2009/10 Week 18

ELECTIONS

VIEW R E T IN

MUSIC

Guild Elections

Alan Pownall

Centre pull-out

Page 17

582 Powerless Students

ARTS

Dita Von Teese Page 26

Monday February 22 2010 Week 18

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Large-scale power cut across Birks Grange, Moberly House and Duryard sees hundreds of first-year students evacuated in safety fears

Rachel Bayne Reporter

HUNDREDS of students living in Birks and Moberly were evacuated following a serious power cut caused by nearby building works.

The 582 first-year students were told that they had to evacuate the area that afternoon when power was cut between 11:30am and 10pm on Tuesday February 16.

Builders had damaged the main power cable which provides electricity to Birks, and so without functioning fire alarms or lights the buildings were deemed unsafe by University officials.

The power cut affected the entire Birks and Moberly site, including the hospitality facilities and surrounding buildings. The cut also affected Duryard.

The hundreds of affected residents were moved to Holland Hall for the evening meal, effectively doubling the number of students eating there.

One Holland Hall resident commented that it was, “a difficult situation for everyone involved.”

Birks and Moberly residents received compensation for their loss of rooms. The Guild arranged £10 vouchers for the Ram or the Lemmy.

Members of the Students’ Guild stayed on campus after hours to ensure the welfare of the affected students.

Matt Richards, Guild Welfare and Equal Opportunities Officer, said that “The Ram/Lemmy voucher system seemed to work well, although this was of course making the best of a worse situation. The Guild will be following this issue up with the University.”

The students were able to return to their halls of residence when a generator was turned on at 10pm that evening. However, power was not fully restored until the following morning.

Harry Wingfield, Birks Hall President, said, “The situation is

Features interview journalist Patrick Cockburn about his travels in the Middle East and discuss the use of CCTV

Lifestyle meet a selection of Exeter's student 582 Birks and Moberly residents were evacuated after a power cut caused by nearby construction. Photo by Adam Walmesley.

regrettable. Campus Service staff have been very quick to try to provide a short term solution. However, I hope that the University is being truthful when they wish to further address the issue of negligence from Cowlin’s Constructions.”

Geoff Pringle, Director of Campus Services, said that the University would deal with the issue. “We have apologised to the students for the inconvenience caused and will be taking up this issue with the contractors at the highest level. We would also like to thank students for their patience.”

At the time of this going to print, no representative of the building contractor Cowlin’s was available for comment.

Nick Vines, a resident of Birks, commented that it was a “ridiculous” event as “not only do we have to put up with the building work, but we

have to deal with their mistakes.”

Damian Jeffries, Moberly President, praised the efforts of University staff to ensure the welfare of affected students.

“Living in Birks is difficult in the current conditions” Richard Stearn, Guild President

He said that, “The efforts made by staff were highly commendable.

The question does remain however as to why we should be in such a situation in the first place. It only strengthens our argument that our fees should be reduced to last year’s levels due to degradation in quality of life. The statement originally given

to students on arrival that only ‘some disruption’ would be caused is clearly an understatement, and should be addressed.”

Students ask now for an apology from the builders and some argue that “further compensation is necessary.”

Richard Stearn, Guild President, conceded that, “Living at Birks is difficult in the current conditions. The University is working hard to mitigate the effects of the building work but this episode will be seen by many as another page in a catalogue of disruptions.”

The construction work in the Birks Grange area is part of a development to create 844 new rooms accross ten new residency blocks. The scheme is funded by private student residency firm University Partnerships Program (UPP). Construction was started in June 2009 and is not expected to finish until September 2011.

entrepreneurs and research the potentially dangerous trend of legal highs

SCreen reflect on the difficulty of representing sport in films and attempt to persuade you to give recent release Valentine's Day a miss

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february 22 2010 Exeposé

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Exeposé Devon Police fight terror in Exeter

Making the headlines for 20 years Issue 562 Week 18 2010 Editors Gemma Dye Rebecca Lewis James McMeekin editors@exepose.com News Editors Alex Moss Adam Walmesley news@exepose.com Features Editors Munya Hoto Dini Muana features@exepose.com Lifestyle Editors Thomas Downes Francesca Houslander lifestyle@exepose.com Music Editors Lalita Korzybska Joel Moktar music@exepose.com Books Editors Tristan Barclay Kate Rothera books@exepose.com Screen Editor Daniel Parker Hannah Smith screen@exepose.com Arts and Stage Editors Nicola Ranson Emma Waterson arts@exepose.com Videogames Editors Alex Bennett Dominic Small games@exepose.com Sports Editors Alex Sharp Vicky Wise sport@exepose.com Photography Editors Melinda Greenacre Lyn Haskell photography@exepose.com Advertising Joanna Bowery j.c.bowery@ex.ac.uk (01392) 263579 Martin Homer 08451300667 mh@bamuk.com Exeposé, Cornwall House, St German’s Road, Exeter, EX4 6TG (01392) 263513 The opinions expressed in Exeposé are not necessarily those of the Exeposé Editors nor the University of Exeter Students’ Guild. While every care is taken to ensure that the information in this publication is correct and accurate, the Publisher can accept no liability for any consequential loss or damage, however caused, arising as a result of using the information printed. The Publisher cannot accept liability for any loss or damage to artwork or material submitted. The contents of this, unless stated otherwise, are copyright of the Publisher. Reproduction in any form requires the prior consent of the Publisher.

Andrew Waller Senior Reporter

ANTI-TERROR police recently visited the University to discuss future security plans, according to a BBC Spotlight programme aired Wednesday Febraury 19.

According to the news report, police have assured the community there was no imminent threat to security at the University. The talks were to set up links between the University and Special Branch to try and prevent radicalisation on campus.

However, Stuart Franklin, University Director of Communications, commented, “BBC Spotlight said they had received some kind of tip-off from Special Branch, but I haven’t been able to find anyone to confirm it.”

The coordinated initiative, which also included the University of Plymouth, is part of government’s ongoing Prevent programme, a £140m scheme designed to combat the radicalisation of British students.

Both the University and Devon and Cornwall Police have said they work with a number of agencies and

Devon County Police are campaigning to fight terrorism in the area, including at the University. Photo by Alex Moss. partners to try to combat extremism and promote safety.

Exeter is no stranger to the risks of extremism. In May 2008 Nicky Reilly, an 18 year old Islamic convert with severe learning difficulties and Asperger’s syndrome, attempted to blow up the Giraffe restaurant in the town centre.

However, security experts have

suggested this is not about specific threats to Exeter University but about the University’s contribution to international security.

British universities have come under increasing pressure to make visible contributions to national security following the failed plot to blow up Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas day last

year. The plot was uncovered and subsequently foiled by security forces.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the failed bomber, was educated at University College London. British security initiatives are now being tailored to combat the threat that radicalisation on British campuses poses to international security.

Spate of thefts on and off campus Charlie Marchant Reporter BURGLARIES in student accommodation have spiked in Exeter during the past few weeks.

Thefts have taken place both on and off the University campus.

The incidents have targeted Moberly House, Mardon Hall, Northernhay House and Kilmorie Hall, as well as popular student areas such as Mount Pleasant Road, Pinhoe Road and Monks Road.

Three people have been arrested in connection with these burglaries but it is likely that there will be ongoing investigations. Though it is suspected that there is often one person committing multiple thefts, the thefts have not since ceased in spite of the arrests made.

Stolen items tend to be laptops, iPods, mobile phones and cash, having amounted to thousands of pounds so far. Often burglars will take the whole purse or wallet but tend to discard bankcards and ID; there is not a problem with identity theft but thefts of large amounts of cash. The police advise students to keep the cash that they carry to a minimum. It is thought that the stolen items are sold on or used to

barter for drugs by the burglars.

Allan Edgcumbe, Head of University Security, said, “None of the burglaries have been due to a forced entry, unfortunately, we make it easy for them by forgetting to lock our doors and windows and chocking open doors.”

It is not only ground floor accommodation that has been burgled, so even those on higher floors should be wary of leaving their doors unlocked.

In one University hall of residence, a resident tutor was sent round to all the students to make sure that they were locking their doors when they were not in the room. It was remarked that it was not in the spirit of the hall to close doors but in such circumstances it has become a matter of importance.

University statistics show that 83% of students state that they feel safe in their halls of residence.

The University have taken the matter seriously, e-mailing all students as a warning and posting a security announcement on the University website. University security has been working with the police burglary squad to deal with the incidents. Property marking services are also available to students

and the police urge students to take advantage of these.

Matt Richards, Guild Welfare and Equal Opportunities Officer, said, “I’d encourage everyone to keep an eye out for suspicious people or people they have not seen before, and take basic steps to make sure their belongings are secure.”

Students are advised not to

be scared of suspicious persons, as burglars are not looking for confrontation. PC David Dalziel, Neighbourhood Beat Manager, said, “A burglar doesn’t want to approach another human being.”

Dalziel advised to “immediately call ‘999’ or even Estate Patrol, if they see someone suspicious, as this is a matter of urgency.”

Moberly House was one of the residences targeted by thieves. Photo by Adam Walmesley

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News

University rejects calls to move Graduations

Lillie Revington Reporter

FINALISTS face disappointment after the University upheld its decision to hold upcoming Graduation ceremonies on campus.

Several students campaigned to move the 2010 and 2011 ceremonies to Exeter Cathedral, following the decision to hold the Graduation ceremonies in the Exeter Northcott Theatre. Graduations cannot take place at the Great Hall, as usual, due to the campus building work.

Concern was expressed at the decision on Facebook groups campaigning to move graduations to Exeter Cathedral.

Over 2,000 students joined a group called “Graduation 2010: Cathedral or Campus.”

The seven fourth year students who created the group voiced frustration at the decision in a letter to the Vice Chancellor. The letter stated, “We are concerned that our lasting impression of the University will be tainted by the building work.

“The Cathedral seems to us to be the most logical alternative due to its suitable capacity, picturesque location and sense of occasion.”

The University responded to student concerns in an official all-student email from Michele Shoebridge, Director of Academic Services and Professor Janice Kay,

Deputy Vice Chancellor. It stated, “Exeter Northcott was the best option on practical, logistical and operational grounds.”

The University explained, “the Cathedral is not able to guarantee us access prior to the ceremonies in order to do the preparation required.”

It added that using the Cathedral could incur other problems with parking, travelling and catering.

Steve Vinall, Academic Services Communications and Marketing Manager, said, “An on campus

location ensures that all our support services are close by, in case there are any unavoidable hiccups on the day.

Being a purpose built auditorium, and having recently undergone a £1m refurbishment, the Exeter Northcott is the idea venue for an event of this type.”

The University has secured Reed Hall as a location for post-ceremony hospitality and photographs, following student feedback over the past fortnight. Vinall commented, “The use of the Reed Hall gardens

and buildings was considered following student feedback. We’ve now booked Reed Hall so that students and their families can use this beautiful space to celebrate this important day.”

The University has guaranteed that “no heavy machinery or noisy activities will be taking place during the ceremonies,” but says that some pre-authorised work could take place.

John Holmes of the Northcott Theatre said, “[The Northcott]

Last year’s graduation ceremonies were held in the University’s Great Hall. Photo by University of Exeter.

will create a cracking atmosphere.

Despite its size, it feels very intimate, and the sight lines are superb.”

The creators of Graduation 2010 Facebook group alleged that the University had not contacted the Cathedral to enquire about hosting the ceremonies. However, Vinall was able to provide Exeposé with documentary evidence revealing that communications were made in March and then April 2009.

The Graduation 2010 Facebook group creators claimed, “We won’t be able to graduate with the friends we’ve made over the last four years, we might not even get to graduate with our own course mates. We feel like we are being short-changed.”

Sophie House, a third year student, commented on Facebook, “Considering the tuition fees myself and everyone else has had to pay for the last three years, the very least the University could do is hold the graduation somewhere as beautiful as Exeter Cathedral.”

2011 graduations are also due to graduate on campus, with the Great Hall being re-opened by April 2011.

Tzuki Stewart, a second year student, set up another Facebook group called “Official Campaign for Graduation 2011 to be held in the Cathedral,” which has over 1,400 members.

Summer 2010 Graduations shall take place in the Exeter Northcott Theatre from July 12-17.

Low energy rating for campus buildings

Alex Moss News Editor

A NUMBER of lecture and administrative buildings on campus fall within the lowest possible band of the system used to measure energy efficiency. The University’s utility budget is currently valued at over £4 million a year.

New Government regulations established in 2008 require institutions like the University to publically display the energy efficiency ratings of all buildings with a floor space of over 1000 metres squared. These certificates, which can be found in the foyer of a number of buildings on campus, show many to fall in the lowest band, a rating of G. In spite of the low rating Godfrey Whitehouse, University Energy Manager, said that the University’s Senior Management is “110% committed” to reducing consumption. However, last year the University’s total carbon emissions

totalled 19,000 tons.

Band G, according to the standards set by Government, is attributed to buildings with a rating of over 200, where the expected figure is a rating of 90-100. Commonly used lecture and office structures, including Amory, the Queen’s

Building, and student nightclub the Lemmy all fall within Band G. Whitehouse explained that these ratings are automatically placed in the lowest band if the building does not have an individual gas meter.

However, other facilities on campus, such as the Library, still fall within

Band C, having an ‘expected’ rating.

This is largely because the Main Library provides a 24-hour service, and as such requires continuous lighting and temperature control.

Whitehouse said, “The University has to provide what students expect in the most energy efficient way.”

The Amory Building is one of many accross the Streatham Campus falling in the lowest possible band. Photo by Alex Moss.

Government targets call for institutions like the University to reduce their emissions by 2050.

While plans had been made to reduce the University’s emissions by 60% over the same period, a further 20% reduction in energy consumption must be accounted for. This has raised concerns over how the University will function using 80% less energy than it currently does.

Money is currently being invested to improve the efficiency rating of a number of buildings and in developing the new Business School and Forum Project, Whitehouse said that some of the responsibility lies with individuals.

The Higher Education Funding Council is expected to announce that energy efficiency will become a factor in their attribution of money to universities across the UK. This has implications for the central funding of institutions, where those which have taken greater steps towards efficiency sustainability will receive a greater sum.

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february 22 2010

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£2m invested into Kay House music facilities Hannah Brewer Reporter

AN investment of £2 million is being made to improve Kay House and Streatham Campus music facilities. This came as a direct response to ongoing student discontent with the facilities presently offered to them.

The University plans to convert Kay House, formerly the Duryard social/catering block, into a dedicated facility for Music and Performing Arts. The building will be extensively refurbished, in order to provide five dedicated spaces for group activity, as well as additional storage and small group practice space.

These spaces both replace the capacity which disappeared from Devonshire House with the refurbishment of the Long Lounge and Re:fresh, and provide a new capacity for those wishing to enjoy recreational music of all types and at all levels.

Marion Wood, Director of Music said, “the variety and flexibility of the spaces available within the

development will revolutionise the music-making opportunities for students at the University.

Kay House will be one of the first projects to come on stream as part of the University’s extensive capital programme, complementing the

facilities which will continue to be available at Knightley.”

However Chris Hardy, President of the University Jazz Orchestra, was unsatisfied with the development. “These are steps which should have been taken

Kay House is set for £2m of University investment to be developed as a facility for music Photo by Adam Walmesley.

Amnesty protest death sentence

Hannah Sweet Reporter

EXETER University Amnesty Society staged a demonstration outside Devonshire House on February 9 as part of their ‘Troy Davis’ campaign. The event was held to raise awareness of the case of Troy Davis, a man on death row in Georgia, USA, convicted of killing a police officer.

Mark Johnston, President of Exeter Amnesty Society, said, “Our campaign had two aims: to gain support for a petition calling on the Georgia authorities to reexamine Troy’s case in the light of changed witness testimony; [and] to send a personal message to Troy emphasising our support for his case.”

Petition signatures were collected by society members wearing sandwich boards bearing the slogan “I am Troy Davis.” This linked to posters put up around campus posing the question, “Are You Troy Davis?”. Over 200 people signed the petition in less than 40 minutes.

Troy was convicted over 18 years ago based solely on witness

long ago. The redevelopment of Kay House is a step in the right direction, but also sums up what the University thinks about music here - the new practice rooms and performance venue will be wonderful for the societies which

testimony. Seven of the nine witnesses involved in the trial have now changed or withdrawn their testimonies and there are claims of coercion on the part of both the police and Davis’ lawyers.

Johnston said he had a positive response from most of the people he spoke to. “I think this is because the issues in the Troy campaign are, on one level, black and white: changes to witness testimony suggest that Troy is innocent; however, even if he is not, nearly everyone agrees that it is wrong

and nonsensical to sentence a human being to death on such a limited and flawed sample of evidence.”

The stimulus for the campaign was hearing Troy’s own sister speak about how the case has affected her. Society members have sent their own personal letters and photos to Troy expressing their individual support. Johnston said, “Troy is still living under a death sentence and, until he is not, we need to keep raising awareness about his case.”

Amnesty protested the sentence of Troy Davis. Photo by Amnesty Society Exeter

use them, but are right on the outskirts of campus (beyond Birks Grange and Moberly).

“In a way, these developments are too little, too late; music has suffered greatly over the last few years due to the lack of support offered to ExTunes by the University, and the redevelopment being so far away from main campus will in my opinion do little to raise the profile of music at Exeter.”

Nevertheless, Wood contends that, “the existing building at Duryard happens to be structurally ideal in many ways, and we are extremely fortunate that £1.8 million investment by the University will in fact provide facilities that would have cost more than £5m to build from scratch.

There are more than 2000 students involved in Music at Exeter and we look forward to being able to facilitate their rehearsals, projects and creative talents in a new and exciting space.”

Peter Hodges, Guild FATO 2008-09 campaigned to improve music last year.

Guild: 100% election target

Adam Walmesley News Editor

GUILD President, Richard Stearn is aiming for a complete turn-out at this week’s Sabbatical elections.

Voted opened on Friday for the Sabbatical Elections 2010, with 27 candidates fighting out for the five Sabbatical positions, following the recent restructure.

Over 17,000 Exeter students are eligible to vote, as more part-time and PhD students have become eligible.

Stearn told Exeposé, “I’m personally targeting a 100% turnout - every student has a reason to vote. Either they’re choosing the policies right for them, strengthening the Guild’s mandate or just helping us set another national record.”

The five positions for election are Guild President, Vice President Academic Affairs, Vice President Welfare & Community, Participation and Campuses, and AU President.

Seven candidates are running for both AU President & VP Welfare & Community, making those the most contested positions. Six are running for VP Participation & Campuses, and three for VP Academic Affairs. Four candidates are running for President compared to seven last year.

Two candidates have withdrawn fsince nominations closed last week.

Candidates were not allowed to start campaigning until Friday February 19, despite being announced on Monday February 15. Each candidate was given a campaign budget of £40.

Gary McLachlan, Senior Elections Officer, said, “We’re getting some very innovative stunts which should help raise awareness and turn-out. There are records there to be broken!”.

Two Candidates Question Time events remain on Tuesday evening in Amory and on Thursday in the Lemon Grove. Another two CQTs took place on Friday and Sunday nights.

Last year’s elections had a recordbreaking turn-out of 4,776 students, representing over 34% of the student body. In 2007 students voted to re-open nominations when only one candidate originally ran for Guild President.

Students can vote online at www. elections.exeter.ac.uk/guild/.

Voting closes at 5pm on Friday February 26, and the results will be announced in the Elections Results Night from 9pm in Lemon Grove.

Stearn added, “It’s going to be a great week - I always love elections, especially as I’ve won nine, lost none at Exeter!”

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Chinese NY meets Big Challenge

Eleanor Busby Reporter

OVER one thousand Exeter residents and students joined together at the University on Saturday February 13 to celebrate Chinese New Year.

The events were organised

by Marte Billington, the Deputy President of the Student Guild, who won £2000 funding for the event by winning the Big Challenge. The Big Challenge is a competition that awards a portion of £60,000 to applicants to tackle a social issue. The proportion of money won relates the the proportion of public votes secured by each applicant. The 2009/10 theme stressed multiculturalism.

The free event started at 2pm in Exeter city centre, and the celebrations continued on campus at 3.30pm. It began with a dragon and lion dancers’ parade, and then visitors enjoyed a Chinese market, fair and variety show, which were all held in Cornwall House. The celebrations culminated at 6:15pm

with a spectacular display of fireworks on Lafrowda lawn.

Both the Chinese Student Scholars Society and the Hong Kong Society played a large role in the success of the day. They ran a range of stalls, from making oriental food to painting masks, and produced the entertainment with their variety show.

The day had an excellent turnout, and Cornwall House was packed.

A first year student said, “It was a great chance to learn about another culture. I think that we should have a lot more events like this where we can experience other cultures.”

Marte Billington, Deputy President of the Student Guild, was proud to be part of the event and believed it to be a great success. She said, “all participants looked really happy and it was a good atmosphere all throughout the day.”

She described the event as “a great step forward for both students and local residents to unite and celebrate our cultural diversity.”

Celebrations included a dragon and lions parade at Cornwall House, which hundreds attended. Photo by University of Exeter.

Library “far too congested” Admissions up by 6%

Flora Busby & Chris Hardy Senior Reporters

Concerns have been expressed by students over campus congestion in library facilities.

An Exeposé survey found that Library services, such as the Main Library reception floor and PC clusters, are “far too congested” and are not meeting the needs of students.

The survey, completed by 115 students, showed that 62% of students stated that the library PC clusters were “always far too congested.”

One student commented; “The

main lobby area is always busy and extremely noisy. Queues for the computers are also unacceptable.”

Some students reported waiting over half an hour for a computer in the PC cluster in the library. Queues were described as “ridiculous” and “unbearable.”

Another criticism was of the furniture on the main floor being inappropriate for a library.

One person who completed the survey commented, “The relaxed and haphazard layout encourages noise and destroys the intended quiet that a proper library should have.”

A new and extended library is

The University’s IT Facilities have been the subject of scrutiny. Photo by Alex Moss

part of the Forum Project, which is currently underway and is set to be completed by December 2011. In the meantime, some students complain that they will not see the benefits of the completed project and instead have to experience the inconvenience of the building work on campus, “I am aware that the Forum Project will help sort this issue, but it is a shame that I will not benefit from it at all” one student wrote.

Steve Vinall, The University’s Communications and Marketing Manager admits that there is no doubt that the Main Library is struggling to adequately meet the demands from both staff and students.

Vinall added that the Forum Project hopes to “provide an entirely new, student-orientated dimension.”

Within the plans, the library will have extended seating and shelving, 105 PCs and nearly 1,200 seats. It currently provides 60 PCs and 420 seats.

However, in the meantime, the Forum Project is set to diminish the already crowded library space, with the closure of each of the three floors for six months at a time.

Vinall said, “The University has invested £3 million in refurbishing libraries at the Research Commons (Old Library) and at St Luke’s Library.“

Camilla Kenney Reporter

ADMISSIONS staff at the University have had to reject many students who have met or even exceeded the academic criteria. Applications have become more competitive following cuts in the higher education budget.

The number of applications to UK universities has increased by 23% according to figures published by UCAS. For the fourth year running, full-time undergraduate applications have increased.

Exeter University has seen an increase of 6% in home and EU applications, following a 19% increase in 2009.

International applications have increased by 45%. The most significant factor for the Admissions department has been the quality of applications.

43% of the applicants for 2010 are predicted three As or equivalent and above.

Pamela Hoad, University Head of Admissions, said the “increase in applications and quality has meant that we have faced a challenging time in selecting candidates for the vast majority of our programmes,” and as a result highly qualified individuals have not been offered places for 2010. Moreover, this is the

first year that outstanding students are being awarded A*s, however, Exeter University and others have concluded that the A* is not reliable enough.

Liz Murphy of Admissions stated that despite this the University has seen a “significant proportion of A* predictions.”

In order to offer places to the most highly qualified candidates, Admissions waited until the end of the UCAS cycle in January to offer places, rather than giving places out on a first come first served basis.

Following the problems this year at Exeter when too many prospective students were offered places, admissions staff have to monitor the number of offers carefully, so that there is no risk of an overshoot when the A-Level results are published.

Ministers have promised to fine universities up to £4,000 for every student accepted beyond the limit.

Exeter is hoping to accept around 3,450 entrants for 2010.

As many as 46,000 applications are from people who did not take up their offers or failed to get a place in 2009.

This year there are up to 6,000 fewer places nationwide for full-time undergraduate entrants than last year and universities are facing as much as £449 million in budget cuts.

© 2010 Accenture. All rights reserved.

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Forum Project: a price worth paying?

Alex Moss News Editor

THE new crane looming over Streatham Campus provides an everpresent reminder of the extensive development and building work to take place until the end of 2011.

A report compiled by Jo Cole, University Communications Officer, in co-ordination with other University groups has shed light on a number of student concerns over the Project and its implications for life at the University over its two-year construction period.

Disruptions have already been a feature of students’ day-to-day experiences of the University; the report is confident that the communication process has been thorough to ensure the impact of development has been clearly publicised.

It states, “Senior staff meet very regularly and the Guild is involved with these discussions. In the longterm we believe this investment will help maintain Exeter’s position as one of the top universities in the UK and the world.”

With work on the Main Library set to begin later this year, students have voiced concerns with the impact building works will have on their study, especially during the exam period.

A crane brought to the building site on Stocker Road looms over campus. Photo by Alex Moss.

The report produced for Exeposé states, “Bringing the Main Library into the 21st century is a core aim of the project.” Students set to sit exams over May and June have been assured that no major work will take place before the examination period is over. However, it has been confirmed that the entrance

The Main Library area before building work began. Photo by Adam Walmesley.

The same area earlier this term. Photo by Alex Moss.

to the Main Library will be moved to the basement level to allow enabling work to start on the reception floor.

This is projected to start in June, and warnings have been given that power cuts will occur at “non-peak times.”

However, Llywelyn Morris, Guild Education Officer, stated, “The contractors have yet to be appointed so times and dates are up in the air.”

Fears have also been raised that the building work set to begin after the Easter break will reduce the seating capacity available to students for study.

With shortages of seating in peak times outside the exam period, this could have serious implications for finalists and other students sitting exams at the end of this year.

Morris added, “It is probably worth adding that the Old Library, which is less than five minutes away from the Main Library is now a wonderful facility. Also, St. Luke’s Library, which for over a third of students is closer than the Main Library, is again a wonderful facility and is excellent to study in.”

While consultation has taken place between the Forum Library SubGroup, the Students’ Guild, and other groups affected, it remains to be seen what the impact of the building work will be.

Building work will also take place over the graduation period, between July 12 and 17. Concerns have been raised by a number of student groups over the impact this will have on the ceremonies, which are scheduled to take place in the Exeter Northcott Theatre rather than the Great Hall as in previous years.

The £48m Project comes as only part of the £375m redevelopment plan of the University in a bid to maintain Exeter’s elite status in the UK and the World rankings. According to the report, an estimated £9m of the Forum Project’s funding is expected to come from alumni and “supporter” contributions, “keen to share in the future success of their University.”

While the funding of development projects on campus has been secured, the University restructured its external funding package to allow for loans towards the cost. The report assures that, “The University manages its finances very carefully to ensure risks to income streams are modelled and assessed and to ensure that there is sufficient contingency in our financial planning to protect against external shocks.”

However, it does concede that a financial contingency plan is necessary in the event of the Project exceeding the expected cost.

“There is sufficient contingency in our planning to protect against external shocks” During the Stage C and E Planning Meetings, which were open to students last year, concerns were raised over provisions for students with disabilities during the construction period and within the completed Forum itself.

Parking facilities for students and staff

with disabilities formed a central issue of contention.

Matt Richards, Guild Welfare and Equal Opportunities Officer, said that the Guild currently sits on the Forum Mitigation Group. He also commented that, “We have already raised issues such as accessibility over the next few years.”

The University liaised with the Disability Resource Centre to ensure that safeguards would be put in place to ensure students with disabilities would still be able to access the facilities over the course of construction.

It has since been confirmed that parking will be made available in the Great Hall and Northcott House areas.

Additional spaces will be located near the entrance of the Forum upon its completion to ensure disability access is consistent and effective.

Environmental issues and sustainability have also been a major consideration in the planning of the Forum Project, which is expected to operate at 10% better efficiency than regulations require of a building of its size and capacity.

“The investment will help maintain Exeter’s position as one of the top universities” However, in spite of a Community Action-led campaign to replant trees on the Streatham Campus, a large number have been removed in the course of enabling works. The report could not confirm the environmental impact construction would have in terms of materials and emissions.

While the University have stressed the benefits of the Forum Project, saying that it “offers new opportunities to socialise, relax and enjoy arts and cultural events,” the short-term impact of building work is impossible to ignore.

In an interview with Exeposé, published February 8, University Vice Chancellor Steve Smith said, “We made a strategic decision to get the building works done quickly. It’s a nice story to say ‘think of the future.’ But if your entire university experience is of a building site, we’re aware that’s your experience of university.”

He added that considerations of the impact of students was of the utmost concern, and conceded, “I’m not going to say everything will be perfect, please don’t get me wrong. But the team are absolutely aware.”

8

Opinion

Voicing Concerns

Adam Walmesley, News Editor, discusses the importance of graduation and making students’ opinions heard.

GRADUATIONS are kind of a big deal. For each individual, they are a celebration of success, the recognition of the end of an era, and probably the pinnacle of the University experience. Three years of academic toil do merely culminate in a brief hand-shake, a few fashioned words, and a piece of card; but nothing can replace the feeling of reaching the University summit, nor ever take away a degree from Exeter University.

Over the last two weeks, Exeter students have indicated how highly they regard their graduations.

Following the University’s announcement that this year’s Graduations will take place at the Exeter Northcott Theatre, students have vehemently fought for the Cathedral to hold the ceremonies.

Thousands joined Facebook groups against the decision, and the vocal few demanded explanations from the University ivory tower. The choice of campus venue is almost irrelevant to the debate. Equal wrath would have met the announcement of Graduations in the sports hall, a marquee, or the Ram. People just don’t want to graduate on a building site.

Unsurprisingly, the University has rejected the calls to move Graduations to the Cathedral. Forget the cost, forget the timing; holding the ceremonies at the picturesque religious monument would have been a logistical nightmare, a contradiction for a multi-faith university, and a greater shift of tradition.

This year the Exeter Northcott Theatre resembles an attractive alternative to the Great Hall. Let’s be honest, it’s a much better venue than the Sports Hall, a marquee on a field, or the multi-purpose Westpoint Arena. Ceremonies will be smaller, shorter, more comfortable and

intimate than those of previous years.

By next year, the Great Hall should have reopened behind a landscaped piazza and will recommence hosting ceremonies.

Promisingly, the University has pledged to minimise disruption during the Summer Graduations. We doubt these are empty words for an institution that prides itself on student experience and alumni profile. Slight questions could be raised over whether it is feasible for Reed Hall and its gardens to adequately host the post-ceremony hospitality and photographs. Disabled access from the theatre to the prestigious venue would need careful consideration, as would the possibility of adverse weather. But we can probably cast aside fears that graduands and their guests will be dodging diggers and drills.

Moreover, following the uproar, the University has shown a willingness to listen and adequately feed back to its students. Such communication will be vital in upcoming months, as central campus disruption increases.

Last week we saw the imposition of the eyesore giant crane in preparation for building-work proper, in less than a month. As the contractors move in on March 15, the Great Hall will close, and work on and around the Library will begin. Ugly campus will get uglier.

During this time of transition, we must make our voices heard. Voting in this week’s Guild elections, even for RON (re-open nominations), allows your say on the future of Exeter. Making the University aware of specific issues that concern you, as they arise, could equally do the same.

The furore over the last fortnight has shown that we aren’t apathetic and do care about those experiences that mould our memories. Let’s continue in that vein.

Due to space constraints this issue, and the large number of letters we have received, please visit www.xmedia.ex.ac.uk for the remaining letters that we did not have space to print.

Thanks to everyone who has written in and voiced their opinion.

february 22 2010

Exeposé

www.exepose.com

Gemma Dye, Rebecca Lewis and James McMeekin

editors@exepose.com

In response to: Business school students “not allowed to fail”

A History student has the ability to research, take into consideration evidence and analyse the facts appropriately. Well, that is what we assume. Unfortunately, some of these characteristics were not apparent in a 3rd year who, suggested that “anyone in charge of graduate recruitment should do their company a favour and shred all CVs mentioning a 2:1 from the Exeter Business School”.

I do wonder what evidence was collected for that harsh statement.

No surprise, his letter to Expose ended with a statement saying “give me a student from HUSS any day”: well why not flatter oneself whilst belittling other students?

– talk about phallogocentrism.

I will admit, I am biased to the subject, seeing as I study ‘Economics’ and I am therefore

a proud member of the Business School. However, I am not writing this to ‘big up’ the Business School, but to simply provide readers with a second opinion. The History student mentioned that “soft modules” were to be included in Business degrees. The use of the term “soft module” reveals an inability to discuss this issue with rationality. Stick to the facts please, and keep your narrow minded prejudices to yourself. Those who receive a first in their field should not be classed as doing an ‘easy subject’ but should be applauded for their achievement.

I will give credit where credit is due: the History student did have ONE accurate piece of information which was noted in his letter: he stated that the ‘Times Good University Guide ranks

every course offered by the Exeter Business School inside the UKs top six’. League tables, results, and even employers have proven that the degree has substance and worth. I am not saying that it is the hardest degree to achieve, because I do not actually know, and so am sticking to the facts; but I would like to stress the point that a Business School degree has the same amount of merit as any other degree offered at Exeter University. Without doing all the degrees available, no one, not even an “experienced” 3rd year student, has the right to demean another subject.

Dear Exepose,

and yet still have it counted towards their degree as if they passed. Thus doing well in one module can effectively exempt you from passing another - a much greater example of “playing the system”. Surely if Mr Diamond wants to start a crusade against lower academic standards he would be better advised to look closer to home.

If what he states about Principles of Marketing is true then I would agree that this should be looked at, but I would like to assure all HUSS students that this is not the norm for all Business School modules. The concept of a decent presentation being worth somewhere in the early-tomid 70s is one all students will be familiar with and those of us who do business degrees are no exception to that.

I also disagree with the idea that students rush to the Business School because of the perception that modules there are much easier than in any other school.

There are also large numbers who will take modules in the Foreign Language Centre due to the additional skills that learning

a language shows to prospective employers. This is also the reason that many will elect to take a Business School module - not because of the potential for easy marks but because it shows an interest in business, something which employers value.

On the subject of employment, if Mr Diamond was always intending to apply for jobs in the financial services, perhaps it would have shown a greater level of foresight if he had instead chosen to study a business degree.

If this has not always been his profession of choice then it should come as no surprise that companies are more willing to take on a student who have already shown a commitment to their future, their career and to understanding finance - relevant knowledge and experience are always going to be valuable commodities.

Having read Dan Diamond’s letter in your last issue “Business school students not allowed to fail” and as a graduate of the Accounting & Finance programme referred to therein, I feel compelled to respond due to the vast number of inaccuracies.

Firstly, he suggested that a 2:1 from the Business School is effectively worthless and that companies should simply ignore all students who have worked hard to achieve that level of degree. What he fails to recognise is that the Accounting & Finance programme is accredited by all the major UK accounting bodies, which means that they insist on certain things being taught and a specific level of difficulty of exams.

If it’s good enough for the ICAEW then why should it not be good enough for our degree?

Further, because the course is accredited, students must pass all the modules without being able to have any of them condoned. This is clearly not the case in HUSS where a student can fail a module

Steph De Souza 1st year Economics student

Yours, Craig Strachan MSc Accounting & Finance Postgraduate Union President

Correction: The Summer Graduations 2010 will take place in the Exeter Northcott Theatre from July 12 - 17. In the previous Week 16 edition of Exeposé (p4) the dates were incorrectly

Thanks to everyone who helped proof this issue:

listed as July 19-22. We apologise for the error and any confusion it may have caused.

Cyan Turan, Calum Baker, Rachel Bayne, Matthew Allen, Eleanor Busby, David Brake, Alice Scoble-Rees, Melissa Kennedy, James Henderson, Ellie Bothwell, Victoria Walmesley, Alex Cook, Chris Hardy, Anna-Marie Linnell, Andy Waller, Charlie Marchant, Ellie Steafel, Rosie Scudder, Laura Le

Coming Soon... A police blog on Xmedia, the likes of which has not been seen before. Also, information on the exciting Xmedia awards and how to enter.

Brocq, Katherine Hyland, Kate Ross, Josephine Howe, Katie Thompson and members of the Exeposé editorial team.

9

Exeposé week eighteen news@exepose.com

E-mail your views to letters@exepose.com Opinions and perspectives expressed on this page are those of the authors of the letters printed and not necessarily those of Exeposé or the editors. All letters are printed as received, in full, unedited, and uncorrected by Exeposé

In response to: Business School students “not allowed to fail”

Sir,

Whilst walking through the Amory Building I get a feeling of despair. The drab, outdated corridors do nothing to spark my personal historical interest. In fact I gave into the bright lights of SOBE after dropping Flexible Combined Honours of History & Business in my first year.

Therefore I felt compelled to respond to Mr. Diamond’s sweeping statements regarding the School of Business and Economics.

Evidently employers are bypassing graduates who are ill informed of elementary business practices in favour of those who have shown some interest in the economy. Isn’t this common sense?

You claim that we are “gobbling up the marks spoon fed to us by SOBE” yet you fail to realise that every school has its seemingly easier modules. A second year friend studying geography has to make a poster using pipecleaners and glitter, which is worth 40% of a module; arguably a task befitting primary school assessment.

In my opinion, the business

school are more concerned with their image than the actual welfare of their students. However, I am glad that I am leaving with a degree that means an employer will consider me.

I urge Mr. Diamond to pick any non-celebrity captain of industry.

Look at any FTSE 350 CEO and they all have finance related degrees with subsequent MBAs, and/or membership to chartered institutes.

However, although written in a style suited to a politician who senses defeat, I am afraid to say I do agree with some of Mr. Diamond’s points. I found the ‘Principles of Marketing’ lectures to be inane, repetitive and juvenile with its only saving grace being the lecturer; an American who is used to the US generous marking system.

I implore Mr. Diamond to take a module in accounting or finance and re-evaluate his position.

However, I feel that I do not need to dazzle the readers with excellent rhetoric; I’ve got my graduate job secured.

Sam Lush 3rd year Business Student.

In response to Dan Diamond’s letter (8th February) regarding that the Business School marks too generously.

journal without being sent back for corrections - thereby meaning most HUSS academics would not get near 80% in an essay!

I have a couple of observations:

3. Markers should use the full mark scale. If an essay is great, give it a great mark. If an essay is rubbish, give it a rubbish mark. The mark bunching between 55 and 75 is not an accurate reflection of a student’s understanding.

1. Getting 100% in presentations (as is stated by Dan) is ridiculous.

It would suggest that not even Winston Churchill could have done a better presentation - and who is a finer or more persuasive orator than Winston Churchill?

The business school needs to look into this.

2. It is probably unfair to single out the Business School for marking too generously. In my opinion, HUSS conversely marks too harshly. Few ever get over 75, and 80 is unheard of. What is the point of marking out of 100 when it clearly is not possible? I have heard from a politics academic that to get 80% it must be publishable in a

4. Furthermore, exams should be sufficiently challenging enough to reveal genius. It is quite possible to answer every question correct but only get 70% because the questions have not stretched the student to the extent whereby examiners can make an accurate assessment of the student’s understanding.

All the best, Llywelyn ‘Taffy’ Morris Students Guild Education Officer

Dear Exepose,

Deluded. Apparently that is what some of the top employers in the country are.

Well I cannot say for definite if this is the case or not, but the gentleman who wrote an article in the last issue of Exepose claiming “degrees from the Business School are empty pieces of paper”, thus effectively worthless is simply missing the point.

He raises one or two fair points about the distribution of marks that could be worth investigating, but the writing off of modules mentioned as “soft” or just a way to gain easy marks may point towards the reason why this person is struggling with graduate job applications.

Admittedly those that turn up for 3 years to do a business-related degree in order just to get a qualification and discard all the knowledge they have picked up makes them as foolish as our friend from HUSS. Those people that assume university is an institution where you get given some lectures and text books, learn information and throw as much of it as possible on an exam paper or essay completely underestimate the usefulness of a business degree.

Let’s look at oneof the modules mentioned. “Principles of Marketing”

teaches students about the fundamentals that are used by any successful business in marketing their products/services. Understanding the importance of pricing certain items correctly in the relevant situations, knowing the behaviour of all sorts of consumers (especially the target market) and recognising the power and influence of an effective brand are skills that maybe slated for being “soft” by people from other schools who think being ‘clever’ is about answering lots of questions on ‘University Challenge’, but let it be known that companies such as Apple, Microsoft and Virgin would not be anywhere near where they are without them.

There are many people that will go in to these modules just wanting to learn simply to pass an exam, but those smart enough to take this knowledge and understanding forward after university are the real successes of the Exeter Business School. You see business studies is pointless without application, it isn’t about passing an exam by knowing definitions or remembering technical theory, but it is about applying this theory and making it relevant in exams, essays and most importantly the outside world whatever you may do. The Business School aims to take young people and

turn them into powerful analysers and applicators of knowledge and experience, not people who can just separate yes from no, black from white.

“That is just business talk” you might say, well it certainly has significantly enhanced my capabilities along with many of my colleagues who are held in high regard by a large amount of business professionals, including those from the Innovation Centre, Young Enterprise and a vast amount of top companies. You think business studies is a piece of cake and pointless knowledge? I guess as I am going to be biased I cannot conclusively answer that. But I will say is that by disregarding the degree because it is “easier to get good marks” is naive and shows a complete lack of understanding of the value that a business course can offer. If you do that then more fool you.

And if the gentleman from the last issue is implying that Accounting and Finance is a degree for “easy marks” – try and tell that to some of my colleagues in two months time. I wouldn’t put my student loan on you surviving.

Dear Exepose, I am writing in response to Dan Diamond’s letter in which he criticizes the Exeter Business School.

By his own admission, Dan clearly recognizes that a degree from The Business School, is in actual fact not worthless; if Morgan Stanley, HSBC and Credit Suisse (to name but a few) prefer their interns and undergraduates to have a business or finance background, surely this is proof enough that these candidates are obviously more suited for a career in this field. By the very nature of the fact that my internship applications to PriceWaterhouseCoopers, BarclaysCapital and the Government Economic Service, involved me to answer questions with specific economic and accounting knowledge, it is evident that these skills are not only preferred, but necessary.

I am unsure how the ‘glut of insolvencies and bail outs’ of banks observed now, is quite related to their intake of undergraduate students from a finance background.

It strikes me that someone with a

finance degree may be better equipped with the skills and knowledge required to understand this industry, than someone with a history degree, where the current economic and financial situation can’t play a large part in their course content. If finance students can’t help get us out of recession, what good will a history student be? This is not unfair. This is inevitable.

Moreover, I disagree with the claim that all students from other disciplines are discriminated against. Employers will hire undergraduates from any subject area, provided they are good enough, show flair in their application, and interview well.

Having taken a variety of Economic, Accounting, Business and Management modules so far at my time at Exeter University, I can confirm that they hold highly challenging and stimulating content, taught by some of the best lecturers in the country.

Currently ranked the fifth highest Business School in the country, I am very proud to say that I study here.The ‘soft modules’ Dan describes, are, by

virtue, more vocational courses. This does not, however, reflect upon their difficulty. Perhaps the reason that few students ‘dash’ to the HUSS for their spare thirty credits, is because subjects like History, do not facilitate the learning of skills which can be directly transferred to jobs in advertising, marketing, finance and banking.

Combined with the fact that they might have a genuine interest in their chosen subject, and that there is more than enough diversity in the modules offered by The Business School.

I think it is not employers, nor The Times Good University Guide who are deluded, but Dan Diamond, who is obviously feeling the rejection from high flying firms. He should also note, not to take the ‘unfairness of the application process’ to heart right now, since the lack of recruitment may not actually be due to his History degree, but the fact that we are in a recession.

Andrew Glover, 3rd Year Management with Leadership Student

Amelia Doughty Second Year Economics Student

10

february 22 2010

Features Price of a Life Line

Anna-Marie Linnell discusses the rise in teen pregnancy rates and abortion.

Scott Roeder shot a man dead during a crowded Kansas Church service, refused to deny the act and proudly justified it. Such an open crime would usually appear clear-cut. However, the man Roeder killed was the late-term abortionist George Tiller, who had been the focus of American anti-abortion campaigns for many years. Until Roeder’s life-sentence was delivered last month, it was unclear how harshly he would be punished for the murder. Whilst many Americans did not justify his act, they empathised with Roeder’s belief that Tiller needed to be stopped. For once, I am inclined to agree.

Worldwide there are 115,000 abortions every day.

Some terminations are motivated by extreme circumstances, such as rape or because the child would be born heavily handicapped and have a reduced quality of life. However, a

slim proportion of such abortions have such extreme origins: 93% of terminations in America occur because of social reasons - because the baby would be inconvenient or came “at the wrong time.” If unwanted children have been conceived because their parents forgot to use a condom, or couldn’t be bothered to source contraception, in the UK they can be aborted free on the NHS. Teenage pregnancy rates rose for the first time in 2009, and the most common age to have an abortion is 19. The message from the NHS is pretty clear when it comes to sexual protection: use a condom.

Contraception is free, readily available and we are lucky enough to live in a very aware, conscious country. Many myths about getting pregnant, such as the old adage that you can’t get pregnant if on your period, are easily deflated by a quick click on Google. Unwanted

Grant or Chief Executive Peter Storrie, Ali Al-Faraj was hardly been the owner Pompey deserved.

So much so that newest owner Bailram Chainrai called Al-Faraj “reckless.”

However the true pantomime tragedy that awaits top-flight professional football in this country can only be seen when you look at the lamentable state of the most bankable clubs in the league.

Not too long ago it was announced that Malcolm Glazer had led Manchester United into £720 million worth of debt; borrowing to that scale really puts Crystal

“Cash doped clubs survive comfortably all the time they are successful” Portsmouth’s previous owner was somewhat less generous.

Failing to visit the UK once during his tenure, he neglected to make available funds to pay the club’s debts and wages and ordered the sale of players without the knowledge of manager Avram

a taboo subject. England is one of the few countries to have legalised abortion at 24 weeks, and to look at a picture of the 24 week foetus it is understandable why many refuse to conduct such terminations. By this point in the pregnancy, the baby has eyelashes and there is a chance it would survive outside the womb. George Tiller was one of a few American doctors who practised late-term abortions 24 weeks into the pregnancy.

Anti-abortionists believed Tiller committed murder on a daily basis, and Roeder’s attack was not the first upon his life. When he was shot in the head, Tiller’s body was protected by a bulletproof vest; his surgery had been bombed in the past, and previous assassination attempts had been made on his life.

Scott Roeder’s actions were undoubtedly wrong, and he does deserve a life-sentence for his

Last month’s Premier League clash between Manchester City and Portsmouth at Eastlands sits as a terrifying snapshot of the tumultuous financial state of top tier club football in England. The reported combined transfer fees for the 14 City players that took to the pitch on Sunday cleared £150 million; the club have been linked with breaking the bank for players like Steven Gerrard and David Villa, and with effectively bottomless resources and a relatively new manager, the Blues will no doubt be spending big this summer.

pregnancy rates should, in theory, have decreased. Yet with abortion easy to obtain, it can be seen as a quick result for carelessness.

In America, where religious values are generally more militant than the UK, abortion is more of

Palace’s fall into administration with around £32 million in debts into some perspective. A far worse state of affairs exists at Chelsea, the current Premier League leaders. As of the end of the 2007/8 season, the Stamford Bridge club were spending 70% of the annual

Exeposé

www.exepose.com

cold-blooded crime, but Tiller’s actions can also be considered reprehensible.

Although the majority of UK terminations take place around 14 weeks, at this stage the baby’s heart has started beating and it may be growing hair. Personally, I could never have an abortion, but unless there is a direct risk to the mother’s health I don’t believe terminations should be permitted beyond 14 weeks.

On a practical note, when waiting lists for prospective parents hoping to adopt are so long, an unwanted pregnancy does not have to spell a changed lifestyle. The route of adoption should be stressed more readily to those considering abortion: nine months of inconvenience should be worth it, for the chance to save a baby’s life. Somebody out there will love and care for the child they just need the opportunity to do so.

Cost of Success

Jacob Moffatt discusses the economic politics of football.

turnover on wages, approximately £172 million for the year. Not only are these by far the highest figures in the Premiership, though Manchester United and Arsenal also clear one hundred million, the worries deepen for Chelsea when you consider that they do not have the revenue streams that United possess globally, nor do they have a particularly youthful squad.

As Liverpool are displaying this season, football is not a sure thing, while title challenges one year do not guarantee success the next. A year without Champions League football at the Bridge would cause substantial financial hurt at Chelsea, a fact that has not escaped the club and auction for the Stamford Bridge naming rights are looming on the horizon. It is a poor reflection on Roman Abramovich that in seven years he has failed to make the club financially secure.

Chelsea and Manchester United are unlikely to face winding up orders from HM Revenue & Customs any time in the near future,

but their irresponsible practices, along with disproportionately allocated television fees, do have knock on effects for clubs like Portsmouth or Crystal Palace. To have any hope at competing at the top level more than a few clubs have resorted to ‘cash doping’; borrowing excessively for transfer fees and wage budgets that attract a better quality of player. Cash doped clubs survive comfortably all the time they are successful; television money and capacity crowd gates keep the tax man at bay; but no sooner do they start sliding down the table, the money dries up and they can find themselves spiralling, akin to the fate of Leeds United in the early 2000s.

It would be unfair to lay all of the blame at the feet of big clubs. Many hands contributed to bringing the game to the position in which it now finds itself and recriminations would be byand-large useless at this point.

However the situation is relatively dire and unless the game’s biggest

clubs, investors and governing bodies step up and affect a change I can see only one end. That end being a 25 or so team super league of European giants; which whilst it will suit the bankers and no doubt sound attractive to a neutral fan, will sever football from that which makes such a great game.

No other sport possesses a grass roots infrastructure comparable to football – which is the source for the game’s talent. Nor does any sport in the world feature such historical and deeply ingrained support – and it’s from the devotion of generations of fans, bitterly proud of a club that exists on their doorstep, that football gets its passion. Jumpers for goalposts football will always be there, but at this moment professional football lies on the brink between near-perfection, with great infrastructure and money spent on breath-taking training facilities and stadia, and a financial apocalypse that could irreparably damage my Saturday afternoons.

11

Features

Exeposé week eighteen features@exepose.com

All Eyes On Me

Holly Parkhouse discusses the intrusion of CCTV in society.

“I am photographed; I photograph; therefore I am,” to paraphrase René Descartes. We are among the most photographed people in the democratic world. The violent explosion of photographic imagery has changed the consciousness of our existence in many ways. We have become almost like circus performers, constantly conscious of and performing in front of the camera. The masses appear to have developed an insatiable desire to look at photographs of celebrities. And the average Londoner is photographed around 300 times a day.

Yet we further obsess about our identity by photographing ourselves, almost endlessly, in informal, casual situations usually focusing on sexual or pseudo-celebrity poses;

Is this what it is to be free? I wonder. Our part of the world is often called the ‘free world.’ Does freedom include the constant surveillance and photography of individuals as they go about their daily business?

I am never asked whether I want to be photographed by CCTV cameras, but is my passivity a collusion of some sort? This institutionalized culture of surveillance is a form of mass spying which challenges our assumptions of freedom and privacy.

The seductive power of photography and film, alongside our desire to be photographed as an indication of our individuality has allowed us to be dangerously complacent to powerful state authorities and private companies filming us without our permission.

This compulsive obsession with

“We make a ‘deal with the devil’ where we accept our subordinated positions and oppressive surveillance in return for relative material and social safety and security” seduced by the narcissistic, vacuous and egotistical theatrical stage that MySpace, Facebook and the illiterate Twitter sites facilitate. Voyeurism in popular culture has become an obsessive and addictive pastime, as we adhere to the perception that there is self-expression in projecting intimate experiences to millions of strangers on YouTube etc.

being watched and watching others has increased dramatically in recent times, as shown by the increase in reality television programs, such as Big Brother. We are constantly under surveillance but, despite being concerned about our civil liberties, we collude with this invasion of individual freedom and privacy by allowing surveillance culture to become almost

naturalised as a form of technologybased reality. As we watch others as a form of entertainment and to pass the time in the privacy of our own homes, on televisions, computers and mobile phones, we are becoming desensitised to the presence of this ‘alien’ intrusion.

This constant monitoring and watching has almost become the norm.

But it is highly questionable as to whether it is desirable or progressive.

The evidence as to whether CCTV has improved society or made it safer is highly contentious. In George Orwell’s novel 1984, the device of constantly being filmed by the state is used to illustrate the powerlessness of the individual, as well as the potential for abuse of power when the state has unconditional control over individuals without their knowledge or consent. In this context it was seen as a highly undesirable tool of authority, which expressed suspicion and mistrust of people and a lack of faith in their ability to be trustworthy and honest through freedom of choice.

George Orwell criticized supposedly communist societies for being in his view totalitarian and oppressive. It would be interesting if we were able to consult ‘Comrade George’, as it seems as if we have submissively and compliantly allowed the rise of omnipresent state voyeurs who control and monitor our behaviour.

Can ‘liberté, égalité, fraternité’ exist in a world of almost constant CCTV surveillance? Does it act as a deterrent against crime? Or does it encourage it? A healthy community should function on the basis of trust and self-discipline, as well as an awareness of and agreement with any laws and policing. When we create a society dependent upon CCTV surveillance, the community’s sense of order is disempowered and the camera’s status is elevated beyond human authority. This disempowerment of the police force has resulted in a lack of direct human interaction and has depersonalised surveillance policing. As we can see with the highly contentious and probably illegal targeting, surveillance and ‘criminalising’ of various groups engaged in peaceful protest and dissent (usually against highly powerful state and business interests) this policy de-powers law-abiding citizens, catches few serious serial criminals and allows and promotes an almost completely unaccountable and, ironically ‘invisible’ policing culture. This de-personalisation and lack of interaction between police and civilians avoids human interaction and direct accountability, and creates the

potential for anti-social behaviour. This could be a reason why certain groups, in Western societies, can develop a suspicion and lack of respect towards authority, the law and the police.

Our liberties are constantly being challenged in this unequal society.

Privacy and anonymity are slowly vanishing, as we passively submit to the unrelenting rise of these oppressive technology-based forms of control.

In this unequal capitalist regime we make a ‘deal with the devil’ where we accept our subordinated positions and oppressive surveillance in return for relative material and social safety and security. In this way the masses continue to be blindly oppressed and controlled, under threat by the very thing that is supposed to provide them with security, reassurance and safety. For example, paedophiles use this technology to abuse children on a massive scale, but are rarely themselves caught on camera. In reality it is a myth that CCTV reduces or prevents serious crime. It appears to capture graffiti artists, fly-tippers, robbers, drug dealers and prostitutes, yet fails almost completely in catching serious criminals such as those who engage in tax and banking fraud, rape, murder, paedophilia, and war crimes. These are crimes that have an enormous destructive effect on individuals, the community and society. CCTV’s failure to have any impact on the capture and prosecution of these types of criminals is startling.

not decreased the amount of crime.

Introduced in 2003, “smart” software, “Intelligence Pedestrian Surveillance,” uses cameras that have the power to recognize “behavioral oddities,” alongside facial and number plate recognition. These extreme measures exercise control over an individual by labelling, segregating, subjugating and categorizing ‘abnormal’ from ‘normal’ behavior. But in my view this creates a negative social construct, which institutionalizes a distorted definition that imposes a false sense of identity.

In turn CCTV has mirrored the traditional, ‘all seeing’ and oppressive systems of the Church, invading feudal and imperial forces, which constantly sought to control by observing, judging, condemning and punishing.

Rather than celebrating and validating human existence, CCTV, like a Godlike voyeur, all-knowing, all-powerful and all the more unhelpful in human tragedy, creates an internal sense of paranoia and shame. By being continually observed we develop a subconscious mistrust of our own human nature. In turn you become subordinated and controlled by the system. The discomforting nature of an unknown presence watching you creates victims and perpetrators of crime, but ultimately fails to protect us from others. While providing a false hope of justice and a doubtful sense of security it promotes the idea that ‘if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry about.’ This

“Voyeurism in popular culture has become such an obsessive and addictive pastime” The United Kingdom has more than 20% of the world’s CCTV. It seeks to act as a deterrent by observing and controlling the masses and the less powerful, by an elite, dangerously unaccountable executive. Our supposed democratic society internalizes different forms of social control, monitoring society, and maintaining social order and discipline. Michael Foucault’s essay ‘Discipline and Punish’ illustrates the way, “Power is exercised rather than possessed,” demonstrated through a panoptical structure. He illustrates how power is “automatise[d] and disindividualis[ed].” The panoptical structure is similar to the CCTV system in that it allows the anonymous and temporary nature of the observer to create a greater “anxious awareness of being observed.” Although in this country we have an estimated five million CCTV cameras; that’s one for every 12 citizens, CCTV has

seems to have become a government catchphrase that seeks to legitimise the excessive levels of identity control and surveillance that have been developed. CCTV cameras and the viewers behind the screen stalk us everyday, eroding not only our sense of privacy and freedom, but also our civil rights. I am not saying that there are no positive aspects to the explosive rise in technology.

However, the vital point is that with every development that has an enormous potential for good, there is an equally enormous potential for abuse. Where there is social inequality it always follows that those in power and with influence use developments like CCTV systems to undemocratically control the masses while they themselves avoid surveillance and accountability.

There’s the rub, as Shakespeare (one of the most remarkable observers of human nature) might have said.

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11/2/10

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13

Exeposé week eighteen features@exepose.com

Features

Travelling through Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen Pascale Davies gets an insight into the adventures of journalist Patrick Cockburn.

‘A travel in Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen’ was how Patrick Cockburn titled his insightful lecture on Middle Eastern relations. Perhaps though, it should have been sub-headed ‘An Introduction to Journalism’ as it was his infatuation for the subject that seemed to take over the talk.

For those of you who do not recognise the name, Cockburn is regarded as ‘the best Western journalist at work in Iraq today.’

He currently writes for The Independent, gave criticisms which devastated the Iraq Inquiry and has won several awards for journalism, such as the Orwell Prize. To add to all of this, he has had five books published, three of which refer to the demolition instigated by the invasion of Iraq.

My initial intimidation when speaking to him came as no consequence. This was strengthened by the large turnout of audience who whispered their

anticipation at the thought of meeting the prized columnist.

Before I knew it, I, an aspiring journalist, would be shown how it is truly done.

However, as Cockburn entered all I saw at first was a drainedlooking 59-year-old taking centre stage. He started his discussion by stressing the importance of journalism as he firmly stated that “today it is more important than ever.” He continued explaining that it is journalism which replaces today’s barely existent political opposition. So could I call him a media revolutionist? Perhaps.

He certainly seemed to think of himself as some kind of political opponent shedding light on the reality of what we untraveled are blind to.

But he counteracted this point as he later spoke of media being just as, if not more deceptive than the government. His most striking revelation was that the reality of the first few days of invasion in Iraq was far different from the clear American victory portrayed in the media. This made me question if I myself could entirely trust what Cockburn was saying. And when I ask him if he likewise exploits the press he brazenly answers to remain sceptical of all and quoted his father, Claud Cockburn, in that you should “never believe anything until it has been officially denied.”

A valuable and somewhat humorous lesson taught to me then.

I found myself drawn to his words.

Perhaps not the words themselves, it didn’t seem like anything he was saying was necessarily new. But perhaps it was his slow forceful speech which fascinated me.

What he did say was that he saw parallels between the Russian invasion and occupation of Chechnya in 1999 and that of the Americans aggression on Iraq.

Both Russia and the US suffered terrorist attacks, both looked for an opponent and both took opportunities in malice to conduct the said countries.

Due to this he sarcastically ridiculed America for their abrupt intrusion and initial thoughts that a victory would be effortless.

After all, America had easily conquered Germany and Japan so why was Iraq an exception?

Cockburn replies firstly that clearly America had “forgotten” or more convincingly silenced the failed occupation of Italy which has resulted in an ignorance that America is the sole superpower. So why did America fall short in Iraq?

Simply because it was and still is a misunderstood country which refused to co-operate and become a state machine. And according to Cockburn, once again America still hasn’t learned as yet again they have interfered in a weak country, this time Yemen.

So why did Britain so willingly trail behind America? Cockburn answers this is nothing new to

British foreign policy, they have been following America since the 1940s. In fact, he stated that “Blair was more worried they might have been left out of the war.” His utter distaste of Blair was pronounced, probably because of the former Prime Minister’s attitude that The Independent held a particularly feral attitude towards him. And with Cockburn’s statement that “Blair doesn’t know facts on the ground which you could read in any newspaper,” Blair is entitled to his suspicion.

We then return to the subject of journalism and he reluctantly tells me of the risks to be expected. In actual fact he didn’t want to talk about the dangers he has faced so as not to appear as ‘macho.’ This leads me at first to believe he is too aware of his reflection in my eyes. But this is not the case and my preconception is wrong. Iraqis face dangers daily from the Sheer or Kurds, so in comparison he is exceptionally lucky to be away from threats. He tells me that in April 2004 at a press conference in Iraq he was dressed in a Suri headdress when he was picked up by a militia at a checkpoint and thought to be an American spy.

He tells me that his life was under considerable threat that day but he was eventually released. I was astounded by this story of potential murder, but I was actually even more stunned at his disjointed and unfazed manner in which he told

me the story.

He clearly doesn’t want to talk much more about his personal experiences and I move on to ask him what his advice is to anyone interested in this journalism.

Luckily for him, he has a heritage of journalists in his family but for those not so fortunate he advises to ‘go to places where there is more demand for news than supply.’

According to him this becomes all the more easier when having youth and no ties on your side.

Sadly though, I sense some form of resentment from him as he tells me the benefits of youth while he sits there, realising that his own is gone.

Did he take his own advice, then, and just went to a country where there would be a high demand for news? I don’t think so. He tells me he has been travelling in Iraq since 1977 and has a deep admiration for the Iraqis. This appears genuine as for the first time his weary glaze brightens in his proclamation that they are ‘humorous and intelligent’ people who feel strongly about the hypocrisy of peace long emplaced upon them.

Overall I’d say that my meeting with him taught me much about how to get into journalism and more importantly the deeper realities happening in the Middle East. But was he able to persuade me into following a career of constant danger, travelling and scepticism? Absolutely.

Can golf survive without Tiger?

Harry Coombe reports on how golf is missing its biggest star.

Ever since Tiger Woods recently announced that he was taking an indefinite break from golf everyone has been wondering how long he will be gone and how the world will react. Broadcasters and tournament organisers have been churning out depressing predictions as to the economic impact his withdrawal will have on the game. As the sport’s biggest star, his self-imposed exile will, they claim, lead to a loss of interest from advertising executives

and a loss of popularity for the game in general, but will his absence be as catastrophic as everyone imagines?

There is no doubt that his participation does affect attendances at tournaments, in the US at least.

According to Tom Wilson, the Tournament Director of the Buick Invitational, attendance at the tournament in 2009 when Woods was injured was down 30% compared to 2008. Tiger has long been the game’s biggest name and his mere presence has usually been enough to attract large crowds even to the smaller events on the tour. Similarly, Woods is the commercial face of golf; without the stardust that he provides it is a lot harder for the sport to appeal to the sponsors it desperately needs. According to the Wall Street Journal three of the PGA Tour’s 46 tournaments in 2010 and 13 in 2011

do not have sponsors.

Tim Finchem, the PGA Tour Commissioner remains defiant in the face of this gloomy outlook. “We are going to be successful in 2010. If Tiger is out for a couple of months or eight months of a year, we’re going to have a successful year.” It is hard however to imagine the sport reaching the same levels of popularity and entertainment without its number one player.

Woods has crossed racial and cultural barriers in his stratospheric rise to the top of golf. Since turning pro in 1996 his extraordinary skill and flair have played a large part in helping golf to become the 75 billion dollar industry it is today in America.

Many top players have been quick to come out and say that the game of golf needs him to return in order for it to prosper. Before details of the sex scandal were made public

and the world wondered how badly injured Woods was from his collision with a fire hydrant, John Daly said, “We need him, probably more than anybody on the tour, to keep things going, the way the economy is.”

More recently, Phil Mickelson agreed that “The game of golf needs him to come back.” Yet you wonder at the sincerity of these comments when Mickelson, the number two in the world, is likely to prosper the most from Tiger’s absence.

Including Mickelson, there are still plenty of young, charismatic and hugely talented players out there who are more than capable of carrying the game forward. Many believe Rory McIlroy and Anthony Kim to possess a similar kind of talent to Tiger, and the stage is set for them to flourish over the next couple of years.

Furthermore, despite what people

may say, the game of golf is bigger than Tiger Woods. His absence won’t stop the average amateur taking lessons or enthusiasts playing at the weekend. Golf clubs around the world will not start closing simply because the game’s biggest star is on an ‘indefinite break’ from the game. Peter McEvoy, one of Britain’s greatest amateurs, believes the effects of his exile are being exaggerated.

“I’m sitting here at the Belfry with blokes about to go out and play golf.

It doesn’t make any difference to them what Tiger does. No one man should be that influential and I don’t think he is.”

At the moment, as it has been for the last 14 years, the sport is obsessed with one man. His absence is a massive blow to the sport and yet it may have to face up to the possibility that its biggest icon may never return.

14

february 22 2010

Lifestyle

Exeposé

www.exepose.com

Flourish before Graduation

Campus Casualwear

Dominic McInerney meets a growing breed of Exeter student entrepreneurs.

IN 2006, a report for the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship found that around a third of all students were seriously considering starting up a business at some stage in their lives, with 4% set on pursuing this in the very near future. Now four years on, with the confidence of the once prosperous global economy shattered, it seems that the attractiveness of becoming one’s own boss has diminished as rapidly as the unemployment list has lengthened. This week Exeposé has looked at whether the entrepreneurial spirit has been dampened at Exeter, and with loan regulations being constantly tightened in the wake of the credit crunch, whether the prospect of building a business is still a viable alternative to climbing the ever steepening career ladder.

According to a recent survey by startups.co.uk, contrary to the popular belief that entrepreneurs are the Alan Sugar/Philip Green types, the average business starters are in fact usually well educated to either A2 or degree level. Therefore it came as little surprise to find that such a wide variety of young undergraduates at Exeter have either begun their own enterprise or are in the process of doing so. In fact, one interviewee for this article was to be found very close to home: Munya Hoto, Features Editor for Exeposé.

Without even leaving University, Munya has accumulated an impressive CV which includes both Sales & Business Development Consultant

for Idio Ltd; an online magazine with links in South Africa and with FTSE 100 companies; Strategy Consultant for Aaron+Gould, another web based company that is already hiring interns of their own. Not content with that, Munya also helps run a publishing business called Open Intros, which aims to create a series of book introductions to various topics something that Munya hopes will prove useful for students. Let this be a lesson in time management for those of you who enjoy sleeping in until 3pm!

Building a business of one’s own is in so many ways a lot harder now than it ever was before, but of course finding a regular job is an equally daunting prospect. Yet simply having the ability to seize such a career opportunity isn’t often recognized for its own entrepreneurial nature.

The world-renowned advertising agency, Saatchi & Saatchi, is currently running its annual Summer Scholarship programme, a highly competitive scheme which takes around ten graduates each year. For each of those places there are an estimated forty applicants. Yet this hasn’t deterred eight students from Exeter applying. One of them, Camilla Kenney, stressed the importance of work experience alongside the skills that unfortunately for our generation are becoming more and more common. “Internships are probably the only way to go about getting a job these days simply because it’s so competitive and there are so many graduates.

Many of the placements I’ve applied to have had double the

Model displaying laptop bags by Emma Green, founder of rosalindjames.com

“Only 2% of UK graduates start their own businesses immediately after graduating.”

amount of applicants that they had two years ago.”

So what can we do? What’s becoming clearer is that often one can have all the necessary skills and means and yet still fail to find or build a stable career. But help is at hand – in a particularly entrepreneurial flourish, many students in UK universities are building think tanks and groups to allow potential businessmen and women to find the funding and opportunities that may otherwise have been denied to them. Inspired by a similar group in Cambridge that has grown over the years, an organisation simply called Exeter Entrepreneurs was started this academic year by Amanuel Burhan and Harry Cott, with a mission to: “leave a legacy at Exeter: an infrastructure and culture that facilitates students being enactors of entrepreneurship and the University being merely the enabler.”

As Burham explained, Exeter was the only Top Ten University not to have an entrepreneurial student body, and so he and Harry aimed to rectify that. It was clear to them that many young entrepreneurs don’t have access to business networks or potential clients, so they offer opportunities for students to meet them. For a group that is in a relative stage of infancy, they have moved fast.

They are hosting Glen Manchester, holder of the Entrepreneur of the Year 2009 award, and can boast Sir Bob Geldof as a group patron. With such backing Burham is confident that Exeter Entrepreneurs is an excellent way for young businessminded people to gain a vital foothold in an ever-growing market. If that wasn’t enough, in partnership with the Careers Service, they will be running the Enterprise Training Programme for young student entrepreneurs to put forward their ideas, and the best business proposals can win up to £5,000 to help them realise their dreams.

One student in her second year who has done just that is Emma Green, founder of rosalindjames. com. Her website has cornered a niche market in designer

women’s laptop bags, providing stylish alternatives to the regular matte black. Yet the road wasn’t easy, and although she is now looking to expand her business, the process has been financially slow. “I wanted to make sure I had all the foundations, since so many things can go wrong,” she explained, “for every year you put into building a business, you can get two prosperous years out.” She is also positive about the recession and its unlikely opportunities.

“It gives you the ability to strike better deals because people are looking for the business.” Would she say entrepreneurship is in decline? “I wouldn’t say in decline but it has definitely become more difficult. In some ways making a job for yourself might be easier than relying on someone else to give you one.”

Perhaps due to the rocky economic environment, in 2008 only 9% of small business owners were aged below 35, and according to the Employability Office at the University only 2% of UK graduates start their own businesses immediately after graduating. But clearly at Exeter there is still great potential for a new generation of bright entrepreneurs to change that statistic, and there is an ever growing support system to encourage their ideas. Something that Amanuel Burhan emphasised was that a lot of people are entrepreneurial without realising it, “You solve problems literally every day, and you would go about running a business in the same way that many students already run societies, club nights or publications.”

While it will take time for the world to recover economically, it is apparent that with the right motivation and discipline there is no better time than now for students to forge their own businesses, given the right means.

And here at Exeter there is clearly no better place for finding those means. With the help and advice of the people I’ve interviewed for this article, we might well be on the cusp of something successful, original and frankly, inspirational.

Illustrations by Masumi Uehara

15

Exeposé week eighteen lifestyle@exepose.com

Legal Highs

Camilla Kenney researches the most popular drug alternatives that escape government banning.

IT is becoming an increasing concern that young people are turning to ‘legal highs’ as a way of enjoying a night out. This cheaper alternative to alcohol is a way of avoiding the negative side-effects of drinking; the bloating and morning-after hangover.

After several resulting deaths, three formerly legal substances were banned at the end of last year, on December 23, in an attempt to stop people using these potentially lethal substances.

GBL (gamma-butyrolactone), also known as ‘liquid ecstasy,’ and BZP (benzylpiperazine) have become Class C drugs meaning users can be punished with a two-year jail term and those dealing the drugs can be sentenced for up to 14 years.

Synthetic cannabinoids, which are sprayed on herbal smoking products such as Spice, are now Class B drugs, for which you can be convicted with up to five years in jail, if found in possession of the substance.

However, Mephedrone (4methylmethcathinone), also referred to as ‘meow’, ‘bubbles’, ‘drone’ and ‘M-CAT’, presents a bigger problem as it is still legal to possess, despite being illegal to distribute ‘for human consumption.’ As a result, it is often sold as plant food and is readily available over the internet or from headshops, where it costs as little as £10 per gram. This kind of drug is synthesised in laboratories, often based in China, to mimic the effects of illegal drugs. They fall outside most drug control laws.

Mephedrone is a stimulant that is chemically similar to amphetamines, which are classified as Class B drugs. Mephedrone comes as an off-white powder which can be snorted or swallowed in bombs (wraps of paper) or taken

negative side effects include heart palpitations, which can last for some time after consumption of the drug, as well as blurred vision, hot flushes, poor blood circulation and muscle tension.

A student from Brighton

“The majority of people” will regularly use Mephedrone ... as an alternative to drinking in pill form. It is said to produce an experience between that of ‘ecstasy or MDMA and cocaine.’ It produces a sense of euphoria and wellbeing, and creates a sense of being more alert, confident and talkative.

However, snorting the substance can result in sore nasal passages, throats and mouths; and burns or cuts leading to nose bleeds. Other

A Recipe for Success?

comments, “I now have friends who can do up to 14 grams in a night; another friend did a one gram line and ended up in hospital.

“I’ve tried it quite a few times and I took a huge break from it until last weekend, but since then I’m not touching it again, it caused me to wake up with my chest pumping hard up and down.”

Lifestyle

An Exeter clubber suggested that “the majority of people” will regularly use Mephedrone on certain student nights in Exeter, as an alternative to drinking alcohol.

Those who might hesitate to take an illegal drug, are comforted by the fact that Mephedrone is a ‘legal high’, but in reality little is known about its long-term effects.

In addition, there is always a risk that any of these drugs are cut with substances unknown to the user, which may or may not be legal.

Other derivatives from cathinone, which is controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act, include Mephedrone and the lesser known Methylone, which is said to produce an experience more closely related to taking ecstasy.

The European Union’s drug agency found that as many as half of the websites selling legal highs are based in the UK, making it the european capital in online trade of legal substances. Mephedrone has already been banned in Sweden, the day it was linked with the death of a young woman, and in Denmark, Finland and Israel. The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) will be considering the harms associated with cathinone derivatives and whether they should be brought under the control of the Misuse of Drugs Act, and is expected to publish a report later this year. There is already speculation, however, that other drugs will simply fall into its place if it does become an illegal drug.

As Easter approaches, Pascale Davies looks at Margaret Thatcher’s secret egg diet.

MARGARET THATCHER stated, “It may be the cock that crows, but it is the hen that lays the eggs” and with the release of her personal papers it becomes clear that she’s the one who ate them.

25,000 pages of documents regarding her personal life were uploaded onto The Margaret Thatcher Foundation where it became apparent that, prior to her election victory in 1979, she rigorously followed a fad diet eating up to 28 eggs per week.

Of course it’s hardly surprising that the Iron Lady would go to such extremes, after all her interview with The Sun said: “If a person can’t control her weight, doesn’t it occur to everybody that she may not be able to control other, more important things?”

Well, after countless catastrophic Conservative policies she clearly

could not control “important things” despite being nine and a half stone.

In that interview with The Sun she led the reader to believe that she was following a more healthy diet by denying herself treats and eating small quantities. In actual fact, she followed the two week Mayo diet which is similar to the Atkins fad where protein replaces carbohydrates and around 1000 calories are consumed a day.

So if after Shrove Tuesday you decide to give something up for Lent and chocolate just seems too hard a sacrifice, give up vegetables! The Mayo diet is guaranteed to

make you hungry but according to Thatcher the way to keep energetic is to, “Keep yourself hungry and cold.”

Therefore if you want to follow Britain’s very own Iron Lady all you have to do is follow the two week crash diet which consists of two eggs and coffee or tea for breakfast, two eggs for lunch (once a week you can have the luxury of chicken) and for dinner, steak or any other meat.

Occasionally you can even have cabbage and grapefruit as a salvation.

If this diet actually appeals to you, you should be warned.

Firstly, the diet doesn’t fit a student budget as

the bulk of meat will cost a lot.

Secondly, you will be deficient in protein, calcium, potassium and vitamins. More importantly you can only consume alcohol with the occasional piece of meat you devour. This must have been difficult for Thatcher, as we all know she enjoyed her whisky a little too much. Indeed, perhaps it was because of the missing alcohol combined with feeling famished she came out with that ridiculed famed statement, “there is no such thing as society.”

The diet guarantees to make you lose between six to ten pounds in those miserable two weeks; perhaps it may also help you to win an election. So if we soon see Mr. Cameron shedding weight, we’ll know who his influence was.

Illustrations by Masumi Uehara

16

february 22 2010

Exeposé

www.exepose.com

Crackberry vs. Blackberry Marina Bunzl explores why the Blackberry was the best and worst device of the Noughties.

THE birth of the Blackberry in 1999 marked a new chapter for the age of technology. It started as a slow disease, a useful device for businessmen and women, gradually infecting the rest of Western society.

The industry is now worth £32 billion and the Canadian company, Research In Motion (RIM), responsible for unleashing this epidemic has not rested on its laurels, still working tirelessly to produce newer and better models to ensnare and excite us. Far removed from the first Blackberry 850, a monochromatic, mobile twoway pager, capable of integrating email, Blackberries are now more than just handheld computers, they are sleek fashion accessories, something to which the increasing number of 13 million proud owners are testament.

Accompanying the rapid growth in popularity of this remarkable device has been the raging debate over the negative effects of owning a Blackberry. This debate was launched publicly last month by the BBC World Service Radio, appropriately entitled ‘Crackberry vs Blackberry’.

The two men discussing the issue were both middle aged businessmen, representing a minority of the Blackberry owning population and presented corresponding points of view. One man, a self-proclaimed workaholic, generically reeled off obvious benefits including the freedom it gives you to “respond

to documents” whilst away from the office. The other, again rather unsurprisingly, argued that owning a Blackberry means that you never feel liberated from work as you are contactable 24/7. But what do the rest of us younger Blackberry users think? Do we agree that knowing what is happening next door enriches our lives or do we see it as an overload of too much pointless information, and distressing that being able to ‘BBM’ one another across the room has practically eliminated the need for human contact in daily life? The more levelheaded among us may even argue that they are at the root of the many publicized problems of 21st century youth.

Whilst Blackberries have become so popular that they are no longer merely a practicality for businessmen or an accessory for over-indulged pre-pubescent teens, there is undoubtedly a certain ‘exclusivity’ to owning one. If we come face-to-face with a fellow Blackberry user, there is some relief in the mutual understanding that real conversation can acceptably be limited and interrupted. The opportunity to exchange PINs with an acquaintance, to catch a glimpse of the red flashing

light signalling a new message or to be able to instantly receive and reply to the latest gossip, never fails to excite. It makes us feel professional to whip out our Blackberries when asked when we are next free for lunch; we are drawn in by the ease with which we can check the latest sports results via our WiFi connections and, especially in these troubled times, we are comforted to know that

BBMing someone is considerably cheaper than calling them.

But then, all these details which seem to make our lives easier may in fact be confining us to a cyber world, in which we shun books, preferring to call up the relevant web page on our screens and develop rheumatism in our thirties due to excessive and rapid typing. Businessmen and

teenagers alike now stress over their Blackberries which are more often than not glued to their hands as if they have similarly weighty problems. It would be dishonest to claim that not checking our phones as soon as we see that little red light does not nag away at us; it could be something urgent we tell ourselves. As one friend eloquently put it: “They are terrible. You have them, you take them out, you check it, you expect something has happened, but nothing has happened.” Most likely another of those Facebook events you won’t attend, or a friend who’s procrastinating in the library and wants to share it with you: “So we’re meeting for lunch at one?” reads the BBM, “Yes,” you reply, as that was the already arranged time to meet. It is these futile exchanges of unspoken signals and misunderstood messages which must force us to ask why we are so addicted. Not replying to a BBM is the shortcut to a petty argument; checking the Facebook updates when in company implies boredom and couples no longer fall asleep to sweet nothings over the phone but rather a series of impersonal, somewhat unromantic BBMs. As our mobile phone-using contemporaries subtly take out their Nokia 3083, we will fail to recognize it as one of the best (and most indestructible) inventions of the century, preferring instead to look, somewhat smugly, down at our own

devices complete with colour screen, familiar QWERTY keyboard and stylish curves. I am a Crackberry addict and will proudly live and die one but, I have owned a Nokia.

I smashed it, threw it and squashed it and it did not fail me, and for this reason I can neither entirely nor convincingly claim that Blackberrys are the best mobile devices invented so far. Yet whilst I cannot give a definitive answer as to whether or not this addiction is justified, I hope that I have provided enough food for thought for those (dare I say it) superior Blackberry users to decide for themselves, and maybe even re-evaluate the status of Blackberries in their lives.

I believe that if we are sensible, we will confess that we rely far too heavily on Blackberries and have become lazy in everything from reading books to making conversation. The pride that comes from owning one eclipses any such practicality. Owning a bogstandard mobile may protect you from radiation seeping through your fingers as you text and offer you a quieter life, but you will be missing out on the fastpaced, exciting Blackberry way of life.

And there lies the fundamental difference in relationships between the friends that share this with you and those that don’t. If you receive a BBM at random it is because your friend is thinking of you, they want you to vicariously partake in that moment they have just experience. Or maybe they were just bored.

Forbidden fruit

Charlotte Balton creates scrumptuous recipes out of our forgotten British fruit

IT’S time to get seasonal! As a country who imports 6.9% of its apples, and a total of 522,100 tonnes according to the government department DEFRA, it’s worth making the most of British produce whilst it’s available. The Bramley apple is only grown in Britain and the season is now in full swing, so there is no better time to support local producers and get creative with apples in the kitchen! Here are two cheap and simple ideas for incorporating apples in your day.

Apple Sausage Rolls

Ideal for dinner, lunch, or any other time!

Ingredients 1 pack of sausages, skinned ½ Bramley apple ½ onion, finely chopped A handful of pine nuts (optional) 1 pack ready rolled puff pastry 1 beaten egg •Preheat oven to 200°C, Gas Mark 6.

•Fry the onions over a medium heat until soft.

•Peel, core and chop the apples, mix with the sausages, onions and pine nuts if using.

•Unroll the pastry onto a greased baking tray and shape the mixture into a long sausage shape.

•Place the sausage mixture on the pastry lengthways, leaving a gap on one edge to then wrap over the sausage.

•Press the edges together firmly, using a little water if the pastry will not seal together.

•Repeat this to use all the sausage mixture.

•Cut the long sausage roll into

individual ‘rolls’.

•Brush with beaten egg and place in oven for 20mins or until golden brown.

Easy Apple Crumble Perfect for cold, wintry evenings with ice cream or cream

Ingredients 2 medium sized Bramley apples Squeeze of lemon juice 50g butter

100g plain flour 70g caster sugar ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

•Preheat the oven to 200°C, Gas Mark 6.

•Peel, core and chop the apples and place in an ovenproof dish, squeeze over the lemon and sprinkle with a teaspoon of sugar.

•Rub the butter and flour together in a mixing bowl until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.

•Stir the sugar and cinnamon in with a spoon and then pour over the apples.

•Place in the oven for 35mins or until the top is golden brown.

17

Music

Exeposé week eighteen music@exepose.com

Music Competition

Hadouken! gig tickets

DEAR readers, as you may already know Yorkshire dance-punk band Hadouken! are coming to Exeter next month. They are playing on March 8 at the Lemon Grove, and will be supported by This City.

The five-piece recently released their second studio album, For The Masses, which they recorded alongside Dutch drum and bass producers Noisia.

We here at Exeposé Music have

four pairs of tickets up for grabs, all you guys have to do is answer the following simple question correctly: What was Hadouken!’s first album called?

Send your answers to music@ exepose.com with your names and mobile numbers. The deadline is March 4. We will notify winners by text message.

music interview

Marina Bunzl talks to Alan Pownall

FIRST Laura Marling, then Noah and the Whale, shortly followed

by Mumford and Sons. Now, Alan Pownall has arrived on the scene.

His debut album, out in May, is sure to gain much attention.

I spoke to him prior to his gig at Camden Barfly, organized by ´HMV´s Next Big Thing.´ The title could not be more appropriate and it was immediately apparent he had been selected to perform. He performed alongside more known artist, Joshua Radin, but received equal applause and delight from the audience.

After the gig, his first this year, it was clear he already had a fan base in the making. Having done so little to promote his album thus far, it was surprising, and a testament to his star quality. In between songs he entertained us with a few witty, lines, showing the audience that his music is reflective of his laid back personality. It was as if his soothing voice and soulful lyrics were quenching the audience’s thirst as we stood entranced, hypnotized by his music.

Despite some emotionally drawing lyrics, he has successfully made his songs upbeat; think Jack Johnson. He has already been labelled by some as ´The British Jason Mraz´ and, indeed, if his gig at the Barfly was anything to go by, he can expect the same level of success.

On leaving school he “started working for a fashion designer called Roland Mouret, as an illustrator and doing a sort of apprenticeship there.

He suggested [Pownall] went to university to study but [he] couldn’t really do that in England because [he] didn’t have A-Levels.” He ended up in Milan, alone, which he described as “incredible but quite scary. I was eighteen. As opposed to places like Florence or Rome, there aren’t many English people. When I first got

there I asked how many people were English at the school and they said there was one Irish girl! So that was a bit weird but in a way it was quite good as I got to learn Italian. I ended up becoming much better friends with other foreign student like Scandinavians, South Americans.”

He added that they were “amazing people; really inquisitive, intelligent and much more broad-minded than the Italians.“ Pownall describes his time in Italy as “a really nice experience in that respect, but I lost interest quite quickly and that was when I started playing music.” Two years later [I] came back” to London and music “just fit”. He hadn’t been part of a London music scene but explains, “When I came back I noticed there was a music scene happening

here that I was really intrigued by.

People like Jamie T, Kid Harpoon, even the Horrors had something that was quite refreshing which I hadn’t seen before. Not when I was living here anyway and that was quite inspiring.”

On asking how he writes his lyrics he told me “It’s difficult to explain. There’s no formula for it.

Sometimes it makes sense to you or it doesn’t make sense or what you’re trying to say isn’t articulated in the way you want it to be. It’s a hard thing to explain because I believe music writes itself and that’s not really a conscious thing.”

You may have heard my favorite of his songs, ´Chasing Time´, in the latest Nokia N Series Advert.

When asked how that came about he said, “I really don’t know! I

just remember some people at the publishing company that I’m signed to [Mercury] mentioned it and then it was on YouTube, so that was it!”

Grammy Award-winning soulstress Adele liked Pownall so much that she invited him on tour with her. When asked about this experience he said, “That was really early on. I had about three or four songs. I met her, fleetingly, and directed her to my MySpace page and told her to check my stuff out, but I never really thought she would. Then she invited me on tour with her, which was a huge error of judgment on her part! It actually kind of was because I really wasn’t ready to do that, even though it was a great experience.”

(Continued on page 18)

Upcoming

22/02 - Beat Roots (MAMA STONE’S) 23/02 - Ex Lovers + Three Seeds in

Paris (CAVERN) 23/02 - Session 8 ft. Maggie Reeday +

Tim Murray (MAMA STONE’S) 24/02 - Gift for a Ghost Town

(MAMA STONE’S) 25/02 - Sauna Youth (CAVERN) 25/02 - Span That World with Music

Charity Gig (PHOENIX) 25/02 - Marcus Bonfanti + Who’z

In the Room With Norman?

(MAMA STONE’S) 26/02 - Bad Robot (CAVERN) 26/02 - The House Band with Kat

Savage + Paul Avez

(MAMA STONE’S) 26/02 - Peter Green and Friends

(PHOENIX) 27/02 - Peter Green and Friends

(PHOENIX) 27/02 - 3rd Degree Leburn

(MAMA STONE’S) 28/02 - Chris Wood (PHOENIX) 01/03 - Metal Mondays with Red Mist

(CAVERN) 05/03 - The Magic Hatstand

(CAVERN) 05/03 - Levi Roots with Rastarant

(PHOENIX) 05/03 - Scratch Perverts + Jack Beats

+ Utah Saints + Reso + Ben

& Lex + Mr Nice + Maxxi P +

Lewah (LEMON GROVE) 06/03 - Trash City Alt Clubnight

(CAVERN) 06/03 - Analouge to Digital Music

Expo (PHOENIX) 06/03 - The Blockheads + Zitto

(PHOENIX) 07/03 - Lizzy Parks (PHOENIX) 07/03 - Inspirational Women’s

Voices (PHOENIX)

Playlist

OCEAN COLOUR SCENE - The Day We Caught The Train BRIGHT EYES - Another Travellin’ Song CAMERA OBSCURA - Let’s Get Out Of This Country BELLE AND SEBASTIAN Mornington Crescent BEN FOLDS FIVE - Underground THE LUCKSMITHS - The Sandringham Line NICK DRAKE - Parasite VAMPIRE WEEKEND - M79 GUILLEMOTS - Trains to Brazil THE ONLY ONES - Another Girl, Another Planet THE KINKS - Waterloo Sunset SIMON AND GARFUNKEL - The Only Living Boy In New York SURFJAN STEVENS - Chicago JENS LEKMAN - Black Cab HANNAH FORTUNE

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february 22 2010 Exeposé

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Alan Pownall Interview, continued from page 17 Pownall showed great respect for the English-born Welsh singer, saying that “It was a real privilege to see her. It was her first ever headline tour. She was sitting on stage on her own and she was amazing.”

He gushes, “really, really amazing!

The market seems to be drenched in female, singer-song writers ranging from different styles to different levels of talents but Adele is right up there in my opinion, the best of all of them. She´s a real pro.”

He is soon to be supporting Australian folk duo Angus and Julia Stone. When asked how it will be supporting them, he frankly stated “being totally honest, I would much prefer headlining all the shows I’ve ever played, but I’m not at that stage yet.”

Having seen Mumford and Sons, Laura Marling and Noah and The Whale play together at many gigs in the past, I wanted to find out more about how his close friendship with them has translated into musical path and career. “We played a lot of gigs together. One of the guys in Mumford and Sons, Winston, had a night and everyone just played at it. That’s where a lot of us met.

A lot of us played music together.”

Spending a lot of their time together, making music, must have had some influence on their sound, which he admits, “I know that there are a lot of pockets of music where people are sort of pushed together and stuff like that. I couldn’t really tell you how much that translates into the music that we play individually, although a lot of people say that it’s similar. We really are good friends, [although I] haven’t really seen that much of them recently because they’ve been on tour quite a lot.” He continued to speak about his friends, mentioning Jay Jay Pistolet at which point I interrupted to tell him that I am a big fan of this extremely talented artist who I think will receive a lot more recognition from the public in the future. I had Pownall´s agreement, “yeah, he’s amazing. He’s one of my best friends!”

When asked if it has been strange seeing his friends receiving the press’ attention and hearing them on the radio he joked, “Yeah, it’s awful, just awful!” He added some realistic insight into the timing of musicians’ breaks into the industry, saying, “It gives you reason to believe that you’re not just one of the many musicians out there who is

hopelessly trying something. It gives you a sort of faith I guess and you learn a lot from them as well. Music isn’t just about sitting down there writing songs, not today anyway.

It’s not just about writing songs, making sure they’re good, making a record and putting it out. There is a lot of other stuff that goes with it.

When you see your friends or your

contemporaries at stages ahead, behind [he thinks for a second] people like Florence + The Machine; I remember seeing her at her first few gigs and now she has got to be one of the biggest in England.” Of his friends’ successes he mused, “the

artists that we’re speaking about are people who have made their own luck. Mumford, Laura, Noah and the Whale, I think if they were in the industry forty years ago, they would still be having the same success.”

A supportive friend, when asked who he thinks will do well in 2010, replied, “There are two bands that you won’t have heard of. One is called Young Mothers and the other is Club Royale. I reckon they’ll do well.“ Why? “Because Young Mothers is a project by Jay Jay Pistolet. He´s moving in a different direction. Club Royale is what Les Incompetences was or Oxeagleironman. A guy called Fred who fronted those two bands is starting this new project.”

He thinks for a moment and adds, “Another artist who I saw yesterday and I know he released an album 2007-2008 is Eugene McGuinness.

He is absolutely brilliant.”

I asked him for his view on MySpace, the musically focused social networking website so integral in the genesis of many music careers today. “It’s amazing really. I can write a song and upload it from a computer. It really kick-starts some peoples careers. The good thing about it is that everybody starts on

a level playing field.”

Pownall is a Londoner whose favorite area is Richmond. “I grew up there,” he explained, and when asked for favorite London venue said, “I like the Roundhouse, although every venue has something good about it and something not very good about it.” His aim “in the next year or so” is “to get to a stage where [he’s] playing to a decent amount of people!” Before we finished, for good measure, I asked about his view on the problem of climate change. “I don’t know too much about it. There’s quite a lot of propaganda and corporate links to it now. It’s a fashionable charity.”

This is an intelligent viewpoint and one which, perhaps, should lead us to question the thinker in modern society, like some of his lyrics do.

After speaking to this charming and refreshingly, modest new talent, I was excited to hear him perform live. The crowd snapped photos and took recordings of a man who, as anyone present in the intimate, packed venue will predict as a star on the brink of explosion. His dream venue, “The Royal Albert Hall” seems like it could, or rather should, become a reality.

iEWS single REVIEWS single REVIEWS single REVIEWS singl Bombay Bicycle Club Evening/Morning

BOMBAY Bicycle Club have been around for a while now, but they’re barely out of their teens.

Already established with two EPs, five singles, an album and several successful festival performances under their belts, they’re now hitting the road on the Shockwaves NME tour – with seasoned NME lovelies The Maccabees, along with the Big Pink and the Drums. It is set to sell out everywhere they go.

‘Evening/Morning’ is already pretty well-known as ‘indie’ singalongs go, but it is now being rereleased on limited edition 7-inch to coincide with their presence on the NME tour. It’s a clever ploy, but won’t make them much money as they’re only making 400 copies.

The song itself is classic Bombay Bicycle Club, reminiscent of ‘Cancel on Me’ from their The Boy I Used to Be EP (and which resurfaced on the

Mumford & Sons The Cave

album), but with a distinctly more mature sound, and you get a sense that they truly understand song writing now.

The drums are energetic, the guitars are loud, and the lyrics are easy to understand and relate to.

The chorus is simply the line, “I am ready to owe you anything” sung over and over, but it works. The intro smacks of British indie-pop, in much the same vein as The Maccabees and

those latent Oxford rejects, Foals, and owes much to their use of catchy hooks to lure in kids who just want something to sing along to. That said, Bombay Bicycle Club are one of a handful of bands today writing genuine songs without pretence, and ‘Evening/Morning’ is no exception.

FOR the past few years they have been skirting around the fringes of the music scene, fishing out EPs as well as supporting Laura Marling on several occasions. One record contract and album later they have become the newest addition to the London folk scene, joining the likes of Noah and the Whale and Johnny Flynn.

‘The Cave’ is the third single to come from the album, Sigh No More, that has had so much recent attention. Like their previous singles, it combines the beautiful vocals of Marcus Mumford and his

band mates with guitar, mandolin, keyboard and banjo to produce a gentle, indie-folk song, with a bit of a twist.

At first listen that is all the song is, yet, when paying attention to the lyrics, which Mumford says he places specific importance on, it is clear that it has darker undertones, with the chorus of: “I will hold on hope, and I won’t let you choke on the noose around your neck.”

However, the build up of guitar towards the end of the song and the repetition of, “I’ll find strength in pain, and I will change my ways; I’ll

chARLOTTE WILLIAMS

know my name as it’s called again” leaves you feeling uplifted.

They sound less authentic than others in their field, with the impression that they have just added a banjo and a mandolin to a pop song, and been named folk.

However, this is not necessarily a flaw; ‘The Cave’ bridges the gap between indie and folk, giving rise to a piece of music that is not only beautiful but also magical in parts.

ellie bothwell

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Music

Exeposé week eighteen music@exepose.com

iEWS single REVIEWS single REVIEWS single REVIEWS singl Ellie Goulding Starry Eyed

KOOKY and yet utterly charming, singer Ellie Goulding has developed quite a following having burst onto the music scene in recent months.

Acclaimed by the BBC’s Introducing and winner of the BRITs 2010 Critics’ Choice Award, she is the one to be watched.

‘Starry Eyed’ is the follow-up to Ellie’s first single ‘Under the Sheets’, and provides the listener with an enchanting sound.

Simplistic yet romantic lyrics have created a catchy but altogether unique digital-pop record. After a few listens the tracks can easily become infectious stay-in-yourhead tunes. Evidently popular within the industry, ‘Starry Eyed’ has already been remixed by Jakwob, in which Ellie’s dreamy folk-like vocals meet perfectly with an electro dub base. The fast rising newcomer has a magically haunting voice which has been

likened to artists such as Imogen Heap, and mirrors that of a more upbeat Björk.

Solo female artists are undoubtedly dominating the British charts. Tipped to follow the successful likes of Florence and La Roux, Ellie is set to tour across the UK in March and April. One thing is for sure, Ellie Goulding is destined to become an airplay and festival favourite, and whether her voice is music to your ears

or not, her shining talent will see Goulding emerge as the golden girl of 2010. ‘Starry Eyed’ will be released on February 22, and her debut album entitled Lights is to follow on March 1, both set to top the charts.

CHARLOTTE MEYER

WS live REVIEWS live REVIEWS live REVIEWS live REVIEWS liv Stornoway + Beth Jeans Houghton Exeter Phoenix, February 8

Photo: Joe Hickinbottom

BACKED by event organisers, Twisted Folk claim to be “dedicated to modern folk and twisted popular music,” was no mistake as to what kind of performers were to be

expected on the night. With both bands being unsigned and with little or no prior exposure to talk of, however, the quality of their music was not so easy to predict.

This presence of an air of unfamiliarity was no doubt why Newcastle’s Beth Jeans Houghton was gingerly greeted by a crowd that filled less than half the tiny room of the Phoenix. Whilst most people remained at the bar, those who showed curiosity should have got themselves a few more drinks instead.

Shuffling onto the stage with an entourage of circus clowns for band members, not even Houghton’s ridiculous wig could hide the transparent attempt at achieving that indie holy grail of quirky distinctiveness.

Unfortunately, an embarrassingly nervous start didn’t hold out much hope for their music either. A lack of confidence, especially on songs such as ‘I Will Return’ and ‘Dodecahedron’, made an unintentional cacophony out of the fast finger-picked guitar, irregular percussion and trumpet tones - creating an awkward ambience that lasted throughout.

Yet, it is fair to say that when Houghton opened her mouth to sing (not talk), the band’s overall confusion was temporarily compensated for. Unavoidably reminiscent of that of Florence Welch, Houghton’s voice was flawless in its soft maturity. Her clear vocal talents, nevertheless, were over-shadowed by the consistently shambolic set. A poor display.

With an appearance on Later… with Jools Holland and slots at Glastonbury and The Big Weekend under their belts, by the time Stornoway took the stage the thickened audience welcomed

“Stornoway’s earthly aesthetic is just as natural as the birds they sing about”

them with subdued applause. To be honest, all they really had to do was walk on and pick up their instruments without stumbling to be miles ahead of the previous band.

Photo: Joe Hickinbottom

Two songs in, the Oxford graduates provoked a few more bopping heads and slapped thighs, slowly awakening the passive Phoenix crowd with their astonishingly tight folk tunes.

Although the boys’ evident shyness led to a shortage of interaction, this in no way detracted from their charm – lead singer Brian Briggs’ timid joke about Exeter’s positioning of a gun shop next to the war memorial was somewhat endearing in fact.

After a brief introduction to the song, recognition hit when Stornoway launched into ‘Zorbing’, their debut single. The steady and memorable beat, coupled with Briggs’ dreamlike lyrics, encapsulated the band’s intelligently melancholic style, carving a similar niche to that assumed by the likes of Mumford & Sons and Frightened Rabbit. Their sounds were even more effective when they utilised all six of their members, sensitively weaving violin and trumpet into the fabric of ‘Long Distance Lullaby’ to display exactly how much talent this new band has to offer.

By the end of the set Stornoway were presented with a rightly deserved cheer, beckoning for an encore. The reward was the rarely performed banjo-driven ‘We Are the Battery Human’, during which the band asked for complete silence to allow for their unplugged strings and gentle harmonies to be heard.

As Briggs passionately contested in his ornithological musings, “we were born to be free range,” it was only then that we fully realised that Stornoway’s earthly aesthetic is just as natural as the birds they sing about. A perfect ending to a bitterly cold Monday night – this band is undoubtedly set to take off later this year and tonight’s faultless performance was more than reason enough to believe so.

ALYSSA KONDONIS and Joe Hickinbottom

20

Books

february 22 2010

Exeposé

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BOOKS FEATURE

Apple’s iPad: e-book of the future? Alex Quayle investigates.

When Steve Jobs put on his second-best pair of jeans to unveil the iPad, one of the first uses mooted was for the floundering e-book. The last decade belonged to Apple both in fashion and technology, so if anyone can bring the book reluctantly into the 21st century it’s them.

The e-book just hasn’t caught on so far. Whilst music and films have been quick to move to the web to meet the needs of every new gadget, books have stoically

remained a physical presence on the high street. The e-book should be a delight; a durable, ergonomic encyclopaedia of almost limitless potential. Not only that, an easy source of books that aren’t even in print anymore, quicker than going to the shops, and kinder to the environment.

Amazon’s attempt, Kindle, hasn’t grabbed attention, and Amazon have been unusually cagey about sales figures. It doesn’t help that it’s only on sale in the U.S., and you need to have it imported to the U.K. Interest in the States has been equally limited.

Can the iPad really succeed where so many have failed, and tip the balance of reading to the digital? Well, it’s portable, handheld, and has a screen a reasonable size for reading. The iTunes store has struck a number of deals that will ensure bestsellers are available, and more titles and classics are being added all the time. The success depends upon the price of books from iTunes.

Albums and audio books have never been particularly cheap considering they’re only an electronic version, and books are only marginally cheaper online than the real thing. The main draw will be the ease of use. With a good enough internet connection you could be reading a book in 60 seconds.

“Books have remained a physical presence on the high street”

However, critics have had several reservations. For all the claim that it’s portable, it’s 9.7 inches – the size of the average hardback. People tend to only read one or a maximum of two books at one time, and if you can carry the iPad, you can carry a book just as easily (and without the need of a case to protect it from scratches). I’ve not had the pleasure of holding one, but according to various reports from those who have, the iPad is rather heavy for its waif-like appearance, and you won’t want to hold one up for too long.

Perhaps most problematic though is the price of the iPad itself. Prices hadn’t been announced at the time of going to press, and the rumour is that Apple will keep it under wraps until the official UK launch, but American prices for the lowest spec model are roughly double Kindle’s $259 (you have to have it imported). MacWorld took an ‘educated guess’ at £388 for the entry level model – which is a lot of paperbacks. And whilst there’s no doubt the iPad is easy on the eye, it won’t be easy on your eyes.

The display is a normal backlit screen, not the posh electronic

ink display that makes reading from the Kindle that much more comfortable.

Personally, I think the drawback will be battery life. I’ve never had a book conk out on me on a long train journey and been unable to finish it. Tech specs say the battery life is up to ten hours for reading books, which isn’t bad (Great Expectations, for example, clocks in at approximately 17 hours), but you won’t always be able to take it out on a full charge.

It is, then, hard to say with certainty how much the iPad will change the fortunes of the e-book.

I’m inclined to say not very much. The device

itself needs to come down in price, as do the books. But if the iPhone is anything to go on, there should be similar products from rival brands within a year or so.

Having said that, the Apple logo is sure to shift a few units, and the iTunes store is years ahead of any competitor for sheer variety of media available.

The strength of the iPad is its multiple uses: films, games, music, books, internet access, and the ever growing Apps store.

But books are just one in the list, and without specific improvements to make the iPad more readerfriendly, it’ll be more hassle than the real thing.

BOOKS AUTHOR PROFILE

Dan Orton looks back on the life of the great J. D. Salinger.

The recent news of J.D. Salinger’s death came as quite a surprise to many people, but not perhaps for the name, one immediately thinks of his most well known literary piece; The Catcher in the Rye. So well known

in fact that people can rarely tell you about any of his other works.

Couple this with his notorious reclusiveness and you would be forgiven for saying; ‘Salinger, dead?

But he died years ago didn’t he?’

Jerome David Salinger was born in Manhattan and began writing at a very young age; first at secondary school and then with articles and stories for The New Yorker. It was the publication of The Catcher in the Rye, though, in 1951, that propelled him into the spotlight.

This seminal piece of literature follows the exploits of its narrator and protagonist, Holden Caulfield, as he explores New York after his expulsion from school (for the fourth time).

It was originally written for adults but, inevitably, became popular with

teenage readers due to the obvious themes of rebellion and Holden’s view that he is alone in the world with no one understanding him. Indeed, the popularity of The Catcher in the Rye is most likely down to how well young readers were able to relate to Holden.

The book would later become the most censored book in American schools during the 1960s, with one teacher being fired after he assigned his class to read it. It would also gain notoriety in 1980 when the man responsible for shooting John Lennon was allegedly found with a copy on him following the murder.

After The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger wrote novellas instead of any more novels, beginning his life as a recluse. He moved to New Hampshire and avoided any contact

with the media, preferring instead to pursue his interest in Zen Buddhism and writing for his own pleasure and not for the publishers. So extreme were his views on privacy that he went as far as to block the publication of a biography entitled JD Salinger: A Writing Life (it would eventually be published under the title In Search of JD Salinger).

Salinger was married a total of three times and also embarked on an affair with a young writer, Joyce Maynard. Her memoirs gave fans of Salinger a much sought-after glimpse into his strange, private world and it was she who confirmed his hatred of publishers; he would write everyday, the house full of novellas and short stories, but would never consider having them published.

His first marriage was brief and over before the publication of The Catcher in the Rye. He married his second wife in 1955 and had two children. They survive him, along with his third wife, a woman forty years his junior he met in the town he lived most of his ‘post-Catcher’ life.

They married in the late 1980s and, if some reports are to be believed, were trying for a baby. Salinger was pushing 70 at the time.

J.D. Salinger died on January 27 2010 at the age of 91 which is nice to know, because most people believed him to have been dead since shortly after The Catcher in the Rye was written.

Salinger himself would probably understand though; after all, in the words of Holden Caulfield, ‘people never notice anything.’

21

Exeposé WEEK eighteen books@exepose.com

The Penelopiad Margaret Atwood ISBN: 1841956457

Having read and adored the humour in God’s Behaving Badly by Marie Philips, a book of a similar subject matter, The Penelopiad, had a vast task ahead of if it were to equally please me. It did so and then some.

Now I don’t intend to mislead you and make wild claims of it being the perfect rebuttal to The Iliad and The Odyssey, because quite frankly Homer’s tales are untouchable, even by the likes of Margaret Atwood. However, for a light-hearted, amusing, and enjoyably quick read, very few books can surpass The Penelopiad in my experience. In fact, it literally took me three sittings from start to finish.

The novel follows the life of Penelope after Odysseus has left for Troy, mostly focusing on her struggle with her suitors and her son, Telemachus. The main events don’t change, but the perspective does. For instance (and I’m not saying anything that isn’t already available in Homer’s tales), Odysseus wins Penelope for his wife and soon after leaves for Troy. Whilst he is gone, suitors

move in to his home in pursuit of his wife, and the main story ends with the traditional and established killing of the suitors and maids. However, this time the narrative voice is Penelope’s, and she doesn’t quite corroborate The Odyssey’s recounting of events.

Now I don’t want to spoil any of the twists Atwood’s take on The Odyssey has. I’ll simply say that The Penelopiad gives a modern, woman scorned perspective to the abandonment and betrayal that can be found beneath The Odyssey’s praise of Odysseus.

“An imaginative interpretation of a classic tale” I thoroughly recommend this book, and because of its brevity and simplicity, it can be read alongside most workloads. Yet I have one word of caution - do not take it too seriously; Atwood doesn’t seem to. If you can’t read it with an open mind, you’ll simply see the book as butchering a classic and you’ll miss out on a witty and imaginative interpretation of a classic tale.

“Now that I’m dead I know everything;” now that you’ve read the first line of the book, you may as well finish it. Enjoy.

Rachel Mulvany

Twenties Girl Sophie Kinsella ISBN: 0552774367

Wittily written with a charming plot, Twenties Girl is the newest creation of Sophie Kinsella; author of Confessions of a Shopaholic. It follows the life of Lara, a depressive woman in her twenties who is failing in life, love and her brand new job.

This is until her 105 year old aunt decides to haunt her, and gives her the task of finding a beloved jewelencrusted necklace.

The novel opens at the funeral of Aunt Sadie who has a measly six well -wishers. This seems incompatible with Sophie Kinsella’s witty tone, and I was nearly put off by the almost hysterical narrator who throughout the funeral seems to be slipping and sliding into madness through her refusal to accept that her boyfriend has left her and moved on. Just as the book seems to become a lost-cause however, the reader is saved by the unconventional and inconceivable Aunt Sadie. Appearing as a ghost in the middle of her funeral, she demands that her necklace be found and orders Lara to end the proceedings so that they can find it.

Lara’s life inexplicably changes after this day. Her family consider her to be even more of a lunatic for seeing

apparitions and she starts asking her aunt to follow up on old lovers and her work. In fact the book itself becomes even more bizarre as you read on. One episode involves Lara walking into an office block and asking someone out just because Sadie wished to dance with a handsome man again. Aunt Sadie’s demands are fulfilled by Lara because of her guilt for not visiting her aunt, but also they help her to realise how a woman in her twenties can live life to the full.

At times it becomes hard to read Lara’s odd diary-esque narration. The reader is forced to read her ramblings and stories, but it is the witty interludes of Aunt Sadie’s demands that give the plot momentum. Aunt Sadie is a libertarian figure for Lara, who does not conform to the idea of a longlasting relationship, and helps Lara to realise her potential in work and to have more fun in her relationships.

An easy read; this book takes almost no effort as it seems more like a page from a magazine, than a gritty encounter with a deprived ghost who tries to live life through her greatniece. Although the mad aunt catches your attention, and at times you will Lara onto success in work and in her love life, it is not the most impressive book to read. More of a relaxation tool than a serious endeavour; this book can act as boredom–stopper between work rather than a compelling read.

Not Kinsella’s best attempt by any means, but it can surely bring a little wit and humour to a miserable and wet afternoon.

Rachel bayne

Condensed Classic

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Lewis Carroll

books Bestseller List 1. Twenties Girl Sophie Kinsella The spirit of a dead aunt proves a twenty something’s saviour.

2. Tea Time for the Traditionally Built Alexander McCall Smith A football team enlists the help of the lady detectives.

3. The Lovely Bones Alice Sebold A murder victim recounts her death and watches her family trying to cope.

4. Don’t Tell

ISBN: 0141439769

Have you ever read this book?

I bet you haven’t. If you’ve had any contact with it at all, I suspect it was through your parents trying to read it to you. If you’re anything like me I bet you threw a tantrum and demanded to watch telly - anything is preferable to this book. It is just so unsuitable for children.

However, I expect you’ve heard of the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, the Cheshire Cat who vanished

“In 1865, children were regarded as a separate species, viewed as slightly defective adults”

(except for his grin), the Queen of Hearts, the rigmarole about falling down a rabbit hole and becoming suddenly very tall or small etc. These bits of the book have permeated our collective literary conscience and do no harm really, but the book itself is both gruesome and grotesque and by today’s standards unpublishable.

The author was Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll), a mathematics don at Oxford with an interest in prepubescent girls, extending to photographing them undressed and the story came to be put on paper after his verbal storytelling to several young things was deemed just so good that it would be a crime if the story didn’t endure forever.

The story is an account of

the weird and wonderful people and creatures that Alice meets on her underground journey, once she gets down the rabbit hole. It gets more ridiculous line by line, but in a self-conscious and embarrassingly bad way as Alice meets playing cards that are people, a caterpillar smoking a hookah pipe a nd so on. The pervading feeling is that of some crashing bore of an old boy with not a clue about children trying to keep them interested by recounting an increasingly ridiculous story. The poor

“The book is, by today’s standards, unpublishable”

children must have been bored to tears as the bloke droned on. I expect fans of the book (not that I have met any) will praise its scope, its rejection of convention and the “marvellous” journey it takes its readers on. Tosh say I. What becomes apparent is how excellent and non-patronizing today’s children’s books are, and how they respect the readers’ intelligences. We have such a rich collection - The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Burglar Bill, The Tiger Who Came to Tea, Freddy the Teddy and the magnificent Where’s Wally, to name a few of my favourites which I constantly reread. I imagine that in 1865, children were regarded as a separate species by many folks, viewed with perplexity as slightly defective adults and were consequently bored to death by condescending drivel like this.

Hooray for today!

Rosie oram

Karen Rose An abusive husband tracks down his wife on learning she faked her death.

5. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Stieg Larsson A computer hacker and a journalist investigate a cold case.

Sunday Times Bestseller List February 14 2010

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23

Exeposé WEEK eighteen books@exepose.com

The Satanic Verses Salman Rushdie ISBN: 0963270702

Controversial literary figure and winner of multiple Booker Prizes, including the Booker of Bookers, Salman Rushdie has been an influential figure in both the worlds of religion and literature throughout his career. While his work spans an incredibly wide range of themes and topics, Rushdie’s long recognised classic, The Satanic Verses (first published in 1988), along with Midnight’s Children (1981), remains one of the focal points of his career; the apotheosis of his talent and the hallmark of his characteristic and distinctive prosaic style.

The Satanic Verses won mixed

recognition amidst critical praise, formal awards, and the highly public fatwa, which has often overshadowed the work itself after multiple acts of terrorism were conducted against publishers and translators who worked on the novel. The work at no point comes across as intentionally blasphemous, offensive or derisive, but rather stands apart as a stark and innovative interpretation of themes within Islam, being based loosely on the story of the Prophet.

The novel, weighing in at nearly 600 pages, flows seamlessly through interlinked, but rarely interacting plots without ever seeming convoluted. The work is a compelling read because of its length rather than in spite of it, and the slow but steady development of the plot is consistently enchanting. The novel centres on the characters Saladin and Gibreel, who after surviving a plane crash become the allegorical, and sometimes literal, manifestations of good and evil. Forced to confront the moral universe around them, and the ethics of their own increasingly convergent lives, they come together in a divinely pre-destined clash between right and wrong.

It is Rushdie’s nuanced treatment of this tried and tested

BOOKS AUTHOR PROFILE Khaled Hosseini

Walk into a book shop in the last few years and it is impossible not to see the name ‘Khaled Hosseini’ on a multitude of book spines all over the bestsellers shelves. His 2003 novel, The Kite Runner fast became an international bestseller and was followed in 2007 by A Thousand Splendid Suns.

Both of the novels Hosseini has to his name are culturally rich and based in his own home country of Afghanistan. Much of Hosseini’s own life is reflected in his stories – for instance, The Kite Runner sees protagonist, Amir, gain political asylum in the United States, as Hosseini did.

So why have Khaled Hosseini’s books had such a worldwide appeal?

First, Hosseini has a simple, clear writing style – perhaps this bodes well for him, appealing to numerous readers by scraping away convolution and pretention.

But Hosseini isn’t writing fairytales; his novels are politically gritty and culturally intense.

Crunching boots

“His novels are politically gritty and culturally intense”

right on this political grit, The Kite Runner reveals the harsh political regimes and the social prejudices in Afghan society. Amir, son of a wealthy Afghan and Hassan, a servant Hazara boy, lead this coming of age story through all its emotional mines. The boys mirror each other, Amir an almost satanic cultural product, while Hassan remains enveloped in an angelic state of natural compassion and unconditional faith. After the horrific rape of Hassan, Amir’s conscience becomes stained from standing by and watching the assault.

Though the novel is drenched in tragedy, beauty comes into it through the redemption that it ends with.

The beauty of the story and the impressionable, vivid imagery were brought to the screen in Marc Forster’s film adaption of

Post Office

Charles Bukowski ISBN: 0701171189

idea that makes the novel work.

Nothing is ever black and white, and the surrealism of the plot and imagery raises questions of our own understandings and definitions of morality. In fact, by the end of the novel even the events therein are subject to scrutiny, their plausibility thrown into an ever-changing interpretive light.

The portrayal of Muslim and Indian culture is flawlessly executed, playing on Rushdie’s own experiences and the well-perceived preconceptions (often shown to be misconceptions) of his readership.

The insight offered into cultures radically different from our own, as well as, at times, an all too revealing comment on Britain, gives the novel depth beyond its simple function as a story. Rushdie proves himself to be a perceptive observer of the world around him, using its mundane framework to paint a dramatic and unpredictable picture calling into question what we take for granted to be straightforward. While the controversy of the novel has been a tale of comparable proportions, the subtleties and merit of The Satanic Verses should never be lost in its shadow.

Alex Moss news editor

the same name. The Kite Runner is skilfully depicted in arthouse style, restraining from the Hollywood trap of too much slick cinematography. The vibrant colours and striking images are evocative to the imagination and mean that Hosseini’s work has avoided mutilation by film. The film made such an impression that it was banned in Afghanistan because of its true portrayal of the culture.

Hosseini’s second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, gives another portrayal of grim beauty. As with The Kite Runner, Hosseini’s writing takes muchfromtheideaofabildungsroman: the physical and emotional growth of a character tracked through their life. Hosseini writes of the patriarchy resident in Afghanistan: “Like a compass needle that points north, a man’s accusing finger always finds a woman. Always.” To the Western reader, there is much revelation of the belief systems of other cultures – it is a jarring look at humanity.

This is not just humanity on the other side of the world though.

Perhaps the West needs a jarring look at itself and the journey it is taking.

And I don’t just mean the imperative journey to the bookshop.

charlie marchant

Post Office is Bukowski’s first novel and along with Ham on Rye is considered to be almost entirely autobiographical.

The book chronicles the life of down-andout postal worker, alcoholic and cynic Henry Chinaski. Chinaski, Bukowski’s literary doppelgänger, features in another seven of his works, as well as in Bukowski’s film Barfly.

The narrative follows Chinaski through a series of menial jobs, first as a post office worker where he is ceaselessly warring with his supervisor, through his brief successes as a gambler and finally as a mail room clerk. As well as his disdain of the daily grind and relationships with several unusual co-workers, Post Office is punctuated by a series of dysfunctional romances, most notably those with ‘Betty’ and ‘Joyce’. Both these woman featured in Bukowski’s real life, Joyce being his first wife Barbara Frye and Betty, the real love of his life, was really a widowed alcoholic named Jane Cooney Baker. Frye divorced Bukowski alleging ‘mental cruelty.’

She is repaid with representation as a character who is besotted with sex and money. Bukowski’s triumphs in Post Office lie in his ability to convert biographical fact into a genuine emotional realism.

On the face of it Post Office is the story of an entirely unremarkable man and vaguely disreputable character; however through his colloquial diction and accessible but well written prose, we feel buoyed

by Chinaski’s minor successes at the track, we feel hope at each relationship he seems able to craft and then crushed by the mire that is left when he cannot salvage anything from his chronic alcoholism.

Bukowski’s previous experience as a poet is evident through his writing, there is little wanton prose and this greatly enhances the fluidity in which we are able to follow Chinaski’s emotional states.

It is legend and folklore that John Martin of Black Sparrow Press promised Bukowski $100 a month to leave the post office work and concentrate on writing, a month

books

later Post Office was the result. Well known for his focus on the lives of the everyday American, Bukowski wrote literally hundreds of poems, remarkable for their lack of formality and undeniable skill in manipulation of tone and in their sporadic moments of tenderness. Famously Bukowski’s was pronounced the ‘laureate of the American lowlife,’ which gives a sense of how he champions his unassuming subjects. I will veer aware from tarring him with the brush of ‘gritty realism’ but there is little doubt, in my opinion at least, that few authors capture the feeling of being a normal person living a normal life. For he is my perennial refreshment in a world saturated with celebrity and discontentment.

“He is my perennial refreshment in a world saturated with celebrity” Post Office was published 1971 the same year, as another great alternative American Classic, Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. However thematically and stylistically, Bukowski is a forerunner to writers like Thompson.

Both grasped on to freedom and individuality as the principle characteristics of the American way of life, and both use their wits as a tool to cope with the inequities of life.

While Bukowski is a very experiential writer, dealing with the injustices and minor victories of everyday life that underlie his own personal cynicism, Thompson focuses his ire on the politics of his generation, using surrealism to satirise. It is no surprise therefore, that Bukowski’s narrative is set in the recent past and veers somewhat closer to influences like Hemingway, Chekhov and Kafka; whereas Thompson uses his Gonzo journalistic style in trying to grapple with the immediacy of his subject matter. Interestingly neither author was primarily a novelist, Bukowski preferring poetry and Hunter making his living wage as a journalist; something that may account for the unconventional approach each takes to writing longer narratives, and the heavy use of autobiography in their earliest works.

I maintain that if you ‘get’ Bukowski, you will love him and the vast majority of his work. Post Office, as well as being one of his best novels, is a fantastic starting point and an immensely readable book.

Furthermore, what better read for a university student than a book about a man who doesn’t know what to do with his life or at least finds little solace in the 9-5?

Jacob moffatt

24

february 22 2010

screen

Exeposé

www.exepose.com

Exeposé crosses the white line

Jonny Campbell-Jones explores the interesting relationship between sport and the silver screen.

AS Clint Eastwood’s Invictus reaches cinemas nationwide an interesting debate rears its head once again: can sport be successfully portrayed in film? Critics are often split down the middle in this argument. What most agree on, however, is that the best sports films focus on the people involved in the game rather than the game itself. Thus, the focalized characters in the film are no different to those in any other film. It just so happens that they are located on a basketball court or in a boxing ring.

Invictus promises to achieve this distinction. As a “Lukie boy,” the promise of so many big stars within a film about rugby gives me that Christmas morning feeling. The film follows the social conflict of the newly appointed Prime Minister of South Africa, Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman), with the South African Rugby Union captain, Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon). Its focus is on Mandela’s struggle against apartheid and not on the game of rugby itself.

Mandela is shocked to discover that Africans in the stadium cheer against their home squad, as the Springboks (their history, players and even their colours) represent prejudice and apartheid in their mind. Knowing that South Africa is set to host the 1995 Rugby World Cup in one year’s time, Mandela convinces the South African rugby board to keep the Springbok team, name and colours the same. If the Springboks can gain the support of South Africans and succeed in the upcoming World Cup, the country will be unified and inspired. Mandela

also shares with Pienaar that a poem, Invictus, had been inspiring to him during his time in prison, helping him to “stand when all he wanted to do was lie down.” During their last few pre-tournament games, support for the Springboks begins to grow amongst the Africans. The support continues to grow until South Africa reach the final of the World Cup and this is where the film reaches its climax.

There is space for comedy in sports films also. In fact, films such as Cool Runnings or Shaolin Soccer often celebrate their own farce.

The technology used to depict football in Shaolin Soccer is so appalling that it makes watching the game hilarious.

This film is right out of the ‘it’s-so-bad-it’s-good’ school of film-making. A little bit like Alien vs. Predator, but on a football pitch. It is when sports films try to deliver an accurate portrayal of the game as their first priority when the problems begin to occur. The Goal franchise epitomises this. The first instalment of Goal was billed as the most realistic portrayal of football. Ever. Millions flooded to the cinema to see an embarrassingly alien looking game with heartshatteringly obvious special effects to portray the game of football. Goal transformed the beautiful game into the ugly game.

It is a testament to human nature that the hysteria surrounding Goal lessened dramatically by the time the third film bypassed the cinema and wimpered onto DVD. The combination of buttonpushing uplift, sundry sweeping helicopter shots and a bombastic score make it look like it came on a free transfer from a Tony Scott movie. The cinematography proves as resistably

synthetic as the CGI-enhanced heroics on the pitch.

However, on the other end of the spectrum comes Peter Berg’s Friday Night Lights. Friday Night Lights is my favourite sports film of all time. Based on a real-life story and book, Friday Night Lights follows the dramatic 1988 season of high school American football team the Permian Panthers, led by noble-minded head coach Gary Gaines (Billy Bob Thornton). This is a season that will come to enfold all the hopes, brutal realities and personal tragedies of a hardscrabble town called Odessa, lost among the desiccated plains of Texas. As to be expected, it’s not without the occasional fumble (excuse the pun). In fact, certain scenes seem to have been plucked right out of the film school playbook (sorry).

However, what the film lacks in technical precision it makes up for in its genuine portrayal of the doubleedged nature of pro-sports. There is the hysteria of the town as the team risks losing out in the play-offs and the treatment of Booby Miles as a walking deity when results are going in favour of the Permian Panthers.

The action has the punching, rhythmic edits of genuine sports coverage, and in among the players’ lives the handheld camerawork has the unblinking force of a documentary.

Yet, Berg’s delivery still possesses an essential movieness, and his film has a mythical

reach, skies filled with the contrails of unattainable dreams. These are less the tones of the melodramatic sports milieu than the romantic Western, the young cowpoke’s rite-of-passage transmuted from the chaparral to the stadium. And when you read the written coda of what happened to the real kids, it’s a note of pure heartbreak.

So stay for the closing credits, if for nothing else but to stifle your sobs.

Friday Night Lights celebrates the players and, by extension, the game.

Goal fails as it reverses this formula. A film about sport must foreground the human emotion that surrounds the game and place the game itself on the bench. It may hurt die-hard sports fans but it makes for a much better film.

If you are really interested in boxing, football or rugby my advice is this. Go to a live game. Watch real action unfold, as any sporting occasion has the ability to shock you or inspire you. As a dedicated sports science student I know the impact live sport can have on an audience; you can always be caught off-guard by sport. Not many Liverpool fans expected the events that occurred in Istanbul, 2005. Not many expected the American Football Texas State Final to be the spectacle it was in 1988. This is the beauty of sport; its ability to deliver the unexpected. A film is often contorted into cliché. Sport can never be reduced to that. That is why I love Friday Night Lights and loathe the Goal franchise. Sport and the silver screen can be harmonious - they just need the right formula.

to give the message that true love means loving every aspect about a person, whether it is lovable or not… even if that aspect is a tendency to cheat or have phone sex with random strangers! The film then ends by concluding that if all else fails in life, your best friend is always a safe last resort.

The multiple storylines mean that each character is given an average of five scenes, apart from poor Jessica Alba, who only has lines in two scenes and is then shown in small snippets for the rest of

the film weeping and walking the streets with a dog, teaching that all important lesson: if you are going to leave your boyfriend, wait until the day after Valentine’s Day. Unlike Pretty Woman, this was Garry Marshall’s ultimate hit and miss. The only thing it is an accurate reflection of is Valentine’s Day itself: sickeningly commercialised, clichéd and completely unnecessary.

Valentine’s Day

Dir: Garry Marshall Cast: Patrick Dempsey, Jessica Alba, Bradley Cooper (12) 125mins

I THINK it’s safe to say that singletons should not see Valentine’s Day, not because it is all about love, but because they would have just wasted over two hours of their lives watching what can only be described as a poor man’s Love Actually.

Whoever said that Americans have a gift for taking a concept and turning it into a mesh of clichés and beautiful but average actors should use this film as ‘Exhibit A’.

It felt as though Garry Marshall had got out his dictionary, looked

up the word ‘love,’ and turned each definition into a storyline. Let’s see, we had puppy love with the confused little boy who couldn’t figure out if he loved his classmate or his 30-year-old teacher; young love with the college kids who thought each other totally hot; and then, at the risk of sounding too cynical, pure desperation between a lonely neurotic woman and the man who witnesses her breakdown but finds it… cute? What a great lesson for young girls - show a boy you’re vulnerable and ever so

slightly mental side and he will be yours forever! In all fairness Garry Marshall is successful in some aspects of the film… like the part where he crushes the dreams of girls all over the country by making Grey’s Anatomy’s McDreamy, Patrick Dempsey, a lying McCheat, as well as two of the hottest actors (in the movie at least), Bradley Cooper and Eric Dane gay… with each other!

However, there is a lovely parallel between an elderly couple and a new relationship that seemed

Sofia Amato

25

Screen

Exeposé WEEK eighteen screen@exepose.com

A Prophet

Dir: Jacques Audiard Cast: Tahar Rahim, Niels Arustrup, Adel Bencherif (18) 155mins

IT’s sad to think how many people will never see this film. Being long, gruesome, and only available with

subtitles it diminishes commercial potential, so I was lucky to be able to see one of a handful of screenings at the Picturehouse. I was glad I made the time to see it.

This is an incredible film that offers a deliciously fresh new take on the traditional crime film; creating an empire while still in prison. It follows Malik El Djebena, a nineteen-year-old recentlyincarcerated ruffian, who is relatively fresh-offace. This film charts Malik’s learning curve, the education he never had. He learns how to get ahead from his experiences in jail, his surrogate school, bringing with it its own skewed moral code.

On his first day inside he is asked to commit a serious crime by fellow inmates.

When it is ‘asked’, however, refusal would result in his own demise.

And so this deviant bildungsroman begins. This is a two-and-a-half-hour film, but time is something that seems irrelevant as you are drawn into this superlative, majestic story. The pacing in this film is literally perfect. The director, Jacques Audiard, gives us all the steps in Malik’s development, letting us drink in the magic of these magnificent scenes before sweeping us off to new situations, new interactions, new gloriously cinematic moments.

All of this relies on a fusion of cinematic schools, between new realist cinema and the classic cinematic language. We follow Audiard’s jerky camera as he unveils his grand story arc. We watch a washed-out colour palette as we listen to orchestral flourishes. This classical score in fact is dotted with upbeat pop songs, which, of course, hit the perfect notes when

The Wolfman

Dir: Joe Johnston Cast: Emily Blunt, Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins (15) 102mins

“I believe in miracles” sang inexplicably perennially-popular songsters Hot Chocolate back in 1975, and it would appear that – in the case of The Wolfman, at least – their optimism has been vindicated. This is primarily because the film (which has been in development since 2006) is a startlingly good, if predictable, slice of Hammer Horror-esque nonsense delivered by a cast who, admittedly, spend more time chewing on scenery than the titular character spends gnawing on human flesh.

The film, a remake of the 1941 classic of the same name, sees American actor Lawrence Talbot, played by Benicio Del Toro (brow furrowed, hair ruffled), return to his ancestral home to investigate the mysterious disappearance of his brother alongside his eccentric father (Anthony Hopkins). Soon enough though, he comes a cropper with a certain hirsute humanoid feared by the gypsies who occupy the nearby fields and, once bitten, starts to experience some unexpected side-effects. Bodies begin to pile up and Scotland Yard dispatches Hugo Weaving’s sideburned inspector to find the culprit.

Of course, this is all phooey and hokum, as expected from a remake of a Universal monster movie.

Indeed, it is perhaps this gleeful obedience to the tropes and idioms of the gothic horror genre, both on the part of the direction and script (albeit to varying success) that really ensures that the end product is as entertaining as it fortunately is.

Professional journeyman director Joe Johnston (The Rocketeer, Jurassic Park III) is really the person that one suspects much of the title’s success can be attributed to.

Replacing original helmer Mark Romanek, Johnston’s intensely visual style brings a satisfying edge of pulpy brevity to the film, complemented by stunning gothic cinematography. Granted, it may all be the ominous fog and towering dilapidated grandeur so commonly associated with Victoriana, however it’s pulled off splendidly.

The script meanwhile - courtesy of David Self and Andrew Kevin Walker - is passable if unspectacular; a reasonably uninspired retelling of the original Curt Siodmak treatment punctuated only by some intelligent soliloquies from Hopkins’ patriarch. Indeed, the characterisation of some of the protagonists comes across as rather muddled; Talbot, in particular, is set up to interest, however quickly loses face as the film increasingly descends into a furry CGI spectacular, particularly in his

required. The director has such clarity of vision that all of these different facets, which in other circumstances could have been grating, never jar.

They create a beautiful, deranged, arresting environment for the equally beautiful, deranged, arresting action that takes place.

Most of the action centres around the actor Tahar Rahim, playing Malik El Djebena. He is quite simply astonishing in his film debut. Always incredibly involving but never over the top, he negotiates his way through this film expertly. We see Malik use, exploit and manipulate his fellow inmates as he advances himself.

The thrust of this ‘prison film’ is not about a conflict between a convict and an authority figure, but the power struggles of the inmates themselves.

Their motivations, strengths and weaknesses are laid out to be scrutinized. All of this is achieved through an excellent supporting cast,

who are so authentic that one wonders whether they are actual criminals.

All of this works because of Audiard’s beautiful clarity of vision.

This is a masterfully crafted piece of cinema that works because of his superb vision. I have used many superlatives and the word ‘superlative’ itself in this review to describe this film. I have also overlooked a lot of important aspects of a film which could be examined for hours. Only a vague plot line has been given. I haven’t once mentioned the state of mind of the protagonist in a character driven story. I haven’t tried to explain the title. These are all aspects which you should find and assess for yourself, and I shouldn’t deny you the pleasure of doing so. This is one of the best crime films I have ever seen, but don’t just take my word for it...

Tom Nicoll

Campus Cinema

The cheapest cinema in Exeter M&D Room, Devonshire House www.campuscinema.co.uk

relationship to love interest Emily Blunt. Del Toro does the best with what he is given, but ultimately appears somewhat bored by proceedings.

However, one suspects that this is the fault of last-minute studio editing (the film’s troubled production ultimately saw two competing cuts being aired early this year to test audiences prior to release). The story, for one, jump cuts from location to location without leaving any room for exposition, unsettling any sense of pace or momentum the film had established at the beginning.

Likewise, the climactic showdown, all tooth and (CGI) claw is an unsatisfactory flurry of silly effects.

However, The Wolfman is most certainly worth one’s time. The film looks beautiful and such visual elegance is matched by enjoyable performances (Hopkins and Weaving, in particular) and a wonderfully nostalgic Danny Elfman score. Nonetheless, with any luck a DVD director’s cut will ensure that the true beast within this film is eventually unleashed.

This fortnight at Campus Cinema sees the advent of our brand new selection of films courtesy of our latest programme (available now campus-wide in hard copy).

OSS 117: Lost in Rio may not be a film you’ve heard of before, but it’s definitely one of our most anticipated films of this year: a French spy comedy in the vein of Naked Gun and Austin Powers.

Following a racist, misogynistic French agent hunting down exiled Nazis in South America, it is sure to get you rolling in the aisles.

Up, the latest film from the masterful folks over at Pixar, is an

intensely emotional exploration of the joys of adventure and a shoe-in at the Oscars this year.

The Hurt Locker, nominated for a handful of Oscars (including Best Picture), is one of last year’s most talked-about films that you owe yourself to see before the Academy Awards.

What more can be said about Avatar (in association with GreenSoc) that hasn’t been mentioned already?

Bold, imaginative, visually arresting and generally beautiful in all respects. After all, who can argue with the highest-grossing film of all time?

Tues Feb 23 - OSS 117: Lost in Rio (M&D Room, Devonshire House), 6.30 & 9pm Sun Feb 28 - Up (M&D Room, Devonshire House), 6.30 & 9pm Tues Mar 2 - The Hurt Locker (M&D Room, Devonshire House), 6.30 & 9pm Thurs Mar 4 - Poster Sale (Cornwall House), 11am-4pm

James mcmeekin Editor

Sun Mar 7 - Avatar (in association with Green Society) (M&D Room, Devonshire House), 6 & 9pm

26

february 22 2010 Exeposé

www.exepose.com

arts arts interVIEW

DITA VON TEESE

Arts editor, Emma Waterson, chats to Dita, discussing sexuality and the burlesque revival.

DITA Von Teese: perhaps the most renowned and most successful “tease artist” in the world. The “Queen of Burlesque” has revived an era of glamour; of feathers and pearls and all things feminine, becoming what she refers to herself as “the thinking woman’s sexual icon.”

of burlesque history did - make striptease artistic.”

This led very nicely into whether she considered herself an icon for pornography, or whether she influenced the ‘pornography as art’ case. “People haven’t changed over hundreds of years.

Because there was censorship, sex

“I love cooking in a corset, heels and stockings.. It makes me feel alive!”

Being a devotee to the pin-up and classical femme fatale image, Von Teese has become an icon to the alternative, an idol to the sexualised woman and a revamp of classic Hollywood glamour.

Being one of my own idols, it was an absolute pleasure to interview her about glamour, celebrity if and whether she considers if she has any influence on the view of pornography as art.

Born Heather Renée Sweet in Rochester, Michigan on September 28, 1972, she adopted the name Dita as a tribute to German silent film actress Dita Parlo, reiterating her love for the glory era of classic cinema. At the tender age of 15, Dita rifled through her dad’s old Playboy magazines and invented the idea of the modern teenager expressing their sexuality through vintage lingerie. “I have always had a connection to the past, the glamorous lifestyle, how women really looked after themselves and were always well presented, even if they were at home cooking dinner. I love cooking in a corset, heels and stockings - it makes me feel alive!”

When asked about being an icon for the feminist and whether she tries to place any political messages in her shows, she insists it is only interpretation, “I want to entertain people. Back in the day of the real golden age of burlesque, entertainers did what it said on the tin - they entertained! I’m simply trying to uphold the original tradition, remaining true to history and attempting to do what the artists

just wasn’t shown as explicitly, referred to in innuendo, but it was there, and it was hardcore.”

On her fetish modelling, she simply refers to it as, “a passion.

I have always appreciated the sexual female form, and people may see that as pornography. To me, it’s just a

photograph with a few choice props in the frame- it’s still art, it’s still somebody’s idea of beauty, and as long as you appeal to one person, it is their art. People just consider burlesque or fetish as seedy and taboo. Mainstream burlesque clubs don’t understand the history of vaudeville, it isn’t about the end product of being naked for the male gaze - it is the way you strip.”

I was very surprised she defended her name as stripper, expecting for her to invent a term.

However, she avidly

admits, “yes, we are strippers, no matter how hard someone can attempt to deny it. We as a community, from public and private club dancers, we are strippers, and I’m proud of that. My idol, Gypsy Rose Lee, stripped to her underwear back in the thirties, and that is the true history of burlesque. It was elegant. It was the starting point for the modern-day lapdancing club; it’s the same thing, it’s just a different kind of styling, and maybe there were a little

more theatrics involved, a little more glamour.”

“It’s great that we have lap dancing clubs, and it’s great that we have pole-dancers. It’s a way of expressing each girl’s own femininity. I think it’s great that there are different kinds of sex being presented out there, and sex is an art. It’s the same as ballet; you need the stamina, you need to know your art.” In essence, Von Teese deliberated that people will always have shielded upbringings and consider sex as sinful, however others see sex and pornography as forms of artistic expression, and dancing is an art-form with the theatricalities of Broadway.

“I started looking through books of pin-up models from the era. I discovered Bettie Page and I started looking at the magazines she actually appeared in. I wanted to recreate those pinup pictures. One thing leads to another. I wanted a corset, and when I finally found a place that sold them, I walked in and it was a fetish store. So it all kind of came together at once for me, this ‘40s fetishism, this severe look of a John Willie painted girl.

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Exeposé wEEK eighteen arts@exepose.com

ARTS INTERVIEW CONTINUED: DITA VON TEESE A lightbulb went on in my head, and I thought, “Why shouldn’t I be recreating this stuff? No one’s really doing that.” The fetish scene at that time was about piercings and tattoos and girls shaved bald and really severe images of bitches with whips, and I wanted to bring this elegant fetishism back into the mainstream.”

In reference to her upbringing,

ARTS REVIEW The Fever Chart

by Naomi Wallace York Theatre Royal

THE Fever Chart draws no solid distinction between life and death. It is both brutal and moving in its portrayal of the Middle East, with its bloodstained past and desolate present.

Time drifts backwards and shoots forwards again with a terrifying

ARTS COMMENT

Von Teese reiterated again and again that she is a creation, much like Hollywood actresses throughout the century. “When I was young, I would always go shopping with my mother for vintage and antique clothes. I would walk around in heels and a vintage dress which dragged on the floor. We would watch old movies with Marilyn Monroe and Rita Hayworth. They were all painted, coiffed and styled, and I thought ‘I could do that. That isn’t natural.’ I simply did what they did, and created another personality. I curled my hair and painted myself, much like what Marilyn Monroe did. No-one remembers what she was like when she was Norma Jean, only the glamorised pseudo-Norma.”

With Dita’s success climbing her to the top of A-List celebrity, it seems there is no stopping her. With two highly acclaimed books and sold-out performances globally, she has revived and

enticed a whole generation to the vaudeville tradition, introducing an alternative source of expressing one’s own sexuality, showing people that no matter who you are, you can create glamour in your life.

I was in awe of this woman, her intellect and passionate nature highlighted with each sentence. Although some may look upon her work as simply stripping and exhibitionism, my personal opinion remains that her performances are adaptations of a historical entertainment which many admire and wish to resemble.

Von Teese’s revival of burlesque has taught many globally to improve their own self confidence with glamourised performances in small intimate classes; to me, I consider it an art which affects the lives of people. Arguably, that is the most poignant art.

jolt. A wall cannot be built.

Boundaries cannot be firmly established. As Mourid asserts in the second vision, “There are always cracks.”

As I went to see the play, I was very aware that my knowledge of the Middle East crisis was lacking.

Quite simply, it could be reduced to a far-off nation, a wall and a few bombs. It was all too political.

Onstage, however, the political is injected with raw human emotion.

Conflict and tension are dished out on a grass-roots level. My political ignorance did not protect me from being dragged in.

The Fever Chart consists of three visions of the Middle East. The settings are plain: a rundown zoo, a hospital clinic, a backyard. In all three, death is brought to life. In the first, we learn that the mother and the soldier are living in hell.

In the second, we discover that the nurse is being kept alive through a lung transplant, the lungs of Mourid’s dead son.

The third vision is perhaps the most striking in its minimalism: just a man, holding a book. War has robbed him of his family, his friends and his birds, or as he calls them, “little pieces of peace”. The play is brimming with images of loss and isolation, another example being in the second vision, where Mourid tries to recreate the image of his son using a filthy mop and a baseball cap.

All three actors should be commended for their sensitive and versatile performances. The number three is significant: two Israelis, one Palestinian. This is a territorial play; a play about suspicion and division. But alongside the division, we are presented with a feeling of intimacy. Whether it is a Palestinian mother holding a dying Israeli soldier, or an Israeli nurse breathing with a set of Palestinian lungs, the message is clear: humanity is not quite dead.

EMMA WATERSON ARTS EDITOR

JAMES de SOUZA

Arts

ALEXANDER MCQUEEN

A white dress sprayed Pollockstyle with yellow and black paint; reptilian constructions encasing models’ feet; bum cleavage poking out from low-rise jeans: these images are what Alexander McQueen is famous for, and how he will be remembered.

Lee Alexander McQueen started from a humble background: the son of a cab driver and one of many brothers and sisters, McQueen began at Savile Row creating suits for London’s elite. He studied at London College of Fashion, where his collection caught the attention of stylist and journalist Isabella Blow, famous for her avant-garde taste.

Despite his modest background, he quickly rose to fame as a designer who pushed the boundaries of fashion, transforming his designs into pieces of art.

His innovative hipster trousers are the first in a long list of how he revolutionised the fashion world.

The low-rise trousers featured early in his career, sparking controversy as butt cheeks and crack were shown in full view without apology. Yet these trousers were a sensation and defined the silhouette of the late nineties and early noughties; what first was contentious and vulgar became an everyday staple in the wardrobe of both men and women.

Then was the way in which he treated the body: a means to simultaneously hang clothes and create debate on his vision for the show, or simply to question what was beautiful. Amputees famously walked the runway, a naked woman trapped in a box swallowed by her rolls of fat served as a stark contrast to the hordes of super-skinny models on the catwalk. The makeup and hair was all but ordinary, lashings of lipstick to create a look of a swollen mouth, hair greased to foreheads and headpieces that concealed the face.

McQueen was no stranger to the modern and radical, he embraced technology and utilised

it in his shows that were more like installations of modern art than a simple model walking down a runway. Models would pose inside glass boxes, a hologram of Kate Moss flickered over the spectators, and his most recent and final outing at Women’s Fashion Week streamed the show live on the web (which subsequently crashed the site).

While some may lament that McQueen was too avant-garde for the everyday, others embraced the fantastical qualities that exuded from his work. His most recent celebrity fan seemed a perfect match. In her music video ‘Bad Romance,’ Lady Gaga donned the seemingly unwearable digitally printed dresses with grotesque proportions, and skyscraper curved boots that seemed more sea creature than shoe.

Yet this is precisely why Alexander McQueen shall be so missed. An innovator in his creations and aesthetic, McQueen showed by his tenure at Givenchy that he was able to reign in the fantastical to support a vision of a traditional fashion house. Original, yet with the skill to translate to the high street, he had a unique ability to be inspiring yet relevant in one collection. His is a loss that will be particularly felt on British fashion; McQueen was quintessentially British in his no fear approach to design and embodied much of what is thought of the creativity of British fashion today. With London Fashion Week starting as this issue goes to press, the legacy of innovation and daring will be left to the young darlings of London - Gareth Pugh and Christopher Kane. It will be fascinating to watch fresh designers attempt to take on this heritage, but for now, the creativity of Alexander McQueen will be sorely missed.

REBECCA LEWIS EDITOR

Widen Your Options is for you…

Monday 22 February – Friday 5 March 2010 Attend sector specific presentations Participate in question and answer panels Network with the professionals

OPE TO A N

LL STU DEN TS

Develop your skills Sectors represented include science and technology, media and journalism, advertising, PR and marketing, environmental, health and social work, charities and the voluntary sector, engineering, sport and health science, education, government and public sector, tourism and information about entrepreneurship and vacation opportunities.

For more information visit www.exeter.ac.uk/employability/widenyouroptions

www.exeter.ac.uk/employability

YOU kick a car wing mirror off.

YOU get a fine and a criminal record.

YOU spoil your career prospects.

29

Arts

Exeposé wEEK eighteen arts@exepose.com

ARTS REVIEW How It Is Miroslaw Balka Tate Modern

WHEN visiting the Tate Modern over the New Year, the one piece of art that truly struck a chord and has remained with me was the ominous work of Miroslaw Balka.

Walking unawares down the ramp of the Turbine Hall in the Tate Modern, debating whether to donate the recommended £2, and wistfully looking at the gorgeous array of art books in the subterranean gift store I was stopped in my tracks by a big black box. Resembling a giant steel shipment container ‘How It Is’ is undoubtedly an attention-grabbing piece of modern art. Descending to get near to the piece, one is inextricably drawn and repulsed at the same time by its immense gravity and imposing structure. From the front you cannot see nor conceive the possibility of entering the space, but on reaching the far side, the steel crate offers an

ARTS REVIEW Harvey Exeter Northcott

HARVEY is the name of an invisible six foot rabbit, best friend to eccentric but amiable Elwood P. Dowd, and acute embarrassment to Elwood’s socially ambitious sister and socially awkward niece. A feelgood story about two individuals happy to be themselves and feeling no need to conform to the repressive, humourless world around them, this play was produced to a very high standard and as I left the theatre I was still laughing.

Mary Chase’s play Harvey is best known in its film format starring James Stewart and that was clearly the starting point for the directors who not only gave the audience a superb piece of

entrance up into the box via a large ramp. Visible is only a vast black 13 metre square, to which other visitors are approaching, contemplating, and disappearing into the darkness.

Forced by curiosity, but held back by fear, you are drawn into the darkness. As you enter you lose all concept of space, the walls could be inches or miles, the box seems to stretch for infinity until you reach the reassurance of the velvety wall at the end of the box. Reaching the far side feels like an accomplishment, and from the back you can finally turn around to look out at the intense light square, of the outside world, an inverse view of that which you faced on entrance to the box.

The box provokes fear for some, and freedom for others. It’s a matter of mindset. The Polish artist suggests some allusions to the trucks involved in removal of Jews to Auschwitz or Treblinka, adding a more sinister twist on the darkened space within.

The Box stands until the April 5 in the Tate Modern, London.

ZOE BULAITIS

drama, but a 1950s movie-palace experience with cheery ushers, dancing girls and free popcorn in the interval. Whilst I am ordinarily sceptical of gimmicks like this- all too often they can overshadow an otherwise good piece of drama - in the case of Harvey these humorous quirks worked and were fun and exuberant without being a distraction.

I have never seen the 1950s film, although as something of a James Stewart fan, credit must go to Charlie O’Reardon for his brilliant parody of Stewart. Not since Tony Curtis took off Cary Grant for Marilyn Monroe’s benefit have I seen an imitation quite so apt or funny. While unable to comment on whether the rest of the cast referenced their respective characters in the screen portrayal, the play certainly elicites images of American comedies from the

30s and 40s with their cast of colourful stereotypes; the rich featherbrained matron, the awkward debutante daughter, the neurotic physiatrist and the pretty blonde secretary.

Praise must go to Mary Osborn in the role of Veta, Elwood’s fluttery society sister whose desire to bring her daughter out in good society is thwarted by her fear of the neighbours learning about her brother ’s strange habits. Osborn’s portrayal was quite outstandingdramatic enough to emphasise the ridiculous nature of the character, without ever seeming overplayed and forced, (which would be my only criticism of the portrayal of Judge Gaffney and Myrtle Mae.) The sets for Harvey were excellent and well-judged; the straight, sober style struck a good note of contrast with the humorous characters and the farcical events played out before them. The black and white silent film clips that took place between set changes were produced to a high standard and were a witty touch that livened things up, while the live musicians gave the production an additional layer of polish. I left the Northcott having had one of the most enjoyable nights at the theatre in a long time.

ALISON MACLEAN-ELTHAM

ARTS REVIEW How To Disappear Completely And Never Be Found M&D Rooms

WHAT is identity? Is it something so interlinked with one’s self that it cannot be removed? Or is it merely a set of papers which prove that we exist? The audience of How To Disappear Completely And Never Be Found were taken on a moving journey of a man desperate to find the answers, in order to no longer feel like a piece of lost property in a world where he does not belong.

The play depicts life as a nightmare, which you cannot wake up and escape from. The concept of the dead conversing with those alive, such as Charlie’s friendship with his pathologist, made it unnnerving and unsettling, whilst the repetition of speech made it feel like a recurring nightmare that he was trapped in.

However the production was also filled with comical and banal moments which the audience could relate to, providing some light relief from the deeper themes of the play.

Fin Kennedy’s metaphysical play also made the audience reassess views on contemporary 21st century society, as it represented our world as consumerist, self-conscious and selfconcerned. The audience were engaged by this negative representation, as the events were both familiar and relevant to them.

Nik Partridge, director of the

production, chose to use a range of audio and multimedia techniques, which made the play more visually interesting, especially the central screen used to create a sense of location.

He also chose to have a simple, yet symbolic, set, which highlighted the key theme of identity to the audience.

The simplicity of the set made it easier to represent many different places in a short time, allowing the play to be extremely fast paced and energetic.

The entire cast gave excellent performances, and worked well as an ensemble, with three of them multiroling a variety of characters. Will Hughes, who played the male lead of Charlie Hunt, gave an extremely moving and convincing performance as a stuggling drug addict and a grieving son. The deterioriation of his character was gradual and believeable, whilst his physicality in the monologue, where he expressed his violent nature, really stood out as an excellent piece of drama. Harry Frost, who multi-roled, effortlessly changed characters, through the range of accents and physical movement used, making his appearance on the stage refreshing and new in every scene.

The play was ultimately about rebirth and resurrection; the ability to start a new and get away from mistakes made by cutting all bonds off.

However, the image we are left with, of a lost man stripped down to his boxers about to jump off a pier, suggests that a rejection of your identity and a return to the primitive state, cannot make you truly escape who you really are.

ELEANOR BUSBY

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february 22 2010 Exeposé

videogames News

Bytesize

Good news for Command & Conquer fans. Tiberian Sun and the expansion pack Firestorm have just been released as a free download on EA’s Command & Conquer site.

Not the best in the series but a free game is a free game.

Alan Wake, the psych thriller in development by Remedy Entertainment, will not be coming to PC. The Remedy team and Microsoft have decided that “Some games are more suited for the intimacy of the PC, and others are best played from the couch in front of a larger TV screen. We ultimately realised that the most compelling way to experience Alan Wake was on the Xbox 360 platform, so we focused on making it an Xbox 360 exclusive.

Both Microsoft and Remedy have long histories in PC game development. This decision was about matching this specific game to the right platform.” Is this perhaps the beginning of the end for the PC? Of course not, but it is a shame to see what was looking like a mature story driven game being shunted to couch gaming.

The lighter side of violence and videogames appears with the news that 28,981,249,043 zombies have been killed in zombie shooter Left4Dead 2. To put that number in perspective, “The entire population of the planet has been zombified and killed 4.26 times.”

Good job gamers, preparing for the next pandemic is our job.

A tweet from EA’s Jeff Green broke the news that Dead Space 2 is up for release on PC. “Rumor fact check: There *will* be a PC version of Dead Space 2. Worry not!” Take that, Alan Wake.

Starcraft II fans can begin chomping at the bit again as the beta test has been announced for later this month. In unrelated news, Korea expects record sick days this month...

Speed Running First past the post

A thick Scottish voice whispers over the radio: “If you have to manoeuvre, do it slow and steady... no quick movements.”

Obviously though, Captain MacMillian is just being foolish here. Everyone knows the best way to sneak across Sovietcontrolled Pripriyat is to sprint as fast as you can whilst repeatedly leaping into the air like a gazelle deeply regretting its paddle through crocodile-infested waters. Grudging concessions to stealth are given for a passing armoured column, but the very moment a gap appears in their defences, it’s back to business as we burst through the troops and take off across an overgrown field.

Enemy patrols are a speed-bump rather than a true impediment, an obstacle requiring a few seconds devoted to prenatural sniping as balaclava-clad heads turn the corner to meet a bullet already in flight. Before the bodies even touch the ground we’re off again, sprinting through ruined buildings and hallways, making ungainly leaps and bone-crunching falls to avoid the wasteful luxury of a

staircase as the goal draws ever closer, a final checkpoint that brings a moment’s relaxation as the video fades to black.

Obviously, what I was watching was no normal gameplay footage. This baffling display was a single segment of the world-record Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare speed-run that managed to blaze through the entire campaign in less than one hundred minutes. Clearly, this is a simply insane way to play a videogame, but it cannot be denied that it’s an incredibly impressive one, and surprisingly pervasive too. An entire subcommunity of hardcore gamers devote themselves to playing like this, planning, practising and honing their skills until describing what they do as ‘playing’ seems almost laughably perverse. For an outsider, the entire thing is hard to fathom – why on Earth would you wish to work so hard to apparently strip all the enjoyment from an activity that is meant to be fun and relaxing?

There’s no simple answer to this question, but a large aspect of it seems to be the traditional reasoning behind practically every seemingly foolish human endeavour, from scaling Everest to Xtreme Ironing.

‘Because I can.’

Speed-running, the idea of completing a videogame as fast as physically possible, is probably almost as old as gaming itself, but it only began to get organised and competitive with the advent and wide-scale popularity of the seminal shooter Quake in the late nineties. The growing use of the internet combined with a clever ‘demo’ functionality (whereby players could easily record and distribute videos of themselves playing) to allow people from across the globe to effortlessly share ideas and techniques related to the game. With the sheer amount of talented and dedicated players gathered online, new challenges

began to spring up, of which the most popular and enduring was that of the speed-run. Quake was especially suited to this formative style of play, largely thanks to its open design and incredibly (at the time) advanced physicsengine that allowed players to use and abuse a plethora of unconventional tactics in their race through the single-player levels. Possibly the most famous tactic invented in those early days was the so-called ‘rocket jump’, where the seemingly innocent combination of a hop and high-explosives could be used to propel a character far into the sky, blasting them over seemingly impenetrable walls and eliminating the need for anything so mundane as a key to progress.

The use of these unintended mechanics, bugs and glitches rapidly became a staple of speedruns, and soon aficionados began hunting down the most effective ways to use them, finding ‘sequence breaks’ that could be used to convince the deeply confused code that you had gotten much further through the game than reality might suggest. One popular victim of this was the speed-runner’s paradise and home of the hottest space-adventurer to ever wear impenetrable armour, Metroid Prime, in which vast swathes of the game could be skipped entirely through the use of a few clever tricks. In fact, the notoriety the series gained for these bugs grew to such an extent that later iterations of the games contained special messages for those who managed to exploit them effectively.

From these relatively humble beginnings,speed-running expanded into every genre and style of game imaginable, and even into some that are all but impossible to consider. Would you have thought that anyone could race through the immense size and scale of an RPG, for instance? It’s both awe-inspiring and terrifying when you see time-records: Final Fantasy VII finished in under eight hours, Fallout 3 in a few seconds over half-an-hour, even the lifeconsuming monster that is Morrowind had its hundred-or-so hours of gameplay torn through in a truly staggering seven-anda-half minutes. If you want to

www.exepose.com

see a game you love played in a way that will make your mind leak from your ears in confusion and awe, look it up on the nerve-centre and home to all the psycopaths/legends that make up the speed-running community: www.speeddemosarchive.com It’s possible to look at the videos hosted there, to see the sheer madness carried out in the name of haste and think that there is simply no way you could ever hope to understand how or why people do it. Indeed, this is exactly how I felt a few years ago when I first stumbled into the world of speed-running. As a lifetime fan of the Resident Evil games and considering myself something of an expert, I was blown away by an article written by a slightly worrying yet extremely skilled Belgian man named Vincent. He detailed the mechanics and considerations inherent to sprinting past the zombie horde as effectively as possible, and soon I found myself racing through games I hadn’t touched in years for no more reason than to test myself and have fun. Speed-running needn’t be a competitive thing, and it isn’t just for the crazies either. Whilst, of course, noone can ever tell you how to play, just remember that everything’s so much cooler when you’re going fast.

Richard Jansen

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Exeposé wEEK eightteen games@exepose.com

Bioshock 2

2K Marin: Xbox 360, PC

With a new team at the helm charged with returning to Rapture two years after Bioshock, there were understandable doubts as to just how well Bioshock 2 could compare to its older brother. Fortunately any worries about a brainless storm through the same world have been defiantly put to rest as 2K Marin deliver a Bioshock that, whilst not encapsulating the essence of the first, certainly presents an extremely enjoyable and innovative trip through Rapture.

Plunged right back into Andrew Ryan’s crumbling underwater metropolis ten years after the events of the first game, things are very different. In Ryan’s place, a new leader has risen to lead the remaining population. Sofia Lamb, an eminent psychologist brought in by Ryan himself to counsel the people in the last days before Rapture’s civil war, now governs through the rhetoric of ‘the family’ collective where once Ryan emphasised the power of the individual. To keep this city running though, Lamb has been abducting girls from the surface and turning them into Little Sisters, brainwashed into running through the city in search of the life blood of Rapture, ADAM. This time around you’re a Big Daddy, one of the hulking leviathans of Rapture, and your little sister is Lamb’s own daughter constantly imploring you to save her from her increasingly dominant mother. In your way however are a host of splicers, other Big Daddys and even devastating Big

Thief

Retro

You like Splinter Cell? Maybe Hitman? What about Assassin’s Creed? Like all those cool stealth mechanics they use in their gameplay? Well Thief beat them all to the punch way back in ’98.

Frequently touted on lists of the “Ten Games to Play Before You Curl Up and Die” variety and

Videogames

Sisters who frequently announce their presence with horrifying screeches across the city.

It is testament to the creation of Rapture that somewhere that seemed so fully explored in the first instalment still has so much left to give, and the decor is still a thing of absolute beauty.

Whether metal bulkhead’s encrusted with barnacles or the sight of two splicers enjoying a dance together to a gramophone record, the art and aesthetics of Rapture are even more refined than they were two years ago.

Also upgraded is a combat system that allows duel-wielding of plasmids and weapons as well as the setting of traps like tripwires and flaming cyclones that both fling enemies in the air and incinerate them. Yet this is all necessary to deal with an environment much more focused on combat than its predecessor. Rather than a growing sense of horror, this sequel goes straight for frequent fire fights that barely give enough time to reload before suffering another charge from a mutated splicer or gunshots from the roof above you.

Just as the combat can’t be referenced without mentioning the original Bioshock though, so too is the

story compared, and it’s on this aspect that it draws some criticism.

Obviously in debt to such a rich, multilayered narrative as Bioshock 2 is, there are many references to the first game, posters to Sander Cohen-produced plays and tapes from characters such as Fontaine all making brief appearances. But such brief appearances draw attention to superior characters and storyline, something Bioshock 2 cannot entirely distract from with the improved combat and a more effective way of character progression with weapon and plasmid upgrades really emphasised.

Another major feature of Bioshock 2 is its multiplayer; able to use the beautifully-realised environments players are so accustomed to and the system of plasmids and weapons that can completely swing a battle. However, in its current state it’s definitely not a game-changer, and is inferior to alternative multiplayer games that means it may draw a couple of forays, with fun-enough game modes and features, but currently has nothing to bring you back for more save a limited progression system.

Bioshock 2 will likely be more fun and involving for those who didn’t play and love the original

game, as the storyline still involves you and the revelations that become apparent through the game ramp up the attachment to certain characters.

Coupled with a more exciting form of combat and the interesting gamble of having you play as a Big Daddy, Bioshock 2 is definitely a recommended purchase for fans of the genre and those who yearn to return to Rapture. Yet there is no escaping the flaws which prevent the game from attracting the same ratings as the original in its own right.

with another sequel confirmed (cunningly titled “Thi4f” on promotional material), Thief: The Dark Project is definitely a game worth revisiting.

I could give you some juicy details on the storyline – charismatic yet mysterious protagonist-with suspect moral compass, gets involved in a tug-ofwar battle between rival religions and saves the day using skills he picked up from his thievery – but that isn’t what makes Thief so enjoyable. In a world of FPS games gone mad, Thief is a game that focuses on evasion rather than aggression, and hiding in a shadow giggling as a guard passes inches from your nose is endlessly satisfying.

Set in a world that can only be described as ‘Steampunky’ (and Steampunk is, like, so in right now), you take on the role of Garrett, the aforementioned protagonist, using his semimystical sneaking abilities to... well, steal a shit load of stuff. Thief

uses all the mechanics of a stealth game that you’re probably already familiar with, but the kicker is that Thief did it first. Ever thrown something to make a noise and distract a guard? Thief. Stood in a shadow because that somehow makes you invisible? Thief.

Walked really slowly to make your footsteps quiet? Encountered NPCs with a degree of A.I. that get alerted by noises and peer about, before dismissing it out of hand as if they have the worst case of selective amnesia ever known to man? All Thief, incidentally the first ever stealth game to use first person perspective too.

Another string Thief adds to its already considerable bow is the cool stuff you get to use whilst engaged in all the being sneaky.

Seriously, your arsenal is worthy of a quasi-medieval James Bond.

Though your bow can use different arrows of the killing variety you also get the opportunity to use a range of more technical ammo geared towards thieving, from

the water arrow to the rope one.

You can even use flash bombs and mines. That’s some serious espionage going down right there, but if you ever feel the need to get up close and personal you’re tooled up with a blackjack and a sword. Be warned though: Garrett bruises like a peach and flails ineffectually with a blade, so direct combat isn’t encouraged; and it’s up to you to use your skills to avoid it.

At the start of every level you’re given an explanatory cutscene, a list of objectives and a map.

From there on out it’s up to you to navigate your way through the misson, and there are a number of different ways to do this, meaning Thief allows for what people who went to developer school call ‘emergent gameplay’. I call it a hell of a lot of fun, as you plan your own particular route through the guards’ rounds and case the side rooms for any discarded lucre you can pocket. This last point has a knock-on effect on the following

8/10 Stephen o’nion

I Hate Videogames Ranting

Though I’ve had a vaguely enjoyable time indulging the exNietzschean dystopia of Rapture in recent hit Bioshock 2, there is one thing about it that bugs me.

Specifically, it’s to do with the ‘Little Sisters’. In order to adapt to the increasing difficulty of the game, you need to use the ‘Little Sisters’ to harvest ADAM, a sort of currency allowing you to hijack your genetics so that you may shoot bolts of electricity or wasps, among other things.

So, we’ve established that you need the Little Sisters because you need this ADAM. The problem is that, in order to obtain one of these little lasses, you have to kill her Big Daddy bodyguard, inevitably wasting a ton of ammunition and first-aid kits in the process. Then, you have to wait for her to harvest ADAM from a corpse and protect her against waves of splicers. This would be alright if the ADAM-yielding corpses were placed in vantage points or places with some cover, but you’re always being fucked from all sides, so no dice. Then, if you dare to go the route that provides more ADAM and harvest your Little Sister, a Big Sister shows up, forcing you to waste yet more ammo and first-aid kits. Maybe I should stop playing games on Hard mode.

Alex bennett VIDEOGAMES EDITOR

missions, as what you steal transfers into money you can use to buy more equipment and info to help you out. I could go as far as saying that you never play Thief the same way twice.

I won’t deny that, however much I may love it, Thief: The Dark Project is still a pretty old game, so you might have some issues with the graphics in that everything looks like it was bought flatpack from IKEA; and if you’re running XP or Vista you’ll probably need to download a patch. But these are minor setbacks to a game that revolutionised a genre, and since it’s available online for less than a tenner in a bundle with its sequels included, you’d be a fool to pass up on the investment.

(Editor’s Note: The box art is not that of the original Thief rather the third in the series) Alice scoble-Rees

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Sport

february 22 2010

Exeposé

www.exepose.com

Saints storm Super Bowl

The AFC Champions Indianapolis Colts battled the NFC Champions New Orleans Saints in Miami a fortnight ago for the coveted title of Super Bowl XLIV Champions.

The New Orleans Saints helped to banish the memories of Hurricane Katrina as they won it all in their first ever Super Bowl performance, defeating the Indianapolis Colts 31-17.

The Super Bowl has become as big a national tradition in America as Independence Day and Thanksgiving, with ‘Super Bowl

was also the New Orleans Saints’ first Super Bowl appearance in their 42-year history and the team has served as the figurehead of progress for the City of New Orleans, which is still severely affected by the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina nearly five years on. The home of the Saints, The Louisiana Superdome, served as shelter for thousands during the disaster and the team has been a source of intense local pride, working together with the community to rebuild the broken city. This Super Bowl victory will be one that will be savoured and enjoyed by fans across the world and it is very hard to begrudge the Saints this success.

This year, for the first time since Super Bowl XXVIII back in

Sunday’ being one of the most highly anticipated days of the year for most Americans. TV ratings records have proven its popularity, and Super Bowl XLIV was officially the most watched TV programme in American history with 106.5million US viewers tuning in.

The game was an emotional affair for different reasons. It pitted Colts’ Quarterback Peyton Manning against the team which made his father, Archie Manning, an NFL icon, having been Saints’ quarterback for ten years. This

1993, the top-seeded team in each league reached the NFL Showpiece and it was duly deserved as both the Colts and the Saints had been stand-out teams all season long, dominating their respective leagues.

At the start of the season the Saints had strong reasons to believe that they could make their first ever Super Bowl. A dominating passing attack through quarterback Drew Brees combined with a potent triple headed running attack meant that, come the end of the 16-game regular season, the Saints

Niche Sport

Nick Hill Sports Correspondent

finished with both the highest number of yards-per-game and points-per-game of all NFL teams.

The Colts, however, have an even greater weapon in their arsenal, Peyton Manning. He is widely regarded as the greatest quarterback of all time and it is a claim that is hard to dispute.

With one Super Bowl victory (XLI) already under his belt, and a Most Valuable Player award to go with it, his Colts were favourites to make it a second.

Super Bowl XLIV started in the attacking style that has typified the seasons of both teams. The Colts opened up an early 10-0 lead after the first quarter and were looking good to prove their tag as pre-game favourites correct. The second quarter however belonged to the Saints who quickly reduced their arrears to 10-3 with a short field goal early on. The Saints then continued to pile pressure on the Colts who had precious little possession of the ball in the 2nd quarter. The best drama of the first half occurred when the Saints failed to score from just one yard out of the end zone with the clock running out. The Saints gambled away an almost certain field goal on fourth down in favour of an opportunity for a game-tying touchdown. The Colts goal line defence brilliantly held firm and the score remained 10-3, a huge result for the tired Colts defence.

However an impressive defensive display immediately after by the Saints meant they had just enough time to recover from their mistakes with a small drive resulting in a second field goal of the quarter.

Despite having a 10-6 lead, the Colts went in at half time lacking in offensive potency and opportunity, and a defence which was seeing far too much of the field.

What came before half time was ordinary, what came during was extraordinary. The Who were this year’s halftime performers, delighting the Sun Life Stadium with a medley of their most famous songs and they duly wowed the capacity crowd with an audio-visual masterpiece.

A captivating performance

by The Who was merely the template for the drama to come.

The Saints’ unpredictable and fearless offensive style of play was perfectly displayed with an incredibly daring decision to start the second half with an onside kick attempt. An onside kick is a shortened kick-off which must go at least ten yards, but ideally not much more, which although maximises your own chances of recovering the ball straight from the kick off, it also dramatically increases the risk of conceding

points if the opposition recover the football in such dangerous territory. Amid a huge scramble the Saints recovered the ball, giving them both the possession and the momentum right from the off of the pivotal second half.

Their courageous decision immediately paid off after a sublime 16 yard touchdown by Pierre Thomas which gave the Saints a 13-10 lead less than four minutes into the 3rd quarter. The Colts responded with a typically surgical drive by Peyton Manning giving the Colts a 17-13 lead midway through the quarter. New Orleans then reduced the gap to just one point after a field goal to make it 17-16 at the end of the 3rd quarter.

The game was perfectly poised, going one way then the other, and was set-up to be a third consecutive classic Super Bowl with just a one point differential heading into the fourth quarter. New Orleans coped with the pressure much better, with the first signs that the great Peyton Manning might taste rare defeat being when a careful Colts drive resulted in a missed 51 yard field goal with just ten minutes left on the

clock. New Orleans compounded Indianapolis’ disappointment with a quick touchdown to put the Saints 22-17 up. What came next was another brave decision by the Saints. They decided to forgo an almost guaranteed extra point, by way of kicking the ball through the posts from less than 20 yards out, in favour of a risky bonus two points by completing another touchdown from the two yard line. It took a coaches challenge to prove it, but the Saints earned the bonus two points giving them a 24-17 lead with only five minutes left in the game. The Colts looked worried and played equally so, with a rare Manning interception returned 74 yards by Tracey Porter for a game breaking touchdown.

The emotion of the Saints was evident as Porter raced away with the interception to an unguarded end zone, with the beaten Peyton Manning on the floor watching in horror. Rare offensive inefficiency by the Colts and a brilliant performance by the Saints meant that this Super Bowl was won 31-17 by the team that the world wanted to win.

33

Sport

Exeposé week eighteen sport@exepose.com

EUSC dives in for further BUCS Success Swimming

Anna-Marie Linnell Sport Correspondent

During the Valentine’s weekend of love and romance, Exeter’s 15strong swimming team embraced nothing but the Exeter spirit and set off for the BUCS Long Course Championships at Ponds Forge, Sheffield. In a heated atmosphere of world record holders and Commonwealth champs, EUSC celebrated one of its most successful years yet.

Rule changes for this year’s competition, which banned swimsuits below the knee for the first time, do not seem to have slowed some of EUSC’s top stars. Becki Warner, second year sports science student, raced to third place with her British Champs time for the 50m fly. Despite still recovering from an injury which has recently hindered her training, Becki matched her time of 28.78 seconds, first achieved at the Commonwealth Games. She also made the final of the women’s 50m freestyle.

Exeter’s Nye Levett and Warren Barrett were also in the finals of their events. Levett, Squad Captain, came 7th in the 100 metres backstroke and 5th in the 50 metres. Faced with competition such as world record holder, Liam Tancock, Levett was pleased with his achievement.

Top record holders from across the country can be invited to the BUCS championships as guest swimmers by British Swimming.

Miller believes it is a tribute to the Exeter team’s dedication they can still make a splash, despite the presence of big names such as double Olympic gold medallist, Rebecca Adlington.

Barrett is a veteran swimmer for EUSC, and has been on the team for the past five years as well as training with Exeter City swimming club. This was also the final competition for ladies’ captain Steph Keswick.

First time swimmers also did well however, with Ryan Collier and Lucy Hampson both putting in strong performances. The success of the male and female medley teams demonstrates EUSC’s teamwork, with the sides ranked 12th and 14th respectively. The male team were delighted to welcome back Stu Bartlett from placement.

Overall, the team gained more long-course BUCS points than in recent years. Swimmer Ellie Straughan commented that “Exeter gave the loudest cheer, and showed off the fantastic Exeter spirit.”

Vancouver is all snowed in

Winter Sports Rachel Bayne Sport Correspondent

This year’s games are being held in Vancouver amidst constant controversy. Firstly the Luger Nodar Kumaritashvili, 21, died when his sled flipped and he left the track, hitting a steel pole at the Whistler Sliding Centre. There had also been worries over a lack of snow due to the unseasonably high winter temperatures. Organisers even had to transport extra snow to the snowboarding venues to make sure that the surface was conducive to the competitors.

That however is not the only controversial news to come out of this year’s events. It opens with debates over how much money the Winter Olympic athletes are paid in comparison to their summer counterparts; 30 athletes have already been banned from competing for doping by the

Continued from back page.

However stoic Welsh resistance combined with decent possession and territory allowed Wales to begin to come back to the form of a well deserved try by prop Adam Jones. This led to Wales nearly crossing the line again after a well executed backline move was ended when Toby Flood managed to prevent winger Tom James from holding on to the ball metres from the line. As the final whistle began to approach Wales turned up the heat and a moment of individual brilliance from James Hook saw him scamper under the posts to bring Wales within three points with five minutes to play.

Yet after an interception and quick play from the England back line, James Haskell scored his second and England’s third try enabling England to win the game 30-17.

The second weekend picked up from where the first left off, with Wales snatching a stunning

World Anti-Doping Agency and with events such as the womens’ ski jump being withdrawn from the competition, this year’s Games has certainly been in the spotlight.

The competition has, however, made a major impact on citizens of Vancouver. The organisers have made great efforts to make it sustainable by tackling environmental issues. They made a 15% reduction in carbon emissions from the competition and have built venues that can develop the thriving city of Vancouver. The medals are also made from recycled materials and are designed in the shape of the snow covered scenes.

One reporter commented that they would be “a one of a kind treasure.”

These unique medals will certainly be coveted by athletes this year, even though due to their design they are tipped to be some of the heaviest ever used.

Canadian citizens have taken part in the Games more than ever

this year as it is the first time that the indigenous people have played such a major role in helping to develop the competition through artwork and support.

Local children also played a part by designing homemade greetings cards for each athlete in a show of international unity. The Games have attracted spectators worldwide and with some events they certainly can get a good view of the action. The Luge event, which features athletes moving at speeds of 140 kilometres an hour or more with G-forces reaching over 5G on a distance of 1,450 metres for the male athletes, allows 12,000 spectators to stand right next to the blistering speeds and the action. For the people not lucky enough to travel the thousands of miles to Vancouver however, live action of the games is available though the main website.

Britain has a squad of 52 members in Vancouver all

hoping to improve on their single medal from the 2006 Games won by Shelley Rudman in the skeleton slide competition. This makes Rudman the most likely winner from the squad and the competitor to watch out for over the course of competition. Kristan Bromley is also up for a chance of a medal: with his fantastic record in the Skeleton event, and with wins in the World Championship, European Championship and World Cup in 2007 he is hopeful for a podium position this year.

The women’s curling team are in for a tough competition but after their heroics in the 2002 Gamesthe team is always in with a chance of a medal.

Other athletes to watch are Chemmy Alcott in the alpine skiing event who narrowly missed out on a medal in 2006 and 25 year old Jon Eley who is competing in the speed skating races and is one of Britain’s biggest hopes for a medal.

victory from the Scottish in Cardiff. A dramatic climax saw Wales score 17 points in the last five minutes after majestic play from the Welsh back three of Lee Byrne, Leigh Halfpenny and the talismanic Shane Williams with a final score of 31-24. Sadly the match also saw Scotland back Thom Evans severely injured resulting in two neck operations,

and Chris Patterson going off with kidney bruising in his 100th test match. Also Wales flanker Andy Powell was dropped from the national squad after driving a hotel golf buggy three miles down the M4 in the early hours of the morning.

Ireland and France met later that afternoon in what was supposed to be the match of the tournament, yet the French demolished the current holders after a scintillating display of classic French rugby rendering them deserved winners 33-10.

On Sunday it was the turn of the Italians to host England in Rome’s Stadio Flaminio. What was expected to be a particularly one-sided affair in fact turned out to be almost as exciting as the Wales vs. Scotland match.

Throughout the match England lacked creativity and the normally metronomic Wilkinson missed three penalty kicks. The first half ended at 6-6 with the Italians still firmly in the match, despite their

captain and arguably best player Sergio Parise not taking part in the game. England eventually managed to string some moves together to allow Mathew Tait to run-in yet Wilkinson, obviously not comfortable with the Italian Mitre ball, failed to convert. The Italian crowd stuck by their team, and despite Italian prop Martin Castrogiovani being sinbinned for repeat offences in the ruck, they were within two points with five minutes to go courtesy of the boot of winger Mirco Bergamasco.

However, as has happened so often before, a Johnny Wilkinson drop goal managed to guide the visitors to a far from convincing victory 17-12. It would take a hard heart to knock the Italian performance, and surely it is good for the game to see them testing one of the better teams in world rugby. The Italians will surely test the lacklustre Welsh and Scottish sides whereas England need to drastically improve to achieve Six Nations glory.

34

Sport

february 22 2010

Murray’s Musings...

AU President Tom Murray

What a week it’s been for sport this week. We’ve seen it all this week. In the knock outs of BUCS, there’s been some great performances and some heartbreaking moments with teams crashing out of BUCS knockouts. Over the last few weeks we have looked to set up a new scheme within the AU, the “Match of the Day” idea. This is where each week a different match will be selected as the AU “Match of the day”, chosen as a fixture which is likely to be a great one to watch! The idea is that we get as many Exeter students along to support this fixture as possible to give the team the best chance of victory in their vital game.

This week the match of the day was shared between Ladies Lacrosse 1st who were taking on Loughborough 1st at Topsham and Men’s Hockey 1st who were playing Nottingham Trent, the same team who knocked them out of semi-finals last year.

Men’s hockey really showed how much they have developed over the last year and what a difference their National League experience has made, with a very professional display to see them cruise into the semi finals with a 5-0 demolition of Nottingham Trent.

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www.exepose.com

Women’s Lacrosse 1st played a highly competitive game against Loughborough 1st at Topsham. Despite the rain and the water-logged pitch there was a healthy crowd making plenty of noise. This seemed to help the ladies make a bright start. They came in at half time 3 – 3 looking the better side. Unfortunately, the second half saw Loughborough running out 10 – 7 winners, a really close game and a huge congratulation to all the team who fought hard the whole game!

This week’s match of the day will be Men’s Tennis 2nd who will be taking on Southampton 2nd in conference semi final, Wednesday 24th February 12.00 start in the Tennis centre. It would be great to get a huge crowd along to cheer on the boys!

Great news now for the University sailing club, who have just secured a £6,000 grant from Sport England for their new sailing boats, well done to all involved there. A great story to end today on, Exeter Emerald Cheerleaders have put their pompoms down this week to compete for the university in the BUCS gymnastics competitions. In their first gym competition, they were a great success coming fifth overall in the team event, winning five BUCS points for the uni in a highly competitive field. The day saw Philippa Bolton taking a commendable third in floor and Charlie Bingham placing fifth and eighth in Vault and Beam respectively.

Well done to the whole team who have done the AU proud!

If you want to follow Exeter Sport on Facebook, log on to www.facebook. com/exeterau

Cadbury Conquerers

Hockey

Charlotte Miles Hockey Correspondent

Wednesday February 10, a day that will go down in history for EULHC. The ladies’ second hockey team have had a cracking season and it all got better when they drew Loughborough at home in their first BUCS knockout match.

Loughborough’s impressive sporting tradition combined with their hideous purple outfits have made them the major rival for the mighty green machine, so this was an opportunity to put one over the old enemy.

By one o’clock the changing room atmosphere was thick with anticipation and nerves as the inspirational music resounded around the sports park. Members of the first team, also playing Loughborough, popped their heads round the door offering

good luck. Finally, silence echoed around the room as skipper Nadia Charania stood up to deliver her rousing pep talk.

Despite the immense consumption of physio tape as injuries were strapped, the second team felt stronger than ever in their immaculate green and black kit. The 2nd’s had never been so ready to play as Heather Small’s rendition of “Proud” rung out.

A final chorus of “what team?...

TWO’s” and the game was on.

With an excitable record crowd on the sand astro-turf, Exeter started well, dominating the opposition’s ‘D’. The crowd didn’t have to wait long for the first goal; as Kathy Hofmeyr finished off a goalmouth scrap. Exeter continued to dominate throughout the match suppressing the raging Loughborough players, who endeavoured to pick up several green cards.

Energetic and refreshed from

the half time break, Exeter won another short corner. This time put away by Tilda Eriksson, from the edge of the ‘D’. From that point on Loughborough never stood a chance, even though Exeter were down to ten after a cheeky manoeuvre from Lydia Armitage didn’t pay off and she was harshly given a yellow card.

On the full time whistle, the celebrations started with colossal amounts of Dairy Milk being consumed; as everyone grabbed their possessions to charge down to the water based-astro to watch the first team fight through extra time.

Unfortunately, despite a courageous battle from the Exeter first team for 85 minutes, it proved not to be their day. They fell short to Loughborough first team in a nailbiting penalty flick competition, despite a goal from injured excaptain Fran Low in her final match for Exeter.

Have a great sport filled week!

Green Machine fightback stuns Saints

Tennis

Josh Belsher Tennis Club Captain

The Men’s 3rd’s travelled to Southampton for the fourth time this season to play Southampton 2nds who are flying high in third in the league. Not expecting a great result, things didn’t start well for Exeter. Guy Youll and Jordan Roberts struggled and lost to a strong pairing in the first

doubles 8-1, quickly followed by James Wright and Matt Butterfield who put in a strong performance but eventually went down 8-5.

All four of the singles matches began in earnest with Jordan Roberts playing as the number one. Jordan, proud owner of the biggest forehand in Exeter, played some fantastic attacking tennis and pushed his classy opponent all the way, eventually losing 6-4, 75. Exeter were down 4-0, and one more defeat would wrap up the tie for Southampton.

James Wrights stepped up to be counted and delivered one of his most convincing matches of the season, easily brushing his opponent away after a close first set, going on to win 6-4, 6-1.

One moment of class stood out above all others when Wright was lobbed, running back to fence, hit an outrageous through-the-legs shot passing a stunned player at the net to set up match point which he duly went on to win. 4-2 Southampton.

Matt Butterfield, one of the

most exciting players on the squad destroyed his weaker opponent, 60, 6-1, booming down 17 aces. The match was tied at 4-4 with the next match set to decide the tie.

The pressure was on the shoulders of Vice Club Captain Guy Youll, who lost a close first set on a tie break and it looked bleak when he slipped and twisted his ankle badly. However, Youll rallied and took the second set 6-1 with some top-drawer tennis. The deciding set was just as convincing; Youll ground down his opponent

with some Nadal-esque rallying and cruised to a 6-1 third set win.

Exeter won 6-4 in what was a fantastic performance from the lad.

The Men’s second team won away at Marjons 10-0 and are now preparing for the semifinals of the cup next Wednesday.

We hope to see as many of you as possible supporting captain Belsher, Harries, Hodgson, Strang and Beynon in what promises to be a gargantuan battle of epic proportions on Centre Court.

35

Sport

Exeposé week eighteen sport@exepose.com

Phillip Legrand Sport Correspondent

This season, the EULC Men’s 1st X have gone unbeaten in the western 1A league. Seven wins, seven victories, romping through their fixtures scoring 77 goals, the most in the league and conceding only 24, the least in the league. A combination of skill, dedication and sheer desire has been the making of the most successful season in EULC Men’s history. Having beaten Gloucestershire 6-1, Bristol 7-5, Plymouth 28-0 and Bath 6-5 the team were favourites for the league going into their final three matches.

Expected to breeze past a depleted Southampton side, they faced stiff opposition from a plucky Southampton team but eventually emerged victorious after a match rife with contentious refereeing decisions which served to heighten tensions between the two sides.

An uncharacteristically sloppy performance from the players served as a reminder that they were not infallible but nevertheless the team came away with a deserved 8-7 win.

After weeks of torrential weather, Duckes remained unplayable until the team administration and the Duckes Meadows’ groundsman saw the pitch to be playable for a fixture

against Swansea, the main contenders to Exeter’s crown. The performance, though scrappy due to the condition of the pitch, was the team’s best of the season. Goals rained down upon the team hailing from Neath and some lacrosse was played by the green machine. Combining the power of the defence, skill of their midfield lines and finishing prowess of the attackers allowed Exeter to exert full dominance over a lackluster Swansea side, sending them back to South Wales with nothing but Welsh rarebit to look forward to, with a final score of 11-6 which confirmed Exeter’s status as league champions.

The final fixture of the season was re-arranged to be played in the new year, against another Welsh side, Cardiff. Though starting slowly, after five weeks of far too much Christmas pudding from particular members of the team and far too little lacrosse from all members of the team, Exeter managed to carry over their outstanding form from the Swansea game and put Cardiff to bed early on in the tie, eventually finishing the Welsh dragons 11-0.

Having completed the season undefeated, the draw for the last 16 matched Exeter against a strong Leeds Metropolitan Carnegie side. The team quickly understood the challenge they now faced. Lacrosse has a far superior base up north but having such a successful season the boys were keen

to continue their winning streak.

Many hours of training resumed as the team tried to erradicate the mistakes that were made in previous matches, and the team was quietly confident.

The game was tense, with the scores constantly changing the momentum.

With seven minutes to go the scores were even at seven a piece. Exeter’s home support was going wild, riling on the boys in green as the pressure mounted on the Leeds defense.

The Leeds keeper had to deal with a constant bombardment as the Green machine searched for the winner.

Exeter got the breakthrough with only two minutes left on the clock to lead 8-7. The lads had to put their bodies on the line to try and cling on to a memorable victory. This was the biggest upset in the Lacrosse season game over, Leeds go out!

Waiting in the quater finals were Warwick. A tough game was expected.

The team started slowly against Warwick and could never get through the gears as the visitors dominted.

Exeter unfortunately tasted defeat for the first time this season, losing 6-11.

The boys should hold their heads high after all that has been achieved this season. They have surpassed expectations, becoming Exeter’s most successful mens Lacrosse team . The boys now look to go one step further next year in the Premier Division.

Back in October 2009 Exeter City FC kindly agreed to again participate and support the University’s Football Varsity match which is held in memory of a former student Mike Polden.

Cardiomyopathy affects people of all ages, including babies. It is the main cause of sudden death in the under 35s and kills around eight young people in the UK a week.

But, when it is found, it can usually be successfully treated. There are different types of cardiomyopathy and in dilated cardiomyopathy, which Mike had, the heart enlarges and pumps less strongly.

£3,000 raised at Football Varsity

The aim of the evening was to raise awareness and money for the Cardiomyopathy Association, a heart-condition charity whilst enjoying an excellent game of football. Exeter City ran out 5-1

winners that evening.

A cheque for £3000 was presented to Robert Hall, CMA Chief Executive by Julian Tagg (Exeter City Vice Chairman and Sporting Director) and Football Club Captains Matt Brookland and Sam Tang.

The money raised could not have been achieved without the generosity of all who attended and gave their support. On behalf of all of the members of the University Football Club we would like to say a massive thank you to you the students of Exeter and to Exeter City for their continued support and assistance.

In the not too distant future EUAFC, in collaboration with the International Society, are holding a five-a-side football World Cup tournament on Sunday March 7 at the Rubber Crumb. The event will start at 9.30am and finish around 3.30pm. Please come up and support as it will be an excellent day’s entertainment for a sunday.

We look forward to seeing you there!

For more information about cardiomyopathy, contact the Cardiomyopathy Association on 0800 0181024 or visit www. cardiomyopathy.org.

No. 5 by Emily Jones and Dave Cooper

Lacrosse

Sam Tang Sport Correspondent

exeposé crossword -

Lacs fall in Quarters

Football Varsity

Across

Down

1. The home of English rugby (10) 7. Uptight colloq. (4) 8. Raga Man anag. (7) 9. Student exchange programme (7) 10. Current president of FIFA (7) 11. Item in a newspaper (7) 13. Structure for burning bodies (4) 15. Marine organism, bookmakers (5) 16. Political organisation (5) 17. 2009 Disney/Pixar movie (2) 21. Greatest footballer ever?

(4) 22. Eating disorder (8) 23. Saturday night dating show (4,2,3) 24. No (3)

2. Cheese favoured by Wallace and Gromit (11) 3. Martial art (6) 4. Top number of a fraction (9) 5. French coastal city (9) 6. Informal (6) 12. Realisation, Christian celebration (8) 14. Far beyond a norm (7) 18. Hair around the head/ neck of a horse or lion (4) 19. Spoilt child (4) 20. Inhabitant of Exeter (4)

36

Monday february 22 2010

sport

Football Varsity

Find how much EUAFC and Exeter City FC raised for charity.

Page 35

Nick Hill reflects upon a sensational Super Bowl - p 32

England survive Italian Job

No.66

GRID 2: MEDIUM

GRID 1: easy

No.65

Exeposé sudoku

the deadlock by eventually going over just before half time with Johnny Wilkinson duly adding the conversion, leading to a half time score of 20-3.

Within minutes of the second half starting England had already crossed over for a second converted try, courtesy of scrum half Danny Care, and it appeared as if England were about to open the flood gates. .

Continued page 33

Fill in the grid so that the numbers 1 to 9 appear in each row, each column, and each 3x3 box

The opening two weekends of this year’s Six Nations tournament have already provided us with some of the most entertaining rugby seen at the tournament in recent years.

The Autumn Internationals left many questions unanswered and many are doubting England’s credentials.

The first Saturday saw Ireland

England. Wales were buoyed by the return of full back Lee Byrne, yet they were still without Lions stars Gethin Jenkins in the front row and Mike Phillips at scrumhalf.

The first half saw scoring opportunities wasted by both teams yet it remained at 6-3 until Alun Wyn-Jones was sent to the sin bin for ten minutes for a foolish trip right in front of the referee. England then began to pile on the pressure on the Welsh try line until James Haskell broke

No. 67

Andy Williams Sports Correspondent

and Italy clash at Croke Park. The reigning Grand Slam champions managed to ease past the Italians with a comfortable victory 2911. Favourites, France, took on Scotland with the visiting French emerging victors after two tries from the blistering outside centre Bastareaud 18-9.

England started their search for glory, desperate to prove the critics wrong, against Wales which turned out to be an excellent encounter and a great way to kick start the championship for

GRID 3: hard

Rugby

Exeposé

www.exepose.com

Rugby Ben Townsend Sports Correspondent In the standout fixture of their British and Irish Cup campaign Exeter Chiefs suffered a 22-10 defeat to European Champions Leinster.

With a line-up that failed to feature any of the side which took to the field for their last Championship league game, the Chiefs were unable to inflict defeat on the Dubliners and record their second win of the competition. Leinster themselves made a host of changes with nine players such as Brian O’Driscoll, Rob Kearney, and Jamie Heaslip away on Six Nations duty with Ireland, yet still named a side that included four players with 178 international caps between them.

Exeter have once again mounted a strong challenge for promotion to the Guinness Premiership this season currently sitting second, three points behind last year’s relegated side Bristol and it is their promotion ambitions which they are clearly focused on. But that did not stop the side posing the question of a possible upset. Despite Leinster gaining the early advantage with a try within the opening two minutes, the Chiefs rallied in a period that saw them take a 10-5 lead midway through the first half. Tries from hooker Sam Blythe and right-wing Sean Marsden raised the expectations of a crowd watching their side more than holding their own against the Irish side.

But it was the lack of discipline of the Chiefs’inside centre Matt Cornwell that proved the catalyst for Leinster’s comeback. His yellow card was met with a try and conversion during his time in the sin bin, enabling the visitors to see in half time two points in front. The significant impact made by yellow cards has been the major talking point of this year’s Six Nations tournament following the 17 unanswered points scored by England following Alun Wyn Jones’ sin-binning in Wales’ 30-17 defeat earlier this month. The second half saw Leinster take advantage of their strength, adding a drop goal and a third try to see the game out in a result that was fully expected.

Exeter Chiefs will not feel too hard done by, however, as their squad selection sensibly rested their first team squad in anticipation of their final push for promotion over the coming weeks. With easy links from the city via bus or train, getting along to support the Chiefs at Sandy Park is strongly recommended, especially as the title race builds up and the dream of becoming a Premiership club comes tantalising close.

1

Elections

Exeposé WEEK eighteen

Disclaimer: All the candidate’s manifestos and photos are printed as received and not edited, or proofread

by Exeposé. The order of candidates within each category is random for ease of formatting, and does not indicate preference or judgment in any way.

https://elections. exeter.ac.uk/guild

It’s time to vote in the 2010 Students’ Guild Elections.

27 candidates stand, eager to win your vote, and represent over 200 full-time and student staff and over 17,000 students. This year’s Guild Elections have seen a drop from five sabbatical officer positions to four, with an AU President.

Exeposé has printed the short manifesto for each candidate, inviting them to sum up their campaign in five words. Based only on their submitted manifestos, we have printed our own editorial comment on each candidate’s intended policies.

To vote in the elections visit:

https://elections.exeter.ac.uk/guild/ Voting opened on February 19 at 10am, and closes on February 26 at 4pm with results announced from 9pm in the Lemon Grove.

Last year, a record-breaking 34.03% of the student body voted, equating to 4776 voters. There was also a record-breaking number of canvassers, standing at a staggering figure of 710. Can Exeter’s student population beat last year’s voting figures? Have your vote and choose the right people to represent Exeter’s Students’ Guild next year.

President

Jonnie Beddall

I love Exeter. But too often the student experience doesn’t match the rhetoric.

As President I will fight for quality services we pay for.

1.

Campus is a Building Site. We can’t stop the Forum Project but we can limit its disruption. Your vote means: • Online access must never be disrupted. Can’t access journals, can’t work.

• The Forum Project mustn’t prevent library access. I will ensure books are always accessible.

• Exeter is 50th for ‘Industry Connections’. I will campaign for better-funded industry links.

2.

Exeter’s20thforextra-curricular experience. This isn’t good enough.

Last month the Foreign Secretary came to campus, who knew?! As President I will: • Create a University ‘Speaker

group’ to advertise all speaking events, via ‘MyExeter’.

• Create a ‘House’ system between halls for competitive sports available to all • Exeter is 48th for ‘cheap bar/ shops’. I want promotions in the RAM and money to refurbish the Lemmy.

• Halls shape your uni experience.

Accommodation is too expensive, too limited and overcrowded.

• Oppose all above-inflationary price-rises • End the bunk-bed fiasco • Ensure building work doesn’t start before 8 a.m.

• Campus is becoming increasingly ‘international’.

Yet, segregation is institutionalised through separate accommodation and separate teaching. How are groups supposed to

mix without contact? Diversity should be fought for: • Halls should be ‘Internationalised’ to promote integration between the entire student body.

Currently, segregation is institutionalised, this must end • International students should be given the opportunity to arrive on campus a week before Welcome Week to sort out admin so they can take part in ‘normal’ Freshers activities • There should be only one Welcome Week.

‘International’ activities and ‘mainstream’ activities should be open to all groups, ending separate extra-curricular life • Worldbeats night at the Lemmy to cater for diverse student demand Top 10 University? Time it felt like it!

Jonnie Beddall

The Guild is the student’s most powerful tool in dealing with any issues they encounter, such as finance or housing. I will improve its efficiency to this end.

Societies, media and volunteering are the main contact students have with the Guild. I will ensure that support for these activities is examined and improved, and encourage the sabbatical team to interact with as many societies as possible.

of the University to push for more international students, without first providing financial support.

I will emphasise this point until a satisfactory solution has been agreed.

• YOUR motions realised I will hold regular, advertised open meetings for Sabbs and students to discuss motions and agree on strategies, ensuring that all avenues are explored to achieve their goals.

Ben O’Leary

• Increased direct interaction with sabbatical officers

• Clearer funding and support for international students I will demand improved clarity and equality in access to hardship grants.

International students currently have no access to the “Access to Learning Fund”. It is irresponsible

My experience through various roles in the guild and societies, along with my enthusiasm for the Guild’s potential, makes me right for this position.

So vote for Ben, BUILD A BETTER GUILD.

Exeposé Comment Jonnie shows an understanding of problems facing students, and his commitment to the increased desegregation of halls should be applauded. His policy on a ‘Speaker Group’ is also interesting. However, his campaign promises are vague and insubstantial, particularly on building work and online/library access. Likewise, he omits key issues on extracurricular campus life; although he promises a ‘Speaker group’ he does not reference societies or media groups, as well as - crucially - a stance on University funding; an issue that will no doubt dominate students’ lives for a long while.

Your campaign in five words: “Make uni work for you”

Exeposé Comment Ben’s commitment to support societies, student media and volunteering is commendable, however - despite his considerable experience - Ben’s campaign is largely bereft of substantial campaign promises. Nonetheless, his promise to assist international student funding is admirable.

Your campaign in five words: “Big Ben, Bigger Better Guild”

2

Elections

FEBRUARY 22 2009

Exeposé

www.exepose.com

sident President PResident President PResident President Exeposé Comment Throughout my experiences of the Guild I have identified the following priorities, which are both realistic and deliverable:

Sam Palmer

Will ‘Staffy’ Stafford

CHOOSE TOP TEN STATUS Exeter gaining top ten status is great news. However, student/ staff ratio is 61st and graduate prospects are 43rd. This is well off top ten standard.

I will: put pressure on the university to improve what we do poorly.

CHOOSE AN END TO HIDDEN

Hellowa! My name is Will Stafford and I will be auditioning for the role of Guild President. Some of you may know me better as Staffy or ‘that emo with the mohawk’ from the fashion show. Why should you vote for me? I believe that I’m friendly and approachable which will hopefully make it easier for you to approach me with any problems no matter how small.

I plan to deal with the big issues that will be upon us next year, the

COURSE COSTS When you hand over £3000 to this University, you purchase something. Yet some students have to pay extra ‘hidden course costs’.

I will: fight to ensure that when there are extra costs, paid-up students don’t front them.

CHOOSE STUDENT PRICES Having worked at the Ram, I have seen the number of customers decreasing with prices increasing.

These two are obviously linked.

I will: drop prices, so the Ram continues to be a great place to

library changeover, the chaos of the building work, accommodation issues and the ongoing debate on the ridiculousness of these top up fees we pay.

However I would also like to try and iron out the little niggles that we have to deal with on a daily basis.

• Think how often it’s been 3:50 on deadline day and you’re in

engage with the Guild.

CHOOSE A FAIRER DEAL ON FEES Tuition fees are up for government review. While others want to charge more, this year I led the campaign to affiliate to a movement where contribution is based on earnings, not upfront payment.

I will: step up the campaign for this, we cannot waste the opportunity.

CHOOSE SAM

a queue for the computers?

• You get you’re timetable only to discover you’ve got a Wednesday lecture and thus cannot play a sport?

• You don’t like any of the module options on you’re course or if you do you cannot make them because of timetabling?

Join the Pack, Vote Staffy.

Sam has some good policies including opposing hidden course costs, and reducing prices in the Ram (which is bound to please many students). However, his aim to ‘improve what we do poorly’ needs greater clarification in Candidates Question Times. It is also important to clarify whether price drops in the Ram would lead to funding cuts elsewhere in the Guild.

Your campaign in five words: “a better deal for you”

Exeposé Comment Staffy’s enthusiasm and unique colloquial style in his manifesto could prove popular, and his balance between big and small issues is well addressed. However, he doesn’t expand upon how he will achieve any of his goals and how he will deal with the issues he has identified in his manifesto.

Exeposé General Comment The Presidential Candidates seem to have a good understanding of problems on campus, but crucially have no definite, realistic resolutions and there is a general lack of concrete campaign policies. Jonnie and Ben’s focus on international students is welcome, but on the other hand Sam and Will show a good focus on smaller but important issues to improve everyday student life. The lack of any clear forerunner in this category could potentially lead to many students feeling dissatisfied with the choice of candidates; if students do feel strongly that none of the candidates meet their expectations, the option to re-open nominations is still valid.

VP Academic affairs I am Bertie Archer – running to be your VP Academic Affairs – and I will pursue these goals: • Back to Basics – The little things that make big differences o Personal and exam timetables to be released earlier o No hidden course costs o Earlier and better training for all academic reps o “Who you gonna call” – knowing who to talk to about academic problems

Bertie Archer

• The Bigger Picture – National issues and money o Opposing rising tuition fees

o Opposing cutting university funding o Lobbying MPs on academic issues o More scholarships for existing students - rewarding academic excellence • Exeter’s Facelift – Change now, disruption never o Minimising the negative effects from: • The Forum Project • Building works on campus • The incoming College system • The Future’s Bright – After your degree

Vote at https://elections.exeter.ac.uk/guild

o Encouraging greater use of existing careers and employability services o “It’s who you know” – setting up strong employment ties with alumni o Increasing department specific careers events • Postgraduate Union o Opposing PHD continuation fees o Guaranteed workspace for all postgrads o Face-to-Face feedback for all Please vote Bertie for Academic Affairs x

Exeposé Comment Bertie has strong policies on personal and exam timetables and has a good balance between national and campaign-based issues. Bertie is realistic about the impact of the Forum Project and does not neglect postgraduate students. Bertie’s glaring omission of the library in his manifesto will need to be clarified at Candidates Question Times.

Your campaign in five words: “Dedication! Aspiration! Efficiency!

Confidence! Competence!”

Vote at https://elections.exeter.ac.uk/guild

3

Exeposé WEEK eighteen

Elections

mic affairs VP academic affairs VP academic affairs VP W

Georgina Wallace-Walton

If elected as VP Academic Affairs, I will endeavour to carry out the following action plan • To make effective use of the Subject Chairs and Student Staff Liaison Committees • Help Subject Chairs to write and carry out action plans for their department • Give full training to all Subject Chairs and Student Course Reps • Ensure Wednesday afternoon lectures are not scheduled

• Represent the needs of Postgraduate as well as International students to ensure that their learning needs are met.

• Improve the level of feedback given to students across the university, including quicker turn around of marking and students being able to choose how they want their feedback and what they want their feedback on.

• Put in place a procedure for viewing exam scripts and receiving

feedback from teaching staff • Better communication regarding the Forum project and the effects it has on learning resources such as the library and to encourage students to voice what they want out of the Forum project.

• Encourage co-operation between subject chairs within Colleges, in order to allow projects and initiatives to not only benefit one subject but a whole college.

raisingawarenessoftheirrepresentative responsibilities to you;

of lecture recordings on WebCT, and utilising the alumni database, DARO, to further your post-graduate aspirations.

Liberty Pegg

Education: despite how we might usually define university, it is the reason we’re all here. I am a normal student with an abnormally large desire to transform your academic experience and, if you let me, I aim to: • lobby for a support system from tutors throughout the holidays, formalise optional revision seminars during exam week and ease library congestion by promoting the alternative campus libraries; • push SSLC elections to week 3 and ensure a budget for each committee,

• publicise the Study Abroad scheme and ensure that more students’ choices are met; • establish study groups for all subjects, which will actively re-engage you with your degree; • create an ‘Interactive Exeter’, including: an online marketplace for used textbooks, the availability

Since first stepping onto campus last September I have completely thrown myself into the Exeter experience.

My roles on Guild Council and RAG committee show my dedication to making a difference here, and I’m convinced I can now help to advance your academic affairs. So what are you waiting for? LIBSoc wants you!

Exeposé Comment Georgina’s manifesto shows a good focus on international and postgraduate students, and her proposal for viewing exam scripts is particularly appealing. However, more detail is needed about how her policies would be addressed.

Your campaign in five words: “you know she can”

Exeposé Comment Liberty experience is beneficial to her campaign. Her manifesto shows an interesting, focus on SSLC reps and a new approach to web interactivity. There is no direct reference to international or postgraduate students.

Your campaign in five words: “Ridiculous name, serious promises. Liberty!”

Exeposé General Comment The candidates do not explicitly mention part-time or mature students with only fleeting mentions of international and postgraduate students. The policies are strong and mostly similar, if a little uninspiring. Candidates Question Time will be crucial in differentiating these candidates.

vp welfare and community

Tess Bendall

Hey, I’m Tess, I’m a 4th year French with Italian student and I’d love to be your VP Welfare and Community for 2010-2011.

The next academic year is one that will see much turmoil at the Exeter campuses, but student welfare should remain everybody’s priority, and would most certainly be mine.

If elected, I would: *Regularly liaise between students and the University regarding the impact that

My name is Harry Wingfield - perhaps what’ll attract people’s attention to me the most relative to the other candidates is that I’m a first year.

Harry Wingfield

Some may question whether I have the experience required to run for a post such as this, but if youthful vision borne of a fresher’s eyes is the hallmark of a future failure, then you can always vote for another candidate. That’s the beauty of democracy.

the building works on campus have on students on a day-to-day basis. *Ensure that the proposed government cutbacks in Higher Education do not have a negative impact on student life and opportunities. *Campaign against the proposed lifting of the cap on top up fees. *Continuously monitor the cost of living in Exeter, both on and off campus, and examine the pressure it put students under to work hours which negatively

In terms of the experience that I do have, I’m the current President of the Birks/Moberly/Westgarth student committee, in which I’ve honed time management and leadership skills. I don’t need to shout from the rafters to get something done. Egotism isn’t my forte; calm consideration is.

Why do I want to be the Welfare and Community Officer of the Students’

Vote at https://elections.exeter.ac.uk/guild

impact on their studies. *Ensure that the interests of Postgraduate and International students are also covered by the work of the Students’ Guild.

Vote Tess: it’s about you. *Work with the Students’ Guild Welfare Representatives to ensure that the rights of all students are being taken care of, and Community Liaison Officers to improve the relationship between students and local residents.

Guild? Quite simply, despite it sounding horribly clichéd, I like to put smiles on people’s faces. I genuinely do believe that I can achieve this. I can’t make massive promises; I can’t aggrandise my position and say that every complaint shall be remedied.

What I can and do promise is a Guild that I’d strive to ensure addresses all that can be addressed, one which truly communicates your views at all levels.

Exeposé Comment The long manifesto has a strong policy on the welfare of Erasmus students . Although she identifies problems that students are facing, there are no solid proposed solutions in Tess’ manifesto.

Your campaign in five words: “for a caring Exeter communuity”

Exeposé Comment Harry shows strong enthusiasm for the position, and while his intention to ‘put smiles on people’s faces’ is admirable, he makes no reference to any policies in his manifesto.

Your campaign in five words: “a vested interest in improvement”

Vote at https://elections.exeter.ac.uk/guild

4

Elections

FEBRUARY 22 2009

Exeposé

www.exepose.com

nd Community VP Welfare and Community VP Welfare an • Adapting the current University newsletter in circulation to local residents to include details of music concerts, sports matches, and other events to members of the local community.

• Working with Voice to provide an ‘International Night’.

• Implement an optional ‘preWelcome Week’ for International students.

ber of many welfare-related roles (ChildLine, Voice, Welcome Team) and coupled with my experiences of many Guild societies (Jazz, Footlights, Tennis, Exeposé), I feel I have the necessary skills and passion to support your views and ensure that your voice is heard. I can’t say all I’d like to here, but please check out my extended manifesto and Facebook group.

With the emergence of the Forum Project this year, representation is vital. I have been an active mem-

The future’s bright... the future’s ginger. Vote HARDY!

On and off our campuses, regardless of our background, our Students’ Guild is an integral part of our lives, providing the space and support that enables us to get the most out of university. I endeavour, as Vice President Welfare and Community, to ensure that the Guild continues to offer this space and support: I will champion your rights, I will ensure you get the support you deserve, but above all, I will listen to you.

If elected, I will: • Hold timetabled drop-in

sessions in halls.

• Promote focused and continuous sexual and mental health awareness campaigns.

• Ensure tailored information is provided for student parents, mature students and part-time students prior to the start of the year.

• Publish my calendar so you can hold me to account.

• Listen to, involve, and work tirelessly with the International Students’ Council, EMSA, hall committees, student forum members

and welfare representatives.

• Create resident liaison committees to raise concerns and address the costs of accommodation.

• Organise a community week in the Summer term.

I shall be around campus all this week, so please come and talk to me.

Welfare needs someone who gives a damn.

Vote Adam Southall for Vice President Welfare and Community.

Thank you.

I’m Niki, and as VP Welfare and Community, I would be a friendly, approachable presence on campus, and will be there to represent YOU!

Niki Crabb

What will I DO? MENTAL HEALTH – Run an awareness campaign. Set up clear and easy-to-find guidelines on what to do/ how to cope if you’re struggling with stress or depression. Build awareness/ assess effectiveness of current services.

MAKE VOICE HEARD! –

Inclusion and promotion – Voice needs more support and backing from the Guild!

TERM DATE CHANGES - Assess the impact on both mental health and academic performance.

FORUM PROJECT – Work to ensure that students are fully represented within it - from the rooms and facilities to the planned library closures and inconveniences to students during building.

ACCOMMODATION - Fight for

it to be affordable and acceptable.

LISTEN ...to your suggestions and ideas – after all, it’s YOUR Guild!

As well as studying Psychology, giving me awareness of mental health, I have experience in the Guild, having worked in The Ram and as the Secretary of the ECU. The skills I’ve acquired, along with my dedication and passion for people, make me an excellent candidate to represent your welfare so, please, VOTE CRABB FOR SABB!

• Promote Health awareness campaigns on STI’s, mental health care, and the dangers of alcohol.

• Create an inter halls competition of sports, games and green initiatives to develop the role of halls committees.

• Lobby the University to maintain access to all area of campus for disabled students with mobility issues.

• Lobby the University for improved Personal Tutor training procedures so students feel confident

to approach their personal tutor with whatever difficulties they may face.

Danny Yamoah-Asare

I am Danny Yamoah-Asare and a Final year Mechanical Engineering Student.

I am going for the position of Vice President Welfare and Community.

Please take a look at my manifesto below, I will, • Create an International Gala event to promote and support our international community on campus.

• Work with the student wardens and local residents associations to combat the ‘Student Problem’ and defend the rights of students.

Hi! My name’s Chris, and I want to be VP Welfare & Community Officer next year because I really feel that I could make a difference in this position! Here are some of my policies:

Chris Hardy

Adam Southall

• Landlord Accreditation Scheme.

• Secure support for the newly established Mental Health Awareness Society, “Mind Your Head”, and more support for Voice.

• Making safe, well-lit passages available on key student routes to and from both campuses.

Vote at https://elections.exeter.ac.uk/guild

I am Founder of the African and Caribbean Society, Recruitment and Development Representative within CommunityAction and Racial Equality Representative for the Students Guild.

I lived on St Luke’s and studied on Streatham which helps me understand the full extent of University life.

SO VOTE FOR... DANNY, WELFARE AND COMMUNITY

for

Exeposé Comment Chris has original and sensible policies, regarding well-lit passages, the local community and making Voice more accessible to international students. His intention for a Landlord Accreditation Scheme would need to be co-ordinated with Exelets to ensure its viability.

Your campaign in five words: “Equality, Fairness, Integration, Compassion, Representation, ”

Exeposé Comment Adam shows a good awareness of student parents and part-time students. His policy for drop-in sessions, outside of office hours, is a commendable idea. However, there is nothing spectacular to his policies; they are good but not innovative.

Your campaign in five words: “Housing, Health, Habitat: Help’s Here”

Exeposé Comment Niki demonstrates a strong approach to promoting and supporting mental health, however this strong focus is possibly to the detriment of other areas omitted in her manifesto e.g. sexual health and relationships with the local

Your campaign in five words: “Don’t be shabby, vote Crabby”

Exeposé Comment Danny is remarkably the only candidate to mention the environment, if fleetingly, and to highlight a campaign on alcohol use. His wealth of experience in the Guild and amongst the international community demonstrates a commitment to welfare. However, some of his policies may lack feasibility, and need to be explored in more depth.

Vote at https://elections.exeter.ac.uk/guild

5

Elections

Exeposé WEEK eighteen

nd Community VP Welfare and Community VP Welfare an

Fliss Bramald

Hi, I’m Fliss. During my time at Exeter I have been involved with many Guild Activities. I am part of the RAG core committee, I was the treasurer of Lopes Hall and was on the welcome team. This has given me a lot of experience that will enable me to be an effective and very approachable Welfare and Community Officer for the University.

My specific aims will be: Promotion • Greater promotion across Streatham and St Luke’s of the

support services which are available to students through the guild and university, particularly with Finance, Mental Health and Disabilities.

• Have an advice unit available in halls at the start of the year.

• Work with the International student council to improve international student welfare.

Accommodation • Lobby the government for a maintenance loan which accurately reflects accommodation prices in Exeter.

• Promote Exelets with the aim that it becomes the main letting agency for Exeter Students.

• Lobby external letting agencies to be more responsible with the release timing of their house lists.

Halls committee • Create sustainable halls committees in all self catered halls and non-campus based halls.

• Meet with Halls committee members regularly to ensure first year views are represented.

Exeposé Comment Her campaign in five words is bizarre, as Fliss has some strong policies in her manifesto.

Specifically, her accommodation and mental health policies are good. However, there is no focus on alcohol, the community and sexual health.

Your campaign in five words: “Pink dumbo elephant blowing bubbles”

Exeposé General Comment For the majority of candidates, the issues of alcohol and drug use, sexual health and the environment are disappointingly overlooked. This strongly contested category represents a wealth and variety of experience in the Guild and competition for votes is likely to be fierce, with many good policies and candidates.

VP Participation and campuses

George Aryee

Luke Evans

Sophie Brookes

My fellow Exeter students, I am George Aryee and I’m running to be your Vice President Participation & Campuses.

I have effectively collaborated and interacted with all sectors of the student community through my international student background.

My aim is to represent all students in order to enhance ‘The Exeter Experience’ for all.

Why vote for me?

I am approachable, sociable and responsible. My vision is to champion the first steps for Exeter to become a truly cosmopolitan University , by representing you through the Student’s Guild.

My priorities are UNITY and TOGETHERNESS as both are crucial in terms of developing collaborative working relationships, teamorientation and a sense of belonging.

If elected these are my main objectives: • Societies - provide stewardship and sponsorship through the guild in order to achieve mutual benefits, betterment of societies and dedication to the improvement of health and welfare within societies.

• Internationalisation - bridge the divide between international and UK students, by bringing both parties together for the optimum Exeter experience.

• Volunteering provide incentives and rewards for participants through corporate sponsorship • Charity - provide financegenerating facilities through events and social activities to raise money for charity, societies and other guild activites.

• St. Lukes enhance communication thus ensuring a meaningful Guild presence on site and the creation of more societies and sporting events based on St. Lukes campus If elected I promise to make my vision a reality. “VOTE FOR THE VISION, NOT THE MAN”

Hey, how’s it goin’? I’m Luke ... nice to meet you. I could not be more involved in the social side of societies, ensuring I attend all popular nights out. However I feel it is time for a change, there need to be larger social cohesion between societies creating some great nights out.

I feel passionately about the standard of accommodation on and off campus. The situation with bunk beds in Holland is ridiculous as is the current state of Birks. With the university demolishing perfectly good accommodation such as St. Germans house and the potential sale of Kilmorie. The high cost of

accommodation off campus needs to be addressed.

The recent poor turnout at the guild general meeting highlights the need to make the election process more fun promoting greater involvement.

Hello, my name is Sophie Brookes and I’m running for Vice President Participation and Campuses!

Having been very involved in both student life in Exeter and with the Guild itself as CA Officer, I feel confident that I can enthusiastically and informatively be a representative for YOU the students, to make sure you get the most out of your time at uni!

I want to increase recognition of

the amazing society and volunteering achievements via x-media and G.O.A.L Ents events such as the Summer Ball have huge potential but need to be more student led – a committee of students should be elected to work with staff in developing and promoting events More events and activities should be organised and run by Lukies, as well as societies becoming more prominent

and focused on St Luke’s campus This is YOUR Guild and it is vital that as many students as possible get involved in the democratic decisions that affect YOU! I will campaign to make this a reality!

I am committed to using my knowledge of the Guild and Activities to provide YOU with the best student experience possible (as well as skills for your CV!) Vote Brookes!

Vote at https://elections.exeter.ac.uk/guild

Vote Evans...... Vote change!!

Exeposé Comment George’s manifesto shows a good emphasis on internationalisation and social unity. However, he does not mention in his manifesto how this will be achieved. Significantly, CA, RAG and XMedia are not mentioned in the manifesto.

Your campaign in five words: “Celebrate diversity through society unity”

Exeposé Comment Luke’s lack of clear policies and points relevant to his position indicate a lack of focus and development. However, he does show a good knowledge of the issues facing students.

Your campaign in five words: “Getting the everyday student involved”

Exeposé Comment Sophie’s experience as CA officer recommends her for the position and her focus on St. Luke’s is admirable.

However, she has no concrete policies and there is no mention of XMedia in a meaningful way.

Your campaign in five words: “Representation, Student-led, Luke’s, Engaged, United”

Vote at https://elections.exeter.ac.uk/guild

6

Elections

FEBRUARY 22 2009

Exeposé

www.exepose.com

tion and campuses VP Participation and campuses VP Par

Alex Bordoli

Lucy Vane

Matt Brookland

University is more than just a degree: Involvement with societies, campuses and volunteering makes the experiences at Exeter so valuable. I feel passionate about these opportunities, I wouldn’t have lasted three years without them (I study seagulls!). I hope my enthusiasm for Participation & Campuses comes across – VOTE BORDOLI Objectives • Large scale events run on Lukes... with the upcoming Forum building site, Lukes should be utilised more.

• Porters back in Cornwall House... obtaining room keys has been

a nightmare and we miss the Porters’ personalities.

• More society funding... One less Sabb position means more money is going to the reps, which for societies should use in the funding allocations.

• Double the number of students volunteering... wider and more targeted publicity of the variety of opportunities.

• Get XpressionFM played more in Guild buildings... lemmy main room, toilets, coffee express, etc.

Experience • RAG Raids Officer, fundraised about 50 grand.

• Active member of Community

Action, in fundraising and a volunteer on Summer Adventures.

• Societies Officer.

• Welcome Week volunteer.

• Worked in the Lemmy, serving delightfully battered students on a Saturday night.

• Setting up targeted events & raids with the Luke’s RAG rep (coming soon!)

-----Alex Bordoli for Vice President, Participation and Campuses

Hi, my name is Lucy Vane and I am ready to throw myself into the new role of Vice President Participation and Campuses.

I am a passionate people person, who is approachable, driven and excited at the prospect of dedicating myself to your representation and your involvement. Key to this, I believe, is AWARENESS and COMMUNICATION. I have three main objectives; • Support and develop participation in societies, X-

Media, RAG and Community Action by using experience as netball fundraising representative, highlighting and developing individual projects and their impacts.

• Represent the needs of St Lukes campus. As an active member upon the campus I have friends outside my own year group, including medical students and post graduates. I aim to ensure the individuality of the campus remains intact and provide more involvement opportunities.

• Encourage student engagement on campus and within the city by encouraging awareness of local issues within the university “bubble” and building rapport with local parties and the council.

If elected, I will devote myself to promoting a pro-active student community, giving you every opportunity to learn from experiences and make the most of your time at Exeter.

Vote VANE and feel participation running through YOUR Vanes!

Hi, I am Matt Brookland. I am passionate, dedicated and approachable and am a huge supporter of the University having been a student Ambassador for the past two years.

I want to take on every challenge, which you, as the student body, throw at me!

This I what I propose:

smaller events.

dent experience will continue to thrive during the Forum project.

* Unified Campuses: Maintain St Luke’s character, while I spend a lot of time on Streatham and feel strongly about bringing the two together, through

* Increase Participation: On St Luke’s in the areas of X-Media, RAG and Community Action through extra rooms, roles and publicity. Develop through working with other Guild Officers. * Maintaining Student Experience: Through joint society events and giving societies reign, over the new spaces, the stu-

* Increase Awareness and Diversity: Collaborate with the Athletic Union for more international aware events. * Re-Fresher’s week: Increase 2nd and 3rd years’ participation in societies through subsidising and scope to incorporate this in to The Exeter Award.

Exeposé Comment There is a good focus on St. Luke’s and Xpression fm in Alex’s manifesto. Combined with her extensive experience, she presents herself as a strong candidate.

Her policy on porters in Cornwall House is a welcome idea, but with questionable feasability.

Your campaign in five words: “Exeter: more than a degree”

Exeposé Comment Lucy shows strong support for societies on Streatham and St. Luke’s campuses. However her manifesto is vague, and she will need to clarify her policies in Candidates’ Question Time.

Your campaign in five words: “Dedicated to your student experience”

Exeposé Comment Matt has good vision regarding the combination of sport and societies, with the inclusion of international students. His interest in unified campuses and combining different events and areas is commendable but some of his policies need clearer development and focus.

Your campaign in five words: “Passionate, Innovative, Adaptable, Committed, Understanding”

Exeposé General Comment None of the candidates make any reference to Peninsula, or to part-time and mature students. Many policies regarding increased participation and increased communication with St. Luke’s campus are welcome, but frequently policies are vague and need a more definite direction and focus.

MEDIA WEEK

Exciting opportunities are available to all those interested in media from March 1. Workshops and talks will be held with news and sports journalists, radio and television presenters.

Find out more at www.xmedia.ex.ac.uk Vote at https://elections.exeter.ac.uk/guild

Vote at https://elections.exeter.ac.uk/guild

7

Elections

Exeposé WEEK eighteen

au President Ben Townsend

Ben Townsend AU PRESIDENT 1.

Improve the awareness and running of all intra-mural competitions.

2.

Introduction of an International Rep position on the AU Executive Committee to help pioneer increased international

Exeposé Comment

student involvement in sport at Exeter.

3.

Implement a thorough review process for all AU clubs.

4.

More clarity and openness in regards to the AU President position and AU dealings to be promoted to the wider student

population in a much clearer way.

5.

Increase the number of AU clubs by helping to set up additional clubs in sports not currently represented.

Ben’s refreshingly concise manifesto is broadly good on most points, however does not address any possible previous experience.

Your campaign in five words: “Trust Townsend for real change”

Exeposé Comment

Zac Frei

Sam Tang

Matt Bolton

My aim is for all Exeter students to get as much enjoyment from playing sport here as I have be that through BUCS fixtures, intra-mural sport or just as a group of friends making use of the great facilities available.

If elected there are a number of things I would like to do to improve students sporting experience at Exeter: Continued increased participation and increased teams in BUCS with

more clubs gaining AU status.

Improved Intra-mural leagues.

I’ve always been actively involved in sport, especially at Exeter.

From participating competitively in BUCS; socially playing squash, tennis and basketball; getting nominated for ‘AU volunteer of the year’; to captaining the football club. Through these experiences I have gained great insight into the role of AU President. With the University undergoing substantial change, Exeter sport must continue to develop in the right direction. I believe the following issues ought to be addressed:

ALUMNI CLUB SCHEME. Expand and support all clubs to create their own unique scheme where they will receive 100% of the benefits.

AWARENESS. Actively promote sport on campus, giving you more opportunities to support and be proud of Exeter’s success by providing information on where, when and how to get to BUCS matches.

IDENTITY. Maintain recognition as a major player in BUCS by finding a centralised kit supplier

for all clubs and help find specialist equipment at a minimum cost.

I N T E R N AT I O N A L I S AT I O N .

Organise more Varsities and encourage clubs to run internationally aware events, e.g.

Sportsday, aimed at involving all students to either participate or attend.

For my aims on Coaching, SVS scheme, Intramural and Facilities please look at the detailed manifesto or just ask!

For the past four years I have been very active and committed to sport at Exeter University. Activities I have participated in range from competing in BUCS for the badminton team, representing the University at the Indoor Rowing Nationals and participating in the intra-mural football league, to holding the position of Badminton Club Captain. This year I have been Publicity and Advertising Officer on the A.U. Executive Committee.

This has given me a fantastic insight

into how different clubs run and has helped me identify potential areas of the A.U. and general sport at Exeter which may be improved to help enhance the student experience.

These include: Improving BUCS performance across as many sports as possible.

Increasing participation in sport and A.U. membership numbers.

Increasing participation of international students.

Improving current varsities and adding more for different sports.

Continuing to get the best centralised stash deal.

Setting up endorsed charities for events which do not currently have a permanent charity.

Increasing the range of intra-mural sports available as well as improving their advertisement.

Vote for me and you’ll get extremely hard-working president, who is passionate and committed to improving sport at Exeter University.

Celebration of clubs successes through varsities where possible and other events with clubs where this is not.

Increased use of our world class facilities and improvement of existing ones namely Duckes Meadow.

Vote at https://elections.exeter.ac.uk/guild

Continued success in BUCS citing a top ten finish in the University standards as our goal.

Electing me as your AU president will ensure that you are represented by a hardworking, passionate sportsman who is determined in succeeding in the goals I have outlined above while being constantly available to represent you on any other issues that arise as the year progresses.

Democratisation of Varsity for all clubs is a reasonably attractive policy point, if worryingly lacking in any real details on how this will be achieved. Likewise, his commitment to improving facilities is reasonable, however this is an extremely popular policy position amongst this election’s candidates.

Your campaign in five words: “Improving Exeter sport for all”

Exeposé Comment A reasonable level of experience accompanies a sensible solution to AU internationalisation in organising a sports day on campus.

However, though he promises to help existing clubs expand, he fails to mention offering support for new ones. Specifics regarding kit and equipment, too, are few and far between.

Your campaign in five words: “Tang, promising results, not promises”

Exeposé Comment Matt’s ambition and drive to improve BUCS performance is good, as is his pledge to assist in the internationalisation of the AU. However, again, this is a popular policy point, and Matt may struggle to distinguish himself from his competition with such vague, unoriginal promises.

Your campaign in five words: “Represent, Participate, Integrate, Perform, Succeed”

Vote at https://elections.exeter.ac.uk/guild

8

Elections

FEBRUARY 22 2009

Exeposé

www.exepose.com

AU PRESIDENT AU PRESIDENT AU PRESIDENT AU PRESIDENT AU PR

Georgia Whitfield

Josh Belsher

Ellen McIvor

Since I could walk I have been involved in sport and have a huge passion and enthusiasm for all types. This didn’t change when I came to Exeter, representing the University at both cricket and hockey during my three years.

I have also been involved in the organisational side of sport as Club Captain and Chairman of the Ladies Hockey Club and standing on the AU Executive Committee this year as St Luke’s representative. These experiences

highlight my enthusiasm and dedication to sport at Exeter and have given me an insight in how to help improve it.

I have loved my time at Exeter, with many of my fondest memories coming from my active participation in sport. I have captained the Tennis Club, been on ski trips, gone scuba diving in Asia, supported varsity events and played intra-mural sport. These experiences, amongst others, have driven my passion to give something back to sport at Exeter.

I have first-hand experience in improving the student experience, from tennis coaching in my first year to being elected Club Captain in my

third. I have also gained valuable work experience in the AU Office and High Performance Unit, giving me a greater understanding of the important aspects of the role of AU President.

Based on this experience I can suggest the following areas for improvement: 1.

Conduct a large scale student sport survey • Improve BUCS performance • Support relevant Guild societies in attaining AU status • Increase participation 2 Promote intra-mural sport

3 Develop the Sports Volunteering Scheme • Enhance facilities • Support all clubs • Increase budgets • Give support to more Varsitystyle events 4 Improve PR I would be a committed, approachable and enthusiastic AU president. I would actively seek to engage the entire student body in sport in an effort to enhance the Exeter experience for all.

Hi, I’m Ellen McIvor and I would like to be your AU President next year. I’m a third year sports science student and I love playing Netball for our infamous green machine. This year I was elected Netball Club Captain and have also carried out work experience in the AU office. From this I have gained a vast insight into how the AU works ‘behind the scenes’ and potential changes that could be made to improve your sporting experience here at Exeter.

So, if elected, I propose to you the following: • Work with every club to improve their website, enabling easier communication between current club members and encouraging more prospective students to get involved in sport at Exeter.

• Advance the plans for the build of a new specialist sports hall for Badminton and Netball, freeing up our currently over-subscribed sports hall

for more Basketball, Ultimate Frisbee, Volleyball and other indoor sports.

• Increase the awareness and participation in intra mural sport, providing sport for all.

• To increase the numbers of international and post-graduate students who are part of an AU club.

So, if you’ve liked what you read and believe I can make a difference, then vote Ellen for AU President!

Club Provision: Encourage clubs to cater for all their members, with similar opportunities and value for money across all skill levels.

International Students: Provide more opportunities for International and Into students to play competitive sport.

Varsities: Build on the success of this year varsities and enable other clubs to hold their own varsity.

Intra-mural: Build on the success of this year intra-mural and encourage more clubs to set up games and opportunities for those that do not play in BUCS. Facilities: Improve facilities and equipment for all clubs and members.

Exeposé Comment Georgia obviously has good AU experience coupled with a passion for the field; however her campaign is generally rather bland, sadly lacking in any concrete policies or promises besides empty rhetoric and the standard stances on facilities and equipment.

Your campaign in five words: “Success, Passion, Opportunity, Rapport, Team-work”

Exeposé Comment Whilst communicating an obvious - and admirable - enthusiasm, Josh’s campaign promises are broadly unoriginal. A large-scale student survey may certainly be a helpful idea, however his short manfesto otherwise fails to address any specifics: his long manifesto rectifies this.

Your campaign in five words: “Belsh, living for the studentbody”

Exeposé Comment A more grassroots approach with regards to clubs is certainly a refreshingly precise plan of action in a campaign largely bereft of specifics or substance, even if Ellen’s plans regarding the new sports hall are somewhat vague.

Your campaign in five words: “Sport for one and all”

Exeposé General Comment Many candidates rightfully focus closely on BUCS, equipment and intra-mural sport. Only a few candidates fail to mention internationalisation in their manifestos. While there are a number of good policies, there is often insufficient clarity on how this will be achieved.

KEY DATES Tuesday 23 February - 7pm Candidate’s Question Time in the Visit: http://xmedia.ex.ac.uk/radio/podcast/ for podcasts explaining the voting

system and a full interview with Richard Stearn about this year’s elections. There are also

Thursday 25 February - 7pm Candidate’s Question Time in the

podcasted interviews with all the nominees. Scroll down for the podcasts.

Parker Moot Room

Lemon Grove

On the night itself XPression FM will be broadcasting live from 12pm to 11pm, doing an Friday 26 February - 4pm Voting Closes on the Online Voting outside broadcast then coming live from the elections night at:

www.xpressionfm.com

Vote at https://elections.exeter.ac.uk/guild

System

Friday 26 February - 9pm Results Event in the Lemon Grove

Vote at https://elections.exeter.ac.uk/guild

MONDAY 22ND FEBRUARY 2010 ISSUE 22

Play That Funky Music Sing along with Soul Choir and EUJO 3

Your issues discussed

Craig Strachan tells us what's happening in the PGU 3

What's on?

Events and Gig listings 4

?

Persuading you to 'swap' your daily shop for ethically sourced products 2

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Freetrade Fortnight?

Finance, Activities and Trading Officer Gemma Richens tells us a bit about what's going on for Fairtrade Fortnight.

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he 22nd February to 7th March sees this year’s Fairtrade Fortnight asking the nation to join in with The Big Swap – swap your regular stuff for Fairtrade stuff!

However, here in Exeter we’re not just trying to get you to swap to Fairtrade products for two weeks, we want this to be the start of a permanent switch to ethically sourced goods. So, to get you started we’ve got loads of events aimed at giving you a taste of the world of Fairtrade, and even better they’re all free.

"We want this to be the start of a permanent switch to ethically sourced goods" As everyone loves a good

brew we thought we’d make the focus of the fortnight tea. We’ll be holding a massive Tea Party on Thursday afternoon, 4th March, 3

– 4pm in Refresh with Fairtrade tea and flapjack, free if you bring your own mug! But don’t worry there will be a limited number of mugs to buy for £1 on the day if you forget.

Susan Nash, Vice President Society and Citizenship for the National Union of Students, is coming to speak at the event. She’s overseeing the student side of things nationally for the NUS so we’re really lucky to have her coming down to Exeter.

Keeping in with the tea theme there will be an opportunity from the 1st to the 5th March to lobby 5 major tea providers – including Yorkshire Tea, Twinnings, Tetley, Typhoo and PG Tips - to go Fairtrade. So, if you come to Devonshire House Foyer between 12 and 2pm any day that week you can show your support by simply signing your name.

Other events for the week include a free Wine and Drinks tasting evening in the Long Lounge, 6 – 8pm on Tuesday 2nd March and a free tasting session with ChocSoc in Devonshire House Foyer on Wednesday 3rd March, 12 – 2pm.

As well as all this we’ll be kicking off the fortnight’s festivities with a secret event…curious? Make sure you’re in Devonshire House just after 1 o’clock on Monday 1st March to find out more.

"Any day you can show your support simply by signing your name" In case you’re wondering

why we’re doing all of this it’s because of the Fairtrade Foundation. Their mission is to help businesses, community groups and individuals receive a fair price for their produce. The small farmers and workers who grow the coffee, tea, cocoa, cotton and bananas we use everyday often don’t get the money they deserve for their crop which can lock them into a needless cycle of poverty.

Fairtrade has come on leaps and bounds in recent years with the number of products increasing to include wine, sugar, honey, juice and even footballs.

Remember, everything you buy with the Fairtrade logo on has been ethically sourced and helps sustain communities throughout the world.

Don’t forget to keep an eye out during the week for my giant teapot and bananas!

Quite Interesting? Make Yourself Stand Out

Our fortnightly column of interesting facts and statistics about Exeter University and its Students.

This week we give you some of the results from our Exequest survey.

62% 10% 65% 47% 94% 85% 55%

How to improve your graduate employability Hannah Phillips The Works student staff member

of students thought that the student shop was either very good or good. thought that transport in Exeter was bad.

rated email as their preferred method of communication from the Guild. thought that the Long Lounge should stay as it is when the Forum project opens. of students felt that the Students' Guild catered for their needs. of students knew that there was a difference between the Guild and the University. of students prefer a large desk when studying.

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hether you know exactly what you want to do after University or if you haven’t got a clue, being a student eventually comes to an end and now it’s more important than ever to do everything you can to stand out from the crowd.

It’s never too early to start getting work experience, making contacts and gaining skills to improve up your C.V., and what better time to start than National Student Employment Week? You don’t even have to get off your sofa to take part.

The National Virtual Jobs Fair goes live on the NASES website www.nases.org.uk from Monday 22nd February to Friday 26th February and is an opportunity to get in touch with national organisations recruiting for

part-time, voluntary and vacation work placements.

"It's never too early to start getting work experience" There also a great opportunity coming up to talk to employers face to face at the Summer and Part-Time Jobs Fair on Monday 22nd February on our very own campus, from 12noon – 2pm in the JCR (Devonshire House).

If you’re an international student we’ve got our event Want to Work? coming up on Wednesday

23rd February, 11am – 4pm, here you can find information ranging from getting a National Insurance Number and claiming back tax to “finding work” workshops and C.V. checking.

The best way of finding out about any of the events that are coming up over the next week as well as finding out about part time jobs is to visit The Works website at www.exeterguild.org/theworks

Tell us what you think about X. Email your thoughts to: communications@guild. ex.ac.uk

Hannah Ward EUJO Press Officer

O

n Monday 22nd March Soul Choir and Exeter University Jazz Orchestra will be joining forces to provide a musical treat for your ears. After a hugely successful gig last year, The Phoenix Arts Centre plays host to us once again as we aim to entertain a crowd of around 450 people.

EUJO is a 25-piece semiprofessional big band playing music in a range of styles, contemporary jazz and funk to classic swing.

Soul Choir sing renditions of the classics you might expect, such as Marvin Gaye, as well as a few more contemporary surprises.

The evening’s entertainment will fall into three

EXEQUEST 2010 WINNERS! £100 Diana Onu £75 Fabien Gagnerot iPod Nano Nadia Martinez Cantero

sections. Firstly, a set from Soul

"This is our biggest gig of the year and has the potential for an absolutely awesome atmosphere" Choir, secondly, a set from EUJO and finally a collaboration between

the two groups, which looks set to breed some real show-stoppers!

This is our biggest gig of the year and has the potential for an absolutely awesome atmosphere.

Tickets are available from the Phoenix box office, alternatively, all group members should have tickets on hand to sell, so just shout.

All proceeds from the evening will go straight back into the two bands helping us to buy new music, equipment and making an end of year tour possible. Please come and support us to ensure the future success of these groups and in return we promise you an incredible evening of musical merriment.

MEDIA WEEK IS COMING!

For more information check out www.xmedia.ex.ac.uk or

www.exeterguild.org

Interested in a career in television?

Want to be an award winning journalist?

Fancy being a Radio Presenter like Chris Moyles or Jo Whiley?

Media Week is for you!

Events include sessions run by: John Crace from the Guardian James Ingham from BBC News 24 Sarah Mason from the News of the World Deirdre Fernand from the Times Matthew Sydney from the BBC World Service Paul Phillips from the BBC Collage of Journalism And hands on workshops, practical sessions and advice from all areas of the Media!

Craig Strachan President Those of you with great memories will recall that the last PGU article I wrote which talked about the importance of representation and the ways in which we can help improve things for everyone. Following on from that article, my committee and I received some ideas of the issues that matter most and put them together to present to senior members of the Guild and the University.

The key things we discussed were about study space, library hours, book availability and the integration of international students. While it is accepted that space will be at a premium during the Forum Project building works, it was noted that there are spaces such as in the Old Library/Research Commons which are only available for use at limited times of day.

It was also noted that other buildings on campus often closed at

5pm when the space could be used

"The key things were study space, library hours, book availability and the integration of international students" by students to study later in the

evening, or possibly at weekends.

It was agreed that this would be looked into and that in fact

the university was already in the process of arranging greater access at different times of the day to the Research Commons.

As regards the availability of textbooks, it was noted that all subjects have their own librarian and that this would be the person, along with the Guild Education Officer / VP Academic Affairs, to go through to request more copies of specific books.

The unlit path was also discussed and it was agreed that the feasibility of lighting this pathway would be looked at by the university - though it was also pointed out that the name would then be rather ironic!

If there is anything else you want us to do for you, please let a member of the committee know.

We're here to help!

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IN

8pm - 8:50pm: Improvers class (a more challenging routine for those more confident with their salsa).

8:50pm - 9pm: Practice time. 9pm 10pm: Intermediate class (for those wanting a much more challenging class, both with footwork, styling and turn patterns). Contact slc215@ex.ac.uk for more details.

GS

MONDAYS 4pm - 5pm German Society: Conversation Class Long Lounge, DH A great opportunity to practise your spoken German with native speakers in an informal and friendly atmosphere. Suitable for German undergraduates. Contact alt204@ ex.ac.uk for more details.

7pm-7.45pm Folk Society: Folk Music Session JCR, DH An opportunity to play traditional folk tunes. All instruments welcome.

Also see our slower music session on Fridays. Contact cgb203@ex.ac. uk for more details.

8.30 pm- 10pm Folk Society: Folk Dancing JCR, DH Come and try some traditional english folk dancing with Folk Soc, one of Exeter’s longest running societies. No partner needed. No experience necessary.Contact cgb203@ex.ac.uk for more details.

8:30pm Community Action: Pub Quiz Ram, DH Pub Quiz hosted by CA. Prizes include exciting vouchers from Dominoes and the Black Horse.

Tickets £1 per person, half of which is charitably donated to CA and its volunteering projects. Prizes up for grabs include five Domino’s Pizza vouchers, five drinks from the Black Horse, a bottle of wine and a healthy cash sum is up for grabs. Contact cafundraising@ex.ac.uk for more details.

TUESDAYS 6:45pm - 9:45pm Dancesport Society: Latin and Ballroom Lessons Hope Hall Dining Room Latin and Ballroom Lessons taught by a former world champion. No previous experience necessary for our beginner lessons. 6:45pm -7:30pm: Beginners Latin. 7:30pm -8:15pm: Beginner Ballroom.

8:15pm - 9pm: Novice and Intermediate Latin. 9pm - 9:45pm: Novice and Intermediate Ballroom.

Email slc215@ex.ac.uk

8.30pm - 10pm Japanese Society The Lemon Grove Bar The Japanese Society's regular meeting; come along for a friendly chat!

WEDNESDAYS 1pm Amnesty International Meeting Freddie Mercury Suite, CH Amnesty’s weekly meeting, during which we plan our campaigns and fundraising events and take action on contemporary Human Rights issues. See www. exeteramnestystudents.co.uk for more details.

7pm Buddhist & Meditation Society: Meditation Evening Queen's 4.2 Every week we have a meditation session with a local speaker, who gives the background to the practice and leads a meditation. All sessions are free and anyone is welcome at any time so do come along. Contact us on jrm212@ex.ac.uk if you want more details of our schedule.

7:30pm - 9pm Nooma Long Lounge, DH Exploring the relevance of Jesus and the Bible in contemporary society, looking at ‘building the foundations for a brighter future’ open to all.

8pm onwards Xpression FM presents Open Mic Night Lemon Grove, CH A free and fun evening. All new and returning acts welcome, come along at the beginning of the night to sign up. www.xpressionfm.com.

THURSDAYS 4:30pm - 6:30pm World Music Choir: Rehearsal Knightley Seminar Room Come and join the World Music Choir for a fun rehearsal singing songs from around the world £2 members £4 non-members.

Contact worldmusicchoir@yahoo. com for more details.

5pm onwards Poker Lemon Grove, CH 7pm - 10pm Dancesport Society: Salsa Lessons Hope Hall Dining Room 7pm - 7:50pm: Beginners class (beginners footwork and partner work). 7:50pm - 8pm: Practice time.

7pm Arabic Society: Bellydancing Coffee Express, DH Arabic Society is proud to introduce the return of our belly dance classes! Lessons will be held weekly all the term on Thursday evenings from 7pm to 8pm in Coffee Express, Devonshire House. Prices are £1 for members of Arabic Society, and £2 for non-members. It'd be great to see you there!"

FRIDAYS 1-2pm Arabic Conversation Classes Seminar Room 2, IAIS Colloquial Arabic conversation classes. Mainly Levantine dialect, incorporating some Egyptian.

Anyone welcome! Contact kjm205@ ex.ac.uk for more details.

6pm onwards Free Fun Friday Ram Bar, DH Enjoy all the games in the Ram for Free from 6pm, as well as promotional drinks offers every Friday!

6:30pm Folk Society: Beginners’ Folk Music Session Claydon (behind Knightley) Come along and join in with a slow informal folk music session. All instruments and abilities welcome!

We also teach instruments from scratch. Contact cgb203@ex.ac.uk for more details.

7:30pm Debating Society:Friday Debate Parker Moot Room,Amory The Debating Society’s weekly show debate, check the Debsoc Facebook group each week for the motion.

Contact cf256@ex.ac.uk for more details.

SUNDAYS 8pm onwards RAG Quiz Lemon Grove, CH

Buy your gig tickets from the Students’ Guild Box Office in Cornwall House, or buy them online at exeterboxoffice.com.

Produced by Stuart Smith and Meri Wills. © 2010 University of Exeter Students’ Guild.

MONDAY, 22ND FEBRUARY 12:00pm Exeter Entrepeneurs:£100 for 100 words Online Exeter Entrepreneurs presents the £100 for 100 word challenge.

It’s easy: just pitch your business idea to us in 100 words or fewer.

The challenge here is to condense what you want to say and get all the major points across in just a paragraph. There is no need to give away any private information – a public summary is enough to win the competition.

Search "£100 for 100 words Exeter Entrepreneurs" on facebook and the event should show up.

Please only submit one idea per entry. Make it a good one.

We have taken measures to protect your idea. Please see the group for for more information.

Any questions message me or email us at entrepreneurs-committee@xnet. ex.ac.uk

TUESDAY, 23RD FEBRUARY 7pm -9pm Elections 2010: Candidate Question Time Parker Moot Room, Amory Building Vice President Participation and Campuses, Vice President Welfare and Community, and AU President.

THURSDAY, 24TH FEBRUARY 5:00pm Friends of Palestine Society:“The Power of Inclusive Exclusion:Anatomy of the Israeli rule in the occupied Palestinian territories” Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies, LT1 Dr. Sari Hanafi will be presenting a new book that he has contributed to, carrying the name of the event title. Being the former director of the Palestinian Diaspora and Refugee Center and professor at American University of Beirut.

Chair: Dr. Ruba Salih Discussants: Prof. Michael Dumper and Dr. Ghada Karmi 8:00pm Amnesty:Social The Rusty Bike Pub A chance for all Amnesty members to meet in a relaxed environment, talk and have fun.

7pm -9pm Elections 2010: Candidate Question Time The Lemon Grove, CH All Candidates

FRIDAY, 25TH FEBRUARY 6:30pm Northcott Theatre Goers: The Ministry of Fear Northcott Theatre Northcott Theatre Goers social to see The Ministry of Fear, with wine,

crisps and a chance for a social get together!

9pm-2am Elections 2010 RESULTS The Lemon Grove, CH Results night and Party!

WEDNESDAY, 4TH MARCH 1:00pm Amnesty Vs Shell Local Shell Station Amnesty takes on Shell! Meet at the Pippa Langston Room to become part of Amnesty's campaign to make Shell accountable for their Human Rights abuses in the Niger Delta.

FRIDAY, 5TH MARCH 7:00pm Pole Dancing Society: Charity Dance Showcase The Lemon Grove, CH The Pole Dancing Society will be holding a Charity Showcase to raise money for Help the Heroes on Friday 12th March.

The Dance Society and Break Dancing Society are also involved, as well as the Pole Dancers from Plymouth University.

Tickets will be £6 (all proceeds going to charity) and will be on sale very soon in the Lemmy box office.

(Also available at various times from Devonshire house. Doors open at 7, dances start at 7.30 9pm-2am Standout Scratch Perverts The Lemon Grove,CH See only the Biggest, Freshest, Coolest names rolling in to Exeter in their droves. Standout`s mission is to bring an eclectic selection of cutting edge Dance and Urban music all under the same roof.

SATURDAY, 6TH MARCH 8:00pm Amnesty Street Exeter High Street Amnesty joins forces with the local city group to raise money for Amnesty UK with a street collection.

8:00pm Amnesty:Action for Change Human Rights Action Centre,London Amnesty UK's free annual training event at the Human Rights Action Centre in London.

Voice is the University of Exeter’s studentrun listening and information service, available from 8pm to 8am every night during term time.

Call: 01392 275 284 (local rate) or 74000 (free from halls) E-mail: voicemail@exetervoice.co.uk (response within 48 hours) Skype: exetervoice Online Chat: www.exetervoice.co.uk