‘Private schools still
Inside....
Best and worst student letting agencies to use Living pg. 22
INSID ISSUE THIS E...
dominate our society this must change’
2 BURG-FOR-1 ER & with SIDE
Comment pg. 13
Should you be cutting down on alcohol? Wellbeing pg. 19
epigram
est. 1988
The University of Bristol’s Independent Student Newspaper
pg.37
Fortnightly 5th November 2018 Issue 331 Celebrating 30 years
‘Men don’t face discrimination for being men’
Bristol SU reject idea for ‘Men’s Officer’ Zoë Crowther
Students’ Union Correspondent
• •
UWE SU spark debate after canidate for ‘men’s officer’ steps down NUS said the controversy was a ‘vile, undemocratic shambles
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Bristol launches BME powerlist Grad Chanté Joseph & SU exec Samantha Budd Story inside pg. 4
ristol SU Officers have told Epigram that they would ‘oppose’ the role of a Men’s Officer, after UWE Students’ Union attempted to intoduce the position. Stanford, Bristol’s Union Affairs Officer and Sally Patterson, Liberation, Equality and Access Officer, both strongly disagree with the role, and ‘would oppose something equivalent at Bristol.’ Stanford did, however, suggest that ‘that’s a conversation for our students to have if they feel it is necessary.’ Bristol SU has networks for under-represented
student demographics, including women, members of the LGBT+ and trans communities, BME students and those from low income backgrounds. According to Stanford, comparisons should not be made between men’s struggles and the problems faced by these groups: ‘I don’t believe men are a liberation group. And I do not believe that men face discrimination for being men. ‘Men are seriously well represented, if not overrepresented, in leadership roles from the top to the bottom of our institution. Liberation is about historic and institutionalised forms of oppression such as that faced by women and LGBT+ communities. Men are not historically oppressed, and thus not a liberation group.’ UWE Students’ Union introduced three part-time officer positions in this October’s by-elections, including a Men’s Officer, Women’s Officer and Transgender Officer. Continued on page 3
BeMankind wins Bristol’s Health Campaign of the Year Olivia Duggan Third Year, Theology
• • •
Bristol student’s campaign, focused on male mental health, wins regional award Campaign aims to encourage men to speak openly about their mental health Huxtable: ‘it is vital we keep encouraging people to be open’
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ristol student Olivia Huxtable’s Be Mankind campaign has been awarded the ‘Health campaign of the year’ at the 2018 Bristol and Bath Health and Care Awards. The campaign’s aim has been to start a conversation and destroy the stigma surrounding men’s mental health. The campaign consisted of two parts. In 2017, Huxtable interviewed over 35 males from Bristol University, including students, staff and alumni, about both their mental health experiences. Huxtable uploaded photos of the men mid-conversation,
EpigramPaper
concentrating on their body language, with the intention of encouraging other men to communicate their thoughts. For the second part, in 2018, Huxtable interviewed over 100 men, questioning how mental health has directly impacted their lives. Huxtable told Epigram: ‘In these interviews, participants talked openly about suicide attempts, self-harm and the stresses of university.’ She added: ‘It’s vital we keep encouraging people of all ages and gender to be open and to talk about how they’re truly feeling.’
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The campaign believes that physical activities encourage a positive well-being by giving men a sense of belonging, and aims to provide a community that gives men not a cure but an escape. One participant, a kickboxer, spoke openly about trying to take his own life. In his interview, he emphasised how important it is to speak out about the stigma surrounding male mental health. The Bristol and Bath Health and Care awards was created to recognise organisations and people who help others in the community.
Editorial S
Ed Southgate co-Editor-in-Chief
Deputy Editor: Nikki Peach
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Sub-editors: Nina Bryant (News), Eleanor Holmes (Features), Phoebe Chase (Comment), Rebecca Scott (Science), Hendrike Rahtz (Living), Anna Hart (Wellbeing), Erin Lawler (Food), Eloisa Griffiths (Travel), Laura Mallinson (Style), Eleanor Gunn (Film & TV), Eleanor Tarr (Arts), Guy Marcham (Music), Kezi James (Puzzles) Managing Director Frankie McNab Director of Communications Tara Lidstone Director of Finance Ben Woods Head of Ads and Sales Joshua Varghese Head of Marketing Emily Lowes Epigram is the independent student newspaper of the University of Bristol. The views expressed in this publication are not those of the University or the Students’ Union. The design, text and photographs are copyright of Epigram and its individual contributors and may not be reproduced without permission.
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Epigram / Phoebe Chase
o, I’m back again to write another editorial, and luckily I am starting this two and a half hours before the deadline, instead of 30 minutes - which is lucky, considering I am thinking of what to cover as I type. As I just mentioned my deadline for this, it perhaps makes sense to start with that topic, seeing as that dreaded word is buzzing around campus a lot at the moment. It is mad to think that we have already arrived at Week Five - and Week Six by the time this issue is published - and that unfortunately does mean, for so many of us, that coursework deadlines are looming. With this, it can be all too easy to hibernate in our rooms or, God forbid, spend all our waking hours in the library. I am certainly guilty of this, and when it feels like you have so much to do, it is hard to take yourself away to relax and enjoy yourself. This, I’m sure, is especially true if your brain works in anyway like mine and just will not switch off from thinking about everything I have to do. I am not here to patronisingly remind you that study breaks are important (praise the ASS for now putting break cards on our desks so everyone can now see that the individual working hard at this particular desk has given themselves some ‘me-time’, for a maximum of 45 minutes) but I do want to stress the importance of not shutting yourself away from others. This can be as simple as studying with somoene. It is a very underrated sensation to be partnered up with someone in the ASS who can share in your uncontested dread of the looming essay deadline, with the dropping temperatures of the library theatening you with frostbite and hypothermia. Together, you can take breaks to distract yourself with general chat either about something to take your mind off of your work for a few minutes, or to share in that collective doom - whichever you opt for, it is nice to know that someone is on your side, in your boat, and is rooting for you. That we are now moving steadily into Week Six also means that this is the fourth issue of Epigram this year, and it definitely feels like this is moving far too quickly. It seems prime time, however, to remind us all about our function, who we represent and how you can get involved. Cameron, my co-Editor, seems to love the horribly cliche phrase ‘for students, by students’. As much as I detest it and view it as a plague on the English language, it is true for what we are. We are here to hold the University and the SU to account, and to report on matters that concern you - whether that be through News, Arts, Sport or anything in between. As we are here for the whole student body, it means that we ourselves do not have any opinions ourselves as a publication, but remain as neutral as possible to provide a platform for all students to express themselves. In this sense, we are very much like the BBC of the University of Bristol in which those on the right often accuse us of being too left-wing, and those on the left often accuse us of being too right-wing. It certainly is a difficult conundrum to navigate ourselves through, and we are actively seeking to broaden the demographics that we hear from so that our content can be as representative as possible. I would therefore like to take this space to emphasise how easy it is for you to write for us. If you think there is an angle of a story that is not being reported on and desparately needs to be, contact our News Editor Imogen Horton. If you read a Comment piece that you vehemently disagree with, contact the Comment Editor Will Charley to respond. You will notice in the middle column of this page there is a list of writer’s groups that you can join on Facebook; through these, our section editors post article commissions, and advertise about fortnightly writer’s meetings in which you can meet with the editors and discuss any articles that they would like written, or that you would like to write. We do not discriminate against who or what we publish, provided it is relevant to our Bristol student audience. As horribly cheesy as it sounds, we are here for, and to represent, our student body. On that note, it looks like I have successfully managed to fill the space of the page with content that I hope you can relate to and take on board - perhaps this should be a new essay technique, to just write and hope that I churn out something that vaguely makes sense/ is worth reading. Good luck with your coursework - it will all be over soon and I bet you are smashing it more than you think.
co-Editors in Chief: Ed Southgate & Cameron Scheijde editor@epigram.org.uk
Pic of the fortnight: Graffitti in Stokes Croft Epigram Paper
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Editor: Imogen Horton Online Editor: James Cleaver Deputy Editor: Lucy Downer Investigations Editor: Louise Cripps Uni Management Correspondent: Laura Reid Student Life Correspondent: Victoria Dyer SU Correspondent: Zoe Crowther
epigram 05.11.2018
Got a story for the News team? Email:newsteam.epigram@gmail.com
‘This men’s officer is honestly the worst thing I’ve seen in student politics’ Zoë Crowther SU Correspondent
Continued from front page... The Women’s Officer position was the only role to have been proposed by students and passed through Student Council, with one poll in April 2017 indicating that the idea of a Men’s officer was not supported by the majority of students voting. NUS representatives have been vocal on social media in challenging the Men’s Officer role: Black Students’ Officer Ilyas Nagdee tweeted ‘this vile undemocratic shambles of a men’s officer is honestly the worst thing I’ve seen in student politics.’ Amelia Horgan, Postgraduate Officer at NUS posted a thread on Twitter explaining her thoughts: ‘Men don’t need political representation as men, whether in their student unions or anywhere else. They already have it. ‘The gendered ways in which mental distress plays out are not addressed by having a men’s officer. Not in the slightest. Actually, by buying into a dangerous narrative in which men’s
mental health is weaponised to legitimise reactionary views about gender, it’s actually worsened.’ James Knight, the candidate for the position, has stepped down due to what he has described as ‘the negative reaction to the Men’s officer position and external harassment that I have received.’ The debate surrounding the role has received national attention, with many calling out ‘bully-boy tactics’ of those who opposed it. Various groups within UWE have campaigned against the role, encouraging students to vote for ‘Reopen Nominations’ as a boycott. James Knight stated that he was ‘very clear in distancing the role from that of liberation. I have campaigned tirelessly for mental health work and reform for years because I know how challenging this can be.’ The higher suicide rates of male students and the stigma surrounding mental health was cited as the main reasons for the introduction of the position. Asked if Bristol SU would consider a similar initiative, Stanford said ‘I do believe men face issues of their own. Men are at greater risk of suicide and physical assault, face obstacles within toxic masculinity and emotional
literacy and regularly feedback concerns around expressing themselves and discussing their feelings. ‘I support work to encourage discursive problem-solving around these issues and believe that men should have spaces to tackle them but I don’t think a Men’s Officer or organised liberation representation for men is an effective method.’
Given the only candidate for the role has withdrawn from the election, UWE SU shall not be introducing a Men’s Officer this term. While there are currently no plans for a similar role at Bristol SU, there are steps being taken towards the implementation of an International Students’ Officer to increase support for those moving from abroad to study at Bristol.
“Men don’t need political representation as men, whether in their student unions or anywhere else.”
Amelia Horgan Postgraduate Officer, NUS
Kingsdown fire caused by faulty boiler •
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The fire broke out in the early evening of October 18 in a student residency near Parsons No one was injured and no other properties were affected
Ed Southgate
co-Editor-in-Chief
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“The smoke started coming up our sink plug.” Bristol Student
Epigram / Elliot Laker
Epigram / Avital Carno
he fire which broke out in a student house in the Kingsdown estate on October 18 has been confirmed as being caused by a faulty boiler. A report by the Avon & Somerset Fire Service listed ‘faulty leads’ to the boiler as the main source of ignition, whilst the rapid spread of it was caused by the internal wiring. The multi-occupancy flat is also confirmed to have been occupied at the time of the fire, with under five minutes passing between ignition and discovery. Avon & Somerset Fire Service were then immediately called. A man who works at the Co-Op on
St. Michael’s Hill told Epigram that he thought he had smelt smoke 5-10 minutes before the fire engine arrived. He said that they responded ‘quickly’ after that. There were no casualties and no other property was affected, whilst the fire and damage was limited to the floor it started on. The call occurred at 18:28:19, and was stopped at 21:10:10. The operation was closed on October 19 at 09:24:03. The first fire engine was mobile on the scene from 18:37:57, and was available until 21:52:32. One student told Epigram: ‘A fireman came and told us to shut our windows because there is smoke everywhere’, adding that ‘the smoke started coming up [their] sink plug’. Gonzalo Aguilera, a University of Bristol student who lives opposite the building where the fire broke out, told said that he ‘heard glass shattering and [he] looked out the window to see fire out the back window onto the garden’. Nine fire engines were deployed in total, with 41 crew members. Epigram is seeking the landlord and/or letting agent for comment.
epigram 05.11.2018
4 News
Hugh Brady: Universities ‘cannot be expected to replace the NHS’ • •
UK government announces £2bn increase in mental health spending Brady has described the budget as a ‘step in the right direction’
Laura Reid
Uni Management Correspondent
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s the government announces a £2bn increase in its mental health budget, Epigram investigates initial responses amongst students and staff at University Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, has announced a £2bn increase in mental health spending in the most recent budget. Mental health services in England currently receive £12bn in funding, so the 2 billion boost seems a large increase in proportion to this. However, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) has said that the £2bn extra equaled only half of what was needed to put spending more on a par with that of physical
health. Stanford, Union Affairs Officer for Bristol SU, said that it was ‘pleasing to see commitments to in-creased funding not only for the NHS but also £2 billion for mental health services specifically’. Similarly to the IPPR, Stanford questioned whether this would be ‘sufficient funding’ due to the growing strain on mental health services. He highlighted the fact that ‘students and young people are continuing to articulate their needs around mental health and apply pressure to their educational institutions’. Stanford also added: ‘I would not in all honesty describe this as the student’s budget or the young person’s budget, but I can describe it as a step in the right direction.’ Vice Chancellor Hugh Brady has welcomed the increased £2bn in spending and also described it as ‘a positive step in the right direction’. ‘There has been a very real surge in mental health challenges facing young people of all ages, in-cluding students. The scale of the challenge is forcing all universities to re-
evaluate every aspect of their student and staff mental health and wellbeing support and provision.” Brady said that whilst Bristol takes ‘pastoral care responsibilities very seriously’ the University alone ‘cannot and should not be expected to replace the NHS in provision of mental health support’. Universities across the UK have been under pressure from both government and students to take more serious measures in the provision of mental health support services. Before term began this year, education minister Sam Gyimah sent a letter to all Vice Chancellors, telling them that they must ‘prioritise the wellbeing and mental health of students’. In response to the Vice Chancellor’s statement, student society Support Our Services said: ‘We ap-preciate the Vice Chancellor’s acknowledgement of the need for improvement in the NHS mental health sector, particularly as it pertains to the rise of mental health challenges amongst all young people’. However, SOS were quick to qualify that
‘I would not in all honesty describe this as the student’s budget ...but I can describe it as a step in the right direction’ Stanford.
SU Officer
they hoped Professor Brady would not ‘use this budget increase as an excuse for inaction on the part of the university’. SOS argue that: ‘no student at Bristol expects the university to ‘replace the NHS in provision of mental health support’, and this exaggeration is counterproductive and somewhat patronising’. Support Our Services highlighted that, whilst the increased spending was positive, ‘there is still work to be done at Bristol, and the new budget announcement cannot and should not be used as a way of blatantly avoiding that fact’. A third year English student, Maya Dhillon, reiterated this, saying: ‘It’s more approachable and easier for students to go to the University for help rather than the NHS. As a University, Bristol is responsible for its students, the NHS focuses on everyone, but the Uni should be there to support its own students.’ The increase to mental health spending will begin by 2019/20. It will also be contingent on the government reaching a Brexit deal.
Bristol celebrates first BME Power List at launch event • •
The Power List includes Bristol’s 100 most inspiring and influential BME People Speakers at the launch included Chief Executive of the SU Samantha Budd and Bristol
Nikki Peach Deputy Editor
Chanté Joseph
project accumulated over 500 nominees. Joseph first presented the idea of the BME Power List to the University of Bristol’s Equality, Diversity & Inclusion steering group. The group agreed to sponsor the project, and following this, Joseph secured partnerships with Bristol SU and Bristol 24/7. The campaign began in January, during Joseph’s final year at University. Ore Odubiyi, founder of BME Medics - a platform for black and minority ethnic medical students - said: ‘It’s amazing to come together and see the work of BME people in Bristol. It unifies us.’ Ella Alalade, a third-year Ancient History student, said: ‘I feel like this lunch and Power List is really important to BME students. I think it shows you how many people in Bristol are
Epigram / Kate Hutchinson
‘It is important we continue to recognise BME individuals’
The room was then split into discussion groups which debated topics and issues such as ‘how do we force a stronger relationship between BME Students and the Bristol community?’ and ‘how can we improve employability opportunities for BME students and create a stronger link with employers and businesses in Bristol?’. The theme of education was continued, with further concerns including ‘what is the best way to address cases of microaggression and racist comments in the community and at the University?’ and ‘what does an inclusive education system look like and what changes can we make to the delivery of education at Bristol?’ also being considered. The Power List is a collection of Bristol’s 100 most inspiring and influential Black and Minority Ethnic People, as nominated by members of the Bristol community. The
Epigram / Kate Hutchinson
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ristol graduate Chanté Joseph founded the BME Power List earlier this year. The List officially launched on Saturday 27th October. Students, University staff and members of the community were invited to attend the launch of the Bristol BME Power List. The event encouraged attendees to network, discuss existing problems facing the BME community and celebrate the achievements of those featured on the list. The launch was opened with a speech by project founder, Chanté Joseph. Guests then had the opportunity to network and mingle over lunch. Speakers at the event also included the Chief Executive of the SU Samantha Budd, current BME Network Chair Eva Larkai, Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees, Councillor Asher Craig, and Pro-Vice Chancellor Judith Squires. Each of which spoke about the importance of pushing greater diversity at the University and within the wider Bristol community. During the Mayor’s speech, Rees announced his support for the BME Power List celebration to become an annual event in the city.
so advanced in their fields and not enough people know about it. It shows a creative and active community – it’s something we should aspire to, but something that also people – especially white people in Bristol – should appreciate more.’ Joseph closed the afternoon by asking everyone to take their ideas and create positive change in the community. She has since spoken to Epigram, reflecting on the success of the event. ‘The launch felt like a turning point in the relationship between the University and the community. It was so incredible seeing so many inspiring and fearless individuals gathered in once place to discuss making the city and the University a better place for all students. She added, ‘This should happen annually because it is a necessary way to platform the gems that this city has as well as continuing to develop conversation around student experience.’
05.11.2018 epigram
News 5
Bristol launches new alumni mentoring scheme for students
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University of Bristol / Bhagesh Sachania Photography
he University of Bristol have launched a brand-new alumni mentoring initiative, which pairs current students with an alumni mentor to give them invaluable insights, advice and opportunities to support and shape their future career ambitions. The program is a joint venture between two University departments: the Careers Service and Development and Alumni Relations. The scheme provides students with a mentor working within an area which interests them and in which they may wish to pursue a future career. The hope is that the mentors can offer practical guidance to students, as they progress towards thinking about life after university. The mentors for this year’s programme come from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines – many working within Bristol and others based in London. All alumni mentors are past graduates from the University of Bristol, an experience which will bond mentor and student. Over the academic year, mentors will take part in six mentoring meetings. During
Bhagesh
Deputy News Editor
/
Lucy Downer
Bristol
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these meetings, they will be giving realistic insights into industries which might be of interest to this year’s mentors, helping them to develop skills, set goals, identify opportunities and bolster their confidence about the often-daunting prospect of graduating from university. A launch evening was hosted at the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, which gave students and alumni the chance to meet and get to know each other over food and drink. The guests also partook in a pub-style quiz, designed to get students and alumni mentors talking and working together in a fun and informal setting. One of the managers of the scheme, Robbie Fox said about the new venture: ‘From a careers perspective we have always encouraged students to create networks whilst studying and to reach out to alumni
of
The new scheme aims to match current students up with Bristol alumni who have a career in their field of interest Over 50 undergraduates from a range of disciplines are taking part in the scheme
University Photography
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“Our hope is that having a like minded and honest role model will be a huge confidence boost to our student mentees.’” Robbie Fox, Bristol Mentors Manager
who may have studied the same subject or who might be working in a professional area of interest. This can be daunting for some as well as being another time pressure on what is already a busy lifestyle!’ ‘Our mentoring programme is designed to take this support a step further, by providing each student with a hand matched mentor who will guide that student throughout the whole of the academic year and potentially unlock some exciting opportunities. Each mentor is generously volunteering his/her time to support our students.’ ‘Mentoring is rewarding for both parties involved and we have high hopes that many of these relationships will have a positive and long lasting impact.’ ‘Our hope and our aim is that having a like minded and honest role model to listen and provide guidance will be a huge confidence boost to our student mentees.’ Doug Middling, another manager of the project, said:
‘Bristol has an amazing network of alumni who volunteer both their time and experience to support the University and its students. We think this is a fantastic opportunity to connect Bristol students with alumni, who as well as working in a range of exciting and interesting sectors, also have the shared experience of studying at the University.’ ‘The Bristol Mentors programme is just one of the many ways alumni support current students at Bristol – get in touch by emailing alumni-volunteers@bristol.ac.uk.’ The mentor programme is currently full for 2018/19 with over 50 undergraduates from a wide range of disciplines. However, plans are in place to expand the programme going forward, with the hope that the mentoring scheme will be able to reach and benefit many more students. For more support around networking and for information on how to contact Bristol alumni, visit the Careers Service on 5 Tyndall Avenue, or log on to the mycareer webpage.
Residential Life System meets with uncertainty in initial weeks • •
The new Residential Life system has been implemented across all UoB campus housing ‘Teething issues’ with the system overhaul have caused coneern, particularly amongst student society Keep Our Communities
Laura Reid
Uni Management Correspondent
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ince the start of term, the University of Bristol has undergone an upheaval in the management of its residential wellbeing services. Epigram investigates staff and student responses to the new hub systems. New Residential Life Teams have been implemented across campuses, “whose fulltime job is to work with our established teams of live-in student peer mentors on community building and early identification
and support of vulnerable students”. The Residential Life service combines 153 FTE (full-time equivalent) roles, split across three Residential Villages (West, East and North). These include, Heads and Deputy Heads of Residential Life, Deputy Head of Resident, 21 full-time Residential Advisors, Chief and Senior Residents. Epigram spoke to Laura, a residential life adviser from West Village, who spoke positively about her experiences of the new hub system. She arrived at the new village a couple of weeks before term started, in order to prepare for the arrival of new students. Laura reported that they had been approached by lots of students during freshers week, and it seemed that students were very aware of how to access the village hubs. However, the new Residential Life system has met with understaffing issues and confusion from some students about where to go for help. Whilst the hubs are operational and are being used to an extent, they are not necessarily equipped to deal
with the numbers of new students. Cris Oehling, Chair of the Keep Our Communities society, highlighted the problems faced during the system overhaul particularly leading to confusion during the move in weekend. The problems identified included; no porters in some residences during the move in weekend; room allocations being given to some students only two days before they moved in. Moreover, there were instances of former hall staff (deputy wardens) being called back to open the bar despite no longer being responsible for this and some Residential Life Advisers were unsure of procedures. Senior residents were also reported as being shard between halls, thus making them overstretched. Advice had been given to call security if Senior Residents were overwhelmed, despite this not being the role of security staff. Speaking on behalf of Keep Our Communities, Cris stated:
“We warned senior management that staff may not be recruited in time and the system would not be fully operational” Cris Oehling, Chair of Keep Our Communities
“We (Keep Our Communities) warned senior management about the worries that staff may not be recruited in time and the system would not be fully operational for the start of the new term. Despite JCRs, Wardens, Deputy Wardens, SRs and a number of other pastoral staff members warning the university about this, the model was pushed forward in a rushed manner, which has clearly led to the problems stated above.” A spokesperson for the University stated: “As with any new service there will inevitably be areas where we need to make small adjustments but after our first week there has been plenty of positive feedback that the new Residential Life service is helping our new students to settle in to life at Bristol.” In contrast to this, Keep Our Communities have argued that the whilst senior management are aware of the issues which took place over move in weekend, and which have continued since, these have been underplayed and regarded as “teething issues”.
epigram 05.11.2018
6 News
‘Marching for my future’: Bristol students demand a new EU referendum • •
Laura Reid
Uni Management Correspondent
Zoë Crowther SU Correspondent
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“We need to make sure that not only are young people activated but we are changing people’s minds as well” Richard Brooks, Co-Founder of FFS
Brexit campaign. Leading the front section of the march, young people were made clearly visible in bright pink T-shirts bearing the words ‘I’m marching for my future.’ Epigram spoke to Richard Brooks, the co-founder of For Our Future’s Sake. He described their efforts to ‘work with a hundred Students Unions across universities, colleges and youth-led organisations, to get as many young people - students especially - to the march.’ For Our Future’s Sake emphasises the fact that 70% of 18-24 year olds voted Remain, and argues that this is also reflected in young people’s ‘overwhelming support’ for a People’s Vote. When questioned on whether the group had reached out to young Leave voters, Brooks said: ‘we know that young
Epigram / Laura Reid
Epigram / Zoe Crowther
oining a crowd of over half a million, students marched through central London on Saturday 20th October to protest for a second public referendum on Brexit. Bristol SU took a coach of students to London for the biggest UK rally since the Stop the War march in 2003. The People’s Vote campaign have estimated that at least 700,000 people took part, starting in Hyde Park and finishing in Parliament Square with speeches from Sadiq Khan, Deborah Meaden and other high profile figures. Bristol SU is pursuing an active policy to support the People’s Vote campaign. Sally Patterson, Equality, Liberation and Access Officer, said ‘Young people overwhelmingly voted to Remain in the EU, and this sentiment hasn’t changed. Recent research done by the SU suggested that our International students, both EU and Overseas, are feeling vulnerable and unwelcome following the Brexit referendum, and this is mirrored across the UK.’ With the Bristol cohort led by Patterson, young people and students had a visible presence at the front of the march in order to make their voices heard. Epigram spoke to the Bristol students attending, who identified a broad range of reasons why they feel another referendum is necessary. These included the importance of the Erasmus scheme for students, job opportunities, lies and misinformation during the original referendum campaign and the precarious position of European students studying in the UK. Mila Kowalcyzk, a first year Maths student at Bristol University, stated: ‘I want to study in Spain in my third year and I don’t know what my future will be if I don’t have the security of being in the EU.’ Worries for the future of international students’ rights were also expressed. Marina Rodriguez Rubio, Chair of Bristol’s International Students Network, argued that ‘European students in the UK should have the right to easily stay and keep contributing to this society. Our life is here now.’
Arianna Robertson and Nicky Tarran, both first year students at Bristol, told Epigram that one of their main reasons for marching was because: ‘we were both under 18 when the vote happened, so its basically a chance for us to let our voices be heard.’ This was echoed by Hillary Gyebi-Ababio, Chair of Bristol’s Widening Participation Network, who argued that it’s young people’s ‘democratic right’ to now be included in the Brexit narrative. Patterson also highlighted that women, BME and disabled students would have ‘nothing to safeguard their rights and protection’ should a hard Brexit take place. The march was supported by representatives from the majority of UK political parties. Epigram, spoke to some of their Bristol University representatives. Max Langer, President of UoB Lib Dems, said: ‘I don’t believe in any vote being undemocratic, because it’s a vote and also this is on the final terms; last time we had so many contending theories as to what Brexit would be and now we can say ‘this is what remain looks like, this is what leave looks like’ so we can have a proper informed choice.’ Tyler Savage, Secretary of the Bristol Uni
Epigram / Laura Reid
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Over 700,000 people took part in the march 70% of 18-24 year olds voted to remain in the EU Erasmus and job oppurtunities were reasons students gave for wanting another referendum
Conservative Association, said he felt let down by both Leavers and Brexiteers: ‘If people want to change their minds then we should allow them to. Ultimately if our representatives think we should remain in the EU, that’s fine, we shouldn’t go to the people – we have representative democracy in the UK for a reason.’ Co-President of Green Soc, Alex May, suggested that beyond environmental protection, the Green Party considers ‘freedom of movement, grants for University and so many things which affect young people’ to be key elements contributing to their support for the People’s Vote. For Our Future’s Sake is one of many groups which has been spearheading the growth of student voices behind the anti-
people aren’t a homogenous group. I’m personally from Dover, which is a massive Leave area.’ Behind this push for more youth supporters was a £20,000 backing from the National Union of Students. This money contributed to the coaches needed to transport students to the march, with NUS estimating that
Sally Patterson, Equality, Liberation and Access Officer, Bristol SU
Epigram / Laura Reid
Epigram / Zoe Crowther
“Young people overwhelmingly voted to Remain in the EU, and this sentiment hasn’t changed”
36 Students’ Unions took part in this arrangement. Amatey Doku, the NUS Vice President of Higher Education, said ‘I’m really pleased with the number of people that turned up to the march today.’ Amatey went on to say that, ‘Obviously there are students who voted Leave, but NUS is a democratic organisation. Every year we decide our policies at our national conference which has student representation right across the country. And we decided decisively at this conference to vote for a People’s Vote.’ Concern for the future of young people was a prominent feature of the discussions at the protest, with Mayor of London Sadiq Khan stating: ‘Nobody voted to make life harder for our children and grandchildren.’ Bristol SU shall be continuing campaigns: students shall be encouraged to join a steering campaign in order to feed into the SU approach, which will likely consist of lobbying MPs, hosting talks and letterwriting sessions, as well as connecting students with wider Bristol initiatives such as Bristol for Europe and For Our Future’s Sake. In regard to the University’s position, Sally Patterson expressed her hope that the University shall want to collaborate with the SU on educational issues surrounding Brexit, stating that ‘they are clearly preparing for the worst, but are in just as an uncertain position as the rest of us.’ On the Wednesday following the march, several Bristol students took to campus to further promote the People’s Vote campaign. Using a ‘Brexit-ometer’, they sought to gauge a campus response to Brexit issues. Their chart highlighted that the majority of students questioned believed that Brexit would have a negative impact on the NHS and economy, and that Brexit negotiations were not going well.
05.11.2018 epigram
News 7
5
‘The University should have moved us into a hotel instead of a farm’ •
Following a leak in Badock students were moved to Langford during Freshers’ Week Students have complained about the ‘isolating’ move
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Olivia Duggan Third Year Theology
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tudents have told Epigram their Freshers’ Week was ruined when they were moved to alternative accommodation after a water leak in Badock Hall. Twenty-six students were transferred to Langford, home to Bristol’s veterinary school, a 30 minute drive from the university’s main campus. One student described the location as farm-like and derelict complaining that ‘not even the vets live there.’ The University did temporarily provide a U2 bus service connecting the students to the Clifton campus, however, students have complained about the sporadic service, with
“The buses just wouldn’t turn up half the time.” First Year Student
one pointing out that ‘the buses just wouldn’t turn up half the time’. The unreliability of the U2 bus meant that the new students missed lectures, including introductory talks. Instead, the students often relied on Uber, incurring massive costs, reportedly up to £40. The students are still yet to hear back from the university regarding transport compensation. Students often only had the choice of two buses to return them back to Langford – one at 1am, or if they missed this 4.45am. One student said the transport restrictions meant they ‘only went out 3 nights’ and believed this would have been different if they had been in Stoke Bishop. However, the students have praised a senior resident, names Witek, who helped them during their time away from the main University campus. ‘He helped us out with buses and just made it a happier place […] he brought smiles all round.’ The students were moved back into Badock Unit 6 on Saturday 13th October. This was reportedly very easy as the university
provided the students with removal vans . The move back into halls has been described by students as ‘isolating’ as they are yet to fully merge with the other Badock students. The students have all been placed together, occupying two floors, and while the accommodation team has tried to arrange meet and greets with the Langford students, these meetings have been described as ‘cringe-worthy’. Four other students have joined the Langford students in the two floors at Badock. These students were also affected by the water leak but were instead moved into free rooms in other units. One student described themselves as one of the ‘lucky ones’. They also commented that the disruption was not ‘too bad’, as they had become close to the people in their corridors and were already comfortable. In response, a University of Bristol spokesperson said: ‘Following a significant leak in one of the blocks at Badock Hall, 32 of our students were temporarily housed in complimentary accommodation at Langford. They moved
back to Badock Hall on Saturday 13 October, assisted by University-provided removals services.’ ‘We recognise that this temporary change may have been unsettling for those affected, and so provided two live-in senior residents to help ease the disruption, as well as a mini residential student support centre to help answer any questions or concerns the students had.’ ‘We also provided free catering and a dedicated bus service to transport students between Langford and the main campus and city centre.’ ‘We hope the additional services we provided eased this temporary disruption and that the students are now enjoying and settling into their permanent home at Badock Hall.’ The students agree that one good thing to come out of the experience is how they have really bonded together. As one student remarked ‘It was good in some senses as we all became really close living together’ and they believe the students affected will continue to remain a ‘tight knit group’.
Warning after woman Rees-Mogg bucket hat auctioned to assaulted on the Triangle fund Tory Society following whilst walking home security charges • •
The security charges have raised questions over the University’s commitment to free speech BUCA have said they they do not object to the requirment of security but to the charges they were made to pay
Victoria Dyer
Student Life Correspondent
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he Bristol University Conservative Association (BUCA) have raised questions over the University’s commitment to freedom of speech after security charges incurred after Rees-Mogg event in the previous academic year forced them into the red. Jacob Rees-Mogg’s attendance to the University of the West of England last year sparked protest and violence amongst students. Given the situation at UWE, when the announcement was made that Rees-Mogg would also give a talk at the University of Bristol, the University necessitated the need for a security presence for the politician. The necessary security charges were subsquently placed upon the BUCA, amounting to a total cost of £496. This has reportedly placed the BUCA in the minus at the beginning of the 2018/19 academic year. Although the Bristol University Conservative Society has stated they do not object to the requirement of security in
anyway, they have suggested such charges are ‘a sad indictment for free speech on university campus that is required for all speakers.’ The BUCA have stated that they ‘unreservedly reject’ the notion that they are responsible for meeting the costs of security provision. Questions over freedom of speech have been raised as a result of the charges. The BUCA deputy chairman suggests that despite there being no outright ban on Rees-Mogg’s attendance, structural obstacles were met in the form of requirement to pay such high security costs, making the event trickier to navigate and stage. The BUCA have further argued that the precedent that possible protest and violence requires security emboldens the motives of political opponents to heighten their hostility openly towards speakers at the University in order to require the presence of security and therefore damage the society financially. A University of Bristol spokesperson said the University is “firmly committed to upholding Freedom of Speech as well as ensuring events are conducted safely and within the law.” In the hope of repaying the debts, the BUCA have cooperated with Rees-Mogg in order to obtain items for an online public auction. The auction will see a bucket hat signed by Rees-Mogg being sold and auctioned-off. Other items in put up for auction, include signed copies of Hayek’s Road to Serfdom and George Orwell’s Animal Farm and 1984.
from a night out
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The Police have encouraged students to be ‘mindful of theidr personal safety’ Bristol SU have recently introduced their Safe Taxi scheme to help vulnerable students
Maddy Russell
Second Year, Politics and International Relations
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“A sad indictment for free speech on university campus” Bristol University Conservative Society
tudents have been warned to take care when returning home from nights out, following an incident in which a 22-year-old woman was attacked on the junction of Whiteladies Road, Queens Road and Queens Avenue. Avon and Somerset Police have reported that the event took place at around 4:45 am on Sunday 14th October. The women is said to have been grabbed by a man who attempted to drag her from the road, whilst she was walking home from a night out. It is believed she was able to fend off her attacker and contacted the police. In a statement, a spokesperson for the University said: “We encourage all of our students to follow police advice and be mindful of their personal safety – plan how you are getting home and look after your friends. Any students with concerns
can always talk to the University Security Services.” Bristol has a “purple flag’ status and is considered to be a safe place to go for a night out. In a statement the University Students’ Union said: “We know our students are vulnerable to attack, in particular women and LGBT + students, and have recently implemented a number of policies to make our students safer. We have pushed the University to launch their Report & Support tool, which helps to support victims and also measure the level of incidents taking place. We also launched our Safe Taxi scheme at the beginning of the academic year, which allows students to get home safely even if they do not have cash in hand.” Students who are concerned about their personal safety while walking are advised to trust their insticts, walk confidently and head for busy, well-lit areas. The Police have also reminded students to let someone know where they are and to call 999 in an emergency. The victim described her attacker as a white male, about 5ft 7 inches tall, with a medium build and slightly bald. He was wearing a black coat. The police have appealed for witnesses who may have seen a man matching this description loitering in the area of the Triangle. Avon and Summerset Police have asked for anyone who may have any information on the attack to contact them, quoting the reference: 5218229921.
Features
Editor: Ollie Smith Deputy Editor: Tom Taylor Online Editor: Emily Vernall Deputy Online Editor: Niamh Rowe
Does a lack of diversity create an elitist culture at Bristol university? An in-depth examination in to whether Bristol University has an elitist culture and what has caused it
Alex Stevens
“49.6 per cent of students come from private or grammer schools”
Second year, Politics and IR
I
t’s no secret that Bristol has some of the poorest admission statistics for social inclusion in the UK; ranking 5th from bottom in the 2019 Times University Guide. 49.6 per cent of students come from private or grammar schools and just 16 per cent are from ethnic minority groups. When compared with the general population; in which 7 per cent attend private schools, and 26 per cent of all undergraduates are ethnic minorities, it’s no wonder there are concerns over how elitist the societal culture of the student body is. Broadly, elitism is defined as ‘the dominance of a society by an elite’, with the elite being ‘a group or class of people seen as having the most power or influence in society’. These statistics may represent how those who are typically considered ‘elite’ - white, upper-middle class - make up a disproportionate percentage of the student body. But what does this suggest about the dominant culture of the University? The Tatler guide to Bristol University recommends that first-year students should live in ‘chilled-out Churchill’, which is ‘like boarding school’, or ‘trendy Badock’, which houses ‘the hardcore party boys from
“It appears to be vocal students and the SU who are casting light on the issue of elitism”
Marlborough … with their jumpers from Peru’. The guide also highlights the ski trip - referred to in one Bristruth as ‘one big Stoke Bishop orgy’ - as the most unmissable event of the year. What the article fails to mention, is that the trip comes with a price tag of £495 plus extra costs. This is more than enough to exclude low-income students from the experience completely. Engaging in the everyday social life of Bristol proves to be a similar challenge, especially when getting involved in some of the more prestigious sports teams. For instance, annual membership for UBRFC costs £200. Meanwhile, membership to the men’s football team - traditionally a working-class sport - would set you back £155. Although, Bristol SU run an ‘Activity Hardship Fund’: granting up to £100 a year to students who otherwise wouldn’t be able to participate. Even though this may not completely cover the cost of membership for the previously mentioned clubs, it does cover more accessible clubs, such as Athletics & Cross Country which costs £55, and Basketball which costs £70. Moreover, Hillary Gyebi-Ababio, Chair of the Widening Participation Network, highlights the likelihood that a large proportion of Bristol students will have encountered little diversity throughout their schooling; meaning the dominant culture they create on campus may not be as conscious and respectful as it would be if student society in general was more pluralist; with more students from
minorities, whether that’s ethnic, cultural, or religious, contributing their first-hand experiences. However, this change shouldn’t be artificial. Perhaps if societies and broader initiatives like Black History Month which encourage other students to educate themselves on minority issues gained more publicity, the image of Bristol may shift from ‘elitist’ to ‘inclusive’, attracting a more diverse set of applicants. Currently, BME students tend to be more open about their experiences within societies representing the group they feel most welcome in, such as the Afro-Caribbean society, which Hillary Gyebi-Ababio has also been involved with. Ultimately, it’s student-led initiatives such as Black History Month which are the driving force behind opening discussion about these issues; both to members and non-members of said minorities. Due to there being no significant difference in academic attainment, admission statistics don’t highlight another dimension of potential elitism at University: heteronormativity. A study by NUS found that 46.8 per cent of LGBTQ+ students found the culture around sports to be alienating. Chair of the LGBT+ Network, Nura Alyah drew attention to the idea that this could include hypermasculine ‘lad culture’ with nights out revolving around attracting the opposite sex. Furthermore, 36.1 per cent of trans students identified facilities, like open changing rooms, as a barrier to joining. Another factor suggested by Nura Alyah was the lack of clarity in the case of
gendered teams, regarding whether a trans or nonbinary person is eligible to compete on a gendered team. Often, this is decided by the NGB of the sport. For instance, England Netball states that a trans woman can compete ‘by providing evidence that her hormone therapy has brought her bloodmeasured testosterone levels within the range of her affirmed gender’. This is especially unlikely among students given the financial burden of hormone therapy. Nonetheless, many trans/non-binary students are equally as involved in sports teams as their cis peers: especially mixed teams. 41.9 per cent of respondents in the NUS survey attributed negative experiences in their previous schools as a barrier to feeling welcome. The same document, which sets out the policy for competing in women’s teams, also emphasises a ‘zero tolerance approach to transphobia’. Ginny Troughton, Sport and Student Development Officer, has identified this as a conversation that needs to be expanded on; suggesting that the SU is pushing for more equality and opportunities within this facet of student life too. Currently, it appears to be vocal students and the SU, independent from the University), who are casting light on the issue of elitism and improving inclusivity within the student body. But can the university do more to push this agenda? And even if it did, would it simply expect the student body, as it stands, to fall into place? Or is a change in the demographics of the student population integral for this to happen from the bottomup?
Bristol students and the paranormal
A Halloween inspired exploration into spooky happenings in student residences
Helen Babbage
Second year, Russian and Czech
H
alloween, considered by many to be a fairly innocuous festival, largely functions as the main social event separating autumn from everencroaching Christmas. Both festivals are said to share levels of superficiality and consumerism but, unlike Christmas, there is less of an awareness of Halloween’s purpose or origins. In Pagan traditions, Halloween is known as Samhain; it represents Celtic New Year, the time when the boundary between the mortal and spirit world is at its weakest and paranormal activity is supposedly more common. It seemed like a good time to draw attention to Bristol’s most paranormal sites and to explore any supernatural experiences students have had, and whether any of them occurred in halls. According to the founding member of Bristol PYRES (Bristol Pagan Youth Ring), the more different sets of people that live in a house, the weaker the resident ghosts become. Theoretically a lot of ghosts are ‘imprints’: manifestations of emotions
people have felt in a certain place, so a lot of change diminishes the intensity of the imprint. This might explain how it was relatively difficult to find stories about phantoms in larger halls. Taking this theory into account, the tiny and isolated Hillside Woodside seemed promising place to start. It is located over Clifton Suspension Bridge and close to the Iron Age hillfort in Leigh Woods. One second-year student claimed that around February last year he was woken up by the sound of something scratching on his door in the middle of the night. The sound continued for about half a minute before i t stopped. Oddly, he did not hear anything walking away from his door after the noise ceased despite the lack of sound proofing, although that could simply be because he was half-asleep. Later that year, a group of students in the house tried to perform a seance with a ouija board drawn on the back of a cereal packet. Unfortunately, they had to stop
“A group of students in the house tried to perform a seance with a ouija board drawn on the
after one of them started feeling sick. More recently, a resident of a student house share on Redland Road went into her locked bedroom to find her desk moved and her cupboard open. This was especially strange as the cupboard had been empty, locked and the desk was positioned in front of its door. Nothing else in her room or any other cupboards appeared to be touched. On the more morbid end of the spectrum, a previous Bristol student shared his story about when he lived in a house near Colston Hall. A maintenance w o r k e r discovered b o n e s hidden under the stairs of the 200-yearold house. He was so disturbed he didn’t report the incident to anyone. It has not been established whether the bones were of human or animal origin. Students also shared a few paranormal experiences that occurred outside Bristol. One student recounted strange happenings in his house in France. He described how one night he saw a phantom horse at the
bottom of the stairs. He thought that the horse was demanding something of him and felt an intense urge to let it out of the house. After he went down the stairs and opened the front door, he experienced a profound feeling of having freed something. Looking out over the fields surrounding the house he saw the horse’s headless owner as well. Apparently, several members of the family also saw an old monk standing at the top of the stairs in that same house. Bristol has a long and fairly sordid history so it is no surprise that there are more than a few public sites with ghostly reputations, providing plenty of opportunities for amateur ghost hunting. Originally the Christmas steps led up to gallows on Saint Michaels Hill. Allegedly, there was once a cemetery nearby as well. The area is said to be frequented by various ghosts including a girl who drowned in the river. Similarly, the yellow Dower House in Stoke Park near UWE is the subject of a fairly well-known legend. In the early 18th century the Duke and Duchess of Beaufort’s daughter died after falling from her horse. However, the obelisk on the hill commemorating her seems not to be the only trace she left, there have been numerous accounts in local newspapers of people hearing horses running on the grounds, despite the fact that there haven’t been horses there for years.
epigram
Features 9
05.11.2018
Ben Bradshaw MP: ‘What we are facing is a total sh*tshow’ The MP for Exeter speaks to me about Brexit and the campaign for a ‘People’s Vote’ to try and prevent it
Ollie Smith Features Editor
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“To coin an old New Labour phrase: I think we need to be tough on Brexit and tough on the causes of Brexit”
Wikimedia Commons
t is around half five on a Thursday afternoon when I meet the MP for Exeter outside of Wills Memorial Building. Ben Bradshaw became an MP in 1997 as part of the New Labour landslide and rose through the ranks to serve in the Cabinet of Gordon Brown as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. He is here to speak at an event of ‘Our Future, Our Choice’ or OFOC, a youth-led campaign for a so-called ‘People’s Vote’ to try and prevent us leaving the European Union. After exchanging pleasantries and discussing my aspirations to become a journalist, the vocation he began his career in, we find a quiet corner and begin the interview. I begin with the simple question; why does he support OFOC and a people’s vote? ‘Because I think Brexit is the worst policy mistake that this country has made since appeasement in the nineteen thirties and if it happens, and certainly if it happens on the terms that it looks as if it could happen, it would have damaging effects on this country for decades to come’. He explains that following the initial vote he ‘believed that the reality of Brexit once the British public were faced with it rather than the fantasy version that was sold during the Referendum campaign would be so bad that the great common-sense of the British people would prevail and I think that is a very likely scenario now’. Given the clear four-point margin of the initial Referendum I ask if he is really so sure the result will be different this time. ‘Oh yes I am absolutely confident of that’ Bradshaw explains he feels once ‘the public see the reality of a botched, a blindfold, or a no deal Brexit’ that the margin for remaining would increase and ‘that is supported by all the polling and focus group work that I have seen done’. I am curious though what he thinks of the multiple underlying causes of Brexit in the first places and whether they have been
effectively dealt with. I ask Bradshaw if he thinks a topic like immigration, which for some was a key reason for voting Leave, is still a public concern. ‘Well to coin an old New Labour phrase: I think we need to be tough on Brexit and tough on the causes of Brexit. Interestingly enough though, if you look at the current polling, the salience of immigration as an issue has declined significantly since the referendum. That might be a symptom of the fact that we are haemorrhaging people, particularly EU nationals, and far fewer are coming here because this is a less attractive country to come and work in and because of the pound’. He then emphasises why he thinks migration is so important: ‘The simple fact is we need migrant labour as a developed economy and with an ageing population and in my part of the world one of our biggest problems are labour and skills shortages and the idea that our economy and our public services are going to be able to run in future with no contribution from migrant labour is just untrue’. He’s also keen to emphasise ‘there are also a lot more things we can do within the current EU rules and control migration which we have never used, tools which other EU countries deploy; a five-year residency requirement before you can claim any recourse to public funds, for example, registration, identity cards’. There has been much in the news recently on how near to a deal the Government is with the EU, so I ask Bradshaw what he thinks the outcome of the deal will be and if he and his fellow MPs will get a final say. He admits ‘it is very difficult to predict’ but that he had always thought ‘there would be some sort of deal because the consequence of no deal for both sides are so horrific’. On the deal itself he says ‘it is most likely at the stage to be a fudge or what people are calling a blind fold Brexit’ and that there ‘is no majority in the House of Commons for anything that Theresa May is likely to come up with’. ‘The most likely outcome is that the Parliament would reject a deal if we get one and certainly Parliament will step in to stop no deal.’ Ultimately, however, it is the people who Bradshaw believes should have the final say: ‘I think the public are absolutely fed up with Brexit already, just want to put it
“I think the public are absolutely fed up with Brexit already”
behind them and get on with their lives and I think MPs will reflect that and that is why I think the most likely outcome now is putting the issue back to the people who started the process to finish it off’. Whilst the Labour Party leadership have not ruled out putting the issue back to the people, their current official position on Brexit is still to go ahead with it; Bradshaw believes this will change and talks of what he believes the most likely scenario will be: ‘I think the resolution that we agreed at our Party conference last month was a very positive step forward in the right direction and that the culmination of many months of very hard work by ordinary members, parties round the country, MPs and it lays out a clear sequence of events that if there is a deal it is very likely, if not almost inevitable, that we will vote against it because it will not be able to meet our tests’ ‘We will then of course, if the Government is defeated, call for general election. There will not be a general election because a third of MPs will not vote for one, and under fixed term parliament act you have to have a twothirds majority in Parliament for there to be a general election and we made clear that in that event then we keep all options on the table, including the people’s vote with Remain on the ballot paper, so I think you can see a way through a very clear sequence of events there which I think now are probably the most likely to scenario.’ Hoping to find out a little more about the Labour Party behind the scenes I ask if the leadership want to remain in the EU if possible. Bradshaw emphasises that as a backbencher he does not speak for the leadership but says that despite originally campaigning for Remain ‘the leadership, at least, felt that it had to accept and acknowledge the result and implement Brexit, or certainly not put obstacles in the way of implementing Brexit, and that’s why
the labour a leadership voted for Article 50’. Bradshaw, like a number of Labour MPs, did not vote for Article 50. Being blunt Bradshaw puts the Labour situation thus: ‘I think as time has grown on the Labour leadership has realised that what we are facing is a total sh*tshow and the Government has been so incompetent in the way it has handled the negotiations and we really are facing an existential crisis, economic and constitutional as a country. I think that the Labour leadership has understood that given the choice between a bad deal and no deal, a far better of alternative would be to put the question back to the people and campaign very strongly to stay in.’ Bradshaw is very much a politician of the Blair era so I am curious as to how he has found life in the Labour Party since its shift to the left and particularly in trying to move the Party’s position on Brexit. On Brexit he says ‘I have found it very stimulating, very motivating for me. I think if you believe in something as strongly as I do it is not a difficult thing to campaign for and argue for’. On having to go against Labour policy he says: ‘One could argue that breaking the whip and voting against one’s own party is a very difficult thing, it is not something I have done before and it is not something I intend to do on a regular basis but on something as fundamental as this where I think that the consequences of a certain action would be so damaging to the country, I have not had a problem of speaking out and voting against my party leadership one bit’. Bradshaw expresses his delight that the position of the leadership has changed ‘under pressure from not just MPs but ordinary party members, from the trade unions’ who have ‘moved their position into the right place’. The change in Labour’s stance, he says, ‘has been partly a consequence of the willingness of some of us, like me, to stand up and be candid for what we believe in’.
epigram 05.11.2018
10 Features
Ending the University gender pay gap and whether transparency is enough An investigation into what the ‘gender pay gap’ is, how it is different to ‘equal pay’ and why is it such a pervasive problem in higher education
Emily Vernall
Online Features Editor
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“According to the University’s 2018 Gender Pay Gap Report, there is currently a 16.2% median gender pay gap at the University of Bristol”
Equality and Human Rights Commission have emphasised the fundamental difference between ‘equal pay’ and the ‘gender pay gap’. Equal pay is ‘Means that men and women in the same employment performing equal work must receive equal pay, as set out in the Equality Act 2010.’ Whilst the gender pay gap ‘Is a measure of the difference between men’s and women’s average earnings across an organisation or the labour market. It is expressed as a percentage of men’s earnings.’ As the government’s data drive is focused on the gender pay gap, some critics question whether the data is meaningless. However, although it doesn’t address equal pay, it shows that there is no sector within the UK in which women are paid better on average than men. Some believe that it underscores a structure within the workplace that is anachronistic and does not reflect the needs of modern society. Consequently, universities are needing to look beyond data, and address the underlying causes of the gender pay gap. These are often connected to complex and entrenched
Pexels / Pixabay
ollowing the news that two organisations - University and College Union or ‘UCU’ and the University of Bristol – have shown a united front in committing to close the reported 16.8% gender pay gap at the University it is worth looking deeper into the issue. Nearly five decades after the 1970 Equal Pay Act was passed, nearly all large companies and corporations operating in the UK are still reporting the presence of a pay gap between men and women to some degree. Of this trend, the gender pay gap in Higher Education institutions is no exception. This raises critical questions regarding the course of action that needs to be taken to change this imbalance and crucially, a reflection on why it may still be occurring in the first place. Nonetheless, progress is being made to make the situation more transparent. For the first time this year, newly introduced government legislation has enforced a mandatory disclosure of pay figures. April 4th, 2018 marked the government’s first deadline for all companies with over 250
employees to report on the salaries paid to male and female staff. Britain’s undertaking is pioneering, considered one of the largest data collections on the gender pay gap. The results showed that four out of five universities revealed a gender pay gap reaching a percentage in double figures. According to the University’s 2018 Gender Pay Gap Report, there is currently a 16.2% median gender pay gap at the University of Bristol. Although below the national average of 18.4%, it is still in need of change. Some commentators have questioned whether this ‘transparency’ approach and ‘data-drive’ is enough, or whether people will confuse the act of carrying out a public data enquiry with the need to take further, practical action to achieve change. Another critical issue that some analysts have found with the data collection is its lack of intersectionality as the impact of other factors such as class and ethnicity is not recorded, prompting calls for further transparency. To better understand the issue, The
aspects of the structural organisation and cultural influences. Indeed, there is a long history of gender inequality in academia and a working culture that typically revolves around full-time rather than part-time workers. Analysis by the Guardian suggests that when women are adequately represented in the top quartile of a workplace, the median pay gap shrinks, thus many people within the Higher Education sector are now calling for more women to take on senior leadership roles. This is very evident when observing the university hierarchy. For instance, there are equal numbers of male and female academics in junior roles, but males are more likely to have a senior position. In 2015-16, 50 per cent of lecturers were female, only 40 per cent of senior lecturers were female and just 24 per cent of professors were female. At the top, currently 20% of Universities in the UK are headed by female VCs and principals. Although the impact of this legislation and data-drive on Universities and equality is ambiguous, one thing that is for certain is that it has generated meaningful conversation and debate without which conscious change cannot be achieved. The united commitment recently made by Hugh Brady at the University of Bristol and the UCU is demonstrative of the impact of this conversation, but the fruition of this commitment remains to be seen. Thus, although some commentators have argued that publishing figures cannot change a culture, it has shown that it holds Universities accountable and perhaps begin the road to change.
Histories of Bristol: The sister of the SS Great Britain A lesser known story from the museum of the SS Great Britain; one of Bristol’s most popular attractions
Robert Keirle
Third year, History
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“Gold has been salvaged from the waters close to the site of the wreck, including what is believed to be Britain’s largest gold nugget measured at 97grams”
wind was strong enough to firmly embed nuggets of gold into the ship’s iron body. As winds rapidly changed direction as the Charter drew close to the Welsh coast, the ship could not outmanoeuvre the storm, with its engine failing and both anchors giving way under the sheer strain. By around 3:30am, the ship had become grounded at low tide just off Moelfre, Anglesey and by 7:00am was dashed against the rocks, breaking into pieces. Only 39 survived – all men. It is claimed that those who died did not drown but were instead killed through the impact against the land. Though there was also a persisting legend that passengers were dragged to the depths by the weight of the
Wikimedia Commons / mattbuck
he story of the SS Great Britain is familiar to many. Designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, it was the longest passenger steam ship of the mid-nineteenth-century, serving initially as a luxury transatlantic liner journeying between Bristol and New York. After running aground in Dundrum Bay in 1846, it was sold on to Gibbs, Bright and Co. and refitted for the England-Australia run amidst the Victorian gold rush. With its unique combination of iron hull and screwpropeller, the Great Britain boasted travel from Liverpool to Australia in under sixty days at 500 horse-power, making her first voyage to Melbourne in 1852. Today she can be found at Bristol Harbourside and is one of the city’s most popular tourist attractions with an accompanying museum dedicated to the ship and Brunel himself. However, little is known of its sister ship, the Royal Charter – a steam clipper which wrecked off the coast of Anglesey in 1859. The Royal Charter, constructed at Sandycroft Ironworks and launched in 1855, resembled the Great Britain in a number of ways. It was bought by Gibbs,
Bright and Co. who at the same time owned the Great Britain as well as being overseen by the same master shipbuilder, William Paterson. In addition, the Charter became renowned for its speed, promising fast travel to Australia for passengers looking to make their fortune following the discovery of gold in Victoria in 1851. On the night it was destroyed, the Charter’s gold cargo was insured for approximately £322,400, amounting to £52m by modern standards. Where the Charter critically differed from the Great Britain was in how it was powered. While the Great Britain primarily relied on its steam engine with its sails as backup, the Royal Charter was a clipper designed for speed rather than outright strength and was therefore only equipped with auxiliary steam power. It was this feature that made the Charter incapable of driving against oncoming wind on the night it broke apart. From her maiden voyage in 1855 to her destruction in 1859, the Royal Charter made the trip from Liverpool to Melbourne, returning via South America, a total of six times, on one occasion in as few as 59 days – a record time for this period. On the evening of 25th October 1859, the Charter was on the last stretch of its return voyage to Liverpool, carrying approximately 390 passengers and 112 crew. Having briefly stopped in Queenstown, Ireland, allowing a few fortunate passengers to disembark and a few more to board, the ship was set to make its fastest arrival yet. Though, as a result of hurricane strength winds battering the ship as it headed across the Irish Sea, the Charter never reached its destination. Indeed, the
gold sewn into their clothes for safekeeping. One man, Joseph Rogers, real name Guzeppi Ruggier, emerged from this tragedy as a hero. He was a Maltese seaman who after three attempts successfully towed a lifeline from the ship to the shore aided by the villagers of Moelfre. This method saved a few though could not help the bulk of woman and children who remained trapped at the opposite end of the ship that soon detached completely. Ruggier went on to serve with SS Great Britain on twenty-four of its voyages between 1859 and 1875. Much of the recovery and burial of the bodies became the responsibility of the local clergy, with one Reverend Stephen Hughes apparently burying over a hundred in his churchyard alone. The author Charles Dickens visited Hughes a few months after the wreck and recorded his efforts to identify bodies and contact relatives in a chapter entitled ‘Shipwreck’ in his work The Uncommercial Traveller. Perhaps a more positive legacy of the wreck of the Royal Charter – and the hundreds of other vessels sunk on the same night – was the development of a gale warning system relying on telegraphs to provide an effective forecast to prevent future wrecks of this kind. As recently as 2012, gold has been salvaged from the waters close to the site of the wreck including what is believed to be Britain’s largest gold nugget measured at 97-grammes. For more information on the Royal Charter and objects recovered from the wreck, visit the Brunel Institute Library at the SS Great Britain Museum.
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epigram 05.11.2018
Editor: Will Charley
@willcharley1
Deputy Editor: Noor Evers Online Editor: Ffion Clarke
@ffionclarke5
Deputy Online: Maia Miller-Lewis
@maiamillerlewis
Should Bristol Students’ Union take stances in politics? Bristol SU should encourage debate, not demand conformity
Debate not division/ Bristol SU risks alienating students and stifling debate by presenting one viewpoint as the only acceptable choice Benji Smith
First year, English
Epigram/ Laura Reid
W
ith the march of 700,000 protestors demanding a second Brexit referendum on the 20th October this year, it would be no surprise if there was an increase in public political awareness at present – particularly in Bristol, with the Student’s Union marching alongside in support of a “People’s Vote”. Bristol SU’s support for a People’s Vote might also be explained given that YouGov estimated 86 per cent of those under 25 year old in the South West would vote to Remain, if given the opportunity. But is this very public display of support for one political position something commendable, or potentially problematic? It seems clear to me that any organisation proclaiming its sincere support for ‘representation, equality and diversity’- as the Bristol Student’s Union does- would extend
such values to political opinions. However, this is where the SU has gone wrong. By all means, encourage political discourse through Student Union channels, but don’t adopt an official stance and claim to represent everyone here when doing so. There is a very real danger that when adopting political stances such as these, you create a situation where one answer or narrative is deemed ‘correct’, or at least difficult to argue against. After all, who would want to be the one who goes against the grain and contradicts what seems to be the beliefs of all their flatmates, course mates and friends? I certainly wouldn’t. We must remember that university is a place to learn. We do not have all the answers yet, and therefore the body that represents students should not pretend to have them for us. By marking a line in the sand and saying, ‘We as a student body think this’, you run the risk of alienating opposing points of view by making them seem unacceptable to hold, intentionally or otherwise. I don’t think that would be beneficial to a diversity of opinions, nor would it be pleasant to those dissenters who think differently to the perceived collective. It won’t be productive, either. If you create an atmosphere – the dreaded ‘echo chamber’ – where a single narrative is fought for,
“You discourage actual discussion on important topics”
repeated and conditioned again and again, you discourage actual discussion on important topics and prevent anyone from hearing both sides in equal weight. And what better way could there be to figure out what you think than to hear every fact, every argument and every opinion there is to be had? I’m not saying we should shelter ourselves, and have the SU shelter us, from anything political which may cause controversy. Doing so would be insulting and frankly naïve in the increasingly tense political Britain we live in
today. But the key is to be impartial. The Students’ Union should refrain from taking an overt political position; it should not have endorsed the People’s Vote. That way, every side gets a fair hearing, without stigma. Everyone can feel free to express their views without fear of collective judgement and without feeling like they are alone against their entire community. In this way, the SU would epitomise the ’diversity’ and ‘representation’ it claims to strive for, in a much better way than by adopting a of firm political stance.
Student interests must be represented on the national stage Student power/ The SU can defend students’ interests nationwide and empower the student body, but first it must reform Benjamin Salmon
Second year, Politics and IR
S
“The SU does have the ability to bring about major political pressure”
“The SU should have shown why Brexit is bad”
students face. The SU makes bold efforts to improve student life in meetings, by proposing things such as expanding mental health provisions, challenging the British university system to its core and supporting rent strikes in an effort to make living in Bristol more affordable. There is often a misconception that the SU is a backwater of Bristol life, used by only those fully committed to society life or, for those who, for the want of a better word, are virtue signalers. This must change. For the SU to have any sort of role in dictating national policy and societal values, it should focus on what’s best for students
and students only, especially considering its officers are answerable to the student body alone. Ergo, they should be enacting the change that affects and hopefully improves the lives of Bristol students who elect them. Instead of yelling about how bad the Orange Man across the Atlantic is, Bristol SU needs to refocus its argument and say why young people will suffer and why the SU is in a position to challenge the current orthodoxy. Fundamentally, the SU is an institution that has the ability to represent the student body nationally and actually improve the student experience. It should start acting like it.
Epigram / Imogen Horton Epigram/ Zoe Crowther
tudents have always been at the forefront of reformist change in society. Progressive viewpoints, together with lots of spare time and a hint of personal ambition, have led to student campaigns creating a lasting effect on both the national psyche and the international order. In a period of British history when age is now more a determinate of opinions than class, it is now an expectation that student unions, guilds and associations serve only to fight for progress. Bristol SU is no exception in this regard and wears the badge of student activism with pride. However, Bristol SU’s political practice often goes beyond its representative remit, arguing cases that have little to do with the interests of students. These cases often serve to show the University in a light which plays into the hands of those who demonise students for being snowflakes. Universities appear as nothing but a playground for the privileged to debate meaningless values.
This was clearly seen at the February 2018 Annual Member’s Meeting (AMM).At this, a motion to “denounce Brexit” passed, without specifying why this would actually be of benefit to students in Bristol or across the country. Instead, the SU should have shown why Brexit is bad by passing a motion highlighting and challenging the uncertainty surrounding future British access to the Erasmus scheme or a policy building support for the free flow of academic knowledge. The real motion served nothing other than to display the ideological colours of student politicos in the company of their -mostly politically homogenous - peers. These motions are not only a waste of union time, they are often a waste of union money. At the previous year’s AMM, a full-time SU Officer proposed a motion to condemn US President Donald Trump, calling for SU money to be spent on coaches to London to protest his State Visit. When questioned whether this was worth it, even the proposer said explicitly that it “doesn’t affect Muslim students here right now”. British students, in general, do have negative views on President Trump but those opinions should not be manifested within institutions that hold no responsibility for and have no effect on policing the internal affairs of a country thousands of miles away. The SU does have the ability to bring about major political pressure; it does try to understand and solve the deepest problems
12 Comment
05.11.2018 epigram
Judgement should not be a member of the gym The University gym should be a safe space where all students are welcomes, whether they drink 3 litre protein shakes or not Nikki Peach Deputy Editor
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here are many factors contributing to my overwhelming lack of fitness. To name a few: there is a damaging and pervasive trend in every cafe, restaurant and bar to supply stools and benches in the place of supportive and comfortable seating; that I am partial to sitting down and avoid physical exertion unless absolutely necessary -say walking to Sainsbury’s-, and significantly, that I have not regularly exercised since year 11 when I occasionally participated half-heartedly in team sports. At 21 years of age, the effects of my lifestyle have surmounted into a problem that ironically, I can no longer run from. I have complained of knee pain and used the phrase ‘I’ve done my back in’ multiple times. I have used the lift to go to the second floor more times than I care to mention. I have tried running and ended up walking, slowly, whilst on the phone.
This year I live uncomfortably close to the Uni gym, so close that I can smell the protein powder pouring into the Love Island water bottles and so close that I could not think of a more suitable venue to begin my transformation into basic health and fitness. Before I joined I feared it would smell of a pungent partnership between stale sweat and new equipment, that they would repeatedly play top 40 Calvin Harris remixes and that there are mirrors on all four walls, the ceiling and the floor and soon the equipment will also be made of reflective and insecurity inducing materials. Yet, my largest concern was undoubtedly that the gym is an exclusively male space, that everyone in there is trying to build another empire in the foundations of their thighs. If a girl in the gym is a fish out of water, a girl who does not exercise in the gym is a fish asking to be battered and fried. From my (limited) experience, more female students attend classes and opt for the cardio equipment, whilst male students cluster in the weights areas and around the unidentifiable machines. In that sense, it is true that the gym is a male dominated space. Thanks to Bristruths, I spoke to some female students about their experiences. One athlete, who is entirely comfortable in the gym, told me that she had been offered unsolicited ‘tips’ with her pull ups, offered physical help without asking for it and had even been backhandedly complimented by
“I feared people in the gym were trying to build another empire in the foundations of their thighs”
a Personal Trainer who, looking at her six pack, said ‘wow, most girls don’t want to look like that’. These micro-aggressions are discriminating, off-putting and make women feel objectified and unwelcome in what is supposed to be a unisex environment. Of course, such experiences are not restricted to women. There are thousands of non-athletic, noncis students who do not feel there is a space for them in this environment. One male student commented, ‘because it is always busy and there is a macho energy, if you are not super clued up in how to use different weight machines it’s quite hard to feel like you can try something new’. As well as being just male-dominated, it is experiencedominated, deterring new members from even entering. Though unfortunate, it is also rectifiable and, to give the healthy people and gym rats the benefit of the doubt, is probably
unintentional. In a university where there are noticeably more female students and a societal community where gendered spaces are being forced not just to open their doors but to remove the hinges, it is time for the gym to reflect this. It has the potential to be an inclusive and safe space for all genders to improve their mental and physical wellbeing. All students who pay for a gym membership must invest in the idea of an Indoor Sports Centre utopia where classes, equipment and the weight areas are shared readily. The only way this can change is if those of us who do not have pulsating neck muscles or a personalised school P.E kit start to use the gym regularly, without fear. And those who struggle to refrain from analysing another person’s workout start a Fitness Instagram instead. That is when we will all feel the benefits.
The privately-educated still dominate our society: something must change Abolishing private schools is not radical, it is establishing the equality our society should desire Dylan Woodward
Secretary, Bristol Labour Students
O
nly seven per cent of children in the UK go to private schools, yet that seven per cent go on to dominate the top jobs across our society. Whether it’s in government (55 per cent of permanent secretaries in Whitehall, 50 per cent of Cabinet ministers and members of the House of Lords), the state bureaucracy (74 per cent of senior judges, 71 per cent of senior officers in the armed forces), the media (43 per cent of newspaper columnists), or even sports and culture (67 per cent of Oscar winners, 50 per cent of Team GB), you can be pretty certain that the privately educated will be over-represented. These numbers should cause outrage in a society that claims to support equality of opportunity, but those who speak out about this are all too often shouted down as radicals. Even calls for minor reform (such as removing private schools’ charitable status) are met with hysteria and accusations of class war. Something needs to change. Private education isn’t just grossly unfair in the abstract (why should a child’s life chances be determined by the wealth of their parents – something they have no
more power over than the colour of their skin), it also has a tangible human cost. This is because buying your child a better education, unlike buying them a material commodity like a car, has a direct impact on the life chances of others. There are a limited number of spaces at top universities – at Bristol last year there were over eight applications per place. The same is true of certain internships and top jobs, which are by their nature competitive and exclusive. In that context, buying your child a leg-up means disadvantaging someone else’s child. For every student able to get into a top university off the back of their private education, an equally bright student without that advantage is necessarily kept out. Not only does this directly affect people’s future earnings, but on a more human level it affects their capacity to pursue their personal ambitions and lead the life they would freely choose. So what needs to happen? In simple terms, private schools need to go. They do not have to be abolished overnight; we could instead opt for the ‘slow and peaceful euthanasia’ that Robert Verkaik suggests. Either way, the government must take a clear stance that private education is incompatible with a society that preaches opportunities for all. But what about the rights of parents? Surely they should be allowed to do all they can to give their child the best start in life? Let’s be realistic. As David Kynaston points out, for most parents this is a ‘phantom right’. The best estimate
puts average private school fees in the UK at over £17,000 a year – wildly out of reach for the majority of the population. Besides, it’s the child and by extension their peers’ life chances which are profoundly affected by this decision but it’s not their money being spent. To quote Kynaston again, “no child has earned the right to a better education, just as no child has failed to earn that right.” What about quality then? It might be unfair that some people get a private education and some don’t, but if private schools churn out the best students then surely they deserve the top spots? Interestingly, research consistently shows that if you take a state and a private school student with the same grades at A-level, the state school student is statistically more likely to come out with a better degree. What this suggests is that a private education, rather than making someone a better student, simply gives an artificial boost at A-level; perhaps as a result of smaller class sizes or specialist tuition. On this basis, admissions based simply on A-level results do not just result in an unrepresentative cohort, but actively rejects better quality students. As those who study at an elite university we’re uniquely placed to help tackle this issue. We need to call on UoB to adopt concrete reforms – be that a quota system as suggested by Robert Verkaik or more meaningful contextual offers that take account of the significant advantage a private education buys. Whatever form it takes, change cannot come soon enough.
“Whatever form it takes, change cannot come soon enough”
Bristol Labour Students are collaborating with the 93 per cent to run a series to tackle education inequality. Details of their events can be found via their Facebook pages.
Comment 13
epigram 05.11.2018
Mogg-madness: Bristol University is letting free speech die With BUCA bankrupted in paying for Jacob Rees-Mogg, the University is rejecting free speech on campus by not covering security charges for speakers First Year, English
BUCA/ Rob Porter
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acob Rees-Mogg, MP for North East Somerset was invited to speak to the Bristol University Conservative Association on the 16th Febuary 2018. What should have been an exercise in debate, dialogue and discussion turned into a logistical and financial nightmare for the society. Rees-Mogg is notorious for attracting protest, often violent, due to his provocative views that many struggle to digest. Following incidences at the Conservative Party Conference in 2017 and the Univesity of the West of England in
Sabrina Miller
all speakers. This will ensure that all views have an equal opportunity to be heard even if they are viewed as inflammatory. As long as someone isn’t breaking the law, they have a right to speak on campus.
BUCA/ Rob Porter
BUCA/ Rob Porter
“They are inadvertently supporting this new political elitism”
is extremely polarised and it is fairly obvious what the dominant political view on campus is. Students on the left are rarely willing to engage with those on the right because to them the right holds views deemed illiberal and unacceptable. For many, Rees-Mogg epitomises this, due to his anti-abortion, anti- gay marriage and pro-Brexit stances. However that does not mean that Rees-Mogg should not be heard on campus. The University of Bristol’s Freedom of Speech policy works to, “promote free speech and encourage debate of all kinds” which means that “all views, including those that can be difficult to hear, should be able to be expressed and heard with tolerance and mutual respect”. Despite the University’s claims that they support freedom of speech, by not helping the society insure Mogg’s safety, it is clear these are just nominal statements. In order to ensure all views are heard and freedom of speech remains protected, the University needs to guarantee safety for
2018, the Bristol University Conservative Association legitimately feared for the speaker’s security. Nonetheless the society refused to be scared into submission and the event proceeded, however this decision came at a large financial cost for the society. In order to afford additional security, the Bristol University Conservative Association paid £496, a cost that has not been reimbursed by the University. The debate is thus, should the University of Bristol have paid for the additional security? The University’s refusal to support the Conservative society is ironically elitist. The University is implicitly implying that if you cannot afford to provide security for your speaker, then they should not be allowed to speak. This is an extremely damaging precedent to set. It means that speakers who challenge the mainstream way of thinking- and are perhaps therefore some of the most important speakers to bring on campus- may never get as far as the front door. By refusing to support societies who wish to bring in more controversial speakers the University of Bristol is essentially acquiescing to the demands of violent protestors who wish to curtail the principles of freedom of speech. The University is insinuating that intimidation tactics are an effective way to keep certain views off of campus and that is fundamentally unacceptable. Whilst the university may not be doing this consciously, they are inadvertently supporting this new political elitism that aims to close students ears to different, but legitimate perspectives. The university must realise this and act now. Unfortunately, at the moment politics
Avoca-no: The media needs to stop demonizing vegans (and feminists) Too frequently, vegans and feminists are demonized by newspapers. This must change or papers should go.
Jack Price-Darbyshire Third Year, Politics and Philosophy
Y
“The people of Bristol are very aware that the names of ‘Wills’ and ‘Colston’... are in no way a celebration of their past”
most annoying is how certain media outlets are feeding into this backlash just to have a few more people read their articles. This creates the problem that many people ignore rational arguments from vegans and feminists almost treating the words as taboo. Articles like the ones I have mentioned allow people to argue that vegans and feminists are forcing their opinions down everyone’s throat, when, most feminists and vegans would happily talk and debate with you in a calm reasonable way, with points they can back up. In other words, most can discuss without once shouting that you are a murderer or a sexist. Obviously, the sensationalism around feminists and vegans in the media comes down to the fact that print journalism is struggling with the question of “how do I get someone to read my article”. The issue is, however, that is it actually so important that journalism is kept alive at all costs, if all integrity is removed in the process? Surely newspapers and articles are meant
to promote freedom of speech and provide valid opinions on complicated topics to encourage debate and inform people. Sure, this does not create necessarily interesting reads, but important issues do not necessarily have to be interesting for them to be relevant. Ultimately, if the only way newspapers are to survive is through endless clickbait articles buying into sensationalism, then I would argue it’s not worth it surviving at all.
Pe xe l s / R a w P i x l e .
ou don’t have to look far to find numerous articles stating things like “Woman Pours Bleach and Water on Men’s Groins to Stop ‘Manspreading’” or “Pie and mash shop closes after 128 years ‘because of vegans’” in order to demonise feminists and vegans alike in the hope of getting a few extra reads. This is then normally followed with comments from outraged people screaming about Generation Snowflake bringing the West to its knees. These articles are often groundless – for those who care, the pie and mash shop shut
because people don’t want pie and mash - and just put forward stereotypes that are untrue for most vegans and feminists, but rumours that many people dogmatically buy into. The problem is this constant misrepresentation in the media justifies to many people their opinions that these two groups are inhabited solely by crazy, illogical, radicals. This allows people to conclude, without any real research into the topic, that they are ‘normal’ and ‘sensible’, surrounded in a world full of ‘social justice warriors’ mad with ‘political correctness’. We are at the point in which many won’t even listen to rational arguments anymore, because the stereotype is too ingrained to remove. Of course, there is always going to be a backlash when large groups of people question the status quo. The patriarchy and eating meat have existed for centuries, and obviously people do not like having their sensibility questioned. However, what I find
Science & Tech
Editor: Bethany Harris Deputy Editor: Vilhelmiina Haavisto Online Editor: Caitlin Bromfield
Lies
A student’s guide to the IPCC’s climate change report Feeling overwhelmed and bombarded with information? Here’s what you need to know...
humanity will inevitably fall short of the proposed targets. A carbon neutral world by 2050 appears to these critics to be an impossible task when faced, for example, with the Trump Administration’s refusal to accept that climate change is a major issue. Unsplash / Elizabeth Epigram / Vilhelmiina Haavisto
Genevieve Clapp First year, Medicine
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ow lying islands, such as the Maldives, swallowed by the oceans. Scorching hot summers. Coral reefs vanishing completely. It is hard to think that tragedies such as these will be caused, not by an apocalypse, but simply by the global temperature increasing by 1.5° celsius above pre-industrial levels. However, this is what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has stated in its most recent report, which was commissioned after the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. The report and news coverage surrounding it can feel overwhelming, so here is what we, as students, need to know, and what we can do to help.
at least once per decade, and crop yields decreasing significantly in sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and South America. What do governments need to do to stop this happening?
What was the report investigating? The report compares two future worlds: one where humanity allows the global temperature to increase by 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, and another where it is allowed to rise by 2°C. Although 0.5°C does not sound like a particularly significant change, it could be the difference between 6.5 per cent of land ecosystems being destroyed and 13 per cent of land ecosystems vanishing. According to the report, other major changes that could occur with a 2°C temperature increase include the Arctic being without any ice in the summer
“Humanity will have the mammoth task of kicking its carbon addiction by 2050”
The IPCC report states that in order to prevent the global temperature from increasing more the 1.5°C, humanity will have the mammoth task of kicking its carbon addiction by 2050. The first checkpoint on this road will be ensuring that by 2030, world carbon emissions are reduced by 49 per cent from 2017 levels. By 2050 we need to be completely carbon neutral, with no excess carbon being pumped into the atmosphere. Renewable energy will have to take centre stage if we are to achieve this, with the report suggesting that by 2050, 70-85 per cent of the world’s electricity needs to be produced by renewable sources.
However, renewable energy alone will not cut it; the IPCC is also recommending that forests are expanded, and more technology developed to suck the CO2 from the air. This poses difficulties as technology in this field is still being developed, and even if it were perfected in time, finding enough space underground to store CO2 removed from the atmosphere could be an issue. How do critics view the report? The report has received mixed responses with some critics saying that the final summary has been sugar-coated to make it more palatable for governments. Since there was government collaboration in the writing of the ‘Summary for Policymakers’ in the report, the IPCC may have been pushed into proposing easier targets. Other critics have the view that the suggestions made in the report are not viable and that
How can we as students help? Over the next decade we are likely to see the government offer many incentives to get the population to reduce its carbon emissions; for example, encouraging people to switch to electric cars by offering discounted insurance. But, if you want to make a real difference, do not wait for financial encouragement. Cycling, walking or using public transport instead of a car (which most students do most of the time already) will help reduce carbon emissions, as will adopting a “less resource-intensive diet”, which should contain less meat. Educating others through conversation and activism, particularly those in denial about climate change, can also be an important role for us students. What are the next steps? The next UN climate change talks are planned to take place in Poland this December. The objective is for a set of rules to be created that will assist governments as they try to reduce their carbon emissions. Nevertheless, governments also need to discuss funding for various projects - such as research into technology that can remove CO2 from the air - that will be needed to reach the carbon neutral goal. This subject seems to have been ignored by the UN so far, so it will be interesting to see whether it causes any conflict during the talks this December in Poland. Tasi
Amino acid modification for new medicine Tom Farnell
A new method for making challenging modifications to amino acids has been discovered, allowing scientists to easily produce important molecules for the development of new medicines. Researchers at the University of Bristol’s School of Chemistry have invented a practical, new way of modifying amino acids. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins, and modifying them can lead to the discovery of new medicines such as antibiotics. The continuing discovery of new antibiotics is especially important at the moment because they are needed to fight the rise of bacterial strains which are evolving resistance to common antibiotics at an alarming rate. Amino acids that have been chemically modified can be used in place of unaltered amino acids to make analogues of known medicinal molecules, with a slightly altered shape which can
“A new pathway to making a class of medically valuable compounds”
new group of chemical building blocks.” The term quaternary alpha-aryl amino acid refers to the ring of carbon atoms, or aryl group, which is attached to the central, or alpha, carbon of the amino acid. Quaternary means the central carbon has four groups attached to it; the two end groups which attach to other amino acids to form a chain, the group of atoms specific to the amino acid used, and the new carbon ring. This configuration is important because it means that when the molecule forms a chain with other amino acids, it will have two side groups that can interact with other parts of the chain. This changes the way the chain folds together into a 3D structure, altering the shape of the overall molecule, which is either a peptide or a protein depending on the length of the amino acid chain. The chain molecule can then interact with receptors and proteins in the body to produce a biological response, such as pain relief. Amino acids can exist in two forms, often described as left-handed and right-handed forms because, like our hands, they are mirror images of each other; they have the same composition but are non-superimposable. To visualise this, try putting one hand on top of the other and see if you can get them in identical positions. The proteins in our body are made up exclusively of left-handed amino acids, so only the left-handed forms
Unsplash / Zoltan
Third year, Chemistry
change medicinal and biological effects the molecule has. This new pathway retains a memory of the form of the starting amino acid and selectively produces the same form of the modified molecule. The research was published in the prestigious journal Nature and features a new pathway to making a class of medically valuable compounds, known as quaternary alpha-aryl amino acids, by attaching a ring of carbon atoms to the centre of an amino acid. The potential of these molecules as starting points for developing new medicines has been known for some time, but they have so far been challenging to manufacture efficiently on a large scale. This new research provides a scalable method that uses readily available amino acids and does not require the use of expensive metals to speed up the reaction up. The new reaction pathway works on a variety of different amino acids and the carbon rings, which are attached in the reaction, can include various other atoms around their periphery. This will make a wide range of modified amino acids available for production in multi-gram quantities, enabling “advances in understanding natural biochemical systems or tackling disease”, according to Professor Jonathan Clayden, senior author of the paper. Professor Clayden also called these molecules “an important
Unsplash / Louis Reed
Bristol research reveals new pathways for manufacturing and modifying amino acids for the develpment of new medicines.
can interact correctly with the human body, by fitting in enzymes and receptors, and can be used to make medicines. The righthanded forms are not found in nature and do not produce the same effects as the lefthanded forms. Usually, a chemical reaction would produce left- and right-handed forms in equal amounts, but this new pathway is designed so that it selectively produces only the useful left-handed form. This saves a large amount of the starting material from being wasted in making the useless right-handed form, and thus increases the efficiency of the reaction.
05.11.2018 epigram
Science and Tech 15
Is being vegan as environmentally friendly as you think? Go green, go vegan? It may not be that simple. Dan Sarker
First year, Chemistry When I was presented with this FullEnglish on a quiet Sunday morning in Stokes Croft, it was hard for me to believe that it was vegan. Even the coffee, after being recommended almond milk by the barista, was free from any animal produce. The subject of eating less meat has been pushed to the forefront of current affairs by a recent study in the journal Nature, which suggested that meat consumption needs to be cut back by 90 per cent if we are to cope with an increase in population and reduce the impact of climate change. Farming cattle for beef and dairy was proposed as a main problem by the authors, and unsurprisingly, the veganism movement had a field day. This is perhaps for good reason: according to one 2013 study, the livestock sector takes up thirty per cent of Earth’s habitable landmass. Additionally, another 2014 paper
in a similar price bracket, even though the production of the latter is generally more sustainable and less resource intensive. One reason for this could be the vast amount of money that the meat industry receives in subsidies, with Member of Parliament Andrea Leadsom claiming that the government spends seven hundred million pounds per year on subsidising the meat industry. Natural, plant-based protein sources such as chickpeas and lentils are generally much lower in price than man-made ones, and far more sustainable, with one kilogram of lentils requiring three hundred times less water to produce than one kilogram of beef. Furthermore, dairy-substitutes that are less water intensive are available, with data from the Water Footprint Network suggesting that oat milk requires six times less water per kilogram to produce than almond milk does. I’ll admit that when I was sat writing
this article with vegan sausages on my plate and almond milk in my coffee, I did not think about water footprints or carbon emissions. Assuming that all plant-based products are good for the environment can mean that important factors like these can escape our minds, but being a true vegan is still admirable, not just because it is a good cause, but because it is a way of life. The evidence given by the study in Nature shows that veganism is unequivocally better for the environment on paper, but it is important to pay heed to other unsustainable foods that often get swept under the rug as well, as on an individual level, this is the best way to reduce our impact on the environment. So next time you see that tasty beef steak in Lidl, or those juicy avocados in the fruit section of Sainsbury’s, think twice - you will be doing yourself, and the world a favour.
Epigram Scheijde Epigram//Cameron Dan Sarkar
Unsplash / Theo Leconte
found that approximately one third of all arable land is used to grow crops for animal feed. But whilst cutting down the amount of meat and dairy in your diet seems to be an obvious choice, many popular alternatives that are recommended by vegan influencers are not saving the planet either. Avocados, for example, are also extremely water intensive, with multiple secondary sources suggesting that up to a thousand litres of water can go into just a kilogram of produce in some areas of the world. Recently, the television show “QI” even claimed that they are not even vegan due the fact that bees are used in an unnatural way when producing the fruit. Another study claimed that over four litres of water is used to make just a single almond: the base of the dairy-free alternative I was offered with my coffee. This is a large problem in the United States, where an increase in almond production is putting a lot of strain on the water system in California, a region that already struggles heavily with droughts in the summer months. Whilst very enjoyable, the total cost of my breakfast and coffee was an eye-watering ten pounds; this would be enough to dent any student’s wallet. However, the Vegan Society claims that being vegan “doesn’t have to be any more expensive” than being a meateater. A study conducted by scientists at the University of Oklahoma can support this claim, as they found that, on average, those who avoid animal products spend around eleven dollars less on groceries per week than meat eaters in the same demographic. Interestingly, none of the ingredients that the Vegan Society recommended for a cheap vegan diet were branded meat/dairy alternatives. Meat substitutes such as ‘Quorn’ are considered to be a household name, and are a lot more sustainable than meat itself, with its certification by the Carbon Trust telling us that the carbon footprint of Quorn is 80 per cent less than that of beef. Despite this, in most supermarkets, meat and their processed substitutes are often
“The carbon footprint of Quorn is eighty per cent less than that of beef”
Under the Microscope: Cyber police and beer trouble brewing
Valli McAdam...
reports on the use of AI in monitoring the internet
Unsplash / rawpixel
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Wellbeing Living Food Style
Travel Issue 4 / 5th November 2018
Living //
Student letting agencies: the best (and the rest) Know the ones to use and the ones to avoid when searching for next year’s house Niamh McCleary shares her tips for private renting
Travel// What do accents have to do with Brexit?
Food// How to survive catered halls
Wellbeing// National Stress Awareness Day: top tips
epigram / The Croft 05.11.2018
Editor Jasmine Burke
Deputy-Editor Luke Unger
Online Editor Marina Afzal-Khan Epigram Wellbeing
@EpigramWB
@epigramwellbeing
Overcoming trauma: steps you can take towards healing Epigram Wellbeing Sub-Editor Anna Hart discusses her experiences with trauma and how to overcome it
To suffer a trauma is to have experienced a deeply distressing event which causes you to fear for your life or for the life of others. Examples include abuse, serious accidents, injuries or illnesses, terrorism or natural disasters. Experiencing a traumatic event is unavoidably life-altering; it completely destroys your sense of stability and safety at the time of the trauma, as you believe that your life, or others’ lives, are threatened. As with any negative or unpleasant experience in life, belief in yourself and your ability to get through it is crucial to your success. This is not always easy. There were many times during my recovery that I doubted that I could survive this. You won’t heal from this kind of extreme experience overnight, but I want you to know that recovery is definitely possible.
Experiencing trauma can make you feel very isolated, as what you have been through is so far outside the realm of normal experience that you feel like no one around you can relate to it or understand
Talking to people
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Talk to people. To process through a trauma, you need to talk about it. This is not always what you want to do and it may be extremely difficult at first, but I promise you it will be worth it and it will pay off in the end. Trauma requires professional help so that you can progress properly, avoid suppressing it and move on with your life. Also, lean on your support system at this time. Your friends and family will be there for you and, even though they may not be able to fully understand everything you’re feeling, they are there for comfort, for a shoulder to cry on, or simply for a distraction to take you outside yourself and your suffering for a bit. Journaling
Epigram / Luke Unger
Acceptance The first step to healing is acceptance. Accepting what has happened to you, knowing that this is real and this has happened, no matter how badly you wish it hadn’t, is the vital first step to processing through trauma. It might take a while to get to this point and that is normal. You don’t want this reality to be your reality. But it is, I’m sorry, and you now have to do the best you can to heal yourself and move forward. Allow yourself to be angry. Allow yourself to be sad and cry as much as you need to. If you feel too numb to feel much at all, that is a normal response to a traumatic event. Feeling numb can be very disconcerting but it is your mind’s way of coping with the extraordinary amount of stress that your body and mind has been through. Patience Being patient with yourself in your recovery process is also key. I know you want to speed up your recovery, to be back to your old self and your old life, but it takes time for your body and mind to heal. Even when your body
Reading other people’s experiences Reading other people’s stories also helped me immensely. Experiencing trauma can make you feel very isolated, as what you have been through is so far outside the realm of normal experience that you feel like no one around you can relate to it or understand. This is where finding online resources and stories that others have shared about their similar experiences can help. Especially in the case of a specific trauma – such as in my case with burn injuries, which isn’t even something that had ever crossed my mind before – reading others’ stories of recovery can be incredibly reassuring.
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What can you do to help yourself recover?
Journal. Journal. Journal. Writing down how you feel helps to get it out of your head and provides some kind of respite. I recommend this for all kinds of difficulties in life, but especially in the case of trauma. Having it there in black and white in front of you can help you see things clearer, help you realise things you didn’t see before (such as a way you didn’t know you were feeling), or simply help to make sense of what has happened to you.
You won’t heal from this kind of extreme experience overnight, but I want you to know that recovery is definitely possible
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Ultimately, remember that you can get through this one step at a time. You will heal. Please be kind yourself. You need it now more than ever.
Anna Hart Wellbeing Sub-Editor
Dyspraxia: an insight
During sixth form the facet of my life I found most challenging was not UCAS or my A-Levels but, instead, my short-lived Saturday job at Sainsbury’s. Whilst at the time I was capable of writing A-level English Literature and Politics essays without too much difficulty, stacking shelves of bananas was, I discovered, my Achilles’ heel. I had landed a coveted place in the supermarket’s produce section where my lofty and self-assured self didn’t even consider the idea that two 6-hour shifts stocking fruit and veg may not be such a simple task. On my first shift it took me three times the amount of time expected to do the work and my team leader wasn’t pleased. This straight-A student he had hired to stock fruit and veg was incompetent. I spent at least 2 hours attempting to stock bananas on a 6-foot shelf, which, however many ways I tried to place them, felt like this impossible yellow jigsaw puzzle that kept exploding in my face. Suffice to say, my time at Sainsbury’s came to an abrupt end. These basic challenges with what are considered ‘normal tasks’ are facets of something called dyspraxia. I was diagnosed as a child but even up until my late teens I discovered it affects me in new and surprising ways. Dyspraxia is considered a ‘developmental co-ordination disorder’ and those with the condition experience a wide range of complications. These might be having problems with fine motor skills, such as handwriting and typing, but the disorder is wide-reaching; I also struggle extensively with memory, planning,
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What is trauma?
has healed, your mind might still need time to recover. The extreme stress of trauma often causes serious repercussions including, but not limited to, the following symptoms: memory loss, flashbacks, shock, denial, disbelief, anxiety, low mood, anger, guilt, shame, numbness, dissociation (feeling disconnected), difficulty concentrating, hypervigilance (being extremely on edge), avoidance of places and things connected with the trauma, racing heart, feeling like everything is out of control, fatigue, nightmares and insomnia. Remember that you are not going crazy. Your responses are normal reactions to abnormal events and understanding this can really help you process through your trauma, which will involve feeling some of these uncomfortable feelings and working through them at a pace that feels right to you.
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ast year I wrote an article about my burn injuries caused by boiling water in order to spread awareness of the dangers of hot water bottles and the serious injuries they can cause. Now, a year on, I’m addressing the complicated topic of dealing with trauma. This is an extremely important, albeit difficult, topic and one that I have a lot of thoughts about given my first-hand experience of a traumatic event and the recovery stages. I want to tell you that you can overcome anything, even that which seems impossible, and give you some practical steps to help the healing process.
”
Lacking the kind of structure required, I entered a vicious cycle of missed deadlines and distorted sleep patterns
organisation and routine.
Dyspraxia remains overlooked, but this may be changing. The most recent series of Doctor Who has seen Tosin Cole introduced as Ryan, who struggles to learn to ride a bike in the opening scene of the first episode. This kind of representation is a huge step forward. It is not only invaluable for young dyspraxics to feel they have someone who they can identify with but is also extremely beneficial in that it provides an example of the condition to help those around us understand why and how we function the way we do. One reason dyspraxic students struggle is because their condition contradicts many people’s linear perception of intellectual ability; while I may have been able to write A-level essays, I failed to stack the banana shelf at work. The effect of a disorder such as dyspraxia can be insidious; the gradual build-up of what may appear to be moments of clumsiness can crescendo into serious setbacks. With constant deadlines and a need to self-manage your time, this can become a serious issue for university students. Perhaps you drop a glass of water on your laptop or cannot read the assignment you scribbled down in your chaotic handwriting. These may seem inconsequential to onlookers, even your friends and Anna or Hart family, but having it happen constantlySub-Editor can be destructive. Wellbeing In my first year at Bristol, fresh out of sixth form, I struggled enormously with organising my time as a Liberal Arts student with only around 8 contact hours a week. Lacking the kind of structure that dyspraxic students require, I entered a vicious cycle of missed deadlines and distorted sleep patterns, which led to a serious drop in my mental health, one that impacted hugely on my degree. At the time I don’t believe the University and staff were aware of how to help me and, in hindsight, it seems short-sighted to throw students who have disorders which affect their time management into such low contact hour degrees with little pastoral support. Now in my fourth year, I have designed many ways to create my own structure and keep ahead of deadlines, but what I experienced was a serious lack of support for new students and awareness of disabilities like dyspraxia amongst the staff. Evidently, there is a critical lack of understanding and awareness around dyspraxia. While Monday 1st to Sunday 7th October 2018 saw the University of Bristol make an extremely important effort to publicise Dyslexia Awareness Week, the subsequent Dyspraxia Awareness Week appeared neglected. Considering recent events in Bristol and increasing awareness of mental health issues, being aware of the diverse physical and mental disabilities that exist is pertinent to protect and support students. Sam Napthine
Fourth Year, Liberal Arts
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05.11.2018 epigram / The Croft
Should you be cutting down on alcohol?
An anonymous student discusses their experience with drinking culture at university and why they decided that it was time to cut down
Drank a bottle of vodka and passed out at a party? That’s hilarious. Drank so much you ended up getting your stomach pumped? That sucks! But it’s a story to tell.
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We live in a culture where binge drinking and drinking until the point of blackoutisnotonlynormalisedbutencouraged.Drankabottleofvodkaand passedoutataparty?That’shilarious.Dranksomuchyouendedupgetting your stomach pumped? That sucks! But it’s a story to tell. Alcohol is one of the only legal, widely available drugs, so it’s no wonder that the UK comes in the top three binge drinking cultures in Europe. But both the horrific longterm and short-term effects, though heavily scientifically and medically documented, are not widely accepted amongst (especially) the younger generation. To be clear, I’m not saying I haven’t been part of it. As many of my friends areaware,Ihaveahistoryofregretfuldecisions;sleepingwithsomeonewith no memory of it, having to be carried home, making a general ass of myself and a whole other plethora of embarrassing stories behind my back. Every time after a blackout-binge I’d wake up with the familiar taste of
Epigram / Luke Unger
regret and guilt, yet I continued and continued, a vicious cycle that lasted months. I lived for the night. It took me a long time to realise and come to terms with the fact that my drinking habits were becoming problematic. Having suffered from anxiety issues all my life, turning to alcohol became a quickandeasyrelief.I’mnottheonlyone.Istronglybelievedrinkingproblems amongstuniversitystudentsarefarmorewidespreadthatpeoplethink,but because it’s so normalised many people don’t even realise.
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For me, it was after a particularly traumatic night of heavy drinking and drugsandthenightthatIgotsexuallyassaulted,thatIdecided,anemotional
Every time after a blackout-binge I’d wake up with the familiar taste of regret and guilt, yet I continued and continued, a vicious cycle that lasted months
”
mess the next day, that this had to stop and I had to cut down. It still makes me angry that it had to come to such an awful thing happening that finally pushed me to make change. I decided that I had had enough. Enough of wastingentiredaysfeeling,quiteliterally,likeeverycellinmybodyhadbeen poisoned, enough of wasting huge amounts of money and, mostly, enough
of continuing to do something that I knew was having a heavy impact on both my physical and mental health.
I’m just here to remind you that alcohol, as normalised and widespread as it may be, really does come with dangers and cutting down
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Istilldrink,andoften.ButI’mworkingonit.I’mmoreincontrolofmyintake and no longer blackout multiple times a week or feel like my life is void of meaning without a night of drinking ahead of me. I feel so much better for it, slowly but surely. I’m replacing hungover days with productive plans and startingtoincorporateexerciseintomylifeandit’smadeallthedifferenceso far.It’snotreallyhadmuchofanimpactonmysociallife;ifanythingI’mmore social, as I spend less time lying in bed feeling sorry for myself. I’m not taking a complete stance against nights out and parties; they’re still some of my favourite pastimes. I’m just here to remind you that alcohol, as normalised and widespread as it may be, really does come with dangers andcuttingdown,ifyou’reaheavybingedrinkerlikeIwas,couldreallybring positive changes to your life.
Epigram / Luke Unger
It happened again, I blacked out.
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I
suddenly jolt up. It’s 10am, I’m drowning in sweat and I’m wearing an old dirty t-shirt. Clumsily, I reach over for the 2-day old glass of water on my windowsill and take a large gulp to attempt to quench mySaharaDesert-likemouth.Thensuddenlyithitsme:thecrippling stomach cramps and severe nausea I know I’ll be battling with for the entire day. In a sudden panic, I grab my bag beside my bed, not before catching my horrific appearance in the mirror, and then proceed to manically look through it. Phone? Check. ID? Check. Bank card? There. Headphones? Check. Like a miracle, I’ve come back with everything. Then comes the wave of hangxiety. What happened last night? How did I get home? Did I do anything stupid?
Anonymous
Being bullied had long term effects
In light of Anti-bullying week from 11-17 November, Matthew Lu recounts his past and how bullying has affected his life ‘You’re just so big, your parents must be so proud’, Ms. Kozibrocke, my second grade teacher told me as she smiled brightly. ‘I wish my boy would be just as big as Matthew’, Auntie Lee said to my mom over Chinese New Year dinner. ‘Matt, why are you so big?’, my friend Michael said to me as we were playing on the swings.
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hen I look back at my experience with bullying, all I have visions of are the people around me, whether they be close to me personally or not, calling me ‘big’. It was supposed to be something that was looked at as a good thing. It was supposed to be something that I should take as a compliment. Something that I should be proud of and wear like a badge on my chest. Well, all my life it has served as a badge that I have wanted to rip off my chest. I was tall but also overweight as a kid. It hurt. It hurt so much to see my regular friends eat the same foods as I and magically appear to be what society deemed to be ‘regular’ and ‘normal’. I didn’t understand what made my body so different that having the same McDonald’s fries as my friends led to me having an overwhelming gut. That’s when the word ‘big’ changed for me and would never be looked at the same way again. ‘Yo mama is so stupid that she got fired from the M&M factory for throwing away all the W’s’. ‘Yo mama is so ugly that when she looks in the mirror, the reflection looks back and shakes its head’. ‘Yo mama is so fat that her bellybutton gets home 15 minutes before she does’. ‘Ha, like Matthew’s?’ I was enrolled in a school that didn’t have the best reputation and was definitely not one of the better off schools. That’s where the bullying started. It was hard being put in an environment where I was jabbed and reminded of all my flaws that I already felt insecure about. I felt like it was something that I didn’t have control over, something that would plague me in life for no apparent reason. I wondered if I had done something bad in my previous life, maybe I was a legendary mastermind criminal? ‘Matthew, remember the acronym! SSS: smaller portions, seconds only after twenty minutes of no eating, secondary - eating is a secondary concern’, my pediatrician lectured me. ‘Hey Matthew, I’m going for my check up with Dr. Poon to see how the
new diet is going. It’s a new diet where I am not supposed to eat any carbs’ , my mom told me before leaving the house. ‘Have you tried starving yourself?’ my friend Robert asked. When middle school/high school came around I started trying to take things into my own hands. When I say that I mean I went on a bunch of yo-yo diets that weren’t sustainable in the slightest and always bounced back to where I was before, if not worse. At this point I was at my lowest. It’s funny because, when I think about it, at this point no one was actively bullying me. There was no calling of names, mean jabs or anything of that nature. It just became so engrained in me from a young age that I became obsessed with noticing all my imperfections. I started to become my own worst enemy. I was the one that was being toxic and unhealthy for myself. I picked at every little detail: ‘oh my hair is too floppy’, ‘this blazer makes me look fat’, ‘my lips are too full’. It became so bad that my obsession was not even just on my weight, but transcended to beauty in general. ‘Hmmm, I need to go to the gym every day. Only one rest day a week’, I stroked my stomach unhappily. ‘I don’t know if I should join kickboxing. How about if I can’t keep up with them? That’d just be damn embarrassing’, I said to my friend Anita. ‘I’m just not what people want’, I think in my head as all my friends around me in the club are getting with different people. Present day Matthew is doing a lot better but has also come to a sad realization. I realize now that I will never be happy with my body or appearance. I will never be that person that looks at themselves in the mirror and says ‘damn, looking good’. I’ll get compliments on how I’m looking and my automatic thinking will always default to ‘oh they’re just trying to be nice’. It’s something that’s always going to bother me no matter how many ‘have you loved yourself today?’ posters I hang in my room. So, you must be wondering why I wrote this rant. Well, I wrote this to try and let people who don’t have the same experience understand what’s going through the mind of someone that has been bullied and how it affects them in the long-term. Just because the bullying stops doesn’t mean our feelings stop. I hope everyone can keep that in mind and understand the impact their actions have on people, no matter how small.
Matthew Lu Second Year, Law
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05.11.2018 epigram / The Croft
Don’t stress it In light of National Stress Awareness Day on 7 November, here are some tips from students on how to deal with university pressure when it all gets a little too much...
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Arthur Smith Third Year, Aerospace Engineering
One of the best ways to ease your mental load is to create a physical list, calender or weekly plan, which will give you an easier-to -digest version of the load in your mind
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One thing that got me through this rough patch and feeling behind was speaking to my friends and family. Instead of bottling up all the stress, I opened up to my flatmates, friends, teams in each society and family. They reassured me that if I can’t cope, I need to put my own wellbeing first above the stress, because it wasn’t worth it. Communicating also helped me build a routine and made the people around me aware of how I was feeling, which meant I didn’t feel so alone, as I know I have a supportnetwork in place. Now I feel like third year can be manageable, with the right balance and by talking about it.
Marina Afzal-Khan Online Editor
Luke Unger/ Epigram
I
don’t deal well with stress. It usually has an impact on my physical and mental wellbeing. Starting third year was particularly stressful for me because, having done second year twice, I technically ‘should’ have graduated. I had my second year workload spread out over two years and I knew that things would be more intense this year and may be hard to manage. As the second week of term began, I suffered a breakdown because I was really struggling with keeping up with attending lectures, doing all my seminar readings, socialising, being on the committee for Model UN and Epigram. I felt like I was drowning. I couldn’t manage the workload and didn’t know what to prioritise, essentially because I didn’t organize a routine and gave myself too much to do. It made me want to not do anything at all. Sleep and eating became a myth.
Stress Facts 1. It’s normal to feel stressed! A 2018 surrvey estimated that 85 per cent of UK adults experience stress regularly. 2. Woman are more prone to stress than men! They are more prone to feel the physical signs of stress. 3. Stress can cause digestive problems, such as IBS and constipation. 4. Long-term stress can increase your risk of mental health disabilities. The National Institute of Mental Health state that anxiety and depression are the most common. 5. Stress can cause fatigue in the day. Sleepiness may occur from chronic stress. 6. Stress can mess up women’s menstrual cycles, causing some to miss their period. 7. Stress may affect your libido! One study found that women were less interested in sex when they felt anxious. Stress was also seen to affect women’s sexual stimulation when they were anxious. 8. Stress can be induced by a lack of exercise. Exercise play a vital role in helping your body to produce seretonin, a chemical which helps to regulate mood and social behaviour. 9. Stress increases your risk of getting type 2 diabetes. Stress affects the way in which cortisol releases, potentially causing an increase in blood glucose (sugar) production. 10. Having a bad diet can make your stress worse. Foods high in fat, sugar and sodium can increase inflammation.
I
suppose face a lot of stress with the responsibilities I’ve taken on this year. Not only that, but I suppose I place a great deal of pressure on myself to get the little things in life right: cooking nutritious meals, exercising daily, maintaining relationships with friends, that sort of thing. Lists have always helped me whenever I get stressed. Being able to see where I am on a task and what I have to do makes life a lot clearer for me.
tress at uni comes in so many different forms that it creates a new kind of stress; the mental load. All your natural stresses which exist around your course, making friends and keeping up with home chores result in an ever-compiling mental list of things to do and deadlines. Learning how-to-adult when you move away from home for the first time can be a lot of pressure and divert your attention from a healthy balance of work and play. The mental load, then, grows considerably when you start university with the addition of new types of stress and can be one of the most difficult things to handle. It’s the constant feeling that there is something you haven’t done, or should be doing. One of the best ways to ease your mental load is to create a physical list, calendar or weekly plan, which will give you an easier-todigest version of the load in your mind. Weekly plans are great as you can see what you have to do in the forthcoming week and divide your time between it. This way you generally find you have enough time for everything, if you manage it well. Most importantly, remember that if the mental load is too much, consider which area is making you feel so stressed and combat it directly. Nothing comes before your mental health.
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A
advice
major source of stress for me at uni is time pressure. As an athlete I often feel as though I don’t have time to work and do sport; however, I find exercising is a great way to relieve stress and provide a structure to my daily routine. It also helps to be in the company of others in my situation who I can talk to if I need or support. Doing sport is also a great way for me to deal with exam stress; it really helps me to train during study breaks to take my mind off the stress of work.
Emma Holding Second Year English and Phliosphy
Instead of bottling up all the stress, I opened up to my flatmates, friends, teams in each society and family
W
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ith two years already done, I assumed that, in my final year at university, I would be better at handling things and, therefore, less stressed. However, what I soon realised is that final year comes with a whole new thing to stress about… the future. I already had deadlines and exams and the pressure that this year counts for more than anything else. However, on top of that, I now find myself hit with various emails about careers fairs and grad jobs and what my next step is. We are forever reminded that we are entering a hyper-competitive job market. Remember, you need ten years of experience in every field imaginable before you can even try applying for a base-level position! There are assessments, interviews, questions of what city to stay in, considerations of Masters… it feels like we are expected to decide how our whole life will plan out from this moment onwards, all while simultaneously getting the grades to make it happen. If I am being entirely honest, I have absolutely no idea what my next step is. And that is okay. I have had to teach myself to take a step back and stop worrying. Of course, it is good to be pragmatic about the year ahead and where my degree could take me, but I also have to remember that I am only twenty one. I do not have to have my whole future laid out in front of me at this moment in time. For now, I settle the stress by having some perspective. I focus on where I am now with deadlines, extra-curricular activities and generally just enjoying my final year of university. I am still trying to figure out what my next step is, but I am trying to be a lot more relaxed
Finding time to go outside on a walk is key to managing my stress levels. I think we’re quite lucky, being students of the University of Bristol, with the amount of accessible green spaces our city has to offer. Take Brandon Hill Park, Leigh Woods or the Downs, for example. I can guarantee that after a brisk half an hour stroll , you will definitely be a lot less stressed!
Luke Unger Deputy Wellbeing Editor
Jasmine Burke Wellbeing Editor
epigram / The Croft 0 5.11.2018
Editor Hope Riley
Deputy Editor Imogen Rogers
Online Editor Josie Roberts
Epigram Living Writers 2018-19
Best and worst student letting agencies to use and why Nervous about renting in the private sector next year? With the second-year housing rat race fast approaching, Niamh McCleary reviews some of the student lettings agencies Bristol has to offer... response is due to the very (albeit slightly overly) involved landlord. It would seem he is recovering from the chaos that the previous year’s students caused him; I witnessed this chaos myself in the form of parties and can confirm I too would be traumatised. Whilst the agency themselves have responded quickly to queries and been helpful when approached, it must be noted that their agency fees are not far off a fortune, and whether you’re paying by student loan- or a loan from Daddy – no one wants to waste money on this.
Epigram / Imogen Rogers
” Abode - 4/10 When I personally think of Abode I experience a strange sense of sentimentality, having been the first agency I used to rent my second year house. Yet, when I remember the finer details of using this letting agency, this feeling abruptly comes to an end. Located at the top of Whiteladies Road, it does provide an ideal location for those living in Stoke Bishop, having to walk less than ten minutes to get there – an obvious bonus for the lazier of students. Most of their student lets are in the lovely area of Redland, another positive.
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Students are not taken seriously by Abode
However, as I have alluded to, this agency has caused issues. They seem to lack a relationship with the landlords with whom they work, and thus when houses need minor repairs (such as a bedroom door handle falling off, in my case) it is months before it is fixed – if at all. Online reviews echo a very similar story: students are not taken seriously by Abode, our problems are disregarded, and it is something of a miracle to get your deposit back. Kingsley Thomas - 5/10 Kingsley Thomas provides an interesting case in terms of student lettings’ agencies. If you follow the trend of reviews that have recently been submitted to the anonymous Facebook page ‘Bristruths’ (if you don’t know what this is, what do you do in your spare time?), it would seem that Kingsley Thomas is by no means the king of student letting. One student even writing that Kingsley Thomas were the ‘*bleeping* worst’ and should be ‘avoided for anyone looking for 2019 houses’. Yikes. Having said this, online reviews have given them multiple five stars, suggesting that they are both professional and accommodating. Unfortunately, there is no way of knowing if these are student reviews, and thus once again begs the question of if it is just we students who are treated with such hostility. Bristol Property Centre - 7/10 Bristol Property Centre is the agency that I am currently using. While it has only been a month since I have moved in, there have been very few problems, although I can’t rule out that this positive
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Ah yes. This is what you have been waiting for (other than your next lecture being cancelled). A letting agency who are genuinely great! Bristol SU lettings are owned by Bristol’s Student Union which means that if it wasn’t a reliable agency, I would be wholly questioning the morals of every University Student led group – not to be dramatic. They know exactly what students want, there are no letting fees (!), and they work closely with the landlords to make sure students are treated like the mature(ish) 20-year olds they are. Does this sound too good to be true? A little. Bristol SU Lettings don’t tend to have as many properties as other letting agencies, and the ones they do have are snapped up
They work closely with the landlords to make sure students are treated like the mature(ish) adults they are
” Epigram / Tom Taylor
Epigram / Hannah Worthington
”
There are loads of student lettings agencies to choose from in Bristol, however, taking four of the most eminent ones I hope to give any first-time student letters an insight into what to watch out for when finding your new university home. Here is a run-down of some of the best (and worst) student lettings agencies Bristol has to offer. In absolutely no particular order, of course.
Bristol SU Lettings - 8/10
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I
t’s your first day of university. You tearfully wave your parents off, a bittersweet moment as you realise that you are now entirely responsible for looking after yourself. Time to wash your own clothes (or just don’t wash), make your own food (or just eat toast for a year), and find your own property to let for the subsequent two years – unfortunately there’s no avoiding that one. Naturally, the prospect of having to find your own house for your second year of university can be very daunting. Not only have you probably never considered how to even go about renting a property, you most likely are more focused on the important things; making friends with people you actually like, attending circa three hours (at a push) of uni a week, and drinking copious amounts of alcohol despite having had freshers flu since week one. Nevertheless, it does have to be done.
It must be noted that their agency fees are not far off a fortune
quickly. The sad truth of the matter is that as a student you will not be taken as seriously by any of the commercial agencies compared and thus bound to come across some problems. On many levels the way we are treated is incredibly unfair, and thus Bristol SU Lettings may seem like the only option, but just think, when its 1am on a Wednesday, and you’re standing in the outside area of a club (a VK probably in your hand), what else will you bond over with strangers, if not the dreadful letting agencies who are stealing your money and refusing to fix your bedroom door handle?
Niamh McCleary Third Year, History
epigram / The Croft 05.11.2018
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Advice: how to manage being in a long-distance relationship at uni
Matthew Jones shares his tips on how to maintain a healthy relationship with your partner, even if they’re on the other side of the country.
R
elationships at university can be difficult to contend with at the best of times, and if your relationship is long-distance, it can raise even more challenging issues to work around. With the stereotype of student life involving promiscuity and hook-up culture, being in a long-distance relationship at uni while your mates are free to do what they want is definitely not easy but if you can pull it off, it can be extremely worthwhile. In this article I will be including some of my own personal experiences and what has worked for me, and will hopefully give you a few tips that can be useful in making a long-distance relationship work.
Although you should make sure to give each other enough space in the first term, it is still important strike a balance after this point, and chat regularly so that you don’t feel alienated from one another. Making time to talk to each other in the evening while you’re having a break from work always seems to feel right for me. Things like FaceTime are great for keeping in touch and I find that they are way
Following on from the last point, it’s also a good idea to keep your visits interesting. We live in one of the most vibrant cities in the UK with loads of great things to do, so when your boyfriend or girlfriend comes to visit Bristol, why not try a few of these date ideas that are perfect for the winter semester.
Unsplash/ Mike Kotsch
The first term of university is a really important time for longdistance relationships. You’re getting to know Bristol and meeting too many people to keep up with, and with the reality being that you probably spent a lot of time with your significant other over the summer; it’s good to give each other space. Giving each other enough time to get settled at uni will definitely help in the long run. I found that there was nothing worse than speaking on the phone and having absolutely nothing to spark up a conversation. Giving each other the time to settle in allows you both to make friends, explore your new cities and get used to your courses. This will give you much more to talk about, which in turn will make for much less frustration when you talk.
enough gap to make the cost of the journeys worth it.
better than just a phone call. It’s much nicer to see the person that you’re talking to, and I’ve noticed that it’s easier to set time aside every few days for a call when you get to physically see your boyfriend or girlfriend. Whilst it is all well and good FaceTiming each other a few times a week, seeing your significant other regularly in person is also a key aspect to maintaining a healthy long-distant relationship. I’ve found that alternating trips works well, especially when you plan your trips around events like nights out or gigs. Going on alternating trips, or meeting in the middle makes sure that you share the burden of travelling too. In terms of how long your visits are and how far apart they should be is up to you. Everyone is different but there’s definitely a balance to be found, making sure that you see each other frequently enough whilst leaving a long
Bristol’s home to numerous places for good food at a whole range of prices, and some really unique cafes too. Places like The Canteen and The Social in Stokes Croft are a good suggestion. Keeping it reasonably simple, Bristol has a huge variety of areas from Clifton to Gloucester Road and there are some great sights to see on foot for free. Places like the Clifton Suspension Bridge may not seem too exciting after a few months in the city but for someone visiting, going up to the bridge is a Bristol essential. If you fancy travelling slightly out of the city, Bath is a great option this time of year. With its Christmas market open from Thursday 22nd November until Sunday 9th December this year, not to mention its picturesque architecture, it’s the ideal place for a winter date night. Being in a long-distance relationship at university comes with its challenges but in my opinion, it’s doable. There are some obvious downsides to being apart from each other, often for weeks at a time, but it’s definitely rewarding. Getting to enjoy the best of two cities you get a unique university experience that very few students are able to enjoy.
Matthew Jones Third Year, History
Faraway Cocktail Club: a hidden gem?
Wellbeing Editor Jasmine Burke reviews a tucked away cocktail club in the city centre that offers the perfect medium between laidback and lively
Epigram / Jasmine Burke
On entering, it is a fun place to spend a night
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I was able to try three cocktails of my choice, as was my friend, all in an effort to promote their happy hour in which you can get two cocktails for £10 from 4pm. So, as I always tend to do, I started with a Piña Colada. Yes, it is probably one of the most ‘basic’ cocktails, but it is a big favourite of mine and tends to be how I measure the quality of a cocktail place. Poured into a tall glass that was not just majority ice, the Piña Colada did not skimp on quantity and after tasting it, I knew that it did not skimp on flavour either. I tend to prefer cocktails that taste like I am just drinking juice – the less alcohol I can taste the better, so this one was a winner for me. Plus, they did a good job balancing the pineapple and coconut ratio. After going for my usual cocktail of choice I wanted to veer away from the regular choices, so asked the bartenders for their recommendations. They were incredibly helpful and informative, taking me through fruity, classic and other options and I ended up going for their Very Berry Collins – a returning Faraway favourite. The drink was a mix of cranberry, blackcurrant, cassis, purees, lemon and sugar but honestly tasted more of the alcohol than the berries. However, if you are after a strong drink with a hint of fruit, it might be one to go for. As a whole, their cocktails did not disappoint. Nor did the bartenders that were making them. You could tell they were having fun with it and they most definitely had the skills to show off with. They definitely aided in creating the playful atmosphere that the Faraway Cocktail Club had.
Epigram / Jasmine Burke
Before visiting the Faraway Cocktail Club, I had not really heard about it. However, I am a big lover of cocktails, so I figured I could not go too wrong. I went intending to have a catch up and cocktails with my friend, but it turned out there was far more to it than that. Located down a small street in the city centre, it may not pop out to you straight away, but on entering you realise that it is a fun place to spend a night. I would not exactly call it a club; it is too small to be put with the likes of Motion, Thekla or SWX, but it is definitely a place you could go to dance. The music was loud, the lights were dark and colourful and the dance floor was packed, especially considering the fact that I went on a random Tuesday night.
However, where it veered from club status – other than the size – was the fact there was still an area with tables and chairs where you could sit and enjoy your cocktails without feeling out of place for not dancing around. As someone who mainly came to try out the cocktails, this was a great realisation.
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ometimes I want to go out, but I don’t want to club. I want the option of dancing, but I also just want to catch up with friends. I’m a big fan of the ‘middle man’ and Faraway Cocktail Club is one of these places.
I would not recommend going there if all you want to do is sit down and drink and talk, as the music is quite loud. However, if you want moments of talking and moments of dancing without feeling like you are hardcore clubbing, then this is the place for you. It was great being able to float in and out of relaxing and dancing, something I feel is not really an option in mainstream clubs. I would definitely go down to the Faraway Cocktail Club again. The drinks were reasonably priced, served in good quantity and it was nice having the mix of talking and dancing.
Jasmine Burke Wellbeing Editor
05.11.2018 epigram / The Croft
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Instagram pictures of the fortnight... Want to be featured? Tag @epigrampaper_ in your posts for a chance to appear!
Epigram Travel on the set of ‘Call Me By Your Name’
Fully Restored West Wall Arch at Goldney
A Spooky looking Royal Fort
Bristol SU representing at the #PeoplesVoteMarch
Launch of the Bristol BME Power List
A beautiful skyline shot over Woodland Road
Remember, November!
remember
the
fifth
of
Epigram Food starting mornings the right way with this colourful porridge
St Michael’s Hill in the sun
Editor Laila Freeman @lunchingwithlaila
epigram / The Croft 05.11.18
Deputy Editor
Online Editor
Olivia Critoph
Nicole Abou-Abdallah
Epigram Food 2018-19
@epigram_food
Life in plastic: not fantastic FoodEditorLailaFreeman,reviewstherecentstudythatoursaltiscontaminatedwithplastic New research has discovered the presence of micro plastics in 90% of table salt brands. 39 brands of table salt were examined in the study led by Greenpeace Asia, which attempted to link the plastic content in salt to geographical region. Salt from 21 countries were sampled, the countries spanned the five continents from Europe, North America, South America, Africa and Asia. Of the 39 brands which were sampled, only three did not contain plastics: from Taiwan, China and France respectively.
Citarum river in Indonesia is acknowledged as one of the most polluted rivers in the world and in April 2018, the plastic pollution in Bandung, Indonesia reached such highs that the army were called in to help remove the blocks of plastic that were blocking rivers and streams. The population boom in Indonesia has led to a subsequent plastic boom and the country has a culture of simply throwing plastic in rivers and ditches. A commander of a military unit in Bandung described the plastic problem in Indonesia as “Our biggest enemy”.
Instagram / @surf_sun_sand_litter
According to the UN, up to 12.7 tonnes of plastic enters the world’s oceans each year. This study has shown that it is microfibres and single use plastics that are predominantly ending up in our salt. One common example of a single use plastic is that of plastic water bottles, which litter oceans and rivers worldwide. A study by the Guardian has claimed that 1 million plastic bottles are purchased per minute - well, we have found where they are ending up clearly: sprinkled on our dinner.
However, whilst plastic levels in salt in Asia are the highest, the majority of salt worldwide did contain traces of plastic. Hence, Sherri Mason’s , a professor at the University of New York in Fredonia, observation that what the new study “Shows is that microplastics are ubiquitous. It’s not a matter of if you are buying sea salt in England, you are safe”. Unfortunately, salt is not the only offender when it comes to plastic. Microplastics have, unsurprisingly, been found in all types of fish and seafood, as well as honey, sugar, beer, organic fertilisers and even tap water. Another recent study from this week, conducted by the Environment Agency Austria, has found plastic in the stool samples of every participant. Evidently, the food we are eating contains plastic and this is making its way into our bodies. Nine different types of plastic were identified, with an average of 20 microplastic particles per sample.
A study by the Guardian has claimed that 1 million plastic bottles are purchased per minute
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There was massive variation in the amount of plastic found in the different salts. On the whole, salt from Asian countries contained a much higher plastic content than most. This did not come as a surprise to many scientists, considering the extent of population in this continent. Indonesia, whose salt contained the highest amount of plastic, is one of the most polluted countries in the world. The
So, what does this mean for our health? Currently, there is no conclusive evidence that plastic in our body is of detriment to our health, with Boxell, a University of York Geography Professor even claiming that focus on micro plastics could be diverting our efforts away from worse types of pollution. Nonetheless, there are certainly speculations that the consumption of plastic could be harmful to your body, with suggestions that it could affect your reproductive development, as it has been proven to do so in fish and other seafood. ecologycentre.org also highlights a number of health risks by the chemicals that are used in plastic production. It seems safe to say that eating plastic is just not safe.
Laila Freeman
Food Editor
November Veg
How to survive catered halls
Oureditors’toppicksforthemonth
DeputyFoodEditorOliviaCritoph,advisesonhowtoescapeuniversityhalls foodwithjustamicrowave
However, there are a few ways in which you can be resourceful in those dingy kitchens!
Moving on from the microwavable foods… couscous is always a great warm addition to your meal, which only needs boiling water. Just cover your couscous with boiling water and let it soak for a few minutes. To make it slightly more flavoursome it is great to add a stock cube. I personally used to love having couscous, whatever vegetables I had and pesto all mixed up to create what some have called a “poor man’s risotto”.
Turns out, you can microwave most vegetables too! For peas, just pop them in the bowl and microwave for about 3 minutes. For corn on the cob, wrap it in a wet paper towel and microwave for 5 minutes. With broccoli, chop it up, put it in a microwave safe bowl, add a few teaspoons of water and microwave for 3-4 minutes. You can also make scrambled eggs, by adding butter, two eggs and a splash of milk to a mug. Mix them together and microwave for 30 seconds and then fork through the eggs. If they don not seem done then continue to microwave for short 20 second bursts until they are ready.
Olivia Critoph
Deputy Food Editor
Brussel sprouts - It may still be a while till christmas, but these mini cabbages are too tasty to wait for. Try roasting them with some pine nuts and pancetta. Instagram /cooksillustrated
Epigram / Laila Freeman
Pasta! When I got to university I had no idea you could cook pasta in the microwave, however a friend of mine who had gone to boarding school was obviously a master of microwaves, and showed me the ways. You put your pasta in a microwave safe bowl, pour boiling water into the bowl so that the pasta is 1 or 2 inches deep and then microwave the pasta for the suggested amount of time, plus 2 minutes. You can then strain the pasta and add whatever sauces you would like.
Jacket potatoes are an easy classic. All you need to do is wrap the potato in a wet paper towel and microwave for 9 minutes. Once done slice in half and add whatever fillings you would like (hopefully you are already aware you can microwave baked beans...).
Instagram /vitalityhours
T
he unfortunate reality of being in catered halls with no oven can be very upsetting. Even if there were an oven, I am not sure many would want to spend the time in there to cook seeing as (generally) they are quite disgusting. With the bland halls food (of which I was usually served some bean sludge) and a lack of kitchen supplies, it is difficult to make anything particularly nice when in student accomodation.
Beetroots - This sweet and earthy vegetable is delicious roasted, grilled or steamed
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05.11.18 epigram / The Croft
Bristol coffee shop guide
B
ThirdYearEnglishLitstudentAbigailAlltimes,sharesherfavouritecoffeeshopsinBristol
ristol is brimming with coffee shops, cafes and chill-zones spread across the city serving the little pockets of communities with top-notch locally roasted coffee and ‘goodvibes-only’. For the last two years I have spent much of my time and an embarrassing amount of my student loan discovering the Bristol coffee scene, of which Pinkmans, Friska, Boston Tea Party and Pret’s ninety-nine pence filter are certainly included, as well as recommended. However, I love good coffee, well roasted, brewed and steamed, and this guide spotlights the best specialist coffee shops further afield and those closer to campus to hopefully reveal some hidden gems in this vibrant coffee scene.
If you are in the South of Bristol, I thoroughly recommend Albatross Café on the so-called hipster hangout that is North Street. The café feels like a sun-trap and oasis, with the cool blue window front and a vast array of hanging plants, cacti and succulents enriching the walls and tables. The vibe is a simple retro-chic with vintage tables mixed with more modern colourful chairs. The food and coffee come lovingly prepared in beautiful handmade ceramic cups and tableware which can be bought in the shop. It is another specialist coffee shop that also serves seasonal fare. Their all-day brunch menu is simple yet delicious and well-priced. The toasted banana bread with lemon curd, granola bowl and crumpets are all worthy of your attention. It is my fa-
Small Street Espresso is on equal footing with The Epiphany as one of the best coffee shops in Bristol. It has exposed wood and brick, fun book shelves,anddivinetoastedbananabreadwithbutter.YESPLEASE!Based justoffCornStreet,theyareverycentralwhichmeansaroundmiddayit can be a little difficult to find a place to sit. But in the quiet of the afternoon itisagreatplacetoreadabook,dosomewritingorcatch-upwithafriend.
I have only mentioned six of the best coffee shops in Bristol but there are many others which deserve a spot in this guide as they are also worthy of a visit. In the Clifton-Whiteladies area are Mockingbird Café, Tradewind and East Village. In Stokes Croft, the mellow Aussie vibes at Ceres and vegan delights at Café Kino are both outstanding. And finally, a trip to the Harbourside would not be complete without visiting Little Victories at Wapping Wharf, or a trip out to Convoy Espresso at Paintworks. All good spaces to relax, with excellent coffee, and found in some of the best areas where you can explore more of Bristol’s dynamic and creative character.
Epigram /Abigail Alltimes
Epigram /Abigail Alltimes
No coffee guide in Bristol would be complete without a BIG shoutout to Hart’s Bakery on the doorstep of Temple Meads station. In a renovated railway arch, the open plan coffee shop and bakery create a warm, buzzing environment perfect to grab a good coffee. Watch the artisans create buttery doughy goodness, and see the baked goods come straight from oven to counter top. Hart’s is usually bustling, especially around lunch time with everyone streaming in to buy the freshlymadesausagerollsandpastieswithavarietyofvegetarianpastries too. The pace is fast but welcoming, and it is so good here I have started booking my train tickets to coincide with their opening times! Bakers and Co based on Gloucester Road is a sweet little sunspot, even in those gloomier Bristol days the warm yellow cups and awning offer a refreshing and cheerful atmosphere. Their coffee is deliciously pleasing too - their house espresso is locally roasted by Extract Coffee Roasters, and it goes well with the variety of cakes on offer as well as their freshly baked sourdough. It is a brilliant place to grab brunch with friends, and well situated for a post-caffeine wander
is tucked away on a backstreet, like a hidden oasis in the heart of Clifton and despite the fancy setting, it’s breakfast and coffee menu are well priced, and I especially like the fruit bread with maple butter.
Epigram / Laila Freeman
The first and favourite of my offerings is The Epiphany at the RWA situated inside the Royal West of England Academy building which, despite its proximity to the bustle of the Triangle, offers a peaceful shelter for a better cup of coffee. It has cool tiled walls, high Georgian ceilings and big arched windows which flood in that South-West sunshine; perfect for those Instagram flat-lays. The coffee is my favourite in Bristol and according to their website is award-winning! The food menu is perfect for lunches, afternoon cake treats, and I highly recommend their sourdough toasties which are made with locally-sourced and seasonalingredients.Bestplacetocatch-upafterlectureswithfriends.
down Gloucester Road and its local artisan stores and charity shops.
vourite place to sit and watch the world, or catch up on some reading. Another offering just off Whiteladies Road is The Lido Spa and Restaurant. This restored Victorian-era lido is such a fun place to go for coffee, especially when you have friends or family who are visiting. There is plenty of space, either outside by the pool or by a window looking out over the water. This café is easily missed because it
Abigail Alltimes
Third Year English Literature
Recipe: Veggie Chilli
Fourth Year Denistry student Nadeen Jawad, sharesherwarmingrecipeforveggiechilli 5. Leave to simmer for 30 minutes. 6. Serve and garnish with whatever you like! Some tasty options to add are guacamole, cheese, sour cream, and fersh coriander.
Epigram /Nadeen Jawad
Ingredients: • 3 tablespoons of olive oil • 1 onion, diced • 1 bell pepper, diced • 3 sticks of celery, diced • 3 carrots, diced • 2 cloves of garlic, crushed • 2 tbsp cumin • 2 tbsp chilli powder • 1 tbsp paprika • 400g tin of chopped tomatoes • 500g of tomato passata • 1 tin of red kidney beans • 1 tin of mixed beans • 500ml vegetable stock
Epigram /Nadeen Jawad
After a long day at University sometimes all you need is a warm, comforting meal. Chilli is a classic homely meal, so whether you are a veggie or would like to save an extra couple of pounds that you usually would have spent on some meat this is the recipe for you! You can have this chilli on its own, with a jacket potato, with some rice or even in a burrito, so it is a very versatile meal.
Method: 1. Add the olive oil, onion, pepper, celery and carrots into a large dish. 2. Simmer for around 10 minutes until the vegetables are softer and the onion is cooked. 3. Add the garlic, cumin, chilli powder and paprika. Stir for 2 minutes. 4. Add the chopped tomatoes, tomato passata, kidney beans, mixed beans and vegetable stock and mix everything together.
Nadeen Jawad,
Fourth Year Dentistry
epigram / The Croft 05.11.2018
26
My five fave food blogs
Good Mood Foods
ZainabRhyman,sharesherfavourite Instagramfoodaccounts
VirginiaCambell,sharessomefoodsthataresuretoleaveyoufeelingbetter
We all need a little inspiration, whether it be on improving our Instagram/blog
Food can have the amazing ability to boost people’s moods, by offering a variety of vitamins and minerals. Here are some of the best foods for when you are feeling tired, down or just really hungry. Oily fish Do not worry, I am not about to recommend a daily dose of Cod Liver Oil. There are tastier ways of staying healthy. Oily fish - such as salmon, makerel and tuna all contain loads of long chain Omega Three fatty acids, which are fantastic for keeping your heart healthy and your brain happy. The NHS recommends that you should have at least two helpings of oily fish per week for the full brain boosting effect. Some oily fish can be a bit expensive, but a savvy loophole around this can be buying canned fish (which is super cheap but still tasty) or frozen fish. Bananas
Dark chocolate
game or moving away from those pasta dinners to something a little more substantial (and tasty). These Instagram pages will do both, whilst giving you
Now as much as I would love to recommend going all out and eating a chocolate cake every day for breakfast - still obviously compulsory on birthdays! - this particularly refers to dark chocolate. Stick to chocolate that is at least 70% cocoa, packed full of all its nutrients. Much like the fish, it interacts with chemical messengers in the brain to regulate mood and energy. Maybe that chocolate cake is a good idea after all...
major food envy. Maybe try out a few recipes and share it? Or you could just drool over the photos like me. 1.
@KS_ATE_HERE
A drool worthy Instagram full of stunning food photos and reviews. Kar-Shing Tong takes his followers on a never-ending restaurant crawl, sharing his favourite eats and menu items. A mix of breakfast, lunch and dinner, followers of @ks_ate_here are never short of cravings. Though Tong’s Instagram lacks
Yoghurt and other fermented food
recipes, his page will have you craving food you never thought you’d crave or food you never knew existed! All the more reason to explore Bristol!
Fermented food is the dark horse of healthy food. Always underestimated, foods with probiotics keep your gut super healthy which, strangly, actually makes you happier. Probiotics are just good bacteria, but a lot of people leave them out of their diets. Yoghurt is probably the most common one - or fortified dairy alternatives - but equally yummu things such as kimchi or sauerkraut also contain this particular kick of health.
Bananas are an absolute powerhouse of essential vitamins, including the amino acid tryptophan. This fab little unit of protein is used to make the mood boosting hormone seratonin. Just in case you still were not convinced however, bananas help you to sleep better, meaning you will be less tired and irritatable!
Follow for: Food photography, cheat day eats and restaurant reviews. 2.
@FOODWITHMICHEL
The latest in food trends and photo worthy meals and desserts. A feed full of colours, carbs and perfect aerial shots, Michel Phiphak has perfected the art of the ‘aesthetic’ food feed, sharing perfectly edited photos of the trendiest drinks, puddings and fast food. Followers of Michel are treated with reviews of new and up-and-coming foodie hotspots as well as menu recommendations. A definite follow for those who want to spend a study break scrolling through Instagram and plan their next food outing with their friends. Again, another Instagram to inspire your next outing to hunt
Epigram / Laila Freeman
Green vegetables Leafy and not so leafy dark green vegetables (think spinach and broccoli) are packed full of essential B vitamins, without which our good friend seratonin cannot be produced. What is more, they are super cheap and super tasty. If you are not a fan of this colour of food however, maybe try popping them in the background of dishes, such as in pasta sauces or curries.
down the latest food trends in Bristol! Follow for: Trendy eats, perfectly composed and edited food shots and a bright feed 3.
@HEALTHY_ISH
A feel-good Instagram, compiling a mix of recipes, foodie stories and motivation. An extension of @bonappetitmag, this feed cultivates the best of the foodie world. Providing its followers with an endless supply of easy recipes, tales of everyday cooks and entrepreneurs and general healthbased information and support, @healthy_ish is a student’s ideal page. Follow for beautiful feed that will not stop convincing you to swap that boring bowl of pasta for something more nutritious and less boring. Follow for: Simple recipes, a beautiful feed and uplifting stories
Oats
Instagram / symmetrybreakfast
Oats and other whole grains have a low GI which basically means that they will keep you feeling full and keep your blood sugar levels constant for long periods of time. If you are like me and susceptible to getting ‘hangry’, oats are a godsend. They also have extra vitamins and minerals like selenium which boost your mood even more. Top some porridge with bananas in the morning for a winning combination to start your day.
Virginia Campbell First Year Religion and Theology
Review: Beerd Craft Beer and Pizza FoodEditorLailaFreeman,reviewsBeerdonSt.Michael’sHill
Epigram / Laila Freeman
Last week my housemates and I tried Beerd, a pizza place on cheap; similarly they offer a £5 lunch deal everyday, which is ideal considering how close Beerd is to University. St. Michael’s Hill. We went on Monday to take advantage of the 2-4-1 deal that they have on all their pizzas. This meant that our pizzas only cost us £6 each which was amazing value for money, considering we went for more expensive pizzas with lots of exciting toppings and that the pizzas were really big.
@SYMMETRYBREAKFAST
Michael Zee rejects the idea that breakfast should be a quick slice of toast and cup of coffee, opting instead for beautifully symmetrical plates of home-cooked delights for himself and his partner. Followers of Michael are treated to a beautiful feed of identical plates of food, all of which make the typical student breakfast of a sad bowl of cereal look even sadder. Branching out to different cultures, Zee takes his followers all over the world, sampling various cuisines along the way. A must follow for foodies who appreciate precise plating and aren’t afraid to try something new. Follow for: Breakfast inspiration, gorgeous food photography and pancakes 5.
@FOODMINIMALIST
Clean plates, minimal fuss and bright photos, all the makings of a successful page. Lucia Lee shares her favourite meals and recipes, encouraging followers to turn seasonal ingredients and sorry leftovers into a beautiful,
Flickr: rpavich
Whilst their vegetarian menu was not extensive, with only two actual vegetarian options, the staff were super accommodating in allowing you to customise other pizzas, which allowed the opportunity to take the meat off any pizzas, meaning that vegetarians could eat any of the pizzas. Vegan cheese was also an option for all of pizzas and was well spread across the pizza, unlike some vegan pizzas where the ‘cheese’ is just dolloped on top. A gluten free option was also available for every pizza.
4.
filling and (sometimes) quick meal. An Instagram for the student who is looking to improve their food presentation, take advantage of seasonal
produce and branch out to new flavours. Follow for: Minimalistic feed,
Overall, Beerd provided big pizzas in a nice setting and taking advantage of the Monday deal meant that they were also very
Laila Freeman Food Editor
recipe inspiration and seasonal cooking.
Zainab Rhyman Law Student
Editor India Harrison-Peppe
Deputy Editor Jemima Carr-Jones
Online Editor Ruby Gleeson
@epigramstyle
@e2style
epigram / The Croft 05.11.2018
Epigram Style 2018/19
You are not from the Trap so quit trapping Third Year Geography student Daisy Cullen Close discusses why Bristol fashion trends are not as innocent as you might think
It is the ‘Hugos’ and Bens of today that have borrowed these fashions from the working class, or to their ignorant eye the music group ‘67’, without acknowledging the history or the struggles of those who originally wore them. But this begs the question as to why, in this ‘WOKE’ generation, is this still not viewed as cultural appropriation? But this pretending is often not so obvious. At university, people will tell you they are from Putney and Peckham when in reality they are from Barnes and Dulwich - something I am a culprit of myself. But don’t get me wrong, you do have to stay safe out there, Gails’ San-Francisco sourdough is ‘aaarddd’. In lying about one’s middle-class roots, people think they obtain an open-mindedness that some people may not possess. But they are wrong. In reality, the most open-minded are
On the opposing side of the class sphere, where social mobility is scarce, the black and white working class of today are eager to escape this image of themselves. Some might pose in Gucci, Prada and Burberry, purchasing these brands to extinguish this reductive stereotype, even if all they own of them is a belt. An important issue is highlighted here. While the upper classes are posing
Have fun working at JP Morgan, you’re definitely in a trap there
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ironically in their tracksuits that cost them an arm and a leg, it is this ‘fashion trend’ that a lot of the working class are trying to escape. And just like any form of cultural appropriation, it’s patronising. And when it comes down to it, the ‘Hugos’ and ‘Bens’ can drop their South London (Surrey) twang they’ve spent years perfecting, leave their tracksuits at home and land a job interview as the ignorant, posh boy they always were. Have fun working at JP Morgan my friends; you’re definitely in a trap there.
Unsplash / Omar Rezkelleh
The question is, is it acceptable for the likes of ‘Hugo’ to create a fashion subculture out of a class of people they have long demonised? Probably not. This debate came to light last year when Ben Bowman, a young chap recently spawned from one of the country’s most prestigious private schools tried his luck at Grime, releasing his debut single ‘I’m not Eminem’. No, Ben, you’re not Eminem- nor is Eminem a grime artist. But I guess, you’ve got to give it to him for trying, right?
those who accept and acknowledge their privilege, not those who think its cool to appropriate the narratives of those less fortunate than them. After all, you’re not Jarvis Cocker, and this isn’t 1995.
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Everyone at uni has met one. A ‘Hugo’ from Eton dressed head to toe in a true religion tracksuit, listening to the most obscure grime he can find out of his new Dr Dre headphones. By night he will retreat to his £150 a week maisonette in Clifton and pop a Xanax he found on the dark web. He will desperately try to forget about his imminently due economics essay (by popping another one) and will ponder over how he’s going to break the news to mother that he’s crashed the brand new Alfa driving 60 down a B road after one too many ‘crispy cold ones’ with the boys. Disclaimer: not all Hugo’s are like this.
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Daisy Cullen Close Third Year, Geography
Fashion’s footprint: The dark side of ‘treat yourself’ culture tudents and bargains go hand-in-hand, and I am often guilty of nipping to Cabot Circus to get cheap Primark basics. Students are swept up in the ‘treat yourself’ trend of millennial culture, escaping to the high street to engage in a spot of retail therapy. Give it to us quick, cheap and mass-produced; we love updating our wardrobes without burning a hole in our student loans. But is this love a toxic relationship? Let’s face it, there’s got to be a troubling reason your new faux-fur coat is only fifteen quid. High street consumerism is rapidly taking a toll on our planet; a fact explored in Stacey Dooley’s documentary ‘Fashion’s Dirty Secret’s’ on BBC Three.
Cotton is a major contender. It uses more water than any other fibre, combined with pesticides and fertilisers which damages the land its grown on. Environmental journalist Lucy Siegle puts it into perspective: ‘cotton is responsible for one of the biggest environmental catastrophes that we’ve seen to date on Planet Earth’. But cotton is natural, surely my sacred pair of Levi 501s aren’t
communities around it, many of whom have developed neurological and skin problems from mercury, lead and even arsenic poisoning.
Dooley travels from a familiar Brighton high street to a scorched wasteland between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan – it’s what used to be the Aral Sea. The seabed has become a desert, drained entirely to provide water for cotton farms; meaning that ecosystems, fishing industries and thousands of jobs were wiped out. The camera pans in on a camel in this desert, a stark indicator of the drastic scale of climate change here. Dooley explains ‘there used to be fish. Tens of thousands of tonnes of fish. And now there is a camel.’
There’s got to be a troubling reason your faux-fur coat is only fifteen quid
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Lucy Siegle notes that ‘we used to have Spring/Summer and Autumn collections. Now we have 52 plus collections per year’ - so, what do the big brands have to say about all this? Primark, Pretty Little Thing, and ASOS all refuse to comment. Fashion’s carbon footprint is staggering. A focal image of this catastrophe was one of Indonesia’s major rivers, The Citarum, which Dooley describes as smelling like ‘a sewer’. Toxic waste dumped daily by the surrounding textile factories have devastated the river and the
So, what can we do as consumers? As a country, we have an insatiable appetite for cheap clothes, and with intense demand comes extreme supply. However, this doesn’t mean we must increase our fashion budgets and shop at high-end brands. As a student, potentially strap-for-cash, look outside the box and discover second-hand treasures in vintage shops for half the price and a lot less guilt. Maybe think twice before splurging on that multipack of sequin scrunchies, retail therapy is great, but it feels even better when it’s sustainable.
Flickr / Martijn.Munneke
‘I’ve never thought of fashion as a major polluter,’ Dooley admits. While it can be hard to look past Dooley’s presenting style - vacant, wide-eyed exclamations of ‘I had no idea!’ - there’s clearly a bigger issue at hand. 100 billion new garments every year just cannot be sustainable. We are repeatedly shown environmental warnings surrounding meat, dairy and aeroplanes - but the issue of fast fashion is rarely spoken about and just as terrible. It turns out that fashion is even worse than fracking, and is the third largest polluting industry, after oil and coal.
really harming anyone? Think again.
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Ruby Gleeson investigates the toxic side of the fashion industry, reviewing BBC Three’s documentary: ‘Fashion’s Dirty Secrets’
Ruby Gleeson Online Editor
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05.11.2018 The Croft / epigram
Cultural appropriation in the industry: Your ignorance could offend Deputy Editor Jemima Carr-Jones looks at the issues surrounding cultural appropriation at Halloween and it’s actually quite interesting
The term cultural appropriation is fairly contemporary, it was first coined by sociologists in the early nineties and only last year was put into the official lexicon of the Oxford Dictionary, defining it as ‘the unacknowledged or inappropriate adoption of the customs, practices and ideas of one people or society by members of another and typically more dominant people or society.’ This is not to say that dressing as a vampire, ghost or dead school girl would be considered a form of offensive cultural appropriation. There are plenty of costumes you may conjure up that won’t create any discrepancy of intention. However, dressing up in costumes relating to marginalised groups out side of your own dominant culture could well be viewed as perpetuating racial stereotypes.
One example of where you might go wrong this Halloween is
Additionally, if we’re going more rogue this Halloween and veering away from the standard vampire cape, it’s important to take into account the context of any particular character - I spoke to one girl who last year was accosted for dressing up as Disney’s Pocahontas. En route to a friend’s party, she was stopped and subsequently alerted to the reality of the complicated and rich history that is affiliated with Pocahontas. Pocahontas was in fact based on a real indigenous girl, victim to the colonizing settlers. She was abducted as a teenager, forced to marry an Englishman, only to then be used as propaganda for racist practices before dying aged twenty-one. My friend was asked whether she would consider going to a party dressed as Anne Frank. ‘Of course not!’, she responded, this would be tasteless beyond comprehension, and downright offensive. She was then reminded that the two girls, Pocahontas and Anne, endured equally torturous and traumatic life experiences, with both suffering prejudices on account of their race. Just because one event is more recent or more widely known than another doesn’t mean we can dismiss it as something that’s ‘in the past’. It is highly important that we take into account exactly what it is we may unintentionally trivialise through our clothing.
- marketed as a ‘hipster’ fashion accessory and having a young black child modelling a jumper printed with ‘coolest monkey in the jungle’. Additionally, in 2015, in response to complaints that their campaign lacked sufficient diversity, they responded by releasing a tweet that implied they feature more white models to portray a more ‘positive image’. Furthermore, of late, Gucci has also been criticized, this time for styling turbans on non-Sikh female models during a catwalk. The turban is an item of clothing associated with religion and respect, and the luxury fashion brand was condemned for demonstrating ignorance to this. I hope we can all agree that it is not down to any high-flying fashion brand to decide what facets of another culture are untouchable and which of those can be turned into high fashion or mere accessories. Virginia Woolf wrote that ‘Vain trifles as they seem, clothes have, they say, more important offices than to merely keep us warm. They change our view of the world and the world’s view of us.’ Clothing is power and thus presentation of yourself is important. We cannot disregard Halloween as a time for an abandonment of principles. Consider whether you would feel comfortable wearing any given outfit among people from the culture it has been taken from. Just make sure to be aware of any historical realities or ongoing social issues in relation to the person you try on for the night. John Lennon said to not hate what you don’t understand, however perhaps in this context, we should be making an effort to not trivialise what we don’t understand.
Would someone else be offended by the fact that you have put on their cultural dress as a costume?
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This trend can also be charted within the fashion industry. The past few years witness a burgeoning call-out culture in creative industries, and we have seen an influx of retailers who have been chastised for cultural insensitivity. H&M, in particular, have experienced issues, for example advertising a ‘Native American-inspired feather headdress’
Twitter / @AvanJogia
The EverydayFeminism website explains the difference of cultural exchange from cultural appropriation, referring to this idea of a ‘particular power dynamic’. Issues arises when a privileged group of society borrows something from a repressed group and then brandishes these items for a trivial purpose such as Halloween; this, undoubtedly, can be deemed as offensive. For example, you might have thought that wearing a bindi and a sari is a pretty alternative to coming dressed as a ghost or a skeleton , yet ask yourself this: have you actually taken the time to consider whether this ‘thing’ that you’re using for a moments trivial fun, is an aspect of someone else’s life that signifies a richer heritage? Would someone else be offended by the fact that you have put on their cultural dress as a costume? Of course, we live in a multi-cultural society, to embrace and borrow symbols, practices and customs from another culture is a positive thing! Yet it is the very nature of our society that means it is imperative that we must become better versed on the significance of these items and practices, so as to not be mistaken for belittling them when we use them solely for the purposes of fashion.
dressing in clothing resemblant of how Mexicans dress to celebrate their national holiday Day of the Dead - painting their faces into skulls and covering themselves in ruffles and flowers for instance. Halloween and Day of the Dead are not interchangeable. The Mexican celebration is a joyful time put aside to focus on the memory of loved ones, believing that for one day a year the diseased awaken from their eternal slumber, commemorating their lives and the continuation of life beyond the grave. Halloween, in comparison, is an Americanised holiday based on fear, death and sugar. You can see how emulation of this Mexican festive dress during a Westernised Halloween could be viewed as a grave misinterpretation and cheapening of a sacred celebration.
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ith Halloween having been and gone, of course, the annual question arose - ‘who should I dress up as?’ When it comes to costumes, Halloween is all about being creative - using makeup and clothing to try on an entirely different persona! However, what if that persona you ‘tried on’ is another person’s reality, a symbol of cultural significance, something concerning another faith, or maybe a warped manifestation of some form of historical oppression? What if, for a purely trivial purpose, perhaps a night out at Bunker - or even Motion if you’re feeling really brave - you’ve committed some sort of imitation, and the costume you have worn could be deemed as offensive? See the upcoming Halloween festivities as having been a prime time to get clued up. There’s a fine line between cultural appreciation and cultural appropriation, and it’s about time we got to know the difference.
Jemima Carr-Jones Deputy Editor
BRISTOL STUDENT STYLE SECRETS - WHERE TO GO & WHAT TO GET:
£15 WAXING.
Right listen up ladies and gents. Whether you’re in need of a bikini wax, a hollywood, a back-sack-and-crack - WHATEVER! - and all that entails but you perish at the thought of spending £30-40 once a month, you’re not alone and you need not worry anymore. I have discovered Alma Road’s Bonjour Belle and i’m never going elsewhere so long as I live in Bristol (Address: 78 Alma Road, Clifton, Bristol, BS8 2DJ). The staff are gloriously friendly and so are the prices. Book to go on a Tuesday, student card in hand and enjoy the torture we all love to hate.
I am yet to find a nicer or cheaper grooming experience suitable for a tight student budget. Check out the website to see the wide variety of grooming options available.
Unsplash / Yoann Boyer
Often they also have a box at the front selling old but still perfectly user-friendly salon-quality nail varnishes, including a wide variety of OPI collection for the extremely reasonable price of £4.
Editor Amelia Edgell-Cole
Deputy Editor Rachel Evans
@EpigramTravel
epigram / The Croft 05.11.2018 Online Editor Amelia Shoebridge
@epigram_travel
Is it too late to save Maya Bay? Charlie Campbell discusses the environmental impact of tourism on one of film’s most iconic beaches
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In the eighteen years since the film’s release, Ko Phi Phi Leh has seen a dramatic surge in tourism. Maya Bay’s tiny stretch of beach (only 200m long) is visited, on average, by 200 boats and
To put it frankly, both the tourism industry and the holidaymakers themselves are to blame. Their blatant disrespect towards the sanctity and delicate nature of their surroundings makes them responsible for its degradation. Whether it’s the litter left strewn on the beach, the remnants of sun-cream floating in the waters or the pollution caused by the day-trip boats, irresponsible tourism is evident at every turn.
What is even more alarming is the environmental degradation invisible to the naked eye, that being the damage occurring on the seabed. Local authorities have predicted that a mammoth 80 per cent of the coral reef surrounding Ko Phi Phi Leh has been destroyed as a direct consequence of excessive tourist action - a devastating loss for the area’s marine ecosystem.
Wildlife and Conservation (the DNP), has had to take drastic, but praiseworthy, steps. As of June 2018, Maya Bay was temporarily closed to the public, and it has just been announced that this closure will be extended indefinitely, allowing the bay to fully recover and for natural harmony to be restored. This decision has been viewed as a huge success in the eyes of local environmental campaigners, demonstrating the prioritization of the environment over the lucrative tourism industry. Whilst it may not be too late to reverse the damaging effects of pollution and mass tourism on Maya Bay, countless other case studies exist whereby ecosystems are left to fall into environmental disrepair, often at the hands of irresponsible tourism. Next time you consider travelling, think twice about visiting a so-called natural haven such as Ko Phi Phi Leh at the expense of its ecosystem. Or, at least choose a location that promotes tourism through a narrative of sustainability and environmental precedence. Flickr / Mark Fischer
Unfortunately, almost two decades on, Ko Phi Phi Leh still bears the scars of environmental degradation. In fact, in light of recent news, it is apparent that the island has deteriorated further.
4000 tourists a day. The figures speak for themselves; Maya Bay is experiencing the cruel consequences of over-tourism in its most injurious form.
Flickr / AutumnAddition
ituated on the Thai island of Ko Phi Phi Leh, the white sand beach and opalescent waters of Maya Bay may seem all too familiar if you are acquainted with Danny Boyle’s hit film The Beach released in 2000. Starring a youthful Leonardo DiCaprio, the thriller depicted the location as a heavenly, p a n o r a m i c paradise. Yet, at the time of production, concern was raised regarding the detrimental effect of filming on the island’s fragile ecosystem.
With a visitor fee equating to around £10, one would think this was incentive enough to dissuade vacationers from polluting the ecological bliss that is Maya Bay. Regrettably, this has not proved sufficient, and so Thailand’s Department of National Parks
Charlie Campbell Fourth Year, French & Spanish
Spotlight on... Lisbon From piping hot pastries to a Museum of Beer, Charlotte Ross gives us her top tips for exploring Lisbon
Start off your day in the historic riverside freguesia (parish) of Belém, the home of the much loved Pastel de Nata. There is no better start to the day than one of these piping hot pastries, which you can eat in the original factory dating back to 1837, Pastéis de Belém. Served warm with a bica (espresso), these treats are best enjoyed with a sprinkling of cinnamon and icing sugar. Whilst you’re there, take a stroll round to Belém Tower, which is the perfect spot for a touristy Instagram. If you are the cultural type, the Berardo Museum next door offers a showcase of Portuguese contemporary art which rivals London’s best galleries (in my humble opinion). Plus it’s a bargain at only €2.50 for students! Whilst most websites will recommend you visit the Jerónimos Monastery next, the queue is usually excessively long, and it can be admired from the outside without wasting an hour standing in the sun. Next, hop on the train into the centre of Lisbon, which will cost you only €1.45 (standard price for any journey on the Lisbon
metro), and get off at Cais do Sodré Station. Spend the next few hours wandering around the historic highlights, including Praça do Comércio Square and Lisbon Cathedral. Lisbon is more hilly than Bristol (believe it or not!), so make sure to bring your walking boots, especially as the streets are paved with calçada - traditional white cobblestones.
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rom breakfast to dinner, this is my guide to spending the perfect 24 hours in Lisbon, showcasing the best of Portugal’s cultural capital.
The best places to eat are off the beaten track, usually under someone’s flat, and run by a little Portuguese grandmother
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When the heat of the day gets too much, pop into one of Lisbon’s many museums. A personal favourite is Museu da Cerveija (Museum of Beer), which guides you through the history of Portuguese beer with a few tasters along the way. If this isn’t your scene, then the Botanical Gardens are a wonderful repose from the bustling city and the perfect place to take refuge from the sun. For a late lunch (the Portuguese eat around 3 pm), wander down to the Alfama district, a maze of tiny, intimate streets and ancient houses. Find a tiny café buried deep within the streets and sample the delicacy that is grilled sardines. The best places to eat are off
the beaten track, usually under someone’s flat, and run by a little Portuguese grandmother. On a Sunday, the whole of Lisbon smells of sardines, and they are best enjoyed with a squeeze of lemon and some boiled potatoes. If you fancy some history, then the Castle of São Jorge is worth a visit, or if you would rather spend the time looking round the shops, the Chiado district is for you. Whichever way you go, make sure to steer clear of the red tourist buses, as they charge extortionate rates to drive you round the most crowded and expensive parts of the town. The best way to see Lisbon is on foot, as most of the streets are too narrow for traffic. If you want to take public transport, then catch a famous yellow tram, but beware of the pickpockets who haunt them. To end the day, grab some dinner in Bairro Alto, known as the social capital of Lisbon, which is full of tiny restaurants serving great food. Bacalhau, or cod fish, is the country’s traditional dish, and can reputably be served over 100 different ways. Head back down to the river for my favourite way to end the day: watching the sun set over the Vasco da Gama Bridge with a Santini’s ice cream (rated one of the best in the world).
Charlotte Ross Third Year, English
05.11.2018 epigram / The Croft
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What do accents have to do with Brexit? Year abroad student Lily Donnelly argues for the importance of learning a new language - despite its difficulties - in the face of Brexit
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earning a foreign language is perhaps more important now than it has ever been – and not just for linguistic purposes.
something in more than coherent English.
When connecting with another culture through the use of its tongue, you can truly taste all it has to offer - but a certain attitude is required for this. A fearless, confident attitude that is not scared to make mistakes or to be identified as a foreigner. For a long time, being asked where my accent came from felt like a criticism, thinking that I had to fit in as a local with an authentic accent if I was to be a good French student. But I soon realised that this was without reason, and that an accent is the best accessory I could wear. Accents should be seen as a battle scar, a means of showing that you have struggled through enough textbooks (or phrasebooks – no need to be sophisticated) to be able to converse in something other than your mother tongue. The subjunctive acts as the stitches,
Unsplash / waldemarbrandt67w
Since living on the continent, speaking another language has manifested itself, to me, as the best weapon to fight the plague of Brexit and the connotations that come with admitting that you are, indeed, British. Often I have found myself feeling obliged to defend myself as a Brit, fearing judgement for our current state of affairs. And indeed, efforts shown both by myself and other Erasmus students to immerse ourselves in a new culture prove that Brexit does not entirely mean Brexit – at least in unofficial terms.
only taken out when truly mastered - so mine will be staying in for a while - but still recognisable by the scars left behind. In a time where Brexit and insularity prevail, having an accent can be a defiant statement, showing willingness to integrate and appreciate another culture instead of shouting ‘C-H-I-C-K-E-N’ loud enough for the solely-Spanish-speaking waiter to understand what you want for dinner. This is something I have noticed at home, when the tables are turned. Too many times have I been in a café, restaurant, bar – anywhere – hearing a foreign person ordering or asking for
Of course, this is not negative. It is something that deserves praise. But, for me, it reinforces the fact that not enough people try to learn even the basics of another language. English is a near-universal language and thus it can be relied on as a means of communication outside of the Anglophone world; this is an enormous advantage, but equally, it takes away the impetus to learn a new language. However grammatically incorrect or idiomatically idiotic your sentences may be, the intention remains and today’s insularity weakens. Pronounce things wrong, jumble up your words, and arrive at the point of warming a local’s heart with your willingness to simply try. The European Union, for me, is not exclusively defined by paperwork: you can subscribe with your mind and more importantly, your tongue. As young people, I feel like it is important to remember this whilst our future walks along an uncertain path and decisions are made without holding us in mind. Politics aside, you can be sure that you’ll be served a tastier dinner or crisper pint for not being one of the ‘bloody English’ (a phrase I have heard more than once, for the record) that hasn’t bothered. For just a little bit of pain, there is much gain to be had. Who doesn’t want to be able to ask for a glass of wine in four different languages?
Lily Donnelly Third Year, French & Italian
Environmentally conscious travelling
Deputy Travel Editor Rachel Evans looks at some of the ways you can reduce your impact on the environment when travelling
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ravelling is something that many of us enjoy. It is fun and interesting, but something we often forget, or overlook, is the environmental impact that travelling has - from the huge amounts of CO2 produced by planes, to where the plastic straws in your beachside cocktails end up. With the recent news that we only have twelve years left to reverse the impacts of climate change and environmental damage before it is too late, I have come up with some small ways of making a difference. Transport
If you don’t have the time to take another mode of transport, then you can find many websites where you can make carbon-offset donations - some airlines also offer them. These websites work out how much carbon your plane journey used and calculates an amount to donate to an eco-friendly project. Once in the country (and the same applies at home), public transport combined with walking is the most eco-friendly way to get around. Most major cities have subways, buses, trams, and bike hiring systems in place, all of which are better than driving. These
Food As you will most likely be aware, one of the main methods of cutting emissions is by reducing meat and dairy consumption, so this is always a good place to start. In some countries this may be much easier than others, but while you’re away, try eating new, vegetable-based dishes. Another very easy tip is to eat local. Most of the time, you want to sample the local dishes anyway, and for the environment this is fantastic, as it means the food hasn’t had to travel too far to end up on your plate.
Epigram / Lauren Jeffrey Unsplash / kylejglenn
Planes are often our first option when it comes to transport, but say that a plane cruises at an average of 780 km/h, that’s around a whopping 90kg of CO2 produced per hour. The first, and most obvious, solution to this is looking into alternative modes of transport. Sadly, nothing gets you to your destination quite as fast as flying, however, being in Europe, we are lucky to be able to get to other countries relatively quickly via train, coach, and ferry. The Eurostar offers journeys to Brussels, Paris, and Amsterdam and you can find great deals on websites such as Eurostar Snap.
may seem daunting at first, especially when they are in a foreign language. However, they normally end up getting you there quicker than if you were stuck in a traffic jam.
It is easy to do some research - so many places are trying to do their bit for the environment! While in Beijing, I found an amazing restaurant that was working to become zero-waste. They used metal straws, had schemes where you returned take-away packaging and got free food, and they also encouraged you not to order more than you could eat. Be conscious of waste Recently, many videos of huge islands of plastic in the ocean have gone viral. Sadly, there are lots of countries that don’t have the infrastructure to cope with the huge quantities of waste particularly as a result of tourism - so consider where your plastic will end up and how to cut back. Small things like carrying a reusable water bottle, and a fabric bag instead of a plastic one make quite a lot of difference. The issue of plastic bottles can be particularly hard, especially in countries where tap water is not drinkable. However, sometimes there are recycling facilities available, or water bottle refills (sometimes at a small cost). Choose where to stay carefully Look for hotels that have good waste disposal and recycling systems. Other good things to look out for are places that use sustainable energy, harvest rain-water, have low-flow toilets and energy-efficient lighting. Some places have eco-lodges, which are fantastic in terms of environmental impact. Another good thing to consider is where the hotel is getting its resources. Lots of hotels invest in the local economy by using local produce, hiring local people, and using local decorations for the rooms.
Rachel Evans, Deputy Travel Editor
Black History Month Highlights
In collaboration with the BME Network, Bristol SU is proud to have presented our biggest ever line-up of events for Black History Month in October. This was a chance to celebrate the contribution that black communities have made to the United Kingdom. (YD /DUNDL &KDLU RI WKH %0( 1HWZRUN
David Olusoga: Black People in British History
Panel event: Being a Black Woman &UHDWLYH
The panel meet Bristol SU BME Network
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6WDUWLQJ ZLWK WKH UHOHDVH RI WKH ÀUVW HYHU %ULVWRO BME Powerlist (you can view it online at ZZZ EULVWROEPHSRZHUOLVW FRP DQG ÀQLVKLQJ ZLWK D ÀOP VFUHHQLQJ RI 3DULV LV %XUQLQJ LQ collaboration with the LGBT+ Network, the programme has beeen varied and exciting. 7KH à DJVKLS SDQHO HYHQW VDZ &KLGHUD (JJHUXH $.$ 7KH 6OXPà RZHU %ULWLVK DFWLYLVW DQG PRGHO 0XQURH %HUJGRUI %ULVWRO¡V &LW\ Poet Vanessa Kissule and singer Eva Lazarus come together to discuss what it is to be a black women in the creative industry. We also welcomed prominent historian David Olusoga, who delivered a lecture on the Historical relationship between the British Isles and the people of Africa.
WHAT'S ON kurt Vile & The Violators Thursday 8th November, 7pm, Anson Rooms
Kurt Vile, one of rock’s most captivating frontmen, guitarist, and songwriter, has announced a run of Autumn tour dates with The Violators (Rob Laakso, Kyle Spence, and -HVVH 7UERYLFK 7KLV LV WKHLU ÀUVW 8. DQG (XURSHDQ VKRZV LQ nearly two years. They are heading to the Anson Rooms for a night in Bristol. Book your tickets before they sell out! www.bristolsu.org.uk/bristolsulive
Bristol Indian Society Presents: Diwali Dinner Tuesday 6th November, 6:30pm, 4500 miles from Delhi Introducing Bristol Indian Society’s biggest event so far, the Diwali Dinner! Come down to 4500 Miles From Delhi, one RI %ULVWRO¡V ÀQHVW ,QGLDQ UHVWDXUDQWV IRU D full three course meal followed by some Indian music, dancing & a DJ!
Coffee House Sessions Wednesday 7th November, 3pm, Balloon Bar
Charity Week: Cultural Fusion Friday 9th November, 7pm, Anson Rooms
Every Wednesday Coffee House Sessions takeover the stage at the Balloon Bar to host pop-up sessions featuring some of the freshest new talent. You can also enjoy any piece of cake and a coffee for ÂŁ2 throughout the afternoon.
Come and join this incredible showcase of all the different cultures the University of Bristol has to offer. With some comedians you may have heard of (watch this space) and some talent you’ve never seen before it promises to be a fun night for all. Feel free to come dressed in your cultural clothes.
LOST 2018, Saturday 10th November
Gentleman's Dub Club, Saturday 10th November, 7:30pm, Anson Rooms
LOST is one of RAG's 2 infamous charity hitchhiking events which sees 100 participants in teams of 2 or 3 blindfolded and dropped in a mystery location 100 miles away! Teams must race to get back to Bristol but without spending any money on transport.
This Girl Can Week, From Monday 19th November
Student Council, Tuesday 20th November, 7pm, Anson Rooms
We're putting on a range of free activities and events for students who identify as female to take part in across the week.
Want to improve your university experience? Submit an idea for the Student Council meeting or come along to debate on issues that are brought.
After a decade of infamous high energy performances and music releases, the Gents return after a brief hiatus with their biggest tour to date on the back of last year’s huge DUBTOPIA and more new music on the horizon!
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Film & TV
epigram 05.11.2018
Patrick Sullivan Editor Luke Silverman Deputy Editor
James Turnbull Online Editor Miles Jackson Deputy Online Editor
V
iolence has been an inherent element in cinema since its inception. Much of the earliest moving pictures from the 1890s display crude and childish slapstick humour. As of October 21, looking at the top five grossing films of all time, only Titanic (1997, dir. James Cameron) could be described as featuring no violence on screen - and hundreds of people still died. When we look at violence levels related to violent cinema, it’s clear the two aren’t correlated. A 2014 study at a New York hospital concluded that while violent scenes affect brain activity and behaviour, the reactions are vastly different depending on your personality - whether you were already a calm or aggressive person. Levels of violent crimes more often relate to socioeconomic factors, and the ghettoisation of certain groups by postcode. If we are to tackle issues of violence in cinema and its correlation with social groups’ levels of violence, we flirt with a cinematic eugenics eradicated a depressingly short time ago - see the South African Population Registration Act of 1950, and its regulation of cinema. Of course, our old friend racism always lurks in the shadows of such discussions. The scaremongers of the anti-violent cinema brigade were rarely fearful of Terminator (1984, dir. James Cameron) inspired vigilante squads of white men taking to the streets, but Spike Lee’s relatively less violent Do The Right Thing (1989) has famously been ranked as one of the most controversial films of all time.
Felicity Gardner argues that violence in film causes imitation acts in real life Felicity Gardner Second Year, Physics
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“Creativity takes courage. Surely that includes the courage to show the reality of the world’s aggression, in the full spectrum of realism in film?” - Leah Martindale
“More problems arise when victims are undeveloped as, when watching, you do not care about their deaths” - Felicity Gardner
iolence plays a large role in many film genres, but it is most perverse when serial killers are main antagonists - characters most of us cannot relate to but still are fascinated with. While largely the fascination stays as just that, for some it evolves into admiration and further still into imitation. After the UK release of A Clockwork Orange (1977), teenagers committed copycat crimes in costume as the ‘droogs’. Kubrick was so disturbed he pulled it from UK cinemas, believing the film’s violence was influencing behaviour in real life. Many murderers have modelled their crimes on films or television. In 2001, Thierry Jaradin based his murder of a 15 year old on the opening scene of Scream (1996). In 2004, Michael Hernandez stabbed a friend 40 times, imitating killings in American Psycho (2000) and Silence of the Lambs (1991). In 2009, Andrew Conley strangled his younger brother before confessing his aspiration to be a serial killer came after watching Dexter (2006-2013). While these three had a natural inclination to violence, it was the films and TV shows that triggered those tendencies in them and without seeing them it’s possible they would have never killed anyone. The degree that violence in film brings out aggression in people varies with the individual but is more likely to happen if they identify with the violent characters. More problems arise when victims are undeveloped as, when watching, you do not care about their deaths and are desensitised
to that level of violence when it occurs in real life. The same effect is reversed in films such as Fruitvale Station (2013). By developing the victim, films deepen empathy and can cause possible perpetrators to think twice about their actions. A large proportion of violence is in action movies. In films, such as the Bond series, torture is often used as a plot device and can be effective for a protagonist. In reality, the same is not true. Torture is ineffective as an interrogation technique and can even lead to false information being used to appease the torturer. A study from Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology shows that due to the perceived effectiveness of torture - from seeing it produce results in films - people were more likely to excuse torture if the information yielded could help someone close to them. This allowed the CIA to waterboard people implicated in the 9/11 attacks - which felt personal to many in the USA - with few repercussions. In action movies, often the action is the best bit. We enjoy seeing our heroes take down bad guys in slick, well-choreographed scenes. The fact we are rarely in similar situations means we cannot fully decipher what would happen in reality. If we were facing a gunman would we tackle him head on like our heroes? The NRA believes that’s the case, and their popular argument that a good guy with a gun can stop a bad guy with a gun is one of the limiting factors to US gun controls. Real life statistics contradict this and a gunman is stopped by an unarmed civilian four times more often than an armed one. A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research, also claims the right to carry increases violent crime by 13-15% over a 10 year period. By encouraging these misperceptions and dangerous ideas, films are indirectly responsible for this violence.
Epigram / Patrick Sullivan
Third Year, Film
Why might the possibility of black people rioting against a police officer murdering a brotha, or coming Straight Outta their hometowns incite more fear of the pervasivity of cinematic violence than with other, lighter demographics? It is truly a mystery for the ages. Actors and filmmakers, while artists, still need to show humanity publicly. Jim Carrey tweeted ‘I did Kick-Ass [2, 2013] a month before Sandy Hook and now in all good conscience I cannot support that level of violence’. Carrey’s Grinch-like, three-sizes-too-big heart is admirable and understandable, but I’d say misguided. If we censor ourselves of all imaginable evils, when they occur in reality we would never do anything. Carrey’s purposeful detachment from the project shows a bold acceptance of the artist’s culpability and responsibility for their art. I cannot, in good faith however, accept this detachment. Famed French expressionist artist, Henri Matisse, said that creativity takes courage. Surely that includes the courage to show the reality of the world’s aggression, in the full spectrum of realism in film? After 9/11 in 2001, it was theorised that violence in American cinema would have a drastic decline. However, in the years that shortly followed, releases included classic action films such as Minority Report (2002), The Bourne Identity (2002), Kill Bill (2003), and a plethora of superhero films. Action, and inherently violence, became the country’s strongest rallying force against the fears of an insatiable and unstoppable evil. In a world where you could go to work one morning and simply never return, burnt to death in your seat or die leaping from a crushed building, the idea of superhumans, spies, and badasses, was a nation’s saving grace. Looking back at the thrillers and Hammer Horrors that came out of wartime Britain, you can tell the sentiment is hardly new.
Epigram / Patrick Sullivan
Leah Martindale argues that violence in films should not be censored because of fear Leah Martindale
IMDb / A Clockwork Orange / Warner Bros
IMDb / Kick-Ass 2 / Universal Pictures
How much does film violence affect real crime - should it be censored?
05.11.2018
epigram
Film & TV 35
Is 22 July responsible with its depiction of real events? Netflix Media Center / 22 July
Greengrass’s Netflix film and Poppe’s Utøya handle the violent Breivik 2011 attacks differently Leah Roberts Third Year, German
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aul Greengrass’s film depicting the events that happened in Norway on July 22 2011 was released on Netflix on October 10. The film opens with neo-Nazi terrorist Anders Breivik (Anders Danielsen Lie) preparing his attacks in both the financial district of Oslo and the leftwing summer camp on the island of Utøya. Far-right political groups are on the rise again in Europe, with Alternativ für Deutschland and the Progress Party of Norway gaining popularity. With this comes the increase in films tackling the subject of terrorists linked to political extremism, such as the release earlier this year of Utøya - July 22 from Erik Poppe, which offers a different angle on the 22 July attacks. The lengthy introductory sequence from Breivik’s viewpoint ends after 45 minutes with CCTV footage of the bombing. From there, the perspective shifts from Breivik and the children on Utøya. The narrative then follows Viljar Hanssen (Jonas Strand Gravli) and his brother Torje (Isak Bakli Aglen) as they try to escape the horror unfolding around them. The main chunk of the film, however, is dedicated largely to the recovery of Viljar and the impact this also has on his friends and family. The film brilliantly portrays how life goes on for the rest of the world, as Viljar’s parents, Svein (Thorbjørn Harr) and Christin
(Maria Bock), return to work, whilst Viljar struggles to recover in his snow-covered, isolated home village. His isolation is a metaphor for not just his physical healing, but mental. As his brother Torje draws away from him due to similar PTSD, his only confidant is Lara Rashid (Seda Witt), who loses her sister in the attacks. Lara acts as a pillar of strength for the survivors; making rounds at the hospital and encouraging Viljar to speak against Breivik at the trial. Despite limited previous credits, Gravli gives a genuine, emotional performance as Viljar, especially given the sensitive topic. Greengrass has been criticised in the past for handling tragic events. Stanley Kauffmann of The New Republic said of his film, United 93 (2006), ‘Never is there a moment of [...] exploitation, but neither is Greengrass able to realize an ultimate purpose.’ These comments are echoed by critics and audience members regarding 22 July. When bringing topics such as terrorist attacks to the screen, there’s a fine line between accuracy and drama. This is where Greengrass’s and Poppe’s films differ.
Greengrass does not depict violence for the sake of it: gunshots are heard in the distance or the camera pans away as the gunman shoots. Poppe, on the other hand, is more violent, invokes the same fear experienced by those on the island. July 22 has no violence after 30 minutes, moving to the recovery and trial, but Utøya lasts 72 minutes and was shot in one take- the same length of ordeal the victims of the summer camp endured. Poppe was able to do this, however, because he created a liminal space wherein the characters are merely representations, with their real names and identities changed, as opposed to Greengrass’s typically realistic take with genuine victims of the attacks. His only immediate deviation from reality is that 22 July is performed in English. Is Poppe’s shocking imitation of the sickening violence necessary? It’s unclear if the one take gimmick serves as art or as historical record. Fortunately, the horror instilled in the audience pays off for Poppe, reminding them how the children suffered. His film shocks but also informs the audience of the more emotional side of the attacks,
If you want to read more about these issues, read Ella Wignell’s long form piece, ‘Should films edit out scenes resembling real life acts of violence?’, on the Epigram website.
“When bringing topics such as terrorist attacks to the screen, there’s a fine line between accuracy and drama”
rather than just the facts. While Poppe’s version is arguably too dramatised, Greengrass stays too accurate to fact, leading to 22 July feeling hollow. There lies the difficulty of real tragedy films: the director can either stay careful and risk being less engaging, or create an engrossing film and be accused of insensitivity or turning a horrific event into entertainment. In Greengrass’s endeavour to present all the facts, controversy is born out of dedicating too much screen-time to Breivik. He is illustrated as an egotistical and meticulous individual, and there’s no doubt that the interpretation of him would bring him satisfaction. Both Poppe and Greengrass’s films neglect the most important aspect: the courage of all the victims to confront their attacker. Greengrass shows Viljar’s stand against his tormentor, with Gravli bringing a wave of emotion to an otherwise desolate film, but the rest of the victims are left out. Lara Rashid herself said she wishes the films had focussed more on the trial and that both films ‘miss out important perspectives’. Greengrass’s version of events was adapted for a Western audience, which helps an unknowing audience learn more about the events, but a non-documentary film is perhaps not the best education. Greengrass’s excessive intent to avoid criticism makes 22 July easier to forget, and Poppe offers a new perspective on the attacks to Norwegians.
Editors’ Picks
IMDb / United Artists
iIMDb / Warner Bros
IMDb / Miramax
IMDb / Sundance / Picturehouse
This week’s theme is Violence In Film and we have chosen four effective and responsible films
Patrick Sullivan
Luke Silverman
James Turnbull
Miles Jackson
Editor
Deputy Editor
Online Editor
Deputy Online Editor
No Country For Old Men (2007)
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Raging Bull (1980)
Blue Ruin (2013)
A boxing film might seem like a rather unoriginal recommendation for our ‘Violence in Film’ issue, but Martin Scorsese’s masterpiece Raging Bull is simply too good in too many ways not to mention here. Lambasted by some critics in its day for its violent content, it charts the rise and fall of self-destructive middleweight boxer Jake LaMotta (Robert De Niro) in grisly fashion. Each moment in the ring is visceral and exhausting - no doubt thanks to Scorsese’s decision to eschew a typical ‘ringside’ perspective and so often place the camera in the ring with the fighters. But it’s the editing - at once vicious but surgically precise - that truly makes Raging Bull so memorably bruising. As editor Thelma Schoonmaker said of Scorsese’s films: ‘Ah, but they aren’t violent until I’ve edited them.’
Filmed on a shoestring using funding from Kickstarter, Jeremy Saulnier’s breakout Blue Ruin is a lean, mean little thriller that actively engages with the real-life consequences of violence to utterly gripping effect. Turning the revenge thriller on its head, the film focuses on Dwight - a homeless vagrant in the backwoods of Virginia hellbent on avenging the death of his parents and given a golden opportunity when their killer is released from prison. The only problem is his utter ineptitude; in an inversion of the ‘tough guy’ anti-hero figure, Dwight is clumsy, misguided and sometimes downright idiotic in his quest for vengeance. Shockingly beautiful, painful to watch and fundamentally an absolute thrillride, Blue Ruin belies its miniscule scale by creating a brutal exemplification of the banality of revenge.
A behemoth at the 2008 Academy Awards Stanley Kubrick’s standout film about the winning four major prizes, the Coen brothers’ film Vietnam War, Full Metal Jacket, is a feat of violence, is a tense Western based in the desolate US country. but ungratuitous in its bloodshed. In fact, the entire However, it has a idiosyncratic sense of humour led first half is almost without any gore at all. The film by Javier Bardem as the sociopathic assassin, Anton excels because instead of physical violence, the focus Chigurh. The violence here is no free-for-all and is is psychological, a rarely depicted aspect in action built up to sharp, distressing sequences. The settings films. Private Pyle, played by Vincent D’Onofrio, is Alicia Wakeling of sparse landscapes and motels isolate the moments a clear example of this. Where we normally see the Second Year, Film & Television and there is no slick, choreographed glorification. gung-ho, all-American soldier fight without any From when Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) encounters consequence, Pyle is presented as a man damaged by a heap of cash left from a drug deal escalated into a the process and eventually has a mental breakdown. shootout to when policeman Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) When the second half arrives, we are treated to sees the chaos he tries so hard to prevent ensue, the intense, well thought out action sequences that only dark world of this primal violence is prevalent - the serve to increase the psychological violence, not reluctance, the impacts on family, and the physical diminish it. It is, without doubt, one of the great ramifications of injury dutifully shown. action films with very little action in it.
epigram 05.11.2018
36 Film & TV
Third Year, Film & English
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he role of violence in cinema has been an age-long moral panic that continues to rear its head today. Filmmakers such as Tarantino regularly provoke controversy and criticism with their abdication of any duty for filmmakers to responsibly depict violence on film. Indeed, as gun violence continues to spiral in the US, some critics have started to balk and reject more lush, stylised depictions of violence on film. Last year’s richly expressionist action film John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017) received positive notices from most critics, yet Guardian US critic Jordan Hoffman noted the film as ‘a shameful example of Hollywood’s gun pornography’. The issue is not merely limited to Hollywood vehicles. Nicolas Winding-Refn’s Drive (2011) follow-up Only God Forgives (2013) received excoriating reviews and walkouts at Cannes owing to its over-thetop and grim depiction of gore, with Sight & Sound editor Nick James surmising that ‘Refn’s partnership with Gosling and chances in Hollywood may now both be freezeframed’ on account of the film’s aesthetic yet relentless depiction of depravity. Both Wick and Only God Forgives are saturated in eye-popping neons, turning their twisted tales of revenge into vibrant cornucopias of colour. Bold splatters of blood purposefully clash with the soft blues and deep purples of the unreal environments they take place in,
inviting the audience to take pleasure in the awe-inspiring surreality of their worlds. Refn himself claimed he hoped audiences would be ‘turned on’ by the violence in his films. These simultaneously lush and lurid cinematic expressions contradict the current vogue tending towards ‘responsible’ depictions of violence, a term we conflate with ‘realistic’. Works by Academy darlings such as Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty (2012), Mel Gibson’s Hacksaw Ridge (2016) and Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s The Revenant (2015) have been lauded for their ultra-realist acts of violence, whilst documentaries such as Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing (2012) have rightly led to self-reflection on the mental impact of violence in films. Each of these films contain horrific, punishing acts of violence, sickeningly close to reality and uncomfortable to watch, often filmed with documentarian handheld cameras and framed in gruelling close-up. Their intent is to provoke horror, revulsion and a disaffection towards such acts, which in many cases are ripped directly from real life. This drive towards authenticity and selfseriousness is understandable yet flawed; depictions of violence that lean towards realism are not inherently more ‘adult’, nor worthy of cinematic praise, than those that
invite us to indulge in unbelievable bouts of bloody spectacle. Indeed, the stifling realism of such sequences often has a distancing effect, with such an incomprehensible level of violence bestowed upon characters in such a cold, documentarian manner that it becomes impossible to empathise with the victims. The level of pain experienced is simply too unimaginable. We as an audience become just distanced voyeurs to acts of horrific aggression. None exhibit the transition of cultural prevalence from stylised depictions of violence to sobering, but ultimately empty, displays of realism better than Kathryn Bigelow. The director made her name with over-the-top genre classics such as Near Dark (1987) and Point Break (1991), with the latter’s legacy of IMDb / Why Don’t You Play In Hell?
Filmmakers must morally investigate the current trend of mimicking reality Miles Jackson
Lionsgate Publicity / Hacksaw Ridge
Realistic violence isn’t any safer than excess gore “This drive towards authenticity and selfseriousness is understandable yet flawed”
“Cartoonish films are so diametrically opposed to reality that the action becomes akin to heightened modes of expression such as dance”
outrageous violence so iconic, beloved and entertaining that it is affectionately parodied throughout Edgar Wright’s Hot Fuzz (2007). Yet Bigelow’s last three films all take a nononsense, self-serious approach to brutality and torture so horrifically true-to-life that they paradoxically end up feeling detached from any emotional empathy. In particular, Detroit (2017) dedicates an hour to a torture sequence, in which a group of white cops emotionally and physically abuse a group of black civilians, murdering three. Bigelow imbues the hour with such grisly dedication to accurately depicting every broken bone, every bloodied face, that the level of violence ends up wearying more than disturbing. On the other hand, cartoonish, ultrastylised films, like Tarantino’s, are so diametrically opposed to reality that the action becomes akin to heightened modes of expression such as dance. The absurdity of gore-fests such as John Wick (2014) or the criminally underrated Why Don’t You Play in Hell? (2013) allows us to harmlessly take pleasure in bursts of blood and cinematic fantasies for their mere visual qualities. There is an argument that viewing violence through such an amoral, aesthetic lens leads to desensitisation, yet the loopy unbelievability of such films makes clear their artifice. In effect, violence in cinema may be dichotimised into ‘movie violence’ and ‘realistic violence’, with the latter having a rightful necessity to be morally interrogated - through films such as the aforementioned The Act of Killing - whilst the other may exist in the realms of pure escapism. As the protagonist of Why Don’t You Play in Hell? states in a moment of winking metafiction: ‘This movie exists only to impress you’.
Tarantino techniques for film violence and disbelief Second Year, English
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ne of the many reasons that Quentin Tarantino is hailed as one of the most influential directors of our generation is that his films never simply have a single iconic moment. Rather, each scene is individually imbued with an unforgettable Tarantino stamp. I would compare watching a Tarantino film to reading a novel, the plot of each of his films unfold in chapters, each as detailed as short films, with interweaving plots and characters which coalesce for the finale. Another seminal Tarantino feature is his use of soundtracks, particularly during the opening of his films. Reservoir Dogs (1992) opens to the percussion of ‘Little Green Bag’ by George Baker Selection, the perfect rhythm for the iconic slow motion stride of the ‘wise guys’. Dick Dale’s rock ‘n’ roll rendition of ‘Misirlou’, which famously cracks open the groundbreaking Pulp Fiction (1994) soundtrack, became so influential that when Winston Wolf (Keitel) was used for Direct Line adverts, he drives away at the end accompanied by the tune. His influence also transcends the screen: there hasn’t been a Halloween since 1994
without a Mia Wallace costume; Samuel L Jackson’s impassioned recital of Ezekiel 25:17 is the longest biblical quote - even if fake - I can recite from memory; and Banksy’s depiction of Jules and Vincent Vega has become a staple piece of modern art. Tarantino’s contentious use of violence is certainly another crucial organ in his style of filmmaking. An 2013 interview for the Guardian went viral when Krishnan GuruMurthy pushed Tarantino for a comment on the link between on-screen and real-life violence, resulting in a heated outburst: ‘I refuse your question. I’m not your slave, and you’re not my master. You can’t make me dance to your tune. I’m not a monkey.’ For Tarantino there is a huge chasm between movie violence and actual violence; in the movies, nobody is actually harmed. In all of his films a sequence is dedicated to shoot outs, torture or scenes of bloody chaos. When asked to comment on his excessive use of gore, Tarantino said: ‘Violence is just one of those many things you can do in movies. People ask me, “Where does all this violence come from in your movies?” I said, “Where does all this dancing come from in Stanley Donen movies?”’ For Tarantino, violence is as crucial as the car chase, the passionate love scene and even Donen’s classic musical number in the rain. I am thick skinned when it comes to stomaching gore, but Tarantino managed to break me with the torture scene in Reservoir
“While I had one hand covering my eyes, my toes were nevertheless tapping”
“Rather than to make a social or political statement, Tarantino uses violence to optimise his audience’s cinematic experience”
IMDb / Reservoir Dogs / Miramax
The Oscar winning director uses gore and music expertly in his works Lilia Sebouai
Dogs. The tension created throughout the notorious sequence reaches that of a horror film, due to the threat of the impending torture. The thought of being alone in an abandoned warehouse with psychopath Mr. Blonde (Madsen) dancing around maniacally would normally leave me in a cold sweat, but the music created a contradictory impulse. While I had one hand covering my eyes, my toes were nevertheless tapping to ‘Stuck in the Middle With You’ by the Stealers Wheel. Yet a new wave of fear raises as soon as we see the gasoline, as Mr. Blonde’s intentions become clear. Tarantino is of course all too aware and, unsuspectedly, near resurrects Mr. Orange (Roth) to break the intensity with an eruption of gunfire. The technique is masterfully used as a kinetic release. By using the psychology of suspense, Tarantino toys with the audience for the maximum time before creating an explosion to climax. Also seen in Inglorious Basterds
(2009), Tarantino is aware his audience is naturally predisposed to hate Nazis. We can’t help but feel a twisted sense of satisfaction when the savage SS colonel Hanz Landa (Waltz) is branded with a swastika for his war crimes at the films denouement. Similarly, the epic mansion shootout at the end of Django Unchained (2012) feels cathartic after many horrendous atrocities unfold. The action set piece becomes pleasurable, aided by the cartoonish use of blood and the way bodies are strewn around like rag dolls. Rather than to make a social or political statement, Tarantino uses violence to optimise his audience’s cinematic experience. He said: ‘I feel like a conductor and the audience’s feelings are my instruments. I will be like, “laugh, laugh, now be horrified.” When someone does that to me I’ve had a good time at the movies,’ and I certainly have the same reaction.
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Arts
epigram 05.11.2018
@epigramarts
Editor: Alina Young Online Editor: Avital Carno Deputy Editors: Anna Trafford & Gabi Spiro
@epigramarts
Arts Asks: Mike Tweddle, Tobacco Factory Theatres
Gabi Spiro Deputy Arts Editor
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Epigram / Gabi Spiro
ith the recent addition of the Spielman Theatre, the atmosphere at Tobacco Factory Theatres seems to have shifted. This second space leaves the theatre refreshed and humming with vitality, and the push for diversity within the TFT programme has stirred excitement amongst creative circles in Bristol. Even on a Wednesday afternoon, there’s a palpable buzz in the renovated factory space. TFT’s artistic director Mike Tweddle, an advocate for the theatre’s facelift, sits down with Epigram. Mike explains how, paradoxically, a smaller studio space lends to greater artistic risks. ‘We want to speak to minority communities and present more niche genres and styles. In a small space you can take more risk because you don’t have to drive in the same amount of audience figures. ‘But perhaps the best part of our new theatre is that it has retractable seating and it can be a very powerful education and artist development space as well. We want to not only be presenting the most bold, diverse, exciting voices from around the country, but we want to be helping Bristol artists take that leap into the unknown with big, brave new ideas.’ The Spielman Theatre doubles up as a rehearsal space and an outreach hub, and so Mike hopes this will
encourage engagement with Bristol-based creatives, as per the theatre’s core ethos. Widening participation with theatre seems to be a current national trend, and so I wonder what else Mike thinks is relevant to theatre-makers and -goers at the moment. ‘Theatre is alive and well because it’s about an act of communication and communion with an audience. Yes, we have loads of culture available at the swipe of a finger, but we don’t have the opportunity to be a group of people bearing live witness to something, and I think a lot of theatre is embracing that. ‘We also have to stop thinking about theatre being in any way posh or sacred or pretentious. Obviously, it’s a really messy bones and marrow and blood kind of an artform […] so the more we can embrace the
Twitter / @tftheatres
The Spielman Theatre, Beautiful Thing and the power of live performance - TFT’s Artistic Director Mike Tweddle chats to Epigram
“It’s a really messy bones and marrow and blood kind of an artform [...] so the more we can embrace the rock and roll that’s at the heart of theatre, the better”
rock and roll that’s at the heart of theatre, the better.’ Is this, for Mike, what makes good theatre? ‘I think it has to be exciting and surprising. I think good theatre has to make you want to sit on the edge of your seat. When you’re seeing something good that’s live, whether it’s a live band or a live play, when it’s really good, you don’t fidget, and you don’t notice how your back hurts and you don’t yawn. Your whole body is alert and engaged and it’s visceral. It’s a physical thing. ‘Good theatre taps into that by being really strong on rhythm, on the power and force of character and storytelling and most of all harnessing the fact that it’s a live event. So for me, the audience has to be at the centre.’ And whether intentionally or not, it seems Mike is talking about Beautiful Thing, his most recent directorial work for TFT. He refashions the 1993 gay romance, set on a London council estate, and manages to embrace the liveness of theatre himself. An uplifting community choir are at the forefront, singing 90s Pop more than ‘rock and roll’, but impressive none-the-less. ‘We’ve got a big community choir involved, and they’re from all over Bristol and particularly from South Bristol, where we’ve been doing a lot of specific outreach. A lot of people in the choir have lived or are living in similar environments to the characters in the play, and they have helped us to understand how pertinent and relevant and contemporary it still is as a play.’
I wonder if Beautiful Thing is a little kitsch; how current can a twenty-five-year-old play be to Bristol in 2018? He says, ‘Though it has essentially become a period play, it wouldn’t be worth doing this show if it can’t speak to our time now and our community in Bristol.’ Beautiful Thing hits a soft spot for Mike, as one of the first plays he himself acted in at school. ‘It really opened my eyes to a different experience and helped me deal with things in my own life and identity, and I saw that it was an opportunity to widen my empathy.’ He laughs. ‘And it was the only time you got to hang out with the girls’ school.’ Mike tells me about the upcoming programme, and is particularly interested in TFT’s inhouse Christmas production, The Borrowers. ‘We’re taking a very alternative, fresh approach to the ‘Borrowers’, which is a much loved classic Christmas title, and a much loved Children’s tale, but […] we’re radically refreshing it and placing the story at the heart of Bristol. I think it’s going to be quite a dare-devil piece of work, and quite risk-taking for a Christmas show. People will be surprised by that one.’ Mike’s genuine excitement when talking about shows is inevitably contagious. When he tells me that theatre is ‘to understand, to get to know and to connect with more lives than you would otherwise’, I truly believe this is what he is pushing for. Tobacco Factory Theatres, with their renovated programme and new studio space, are a spot watch in the next few months.
Prize culture isn’t winning Following the recent announcement of the 2018 Man Booker Prize, Tilly Bryson explores the subjective nature of prize culture Imogen Howse Second Year, English
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affected by it: my favourite books are those that have moved me emotionally, those which have given me a new perspective on
Epigram / Lucy Pratt
nna Burns’ Milkman was recently announced as the winner of the 2018 Man Booker Prize, and as is always the case with literary awards, this decision was met with both appreciation and backlash. This is an inevitable outcome – the reviewing of anything creative – whether it be literature, film, art, theatre or music – is entirely subjective. Some readers will hate what others adore; the most commercially popular series may have the most condemning reviews… so how do we choose the winners of these prestigious awards? The answer of course is that we don’t: literary awards such as the Man Booker Prize are not judged by the public, but instead by a chosen panel. This year, the panel was chaired by the philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah, with the judges consisting of crime writer Val McDermid; cultural critic Leo Robson; feminist writer and critic Jacqueline Rose; and artist and graphic novelist Leanne
Shapton. The Man Booker Prize was keen to assert that ‘this year’s judging panel is… stellar in its distinction,’ and that ‘its members have a stunningly broad range of tastes and enthusiasms… They are all long-standing champions of creative work who will be open to any excellent novel that may come their way, regardless of genre or geography.’ And as far as any of us know, this was and still is true. But no matter how diverse the panel is and no matter how many categories of novels they are open to reading: the judges can never represent every reader there is, nor can they read every book of the year. And therein lies one of the problems. Prizes can never be fair: a different panel of judges would have probably chosen a different winner. They may have had different tastes in genre; they may have had different interpretations of what constitutes ‘a good novel.’ And what does make a novel good or bad? Sales? Evidently not, otherwise Fifty Shades of Grey ought to have been considered back in 2011. Ratings? Not necessarily; Lincoln in the Bardo, last year’s winner, is rated an average of 3.8/5 stars on the popular review site Goodreads. So what, then? Poetic writing? A mindblowing plot twist? Such a speculative list could go on forever as there is no clear definition of what makes a good book because the notions of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ reside in an entirely subjective realm. If you ask me, the quality of literature lies in how people are
a concept or event, or simply those I had the most fun reading. But once again, that’s my opinion. So, just because we will never find a book that everyone agrees is the best of the year, and a panel of judges will never be able to read every book published, does that mean we should discard literary prizes entirely? Of course not. All literary prizes aim to do is find what they deem to be ‘a good book.’ And whether this stirs controversy or not, whatever book is chosen will start a conversation; it will get more people reading; and it will help someone out there find their new favourite book. And none of the above are bad things. What we must be careful of is to not allow literary awards to become limiting. We must not restrict ourselves to reading only novels which are deemed worthy of acclaim, and we must not let our opinions of which books are ‘good’ and ‘bad’ be decided by others. Literary awards ought to include and not exclude – they ought to seek out varying genres and diverse authors, and not disregard novels which do not fit the quintessential mould of ‘literary fiction.’ Writing this article has encouraged me to read Anna Burns’ Milkman. Maybe I’ll love it, maybe I’ll hate it. But I’ll be sure that I decide how ‘good’ or ‘bad’ I think it is based on my own reading experience, and not because of the value that has been recently placed on it by the literary sphere.
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Arts 39
How being creative supports your mental health to create something unique, often from nothing.
As the year begins to get busier, Tess Cotterill explains why it’s important to nurture your creative side
Being part of a community: Primarily due to the dialogue formed by creating, a sense of community is formed through art which is highly beneficial for individuals.
Tess Cotterill English, First Year
Why is creating community important?
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niversity life can be intense, and the beginning of the year can be particularly difficult - for freshers it’s a period of complete change, and for anyone else, it can be difficult to get back into the swing of things, faced again with gloomy skies and short days. It is particularly important as a student body to keep an eye on our own mental health at this time of year, and on that of our peers. It might not immediately spring to mind, but partaking in creative activities is an enjoyable and practical way to take care of our mental health. There are countless benefits to doing so, in particular allowing for self expression and enabling us to create positive community. Whether it’s painting, drawing, performing, writing or something else, there’s something creative for anyone to have a go at. Taking part in a creative activity is a way for all people to explore and communicate their thoughts and feelings to combat the trials of daily life, without the pressure of having to do so verbally. The significance of employing creativity to benefit mental health can be seen in the range of expressive forms of therapy that are now widely used such as art, drama, dance and writing therapy. The shared aim of these forms of therapy is not about the ‘product’ created, but instead about the creative process itself; the aim is to facilitate people’s understanding of their feelings and thought processes through the process of reflecting upon what they are creating. The benefits of this range from managing levels of daily stress to addressing and overcoming difficult experiences and trauma.
“Taking part in a creative activity is a way for all people to explore and communicate their thoughts and feelings to combat the trials of daily life, without the pressure of having to do so verbally.”
The shared experience of creating connects people in a unique way, for instance in the setting of an art or drama class. In perhaps a less obvious way, community is created by the sharing of ideas and opinions through the arts, as it allows people to better understand each other. As well as increasing our understanding of others as individuals, creative output creates a wider dialogue about issues that are important to people on a wider scale. Expressing opinions through a creative medium is an accessible way of discussing and understanding issues in society, which can be difficult to navigate.
Creativity in Bristol At the University of Bristol there are so many societies to get involved with that make up a creative community, with opportunities to draw, act, sing, dance, craft, play instruments and write, among many other things. All of these societies are listed on the Bristol SU website, so have a browse and give one of these a go. Don’t be daunted to join; even though it’s not the beginning of the year, every society will be pleased to
have another enthusiastic member. You may find it’s exactly what you need. External from the university there are so many schemes and opportunities in Bristol that directly relate to creativity and mental health. Check out some of these:
Studio Upstairs offers studio space, support and creative workshops for people facing difficulties concerning their mental health. Their ‘vision is for a world in which everyone can transform their life through creative community’.
The Wellbeing Arts Public Health Project holds group sessions focused on arts, creativity and wellbeing, with the aim of developing creativity and skills for people suffering from depression, facing a change, loss or stress, and for carers.
As the winter months approach, let’s all make an effort to take care of our mental health: trying something new or keeping up with an old creative hobby might just be the most comforting and enjoyable way to do this.
So, how can you benefit from getting creative? Stress relief: Creative activities are a way of managing stress, which is vital at university. The creative process requires you to become absorbed in something separate from studies and the difficult or mundane tasks that consume daily life.
Self awareness:
A sense of purpose and achievement: A feeling of purpose can be acquired through creating that we can sometimes lack in life, as it’s immensely satisfying
Epigram / India Vecqueray
A sense of self awareness can be gained through the process of creation, as what we choose to make can lead to a greater understanding of our individual desires and ideas, in turn increasing our levels of confidence and certainty.
epigram 05.11.2018
40 Arts
My Anti-Art Counterpart
History of Art student Hudi Charin takes her Mechanical Engineering boyfriend, Zac, to Spike Island’s exhibition Thebes Hudi Charin Third Year. History of Art
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“I thought it was maybe time he took on contemporary, conceptual art. I thought he was ready. I was wrong.”
a common theme,’ he says after a while. ‘Oh, yes?’ I say encouragingly. Will he have spotted the references to abstract expressionism, the drawing on action painting, the blurring of the lines between imagination and reality? ‘There’s these big blimps in all of them,’ says Zac, pointing at a particularly large purple splodge. ‘Er, yes, I suppose there are,’ I mutter, trying to think of a way to relate this back to an art historical discourse but Zac’s already plodding off into the next room. We’re met by a video playing on loop. It’s an amalgamation of a few different clips, but it mainly has Maria Sharapova repeatedly hitting a tennis ball whilst the sound echoes around the gallery. ‘I would actually go insane if I had to listen to this every day,’ Zac says, far too loudly. The volunteer whose job is to do just that literally is gives us a glare and we scuttle away. Zac starts laughing next to one particular piece. The photo shows a man leaning over a big glass ball, holding a kind of metal measuring tool. ‘I love that,’ Zac’s saying gleefully. The art historian within me is delighted. Okay, so the cloud paintings weren’t for him, and the tennis video was a bit weird but maybe this will speak to him. ‘What do you like about it?’ ‘It’s so ridiculous. That’s a caliper; it would obviously never be able to measure the diameter of that sphere, I mean,
look: the arms of the caliper are way too narrow…’ No way have we come to an art gallery only for him to explain something sciencey to me. On to the next room. It’s full of objects in various arrangements; industrial tools, found objects and Maire’s own artworks. The guide tells us the room questions ‘the status of the object, and how we categorise form in art, culture and nature.’ Zac, helpfully, categorises it all as rubbish. The final room is a screening of the word
Do you also have an anti-art counterpart? Or are you the one who couldn’t care less about a pile of conceptual rubbish on the floor? Take your mate, take your date, and let us recommend an exhibition that you’ll love to hate. Get in touch with Epigram Arts to be featured in an upcoming issue.
Epigram / Hudi Charin
Epigram / Hudi Charin
The Happy Place: feel-good art
Less by Andrew Sean Greer: “Just for the record, happiness is not bullshit.” Jasmine Norden
Psychology, Third Year Less is the story of a failed author, Arthur Less. On the brink of middle age, Less goes on a round-the-world trip to escape attending the wedding of his ex-boyfriend. The novel, as well as having won a Pulitzer this year, brilliantly bridges the divide between dry-humoured narration and justenough heart (provided by the relatable but completely hopeless protagonist). As Less travels around the world, chased by
nostalgia for his youth, he confronts all of the reasons why he’s ended up falling short of everything he hoped to be; whether the pursuit of love is really worth it and what it’s like to grow old as a gay man. The entire journey takes place amongst a satirical view of the literary industry, within which Less’ fellow authors insist on informing him why he has never managed to be truly successful. But Less, for all its gentle mocking of its titular character, is optimistic at its heart, detailing the wonder of every place described and how it helped Less get to that final realisation he needs.
Unsplash / Josh Felise
As soon as we walk in, Zac tries to get to grips with what he’s seeing. The entire first room is filled with pictures of clouds, apparently ‘drawing a parallel between painting and the ever changing forms of clouds.’ There’s canvas after canvas of splodges of colour, each one a slightly different interpretation of the concept, moving between figuration and abstraction. Zac looks around hopefully and eventually says, ‘So, this is… Impressionism?’ Nope, but nice try. I begin to try to explain the difference between the nineteenth-century art movement and Benoît Maire’s artworks, suggesting that there may indeed be some parallels… but Zac’s already wondered off to the far side of the room, standing far too close to a painting. I grab his arm to pull him back; just because there isn’t a rope cordoning it off doesn’t mean that they want your nose impaling the canvas. Zac is looking at the splodges of paint and rubbing his chin thoughtfully. ‘I sense
Epigram / Hudi Charin
aking my mechanical engineer boyfriend to Spike Island was a risky move. There’s scientists who appreciate the arts. There’s scientists who don’t really appreciate the arts. And then there’s Zac, who thought that the ‘Odyssey’ was written by Homer J Simpson. We’ve braved more traditional art galleries in the past. He coped pretty well with the National Gallery, using Snapchat to face swap with Rembrandt, which you could argue is a postmodern interpretation of the medium of the self-portrait. I thought it was maybe time he took on contemporary, conceptual art. I thought he was ready. I was wrong. Spike Island is a gallery and studio space in Bristol, showcasing contemporary artists’ works. Currently, Benoît Maire’s Thebes is on display. Spike Island describes the artist as a ‘visual philosopher’ whose works ‘question the origin of humankind and the objects we produce.’ In other words, this was arty fartyness at its best, a lot of abstract paintings and abstract ideas.
origin, a film showing a man going about his mundane life. We watch the video and I’m completely bemused. Surely Zac will be, too. ‘I noticed a theme,’ he says. ‘Oh, yeah?’ I ask, dreading his response. ‘Eggs. There’s a lot of eggs in the film, I think it’s talking about the never-ending cycle of life.’ I look at the exhibition guide, gobsmacked. He’s right. We leave the exhibition and I’m a bit shell-shocked. Could my anti-art boyfriend have spotted something I didn’t? Does this change the whole dynamic of our relationship? As we go, he points to a fire extinguisher. ‘So, what? Am I supposed to accept this is art, too?’ Maybe things are back to normal after all. For a more informed response to the exhibition check out Epigram’s review.
Music
epigram 05.11.2018
Editor: Alexia Kirov Deputy: Joe Gorecki Online Editor: Bethany Marris Email: music.epigram@gmail.com
‘Now I think about the pure melody’: In conversation with Westerman Epigram / Harry Goldsmith
Epigram talks to Westerman about genre, Frank Ocean and his new music video ‘Albatross’ Joe Gorecki Deputy Music Editor
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‘I think it’s just a modern way of viewing music. People aren’t interested in tribalism in the same way they used to be.’
in the same way they used to be. People just want to go and listen to music: rather than “do you like Britpop?” or “do you like shoegaze?”, it’s like “I like both!”’ I ask him if he has a set answer if people ask him what genre he plays: ‘I still say I’m a singer-songwriter. I guess that I think it’s a kind of pop music but my criteria for pop music is quite broad: Pop is a structural term, there’s a chorus, that essential phrase you return to but I try and do experimental pop music and play around with these conventions.’ On this topic, I ask him if he’s done much experimenting in the writing of his upcoming EP Ark: ‘It’s going to be less “here’s a song” and “here’s a song” so there two straight up and down songs and two that are more instrumental-based. There are lyrics but I wouldn’t put them down as individual tracks. I’m writing my album now and I never really like albums that clearly 11 songs to go on the radio. I want to think of it in a more threedimensional way and create a world of music to live in’. I mention how recently artists like Thundercat and Frank Ocean have been using interludes to make some of their most memorable album tracks. ‘It’s about personality,’ he says. ‘You have the capacity now to really use that time and space you’ve made for yourself. Frank Ocean has been huge: he broke it open in a massive mainstream way, but it’s not mainstream music. It’s really exciting.’ Before letting him go and prepare for his
show, I ask him when we can expect his first album. ‘I’m recording it in January, so next year, and it’s in good shape. I’ve never done an album before so it’s an odd process. I always thought I’d be writing concept albums but I changed my tune. I want to put across my personality in a richer way and
show a fuller version of myself musically.’ Despite only being at the beginning of his career, Westerman has covered a great distance musically already. Going forward, it will be interesting to see where further he goes. Especially, with the release of his debut album, 2019 could well be a very busy a year for Westerman. Epigram / Harry Goldsmith
t’s been a busy year for Will Westerman, better known by just his surname. In February, his single ‘Confirmation’, released with little marketing behind it became a break-out hit after it was awarded Pitchfork’s tastemaking ‘Best New Music’ accolade, a prize he describes as a shot in the arm for him. He’s since been touring around Europe and releasing a number of singles ahead of the release of his EP Ark in November. Three days before I got the chance to speak to him, ahead of his packed show at the Crofters Rights and release of the music video for his song ‘Albatross’. Working with Norwegian director Emilie Norenberg, the video is a visual treat filled with Lynchian vibes culminating in an eerie if joyous dance between Westerman and someone wearing a large mask of an Albatross head. Intrigued, I wanted to ask him how such a collaboration came about. ‘I’ve been really busy making music so I thought it might be fun to source the track out to some people. There’s a lightness to it, it’s not like a joke but it’s important to have levity to balance it, hopefully showing something a bit more playful too. That Albatross head is terrifying though!’ It’s this mix of emotions and styles that makes Westerman’s music stand out. After studying philosophy at York, he went on to win ‘Best Folk/Country Act’ at the 2016 Unsigned Music Awards but then met and collaborated with producer Bullion, who opened up the world of electronic music to him. I ask him whether such a seemingly big shift has changed his songwriting process. ‘Before I was thinking about filling all the space with guitar and vocals, but now I try and think about the pure melody of the song. There can be different textures that are more appropriate for what I’ve written. I think about rhythm too’. This emphasis on melody is important to Westerman and has thus resulted in his song ‘Edison’ being remixed earlier this year by Ross from Friends. While Westerman’s songs don’t initially strike as material to be turned into dance remixes, the two share a lot in common. ‘He’s a really interesting artist: he can do straight up and down dance music but then he has this really good appreciation of melody and space. That kind of open mindedness and not being too concerned about pigeonholing and genre. I always like artists who do quite disparate things in singular ways.’ ‘I think it’s just a modern way of viewing music. People aren’t interested in tribalism
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epigram 05.11.2018
Music
Sound of the South West / Idles @ SWX Guy Marcham Music Sub-Editor
Transport back in time to 1978 when punk was the forefront of a seismic political revolution in the UK. The scene’s anarchic, anti-establishment and DIY roots meant punk stood at the frontline for challenging society’s ills. Acts such as The Clash and The Tom Robinson Band used their full throttle energy and no holds barred ferocity to attack the growth of racism, poverty and
Epigram / Alexia Kirov
unemployment. Now fast-forward to 2018, Bristol band Idles seem to be following in the same footsteps and triumphantly so too.
“Idles may deal with serious themes in their music but as a live act they embrace their more joyful and funny side.”
The anticipation leading up to Idles’ sold out homecoming show at Bristol’s SWX was enormous. The band’s latest album, Joy As An Act of Resistance soared to number 5 in the charts and the quintet had just performed a storming set on BBC’s Later with Jools Holland. It’s safe to say that their subsequent U.K tour feels almost like a victory lap, the crowning of a group now touted as ‘Britain’s most necessary band’, and boy did they prove their worth. Idles kicked off proceedings with the menacing and brooding ‘Colossus’ off their latest album. The song’s stark intensity and surging rhythm saw circle pits instantly break out, before a whirlwind of bodies were tossed and flung during the track’s erupting finale of chaotic abandon and amplified rage. The tone was set for the evening, as a series of quick-fire punk thrashes followed. Particular highlights included ‘Mother’ and ‘I’m Scum’, which saw the crowd caped in sweat and screaming along to Talbot’s impeccably crafted and wry lyrics, notably the line, from Brutalism’s ‘Mother’, “The best way to scare a Tory / Is to read and get rich”. Amongst the anarchic onslaught of pile driver rhythms and gnarly death stares, Idles fail to shy away from flexing their political muscle and unleashing their anger fuelled bite on the social injustices of the modern day world. Talbot and co. tackle themes such as immigration, toxic masculinity and the EU referendum throughout their songs and live segues. Talbot dedicated the uncaged fury of ‘Danny Nedelko’ to all the immigrants residing within the UK and the good they do for our wider society. The song itself burst with a form of untamed energy and saw Heavy Lung’s singer and the man himself, Danny Nedelko, jump on stage and dive into the sweaty and jubilant Bristol crowd. Idles also dedicated the roaring thunder of ‘Divide and Conquer’ to the NHS and nursing, which Talbot declared to be the most noble profession.
Epigram / Alexia Kirov
G-R-E-A-T: Bristol punk heroes’ colossus homecoming
That’s not to say the band were without a streak of fun antics and pure rock ‘n’ roll showmanship. Idles may deal with serious hard-hitting themes within their music, but as a live act they embrace their more joyful and largely funny side. An A Capella version of Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ was thrown into the set amongst the band’s usual angst driven disorderly dose of punk rock. The band would also regularly enter the mosh pits themselves and ordered several fans on-stage during the frenzied rush of ‘Exeter’ (which I was more than happy to partake in). The band’s glorious set was even cut short for a matter of seconds due to the front barrier moving scarily forward during the madness and chaos that goes hand in hand with an Idles show. However, within a matter of seconds, once fans had stepped back and allowed for the barrier to be fixed, the havoc kicked back into gear. That small anecdote, I believe, is testament to the band themselves. The group represent not just an angry bunch of punks venting their rage towards a microphone, but instead a band using their voice to open up conversations regarding society’s ills and fatal injustices - a community in
Review/ Puma Blue @ The Louisiana Intimate and emotive, Puma Blue provided a soul-soothing experience Bethany Marris Online Music Editor
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mbarking on their first support-tour were Sunken, a five-piece, Londonbased band. Echoes of dub, alt-rock and jazz-fusion in the band’s composition bring to mind artists such as Khruangbin and Unknown Mortal Orchestra. Moreover, the voice of frontwoman Poppy Billingham transfixed the room, expending rich, soulful vocals far beyond her years. Currently, Sunken’s presence on SoundCloud and Spotify is slight, yet after recently recording with acclaimed producer Ben Baptie, it’s safe to anticipate the band’s progression. Under ruby stage lights, a modest opening saw Allen and his cohort shuffling between apparatus, fiddling with stands and tuning instruments. All the while, a pre-recorded spoken word piece, ‘as-is’ eased the audience into the 50 minute long set of melodic relief that was to follow. Playing the bulk of Swum
Allen’s debut EP - in the first third of the show generated a welcome air of familiarity. The conflicted verse of ‘Want Me’, melting into weighty strums, followed by the selfdeprecating electro-beats of ‘Soft Porn’, manifested vulnerability and bitterness in a way intangible through an audio file. Throughout the show’s second half, the crowd were treated to an abudance of new material. Tracks such as ‘Bruise Cruise’ and ‘Lil Lude’ showcased the evolution of Puma Blue’s sound on their upcoming EP. Layers of electronic drum beats, twinkling guitar riffs, steady bass and effervescent sax, foreshadow plenty of funk and groove in the releases to come. While Allen’s gift for live performance certainly made the evening special, the band of four behind him deserve a great deal of praise, particularly the wonderful saxophonist, Harvey Grant. Through luxurious, woozy solos and decadent interludes, Grant demanded the senses of the listener, gifting moments of access to a smoky void of organic jazz. The penultimate track performed was a cover of Radiohead’s ‘All I Need’, a harrowing chronicle of longing, tributed to
beautifully by the sensitivity of Allen’s voice. The set came to a close with ‘Only trying 2 tell U’, a falsetto driven lullaby that made for a perfect send off.
“Frontwoman Poppy Billingham transfixed the room, expending rich, soulful vocals far beyond her years.”
which kindness and respect flourishes and trumps any form of hate and the rock star demeanour of old. Talbot may have described Bristol as the best city in the world during their set, but going off their SWX show, an argument can certainly be made for Idles being one of the best bands in the world at the moment.
Idles’ critically acclaimed second album, Joy as an Act of Resistance, is out now on Partisan Records and is a sure favourite to top album of the year lists.
Top gigs for November Parcels @ SWX 6/11/18 Azekel @ Rough Trade 7/11/18 Kurt Vile @ Anson Rooms 8/11/18 GoGo Penguin @ SWX 14/11/18 Marie Davidson @ Colston Hall Foyer 16/11/18 Japanese House @ Thekla 22/11/18 808Ink @ Exchange 26/11/18 Sunflower Bean @ SWX 29/11/18
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Recent releases / the new music that Bristol students have been listening to Neneh Cherry: Broken Politics Joe Gorecki
Deputy Music Editor
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ny fan of the Bristol sound synonymous with trip-hop in the 1990s owes Neneh Cherry an immense debt. It was her, using money she made from her hit 1989 album Raw Like Sushi, who funded the recording of Massive Attack’s genre-defining Blue Lines. But Cherry also deserves artistic credit in her own right. Broken Politics, her first album in four years, moves beyond ‘comeback status’ with a contemplative set of songs capturing the mood of past times but also where Neneh Cherry is at in 2018. Despite the name Broken Politics, the album is more than a tritely topical ‘Brexit album’. It’s a lot more thoughtful, using the current context of confusion as
a jumping off point for reflection over blind rage. This isn’t the Neneh Cherry of ‘Buffalo Stance’: she’s since left the poppier side of things to her daughter, the popstar Mabel. The album, however, shows that Cherry hasn’t lost any of the sheer confidence that helped make her name in the late 80s and in the intervening years has gained a powerful wisdom. The album’s lead single ‘Kong’ features a beat that recalls Cherry’s previous adjacent relationship to trip-hop – the track was coproduced by Massive Attack’s Robert ‘3D’ Del Naja – but the choruses soar, putting her lyrics centre stage as she defiantly tells how her ‘world will always be a risk worth taking’. The rest of the album was produced by Four Tet. While it may seem like a more left-field collaboration, the album sounds stunning. The minimalist production puts Cherry’s lyrics at the fore, yet the album isn’t afraid of solid beats such as in ‘Shot
Gun Shack’. Other tracks also feature sublime instrumentation and immersive soundscapes. ‘Synchronised Devotion’ is filled with some delicate marimba that evokes Steve Reich, while album closer ‘Soldier’ uses a driving harp to give the album a solidly determined ending, suggesting the dogged advance of time. The hyperkinetic soundscape of ‘Natural Skin Deep’ is the one area where the production could seem to overreach, mostly down to a liberal use of airhorns and spacey sound-effects. However, their disruption of the everyday reiterates the album’s emphasis on the personal. The transition to a jazz band also makes for a smooth alternative breakdown. Broken Politics is a timely album but it eschews the potential pitfalls that its title might suggest by choosing to focus on the personal to great effect, giving Neneh Cherry an exciting new relevance.
New Junk City: Same Places Matt Alderton
Second Year, Physics
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seless friends’ is an instant impact from the front end of this record. Punchy, upbeat and melodic punk rock: this is a statement of intent. A creative and driving rhythm section gives the track a confrontational edge, sweeping through with effortless lyricism: “I need medicine / a cure for my acrimony / before I drown in the sea of useless friends.” This new LP from Atlanta punk outfit New Junk City is entitled Same Places and sells itself as a fresh outlook on the bittersweet process of getting older. Spanning nine reasonably varied tracks, Same Places draws the listener in to smile and reminisce about the past, to the tune of fuzzy and distorted guitar and instrumental backing - a sound
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you just can’t get enough. Second single ‘Stay Asleep’ kicks in a breakneck pace and pulls you along, as singer John Vornakhis reminds us of the times we live on dreams, telling us “If I just stay asleep / then you can never leave.” Same Places is a punk rock record, there’s no doubt, but what is refreshing is the underlying maturity and radio influence that makes it much easier going on the ear than if another band had recorded the same album. I hit the halfway mark with ‘Losing Side’, the longest number in the collection. It features an extended instrumental opening and continues largely how it starts, intermittent delicate guitar lines and squealing feedback. There’s moments in the album where you can’t quite decipher the lyrics of Vornakhis’ vocals but that in itself is somewhat of a punk appeal (I’m thinking of you, Nirvana,
Kate Hutchsion, Deputy Online Editor
This time, new music collective - Floor Function - join our mix and interview series. From chilled beginnings to heavy, late-night energy; this revolving amalgamation is one of the most exciting we’ve had, from a project with incredible potential. Floor Function is one of the Bristol’s freshest – and most self-aware – student collectives. Made up of third and second years Oli, Jonah and Sam, Floor Function’s first party happened back in May. Since the project has proliferated, they’ve returned to the new term with a selection of upcoming events complete with safe space policy, alongside a brand-new residency at Stoke Croft’s busiest independent radio 10Twenty. This mix is an almighty amalgamation of the team’s diverse tastes. From body orchestra to straight up electro pricked with acid edge, the track list is filled with niche noise, transfusing genre with utter sophistication. Listen now at epigram.org.uk!
with your not-so-punk ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ - nobody has any idea what’s going on in that chorus) and it doesn’t really interfere with the mood and mindset of the album. Towards the end of the album, the listener is treated to the musical curveball of ‘In Our Blood’. The track is more melodic and introspective than any other, bringing some diversity to the album before ending out with ‘Nothing Waiting’. A confident recapitulation of the preceding eight songs, we close with musings of how this is all we get – there is nothing waiting and despite the apparently sober lyrics, we’re left energised to get out there and do something - not sure what, but something. There’s also an absolutely storming synthesised solo to surprise you on your way out, or back in if you can’t help but relisten. Same Places is out now through Real Ghost
Puzzles Word Wheel S A E
E R
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05.11.2018
puzzles@epigram.org.uk If you need any help, contact the editor by email or through social media
Brain Teaser
How many words can you find including the middle letter, with at least four letters per word? There is at least one nine-letter word.
epigram
Editor: Ruby Rosenthal
Dot to Dot
Find the number of triangles in the given figure:
H L
C
A - 25 B - 27 C - 23 D - 21
31= Average 48 = Good 70= Excellent
Anagram Crossword
All of the clues are anagrams of the answers. Rearrange the letters and place the newly formed words in the grid. Some clues have more than two anagrams, but only one will fit.
Sudoku Fill the empty squares with numbers 1 to 9, so that each number appears once in each row, column and 3x3 box.
Across
Down
1. TEAR 5. LEAST 6. NEVER 8. TRACE 11. PEARS 13. STRUT 14. PRAISE 15. ARMED 16. TAME 17. RANGER 20. LEAVER 22. INTEGRAL 24. EASTER 25. PROMISE 26. EARS
2. STEAM 3. LAPSE 4. READY 5. SKIN 7. RESULT 8. TEACH 9. MEAL 10. LEAN 12. DRAWER 15. DETAIL 18. DETAINER 19. NOSIER 21. AMUSES 23. GREAT
Solutions will be posted online at: epigram.org.uk/tag/puzzles facebook.com/epigrampaper @epigrampuzzles If you would like to join the Puzzle Team email puzzles@epigram.org.uk
46 Sport
epigram 05.11.2018
Lewis Hamilton: F1’s greatest of all time? Despite a stumble in Austin, Hamilton remains on track to clinch a historic fifth world championship title Barney Stone Deputy Online Sport Editor
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Illustration by Henry Edwards
s Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen took the chequered flag on Sunday 21st October, Lewis Hamilton was made to settle for third place despite an excellent qualifying performance landing him pole position. Nevertheless, with a commanding 70-point lead over title challenger Sebastian Vettel, and only 75points available over the next three races, Hamilton’s delayed coronation appears merely a formality. Naturally, given the magnitude of this impending achievement, the debate as to Hamilton’s legacy in the sport has re-emerged. This leads us to wonder, is Hamilton the G.O.A.T in Formula 1? In popular imagination, Michael Schumacher remains the face of a sport that is often afflicted by fluctuating popularity and interest; his seven World Championship Titles, five of which he claimed in consecutive seasons between 2000 and 2004, reached the awareness of audiences regardless of their antipathy or disinterest with F1. Yet, whether because of perceived personality flaws or accusations regarding financial illegality, Lewis Hamilton is yet to garner the justifiable admiration of the
British public - with the clear exception being the driving aficionados or careerlong devotees, of course. Accordingly, it seems that on the brink of history, Hamilton deserves his place alongside other British sporting heroes that currently dominate their trade: Mo Farah, Adam Peaty and Anthony Joshua, for instance. A quick summary of F1 records and statistics provides evidence for this assertion of Hamilton’s greatness: four World Championships, seventy-one race victories, and all-time records for most poll positions (81), career points (2,956) and wins at different circuits (26). Given this quick snapshot, which also forgets a supplementary array of impressive achievements, he undoubtedly stands as the greatest British driver in history. Yet, as his success steadily accrues, one is left to wonder – what more must he prove? Recently, McLaren’s Fernando Alonso placed Hamilton in the top five of F1’s greatest, amongst ever-present icons such as Senna and Prost. Hamilton seems unable to distinguish himself from the nostalgic ‘godfathers’ of the sport. Subjective debates about cars and the standard of competition throughout different eras inevitably clouds the debate, just as they do in the comparisons of Messi and Ronaldo against footballing greats like Pele. Conclusions are seemingly made based on opinion and thus undermined by personal bias. However, at the age of thirty-three, and given current indications, it seems likely that Hamilton will exceed the statistical heights of Schumacher. Regardless of whether he
“Lewis Hamilton is yet to garner the justifiable admiration of the British public”
manages to overtake Jenson Button in British popularity polls, and overthrow his reputation for arrogance and extravagance, further fuelled by his recent £40 million per year contract extension, he deserves respect. Indeed, as the idiom iterates, the numbers speak for themselves. Moreover, as the first mixed-race driver to compete and win at the highest level, Hamilton has the opportunity to be regarded as an inspirational pioneer for
a new generation. In the meantime, Hamilton must now shift his attention to the next race in Mexico, where a top seven finish will be enough to secure the title. If delivered via a sensational display of driving, akin to the dramatic circumstances wherein he won his first title in 2008, it will be interesting to see how the narrative of Lewis Hamilton evolves within the British public’s sporting consciousness.
Khan cancels controversial Wembley bid Billionaire Shahid Khan has halted his plans to purchase Wembley Stadium, citing fears that he lacks support James Hall Third Year, Law
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“Khan’s bid evoked in some fans angry images of selling off the family silver, or indeed the Crown Jewels”
but resembling a training match. Only a smattering of away fans, perched on a nearby hill, watched the three lions struggle to a 0-0 draw, singing all the while. In a game where players were privy to coaching information from both sides, the voice of fans was sorely missed. That ‘ghost game’ was a jarring reminder of the impact of football supporters. Indeed, Ben Chilwell’s senior debut will doubtless have been a proud night for him, but belting out the national anthem to an empty stadium, he’d be forgiven for looking for a friendly face in the crowd; instead he was met with
rows on rows of empty chairs. In the hypercommercialised era of billion pound TV deals, it’s almost easy to pass over the wishes of those paying to watch their heroes. Though the FA’s retention may be heralded by some as victory for tradition within the English game, it is still where football’s interests lie - with the people or the profits? Now that the sale has fallen through, muchneeded attention can turn to fans, and the grassroots game. With ticket prices rising and numbers of amateur teams plummeting, the spectre of football’s commercialisation roams on.
Flickr/ Gouldy99
he issue has called into question the integrity of the beautiful game, with many perceiving the deal as the high watermark of the rampant commercialisation shaping the landscape of modern football. Contrast that with England’s poignant World Cup campaign this summer, featuring a young, homegrown squad averaging twenty-six, and the dichotomy is clear. Khan’s bid evoked in some fans angry images of selling off the family silver, or indeed the Crown Jewels. Wembley’s sale would further bifurcate supporters already questioning their role in a modern game characterised by clubs and players more concerned with their brand than their play. Wimbledon’s move to Milton Keynes sticks firmly in the mind. It’s a fear quite possibly well founded; the Fulham owner’s other franchise, NFL side Jacksonville Jaguars, have been looking to expand their presence in the capital since they began playing an international fixture five years ago. Though representatives deny that the Jaguars are seeking a permanent move to London, it’s certainly been on the cards for a while according to NFL executive Mark Waller. On the other hand, Khan’s calls for ‘logic’ to prevail over ‘initial emotion’ are not unfounded. His purchase would
have released funds that could be spent on reviving the nation’s grassroots facilities, of which many are marred by budget cuts. It is thought that the FA board were ready to rubber stamp the deal, despite significant opposition from swathes of the Association’s 127-strong council. This opposition was stated by Khan as a decisive factor in his withdrawal. But perhaps he misses the point. After all, is football not about emotion? The drama on the pitch and the action in the stands. England’s recent fixture with Croatia, played behind closed doors was surreal, all
Sport 47
05.11.2018 epigram
Women show spirit in volleyball defeat Time is needed for the Bristol women to gel after a well-oiled Essex side came away with a 3-1 victory Henry Edwards Sport Editor
Epigram/ Henry Edwards
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he Bristol women’s volleyball 1s should take notable positives and heart from their recent home loss to Essex. Coming up against a more experienced side, the Bristol women put in a valiant effort, winning the third game in dramatic circumstances. Coming off a fantastic 3-2 away win at Oxford on 17th October, Bristol were bamboozled in the first two games as Essex raced to an early lead. Lacking in confidence and clearly rattled, the women found themselves 20-1 down at one stage in the second game. However, in a prelude to their dramatic performance in the next game, Bristol won three points in quick succession to gain some momentum and raise some spirits. The score was 2-0 in games to Essex – the match looked all but lost. How wrong I was. Despite being outplayed in the previous games, the girls remained in high spirits. In a third game that Essex presumed would be a formality, Bristol continually kept pace with the opposition. Clearly Bristol’s tails were up; better blocks,
more communication and more dynamic movement at the net saw them keep the score close. Nevertheless, at 17-12 down it looked like Essex would still prevail. Amazingly, Bristol clawed their way back to 17-17, forcing the Essex coach to call a time-out. The brief interlude did nothing to curb Bristol’s momentum, however, as they refused to give up their lead until the end of the game. Essex were beaten 25-22 in the third game, making it 2 games to 1. Unfortunately, for all the courage and character shown by Bristol in that particular phase, Essex turned it on for the final game. But in a contest which looked like they would have it all their own way, Essex were visibly rattled by Bristol’s incredible performance in the third game, with the away coach clearly frustrated by his side’s inability to see out the match earlier. After the match, I spoke to Bristol players Sylvia Betrosian and Natalia Stefanov. They informed me that the difference between the sides could be explained in terms of how well the individual players knew their teammates. As they said, the Essex side trains far more regularly than Bristol, and this in turn allows for a more cohesive chemistry to be developed throughout the team. Speaking about their performance in the third game, both athletes said: ‘this is us.’ That is the game when momentum was on their side and the squad showed promising signs of increasing internal familiarity. Indeed, in the view of the defeated players, the main avenue to success in such a sport is
“There was no bad blood, no berating of officials and no criticism: just pure competition”
collective belief: ‘what matters is who wants it more, not as individuals, but as a team.’ What was remarkably evident from watching the Bristol 1s play in the Indoor Sports Hall is that the atmosphere is incredibly friendly, supportive and sociable. After each point, both sets of players gather together as a team to either congratulate or consolidate; the emphasis on team morale is both vital and refreshing to witness. On the sidelines, the substitutes cheer their respective teams on with chants and even dance routines – even the coaches themselves periodically joined in. There was no bad blood, no
berating of officials and no criticism: just pure competition. With the running track around the outside of the hall, it is very easy to watch and support the side. I was very glad and grateful to spend a Wednesday teatime watching a high standard of volleyball, and I would be lying if I said I knew much about the sport. Their next home matches are against Bournemouth on 14th November at 13:00, and then against Oxford on 21st November at 17:30. As this Bristol side continues to gel, more victories will undoubtedly be forthcoming in the next weeks.
Bristol football teams click into gear After some mixed results at the start of the season, things are looking up for three victorious UBAFC sides Daniel Dyson Second Year. Politics & French
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to the new season after taking maximum points from their first two games, winning 3-0 at home against Exeter 3s and beating Plymouth 1s 1-0 on the road, and were looking to take their league form into the Western Conference Cup. They succeeded in doing so as they ran out 5-3 winners at home to Gloucestershire 1s, a tough match against a side in the league above them. After a difficult first fifteen minutes, Bristol were able to come from behind to lead 3-1 at half time, with goals coming from Tom Ryan, David Kola and Joe Williams, before starting the second half poorly and allowing Gloucestershire to level the game at 3-3. The 3s played good football throughout the second half and Akim Tiyamiyu grabbed
“The 1s were helped by clinical finishing...and their overall level of performance was the highest it has been this season”
the fourth goal with five minutes to go before William Vooght ran the ball into an open goal from his own half, following a Gloucestershire corner. The goal rounded off what 3s manager, Aaron Farr, called ‘a fantastic result for a very impressive 3s team.’ Farr awarded man of the match to rightback, Connor Smith due to ‘a great defensive and offensive performance’ and will be desperate for his side to continue the season in the same fashion. On the back of these superb results, all three sides will be excited to get back onto the pitch in their next games as the 1s and 2s both play at home, against Cardiff Met 2s and Exeter 2s respectively, whilst the 3s take a trip to Bath 4s.
Epigram/ Daniel Dyson
he University of Bristol men’s football teams enjoyed a successful third round of fixtures as the 1s, 2s and 3s all emerged victorious on Wednesday 24th October. Despite entering the new campaign on the back of a positive 2017/18 season and looking like favourites to gain promotion, Bristol 1s have been disappointed by their lacklustre opening two fixtures. On the opening day of the season, they fell to a harsh 3-2 defeat at home at the hands of Bournemouth 1s and the following week, they claimed a 2-2 draw away at Cardiff 1s. They hoped to make amends in their third fixture and did so in emphatic style, running away as 5-2 winners whilst dominating Bath 2s, who were unbeaten after their first two games of the season. A lightning-quick start saw Bristol head into half-time 4-0 ahead, with Will Gale and Matt Hinks each netting once and tricky winger, Jasper Harlington, who shared man of the match with Gale, grabbing two goals. The 1s were helped by clinical finishing, which was missing in their previous two games, and their overall level of performance was the highest it has been this season. Although the second-half saw Bath score two consolation goals, Bristol, who moved
up into second place in the table after the game, never looked in danger of letting their lead slip and even managed to grab a fifth when Harlington completed his hat-trick. After the match, delighted centralmidfielder Ed Mahoney revealed that, ‘should we perform to the level we played at against Bath, we are hopeful that we will be rewarded with positive results and make a strong challenge for the league title.’ Meanwhile, the 2s had also endured a difficult start to the season, having lost 2-0 at home to the University of St Mark & St John 1s before drawing 1-1 away to Bath 3s. In search of redemption, they travelled across the border to play the University of South Wales 4s and produced an outstanding performance to win 5-0 in the first round of the Western Conference Cup. Goals from Roberto Atkinson and Toby Femiola, a double from Connor Selwood and a glorious 25-yard curler into the top corner from Samuele Pagano’s famous left foot ensured the 2s’ passage into the next round of the competition. The 2s were dominant throughout and controlled the games’ tempo with excellent passing, particularly from man of the match Alex Hunt, meaning that South Wales could hardly touch the ball. According to captain Jonny Willis, the 50 score line, though impressive, could have been even higher but the finishing ‘just wasn’t clinical enough.’ The skipper also added that, ‘having made a slow start to the league campaign, the cup really is the best platform for us to win silverware so, to be progressing to the next round is an achievement we’re all delighted with.’ The 3s have been ecstatic with the start
Sport
epigram 05.11.2018
Editor: Henry Edwards Deputy Editor: Charlotte Greenwood Online Editor: Freddie Keighley Deputy Online Editor: Barney Stone
Futsal 1s victorious against Bournemouth Bristol 1s outclass Bournemouth 2s in an 11-5 victory to kick off Western 1A season
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ollowing a dramatic 5-5 draw for the 2s versus Cardiff Met 1s in which Bristol equalised with a last-gasp penalty, the 1s took on a Bournemouth side who also finished midtable in the 17/18 season. The first chance of the game saw captain Sonny Stewart rattle the woodwork after bringing the ball down, turning and letting loose following a precise throw from goalkeeper Guillermo Tijbosch. Despite great flair from Matt Crane and Olmo Gordon, it was the visitors that took an early lead courtesy of a neat finish at the near post. However, Sam Mills equalised soon after, showing stunning technique to receive Crane’s pinpoint pass and flick the ball over both the onrushing Bournemouth keeper and defender to poke home into the empty net. Bristol began to press to take the lead, and the Bournemouth keeper was fortunate not to be penalised for appearing to handle the ball outside of his area. Shortly afterwards, Coltrane Morley-Williams hit the bar during a period where Kasey Cummings and Gordon were creating many chances; a rabona cross being the highlight. Bristol earned the lead and Mills his second goal with a well-placed free kick that deceived the keeper. The Bournemouth player that had hacked Mills down to concede the set piece also received a yellow
Epigram/ Freddie Keighley
Freddie Keighley Online Sport Editor
card for his troubles. However, Bristol were unable to build on this lead, with Bournemouth the more alert of the teams during a corner and equalising from the set piece. Stewart saw his header fly narrowly wide after receiving another throw from the keeper well, but was also penalised for a push on a Bournemouth man in the process. At the half-time whistle, the score remained 2-2. Bristol were the more physical of the sides and seemed to be more fired up for the game generally, but were yet to convert this desire into a lead. It was the second period of twenty minutes that saw far more goals and Bristol assert their finessed style of play on the game. Straight from the whistle, the home side increased their press and began to test the keeper more. Bristol regained the lead courtesy of a poacher’s finish from Gordon following good work from Mills and a scramble with the keeper. The lead was almost doubled soon after, but Nathaniel Harrison’s powerful long-range effort was parried well. The home side continued to defend well, with Stewart blocking a powerful effort from a free kick after Tijbosch fouled a Bournemouth attacker just outside the area. The fourth Bristol goal was similarly scrappy to the third, seeing Cummings’ long ball evading its target, Stewart, but ending up trickling in the right side of the post. Indeed, it was the sending off of the Bournemouth keeper for handling Mills’ shot - destined for the back of the net - outside of his area that opened the floodgates and allowed for Bristol to turn on the panache. Mills squared to Stewart from the set piece, but the skipper fired his effort narrowly over the bar. The lead was increased to 5-2 with Crane
“It was the sending off of the Bournemouth keeper...that opened the floodgates”
‘This Girl Can’ week in November ‘This Girl Can’ week touches down at Bristol University from 19-25 November Henry Edwards Sport Editor
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emale students will have the opportunity to sign up for a range of activities and classes for the upcoming ‘This Girl Can’ week. From the 1925 November, the University and the Bristol SU will be offering a variety of events. On the University’s website, it reassures students that whatever your ability level, ‘This Girl Can’ week offers a multitude of opportunities to get active and be sociable: ‘whether you’re super sporty or more of a social swimmer, we’ve got activities for everyone.’ But what is ‘This Girl Can’? A wellestablished and respected campaign, the mission is ‘to get women and girls moving, regardless of shape, size and ability’, according to the ‘Sport England’ website. Their research has found that fewer women engage in sport than males; Sport England CEO Jennie Price stated that ‘75 percent of
women would like to do more’ exercise. Perhaps part of the reason for this societal trend lies in issues with feeling judged. Problems such as fear, intimidation and selfdoubt are major obstacles for many women considering participation. Third year Bristol student Mary Appleton alluded to these very concerns when she told me of her reasons behind registering an interest. Speaking of the gym space in particular, Mary noted that it ‘is a very maledominated space and I feel intimidated going to work out there.’ Highlighting the importance of campaigns like ‘This Girl Can’, Mary celebrated their capacity allow women to ‘feel welcome in the gym and in sports teams. It’s an opportunity to learn new things without fear of being judged.’ Although the full details of the week have yet to be released at the time of the writing, it is believed that events will include: fitness classes like yoga and dancercise; female sessions in the swimming pool; a take-over of the weights room; and a mass Zumba session. With so much on offer, be sure to not let this week pass you by. To find out more about the upcoming week, be sure to visit the University of Bristol website, or ask plenty of questions in the University’s leisure centre.
and Mills linking up well, and the latter finishing at the near post. Following the next kick off, Gordon was booked for a foul on the touchline, but bounced back with a fantastic goal, rolling the ball past a defender and rifling the ball over the keeper to hit Bristol’s sixth. MorleyWilliams stung the palms of the replacement keeper shortly after. A now end-to-end game saw Bournemouth hit the post before Bristol added a seventh goal after Gordon finished following the keeper parried Stewart’s shot into his path. Gordon, who received Mills’ diagonal ball and finished well, added an eighth goal. However, Bournemouth pulled one back courtesy of a penalty after Bristol committed a sixth foul - each offence after the fifth foul granting the opposition a penalty. Unfazed, Stewart brought the ball down well again and showed great strength to hold up the play before finding Mills, who added yet another to his tally by beating a man and finishing to the bottom corner. Stewart continued his quest to get on the score sheet, hitting the woodwork after opening his body to strike the ball on the
UoB results 24/10/2018 Badminton: Exeter 1s 3-5 Women’s 1s Basketball: Cardiff 1s 80-68 Men’s 1s Football: Bath 2s 2-5 Men’s 1s Hockey: Women’s 1s 1-5 Bath 1s Men’s 1s 4-4 Bath 1s Lacrosse: Oxford 1s 8-9 Men’s 1s
half-volley. Harrison released another pile driver from the halfway line which was directed into the back of the net by Cummings, to ensure it was going the right side of the post and bring up double digits for Bristol; 10-4. Bournemouth added their fourth goal with Tijbosch beaten at the near post by a skillful snap shot. Stewart, ever the showman and routinely entertaining the spectators in Bristol Grammar School Sports Hall, added the cherry on top of the performance with an incredible driven shot after calling for the knock down. Tijbosch made a fantastic save in the build up after a seventh foul was conceded. The final action of the game saw Bournemouth take a fifth goal well, with a visiting player finishing to the far post on the turn. Overall, Bristol thoroughly deserved the three points, and will carry a great deal of confidence into their next fixture, an away match versus Winchester 1s on Sunday 28 October.
Netball: Bath 2s 51-47 Bristol 1s Rugby Union: Oxford 1s 19-51 Women’s 1s Exeter 2s 42-31 Men’s 1s Table Tennis: Women’s 1s 5-0 Southampton 1s Men’s 1s 10-7 Imperial 1s Tennis: Oxford 1s 8-4 Women’s 1s Cardiff 2s 2-10 Men’s 1s Volleyball: Men’s 1s 0-3 Essex 1s Women’s 1s 1-3 Essex 1s
Sports Volunteering Opportunity
“Whether you’re super sporty or more of a social swimmer, we’ve got activities for everyone”
Empower Active is Bristol Hubs’ exciting new Sports Mentoring Programme for year 9 students. As a volunteer Sports Mentor, you’ll get to take part in and run fun sports-based activities for teenagers in a local school, becoming a mentor to these students in order to build their confidence, self-esteem and future aspirations. You don’t have to be really sporty, you just need a desire to get involved, be active and bundles and bundles of enthusiasm. Check out Bristol Hubs website for more details: www.bristolhub.org/activities/ empoweractive Or email: tom.parry@bristolhub.org