Concrete 347

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>> Norwich welcomes astronauts

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>> May hosts Macron for Brexit and border talks

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>> Features looks at the pro-lifers coming to a city near you 30th January 2018 Issue 347

The official student newspaper of the University of East Anglia | concrete-online.co.uk

Controversial Israel policy renewed Emily Hawkins Editor-in-Chief A controversial vote to keep the students’ union’s policy relating to solidarity with Palestine and the boycott of Israeli products, will be examined by trustees as it may fall foul of government legislation.

Councillors voted by 44 to 19 in favour of retaining the policy ‘1714

In support of international law and human rights in Palestine.’ Policies lapse after a few years unless the Council votes to renew them.

The motion was originally passed in April 2015 and saw UEA join a national trend of universities supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

The policy obligates the SU to sever ties with companies seen to be “facilitating the occupation in

the Gaza strip”, including products served in the Union shops and bars. It means the SU supports “an academic boycott of Israeli universities”.

Students’ unions’ policies faced government investigation last spring, when the Charity Commission wrote to SUs on concerns over anti-Semitism.

The SU is a registered charity and so is legally bound to avoid

participation in political campaigns which do not further objectives such as the promotion of education and welfare of students.

The Chair of the Trustee Board, India Edwards, said: “Whilst students in general and our Union Council in particular will rightly want to debate issues of political or global concern, the SU itself has to abide by Charity Law- and that means spending our money and

time on things within our charitable objects that are focussed on the student experience at UEA. We’ve already had legal advice on Motion 1714 a few years ago, and we’ll make sure that in the coming days this is re-communicated to all concerned”.

The Trustee Board will meet on

Continued on page 5

72 students did not pay full rent last year

Mingming Zheng and Matt Nixon News Reporter and News Editor An investigation by the Liberal Democrats has revealed more than 17,000 students living in UK university accommodation failed to make rent payments last year. The data, which was released under the Freedom of Information Act, showed the number of rental arrears increased by 16 percent nationally since 2016.

Izzy Lenga, the Vice-President of the National Union of Students, has

called the current student finance system broken. Ms Lenga said: “Rather than falling into the easy temptation to label these as cases of rent avoidance, we instead need to urge the government and the higher education sector to wake up to the reality that students are being priced out of housing and their education.”

Prompted by the Liberal Democrats’ investigation, Concrete looked into rent payments at UEA, and can exclusively reveal that in the 2016/17 academic year 72 students living on campus failed to pay their accommodation fees in full. So far this year a total of 14 UEA students

have failed to make their rent payments.

"We understand that while students are studying at university, their finances can be a worry" UEA’s accommodation manager, Paul Bailey, told Concrete: “If these students are still studying at university, we have liaised with

them to mutually agree affordable instalment payment plans.”

When asked if these figures suggest more should be done to support students financially at UEA, Mr Bailey said: “We understand that while students are studying at university, their finances can be a worry and we do our best to support them.”

Mr Bailey said students who are aware they may not be able to meet accommodation payment deadlines should contact the Accounts Receivable Team as soon as possible.

He explained: “The Accounts Team can put together bespoke

instalment plans for students whose student loan does not cover all their accommodation costs”, and added: “Any student with general financial issues is strongly encouraged to seek advice from UEA’s Student Support Services Finance Team.”

Commenting on the picture at UEA, SU Welfare Community and Diversity Officer India Edwards told Concrete: “For a decade the cost of [UEA’s] accommodation has risen by more than inflation, and now represents a huge proportion of

Continued on page 6

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30th January 2018

Editorial

Where's the lie?

Sophie Bunce Deputy Editor

The University of East Anglia’s Official Student newspaper since 1992 Tuesday 30th January 2018 Issue 347 Union House University of East Anglia Norwich NR4 7TJ 01603 593466

Megan Furr

Asking the difficult questions Emily Hawkins Editor-in-Chief This fortnight, UEA students have been asking difficult questions.

Striking a balance between having political debates, making decisions, and ensuring every student feels safe and comfortable during these two processes is evidently a delicate one to try and achieve.

But it’s important to have these conversations, and it was reassuring to hear some students praise the nature of last week’s Union Council debate on the retention of a 2015 policy relating to Israeli products.

Unfortunately, some students did not feel this way, and described feeling like the debate was a confusing process, in which they only had a short amount of time to hear from both sides and process a complex issue. No doubt there will be more conversations about how this was handled in the weeks to come.

Our second front page story addresses a worrying trend of students being unable to make their rent. During the last academic year, 72 UEA students found they could not pay their accommodation fees in full, and so far in this academic year 14 students have faced the same problem.

This is also a nuanced topic, and we need to be careful of making huge assumptions. However, these statistics do lead to questions about the rising costs of student accommodation, both at UEA and

at universities across the country, and the increasing costs of student living. It is also questionable as to whether changes to the student loan system, with the abolition of the Maintenance Grant, have played a role in the development of this.

"Striking a balance between having political debates, making decisions, and ensuring every student feels safe and comfortable during these two processes is evidently a delicate one to try and achieve" On a similar topic, on page 4, Patrick Wiseman reports on Sam Gyimah, the new Universities Minister, and his declaration that he will be carrying out an investigation into the current system of tuition fees.

In Features this week, new

co-editor Amy Newbery looks at racism and microaggressions. She reminds us to be considerate and careful with language, writing: “I have many international friends and acquaintances who have also said they have experienced casual racism. I mean, how many times have I heard something along the lines of: all you Asians look the same. Really? Maybe you should have your eyes checked because it’s an undeniable fact that we, in fact, are not clones.”

On page 19, Science editor Beth Papworth reports back on the visit of astronaut Michael Foale, who spent 373 days in space, to campus last week. She describes how the astronaut told a packed UEA lecture theatre that it was only when he went to the moon he realised he wanted to be an astronaut.

Similarly, on page 11, Sean Bennett offers some wise words to anyone feeling homesick this term: fake it till you make it. “It will happen, and when it does, you’ll find that when you’re with your new mates, thoughts of home plague you less and less, your little room in halls suddenly seems less depressing and your burning desire to jump on the next bus out of here seems to disappear,” he writes. Sounds like good advice to me.

As for Concrete? We’ll be back in the office on Monday, ready to start putting together a special issue looking at the results from this year’s sex and relationships survey.

Breaking news and award-winning features aside, we know this is what you’re really here for.

This issue is about searching for truth. A truth, the truth, whatever you choose. Concrete is tackling a lot of vital conversations and it’s only January.

But when billion pound companies use deceptive yet legal means to survive and pro-life protesters preach their own truth we have to interrogate it. We have to know what we think.

Concrete takes a look at construction company Carillion in both Finance on page 14 and Comment on page 16. Following persistent profit warnings Carillion’s government contracts did not falter.

Despite being unable to fulfil their obligations, the payments didn’t stop. In this instance there was a clear truth and it told the government to stop. But they didn’t and it seems it didn’t matter to them because the only losers were investors.

Features considers another global debate on page 11: women's reproductive rights and whether we should have autonomy over our bodies. Where the conversation should be closed, as the answer is obviously a resounding yes, protesters from 40 Days For Life believe otherwise, and plan to confront women outside of the Norwich British Pregnancy Advisory Service. The protest is organised on Valentine’s day of all days. They plan to shout their truth at vulnerable women. What a way to spend the day of love.

Obviously, check out News on pages 1 - 6 for some truth too. Particularly, our front page story 'Controversial Israeli policy renewed' by Editor in Chief Emily Hawkins on an emotional and difficult conflict.

So to everything, I ask, where’s the lie? More than ever, we have to work harder to find it. Carillion hid it, pro-life manipulate it but you can demand it and read it in Concrete.

concrete-online.co.uk Concrete_UEA concreteuea

www.concrete-online.co.uk Editor-in-Chief Emily Hawkins concrete.editor@uea.ac.uk Deputy Editor Sophie Bunce concrete.deputy@uea.ac.uk Online Jacob Chamberlain Natalie Cotterill concrete.online@uea.ac.uk News News Editor: Matt Nixon Senior Reporter: Shannon McDonagh concrete.news@uea.ac.uk Global Eddie Booth concrete.global@uea.ac.uk Features Tony Allen Amy Newbery concrete.features@uea.ac.uk Comment Jack Ashton concrete.comment@uea.ac.uk Finance Finance Editor: Matt Denton Senior Reporter: Will Richardson concrete.finance@uea.ac.uk Science Science Editor: Beth Papworth Senior Reporter: Alex Millard concrete.scienv@uea.ac.uk Travel Beverly Devakishen concrete.travel@uea.ac.uk Sport Daniel Cook Sophie Christian concrete.sport@uea.ac.uk Chief Copy-Editors Hannah Brown Sophie Clayton concrete.copy@uea.ac.uk Marketing and Events Amelia Rentell Social Media Freddie Carty Art and Design Yaiza Canopoli Emily Mildren concrete.artdesign@uea.ac.uk

concrete_UEA Front page: Daniel Salliss. Boxes: Science Museum Group: President of the Russian Federation, Wikimedia

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 Editor-in-Chief, Emily Hawkins. 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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30th January 2018

UEA staff to strike over pensions dispute The university joins 60 others nationally who will protest with the UCU over pension rights in February

Seàn Bennett News Reporter The University and College Union (UCU) recently announced plans for 14 days of industrial action, beginning with a two day strike on Thursday 22 February.

"Our focus is very clearly on protecting our students' education experience" Staff at 61 universities including UEA have pledged their support to the action in response to pension changes that could see them losing £200,000 each during their retirement.

The joint negotiation committee of the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), made up of five UCU and five Universities UK representatives, voted narrowly to proceed with plans to change the scheme from one of ‘defined benefit’ to one of ‘defined contribution’.

The changes will see pensions that formerly offered a guaranteed income now being tied to changes in the stock market.

The USS, which boasts members across 68 universities, was prompted to make the changes after it was reported to have a deficit of £17.5bn last year.

The general secretary of the

Photo: Matt Nixon

UCU, Sally Hunt, said: “Staff will feel utterly betrayed by their leaders”, and added that universities should "recognise how angry their staff are”.

The planned changes compound existing staff irritation over the inflated salaries and perks for high ranking university officials that were uncovered just recently.

According to Universities UK, the decision was “a necessary step”

that was "made in the best interests of university staff, to put USS on a sustainable footing for the longterm".

Institutions that will be hit by the strike include both Oxford and Cambridge, as well as Imperial College London, Manchester, Edinburgh and York.

UEA staff are also going to strike. Commenting on this, SU Postgraduate Education Officer

Madeleine College said: “No Trade Union takes industrial action lightlyand it shouldn’t surprise us that staff are concerned that having had years of pay restraint they’re now facing a huge cut in their retirement income.

“Like other SUs, we will be pressuring University management to take responsibility for reducing disruption, and will be taking all steps to ensure there is early and good communication about

industrial action with students.”

Speaking to Concrete, a spokesperson for the university said: “Our focus is very clearly on protecting our students’ education experience and ensuring that they feel supported during this time.

“While we recognise people’s right to withdraw their labour we will put contingency measures in place to support students in their studies.”

Former UEA professor believed missing Shannon McDonagh Senior News Reporter Former UEA professor Joseph Mifsud is widely believed to be missing following further developments in an FBI investigation into Russian collusion during the 2016 US Election.

The academic was named last October as President Donald Trump adviser George Papadopoulos’s foreign contact to the Russian government.

Little is known about how Mifsud became a Professor after attaining his PhD, nor how he emerged in the world of diplomacy as one of the West’s key links to Putin.

What is known is that Mifsud held an honorary professorship at UEA from

August 2013 to July 2016, after being made Chair of the London Academy of Diplomacy (LAD), an institution that served as part of INTO-UEA London until its closure in 2014.

But, as of this month, Mifsud’s academic

profiles have been removed from the majority of universities he has associated with, most recently pages documenting his present positions at both the University of Stirling and Link Campus University Rome.

Papadopoulos claimed Mifsud approached him in April 2016 whilst the pair were both based in London, offering “dirt” on Hillary Clinton via the Kremlin in the form of “thousands of emails”.

They met several times following this encounter, leading to a pursuit of

Photo: OEA-OAS, Flickr

Papadopoulos by the FBI following evidence that he had lied about having met with Mifsud.

He is reported to have boasted of having a “good friend” with Russian contacts to fellow advisers in the campaign. Papadopoulos is yet to be sentenced, but could face up to 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if found guilty.

"Mifsud's academic profiles have been removed" When approached for comment on UEA’s appointment of Mifsud, a University spokesperson said: “Honorary appointments are made

to those of academic standing who have a teaching or research role at UEA, but who are not members of University staff.

"Honorary appointments come to an end when the person ends their association with the University.”

The spokesperson also stated that Mifsud was appointed as a Honourary Professor following “due process”, and that during his time as Chairman of the LAD, “overall recruitment was strong” and student satisfaction levels were “extremely high”.

Mifsud was last seen meeting with numerous figures in British politics late last year, including at a dinner with Boris Johnson where they reportedly discussed Brexit together.

Nothing is known of his movements from December onwards.

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30th January 2018

News

Feedback satisfaction under 50% in seven schools Matt Nixon News Editor

Seven UEA schools have scored 50 percent or lower student satisfaction rates with regards to how feedback on their courses has been acted upon, according to the SU’s latest annual Student Experience Report.

The report, which attempts to sum up the current concerns of UEA students, is based on a variety of sources, including the National Student Survey (NSS), the Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey, and the SU’s own research.

"What is the point of providing feedback and criticism if we aren't reaping any benefit?"

According to the report, all schools scored over 80 percent satisfaction with regards to students having the right opportunities to provide feedback about their course. However, schools including AMA, CHE, DEV, ENV, and LDC, all scored below 50 percent for how satisfied students were with their feedback being acted on.

The report states: “The difference in satisfaction between these two questions creates a significant gap between students providing feedback and the perception that feedback is being used to influence

Photo: 1gl, Flickr change.” The schools with the largest percentage difference are ENV (48.3), DEV (47.5), and CHE (44.5).

Commenting on this difference, SU Undergraduate Education Officer Mary Leishman said: “Too often we [students] never hear back what’s been done with that feedback- leaving students to assume that it’s been ignored when

often the truth is that it drives future improvements.”

The report highlights student concerns as recorded in the most recent NSS survey.

One AMA undergraduate is quoted as saying: “Any feedback we give to our tutors are taken and improved for the class of [next year].

We should be seeing improvements in our time at UEA. What is the point

of providing feedback and criticism if we aren’t reaping any benefit from this?”

Professor Neil Ward, Pro-ViceChancellor said: “We are pleased to hear that students feel they have the opportunity to provide feedback about different aspects of our university.

“All student feedback is valuable

Universities minister considers cutting tuition fees Patrick Wiseman News Reporter Tuition fees could be cut after the new universities minister signalled a review of student finance earlier this month.

On Thursday 19 January, Sam Gyimah said officials would investigate whether the higher annual charge of £9,250 “works across the system”.

His predecessor, Jo Johnson, and former Education Secretary Justine Greening are alleged to have blocked previous attempts at a reform.

Speaking at Queen Mary University of London, Mr Gyimah said: “If you look back at the 2012 reforms when this current fee regime was introduced, I think it is right that we go back and see how it works across the system.”

Mr Gyimah refused to give a timetable for the review or reveal its terms of reference but called it “a positive move”.

The universities minister added that an examination of the fee system

and student loans would form part of a wider inquiry into tertiary education – which includes universities and colleges.

However, Mr Gyimah, a former prisons minister, also told an audience of around 200 students: “This regime has been in place since 2012. There are things that are working well and we shouldn’t forget what is working well”.

Gyimah also explained that while he would consider cutting university fees, he would not implement Labour’s plan to remove tuition

fees completely, which would subsequently fuel a rise in taxes to fill the void.

He said: “ W h a t e v e r comrade Corbyn says I don’t think we will go back to an era where students do not contribute in any way to their fees.”

But Mr. Gyimah added: "It is right to look at how the current system is working and make sure that it works best for students."

L o r d Adonis

has since warned that any changes to the current fee and loan system, which he introduced, would make it a "matter of time" before ministers would have to reintroduce a cap on student numbers.

"There are things that are working well and we shouldn't forget what is working well"

Sam Gyimah’s comments follow those of Prime Minister Theresa May, who announced plans for a “major review” of university tuition fees at the end of last year.

No timescale has yet been released.

The news follows claims that former education secretary Justine Greening blocked a previous bid to reduce tuition Photo: Chris McAndrew fees, made by Nick Timothy.

and informs many of the decisions and changes we make, such as improving the timeliness of return of feedback on assessments and strengthening our mental health support.

“For example, after hearing that students wanted more study space in the library, we carried out refurbishment and installed lots of new study spaces.”

News in brief

Clive Lewis returns to Labour frontbench

MP for Norwich South Clive Lewis returned to the opposition frontbench last week as Jeremy Corbyn matched the Prime Minister and reshuffled some of his Shadow Cabinet.

Lewis, who resigned as Shadow Business Secretary last February was an important ally of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in the early months of the latter’s leadership.

Seen by some in the party’s ranks as a potential future leader, this move represents a cooling of relations between the Labour leader and Lewis, who has publicly voiced his displeasure over the party’s stance on Brexit in the past.

Lewis was also recently cleared of a claim of sexual harassment was appointed as a junior minister in the Treasury. He was one of 13 appointments made.

Newly appointed Conservative Party chairman and MP for Great Yarmouth Brandon Lewis has described the appointment as a “reward for abusive behaviour.”

Scott Arthur

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30th January 2018

News

Continued from front page 20 March to review concerns over how to legally interpret the policy’s resolutions. Previously, the Union decided that several clauses would have to be interpreted or carried out in such a way as to avoid a clash with charity legislation.

Crucially, the policy includes a clause in support of Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW).

The week sees universities annually host events addressing the legal discrimination faced by Palestinian citizens.

The week has been criticised as anti-Semitic, though organisers at UEA said they invite Jewish students to participate in the week.

Alex Dalton, a third-year Politics student, said he recalled feeling uneasy when he saw a poster advertising the week in the Hive in his first year.

Jayme Leah Cohen, a Biochemistry student and a committee member for Jewish Students, said she felt disappointed

"We stand with Jewish students" by the result of the vote.

“I love UEA but I can’t help but feel unsafe on campus because of this anti-Zionist sentiment that Ibelieve is just a mask for antiSemitism,” she said.

It is understood that as Jewish Students do not have an active Union Council rep, they only realised a couple of days before the vote the policy would be voted on.

They said they felt like they were not given enough time to prepare to attend Council.

Rafah Momo, speaking on behalf of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said she was happy with the result.

“It is incredible that we are in a university where the overwhelming support is aligned with making sure students are comfortable and do not feel prejudiced against,” she said.

“We stand with Jewish students and support each other, with Christian and Muslim students. We stand with Hindu and Buddhist students and students of another or no religion.

"What we stand against is the terror, racist, and violent regime that is Israel.

"We do not support the ‘mainstreaming’ of their violence.

“We are always open for dialogue and very open minded.

"Come join us for Israel Apartheid Week and have a conversation.”

The Union of Jewish Students (UJS), which represents Jewish students at UK and Irish universities, said the BDS policy is “a divisive and unconstructive policy”.

A UJS spokesperson told Concrete: “It is therefore disappointing that UEA has decided to renew their BDS policy instead of supporting dialogue towards a constructive resolution to the conflict.

“The policy harms Jewish students and prevents those on different sides of the conflict from coming together.”

UEA joins forces with South Essex College Tony Allen News Reporter UEA will begin to validate degrees at South Essex College starting in September, the university has announced.

This means that degrees awarded by the college in several areas will bear the UEA logo and will be of a rigorous academic standard, approved by UEA.

"This new partnership reinforces UEA's committment to higher education" UEA’s process is currently underway to validate the courses and ensure they meet the university’s requirements.

The courses, designed by South Essex College, will be examined by a UEA Validation Panel with members including academics from the university and elsewhere.

Initial plans predicted that almost 300 students would take advantage of the different programmes to be offered, including BScs in Psychology and Sociology, Accounting and Finance, and Criminology plus BAs in Early Years

Photo: Robert Eva, Geograph

Education, Special Educational Needs and Counselling.

The announcement will come as little comfort to students in Norwich a year after their on-campus postgraduate Counselling courses were axed despite protests.

UEA’s Academic Pro Vice Chancellor, Prof Neil Ward, said in a statement: “UEA is delighted that South Essex College is joining our established network of academic

partners and we look forward to the College’s first students studying towards UEA awards starting in September 2018.

“This new partnership reinforces UEA’s commitment to higher education in our region and we are excited to be working with the College to support the further development of its provision.”

Art and design courses at South Essex College, which has sites in

Southend, Basildon and Grays, are already validated by University of the Arts London.

Most famously, in partnership with the University of Essex, UEA has validated degrees at the University of Suffolk.

Other colleges which offer degrees validated by UEA include Norwich’s City College, Easton and Otley College and UEA’s own INTO program.

Graduate's startup aims to solve housing crisis

Photo: Evelyn Simak, Geograph

Jack Ashton News Reporter A UEA graduate has developed a digital tool which he claims could be the end to the global housing crisis.

EHAB, the eco housing start up, claims on its website that over 1 billion people live in unaffordable or unsuitable housing and with the world’s population 8.5billion by 2030, calls for radical housing projects are becoming increasingly popular.

Josh Graham, the entrepreneur behind the project, started EHAB with the aim of providing ecofriendly housing, but the idea developed into what they now call a “decentralised platform” that

“empowers people to collaboratively create and finance affordable and sustainable housing projects, while sharing in the profits from these developments.”

"With our platform, everyone's demands can be seen" The platform works by having shareholders buy cryptocurrency tokens to crowdfund house building projects, which are then sold back

to the owner. The aim is to have a collaborative community say in house building.

EHAB will be responsible for the building and delivery of 20,000 homes in the Cambridge Norwich Technology Corridor within the next decade, and Graham has high hopes for the future, telling the EDP that “the tool will be most useful in largescale projects, 1,000 homes or more.

"There will already be so many stakeholders involved on a project like that with competing wants and needs. With our platform, everyone’s demands can be seen” EHAB will become open for investors to get involved when tokens go on pre-sale on Friday 9 February , with general sale beginning Thursday 1 March.

0.5

The number of millions of people who live in hazardous homes in the UK

15

The percentage rents have risen across the UK in the last seven years

70

The number of billions of government debt that will be removed when housing associations are made private

6

30th January 2018

News

Germaine Greer protested for trans-exclusive feminism Comment: Once a second-wave feminist icon, Greer has been accused of victim blaming and transphobia

Greer 'belongs in our history' Judith Howe Comment Writer

It’s a difficult debate in the feminist movement: How do we see influential second wave feminist figures like Germaine Greer whose transphobic comments have no place in the feminism of today?

I for one believe feminists like Greer belong in our history, and not in our present tense. Greer cannot be part of the intersectional third wave of feminism, and we shouldn’t want her to be.

Photo: Matt Nixon

Matt Nixon News Editor Protesters met on Saturday 27 January to oppose a talk by secondwave feminist Germaine Greer at the Norwich Playhouse due to their belief that Greer is transphobic.

The protest was organised by the Norwich-based feminist organisation Freedom Fibres, who said: “The aim of this event [was] to educate the attendees on intersectional feminism and to let Greer know that her fascism will not be accepted or tolerated in our city.”

A handful of protestors handed out zines explaining intersectional feminism, “Why Germaine Greer is so problematic”, and recommended further reading on gender. The zine included comments made by Greer in 2015 which made national headlines.

In response to public backlash regarding her claim that going through a surgical procedure Continued from front page the student funding available from loans or bursaries.

“Increasingly we’re finding that what we think is student funding is actually adding to the wealth of private developers, buyto-let landlords or in the case of the University, funding for future buildings.

"Yet neither the University nor the Government have a clear understanding of how much this impacts on student finances or success.”

Last semester the SU claimed the university makes a ‘hidden’ annual profit per head of £1,200 from campus accommodation. The university disputed the claim of

doesn’t make a trans-woman a woman, in October 2015 Greer told BBC VictoriaLIVE: “Just because you lop off your d**k and then wear a dress doesn't make you a f***ing woman.”

"If you're going to stand up for gender you need to do that across the board" The zines also referred to more recent comments made by Greer, who criticised the “whingeing” #MeToo movement around the world.

Speaking to Concrete at the ‘hidden costs’, noting rental fees are published.

14 16

The number of students who have been unable to pay their rent in full this academic year so far

The percentage student rental arrears increased by in 2016, across the UK

They added: “The university worked to reduce the planned rent increases to three percent for 2017/18”, which is the proposed increase for 2018/19 too.

protest, Jade Searby, founder of Freedom Fibres, said: “Some of the ideas [Greer] perpetuates are quite damaging.”

Jade added: “What [secondwave feminists] have done is very important but what they have to understand is that they've raised a generation of women to question and challenge things, so they can’t be surprised when the youth start questioning them.

If you’re going to stand up for gender you need to do that across the board otherwise you’re a hypocrite.”

A transgender woman at the protest, Poppy-Rose, (pictured), told Concrete: “I am legally female, and Germaine Greer is saying that I am not female.

That brand of hate we do not need, Norwich does not need it.

“I am here to raise a point, to make people aware as they go in, and to show people what a trans person is like. I will stand here rain

or shine to make this point.”

A self-proclaimed “admirer of Germaine Greer”, Chris, who attended the talk, said: “Greer is a bright lady who doesn’t always hold views with which everyone agrees, but that makes an interesting evening.”

SU Campaigns and Democracy Officer Jack Robinson expressed support for “non-violent protests like this”, which he claims are “a way for people to express conflicting views with passion and ensure that controversial views are challenged out in the open.”

Norwich Playhouse director Caroline Richardson told Concrete they do not endorse any of Greer’s controversial beliefs.

However, he added they are also “committed to providing a platform for a wide range of opinions, debates and discussions”.

Germaine Greer did not wish to comment on the grounds that she no longer does print interviews.

"Transphobia and victim blaming are not feminism, which has to advocate for all women" Freedom of speech does not mean freedom of hate speech without protest, and Greer’s transphobic comments are a form of hate speech that we would not tolerate against any other minority group.

We cannot subscribe to a kind of feminism where Greer gets to choose who is and isn’t a woman, this is exactly the kind of imposition of identity we’re all supposed to be fighting against, and it’s hugely saddening that Greer’s ideas of sisterhood fall short at some of the most marginalised women she should be fighting for.

This is including those brave enough to form the #MeToo movement which she recently described as ‘whingeing’.

Transphobia and victim blaming are not feminism, which has to advocate for all women, and if this protest can help Germaine Greer and her supporters to realise this.

Oxford SU boycotts satisfaction survey Natalie Cotterill News Reporter The student council at Oxford University voted to boycott the National Student Survey (NSS).

A two thirds majority was required for the boycott, which gained 75 percent of the vote. There were 59 votes for the motion and 20 against.

Oxford SU campaigned last year to boycott, after the National Union of Students (NUS) encouraged its members to, resulting in response rates dropping from 51 percent to 31 percent. These results were unusable as a 50 percent minimum response rate is required from each

university.

The decision follows government reforms to higher education and the introduction of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF).

The NSS is one of the tools used to rank a university Bronze, Silver, or Gold.

Campaigners who argue against tuition fees claim universities which rank highly will increase their fees, making them less accessible to students from poorer backgrounds.

Last year UEA was upgraded to a Gold ranking in the NSS, and tuition fees this year have gone up to £9,250.

Talking to the Oxford Student, Rida Vaquas, Campaigns Officer

of Oxford University Labour Club (OULC) stated the NSS is a “flawed metric, which contributes to the marketisation of our higher education system, and has already been linked to job cuts and course closures at other universities.

“The boycott last year forced the government on the backfoot, suspending the link between the TEF and rising tuition fees for now. We need to keep the pressure up, and organise to scrap the TEF altogether.”

Reasons for the boycott by Oxford SU were reported in the Oxford Student as focusing primarily on the impact it would have on the SU and the pressure on its resources.

know someone who’d do a great job leading the SU? nominate them today: uea.vote

8

Global

30th January 2018

May hosts Macron for Brexit and border talks Eddie Booth Global Editor French President Emmanuel Macron was in the UK last week, with both countries seeking to strengthen bilateral ties as Brexit approaches. Macron, who won last year’s Presidential election against the Front National’s Marine Le Pen, has been held up as a hallmark for Europe to follow. Young, liberal and charismatic, Macron represents a style of politics attractive to many who feel that the UK has taken the wrong path since the 2016 referendum delivered a vote to leave the European Union. Macron is an arch-Europhile, and his visit is significant to how Brussels will conduct the second phase of negotiations, beginning in earnest next month.

Macron visited the Prime Minister’s constituency of Maidenhead, where the two leaders enjoyed a lunch at a local pub.

Macron’s first visit to the UK was to focus heavily on border security and the migrant crisis, with France struggling to deal with an influx of migrants seeking to reach the UK. Calais, the site of the so called ‘Jungle’, where thousands of refugees live in makeshift tents, is an issue of much local importance

Photo: Chatham House, Flickr in France, and Macron was seeking to deliver a victory, having visited the border just prior to his trip across the channel. He achieved this, with Theresa May announcing £44 million worth of additional cash from the UK into the policing and technology at the Calais border.

Macron then arrived with the Prime Minister at Sandhurst, the

specialist military academy, for the 35th UK-French summit. It was here that serious talks on Brexit, the omnipresent issue for all UK diplomatic engagements, came to the fore.

Following the conclusion of the first round of negotiations in a photo finish last year, the EU has been spending the Christmas

period formalising their negotiating position with regards to their ‘future relationship’ with the UK. On the British side, the Prime Minister has made clear her desire to have a ‘deep and special partnership’, which would see the UK exit the single market and customs union, but sign a comprehensive free trade agreement, something similar to

CETA, the deal signed between the EU and Canada, with an extra provision for services. Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, has rubbished such suggestions of a bespoke deal, arguing that the UK cannot cherry-pick elements of the single market that it likes, whilst opting out of what it does not. CETA does not solve the Irish border issue or provide for the free exchange of services upon which the City of London relies.

Macron, for his part, agreed that the UK could only have a bespoke deal if it agreed to the conditions, which are likely to be freedom of movement and accepting the oversight of the European Court of Justice, which would cross two clear red lines in the British negotiating position. However, if Macron is willing to engage more openly with the idea of a bespoke deal, which had not previously been entertained by the EU, then it is possible that their position on the matter is moving, as the reality of the UK’s departure sets in. Whilst Berlin grapples with a constitutional crisis, lacking a government since November’s elections, Paris will take the lead for now.

May faces trouble at home, with continued domestic unpopularity leading to rumours of an imminent leadership challenge from her party.

Italy: Forza, Five Star and Northern league compete A deeply divided and uncertain country heads to the polls, Scott Arthur reports The Italian election will pit the centre-left coalition, led by incumbent Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni’s Democratic Party, against an alliance of right and centre-right parties led by the controversial former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his Forza Italia party.

However, the rise of the protestoriented Five Star Movement has led to anti-establishment views clashing with the political mainstream. This election has been notable for the level of Eurosceptic sentiment.

Many of the main parties are offering some degree of reform regarding Europe. The rightwing Northern League have promised immigration reform and a referendum on Italy’s membership of the Euro. Forza Italia have suggested that they would be willing to ignore certain EU rules concerning state intervention in the troubled Italian banking sector, and even the traditionally pro-Europe Democratic Party have criticized the EU’s focus on austerity.

Italy withdrawing from the eurozone would potentially spell the end of the currency union – but worry not, the very referendum promised by the Northern League would require substantial changes to the Italian constitution.

Nevertheless, the fact that the very role of the EU is up for debate in

Italy, one of the founding nations of the European Coal and Steel Community, goes some way to underline how important this election could be for the entire bloc.

It would be hyperbolic to suggest that a right-wing victory in this election would trigger some form of cataclysm for the EU, but it is accurate to assert that the future of the EU will be up for debate in the coming days of the campaign.

The center-left seems poised to lose its place in government, but who will succeed them is unclear. Berlusconi has gone to great lengths to portray his party as a safe pair of hands against the insurgent Five Star Movement, who have been unable to convert much of their support amongst the Italian youth into success on the local level.

If the Democratic Party are to lose their place in government, then the important question becomes whether the center-right coalition of Berlusconi will win enough seats to have a parliamentary majority.

Recent polls have placed the centerright in the region of 38% support, with 40% considered to be the minimum amount needed to govern alone.

Berlusconi cannot stand for public office, due to a ban that expires in 2019, although his influence on the right will continue.

Pictured: Sulamani Kurdistan. Myararat83, Wikimedia

Photo: Paz.ca, Flickr

The return of Berlusconi: Sex, scandal and fraud One man has successfully managed to dominate Italian politics for almost three decades. Despite a myraid of scandals and court cases, Silvio Berlusconi has towered above all others. The three time Prime Minister and founder of the rightwing, pro-business Forza Italy party has returned to politics in

2018 to further confuse an already messy election. Like many highpowered men in politics before him, Berlusconi has seen his impact limited by a tendency to become involved in sex scandals, including the notorious ‘bunga bunga’ parties hosted at his private residence.

More damaging, however, have

been the convictions for fraud and solicitation of an underage sex worker, leading to him being banned from elected office until 2019. However, he remains a powerful voice on the fractured right in Italy, and, though he will not be the next Prime Minister, Berlusconi is going nowhere. EB

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30th January 2018

USA: Government shuts down as budget deal fails Jack Ashton Global Writer One year after the inauguration of Donald Trump, the US Government shutdown. From 20-23 January, non essential government services stopped working throughout the US, and thousands of federal workers stopped being paid.

The shutdown happened as the Senate failed to approve spending plans for February, which required 60 votes to pass. 51 of the total 100 seats are held by Republicans, meaning they needed at least nine Democrats to vote against their party whip. Five did, but so did five Republicans. The result was a stalled bill and the resulting shutdown.

The rebelling Democrats refused to vote for the bill on multiple grounds, but chiefly, that it didn’t provide adequate protection for the ‘dreamers,’ the name used for undocumented US migrants who came to the country as children under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. President Trump

allegedly dismissed any chance of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell a bipartisan deal in an infamous managed to come to an agreement “shithole countries” meeting, as he which would end the shutdown. continued to follow the hard line he The deal included six years of drew on immigration throughout funding for the Children’s Health the election campaign.

Insurance Program, a controversial The last time this happened was sticking point before the shutdown, under the Obama administration however it did not include any in 2013, in which the US House legislative protection for the of Representatives failed to agree dreamers, prompting outrage on the provisions regarding the from liberal Democrats, some Affordable Health Care Act. This of whom branded Schumer the shutdown lasted a total of 16 days “worst negotiator” in Washington. before it was resolved. This was, Schumer only managed to leave the however, the first time since 1980 negotiations with a promise from in which all three branches ofUSMcConnell, a promise Congress, Senatesaying that government were controlled by the the majority leader will move the same party. debate on immigration to gain a When trying to press Trump to bipartisan solution. accept the DACA provisions, Senate Kamala Harris, a California Minority Leader, Chuck Schumer, Senator and potential Democratic met with Donald Trump in private, front runner in 2020 doubted the hoping to secure some form of agreement, stating “it would be bipartisan provision, however no foolhardy to believe that he made a agreement was managed, and commitment.”

Schumer later claimed that the Looking onwards, Schumer President “did not press his party to will hope his gamble pays off, but accept it.” if McConnell backtracks on his However, after a weekend immigration pledge, we could be of backdoor talks throughout looking at another shutdown come Washington, Schumer and Senate February.

Photo: Alex Proimos, Wikimedia

Nick Stokes looks at the escalating threat to charities from ISIS militants ISIS militants stormed the offices of the “Save the Children” charity after detonating explosives in the city of Jalalabad in Afghanistan. At least six were killed and 27 wounded in the attack which took place on 27 January. A suicide car bomb started the attack and then continued with explosive bombardment, followed by armed insurgents storming the office. It is a continuation of the campaign by ISIS against British and Swedish companies in the Eastern Nangarhar province, in which they have recently gained a foothold. Security services battled the insurgents for around ten hours, rescuing 50 people from the basement of the building. Save the Children employees report that they heard explosions and saw the insurgents rushing into the building after throwing grenades.

One of the employees, Zabiullah, told the Guardian that upon seeing fighting breaking out and wounded colleagues, “We rushed the basement, we were terrified and locked the door.”

The UK ambassador for Afghanistan, Nick Kay, called the attacks an outrage and said “Any attack on children and humanitarians is a crime against humanity.” The attacks come amidst a turbulent time in the region.

A Taliban spokesman denied responsibility for the attack after the group were behind a siege in an intercontinental hotel in Kabul

at the weekend. The campaign against ISIS has been heating up, with the US claiming their coalition airstrikes had killed 150 militants at a headquarters in Syria, with no civilian casualties. Tactics by ISIS have grown desperate as they were forced out of Syria on multiple fronts by coalition forces.

The attack on Save the Children is a continuation of their Afghanistan operations which have been limited by coalition airstrikes and their ongoing fight with the Afghanistan Taliban and Al-Qaeda. Save the Children said they are “shocked and appalled” by the attacks and have temporarily halted operations in the area. They released a statement saying they hope to resume their “life saving work as quickly as possible.” Aid workers have been in increasing danger over the last year as militant groups have started targeting their operations. Red Cross workers were attacked while attempting to deliver aid last February in Afghanistan.

It is seen as a strategy to increase fear but has been largely ineffective with humanitarian organisations continuing to conduct operations in the Middle East.

The threat from ISIS led to concern from Western governments, as the organisation is relatively new, with a lack of intelligence on their methods. However, a well targetting campaign against their ground forces has reduced their capabilties.

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30th January 2018

Remembering the Holocaust Meyzi Adoni Features Writer

Sometimes I ask myself, “What would I do if I can’t remember anything? What would happen if I constantly forgot something?”

And these questions frustrate me.

Imagine forgetting all the mistakes you made throughout the years, all your first loves, inappropriate actions…

If you can’t remember them, then there is a higher chance that you would repeat them. We all learn from our actions.

We take lessons from the wrong ones and this means we educate ourselves by making mistakes. So as long as we keep remembering

them, it is likely that we would be more careful and take lessons from our experiences.

“I am inviting everyone to say, we remember, as a show of support and wish that this will never happen again” This world has witnessed a lot of cruel and brutal behavior and actions towards certain groups of society. People got hurt, they lost their lives, they lost their families.

Experiencing racial micro-aggression Amy Newbery Features Editor “Wow, your English is so good!” I smile back and sometimes force a laugh. I use to brush it off and try to change the subject but now I answer with: ‘Why wouldn’t my English be good?’ And why wouldn’t it be?

Of course my English is good, I grew up speaking the language all my life. What annoys me the most is that people assume I won’t be able to speak fluent English because I don’t look like someone who could.

And this is what we call casual racism.

‘You’re from Hong Kong? I thought you would have an accent.’

Casual racism is a type of microaggression. I know that the majority of people don’t intend to be racist or offensive. Casual racism isn’t the belief that one race is superior than another, but the result of stereotypes and prejudices.

However, it can be frustrating and annoying. As I’m registered as an international student at UEA, I’m included in the mail list for an English support programme.

Because casual racism often come in the forms of off-handed, inappropriate ‘jokes’, it’s not acknowledged and treated like direct racism.

I remember an incident where the owner of an animal sanctuary came to collect me for a volunteer project, and said she hadn’t recognised me immediately because she was looking for a blonde female.

We had only talked on the phone once before and through that, she assumed I was a white female with blonde hair. Quite amazing really.

I was quite stumped at her comment so I just laughed it off — an automatic reaction to comments like this. I know for a fact the owner would have been mortified if I had told her I was slightly offended by

her comment.

Currently, the most racial microaggresion I’ve experienced was during fresher’s week at the UEA. A vast amount of people commented on how surprised they were with my fluency in English, and lack of an accent.

Perhaps they wouldn’t make so many offhanded comments had I lived in a location that predominantly spoke English.

But because I come from Hong Kong (even though English is one of the official languages), it’s somewhat amazing that I speak with such ease.

I have many international friends and acquaintances who have also said they have experienced casual racism. I mean, how many times have I heard something along the lines of: all you Asians look the same. Really? Maybe you should have your eyes checked because it’s an undeniable fact that we, in fact, are not clones.

‘She’s from Korea’ ‘Must have undergone plastic surgery.’

‘She’s from Thailand.’ ‘Lol, what if she’s actually a he?’ Just stop.

Stop.

I once watched a video explaining micro-aggression where the commentator compared it to mosquito bites; bearable but massively annoying, especially if there’s more than one. And like with any mosquito, I will swat you down.

We shouldn’t have to tolerate racism of any kind, even if it’s in the form of a joke or the result of ignorance.

It’s 2018, casual racism should be dying out but unfortunately, it’s still prominent in all cultures and societies. Think before you speak.

I’m not saying to tread on eggshells twenty-four-seven but it wouldn’t hurt to discard prejudices and stereotypes. By tackling casual racism and micro-aggression, we can eventually focus on the bigger picture of racism in general.

We still remember those hard times and think about the ones we lost. Because if we don’t, they might fade away slowly and in a certain time period, they could be forgotten eternally.

My grandma lost half of her family in concentration camps during the Second World War. From the day that I was able to understand what the Holocaust was, she told me her story.

She told me how she hid in a house for years. How she wished none of this happened. After hearing those stories, I understood the importance of “remembering.”

And I promised myself, as long as I am alive; I will remember what happened to six million Jewish people, I will remember the people

who lost their family members, I will remember the survivors who managed to stay alive.

“To forget Holocaust is to kill twice.” says Elie Wiesel, who was also a Holocaust survivor himself.

But what is forgetting? Is it not caring or is it ignoring? How can you forget such a cruel act? The fact is, people don’t forget, they choose not to speak about it. For me, especially for this subject, they are similar things.

“To forget Holocaust is to kill twice” Not talking leads to a lack of knowledge and that leads to forgetting. Forgetting is scary. If we

let people forget what happened to six million Jewish people, we can witness someone else repeat a similar action towards Jews or other people.

That is why, “I am remembering” and I will “Never Forget.” I will talk about it, I will write about it.

Saturday 27 January was the Holocaust Remembrance Day where we honoured the life of the victims of the Holocaust and it is chance for everyone to learn more about this horrible act that happened nearly 80 years ago.

Therefore, I am inviting everyone to say “We Remember” as a show of support and wish that this will never happen again.

Photo: Katie Lange, Dodlive

Homesickness at university Seàn Bennett Features Writer “You just want to go back.” So you’ve decided to go to university.

You’ve criss-crossed the nation looking at campus after campus and finally that pain in the arse UCAS application is sent off and the offers have come rolling in. Good on you.

Well done. But now you have to go.

And that means leaving home.

As you wave goodbye to your parental units, and their number plate slowly becomes blurry and illegible, the reality hits you. You’re on your own. Suddenly you think it wouldn’t be so bad if that car would just come back and take you home.

“As you wave goodbye to your parental units, and their number plate slowly becomes blurry and illegible, the reality hits you.

You’re on your own” Some days you revel in your freedom and independence, home is a distant memory as you let the pleasures of adulthood wash over you. Other days, campus feels so big and cold as you wander through the endless concrete, past thousands of people who you don’t know and probably never will.

You pine after you family and your old friends, the safety of your house and your bed and everything that is home. You just want to go back.

Homesickness is, for most, just

a fact of life at uni, certainly in first year. It’s only natural. Nothing is familiar and you have to cope with everything yourself. It’s absolutely, butt-clenchingly, mind numbingly, terrifying. Almost everybody will at some point think ‘oh god, what have I done?’ and wish that they had never had the stupid idea to go and get an education.

But the first thing to remember is that you are not alone in your feelings. University is a big step for everyone and most people will be missing home like crazy to start with too. It might not help the homesickness itself to know that everyone else is feeling the same.

But it might make you feel a bit less worried about being homesick in the first place. Friends help too.

Finding them at university can be scary, but that’s a matter for another article. Just trust me when I say that it is almost impossible to go to uni and not make friends.

It will happen, and when it does, you’ll find that when you’re with your new mates, thoughts of home plague you less and less, your little room in halls suddenly seems less depressing and your burning desire to jump on the next bus out of here seems to disappear.

Lastly, in this technological age, home is never really that far away. A phone call or a skype chat might help you to cope with homesickness, but be aware that they might make things worse too, if you rely on them too much to get you through the days. Embracing your independence away from home is one of the most important aspects of beating homesickness.

Just remember, however bad your homesickness gets, it won’t last. In time you’ll find that you call uni home too, and that you’ll mean it, and it will be the best feeling in the world.

Photo: Richard Revel, Public Domain Pictures

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30th January 2018

Long overdue, a feature about the library Beth Papworth Features Writer Concrete spoke to the librarians about their role in the UEA library and discovered that it was challenging, rewarding and stimulating. According to Society of College, National and University Libraries statistics, UEA has 15413 students with a ratio of approximately 15 academic staff to one student.

It also boasts of possessing 850,179 physical copies as well as 471,247 e-books. Speaking to Matthew Smith, the Health and Social work librarian, he told Concrete that, “Ultimately it is about helping people. I have worked with 1500 students in the drop in sessions and have a lot of face to face contact.” He also said that his role is to teach around information literacy and help students with their research online.

The library spends £4m on books and resources every academic year and is invested in supporting its students. Matthew Smith assures Concrete that librarians can help people find the resources they need. He also added, “Ordering in the resources is all for the students benefits. We try our best to make sure everyone feels comfortable

in the library. It’s all about letting students know that we are here to help them.” Not only are librarians responsible for managing online resources and physical copies of books, they are dedicated to teaching students strategies to find resources more easily, saving students more time on essays and allowing them to receive better marks.

Ultimately, librarians are training people to become good users of digital information. Jane Helgesen, Head of Academic Engagement has been a librarian for eighteen years.

She spoke about her numerous roles and experience of being a subject librarian and said that “we work with individual courses to tailor an induction program, like MBS. Our team goes out and carries out the teaching with our colleagues.”

The library is actively engaged in interactive strategies to help students, such as an ethnomathic mapping exercise. Recently, the UEA has introduced unlimited renewals and this is a wonderful marketing campaign because it identifies individuals’ needs and repackages them.

She also said, “We want to move more into the digital world. We do have more ebooks because we need to be able to use this space in the library in a smart way.” Jane Helgeson told Concrete that it

works for students on placement as the electronic resources means they do not have to be on campus to access the reading. She described it as a big triangle with digital literacy and information literacy, alongside supporting research.

The library also work alongside open access and the depository, whilst helping the researchers. Jane Helgeson is also in charge of looking after the archive and working with Noirwich Crime Festival.

In 2017, the library had Charlie Higson’s archive and put together an exhibition for the Noirwich Crime Festival. Over the years, she has seen an increase in the use of e-journal access and ebooks.

However, the number of physical items is slowly decreasing.

The library plans to reconfigure the building to work more with the students in order to cope with the influx of incoming undergraduates over the next few years. Kate Squire, a librarian in the Social Sciences said that her role is really varied.

She has the opportunity to speak to undergraduates, a law academic or a publisher on the phone. Kate also said, “e-resources are the superheroes of the show. They deal with these databases from various suppliers and keep subscriptions up to date.”

“Before the students” first

Jane Helgesen assignment, we gave them an in depth experience using the library search and journal articles.” She also told Concrete that the library runs drop in sessions from Monday to Wednesday in the Library Conference Room on Floor 0. Kate Squire said that being a librarian is quite a creative workplace environment.

The nature of higher education helps the library meet needs such as political changes. Whilst she alludes to e-textbooks as “on the horizon” and in the future for the library, it is nonetheless an expensive investment. Ultimately, the future of librarianship is bright as it endeavours to go above and beyond to help its students succeed.

“What we need is a national solution to a national problem” Jack Ashton looks at the anti-abortion group 40 Days For Life who are planning protests in Norwich Recent years have seen reproductive r i g h t s , c h i e f l y, w o m e n ’s access to abortion services, come to the forefront o f

Wikimedia, University of Toronto Students for Life

feminist’s movements. Labour MP Stella Creasy won the Spectator 2017 award for backbencher of the year for her work securing access to English abortion clinics for Northern Irish women, and thousands of women in the Republic of Ireland took part in a pro-choice march ahead o f the nation’s planned referendum

on a woman’s right to choose.

The highest abortion rate is for women aged 22, with 27.9 in 1000 choosing to terminate a pregnancy, meaning a large portion of them will be students.

In light of this protest, UEA Student Council voted 40-1 in favour of a motion against the protest, including organising transport to the clinic and providing information regarding the alternatives to the clinic. Responding to the vote, SU “Calling them Women’s Officer Amy Atkinson said “our students should never mother and even face harassment when accessing a basic right, and they should have murderer ” agency over their own reproductive circumstances… as a result we’ll be In support of women looking doing all we can to support both to make this difficult decision, student users and the BPAS clinic UEA Student Support Services itself.” said “The decision to have a There has been a considerable termination of pregnancy is shift in the debate surrounding never easy…our approach abortion, especially regarding the is to direct people to the implementation of “buffer zones” appropriate external which would prevent protestors agencies who are best coming within a certain radius of placed to offer advice and the clinic, these buffer zones aim support.” Of course, as with to provide a safe and accessible most things, access to these environment for those women who services is not as easy as choose to terminate a pregnancy. it may appear. The antiIn an interview with Concrete, abortion group, 40 Days For Katherine O’Brien, Head of Media Life is planning a protest and Policy Research at BPAS, said, outside the Norwich British regarding the protests, “it’s got to Pregnancy Advisory Service the point where large groups of (BPAS) beginning on Valentine’s individuals with graphic banners Day. The campaign aims too, “with and cameras strapped to their chests God’s help…mark the beginning of are directly approaching Wikimedia, University of Toronto women, the end of abortion in our city — and for shouting calling them mother and Students Life beyond.” even murderer as they’re trying to

walk through the doors” We’re working with local police because obviously, these protest spring up out of nowhere, so we will be working with local police and also the local council if it’s appropriate, but really, what we need is a national solution to a national problem.”

“The anti-abortion group, 40 Days For Life is planning a protest outside the Norwich British Pregnancy Advisory Service” “Some women when faced with these protestors feel unable to go into the clinic on that day, but these women go away and rebook an appointment at a later date when they feel able to go in.

“These protests aren’t stopping women having abortions, but forcing them to have abortions at a later date, which is in nobody’s interests.”

Concrete contacted 40 Days For Life but they declined to comment.

30th January 2018

12

Features

Hannah Brown explores Norwich’s best museums on your doorstep

Photo: Tony Allen When you ask someone if they want to go to a museum, more often than not you might get a look that screams, “I’d rather do anything but!” As a frequent and avid museum goer, this really frustrates me because museums really aren’t as boring as some history books might suggest.

Being a city, Norwich of course has some museums, but they aren’t the old things full of dust-covered books. One museum that you might not even have considered is right on your doorstep: the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts.

This art gallery houses a museum

below the permanent exhibits, which change frequently. Students can get a student membership which gets you into the exhibit for free too (saving you over £10!) so I think it’s well worth a visit.

“The exhibits are unlike other museums” The exhibits are unlike other museums; it’s a really open plan, and of course you’re in the

Sainsbury Centre which is a work of art in itself. Right now, you can see “Radical Russia”, which is an exhibit following the centenary of the Russian Revolution.

If you’re in Norwich city however, there are two main museums, and one you will definitely know: Norwich Castle. Situated near the centre of town (although nowhere is far in Norwich), this castle houses layers of museums from Twinings tea to an armoury to taxidermy, along with the dungeon and battlement tours.

Whilst at this one you do have

Giorgia Rose on UEA’s first and worst dates Bad dates are unbearable and embarrassing, but luckily, they make for great anecdotes.

At UEA, many people are lucky to say they’ve experienced a few awkward getting-to-know-you moments at one of our campus’ choice romantic hotspots: coffee at Ziggy’s, a walk around the lake, a few snakebites at the bar, or most notoriously, the LCR smokers’ area (where true love is found).

One third year literature student shared with Concrete, “I once had a tinder date in Red bar with this guy who was telling me a story about his mum, but finished it by eagerly saying ‘If tonight goes well, you’ll meet her.’”

There are so many things that can turn an average date into a terrible one. But the biggest date turn-off according to dating website eHarmony is, simply put, ‘If the person was weird’.

While ‘weird’ is such a vague and subjective term, it does perfectly encapsulate that gut feeling you get when things just don’t seem to click.

When a date is seemingly nice enough but their interest isn’t mutual, it’s difficult to decline an invitation to date number two. Rejecting feels harder than being rejected, as most of us feel too guilty to tell the truth and wind up trying to switch the blame onto ourselves: One second year student explains,

“You’ve just got to say, ‘I’m sorry, I’ve decided to focus on my degree instead.’” But this isn’t always effective.

“Once, I lied and said I couldn’t shake the fact they have the same name as my dog.’” (This is very common for boys named Sam and Ben, apparently).

It’s particularly difficult to say no if y o u r relationship started in

friendship. A lot of people worry that rejecting an invite is bigheaded and presumptuous, and end up agreeing to go out just because ‘maybe they don’t mean it as a ‘date’?’

One third year Biology Student tells us, “The intent is completely dependent on the setting. If they ask you for coffee, it doesn’t carry the same date-like weight and connotations as going out for food, for instance… and if they take you to the city centre, it’s serious, they want to impress.”

One student shared some good advice: “It’s all about distance.

If they want me to come over to theirs, that’s too personal - I have no escape. So instead, I say ‘let’s meet at the bar’, a place where it’s casual, you control the space and the way it’s perceived.”

When you say yes out of guilt, it’s dishonest and asking for a messy situation further down the road.

If you agree to a second date, how could you then turn them down for a third? And a Fourth? Next thing you know, you end up married. When the situation gets out of hand, never forget, the safety of instant messaging is an easy solution. It’s a time-saver, non-confrontational and a far less awkward than a face-to-face explanation. So, everybody wins, and at least you’ll have a funny story.

to pay, it’s worth paying for the day out. My flatmates and I headed there last year, did both of the tours (which you have to pay extra for), and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Personally, if you live in Norwich I think it’s something that just has to be done. Norwich Castle has such a brilliant history that it would be a shame to miss out on it.

The next museum I would suggest in Norwich is the Museum of Norwich.

This one is a little off the centre of Norwich, but, again, nowhere is far! Cheaper than Norwich Castle,

this one tells the story of the city with interactive exhibits and shop fronts, and has a lot of artefacts.

You can also get in with a “Twilight Ticket”, which is a £1 ticket you can buy an hour before the museum closes.

As an avid advocate of learning from the past and learning the past, I believe that visiting museums are both exciting and important.

If you’re a fresher, or even if you’ve been here for years, learning about where you live can be really valuable, and I highly suggest Norwich’s museums.

An everlasting artform: tattoos and piercings Juliette Rey Features Writer Tattoos and piercings, although they seem to have become a rather new, modern fashion trend, are in fact, very old art forms. The oldest tattoo found dates back to at least 5,300 years ago. The body art was discovered on a mummy bearing 57 tattoos overall. Body piercings, particularly ear piercings, also have extremely old origins. The first recorded piercing, also found on a mummy, is expected to be over 5,000 years old.

Before this modern age of tattooing and piercing, these forms of body art seem to have been used as a representation of culture and tradition. Indeed, the Celts are one of the most well-known examples of this. The Celts used woad, which permanently tainted their skin a blue colour. Their designs largely consisted of spirals and knots. Ear piercings had many different uses according to different cultures.

Egyptian ear piercings were usually a show of wealth and beauty.

Amongst primitive tribes, earrings were used for magic, to ward off evil spirits. Sailors believed that ear piercings helped seasickness and improved their eyesight. Earrings were also used as currency. When a sailor drowned and washed up on a shore, the earrings could be used to pay for a

Christian burial.

Today, tattoos and piercings have become a lot more common, particularly tattoos, and the reasons people get them are extremely varied. With regards to tattoos, these could range from commemorating a loved one or as a symbol of struggle, to simply being addicted to getting inked.

Piercings can also symbolise a commemoration or occasion. Like tattoos however, piercings seem to be more popular for their aesthetic, in today’s culture. Still, these forms of body art have become more accessible and personal, rather than ritualistic, and perhaps for this reason, they have become more popular.

Yet, there are still numerous stereotypes surrounding those who do sport these forms of body art. They are sometimes seen as rebellious, uneducated and unreliable, and perhaps even unhygienic. The stigma that tattoo parlours, in which most of them do body piercings, are dirty and unprofessional, in most cases, is just not true. Many places in Norwich, such as the Factotum Body Modification prove that modern parlours are clean, comfortable and full of highly skilled artists.

However, it seems that these stereotypes apply more to the older generations, and that amongst younger generations, body art is common and accepted.

30th January 2018

Foodie Features

13

C. E. Matthews’ recipe for Seared Tuna with lemon, sesame, and coriander The ingredients: 1 tuna steak 1 lemon Seasoning: olive oil, chopped coriander, sesame seeds, salt, and pepper

Utensils: Kitchen bag Pan Brush Fish slice Sharp knife

What will you eat today? The same as yesterday? And the day before, and the day before that? How about something that sounds fancy but is actually rather simple? I present to you seared tuna steak with hints of lemon, sesame, and coriander.

“Ooh”, I hear you whisper. Well yes, ooh indeed.

Cheap fresh or frozen tuna steak is easy to find, and although the first time buying seasoning adds to the cost, the ingredients last and can be used on anything else to add flavour.

The method:

Brush some olive oil onto the tuna steak before sprinkling it with the sesame seeds, chopped coriander, salt, and pepper. The oil will help the seasoning to stick to the tuna.

Place the seasoned tuna in a kitchen bag and squeeze half of the lemon on top of it, or enough to fully cover the tuna. Seal the bag and force out all of the excess air.

Photo: jeffbalbalosa, Pixabay Place the bag in the fridge and let the tuna sit in the lemon juice for an hour. After the hour, the lemon juice will have ‘cooked’ the outside of the tuna. (Although no heat is involved the acid from the lemon begins the process of denaturation on the tuna, turning its outside firm and seemingly cooked.)

Throw some oil in a pan and

wait until it is as hot as it can be.

Throw in any extra seasoning. Fry the tuna steak for no longer than a minute and a half on each side. The middle of the steak should remain pink. Don’t try to cook the tuna completely through – it’ll turn tough and chewy.

If you’re into presentation you can slice up the steak after frying

it and cover it with some more coriander. It goes well with boiled potatoes and spinach, and even a dash of soy sauce.

Finally, present your masterpiece to your flatmates and watch their eyes widen. It looks even more delicious in contrast with their bowls of pasta, baked beans, and ready-meal sausage and mash.

Cosmo Norwich: an Avocados: Millennial fad or the all-you-can-eat treat best thing since sliced bread?

Joseph Dear Features Writer

Hannah Brown Features writer Cosmo , a relatively new restaurant chain, opened in 2003, and is unique in what it can give you. It might appear to be a regular buffet, but it’s actually widely different: it offers various cuisines for you to try from around the world.

Cosmo, I’ve found, is perfect for everyone. A group of 8 of us went, with two vegetarians, and no one was disappointed – someone might have curry, someone might prefer the carvery, and some might prefer Italian, but Cosmo offers all of those all at the same price, so you don’t have to worry about someone being upset they don’t have anything to eat. (Cosmo also have a menu you can read which includes dietary needs of every single food, so if you’re vegan, gluten-free, dairyfree, or anything else, you can still find out what you can and can’t eat.)

The idea of Cosmo is that you book a table (the most expensive being £14.99, the cheapest £7.99), and fill your boots! It’s a chance to try out more cuisine that you might normally get going to another restaurant, and it’s somewhere everyone can eat.

Cosmo has different sections in its buffet areas, which include

“World of Asia”, “House of Spice”, “Tasting Kitchen”, “Carvery”, and “Deli”. You can get plates which are regular or which have four different sections, so if you want to, for example, have Yorkshire puddings and gravy and rice and sweet and sour sauce on the same plate, you can do it easily without them touching.

And don’t forget the dessert – usually with a chocolate fountain, Cosmo often has ice cream, various sweets, occasionally popcorn, and other bite-sized treats for you to finish of your meal with.

Cosmo might not be the best place for a first date – there is a lot of going up and down to the buffet area, and you might be astonished about how much your date can pack away – but it’s perfect for a group of friends, or even if you’re on your own and not quite sure what to eat.

It’s about the same price as a regular restaurant, and students can get 10 percent off Mondays – Thursdays (check with the restaurant you visit, although Norwich definitely offers this!).

All in all, whilst it’s not the independent restaurant I would usually recommend for Norwich, it’s one that will always satisfy your needs.

And it has free WiFi – what more could you possibly want?!

Hailed by vegans and meat-eaters alike and enjoyed by students across the land, the rise of the avocado has been mighty.

Whether it is mashed on toast, sliced in a salad or blended into a smoothie, avocados are everywhere.

But what makes this exotic green fruit so popular? And has the avocado fad gone too far?

“Whether it is mashed on toast, sliced in a salad or blended into a smoothie, avocados are everywhere” Originally from Mexico, avocados are now grown worldwide in tropical climates. There are two main types of avocado, Fuerte and Hass. Over the last few years the humble avocado has risen in popularity from something that few had heard of to a fruit that every well-respecting student knows how to slice, dice and mash.

People not only love it for its taste but also for its health benefits.

Known to be a good source of vitamin E and vitamin B, avocados are also a good source of fibre, iron and potassium. It has the highest protein content of any fruit and it is also believed to reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease.

With Instagram feeds dedicated to them and avocado cook books

being sold by Amazon, avocados are everywhere, or so it seems. In 2017 there was a global shortage of avocados. Perhaps not a global crisis but certainly a tragic time for many avocado lovers.

Av- it in all these ways: Baked

“A good source

Cake

of vitamin E and

Milkshake

vitamin B”

Smoothie

Record demand and reduced harvest in Mexico and California led to a shortage of avocados in the UK and worldwide. While this shortage may not directly affect the consumer, if you go to your local supermarket you’re likely to see plenty of avocados, it does mean that supermarkets have had to raise their prices. During 2017 10-kilogram boxes of Hass avocados from wholesalers in Mexico more than doubled in price.

This of course in turn means that supermarkets should charge much more for the coveted product, as do restaurants and other outlets that use avocado in their recipes.

In Australia and New Zealand the shortage of avocados was even more critical with growing demand and surging prices leading some to steal them in bulk, cutting the fruits down from orchards to sell them on.

With this global shortage looking no nearer to ending and prices looking unlikely to drop anytime soon, will avocados one day replace caviar as the delicacy of the rich and famous? If so, what will the fad be for the next generation?

Maybe you are eating avocado right now as you flick through the latest issue of Concrete. Count yourself lucky, you might not be eating them for much longer.

Brownies Soup Chocolate mousse Avocado fries Salad dressing Sauce Gelato Hot dogs Guacamole Grill it Stuff them Bread Scrambled eggs Salad Sushi Pickled Hummus Pancakes

Image: Ma_Rika Pixabay

FINANCE Collapse of Carillion 14

30th January 2018

The Finance Roundup US confident about postBrexit talks Steven Mnuchin, the US Treasury Secretary, has said that the UK would be at the front of the queue for a free trade deal with the US when “the UK is ready.” This is reassuring following uncertainty about a deal being reached since the vote.

Canadian

Will Richarson Senior Finance Writer

Institutional investors, auditors, government officials and Carillion executives all have big questions to answer following the construction giants collapse on Monday 15 January.

Carillion was the second largest construction and outsourcing company in the UK where nearly half its 43,000 worldwide employees were based. At its formation Carillion was valued at £2bn, now it faces compulsory liquidation with debts of £1.5bn including pension liabilities of £600m.

On Wednesday 10 January Carillion’s management team met with over 150 advisors from major UK banks confident that they could secure a deal which would keep them solvent. They had proposals for several possible deals which would have kept Carillion afloat.

However, without assurances that the loans would be guaranteed by the government in the event of collapse, no major banks were willing to loan the millions that Carillion required to maintain its operations.

Within the industry company

finances can be precarious. Many firms borrow lots of money upfront to challenge and set-up contracts which only return revenue over time, often over more than a twentyyear period. Bids for contracts have increasingly slim profit margins and even slimmer margins for error.

As a result, if (as many do) companies accrue high levels of debt and if several contracts go sour simultaneously then they can get into difficulty very quickly.

This was the case for Carillion whose luck began to run out in July as the souring of three public sector contracts in Aberdeen, Birmingham, Liverpool and a further £5.5bn private sector contract in Doha caused a £845m black hole in the company’s finances. This triggered the first of three profit warnings within five months and ultimately was the turning point in Carillion’s demise.

Profit warnings are far more common for companies than liquidation is, therefore it was not unusual that the government decided to continue to award Carillion contracts initially. Indeed, seven days after the government awarded the £1.4bn HS2 contract to Carillion.

Although, such large government contracts take many

months to award therefore it was too late to factor in Carillion’s new profit warning without risking legal action.

“Many will feel aggrieved that growing debts

within Carillion were masked by deceptive (but entirely legal) accounting methods" Credit can be given to the government who granted the HS2 contract across multiple companies to ensure risk minimisation.

However it is unclear why the government continued to award Carillion contracts following the second and third profit warnings in September and November when the risk of Carillion being unable to

fulfil their contractual obligations grew significantly.

However, the government was in a difficult situation. It also couldn’t have pulled out of awarding future contracts to Carillion without increasing and accelerating the likelihood of collapse given the signal that it would send to investors.

Shareholders took the most risk (and as a result lost all their money) when they invested into a company which recklessly pursued growth through questionable acquisitions, systematic underbidding for contracts.

However, many will feel aggrieved that growing debts within Carillion were masked by deceptive (but entirely legal) accounting methods which opens larger questions for the generally accepted accounting practices.

However, now the biggest challenge lies with the government who has never seen an outsourcing failure on this scale before and now will attempt to renegotiate hundreds of contracts with different companies to ensure essential public services are provided.

This Whitehall must now decide whether Carillion was to blame, or the entire system of public private partnerships is unsustainable as many of its critics would claim.

The year of Chinese growth China’s economy grew by 6.9 percent in 2017.

It’s the first increase in the country’s growth rate for seven years.

The figures, which were released earlier this month by The National Bureau of Statistics, surprised many analysts who expected a slowing of the world’s second-largest economy, as fears had begun to develop over the country’s build-up of debt.

Growth last year was aided

from increasing exports, retail sales and the property market. Key factors, however, were an increase in industrial production, up by 6.6 percent, and the services sector, growing by 8.2 percent over the period — reflecting an expanding Chinese middle class.

But a rise in borrowing to fuel infrastructure investment has triggered downgrades of China’s debt rating by many credit rating agencies, with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimating that the country’s debt has now reached 234 percent of its total domestic output.

Jane Sydenham, investment

director at asset manager Rathbones, advises caution over the figures.

“We’re not out of the woods yet”, she said.

“High levels of debt can still affect China’s growth further down the line.

Today’s figures indicate that the economy is still fairly robust due in good part to manufacturing exports, rather than the transition to the new consumer economy.”

Many analysts also question the smoothness of official figures, believing growth to be much lower than suggested, as governments from Inner Mongolia and Tianjin

admit to inflating industrial production they reported for 2016.

President Xi Jinping signalled at last October’s Communist party congress a shift away from focusing on maximising economic growth.

The move suggests a new focus on the country’s pollution and social problems, which may impact future growth in 2018. “[Mr Xi] understands that China can no longer play its high growth card”, Raymond Yeung, chief greater China economist at the bank ANZ wrote.

“Issues like debt pile-up and air pollution could cause social unrest if not a financial meltdown.”

In the months leading up to the legalization of marijuana in Canada, two of the country’s largest producers have agreed on a $6bn merger, in hopes to monopolise the cannabis industry. It is set to become the world’s largest cannabis producer.

Job vacancies hit record highs The number of vacancies for jobs in the UK has reached the highest point since comparable records began in 2001. There were also record numbers for people already in work, at 32.2 million. This is great news for graduates looking to start their careers.

Electric container ships set to sail The world’s first fully electric container barge is due to set sail from European ports this summer.

The barges are entirely crewless, and are capable of shipping 425 tonnes at a time, for 15 hours. This is a great advance in finding the solution to low emission transportation of goods.

Meat recalls hit popular restaurants Russel Hume, a large supplier of food products, have had to recall thousands of meat products following errors over use by dates.

The restaurants affected include JD Wetherspoons, who have stopped serving steaks this week, and Jamie’s Italian. The supplier is now fighting to keep contracts with clients.

Matt Denton

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George Goldberg Finance Writer

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30th January 2018

15

Retail sales fall below expectations

naturalwish

Housing stock rises to £7.14tn Will Richardson Senior Reporter for Finance

Matt Denton Finance Editor Retail sales figures are always a great indicator of how the economy is doing.

They tell us how much people are spending in the shops on our highstreets.

Forecasters in the city had predicted a drop in sales this December by 0.8 percent, but were surprised to see the sales actually fell by 1.5 percent.

This figure came from the Office of National Statistics (ONS), who report retail figures every year.

The annual growth in sales has now fallen to just 1.4 percent, which is far below the 3 percent prediction city analysts had come up with previously.

One of the possible causes for the reduction in spending on the high street this Christmas could be the rising rate of inflation. Inflation

has been rising steadily since mid-2015, and recently reached its highest point in six years. The current rate is 3.1 percent, well above the Bank of England’s goal of 2 percent.

Another possible reason could be a change in how consumers spend around the festive period.

With strong spending growth in November, at 0.8 percent (ONS), it could be the case that more consumers are taking advantage of the Black Friday deals when thinking about Christmas shopping, and spending their money earlier than they used to.

There is, of course, the question of the larger trends in the economy.

This fall in sales could be a sign that the economy is beginning to slow, with a turndown on the horizon.

It’s probably too early to say at the moment, but this could be a symptom of slowing growth and falling consumer confidence, which spells trouble for the UK economy.

UK housing wealth exceeds £7 trillion for the first time Increasing in value by over a third in a decade, the value of all UK housing now stands at £7.14tn.

The combination of historically low interest rates and an array of demand side policy from government including help-tobuy, buy-to-rent and right-to-buy contributed to the majority of the increase in value of housing stock with just 19 percent of the growth coming from increased supply.

With the increasing value of housing being led by price and not quantity the question of affordability becomes increasingly important.

Ian Mulheirn, director of consulting at Oxford Economics say that housing affordability is not an issue.

Mulheirn states that the cost of housing relative to real wages has not changed in the last decade, even in London.

Increases in the number of households have been outstripped

by increases in housing by an average of 26,000 per year since 1996.

He correctly explains that part of the perception of the housing problem comes from systematic overestimation of the growth of new households.

19

500

26

percent of the growth in housing stock comes from increased supply the amount of pounds housing costs have increased by for the lowest earners thousand houses per year since 1996 have increased.

While the cost of like-for-like housing relative to real incomes hasn’t changed significantly there is a growing body of evidence that under-45s live in lower quality housing than before with the amount of usable floorspace per

resident falling consistently in the past decade.

Home ownership has too become increasingly unaffordable: those under 45 have seen house ownership fall by around 900,000 since 2010.

Part of this problem is that the average incomes of young people have not grown as quickly as the average since the financial crisis.

Therefore, while the average person has seen no change in the affordability of buying or renting housing, young people have.

The highest earning decile (who are on average older) in the UK have seen their housing costs fall by over £1,000 a year since the financial crisis while the lowest earning decile have seen housing costs increase by over £500 on average.

There are no lack of economists who will call upon the government to address housing affordability with housebuilding.

However, while building houses will help alleviate the cost of housing in the long-run it will not be an effective policy to reduce the cost of housing quickly, for that it seems there are no easy solutions.

Amazon Go: The future of shopping?

Photo: SounderBruce, Wikimedia

Eddie Bingham Finance Writer Amazon has officially opened its latest innovation in Seattle – A corner shop that doesn’t require you to check-out before leaving. It uses ‘just walk out’ technology to allow customers to pick up items from around the shop, and walk away, pockets full, as if they were committing a robbery.

“There’s a mini bakery, with some essentials, snacks, and lunch bites” The new technology allows you to shop using an Amazon Go app.

You present the app at the gates to get in, and then a series of cameras and sensors in the store detect when you pick something up or put it back. Ten minutes after you leave the store, your card is charged with the balance of your purchases and

you’re given a digital receipt. The contents of the Amazon Go shop are very simple. Much like a Tesco Express, there’s a mini bakery, with some essentials, snacks, and lunch bites. However, the ramifications of check-out free shopping are the real talking points here. ‘Cashier’ remains the second most common

job in the US, and while the cost of Amazon’s technology may be too great for most businesses to implement at present, this is another person’s employment sector threatened by machines.

Amazon Go does employ chefs to make many of their products, as well as in-store assistants.

Amazon Go’s Vice-President, Gianna Puerini believes the store is ideally catering to those who are “pressed for time and hungry.”

The premise of it is all about speed and efficiency, which it certainly offers, as queues are no longer necessary. However, NBC’s financial editor, Jean Chatsky sees

the cash free, ‘friction-free’, quick spending as a worrying sign for people conscious of their expenses.

Mrs Puerini expressed interest in opening more Amazon Go stores.

Having said this, Amazon Go is in its infancy and whether or not the idea will continue to grow in popularity remains to be seen.

Comment

16

30th January 2018

Carillion: Capitalism’s Arab Spring?

Rafah Mohamed Comment Writer “I have a feeling, in a few years people are going to be doing what they always do when the economy tanks. They will be blaming immigrants and poor people.”Mark Baum, The Big Short In writing this article I wondered if I should detail the exact purpose and infrastructure of Carillion, the latest company which may cost tax payers billions to bail out. The truth is Carillion is simply a carbon copy of the previous and next industrial company the government will outsource to and bail out using tax payer money.

Over the last year, Carillion’s share price has depleted massively.

A combination of an ever growing pile of debt and an increasing amount of their shares being ‘shorted’ (a term described by Marketwatch as when “an investor borrows shares and immediately sells them, hoping he or she can scoop them up later at a lower price, return them to the lender and pocket the difference,”) at one point, an estimated 29 percent of Carillion shares were owned in this way.

This led the company’s share

infrastructure is under considerable strain, but I cannot recall for one moment in my existence where a company like Carillion saved my life. I can recall when an ambulance service did. It appears, after all this drama, that we may not be able to afford millions for the NHS, but we sure can afford billions to bail out companies such as Carillion.

“This will be the Arab Spring for western capitalism”

Photo: Jonny White, WikiCommons

price to be extremely volatile, but even then they were awarded the government’s HS2 contract.

Why is this important? Well, this company is responsible for

Sophie Bunce: The national anthem is “an outdated means” The national anthem is an outdated means of encouraging unity through patriotism. In a post Brexit world, we sing of “our gracious” and “noble queen” in attempt to present a united kingdom, a country bound together by our monarch.

But like paying with an old £20 note, or putting diesel in a petrol car, teaching the national anthem in schools isn’t quite the right fix. I see what they’re trying to do but it’s not going to work. We are too far gone.

Written in 1619, the sentiments expressed in the national anthem refer to a version of Britain school children will not recognise. Despite the song being updated to “Queen” instead of “King,” the anthem sings of a country centered around the monarchy. But children are unfamiliar with living in a reign that would make or break their lives. It doesn’t matter to them who sits on the throne.

In 2018, the Queen makes a larger impact in The Crown via Netflix. I appreciate and value the role of the monarchy in Britain, but it would be foolish to think it hasn’t changed since the 1600s. We have updated our views and it’s time to update our attitude to unity.

The national anthem should be taught to kids the same way as table manners- in their own home. Using school time to teach it is a waste of teachers and children’s time. There has not been a day in my life when I have needed the national anthem

the jobs of 20,000 people and now owes billions in debt. Surely, it can’t be sustainable for the government to continuously bail out reckless big companies with a flick of the

wrist, and with the other claim that there isn’t enough to pay for the public services which we urgently require. From the NHS and schools to police and fire services, Britain’s

This all seems innocent enough, but when it’s even worse when you consider the fates of Carillion’s employees. Of the 20,000 made redundant, those in the public sector had their pay checks taken care of by the government, those in the private face a future of uncertainty.

At the same time, Carillion’s fat cat bosses continue to get millions of pounds in bonuses. Seem fair?

Companies like Carillion have had it easy for far too long, I can only imagine that this will be the Arab Spring for western capitalism.

Deselection, deselection, deselection

but I have needed Pythagoras.

As schools are overworked and underfunded, with The Times reporting teachers applications falling by a third in 2017, resources are stretched to their limits. We need teachers and we need cold hard cash. We don’t need a song.

Spending time on the national anthem is not only pointless but it’s an unreasonable demand on limited and valuable time.

“We need teachers and we need cold hard cash” The alternative? Do we need one? If it’s unity we want, we need a contemporary approach that doesn’t champion patriotism. It would be more appropriate for us all to sing the FRIENDS theme tune than God save the Queen. I’m sure people know the words.

Patriotism isn’t an awful trait to have but clinging onto it fails to show an awareness of Britain’s progression. The national anthem was designed to be sung by a nation and for their monarchs right to rule. But as that becomes increasingly less important perhaps we should focus on teaching the kids their times tables instead.

Photo: Sophie Brown, WikiCommons

Thomas Gymer Comment Writer Recently, the Labour Party’s governing body, the National Executive Committee (NEC) has elected 3 new members. In those elections, the more left-wing, momentum backed candidates won all 3 places, by quite a large margin over the other candidates.

This is important in many ways, but currently the most talked about issue is that the victors may push for mandatory reselection of Labour MPs by party members, or ‘deselection’.

What this means is that incumbent Labour MPs would have to still receive the support of Labour members in their

constituency to run as the Labour candidate in the next election.

“What is not desirable is infighting among Labour activists” What it would mean in practical purposes is that many of the new more left-wing members could vote out more centrist Labour MPs. While the desire for MPs who are closer to the membership is not a totally unreasonable one, there are some key issues this system could cause.

Firstly, it could reduce the

influence of the unions over the Labour Party and selection of MPs. Although Len McCluskey, leader of the Unite union, does support mandatory reselection, many other unions, such as Unison, do not. As the unions are traditionally one of the biggest parts of Labour’s support base this would be a major break with the past.

Another issue is the fear that this would be used by the likes of Momentum to enforce ideological purity and remove Corbyn opponents.

Although selecting MPs based on ideology is perfectly reasonable, what is not desirable is infighting amongst Labour activists, nor MPs being positioned as ‘Yes men’ to the leadership.

17

30th January 2018

Harry Routley on the new page in Waterstones’ book For years, Waterstones has marketed itself as the greatest defender of the physical book, combining the variety of Amazon with the feel and atmosphere of a local bookshop.

With an incredible 80% increase in profits over 2017, it would appear that this attitude has finally been vindicated. Considering that the company only became profitable in 2016 for the first time since the 2008 Financial Crash, this increase in profits becomes all the more impressive. This raises the question of just how the leader in an industry that appeared to be crumbling after the rise of the e-book managed to totally transform their business model into one capable of delivering such impressive profit margins.

“Waterstones have marketed themselves as the greatest defender of the book” Upon looking at the financial report in more detail, it was apparent that non-book items contributed significantly to sales last year, with cards, stationary and toys making up around 10 percent of turnover.

Many examples of Waterstones stationary feature designs from classics such as Jane Eyre or 1984, creating a consistent theme among the company’s entire catalogue.

Red Bar vs Scholars Bar

Patrick Wiseman on Red Bar’s universal appeal

Photo: A P Monblat, Wikicommons

A customer may go looking for a book but leave the store with a themed journal and bookmark to complement their original purchase. The intent behind this strategy is to position Waterstones as the place for people to go to who truly love books whereas a Kindle is used by those who really quite like them.

Another factor to consider is

how for some, acknowledgment of having read a book is just as important as actually having read it. The Managing Director of Waterstones, James Daunt, stated that Michael Wolff’s ‘Fire and Fury’ is the kind of book that will send readers into Waterstones rather than the Kindle marketplace, possibly because simply being seen reading it creates the opportunity

for conversation and debate.

Having read a certain book is now something to brag about.

Ultimately, Waterstones may have saved the mainstream physical books market with their strong focus on physical books as a specialised interest, encouraging those who are passionate about reading as a hobby to go to the only high street retailer that still truly caters to it.

Gove turns his back on free Matt Nixon: McDonald’s market environmentalism ethics have no substance Jack Ashton Comment Editor

Michael Gove’s transformation from a gas guzzling antienvironmentalist to a greenfingered member of government capable of giving Caroline Lucas a run for her money has been one of the only successful points of Theresa May’s government.

Gove entered the job as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in June 2016, and since then he’s introduced a ban on ivory sales, took action on microbeads and excess plastic, he’s introduced bigger penalties for animal cruelty and brought CCTV into slaughterhouses- and most recently, he’s published a comprehensive 25 year environmental strategy for the government, and honestly, it’s delicious.

Sure, you can point to the Tory’s poor environmental record, their commitment to fracking, raising taxes on solar panels and slashing wind subsidies, but at some point, the green Tories have to take power, and here we are.

Not only does the plan address the biggest cause of climate change, animal agriculture, but it also follows Gove’s departure from the free market approach. Just like his earlier reforms, the plan is full of regulations, clampdowns on wasteful land usage, hazardous waste and on emissions. We’ve reached the point where the party of the free market is realising that when it comes to the environment, the free market just won’t cut it.

Defenders of the market will happily, and rightfully, point to it’s successes in lowering global poverty, but when it comes to the environment, they’re left clinging to isolated examples. “Amazon made X eco friendly,” or “McDonalds is doing X for the environment,” but the fact of the matter is, corporations and businesses aren’t moving fast enough on their environmental side.

Gove, finally, has recognised this, and instead of leaving the fate of the planet in the hands of the free market, he’s decided to take matters into his own hands. Guess there really is no government without Gove.

McDonald’s latest invention, the creatively named ‘McVegan’ burger, might seem like a good idea and another choice for those of us who for one reason or another eat a more restrictive diet than meat eaters.

But make no minced-steak (get it?

Mistake. Minced steak… yeah?), McDonald’s is serving us a raw deal.

True, it’ll be nice for vegans to eat something other than their mate’s chips at the largest fast food chain in the world.

However, for the multinational corporation who generated a total revenue of $24.6 billion in 2016, this is clearly an attempt to profit off of a growing movement concerned with ethics and the protection of the planet – motives which McDonald’s has no care for.

For a company which spent over $1.46 billion in 2016 on advertising themselves as a “green”, “organic”, and “caring” organization, McDonald’s is not exactly Greenpeace.

If vegans are so concerned about being ethical, then they should not be supporting companies which are blatantly not. Yes, McDonald’s

decision can be seen as a positive response to the vegan impact on market trends, but we as ethical consumers can make better choices, and we can push McDonald’s to go further.

Even today, McDonald’s still uses palm oil (not in their products, but in their frying), which is causing deforestation in some of the world’s most important rainforests, you know, those same ones McDonald’s swore they would leave alone in 1989 after they were exposed for farming beef there.

I hardly even need to mention the impact McDonald’s has on global warming through farming cattle, their heavy use of chemicals, their unnecessary packaging and transport arrangements and their myth of ‘humane slaughter’ for their blatant pretense about ethics to become obvious.

As is usually the case, they’re another company which puts profit first and environmental standards second.

Just like their burgers, McDonald’s ethics have no substance.

Anyone who’s been in both the Red Bar and the Scholars Bar will be surprised that there is any contest as to which is better. For a start, the atmosphere in Red Bar is lively, ecstatic and all-round happy, and get this- it’s actually busy! Scholars, on the other hand, has an atmosphere comparable to dull beige tones of a computer science lecturer’s Wednesday suit.

As if that wasn’t enough, even the snacks in Scholar’s bar aren’t up to scratch. You walk in, hungry from your countless seminarswhat do you want? Pack of crisps?

Probably not. Hit up Red Bar and have a pizza, chips- a whole damn meal for that matter. The world’s your oyster- unless you want anything else that isn’t pizza... then you’ll struggle.

The only arguable thing better in Scholars’ Bar is that a game of pool is 50p instead of £1- but it’s a small price to pay.

Nick Stokes argues for Scholars’ little comforts Scholars bar has been, in no uncertain terms, my home away from home for the last two years.

It offers an irreplaceable service a space to work, drink, play darts and pool without being shouted down by the huddled, Snakebite drinking masses.

The bar staff are friendly and they’re always the same faces so you get to know the people that work there. This is also true of the rest of the people working around you - there’s a mutual respect for your fellow scholars patrons that can’t be replicated down in Red Bar. I’m very much of the opinion that not only is it the best bar on campus, it’s the best work space, almost exponentially better than the library. Compared with Red Bar, there’s no competition - the range of drinks, the space, the vibe, the cheaper pool table and the view of campus are unbeatable.

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Science

2

Mystery over mass death of antelopes

Ancient rainbow dinosaur found Samhita Chaudhuri Science Writer

Alex Millard Senior Science Reporter

The mystery of why 200,000 antelopes in Kazakhstan dropped to the floor dead back in 2015 caused a major investigation.

Scientists have now come to believe that the mass die-off, which wiped out the majority of the world’s population of Saiga antelopes, was caused by environmental factors.

The cause of death was originally discovered to be from a bacterial infection.

While this is true, environmentalists have uncovered data which suggests that uncommonly high temperatures and humidity in the region may have also be responsible.

The bacterium usually lives within the antelope’s blood stream without causing a problem but the increased numbers had caused septicaemia, or blood poisoning, in the animals.

These factors were also found to occur in Asia twice previously, both preceding another mass die-off of the same species of antelope.

“Receptors are key for the coordination of environmental responses” Scientists are now investigating if the high temperatures and moisture in the air are allowing the bacteria causing the deaths to proliferate and enabling it to infect huge numbers at a time.

Professor Richard Kock of the Royal Veterinary College London has been quoted as saying that it is “very, very likely to happen again”.

Kock has warned that there is the possibility of a complete

extinction if this happens again before the antelope are able to stabilise their numbers.

Due to this he has stated the urgent need to halt other threats to the antelope’s lives such as “poaching and the spread of diseases from livestock”.

These particular antelopes are already classed as critically endangered and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) state that this is due to the illegal hunting for horns for use in Chinese medicine as well as loss of habitat. Scientists also believe that other wildlife species similar to the antelope, such as reindeer, could also be at risk of these mass die-offs.

Steffen Zuther, co-researcher at the Frankfurt Zoological Society has told us that “the triggering of such mass mortality events shows that not much can be done to prevent them from occurring” and that this is why “it is important to maintain populations of sufficient size to survive such catastrophes.”

Habitat fragmentation threatens ‘little tiger cats’

Photo: Flickr, Sam Beebe Hannah Brown Science Writer With only around 10,000 left in the wild, the “little tiger cat”, vulnerable to extinction, has been given a new breath of hope from scientists.

The güiña cat, the ‘little tiger cat’, has been studied by scientists at the University of Kent.

It has recently been discovered that they can live near to humans, and can even thrive, when it was previously thought they could only live in rainforests.

The güiña is about half the size of a house cat, and only lives in central and southern Chile and in a

small strip of Argentina.

The biggest threat to the güiña is humans, as their habitats are being destroyed and made smaller.

Farmers also kill them in fear that they will attack their chickens and other livestock.

Around ten percent of farmers had said they’d killed a güiña over the last ten years.

In the past 25 years however, around two-thirds of the rainforests of Chile have been destroyed for farmland, leaving the güiña cat struggling for food and shelter.

Now the little tiger cats can live near humans, this does raise hope for their survival.

Its biggest threat is that its

habitat is being squeezed into smaller and smaller areas.

Now that they may have a new habitat, it’s hoped that the little cat can breed and thrive, hopefully growing in numbers and no longer being at a risk of extinction.

The research on the güiña, published in the Journal of Applied Ecology, helps to provide scientists with a clearer picture of how all of the issues affecting the little tiger cat actually affect the survival of the species.

The approach used in the studies of the güiña could help with conservation efforts for other species of small-sized carnivores in other parts of the world.

At a farm in north-eastern China’s Hebei Province, a fossil of Caihong juji (C. juji), which is Mandarin for ‘rainbow with a big crest’, was discovered.

This is a fitting name for a 161 million-year-old dinosaur with a Velociraptor-like skull that has iridescent feathers on its head, wings and tail.

Scientists discovered the dinosaur’s colourful nature by examining its feathers using a scanning electron microscope, which showed evidence of melanosomes. This is the part of cells that contain pigment. Despite the colour having long faded away over time, the structure of the cell still remains intact.

The dinosaur, C. juji, is not

the first of its kind to sport such a feature.

The Microraptor, a four-winged dinosaur also had gleaming features. However, it existed 40 million years after C. juji, which makes the newly identified dinosaur the oldest to have shimmering feathers. It would have also had asymmetrical feathers, a trait that is shared by modern birds and helps them steer while flying.

While C. juji may have sported these feathers on its tail, they could have been used for early flight control, warmth and to attract mates. Not all of C. juji’s features are unusual for a dinosaur though. It had a bony head crust, but the body of an avian.

This combination of new and old traits is an example of mosaic evolution, the concept of change occurring in some parts of an animal but not others.

Amur leopard endangered Photo: Flickr, William Warby

Troy Fielder Science Writer A disease that commonly effects domesticated dogs has been added to the list of threats that have critically endangered Amur leopards (Panthera pardus orientalis).

So far, the list already includes illegal wildlife trade, habitat loss, fragmentation, and climate change.

The recent discovery of a two-yearold Amur leopard suffering from canine distemper virus (CDV) has led to this realisation.

Spotted on a roadside in Eastern Russia, the female leopard was said to show a “lack of fear towards humans” and a general detachment from her surroundings.

The leopard in question was soon immobilized and transported to a local care facility, by conservationists.

As well as refusing food and water, the leopard later developed “uncoordinated movements” and “severe hind limb contraction” that caregivers were unable to treat with medication.

The severity of the disease led to further decline and, eventually, the leopard had to be euthanised.

It is rare for cats to contract CDV, but it has previously been found that close contact with dogs can result in the disease’s occurrence in felines.

Once the disease is acquired, it can be easily spread between social cats.

Luckily, Amur leopards tend to be relatively solitary animals.

However, the threat remains very real for this dwindling species.

As few as 60 leopards remain in the wild, according to a paper published in The Journal of Wildlife Diseases; and as the population dwindles further, the effect of external shock on the species worsens, with potentially fatal consequences.

60

57

the estimated number of wild leopards remaining the estimated number in one Russian National Park in 2015

Active conservation efforts are being carried out by organisations such as WWF, which aims to work with local governments to ensure the protection and expansion of the Amur leopard population.

As apex predators in their natural habitats, conservation work like this will be crucial to the maintenance of the natural ecosystem of the environments.

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Astronaut’s campus visit out of this world Fingers crossed for the Forum Beth Papworth Science Editor NASA astronaut, Michael Foale, has commanded the International Space Station, rescued an out of control Russian space craft and flown six shuttle missions.

“The 60 year old has spent 373 days in space” On 24 January, Michael Foale visited the UEA campus to share his experiences with a lecture theatre packed with students and the public.

The 60 year old has spent 373 days in space and in 1995 he became the first Brit to perform a spacewalk, during which he saved the Hubble Space Telescope.

The event was hosted by the Pint of Science Group, in collaboration with the UEA Science Communication Society and the International Space School

Educational Trust.

During the much anticipated evening, there was footage of the astronaut’s journey into space.

Speaking to the audience, Foale said, “Going to the moon was what made me want to be an astronaut.”

His mother also encouraged him to follow his dreams by giving him space and science fiction books to read.

He also said, “I thought the only way to be an astronaut was to be a test pilot.”

Foale finished his PhD and on the third try of applying to be an astronaut, he finally succeeded.

6,000 people applied for the nationals and he was one of 15, who was selected.

Two thirds of the space team was made up of the military group.

In 1992, the astronaut had his first mission called Atlas, where they flew around the world for ten days and studied sunrises and sunsets to measure global warming and the ozone layer.

When he was launching the International Space Station, he spent 195 days on the ISS, including Christmas day.

The live footage played during the event showed Foale tumble turning and flipping in the air, making amusing videos for his family back home.

A member of the audience, Rachel Miller said, “It was such an enjoyable, informing, funny and interesting evening. Being able to have an insight on space travel from an astronaut, who has been to space was very special.”

She said Foale was inspiring with the dynamic host Chris Barber.

Plants sensory abilities discovered

Beth Papworth Science Editor Dependent on whether Norwich wins a national competition, British astronaut, Tim Peake’s spacecraft could make an appearance at The Forum.

The famous Soyuz capsule is set to be displayed at eight venues across the UK. It is a specialist rocket, enhanced by Space Descent VR, which exhibits a unique virtual reality adventure using Samsung Gear VR technology.

This places the public directly at the heart of Tim Peake’s journey from the International Space Station to Earth. The Forum have announced that they are one of five shortlisted sites in the competition to host the spaceship and virtual reality adventure.

Contingent on the success of the Soyuz capsule, it will feature as the centrepiece of Norwich Science Festival 2018.

Director of the Science Museum Group, Ian Blatchford, said: “This is the first time the Science Museum Group has toured one of its objects around the country, and what better object than the craft that brought Tim Peake safely back from space?”

The winning venue will be announced in March 2018, after much thought and consideration

by a panel of judges including Ian Blatchford, the UK Space Agency’s Human Spaceflight Manager Libby Jackson, Samsung’s James Eadie, and Director of the European Centre for Space Applications and Telecommunications, Magali Vaissiere.

Peake’s spacecraft is complete with a 25 metre parachute and is cost-free to visit all of the venues on the tour, across the UK.

“What better object than the craft that brought Tim Peake safely back from space?”

The producer of Norwich Science Festival, Natalie Bailey, said: “We are delighted to be shortlisted to host this inspiring part of space history. The tour fits perfectly with the aims of the Festival and The Forum to engage and inspire young people in order to develop further interests in science. Fingers crossed!”

Rewilding: Edward Grierson explains the ecological benefits

Ruth Dickens Science Writer Without the traditional sensory organs we associate with our own 5 senses, you’d be forgiven for assuming plants detect their environment differently to us.

However, the membrane protein receptors found in plants are strikingly similar to our own.

Known as Leucine-Rich Repeat (LRR) receptor kinases, they detect chemical signals, such as the surface proteins of pathogens, and trigger cellular responses.

In a world with a constantly changing environment and a rapidly growing demand for food, plant resistance is an important area of study.

Little at a cellular level occurs in isolation, though, with many membrane proteins known to join together and form complexes in

order to detect signals and trigger responses.

An international team led by Youssef Belkhadir, at the Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology, Austria, undertook 40,000 interaction tests on over 400 LRRreceptor kinases.

The labs of David Guttman and Darrell Desveaux at the University of Toronto, Canada, Cyril Zipfel at The Sainsbury Laboratory, UK, and Shahid Mukhtar at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, all built on Belkhadir’s work to create the first network map of 200 receptors.

Shahid Mukhtar said, “This is pioneering work to identify the first layer of interactions among these proteins.

An understanding of these interactions could lead to ways to increase a plant’s resistance to pathogens, or to other stresses like heat, drought, salinity or cold

shock.”

Before this study, the functions of only a few of the over 600 LRRreceptor kinases were known, and even less was understood about how they worked together.

Nowadays, receptors are key for the coordination of environmental responses.

APEX is one receptor whose removal disrupts plant immunity, despite not being directly associated with the receptors involved with the response.

The network map, published in Nature, provides a more complete picture of the molecular processes involved in a plant’s response to environmental changes, in particular attacks from pathogens.

It forms a vital basis for future research into crop genetics that will allow our commercial crops to be more resistant to disease and climate change.

Rewilding allows habitats to be shaped by natural processes, without human intervention.

In Britain, the uplands are ideally where we should concentrate our efforts: here the population in lowareas such as the Scottish Highlands are among the least populated areas in Europe-and the management practices are often unsustainable and heavily subsidised.

Deforestation is one of the threats to biodiversity in tropical countries, hence the efforts to restore rainforest in Borneo, the Amazon and the Congo.

Less well-known is the historic deforestation in Western countries, and nowhere more so than Britain.

The landscape in much of Britain’s uplands, characterised by open vistas and barren hills and mountains, is assumed by many people to be natural.

Reportedly, we have less than one percent of our original forests?

Without active human management of the uplands, what we would get would be a mixture of habitats, including closedcanopy pine forest, birch woodland, coastal oakwood, moor and bog.

The management practices in question are intensive grazing by sheep and artificially high numbers of deer, or burning to maintain artificially high numbers of grouse.

It is these practices that have replaced ecologically rich

and diverse habitats in the uplands with comparatively simplistic ones: mostly heather and grassland monocultures.

The common assertion that “moorland is internationally rare habitat” ignores the fact that heather is a colonist of deforested land-its abundance in Britain is because the aforementioned management practices prevent other habitats being established.

This leaves Britain’s uplands ecologically impoverishedScottish moorland supports only three percent of priority species, compared to woodland which supports 39 perceny.

Trees for Life have restored over 4000 hectares of Caledonian pine forest by creating deer exclosures and planting over a million trees since 1989.

In Caithness and Sutherland, 5,000 hectares of peat bog has been restored by blocking drainage ditches and felling conifer plantations, creating vital wader and wildfowl habitat that will sequester 400 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.

Schemes like the Pumlumon Project in Wales have also demonstrated sustainable methods of upland farming. by replacing sheep with Welsh White cattle and keeping livestock in enclosures, to reduce grazing pressure on the landscape while providing grassland habitat for rare waders.

Travel The "Gibraltarian bubble" 20

Megan Furr Travel Writer

Located at the gateway to the Mediterranean, Gibraltar offers a kind of magical uniqueness lovingly encapsulated within its own little Gibraltarian bubble.

This British outpost encapsulates a significant quantity of fascinating culture, which is somewhat surprising given that Gibraltar, in essence, is dominated by a large rock. Looking beyond the territorial dispute regarding sovereignty, Gibraltar contrasts British familiarity with the excitement of discovering a new and interesting place.

One of the so-called ‘Pillars of Hercules,’ the Rock of Gibraltar is a domineering profile blemished with old cannonball marks, representative of centuries of

30th January 2018

defensive warfare. It is also home to the infamous barbary macaque monkeys. The only wild monkey population in Europe, they are central to the Gibraltarian national consciousness.

"Gibraltar contrasts British familiarity with the excitement of discovering a new and interesting place" During World War Two, Winston Churchill personally

ordered the numbers of monkeys to be replenished, as they were seen as vitally important to morale. A popular belief suggests as long as the Barbary macaques exist on the rock, the territory will remain under British rule.

The Rock of Gibraltar is also home to the supposedly ‘bottomless’ St Michael’s Cave. The Upper Cave has become a beautiful concert venue enhanced by natural stalactites and stalagmites.

Organised tours are also available for exploring the Lower caves.

Although the Rock is accessible by walking, a cable car journey allows for amazing panoramic views. Taxi tours are available; however these are very popular and can get busy.

Panoramic views can be further experienced at Europa point, where the best views of both Europe and Africa can be found.

One important aspect of Gibraltar’s cultural identity is the accumulation of rich history through experiencing periods of Moorish, Spanish and finally British rule. This can be seen in the varying fusions of architecture such as the beautiful Cathedral of the Holy Trinity and the Moorish Castle.

The Great Siege Tunnels, within the infamous rock, also highlights the impressive defence system used to protect Gibraltar from French and Spanish forces during the 18th century. For history enthusiasts, the Gibraltar Museum offers a great general overview of Gibraltarian history.

Host to a suitably warm climate, Gibraltar is home to some wonderfully underrated beaches such as the Catalan Bay and Eastern Beach. Dolphin safari trips are a worthwhile experience as many

dolphins visit the bay.

Further inland, Gibraltar’s main street hosts many recognisably British shops, with the added bonus of duty-free prices as no VAT tax is charged, made easier through Gibraltar’s sterling currency.

Unfortunately, shortage of land has led to large amounts of reclamation so accommodation is consequently limited, and expensive on a student budget, however Airbnb offer cheaper alternatives.

Although Gibraltar retains great affinity with the United Kingdom they have their own distinctive character shaped their unique history as a place of strategic importance.

Gibraltar could be seen as an expensive place to travel, it is worth the expense and can be equally experienced on either a long weekend or longer holiday.

Of boats and books Bernard-Verougstraete, Pixabay

Chloe Crowther Travel Writer

I recently set out to visit ten of the best independent bookshops in the world, as recommended to me

by Guardian readers, in an article

by Marta Bausells. Two on the list struck me as being rather odd, for they were on the water…why would anyone dare to sell books on the water?! As I pondered this, I was already on-board the Vaporetto in the magical city of Venice, Italy, heading towards Liberia Acqua Alta and, I hoped, an answer to this very question.

Liberia, Acqua Alta is literally a treasure island. Surrounded by Venice’s world-renowned canals, it is a bookshop which has adapted to live on the water, like some tenacious new species in nature. Everything’s in a waterproof container of some kind; gondolas, bathtubs, even wheelbarrows. Acqua Alta is a haven of books, designed to float

Sebestian Rieger, Flickr

away at a moment’s notice.

I learnt from a friendly bookseller - as I scrambled through this organised chaos of paper and binding, gondolas and cats who come to the bookshop to find shelter from the wet– that the bookshop has indeed flooded in the past, waterlogging much of the merchandise. You would suppose that this would deter any passionate

bibliophile, however the people of Venice are, after all, accustomed to living with the canals. Their solution here at Liberia Acqua Alta was to recycle the books damaged by the flood into furniture, resulting in a most unique tourist attraction; the staircase of books. Tied together in bundles with string, their waterlogged pages peeping out along the edges, I felt the individual

pages sag beneath my tread.

Now I can go to my grave in the knowledge that I have climbed up books… although this seems to me to be the next logical step for an avid reader and bibliophile to take- pun intended!

The mildewed stench of damp paper permeates the air; I can’t tell whether Liberia Acqua Alta has done enough to ensure its glorious survival, but it’s not the only brave little bookshop voyaging out on the tide. In fact, its spiritual sister is literally on the water – Word on the Water is a boat in London, upon which its owner, Jonathan R. Privett (alias ‘The Professor’) sells books.

The inspiration behind Jacques in Nina George’s The Little Paris Bookshop, The Professor is a true bohemian beatnik, shrouded in clouds of cigarette smoke. Our conversation competed with the insistent barks of Sasha, the dog, as we sat by the woodstove, ensconced in the cosy vacuum of the present moment. And the rarity of this

experience was not lost on me, for the independent bookshop is an endangered species, due to the closure of many stores around the world.

The Professor talked about losing these shops like he was grieving.

But for all the fallen comrades we mourn, we both remained hopeful for the future of the independent bookshop. The professor was keen to highlight that bookshops are disappearing because of hiked-up rent prices…not because of any general loss of love for reading. As I departed the boat of books, moored near London’s Olympic Park, I reentered the busy capital with a new appreciation for individuality. We must fight for the right of these booksellers to share their originality with the world; that’s why we need articles like Ms Bausells.

If these two unique floating examples prove anything, it’s that the power of the written word can overcome even the most unlikely of obstacles.

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30th January 2018

The joy of collecting souvenirs Beverly Devakishen Travel Editor Souvenirs are a people’s way of taking and keeping a tiny piece of a foreign land with them.

They’re a physical reminder of all the memories that one makes on a holiday, and they’re often a reference to some part of the country’s culture too.

My family has been collecting magnets from every place they have been to for years, but I myself have only recently gotten into the habit of making sure that I buy a souvenir from each city I go to.

I got inspired to collect souvenirs when I was travelling in Italy and I came across beautiful paintings done by artists who had set up on the roadside in Rome.

They were painting pictures of the scenery around them, and each painting was unique in its own way.

I bought one from a lovely painter who was situated in the middle of a bridge, and I remember my short encounter with him till this day.

I loved the small painting of the Trevi Fountain that I ended up buying from him, which made me

realised how much I liked having a physical remembrance of a city.

I especially liked the fact that it was a visual representation of the city, so I started to collect pretty postcards and artwork from the subsequent places that I went to.

“Postcards and paintings are still pretty basic when it comes to souvenirs though. My brother’s collection, on the other hand, is anything but typical” Now, my room's walls are cluttered with beautiful paintings and postcards from Italy, and I love that I only have to look at them to remember how wonderful my twoweek trip to the country was and feel like I've been transported back.

Postcards and paintings are still pretty basic when it comes to

souvenirs though. My brother’s collection, on the other hand, is anything but typical. He collects dragons. In each country that we go to, my brother manages to find an elegant glass figure of a dragon, a stuffed toy dragon, a beautifully painted ceramic dragon or any type of dragon that he can lay his hands on.

While I never used to understand this, I recently realised how each dragon is a reflection of the culture that they come from, and that collecting them can be pretty interesting.

In Venice, for example, he got a dragon that was fashioned in a typical Murano glass style. In Vietnam, he got a figurine of a long dragon that was significant in Vietnamese mythology.

In England, my brother bought a Harry Potter dragon figurine from The Shambles in York. The Shambles are famous for being the real Diagon Alley, so I suppose that rather than a boring old Harry Potter t-shirt, my brother opted for a

dragon to remind him of the place.

Souvenirs are a nice little way of capturing the culture of a place that you’ve been to. Whether you collect magnets, postcards or dragons, it’s always nice to have a collection of things that you can look at and smile because they remind you of all the places in the world that you’ve been to.

Wikimedia commons, Tichnor Borthers, Publisher , USGOVPD,, Dave ,Flickr, Pamla J. Eisenberg,

To travel alone or with company?

Travel writer Tatjana Grecuik measures the benefits of solo travel loneliness, because you can always meet new people on your way. Solo trips will overcome your shyness and make you more social and openminded. Finally, the boundaries are defined by you and only you. If you want to eat pizza until you die or to parachute above the sea, noone stops you.

"Sometimes, there is simply nothing better than creating memories with your loved ones" Lucas Allman, Pexels

Many people find traveling alone intimidating, while others consider it a life time experience. Strolls on your own can be lonely, but at the same time can give you time away from the whole world and leave you to your thoughts.

Your friends or family in turn give you a sense of protection and cheer you up, but sometimes can

be superfluous. So, does exploring new places in the world require your whole attention, or should it be shared with someone by your side?

Traveling solo definitely has many positive sides and sometimes is the best solution. People who are always at home chased by routine would find a solo trip peaceful and relaxing. Solo does not necessarily

mean lonely if it provides you with independence and a freedom of choice. Doing what you want, when you want and how you want has no need to find compromises and wait for others. This type of traveling challenges and changes you letting find out your behaviour in different situations.

There is no need to fear

The worst side of solo trips is getting a sad vibe. There will always be at least one moment in which you will really miss your friends and family. It might be stressful to be alone among people of different culture and language. So, make sure you start from short trips. Don’t run to Alaska to find yourself.

Sometimes there is simply nothing better than creating memories with your loved ones.

If someone holds your hand while standing on the top of the mountain, or jumping into the water from a rock, of course it feels magical.

Exploring a new place can feel wrong when someone right is missing. You can always count on a good conversation whenever you feel like. In some unpredictable situations, a presence of travel partner is essential.

If you get sick, someone is there to give you a tissue. In case of money lost, you can rely on your companion, and if you get lost, two heads are better than one. Many people choose traveling together to save money. You can split the cost of accommodation, food, transport and get discounts on group activities and tours. The missing part in these trips is your private space. Do not expect your companion to disappear when you need some privacy. Shared trips also mean communication which sometimes include arguments leading to uncomfortable situations.

Choose your travel partner properly to share unforgettable moments.

Both forms of traveling have pros and cons, so it depends on personal preferences which one you choose. Think about what you want to get from a trip and what could make it better: a good company or some time alone.

30th January 2018

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Sport

Ex-England Captain Jimmy Armfield dies The football legend was described as a “national hero”, after his death aged 82 Beth Papworth Sport Reporter

“His two great loves were family and football” Released in a statement from his relatives, they said: “He has passed away in a peaceful way, surrounded by his immediate family. We have many wonderful messages of love and support, for which we are grateful, and moved by all the kind words”.

The family thanked all of the NHS staff, who have kept Armfield, and the family, as well as possible over the ten years of suffering with cancer. Trinity Hospice in Blackpool made a huge difference to Jimmy as he passed away, pain free.

His relatives said that his two great loves were first, his family, to which he was devoted and loved dearly. The other was football, especially Blackpool, England and

his colleagues at the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA).

As the family attempts to come to terms with Jimmy’s death, they extended their thanks to all of those involved in helping Jimmy fight cancer.

During his life, Armfield was chosen for a CBE in 2009 for services to the Lancashire community. He also had roles in management with Bolton and Leeds, before moving into broadcasting, where he spent more than 30 years working for the BBC. Tributes have been posted on social media from the football world, including the FA and Match of the Day’s Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer.

Sir Bobby Cholton, who played in the same Army teams as Armfield during their national service, said: “I knew the man as well as the player, and it was not by chance that we stayed in touch long after we both retired”.

Reportedly, Blackpool football class is donating proceeds from its home game on Saturday against Charlton Athletic to Trinity Hospice, where Armfield spent his final days.

Photo: Angstpristine, Wikimedia Commons

something

different

festival

Former England captain Jimmy Armfield has passed away, after suffering from an arduous battle with cancer. For the second time in 2017, he was diagnosed with the disease.

Armfield was involved in Sir Alf Ramsey’s 1966 World Cup winning squad. Despite not being able to attend the tournament due to an injury, he still received a winners’ medal. Over an impressive career that lasted over 17 years, he played 627 matches for Blackpool.

A spokesperson from Blackpool Football Club said the club was “deeply saddened to learn of the passing of its record appearance holder and vice-president”. Their heartfelt condolences go out to his wife Anne, his two sons, Duncan and John, and the rest of the Armfield family.

The prior football captain was in charge of Blackpool for more than ten years and won 43 caps for England. The recently constructed South Stand was erected in

Armfield’s honour in 2010, with a statue commissioned by the Blackpool Supporters’ Association outside the ground a year later.

19th - 26th feb fInd out more: ueadifferent.com

30th January 2018

23

North and South Korea unite for Winter Olympics Jack Ashton Sport Reporter History was made along the 38th parallel earlier this month when North Korea and South Korea came to an agreement to march together under one flag at the Winter Olympics. The two countries will also share various facilities throughout the competition, including fielding a joint Ice Hockey team and allowing their skiers to train together.

The joint flag, a blue silhouette on a white background, has been used in multiple events since the split in 1945, but this breakthrough represents both the progress of several days of talks between the two countries, as well as the potential for further future negotiations and cross country relations.

This is not the first time sport

has crossed into the political, and certainly not the first time sport has had a defiant impact on the lives of everyday people.

Many readers will remember the joint team for refugees in the 2016 Olympics. At the height of the European Migrant Crisis, the Refugee Olympic Team took athletes who had escaped from various countries and allowed them to compete under the banner of the Olympic rings. The team fielded 10 competitors across 3 sports, including the swimmer Yusri Mardini who swam to the coast of Greece after her boat broke down.

In the midst of the doping scandals that rocked the athletic world, the International Olympic committee banned a large portion of Russian athletes from entering the 2018 Winter Olympics following the release of a report by the World

Anti-Doping Agency.

Certain athletes have been allowed to compete if they’ve had no previous drug related offences, however the punishment was criticised as being too punitive by Jack Robertson, the primary investigator of the Russian Doping program, as a “non-punitive punishment meant to save face while protecting the [IOC’s] and Russia’s commercial and political interests.”

Going back in time a bit, few would go through life without hearing of Jesse Owens, the black athlete who competed at the 1936 Olympic Games held in Nazi Germany. Hitler planned to use the game to showcase Aryan excellence, but when Owens won 4 gold medals, the Nazi leader chose to shake none of the winners hands, just to avoid shaking Owens’s. Despite being American, Owens also wasn’t

invited to the White House to shake hands with the president either. The show of defiance, after many had asked him not to compete was a humiliation for Germany.

It is not just the Olympics which have been this political football; America’s National Football League has been the centre of political protests for the last year or so. The original protests began when Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the national anthem in response to the police brutality against black Americans. Kaepernick, a successful activist who devotes particular time to young black communities, did so against a huge backlash from white America. Although alone at the time, the protests have caught on, and many players now routinely take a knee during the anthem to show their support for the black community.

These events, and more, go to show that nothing is ever just what it appears, and the political can be found anywhere.

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the number of times South Korea has hosted the Winter Olympics

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the number of Taekwondo atheletes that will be sent from North Korea the number of medals South Korea won at all the Winter Olympics the number of Winter Olympics North Korea has competed in

UEA Golf beat Birmingham Sophie Christian Sport Editor On Wednesday 17 January, UEA Golf 1’s team welcomed top of the league Birmingham 2nd at Eaton Golf Club. This match would be a tough one for the home team as they struggled to secure 5 points from a possible 18 before the twosides met (one win, two draws, two losses).

Optiknv, Wikimedia

Canary Corner: what’s up at Carrow Road?

“The match fell down to the president of UEA Golf ” Teeing off the match was Maveen Kumar, leading the UEA side, who had a tricky opponent as he never seemed to miss a fairway all round. The match was tight throughout but Maveen secured the first point for UEA winning 2up on the 18th hole. His highlight of the round being a great birdie on the 15th after almost driving the par 4 in 1.

UEA Golf’s second player was Will Potts, who’s match was equally close. After fighting back from 3 down with a birdie on 16 and a long putt on 17, he found himself AS heading down the 18th. However, a poor approach shot which later led to a double bogie cost him the match to even up the scores at onea-piece.

Third out was Jamie Kerr, who’s lack of confidence having not played since November proved to take an effect on his game as he found himself 4 down early on. However, Jamie managed to find his feet in the match with some steady golf, the highlight being a 215 yard 4 iron out of a fairway bunker on the 16th hole which led to a tap in

Luke Bennett takes a swing for UEA Golf. Photo: Will Potts eagle. After which, Jamie secured UEA’s second point with a 3&2 win, making the overall score-line 2-1 in favour of UEA. Next up was captain, Charlie Monk, who was fourth out and had been recently won 3 out of his last 5 BUCS matches prior to the winter break. He followed this up with a convincing 5&4 win, showing no signs of his game being rusty and increasing UEA’s lead to 3-1.

Brandon Hobley played out in the penultimate group. After a close match throughout, he came up just short to lose 2&1 on the 17th, securing Birmingham another point making the total score 3-2.

This meant that the match fell down to the president of UEA Golf, Luke Bennett, who was out in the final pairing of the day.

Bennett was unbeaten for the

season going into the fixture and clinched a birdie on the first hole.

He saw out his match early, winning 7&6 by the 12th hole.

This match saw UEA perform incredibly well. A win at home to Leicester on 24 January 4.5-1-5 further secured the team’s optimism for the season.

The President of UEA Golf, Luke Bennett, told Concrete: “The team is climbing the table nicely going into their next fixture away to the Birmingham 3’s.:” UEA Golf are also looking to defend their title, as they boasted an unbeaten 16/17 season last year, which saw them gain a promotion as well as win the Conference Cup. Last year, Concrete reporter Owen Clouting reported 2016/2017 was a turning point for the club, after they moved to Eaton Golf Club.

Norwich crashed out of the Carabao Cup earlier this month after a scintillating third round replay against 9-man Chelsea.

The Canaries had managed to clinch a second game after their hard fought 0-0 draw at Carrow Road earlier this month- a game which at several points could’ve been won- but their high hopes were not lived up to upon their visit to Stamford Bridge.

In a game that was delayed 15 minutes due to travel issues, both sides came close in the first half, with Gunn managing to fingertip Danny Drinkwater’s shot onto the bar and Willy Caballero denying Norwich fans the lead they wanted so badly. Both sides’ defences seemed to be holding up well, and unlike the previous game, there was an abundance of chances, Chelsea fans were left fruitless after Cesar Azpilicueta failed to convert an early cross, and the collective gasp of the travelling Norwich supporters could be heard throughout London after the crossbar was the only thing to deny them an early lead.

Something had to give in the second half, and it wasn’t long before the Premier League champions took an early lead after Michy Batshuayi converted Kenedy’s low cross, securing his first goal for the club since October.

Chelsea are yet to lose a game from a winning position this season, and usually these ties are put to bed, however the resilience of the Norwich players proved to test their resolve. Norwich star

man, James Maddison tested Willy Caballero with a smartly taken free kick, a trademark which has seen Tottenham scouting his talents, and Josh Murphy’s strike was stopped only by the post.

Chelsea failed time and time again to see of the Norwich threat, and in the 94th minute James Maddison’s inch perfect cross was found the back of the net thanks to a Jamal Lewis header, sending the game into extra time.

It was here in which the headlines were made, with Chelsea having 2 men sent off and multiple penalty appeals denied. Willian’s surge into the box was cut short when he was seemingly clipped on the ankle, resulting in an extremely animated Antonio Conte calling for the Video Assistant Referee to be used- a request which was denied.

The same happened when Pedro waltzed past the tiring Norwich defence, only this time, the Chelsea man received a second yellow for diving, and was sent off. To make matters worse for the blues, star striker Morata was sent off following two yellow cards in ten seconds, one for diving, one for protesting the decision. VAR was not used in any of the 3 events.

0-0 after extra time, the game progressed to penalties, and unluckily for the travelling Norwich fans, Chelsea converted all five of theirs, with Willy Caballero coming out on top out of the goalkeepers, saving two penalties and ensuring a Chelsea victory.

Jack Ashton

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30h January 2018

Sport

UEA’s Volley-ant effort Beth Papworth Sport Reporter

Photo: Harry Sandford

UEA’s ladies first division volleyball team played in a BUCS match against Coventry University, in a neck-and-neck game that left spectators eagerly anticipating the players’ every move. Coventry University battled against UEA for five sets.

The President of Volleyball, Harry Sandford said: “The girls have done very well this season, especially with four new players, who have such talent”. He added: “Gaia Bertazzon is the best libero I’ve seen in a while as she is always in the right place at the right time and is also very fast.”

After a very tight first set, UEA were triumphant and managed to win the first set off Coventry 25-21.

However, the second set proved to be more challenging, with Coventry grabbing the set 25-18. Whilst both teams were drawing, UEA decided to use Victoria Ogonkova to set up the point, with her consistent and strong passes. Harry Sandford spoke about the progression of the game against Coventry and said: “We would have had more options with Charlotte here, but she is

on placement. Due to Joanna’s specialist position and our strongest player’s absence, Joanna is not allowed to play back court, where she usually plays”.

Coventry appeared to have the advantage as one of UEA’s key players, Charlotte, was missing.

Therefore, Coventry were able to take the third set 25-19. Despite Coventry’s victory in the third set, this encouraged UEA to step up their game and return with a fighting spirit. At the time out period, UEA decided to put on their Captain, Joanna Pasourakou from the outside position to serve the first ball. As a result of this carefully planned decision, Joanna won multiple points with her powerful winning shots.

UEA nabbed the fourth set 2521. At two sets all, Coventry and UEA were head-to-head in the final set and battled the last fifteen points out.

With a matter of only five points in the final set, Coventry only just won 15-10. In spite of a gruelling and competitive BUCS match, the ladies were pleased at their efforts against a team that are currently ranked as number one in the league.

Their next match is against Oxford Brookes on 31 January.

Women’s Basketball defeat Oxford Amy Choi Sport Reporter Women’s basketball continued their streak in the first two weeks of term against Oxford, winning at home and away in consecutive bouts. As Oxford were second in the league, UEA were wary at first and started out tenuously.

“UEA were still up by the half with a score of 23-22.”

Their nerves were coupled with the fact that they only had five players available for the game and no coach to guide them through.

However, UEA were still up by the half with a score of 23-22. After the half UEA changed their defence to a zone, with Silke Arets, Emma Jiang, and Hana Sztepanov commanding from the baseline.

This change of defence helped massively, as UEA were able to defend Oxford’s inside shots and get the rebound for the fast break on the opposite end.

Flikr, Carine06 Photo: Nicole Clancey The third quarter won UEA the game, keeping Oxford to just 6 points, making it 46-28 going into the fourth. All UEA then had to do was keep calm and make simple passes to use up the time and not commit too many turnovers. The

overall score was 61-40 to UEA, of which Giulia Corsetti-Antonini scored 24, an amazing first victory back and with only five players having to play the whole game.

A special shout out to Emma for playing her first 40 minute game

and for holding her own on defence and offence.

UEA then faced Oxford again this week, but this time it was away.

Having gained confidence from last week’s victory, UEA had a high intensity from the start, with Giulia

and Hana both making great drives into the key to get some tough lay ups. Saori Furukawa lit up from distance throughout the game, dropping three pointers with ease.

UEA already knew Oxford’s tactics and so the zone defence worked well again, with Choi, Silke, and Hana working hard to defend Oxford’s best players in the paint, whilst also getting rebounds against Oxford’s tall line up.

Amber Wang, Giulia, and Saori were able to get several steals which enabled UEA some quick points on the fast break.

The passing was sublime on the offensive end, with UEA taking their time to get each other open for shots or the opportunity to drive in.

The second half epitomised how well UEA played, since in both the third and fourth quarters combined, they held Oxford to 6 points overall.

The final score was 65 - 22, 21 of those points scored by Hana who had a great second half and also hustled hard to get rebounds on both ends.

These victories put UEA women’s basketball in a good position to win the league, but they are not ready to be complacent and look to continue their winning streak of 14 and 0 next week against Northampton at home.