with a five-second penalty for forcing his rival off the track. It wasn’t long before Leclerc overtook Verstappen, who was serving his penalty in the first round of pit stops. The Ferrari driver held off on a pit stop, before eventually changing his tyre’s due to graining issues. A safety car followed shortly after, allowing other driver’s, including Verstappen, to pit. Upon restart, Leclerc managed to hold Perez off. Perez benefitted from an early pit stop after McLaren’s Lando Norris retired from an incident on lap two. However, the RedBull’s ageing tyres put the pressure on him. The main action came towards the final laps, which saw Leclerc and Perez go head to head for second, seeing multiple overtakes. It was on the final lap, when viewers saw Leclerc tactfully overtake Perez after gaining DRS. As a result, it was a double podium finish for RedBull that had Charles
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Leclerc smugly standing in-between. The following weekend, the driver’s took to the final race of the season at the Las Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. Prior to the weekend, RedBull’s team principal, Christian Horner had made comments regarding Lewis Hamilton joining the team. He stated: “We have had several conversations over the years about Lewis joining.” “They have reached out a few times. Most recently, earlier in the year, there was an inquiry about whether there would be any interest.” “But I can’t see Max and Lewis working out together. We are 100 percent happy with what we have.” It didn’t take long for Hamilton to hit back on Horner’s statements, denying the rumours in an interview: “I don’t really know where that story has come from. I haven’t spoken to Christian in years… I think he’s just stirring things.” “However he reached out to me earlier in the year on my old phone and I didn’t see it ‘till much later.” Going into the qualifying session, Verstappen was faced with some set up struggles during his free practice sessions, but his main rival for the weekend was Leclerc, who was without his teammate, Carlos Sainz, who had suffered damage from a heavy crash during FP2, leading to a Q1 exit and starting from 16th on Sunday. Once again, Hamilton failed to make it into Q3, putting himself in 11th. His teammate, George Russell gained from this, resulting in fourth. Oscar Piastri, who has proved he’s far from rookie status, taking advantage of Norris’ qualifying mistakes to take third with a lap time of 1:23.782.
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For this race weekend, it was a battle between Ferrari and Mercedes for second in the Constructors’ Championship. It was,
however, Mercedes who came out on top after a double point finish from George Russell. During the race, Russell battled it out with Perez, with the Mercedes driver maintaining a gap under five seconds to hold onto third after Perez was served a five second penalty. There was further bad luck for Sainz who had managed to stay within the point in P10, but due to strategy, he had used only a single tyre compound, meaning he needed to complete a mandatory pit stop, which was done on the final lap of the race, finishing in 18th. For AlphaTauri’s team principal, Franz Tost, his last race before retirement was close to the points, thanks to Daniel Ricciardo who missed out on points by half a second. After the race, it was Verstappen who got surprisingly sentimental about the end of “an incredible season”, stating: “it was a bit emotional on the last lap[...] I’m very proud to win here also at the last race. I have to say a big thank you to RedBull, it’s just been an incredible year.” For Verstappen, he is the first driver to surpass 1000 laps led in a single season, making it a perfect ending to a sensational season for the Dutch driver. Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso’s seventhplace finish was enough to secure him 4th in the championship, making it his first top five finish since he was runner up in 2012 and 2013. Just behind, was Charles Leclerc, whose podium finish promoted him from seventh to fifth, levelling in points with Alonso, but unfortunately losing to tiebreaker rules. As the season concludes for another year, all the 2023 season drivers are confirmed seats for next year. With many drivers up for contract renewal in 2024, there is a particular interest around Ferrari, with many reports suggesting Charles Leclerc has signed another five-year contract with the Maranello team. For other drivers? Well, we’ll just have to wait and see…