Festive events in Bristol page 32
Should Britain legalize marijuana?
Albums of the Year page 25
page 11 Issue 252
Issue 256
Monday 3rd December 2012 www.epigram.org.uk Bristol University’s Independent Student Newspaper
Floody hell: Rain and wind disrupts Bristol
The Queen visits Bristol as part of Jubilee celebrations Alex Bradbrook
The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh visited Bristol for the first time in seven years on the 22nd November and spent a whole day touring the South West. The visit was one of the final public engagements as part of the royal Diamond Jubilee celebrations. The couple travelled in the royal train and arrived in Bristol Temple Meads where they were driven to Ashton Vale for a visit to the Bailey caravan factory. While at the caravan manufacturers the Queen and Prince Philip were driven very briefly in one of the motorhomes produced by the company. One worker, Craig Dudbridge, spoke to the monarch and said, ‘She seemed very interested and asked us all lots of questions’. continued on page 3
Pulling the ‘green wool’ over our eyes: the truth behind ‘environmentally friendly’ companies
page 14
Alex Bradbrook Senior News Reporter Bristol is recovering after several days of severe weather struck the southwest of the country. At the peak of the adverse weather, gale force winds of over 60mph were recorded in the city centre and over a month’s worth of rain fell in just two days, causing chaos in many areas. At times, some parts of Whiteladies Road were completely submerged by fast-moving torrents of water flowing across the road and pavements, inconveniencing lots of students commuting between Stoke Bishop and Redland and the main university precinct, as well as slowing traffic. Somerset was one of the worst-affected counties nationwide, with many villages in the Mendips reporting floods several feet deep, and local farmers claiming that the weather was ‘the worst [they had] seen in 40 years’.
Marek Allen
Strong winds knocked over a tree on a student’s driveway on Elmdale Rd Extensive flooding on the Downs led to many sports fixtures and training sessions scheduled throughout the week being cancelled. The downpours also caused havoc for students attempting to get home for the weekend, with rail services experiencing heavy delays due to railway tracks being flooded, and other disruption caused by the deluges. Services between Bristol, Swindon and Exeter were particularly badly affected, leading to cancellations, lengthy delays and inconvenience for passengers. Sub-par student houses also suffered during the bad weather, with one student reporting that water was seeping through the walls in her bedroom, whilst many others documented leakages and various other problems with their accommodation due to the wind and rain. On Elmdale Road, a tree was uprooted in the driveway of one student property: third-year geography student and resident James CrosbyGayler remarked, ‘It was strange to wake up
to see the tree’s branches pressed right up against my window, when they’re normally on the other side of the driveway’. Even though the Environment Agency had issued 58 flood warnings for the south-west, none were issued for Bristol itself due to the way in which the Floating Harbour protects the city against flooding. Liz Stephens, an academic from Bristol’s Geography Department who specialises in modelling flooding, told Epigram ‘During the last 8 days we have seen rainfall totals that have exceeded what we might normally expect over the course of the whole month. This rainfall is falling on already saturated ground following a very wet few months, therefore generating large amounts of surface run-off that has caused the flooding that we have seen.’ Long-range weather forecasters predict that early December will be dryer than the past few weeks, allowing the city - and its residents - to get back to normal.
Satsuma thrown at NUS President during rally in London A contingent of 36 students and officials from University of Bristol Union (UBU) joined other universities across the country at the NUS Demonstration in London, which ended abruptly when hecklers stormed the stage at the final rally in Kennington Park and threw eggs and a satsuma at NUS President Liam Burns. According to NUS estimates about 10000 students all across England came to protest government cuts in university funding on the 21st November. Shouting chants such as ‘No ifs! No buts! No Education cuts!’ - protesters battled through bitter rain and blasting winds for two miles, along a route which took them past the Houses of Parliament and onto a final rally in Kennington Park, South London. The rallying, however, was brought to an continued on page 3