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gair rhydd
gair rhydd | freeword Cardiff ’s student weekly Issue 1098 Monday 3rd April 2017 Five family members killed in helicopter crash
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Credit: Carwyn Williams
Welsh speaking union to be formed within Cardiff University SU Liam Ketcher
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ardiff ’s Student Union will officially establish a union for Welsh speaking students and learners, with the aim of establishing by the start of the next academic year. The plans were supported with a staggering 87 per cent vote in favour at the student senate last week. This news comes after months of behind the scenes work from the Union’s Welsh Language Officer Osian Wyn Morgan, meeting with various Welsh speaking students and representatives from the Union. In a statement by Osian on Wednesday he described this as “a vital and exciting development for Welsh speaking students in Cardiff, and we are planning to establish UMCC (Undeb Myfyrwyr Cymraeg Caerdydd) by the start of the next academic year.”
UMCC will represent Welsh speakers and learners across all aspects of University life. Its aim is to “represent everyone” according to Osian, “whether someone who wishes to speak Welsh every day, or use it every now and again.” The Union will represent all across Cathays Campus and Heath Park. Working closely with the Welsh societies that currently exist within the union, UMCC will be there to support the societies in the work they already do and improve the experience for all Welsh speaking in Cardiff. Cardiff is not the first to establish a Welsh Language Union, with Aberystwyth (UMCA) being the first to do so in 1973, and Bangor (UMCB) doing the same in 1976. Although the wait for a Welsh Language Union in Cardiff is overdue Osian believes that this is a “positive and necessary step” on the journey towards linguistic equality. This however is not the first time that students
attempted to form a Welsh Language Union in Cardiff. A similar body to UMCC was formed back in 2006, but this came to an end a few short years later. Osian is feeling a lot more hopeful for the future of the new union: “We will be within the Union, therefore hopefully this time the role of Welsh Language Officer, which is my current role at the moment, will change to be the president of UMCC.” Osian is hoping that electing an UMCC President and Committee instead of one isolated campaign officer, will give Welsh speaking students better representation, and will put their representatives in a stronger position to positively impact on the Students’ Union and the University. He believes that this will give greater status and more respect, in comparison to if they were to establish it outside of the SU. In an interview with BBC Cymru Fyw Osian stated that in his two years
here at Cardiff, he has seen that the Welsh speakers here the the University don’t pertain with the union and the amazing opportunities that are available here. He said: “We are completely isolated from the union and the main body of students here at Cardiff.” The establishment of UMCC will hopefully help unite all students together, both Welsh and non-Welsh speaking students. Osian has worked closely with SU president Sophie Timbers, who has realised herself that there are issues that exist within the Welsh community and the relationship with the union. Sophie has been eager to work with Osian to help better that situation – and forming UMCC is the result of that.
Continued on page 4
ive members from the same family have died in a helicopter crash in Snowdonia National Park. The helicopter was owned by building firm boss Kevin Burke and his wife Ruth, who were on board alongside three other victims who are understood to be members of their family. They were believed to have been travelling to Dublin for a christening North Wales Police told a press conference that the wreckage has been discovered in a remote area of the national park amongst ‘hazardous’ terrain. A spokesman for the family has said that “six children have lost their parents in this tragedy”, adding further that at this current stage “the family wants to be left alone to be able to deal with their grief over this terrible loss and concentrate upon looking forward”.
Article 50: PM says ‘significant’ increase to Welsh powers
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ales are to expect a ‘significant increase’ in devolved powers following Brexit, the Prime Minister has claimed. The UK government has officially started the process of leaving the European Union. In the letter to trigger Article 50 Theresa May said she would consult on which powers should be devolved. Wales’ First minister Carwyn Jones said there was “no reason” why Brexit should be “disastrous and said its effect on Wales could be minimal if done properly. Mr Jones told AMs that although he had discussed the letter “in general terms” with the Prime Minister during her visit to Swansea last week, ministers did not see the letter before Wednesday, nor were invited to contribute to its drafting. He added: “What’s important is that this is got right and not rushed.”
2 EDITORIAL Gair Rhydd Coordinator Elaine Morgan Editor Maria Mellor Deputy Editors Toby Holloway Emily Giblett News Toby Holloway Gabriella Mansell Harry Webster Comment Helena Hanson Caragh Medlicott Sam Saunders Columnist Helena Hanson Advice Anwen Williams George Watkins Politics Adam George Ellise Nicholls Science Tanya Harrington Kat Pooprasert Societies Aletheia Nutt Tom Morris Taf-Od Osian Wyn Morgan Liam Ketcher Sport James Lloyd Mark Wyatt Rich Jones Gareth Axenderrie Digital Media Editor Emily Giblett Social Media Coordinator Olivia Watts Cartoonist Tom Morris Copy Editors Molly Ambler Phoebe Grinter Conor Holohan Lydia Jackson Olivia Botting Hannah Woodward Get involved Editorial conferences are each Monday at 6:30pm. Write to the editor editor@gairrhydd.com At Gair Rhydd we take seriously our responsibility to maintain the highest possible standards. Sometimes, because of deadline pressures, we may make some mistakes. If you believe we have fallen below the standards we seek to uphold, please email editor@gairrhydd. com. You can view our Ethical Policy Statement and Complaints Procedure at cardiffstudentmedia.co.uk/complaints Opinions expressed in editorials are not reflective of Cardiff Student Media, who act as the publisher of Gair Rhydd in legal terms, and should not be considered official communications or the organisation’s stance. Gair Rhydd is a Post Office registered newspaper.
the free word
If I could slow down time, if I could find a way Things are ending and it’s very sad
Maria Mellor
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he academic year is nearly over and I’m not sure whether to party or go and cry in a corner. As a happy medium, I decided to use this editorial to reflect on my time at university. I know those of you who haven’t yet reached final year are probably thinking ‘oh no not another sad third year sob fest’, and maybe it is. Let me have my space! I joined Cardiff Student Media as a first year who thought it might be cool to join a couple of sections. I signed up to become a producer for a radio show on Xpress and joined the contributors page on Facebook for Gair Rhydd. It was easy as pressing a few buttons. I walked into the office as a shy girl who was keen to do her job to the letter. I basically bowed down to anyone with the tiniest bit of power, and was terrified to do something wrong in case I got told off. Wasn’t I cute! Honestly it’s not as hard as I thought it was. All you have to do is sign up and show a bit of dedication, and you can do whatever you want in student media. Do you even have a point to this ar-
ticle or are you just blowing your own trumpet, Maria? This past week it has hit me how little time we have left. It’s like standing on a cliff edge and your friend telling you it’s safe to jump, but you’re not entirely convinced, I’m scared of losing the life I’ve built for myself while at university. I have great friends, I have built up my confidence and I have made my mark on student media. What’s waiting for me in the ‘real world’ - who even knows! I guess half of what makes things so hard is what a fantastic year this has been. I’d like to take my penultimate editorial to thank the people who have made this year so wonderful. Let’s start from the back shall we? Thank you to the sport editors: Mark Wyatt, James Lloyd, Gareth Axenderrie and Rich Jones. I’m sorry that my lack of knowledge in sport has occasionally caused you to be overlooked, but I know you’ve done an excellent job. Don’t let that go to your heads. Despite not being able to understand much of what is written, I love Taf Od. Osian Wyn Morgan and Liam Ketcher have brought the section to another level, and thanks to them I now know a selection of very random
Welsh phrases! Ti moen drinc? Dawnsiwch gyda fi! Societies have persevered through thick and thin. Not only has Aletheia Nutt been a top notch delivery driver, but also I’m so glad she continued the section for another year. Tom Morris has been a great addition to the team and has certainly come up with some innovative ideas, not to mention his hilarious cartoon! My old section, Science has been continued brilliantly by the wonderful Tanya Harrington and Kat Pooprasert. It has been like watching my children flourish, seeing these two at work. Thank you for being so smart and reliable. Politics have never failed to surprise me this year. Ellise Nicholls and Adam George have been great friends to me as well as producing a cracking section every week. I’ve seen some wonderful US election coverage, Brexit banter and some great interviews. If you want some Advice, George Watkins and Anwen Williams are the people to call. After a couple of years of having the section in Gair Rhydd, we were starting to think ‘Where can Advice go from here?’ George and Anwen have proved that there is always
advice to be given and have included a great range of different voices in the section. If there’s a debate going on in the office, I can guarantee that at least one of the members of Comment are involved. Thank you to Sam Saunders for being a great driver, Caragh Medlicott for being a beautiful human inside and out, and Helena Hanson for being the life and soul of the party and a hell of a great columnist! The News team certainly are a wonderful bunch. Thank you for some excellent articles, late Thursday nights and early Friday mornings. Gabriella Mansell, Toby Holloway and Harry Webster - we’ve made a great team with some super scoops and fab front pages. Special shout outs go to my deputy editors Emily Giblett and Toby Holloway. You have kept me sane even at my most stressed. Here’s to the #SQUAD and our late night Co-op trips. I just know I’m going to cry multiple times about my wonderful Gair Rhydd team before the year is out! We still have one more issue left and the student media awards to come - it’s not over yet! Just let me have my nostalgia moment while I still can.
EDITORIAL 3
Campus in Brief Wales
ARRIVA TRAINS TO DOUBLE CAPACITY ON BUSIEST SERVICES Arriva Trains Wales is set to increase the number of carriages provided on some of its most overcrowded services. The company has announced that an extra 200,000 seats will be available on routes including the Rhymney, Barry and Taf lines into Cardiff. The news comes after a parliamentary report in January stated that passengers had been ‘deprived’ of improvements to the service. New services have been added on weekday mornings on routes to and from Cardiff Central. These positive changes are balanced out, however, by the loss of midday services from Penarth and Barry. The increase in capacity has been enabled by the £300m signal upgrade completed by network rail earlier this year. Lynne Milligan, Customer Services Director at Arriva Trains, told WalesOnline ‘improving the passenger experience is something we are passionate about and we are confident that these changes will make a positive impact for people travelling into Cardiff during the commuter peaks.’ The new timetable, which was successfully tested on March 24th, will come into full effect from May 22nd.
International
Police cars in Estonia could soon be equipped with teddy bears to comfort children at the scene of police incidents. The initiative, crowdfunded by the Traumamommik charity, was started by a group of students who were stunned to discover that thousands of children are involved in accidents and incidents, leaving them ‘injured, in a state of shock, or just in need of comfort’, as reported in Estonian newspaper Jarva Teataja. To make the project viable, the charity needs to raise €7,000 by 28th April, and has already raised over €1,000 euros and garnered support from local companies. The money will go towards buying, cleaning and distributing the toys to children across the country.
ESTONIAN POLICE CROWDFUND FOR TEDDIES TO CALM FRIGHTENED CHILDREN AT CRIME SCENES
STERLING REMAINS LOW AGAINST EURO AND DOLLAR
HOUSE PRICES PREDICTED TO RISE BY 2%
Words and Design by Emily Giblett
UK
EXPLORING THE POSSIBLE ECONOMIC IMPLICATIONS OF BREXIT After Article 50 was triggered on 29th March, the UK now has two years to leave the European Union. It remains to be seen how Brexit will affect daily life, but indications about what lies in store for the future of the British economy can be found in analysis of current figures. According to Nationwide, house prices rose by 4.5% in the year up to February 2017. Halifax put the figure higher than this, at around 5.1%. Experts say that the housing market is currently being supported by the current strength of the economy, with the jobs market continuing to expand. The sterling fell sharply after the initial announcement of the referendum result. Since then it has been trading around 15% lower against the dollar and 12% lower against the euro than it was before the Brexit vote. In more pressing matters, lottery operator Camelot has confirmed that British individuals will still be able to play the Euromillions and, to everyone’s dismay, we will still be included in Eurovision.
BUSINESS INVESTMENT DOWN 1%
4 NEWS
news
Editors: Toby Holloway Gabriella Mansell Harry Webster @GairRhyddNews news@gairrhydd.com gairrhydd.com/news
Cont’d: Osian Wyn Morgan in support of a union within the union
Continued from front page Pictured: Welsh language students protest their representation in 2015 (Photographer: Carwyn Williams)
Sophie also worked along side Osian in launching the Welsh Language Policy, which launched officially back in November. This process began with previous welsh language officers Cerith Rhys Jones and Steffan Bryn. In the AGM this year Sophie stated that her vision is that the union would be completely bilingual, and this is a step towards that. There is a lot of work to be done in the coming months with Welsh speaking students and Union representatives working together to set up UMCC in time for the next academic year. The coordination with all
students is vital to ensure that UMCC will be successful and a prosperous part of the Union, and to ensure that it will give Welsh speaking students and learners the representation that they deserve and need. Osian added: “I would like to thank everybody that has supported me in this process so far, I’m looking forward to continue to work with everyone over the coming months to ensure that UMCC will be a body that Welsh speakers and learners will be proud of – and that it will further make true our desire to live through the medium of Welsh in the University.”
esearch carried out by scientists at Cardiff University has revealed that huge reductions in the number of disposal coffee cups being used could be made if customers were charged a small amount of money for them. The disposable cups, widely used in coffee shops such as Costa, Cafe Nero and world renowned tax dodgers Starbucks, are recognised as contributing considerably towards waste. The research carried out by Cardiff University is to be used in a UK government investigation into waste, which also tackles the problem of plastic bottles and their effect on the environment. Of the inquiry, Member of Parliament Mary Creagh said: “Our throwaway society has given us a tide of litter on our beaches, dead seabirds and fish, and plastic in our food. We all enjoy a take away coffee or tea, but the cups they are served in are particularly difficult to recycle because they combine plastic coating and cardboard. Our inquiry will be taking a serious look at solutions like the use of different materials, behaviour change, better recycling and bottle deposit return schemes.” The findings from Cardiff University estimate that charging users for their coffee cups, in a similar scheme to that which led to plastic carrier bags costing a minimum of 5 pence in shops and supermarkets, could reduce the number of disposable cups being
thrown away by “up to 300 million each year.” This is according to the author of the report, Professor Wouter Poortinga, who also said: “Our results show that, on average, the use of reusable coffee cups could be increased by up to 12.5% with a combination of measures.” Speaking about a possible solution to the issue, she also said that “There is an important nuance when it comes to financial incentives. “People are far more sensitive to losses than to gains when making decisions - so if we really want to change a customer’s behaviour then a charge on a disposable cup is more likely to be effective.” Some of the cafes around the Cardiff University campus were among those that took part in the study. This is not the first time the issue of waste and disposable coffee cups has been raised. Last year, a protest over the amount of cups being wasted took the form of 10,000 of the items being loaded on top of a London double decker bus. The stunt sought to highlight the fact that the cups, which were being mistakenly took for recyclable, were in fact not so. Part of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s “War on Waste”, a BBC One TV series, found that Britons wasted 2.5 billion of the non-recyclable cups every year. The inquiry that Cardiff University are contributing to will attempt to address this issue and reduce the amount of waste heading to the UK’s landfills.
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UMCC will be a body that Welsh speakers and learners will be proud of. Osian Wyn Morgan
Cardiff University researchers ponder coffee cup conundrum R
Toby Holloway
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Our results show that, on average, the use of reusable coffee cups could be increased by up to 12.5% with a combination of measures. Prof. Wouter Poortinga
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Pictured: Waste of space: disposable coffee cups like these ones contribute to landfill waste. (Photographer: Toby Holloway)
NEWS 5
Preparations begin for Cardiff’s Champions League Final Pictured: Cardiff’s Principality Stadium will play host to this season’s UEFA Champions League Final (Photo Credit: Wikimedia)
Harry Webster
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s anticipation builds for arguably the biggest game in club football, preparations are being put in place across Cardiff to accommodate for the sheer volume of people expected to arrive in the city during the final weekend. Event organisers recently claimed the event will bring in around 170,000 people to the Welsh capital, and have claimed “the event will be unlike anything seen in the city before.” And with such a great influx of people coming into the city, organisers have also told people to expect congestion in the Cardiff area, saying:“trains and roads across the region will be extremely busy and people are advised to avoid travelling that day unless journeys are essential. “As with all major events in the city and for safety reasons, there will also be significant road closures across the city centre.” It is however hoped that congestion for the event will be eased by the completion of the new Eastern Bay link road, running between the A4232 Butetown Tunnel and Rover Way. The road is not expected to be opened fully until mid June, but will be made available for use by buses and coaches coming and going from the city in the aftermath of the game on June 3rd.
Upon its completion the road will feature two lanes of traffic in both directions, and a combined footpath and cycle lane. It is hoped the road will ease pollution in the city centre by providing a means of travelling around the most congested areas. After recently visiting the road’s congestion site, Welsh Government Minister Ken Skates said: “It’s a really crucial road for alleviating the congestion in the city and also reducing air pollution. “It’s been a very rapid build in terms of construction and it’s a real pleasure to see it reach completion, especially ahead of the Champions League final. “It’s going to be a crucially important piece of infrastructure for people coming to the event.” Congestion is not however the only problem the city will face during the final weekend, with their also being concerns over how to accommodate the number of people travelling to the city. Hotel rooms across the period have become scarce, and what little accommodation remains is proving hugely costly. It was recently reported that the price of one night’s accommodation had reached up to £3,000, while a two night stay in a B&B room on Cedar Way, three miles outside of the city centre, was last being advertised
for a staggering £4,284. In an effort to relieve the city’s hotels, and provide alternative accommodation for less-affording football fans, a campsite is set to be built in Pontcanna Fields, opening from May 31st and lasting until June 5th. The site will feature 2000 prepitched tents, will have on-site bars and showers, and will provide screens for fans to watch the game. The site is being run by private camping company ‘Campingninja’, and will cost potential customers between £50, and £125 a night. It was also recently announced that rather than having a fanzone for the game, such as the one held in Bute Park during the latter stages of Euro 2016, there will instead be a four day Champions League Festival held at Cardiff Bay. While the game itself will not be shown at the festival, there will be opportunities for football fans to have a picture with the coveted trophy, and revel in the competitions past with their being a pop-up museum dedicated to the contest. The festival, which will go on from June 1st to June 4th, will also feature a match between former, as yet unspecified, ‘Ultimate’ Champions League stars on its second day. In terms of a more long-lasting legacy, it was also recently announced that work had started on a new 3G maxi pitch in Grange Gar-
dens, Grangetown. The new maxi-pitch will be built in Cardiff as part of UEFA and the Welsh Football Association’s Champions League final legacy. The pitch will be the latest to be build in Champions League final host city, with UEFA previously investing in similar pitches in Berlin, Munich, and London. Speaking of the impact of the game will have on both Cardiff, and Wales as a whole, David Griffiths, president of the Football Association of Wales (FAW), said: “Hosting the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Women’s Champions League Finals in Cardiff gives the FAW an opportunity to further enthuse and excite the people of Wales, encourage them to get involved in football, and enrich lives through regular participation in team sports. “The positive impacts of football are powerful and far reaching. Football has the power to directly influence health and wellbeing, crime and social cohesion. “An all-weather pitch such as this being donated to Grangetown, gives the local community a top-level sports facility that can be used all year round. “I’m confident that such a facility, located equidistant between the host stadiums of the two finals, will serve to inspire more local youngsters to take up the sport.”
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The positive impacts of football are powerful and far reaching. Football has the power to directly influence health and wellbeing, crime and social cohesion. David Griffiths, Preisdent of FAW
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6 NEWS
Cardiff drug gang sentenced to 50 years
Isabella Nicolson
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ight members of a drug gang who planned to flood South Wales with class A drugs have been sentenced to a combined total of 54 years jail time. Cardiff Crown Court was told police discovered “a professional, wellorganised, drug supply gang operating in South Wales and that when vehicles were followed, the source led them to the north-west of England- with it becoming obvious that the source was in Liverpool.” The complex and organised operation had links to supply networks not only in Liverpool, but also in the West Midlands, providing the gang with accesses to a significant amount of class A drugs.
Police drove the investigation, named Operation Blue Magnet, for a period of six-months in order to make the arrest. Senior Crown Prosecutor, Gemma Vincent, reported that the CPS presented a thorough investigation involving vast amounts of surveillance material and mobile phone data, in order to display the extent of the criminal activity. Despite comprehensive police participation, Detective Inspector Tudor Thomas, South Wales Police, reported that the gang, “thought they could keep one step ahead of police by moving to another force area but in reality this only made them more vulnerable.” Six men from Cardiff and two more
from Liverpool have pleaded guilty to the conspiracy, which resulted in the seizure of cocaine, crack cocaine and heroin. The men responsible for supplying the valued £400,00 worth of class A drugs are as follows: Mark Cruise, 37, Marcus Thompson, 38, Shaun Harris, 37, Stephen Fenton, 38, Warren Pesticcio, 28, Paul Jewitt, 37, Mark Taylor, 56, Kyle Gallagher, 29. Unfortunately this is not the first time that police have had to deal with the disruption of harmful drugs in Cardiff. Just last month police found Cardiff nightclub owner, Fatos Hasa, to be the head of a drug gang who flooded the city with cocaine. However, Detective Inspector Tudor Thomas has said that the recently
sentenced men “were significant suppliers to the class A drug market within Cardiff ”. Moving forward, Detective Inspector Tudor Thomas insists that, “South Wales Police will relentlessly pursue those persons who supply these harmful drugs into our communities and are committed to responding effectively to such activity to keep South Wales safe.” Similarly Gemma Vincent ensures the public that the Crown prosecution Service will, and is committed to “playing our part in ensuring that those involved in the supply of drugs are brought to justice and prevented from enjoying the profits from their destructive actions.”
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Playing our part in ensuring that those involved in the supply of drugs are brought to justice. Gemma Vincent
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Research confirms dramatic rise in Type 2 Diabetes cases
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Ezinwa Awogu
Diagnosis of type 2 diabetes medical advancements such as blood pressure tablets and blood cholesterol stains.
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esearch from Cardiff University has raised major concerns among health authorities about the levels of Type 2 diabetes among adults in the UK. Data collected by Cardiff University scientists have revealed that the amount of people suffering from the disease has trebled over the past 20 years. Statistics also show that over a quarter of men and women in the UK are now obese. With, Wales having the highest proportion of people with diabetes in the UK. Type 2 diabetes occurs when the pancreas does not produce a sufficient amount of insulin, or the body does not react to the insulin produced, resulting in high blood sugar. According to the NHS, Diabetes is a ‘lifelong condition’ and if not treated appropriately, in some cases, can lead to ‘serious long term health problems’. Indeed, type 2 diabetes is the ‘most common cause of vision loss and blindness in people of a working age’.
Luckily, with the increase in demand for type 2 diabetes treatment, education, awareness building and healthcare has ensured that those diagnosed with type 2 diabetes are able to control the condition. According to the research collected by GPs between the years 1991 and 2014, there is a marked increase in the life expectancy of those with the disease. Professor Craig Currie of the Cardiff University’s school of medicine suggests this is due to the timelier diagnosis of type 2 diabetes medical advancements such as blood pressure tablets and blood cholesterol stains. This certainly bodes well for Wales with 7.1% of people aged 17 and over diagnosed with the condition, as revealed by diabetes Cymru UK. With fast food made available right to our doorsteps at the click of a button, there is further cause for concern over the health of both adults and children in the UK as di-
ets become ever more fat and sugarbased. According to professor Craig Currie, rates of type 2 diabetes continue to rise higher still. To prevent type 2
diabetes (and for those already suffering, to treat diabetes as best as possible) regular physical activity coupled with a healthy diet and alcohol moderation is the key.
Pictured: A needle for injecting insulin. Source: (Jill Brown via Flickr )
Good luck to all our students who are coMpetinG in welsh varsity 2017
a massive privilege jack McGrath, Men’s 1st teaM captain.
welsh varsity 2017 wednesday 5 april at venues across cardiff.
cardiff university v swansea university
Happy Mondays
Ghost Sleaford Mods
Busted
The Alarm
April/Ebrill
19/05/17, £22.50 ADV
2-Tone Tribute Tour 08/04/17, £19.50 ADV
July/Gorffennaf Busted
Parkway Drive
11/04/17, £25 ADV
07/07/17, £29.50 ADV
Bury Tomorrow
October/Hydref
21/04/17, £16 ADV
November/Tachwedd Happy Mondays
17/11/17, £2 ADV
December/Rhagfyr Shed Seven
07/12/17, £24 ADV
Sleaford Mods
27/10/17, £18.50 ADV
May/Mai Bedlam Presents... Pendulum (DJ Set) with High Contrast + more 05/05/17, £18 ADV
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All tickets subject to booking fee Codir ffi archebu ar bob tocyn
comment
COMMENT 9 Editors: Helena Hanson Caragh Medlicott Sam Saunders @GairRhyddCom comment@gairrhydd.com gairrhydd.com/comment
Au revoir nos amis - See EU later
Sam Saunders
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In truth, the UK has never really been a particularly good member of the EU. At every turn, we’ve protested and dragged our heels
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T
he other night, I was in the Taf enjoying a drink with some friends and everything was right in the world. At least for a while and until I looked at the front page of BBC News and saw that the Prime Minister had finally signed the letter that would trigger Article 50 and begin the process of leaving the EU. What I felt then can only be described as the same as my feeling on the 24th of June, hollow, as if we’d lost something that we can never get back. As I left the SU, a French song was playing on Xpress and that night I thought a little more about the EU, and everything we’re set to lose. I wasn’t a staunch Remainer, in fact, I remembered the other day with a modicum of humour that I was almost against it in Year 12, even going as far as to say I would vote UKIP if I could. That, however, was the ignorance of youth, my idiocy in not understanding what the European Union was, the impact it had on our lives and the true value of a peacekeeping initiative that morphed into something far greater than any of its creators could have imagined. I think the reason I was against the EU back then was due to the number of things that were signed by British politicians without any formal approval from the voting public; legislation such as the Maastricht Treaty for example. The rhetoric of unelected technocrats and sovereignty
certainly did little to help, particularly as, like most people, my grandparents were leave voters. I find this in itself odd, as surely the people who lived during and after the war would be the most likely to support the European project? I think the issue is that people in the UK have never really felt like Europeans and that as Britain has given away more and more power to the EU, that resentment has grown. But there’s another factor that people seem reluctant to talk about, or at least, that hasn’t been fully acknowledged by most voters. Which is the simple and indisputable fact that Brexit has revealed the divisions in our country; the divisions, which, if we’re honest, are mostly economic in nature. These divisions are founded on the fact that, for most people, things haven’t improved to the levels they were before 2008, and there are those who feel a sense of resentment towards London and other affluent areas. People who are having a hard time believe London is disproportionately valued than the rest of the country, and people in London look down on those outside it as it’s their belief that they support other areas of the UK. The vote certainly revealed differences in the countries that make up the UK, with Scotland and Northern Ireland voting to remain, and England and Wales voting to leave. This will have re-
percussions, as we’ve already seen with the intention of the SNP to hold another independence referendum. And what then? Discussions about a unified Ireland? Welsh independence? These ideas, which would have been laughable a year ago, now seriously warrant concern. You may scoff, but Leanne Wood (the leader of Plaid Cymru) has brought up suggestions of Welsh independence, and on the day article 50 was triggered, the PM had to restate her government’s commitment to supporting Northern Ireland remaining a part of the UK. This is of course not helped by the political problems that have engulfed Northern Ireland in recent weeks, but these are worrying discussions that see no sign of diminishing. In truth, the UK has never really been a particularly good member of the EU. At every turn, we’ve protested and dragged our heels over pretty much every aspect of European policy. The Common Agricultural Policy and the rebate secured by Margaret Thatcher are famous examples. It’s also easy to forget that we’ve been on the periphery of the European project for the time I’ve been alive, as the UK doesn’t use the Euro and isn’t in the Schengen zone, so we were almost half in-half out when we started this debate anyway. Yes, there are things wrong with the
EU, anyone who is vaguely aware of current affairs could tell you, but it’s the idea of togetherness, not being an insular nation and looking to our neighbours to co-operate with when the going gets tough that really endears the EU to me. The idea of political and economic union was born out of the fires of World War Two, and whilst I don’t agree that the UK should be in the Euro, or should have given up more power in the same way that France and Germany have, it still makes sense for us to be in rather than out. Maybe one day, we’ll realise that this was all a huge mistake, and be taken back in with our tails between our legs, or maybe Brexit will be the success UKIP dreamed it would be, and I’ll be sat eating humble pie until the Severn runs dry. But that’s not seeming likely right now, even if the tone struck by the EU and the UK has, at times, seemed relatively amicable. My fear is that future generations are going to be angry with us for doing this to them, as we have raged against our parent’s generation for the damage done to the environment and more wars than I can list here. Maybe this to will come to pass. Who really knows? There’s so much uncertainty, but, for me one thing is certain. Donald Tusk said today that the EU ‘already misses the UK,’ and do you know what? I already miss them too.
Pictured: Farewell EU, you’ll be sadly missed. (Source: Alex via flickr.)
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My fear is that future generations are going to be angry with us for doing this to them, as we have raged against our parent’s generation for the damage done to the environment and more wars than I can list here.
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10 COMMENT
The woman for the job!
Metropolitan Police appoints its first female commissioner Sanjukta Nathan
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Every individual should always be given a chance to eliminate the unintentional mistakes in their past.
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C
ressida Dick becomes the first woman to be appointed as the Commissioner in the history of the Metropolitan Police. Ms. Dick beat Sarah Thornton, (chair of the National Police Chief ’s Council), Metropolitan Assistant Commissioner, Mark Rowley and Steven Kavanagh, chief constable of Essex police and an ex-Metropolitan veteran to lead one of the most important security positions of London. Her appointment was finalised this week by the Home secretary, Amber Rudd and the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan after several rounds of interview. According to the Mayor of London, the appointment was not based on her gender but because she stood out among the shortlisted candidates and due to her outstanding role in the Met department so far, Ms. Dick was previously holding the position of Assistant Commissioner of Metropolitan Police until 2014. Her appointment becomes very crucial for the department after the retirement of Commissioner, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, a distinguished figure in the security force and in the wake of the present security situation of the city.
Ms. Dick’s appointment has been whole-heartedly accepted by the people of London. Prominent figures like Harriet Harman, Caroline Pidgeon, Lilian Greenwood and James Barry have taken to social media to express their delight over this decision. However, there might be few sceptics who may question the appointment due to the Cressida Dick’s somewhat controversial history. She was suspended from the anti -terrorism unit by Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe for the shooting of suspected terrorist and a Brazilian origin Jean Charles de Menezes in 2005 at Stockwell tube station. Ms. Dick was, at that point in time, heading the operation to track down suspects of 7/7 London bombings. It was later declared by the Met department as a serious mistake and that the Brazilian electrician was not connected with any terror crimes. Therefore, it does not come as a surprise the appointment of Cressida Dick as Commissioner has been opposed by the members of Jean Charles de Menezes’ family, as well as several others.
In my opinion, the appointment is an important landmark in the history of the British police force owing to the gender inequality that has always shrouded the profession. There has always reportedly been a scarcity of female police officers across the city, as in 1977 the number of female officers comprised of 7% of the police population which has risen to 29% today. Therefore, the presence of a female leader for the policing industry is vital to the encouragement of women embracing this profession. Research has shown in the past that the professional records of female police officers have always been cleaner compared to their male counterparts in terms of regularity of work, better reporting and recording of incidents. They also have less incidents of ramming police vehicles in chases and get into fewer brawls with people on a regular basis. In other words, female police officers seem to be more judicious professionals. There is a further point to make in terms of this appointment. Ms. Dick was acquitted by the jury in the controversial Jean Charles de Menezes’ case based on human error and therefore the policing in-
dustry has a leader who has already gone through the trial and error of making decisions that has helped her learn from the past. In other words, a leader who would be experienced in both success and failure. Nevertheless, one spot in the shining career of a successful and skilled individual should not be held against their merit. Every individual should always be given a chance to eliminate the unintentional mistakes in their past.
Pictured: Cressida Dick is the first woman commissioner in Met police history. (Source: YouTube)
Meme millionaire
Does the ‘cash me outside’ girl deserve her fame and fortune? George Cook
“
The media, businesses, overall society appears to be rewarding this girl as if she has done something wonderful.
”
C
atch me outside, how about…. no, Danielle Bregoli. The spread of this meme on the internet has been widespread but what is more worrying is the spread of this culture throughout society that favours and rewards such behaviour. Becoming a millionaire is usually only reserved to the lucky few, to those who have worked extremely hard, or to those who have been even more lucky and won the lottery. Yet, when one becomes a millionaire through disrespecting their own family members it sends a message to young children across the world that you can become rich and famous by ignoring basic values like respect, decency and dignity. That is not a message that we wish to send to future generations as a society; the future consequences would be unimaginable. Some may argue this is funny. Some may argue that she is a troubled child. Some may say she is young and will make mistakes. However, there is also this argument: If you disrespected your mother as a child, she would tell you off. Despite this, the media, businesses, overall society appears to be rewarding this girl as if she has done something wonderful. To act in such a way towards your parents, your
family, friends, or in fact, anyone on national TV is an insult to that person. It shows a lack of respect for not only others but yourself. Furthermore, it is an insult to those, of a similar age and older, who are not being recognised for more worthwhile deeds. Whilst memes and similar videos are humorous, they background to those who ‘star’ in them needs to be assessed as in too many instances benefits are reaped by those who, frankly, don’t really deserve them. Money from endorsements and an apparent TV deal have fallen at her feet. Her stupid catchphrase and awful attitude will ring out in even more forms of the media, making it hard to escape her disrespect. But, what is more worrying is the way society has developed to place emphasis on these people, on these acts, as if there is nothing else worth the attention. It demonstrates the Kardashian culture. The culture that puts fame on an almost unmeasurable pedestal in comparison to intelligence, friendliness and being good natured. Some young people now state fame as their aim in life, above professions such as a teacher, a doctor or a plumber. By doing so, in some ways, these once valued careers are being over-
Pictured: The video of Danielle Bregoli is now a famous viral video (Source: YouTube.)
looked in the mindless and single minded pursuit of fame. Fame is something that should be attained at almost any cost, and in this case it is disrespecting one’s loved ones. (Although, from her demeanour it suggests she doesn’t love her parents at all.) This fame-driven culture has manufactured an environment that is more conducive to needs of the media, big companies and social media than it is society as a whole because people use these means in order to capture fame or become viral. Anything has become acceptable, whether that be hitting some-
one with a spade, which went viral a couple of years ago, or disrespecting your parents. For wider society and culture, people like Danielle Bregoli have become unworthy role models for future generations. They have become desired in society when in decades previously, this behaviour would have been demonised and abolished. Those who wish to follow such fame driven pursuits over an education that many dream of are as malevolent as they are narrow-minded. However, a million pounds would be really nice right now so cash me….
“
Anything has become acceptable, whether that be hitting someone with a spade, which went viral a couple of years ago.
”
COMMENT 11
Welsh rugby matches are no place for the Royals The Royals don’t embody Welsh culture and shouldn’t represent the nation
Liam Ketcher
“
It really annoyed me that the Duke and Duchess of CAMBRIDGE were representing Wales in France. Surely you can see what I’m saying here, as let’s be honest there’s nothing Welsh about them.
”
B
eing a proud Welshman and Welsh speaker, I bet you can understand the excitement and passion that runs through my veins when the Six Nations comes around every year. I love it, it’s even better than Christmas. It comes at no better time, during February and March, probably the most miserable and boring months of the year – with the exception of the Six Nations itself and Saint David’s Day, of course. Although this year Wales saw a few disappointing results, nothing annoyed me more than the Royal family. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I dislike them (that much), but it drives me crazy how this very ‘English British’ family can represent the other nations within the Union. During our final game of the tournament I found myself cursing at the big screen every time William and Kate were shown in the crowd clapping, cheering and looking as smug as ever. It doesn’t really help that England had already won the tournament as a result of the previous weekend’s game. It really annoyed me that the Duke and Duchess of CAMBRIDGE were representing Wales in France. Surely you can see what I’m saying here, as let’s be honest there’s nothing Welsh about them. At least Charles and Harry have Wales in their titles.
But even then, to me they represent nothing even remotely Welsh and I can’t see how any Welsh person can feel truly represented by the Royal family. Personally, I feel that the Royals could do a lot more to help represent the other nations within the Union. Not only for sporting events but they could be useful in raising awareness and supporting campaigns. Let’s take, for example, the Welsh language. If the holder of the title Prince of Wales had to learn how to speak Welsh, they would not only create a bond with the people of Wales, but they really would help towards raising the number of Welsh speakers. This in my opinion, would actually show that they care about the rest of us here in the UK. I understand that a lot of people don’t care about the Welsh language, but many of us here in Wales do. By having a Royal, especially the Prince of Wales, speak the language it may inspire others to do the same. Something else that has annoyed me previously is the Queen being referred to as the Queen of England. She is the Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth Realms, but I feel pop culture refers to her as the Queen of England- it’s no wonder that many Welsh and Scottish people are pushed out of the ‘British circle’.
Pictured: Do Kate and William really represent Wales? (Source: youtube.)
I personally don’t feel British at all, I am Welsh through and through. This is because Wales isn’t represented in anyway on the UK platform. Wales isn’t even represented on the Union’s flag – I understand that at the point of the creation of the flag Wales was a principality of England. However, since then we have regained some form of independence as a nation within the UK. Due to the fact that we were once a Kingdom within Britain I feel that Wales should be represented on the Union Jack. Obviously this won’t happen, but it’s nice to dream, I guess. Another thing that gets on my nerves is the English national an-
them “God save the Queen” being the British national anthem. England should get their own or Britain needs a new one, but I refuse to sing the same anthem as England. I find it awkward during the Olympics, for example, because I have full support for all British athletes, but again I refuse to sing “God save the Queen”. If it’s not the Royals representing Wales and the other nations during the rugby and other sporting events, who do I think should be there? In my opinion, it should be the First Minister of Wales Carwyn Jones. He meets all the criteria; he speaks Welsh, he is Welsh and represents Wales on a National platform.
“
Due to the fact that we were once a Kingdom within Britain I feel that Wales should be represented on the Union Jack.
‘Legs-it’ shows we’re not yet an equal society
”
Comments about May and Sturgeon widely condemned Sarah Harris
“
It’s ridiculous that even in this day and age, female politicians are still struggling to be taken seriously.
”
I
t seems that every other day the Daily Mail is causing controversy with their ridiculous headlines. Just last Tuesday, the paper caused a stir after their front page appeared with a picture of politicians Nicola Sturgeon and Theresa May and the headline reading, ‘legs-it.’ The front page intended to compare the legs of arguably two of the most powerful women in the UK instead of focusing on the impending consequences of Brexit. There’s no doubt about it – the headline was clearly sexist and definitely written by a misogynist. It’s ridiculous that even in this day and age, female politicians are still struggling to be taken seriously and have their appearance and fashion sense commented on more than their political standing. It’s not the first time the paper has been so overtly sexist and offensive. Just a few weeks ago they ran an article on the ‘questionable’ combination of burgundy tights and scarlet heels worn by Miriam Durántez, lawyer and wife of former deputy PM, Nick Clegg, Again, the article caused controversy with people suggesting that
it’s clearly unfair that high rising women are subject to such scrutiny through the words of those who don’t understand what it’s like to take on such challenging roles. It could be argued that the constant portrayal of women such as May and Sturgeon in the media is holding our country back from being a truly equal society. Sexist humor is a subtle reminder that many people in this country still have aged logic when it comes to the role women do and should play in society. It’s crazy to think that almost 100 years after Constance Markievicz, the first female to hold a place in the House of Commons, women who work in politics are still fighting to be taken seriously. Would we have the same problem if two male authoritative figures were to meet? Why did the Daily Mail never publish a front page article on the lack of facial hair David Cameron and Nick Clegg had or would that be too demeaning to their masculinity? One twitter user commented on the cover, ‘this is what happens when you let the drunk, pervy un-
Pictured: Nicola Sturgeon and Theresa May were featured on the Daily Mail’s ‘legs-it’ front page. (Source: First Minister of Scotland via flickr)
cles at a wedding edit a newspaper.’ Despite the shaky reception May had after being appointed Prime Minister, her poise and responses to political activities over the last few weeks including the London terror attack have proved to the public that she deserves enough respect by media platforms and British Citizens to not judge her based on her gender but solely on her performance as the leader of our countries. Other politicians were quick to
jump to the defense of the 2 politicians with Ed Milliband tweeting, ‘the 1950s called and asked for their headline back.’ It’s clear that feminism is still an ongoing movement and the undisguised sexism shown to us by arguably one of the UK’s most widely read papers (unfortunately) is not helping in the fight to allow not only women but also the rest of the UKs minorities shows us that we still have a long way to go.
“
Would we have the same problem if two male authoritative figures were to meet?
”
12
COMMENT
Should we de-horn rhinos? Does removing the horns of rhinos in captivity protect them from poachers or simply prevent them from being re-released into the wild?
FOR: Gareth Axenderrie
“
Killing endangered animals for their ivory is sick, but rhetoric doesn’t do much to stop a man with a gun, a chainsaw and blood money in his eyes.
”
N
o humane person wants to see a rhinoceros or an elephant with anything other than a horn or its tusks, but the time has come to protect these incredible creatures against the evil that exists to exploit them. Ivory is a huge illegal global industry, now estimated to be worth upwards of $20 billion a year. The demand for horn and tusk -which will cost you $3,000 per kilo- has led to a catastrophic boom in illegal poaching over the last two decades. Up to 35,000 elephants and rhinos are killed in Africa every year, but the clamour for the commodity has also led to horrific incidents in Europe in recent months. Earlier this month, a southern white rhinoceros named Vince was found dead at a zoo outside Paris. Shot three times in the head, his horn had been removed in crude fashion by a chainsaw. A truly beautiful creature; killed for its horn. The rhetoric from the west is all well and good, killing endangered animals for their ivory is sick, but rhetoric doesn’t do much to stop a man with a gun, a chainsaw and blood money in his eyes.
One zoo in the Czech Republic has taken extreme measures to prevent such an atrocity happening to their rhinoceroses. The Dvur Kralove zoo near Prague has taken the decision to remove the horns from all 21 of rhinos. The reality is that elephants and rhinoceroses will continue to be slaughtered for what some evil bastards regard as a commodity worth murdering for. Experts suggest that global demand for ivory is falling since China moved to initialise a ban on it last year, however that hasn’t yet decreased the lucrative desire to supply an inflated demand. In the meantime, a radical response is needed, even here in Europe. An elephant or rhino without its tusks or horn is a sad sight, but I would argue that a dead one, with its ivory making some very evil individuals a lot of money, is far worse. Currently, these are the options. In captivity, tusks and horns serve no purpose, to remove them is no more harmful than clipping your toe nails. Evil exist in this world, telling them not do evil things won’t work, prevention is the only way to stop the bloodshed.
A
recent incident in a French zoo saw poachers break in and kill a white rhinoceros before sawing off its horn to sell on the black market. This incident has resulted in a zoo in the Czech Republic safely removing the horns from its 21 rhinos in order to prevent a similar incident occurring again. My initial reaction was that this was a sad, but ultimately necessary precaution to take in order to protect the lives of the rhinos. But considering it with the bigger picture in mind, the ‘better de-horned than dead’ argument, while admirable, sets a terrible precedent. And it is this ideology which I am opposed to. By severing the horns from these rhinos, the zookeepers have essentially given in to the threat of the poachers, rather than standing in defence of the animals’ natural state. The time spent degrading these rhinos by dismantling their defining trait, is time that could have been better spent; for example, it could have been used to improve the security measures of their enclosures. Doing so would combat the poachers’ illegal activities without sacri-
ficing the animal’s identity. Also, it’s important to keep in mind that many modern zoos care for their animals for only a certain period, for conservation or study, and then place them back into the wild. These rhinos could never function in their natural habitat, however, because the horn is so integral their survival. There is no question of putting a de-horned rhino back in the wild unless someone actually wished to endanger it. Rhinos horns are desperately needed; from defending territories and foraging for food, to defending and caring for their young, rhinos are constantly using their horns. But now, the Czech zookeepers (as well as any other zoos that follow suit) have ensured their rhinos are incompatible with the natural world, forcing them to remain in captivity forever. The measure taken by this Czech zoo is undeniably well-intentioned, and may even result in fewer rhino casualties. But it is equally clear that these efforts, meant to deter poachers from stealing more horns, are more damaging to the animals than the criminals.
AGAINST: Christopher Jones
“
With the bigger picture in mind, the ‘better de-horned than dead’ argument, while admirable, sets a terrible precedent.
”
Pictured: Poachers will kill animals in captivity for their horns. (Source: Rose Davies via flickr.
COMMENT 13
Divestment and democracy at university: An open letter To Professor Colin Riordan, President and Vice-Chancellor of Cardiff University Sean LangdonDark, James Daly & Jake SimmPapoui
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Companies such as BP and Rio Tinto have been accused of exploiting indigenous communities.
”
W
e write to you because we are witnessing the increasing impacts of climate change and the disasters it brings at an ever increasing rate. In 2015, the UK experienced record-breaking heat waves and floods which affected hundreds of thousands of people. Storm Desmond and Eva alone cost our country approximately £1.5bn. The burning of fossil fuels is proven to intensify climate change. The scientific consensus is clear and overwhelming – experts agree that we cannot safely burn even half of global fossil-fuel reserves without dangerously warming the planet for thousands of years. Cardiff University states it wishes to minimise its “environmental impact at all levels of operation and be an exemplar of best practice”. This principle reveals itself in the University’s extensive and outstanding research in many areas of sustainability. However, holding investments of £330,000 in fossil fuel companies as Shell, which spent £18m in 2015 alone lobbying against climate policies, goes against the institution’s sustainability goals. Many fossil-fuel companies violate human rights. Companies such as BP and Rio Tinto have been accused of exploiting indigenous communities whilst increasing poverty and ill-health on the front-line of fossil fuel extraction. When oil drilling activities in the most vulnerable countries lead to out-
breaks of social chaos, inequality and violence, developed countries, their companies and facilitators bear direct responsibility for those catastrophic consequences. The University prides itself on its work around equality and diversity. They achieve this through various schemes, such as the recently renewed fair trade accreditation, showing the commitment to prevent this sort of violations. We believe that the ethical standard that Cardiff University holds itself to, mandates a social responsibility to divest from such industries. Climate change and thus fossil fuels are not profitable in the long run. After the Paris agreement in 2015, analysts of Barclays anticipated that it will “help boost the long-term fundamentals of the capital-goods and low-carbon power-generation sectors while weakening the long-term fundamentals of fossilfuel industries”. Goldman Sachs also predicted a boost of the world’s low carbon-emissions economy. In accordance with this prediction, European countries’ investment in clean energy rose by 3% in 2016, with the UK leading for the third successive year. Off-shore wind technology on its own received capital spending commitments of $30bn, an increase of 40% compared to 2015. This increasing demand assures us that it is not only in Cardiff University’s ethical but also its financial interests to shift investments to renewable
energy companies such as Vestas Wind Systems, Tesla and many others. Public pressure on Cardiff University to confront climate change is rising. One quarter of UK universities have committed to divest from fossil fuels, among others the University of Sheffield, Glasgow University and most recently the University of Bristol. For the good of our students, our university and our nation, and for future generations worldwide, we call upon you to join this growing movement. We call on Cardiff University to: - Prevent any new investment in fossil fuel companies. - Divest fully from direct ownership and any commingled funds that include
fossil-fuel public equities and corporate bonds within five years. - Make commitments to increase investment in renewable energy suppliers. - Conduct a comprehensive analysis of other investments or connections to fossil fuels companies, for example the pension funds, research grants and relations with fossil fuel company CEOs. The implementation of these measures will not only be a responsible decision for our institution’s financial portfolio but also for the wellbeing of its current and future graduating classes who deserve the opportunity to graduate with a future not defined by climate chaos.
“
It is not only in Cardiff University’s ethical but also its financial interests to shift investments to renewable energy companies.
”
HEL ON EARTH
15
Over and out An ode to university life and to the end of an era
Helena Hanson
“
Absolutely don’t bring your girlfriend to uni, because your housemates will smash them before Christmas.
”
I
f I could squeeze myself back into my thinner, wealthier and healthier eighteen year old fresher body, on that very first day, of that very first term, I’d tell myself one thing; breathe. I recall vividly that first summer before beginning university, and my mother relentlessly cutting out articles from magazines and newspapers that detailed ‘university essentials’, like printers, and potted plants and ‘proper’ writing pens. I wish I could shake her, and me, and tell both of us that I will not ever, ever need a pen that wasn’t free, and remind us that it will be hard enough to keep me alive, whether I own a pot plant or not. There was no definitive article published in a broadsheet newspaper that warned me that I wouldn’t need photographs of my family, as all of their names would be forgotten by November, and nobody told me that you absolutely never need to buy a wok. They should have told us: Don’t bring your favourite mugs to uni, your housemates will smash them all before Christmas. Don’t bring your sacred high school football trophies to uni, your housemates will smash them before Christmas. And absolutely don’t bring your girlfriend to uni, because your housemates will smash them before Christmas. What nobody tells you though, is that you do need kitchen roll (loads of it) and toilet roll (loads of it), and dry shampoo (loads of it). Make sure your mum buys you an eighteenpack of all of this before you go, and respect and treasure them with all your life. There is no problem in university that cannot be fixed with toilet roll, kitchen roll and dry shampoo. I would warn myself that, despite quickly realising that human beings
need essentially, absolutely nothing to comfortably survive, you will acquire a truckload of shit over the next three years. You’ll have drawers that are literally just full of shit. Branded pens, bottle openers, event lanyards, 2p coins, lighters, empty food packets and enough phone cases and Poundland iPhone chargers to open up your own dodgy phone accessory store. You will keep all of this junk, because most of it was free. And if university teaches you anything, it is that you always take free stuff. Always. No matter how many private and personal details you have to give out to attain it. I wish I could climb into the car with eighteen year old me, and unpack all the absolutely useless junk I thought it necessary to bring to university in first year. I’d packed my sixth form ball dress, bless me. ‘Honey, the Fresher’s ball is not a real ball’, I’d tell us all. Do not wear a dress to the Fresher’s ball. Do not wear a suit. Unless you want to have a large group of boys circling around you, pointing at you and chanting ‘SUIT BOY, SUIT BOY, SUIT BOY!!!!!!’ in the Lash, every Wednesday, for the next three years, Do. Not. Wear. A. Suit. You will have a ‘proper’ ball, eventually, Helena. You won’t go in first year, because you won’t have the bollocks. Then, in second year, you’ll be underdressed, get too drunk, embarrass yourself and will vomit before midnight. Finally, in third year you’ll have a good time. But, as is life, by the time you finally find the people on your course that you like and finally work out how to write a semi decent essay and finally know how to make a boiled egg that is just the right amount of runny, it is time to leave university forever. I wish I could tell myself to worry
less about making friends. You will not know in the first few weeks of university which friends are good for life and which are only good until the end of Freshers. You don’t need to try and work it out. For the first time in your short life you have the opportunity to reinvent, to start again, to figure out who you really are without the constraints of your previous life to shackle you. It takes time to work out who you are, and even longer to work out the kind of people you want to be friends with. I’d tell myself to worry more about doing washing. Little did I know I’d find myself sneaking out of halls in the middle of the night, like some crazy duvet thief, in a desperate attempt to bagsy a washing machine for a few hours without the risk of somebody taking out my freshly washed clothes and dumping them in a pile on the sticky, dirty floor. I would assure younger me that salvation would come in the body of a university hoodie. A hoodie with CARDIFF UNIVERSITY emblazoned over the front of it, which you will come to wear every day for the next three years. It will not need to be washed. It will soak up stains and spills like a dirty, magical sponge and no matter how sweaty and gross it will get, it somehow will never be unwearable. I’d warn myself about the inherent dangers of university. I’d teach myself that there is nothing in life more ungodly and evil than club reps. They will come to your door, Helena and You. Must. Not. Let. Them. In. Once you have let them into your safe place, they will infiltrate you with lies and dishonesties about their club which is ‘selling out’ and ‘down to the last 50 tickets’. If tickets were selling they would not be at your door. If tickets were sell-
ing they would not be at your door. If tickets were selling they would not be at your door. Repeat this to yourself until it sinks in. You must forcefully say no thank you and shut the door. Even if they are hot. Especially if they are hot. Do not worry about their feelings. They are filthy, soulless liars and are dead inside anyway. I wish I could tell myself to enjoy and savour and absorb each moment just a little more. I’d spend more time enjoying the blossoms in the park in the spring, and appreciating those little ducks that hang out by Bute building for absolutely no reason. I would hang out more in the library, even if it was just to use Facebook, and venture further than the SU for more of my nights out. I’d worry less about attending all of my lectures in first year, and worry more about attending all of my lectures in third year. All too quickly it is over, and we become graduates, we get jobs, and in time, we’ll all eventually work out ‘adulthood’, and what it means to grow up. University is the vodka shot version of life. Short, sharp, delicious, revolting, shocking and numbing all in equal measures. The rest of life is our Long Island Iced Tea. We have time to sip it a little slower, and digest it properly and decide how much ice we like and whether we want to drink it with or without a straw. But, ultimately, our stomachs are settled and our liver is ready, because we had our vodka shot warm up. No doubt we’ll look back on our university decisions with horror and disapproval, but overwhelmingly with pride and envy at how reckless and young and wild we were able to be. Thank you Cardiff University, and farewell to the best three years of my life, it’s been a blast.
Pictured: Goodbye, old friend (Source: Marc via Flickr)
“
The rest of life is our Long Island Iced Tea. We have to sip it a little slowe and digest it properly.
”
16 ADVICE
advice
Editors: Anwen Williams George Watkins @GairRhyddAdv advice@gairrhydd.com gairrhydd.com/advice
The Great Big Dairy-Free Challenge Got milk?.... Sort of
Harry Bligh & Katie Siwek
Pictured: Not a cow in sight (Photographer: Harry Bligh)
I
n the twenty-first century, we are constantly bombarded with conflicting arguments about the latest health fad. Our grandparents grew up on fresh meat, eggs and bread… yet we are repeatedly told to reduce our consumption and warned of the implications of not doing so. The latest alternative range it seems, are milk substitutes. No, they haven’t suddenly appeared. But the market is growing, as are the varieties available. People go dairy free when it comes to milk for many reasons, fitness, health, lactose intolerance, or just a personal dietary choice. The average UK household buys 5.2 litres of cow’s milk annually, so
not everyone has been swept up in the recent developments when it comes to dairy free alternatives. However, inspired by the shelf space these alternatives are getting in our supermarkets, we decided to put them to the test with many different results.
Pre-conceptions:
Harry – Pro-Cow’s milk: I drink cow’s milk probably every day, usually in tea or coffee or sometimes just on its own. I also use it in cooking and in breakfast foods like porridge and pancakes. However recently I have become more aware of how cow’s milk may be detrimental to health, particularly skin and cholesterol. For this reason, I was interest-
ed in finding a good, healthy alternative, something that I like the taste of and I can still enjoy in my beloved Yorkshire Tea. Katie – Anti Milk: I haven’t drunk cow’s milk for years. In fact, I can’t remember drinking a glass of it. For as long as I can remember I have not liked the taste at all. That’s not to say I’m stubborn about it… Or against cow’s milk for any reason. I would love to love it. I do however buy it to cook with, and will happily use it in my porridge most mornings. I have recently become interested in finding something to substitute milk with, so I can switch things up at breakfast time and enjoy cereal for once.
Harry’s Predictions: From the selections, at first glimpse, I expected the nutty milks to be the nicest, Cashew, Hazelnut and almond, all nice foods. I expected oat to be the worst. I hadn’t heard wonderful things about oat milk and I can’t imagine how plain oats could be transformed into anything like milk. Katie’s Predictions: After glancing over the pints on offer, I thought the best milks for me personally would be either Cashew or Hazelnut. How could they not taste amazing? It did not take long for me to form preconceptions about what I wouldn’t like: Hemp and Oat. I did however keep an open mind.(And oat milk actually tastes pretty good.)
Milk
Price (£)
Colour
Taste
Smell
Ranking (Harry)
Ranking (Katie)
Almond
1.40
Light brown
Not much
Biscuity
8
2
Soya
0.85
Off- white
Slightly sweet
None
2
3
Oat
1.40
Tea-colour
Porridge
Porridge
7
5
Hemp
1.50
Translucent
Bland ice cream
Vanilla ice cream
6
8
Hazelnut
1.80
Tea-colour
Creamy and nutty
Hazelnut/ wafer
4
1
Coconut
1.20
White
Sweet and coconutty
None
5
4
Rice
1.40
White
Rice pudding
Rice pudding
3
6
Cashew
1.80
Off-white
Milky
None
1
7
“
The average UK househol buys 5.2 litres of cow’s milk annually.
”
ADVICE 117
Life after university Is it as terrifying as it seems?
Lizzie Harrett
Pictured: Hats higher than my grades. Source: Bb Inthavong via Flickr.
T
hroughout your final year I think the best motto to refer to is the infamous Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy motto: DON’T PANIC. Much easier said than done, of course. It’s hard not to freak out when you have a dissertation, 4 essays and your impending doom approaching. But you can stop worrying about what you have to do with your life once you’ve tossed your graduation cap into the air. For the first time in your life there isn’t an immediate and obvious next step, but you can start to make some ball park estimations and reduce your worries about the future through a few steps. Firstly, I think it’s important to note that most final years have absolutely no idea what they will be doing in three months, let alone in six months or one year later. And that is absolutely okay. But it’s great if you can roughly plan what you want to
do. Looking at all my graduate friends and what they have done (as an ancient 24-year-old), future directions post-graduation lumps into three categories: further study, a graduate job or working a lower level job whilst saving to travel. If you’re stuck between these I would recommend visiting Cardiff ’s Career Service. If you haven’t a clue what you want to do that’s absolutely fine, that’s literally what they’re here to do! They give fantastic confidential advice, and will help you consider your options much better than an anxiety-induced 3am Google search. If you know roughly the field of work you’d like to go into, sometimes it’s not clear whether or not you’ll need a master’s degree. It’s not too late to apply for most master’s courses, but the relevant universities will have the information about applications as well as scholarships on
their websites. Unfortunately, it isn’t all lumped together on one website like it was many moons ago when you sold your soul to UCAS. There are of course monetary concerns to consider. That overdraft isn’t going to pay off itself. But once again, DON’T PANIC. Check with your bank but most offer at least a threeyear interest-free overdraft on a graduate account. You also won’t need to think about paying off your student loan until the next financial year begins, in April 2018. Even then, you’ll only have to start paying it off when you’re earning £21,000. Next is housing. Can you live with your parents, guardians or a friend post-graduation if you haven’t got a job immediately sorted? Best to double check before you take anything for granted. One friend of mine found that her bedroom had been converted to her Mum’s state of the art yoga
room. I would also recommend not spending your final year housing deposit return on a festival or drinking bender once it is returned. The biggest bit of advice I can give any final year student is to allocate yourself some chill post-deadlines. It is common knowledge that final year is draining, and you will definitely need to recharge your batteries. It’s also something to look forward to. If you’re broke and it’s sunny then going camping somewhere in South Wales with pals is low budget and fun. Just know that in three months you may never have to use Harvard referencing again. And that is a beautiful thought. The universities careers and employability service are located at the Student Support Cenrte, and are open between 9:00-16:00.
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Most final years have absolutely no idea what they will be doing in three months.
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Making your money last
Sarah Harris
I
love the Easter Holidays. Not because I get to have a nice break before the impending doom of exams but because by the end of March, I’m usually totally broke and the holidays mean I get 3 weeks and home where I don’t have to pay for my groceries and other expenses. This year I decided to stay in Cardiff and prepare for all the deadlines I have the first week back (is there even any point in the holidays if we have to spend the whole time studying anyway?). The spring term usually leaves me more broke than others. Despite the winter term ending with Christmas, the Spring terms involves the birthdays and anniversaries of pretty much everyone I know, or so it seems anyway. So consequently
Gotta get thru this
I’m even more broke than I usually would be and probably seem like I’d be the worst person to take advice from when it comes to saving money but I’m damn good when it comes to advice about making the little amount of money you have stretch over the rest of the holidays. If you’ve ever wanted to go on a cleanse, this is the perfect time to do so. Going out is probably a luxury to many people at this point so save yourself the 20 quid you would spend on alcohol and mixers for pre’s and save it for food and other essentials instead. If you absolutely CAN NOT go without drinking then 1) go to rehab or 2) scrounge through your housemates alcohol supply. A cleanse doesn’t just mean cutting out alcohol but cut out all the crappy
food you’ve been eating for the last 7 months too – say goodbye to the 1AM visits to T&A and you can forget about deliveroo, that’s for the bourgeoisie. Your diet now, will consist of a lot of tinned food, noodles, pasta and a lot of bread. Give yourself a budget and do a mini shop that will feed you for 3-5 days. Planning menus in advance can seem dull but you gotta do what you gotta do to survive during these difficult times.Being broke is also a blessing at this time of the year. The fact that you barely have enough money to feed yourself probably means you have a very limited social life right now so take this as an opportunity to focus on your studies and exams and smash yout degree. Or on the other hand, think of it as
the perfect time to procrastinate in almost any way you can! Steal your friends Netflix password and binge watch any show you possible can. Take up and new hobby like drawing or running or may I suggest, sleeping? Maybe, try and wander round your surroundings for a bit. It’s shocking how many wonderful things there are to do in Cardiff for free, like visit the museum or go to town and admire all the pretty things you can’t buy unless you sign up for sugardaddy.com (I’ve signed my housemate up for this and as of yet, no luck). See, being broke isn’t as bad it seems and I bet you, you can make the £5.30 you have left in your bank account last at least 3 weeks and maybe even save a penny or two.
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If you’ve ever wanted to go on a cleanse, this is the perfect time to do so.
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18 ADVICE
The library survival guide Charlotte Gehrke
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aster recess is near and with it, panic about finals and essay deadlines finds its way back into student’s heads. For most of us, the first step in combating this anxiety starts not with the learning process itself but with finding the right place to study – in most cases, namely the library. The question of what library to go to is the first challenge that can be mastered by testing out various seats in a number of libraries at different times of day or night to see what works best for you. This choice can be tied to anything from trivial facts such as opening hours (the Arts and Social Studies Library (ASSL) is open 24/7) to individual preferences, such as flair, smell, quality of vending machines, etc.
Treat yo’ shelf
When choosing a study setting, you might also want to factor in how easily you can be distracted by others and work or study in groups since you are more likely to meet people from your own course in your subject library. In addition, some libraries are equipped with group study rooms which you can reserve online. Furthermore, having people around you who are studying similar or possibly even the same materials also enables you to ask for advice or guidance. Additionally, in order to make the most out of your time at the library you should also consider when you are the most functional throughout the day. If you’re someone who can work be During the day, you will most like-
ly have the most access to libraries, resources and assistance staff. However, if you’re more of a night owl, do not despair – many of the libraries are open late or don’t close at all and you will never be alone since there are always students, librarians, or security guards around. Nevertheless, while some might appreciate not being confronted with the horror movie scenario of being alone in an empty library, having company also means having noise around. Hence, it’s always a good idea to bring a set of earplugs and some headphones, be it to drown out the background noise or to produce some of your own without disturbing others. Furthermore, especially if you are planning on working for an extended
period of time, comfortable clothing is recommended (at 2am, nobody in the library will mind what you wear, including Bob from security). It will also allow you to sit in a comfortable position enabling you to stay focused – sometimes a brief walk through the woodland of bookshelves or even a little exercise can also help to battle exhaustion. Finally, a word to the wise: As much as most of us hope for the scientists who invented space icecream to make this happen – coffee is not a food group (yet). So, make sure you bring some (healthy) snacks and non-caffeinated beverages with you and keep track of your coffeeintake.Good luck and in the spirit of the Gloria Gaynor’s 1978 international disco hit: you will survive!
You’ve got a friend in me
Sarah Harris
I
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You should also consider when you are most functional throughout the day.
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Pictured: Hell on earth. Source: The City of Toronto via Flickr.
How to help someone with mental health issues
f you’ve ever suffered from any form of mental health problem then you know it can at times seem like a huge burden on other people. But the thing is, they probably wouldn’t see it that way. It’s easy to forget that your closest family and friends want nothing more than to see you healthy both mentally and physically. The most important thing to remember is that each person is different and everyone suffers and heals in their own way. When I go through a depressive episode, like most people, I tend to lock myself away. I don’t really share what I’m going through with other people and give the typical, “I’m fine” response. I know for a fact this annoys the hell out of my boyfriend – “But I can see you’re upset,” he always argues. If you’re taking care of someone who suffers from mental
health problems, it’s important to remember that for them to admit that they’re in a dark place takes a lot of courage and pressurizing someone to talk to you will just drive them further away. It’s best to remain patient whilst subtly reminding them you’re always there if they want to talk or need help. For some people it’s easier to talk to a professional rather than to someone they know personally so you can always suggest they speak to a counsellor or their local GP. Despite the fact that you shouldn’t smother them, it’s also important to remember to keep an eye on people who do suffer from mental health issues. There will be times when you don’t realise that someone is suffering but they in fact are. I had a friend who was bi-polar and was triggered by people cancelling plans
and events. I know that sounds like something that would piss most people off but it caused her to have severe panic attacks and feel extremely anxious. It took her almost a year to realise that other people’s last minute plans were causing her to suffer and therefore it took her friends to see what they would unintentionally be doing. I’m not saying that you need to be psychic or always one step ahead but attention to detail is definitely important when it comes to helping someone out! I could write a whole paragraph on how being a good listener is important but I’m pretty sure you know that by now. I’ve always found it easier to recover from going through a bad phase when I have someone to push me. My mum’s method involved waking me up early every morning in-
stead of letting me stay in bed all day and allow my mental situation to worsen. Although to some people this may seem like hell on earth, I found that having someone there to encourage you to get the most of your day helped. Distractions are a great thing when you’re not in the best mental state so planning to take someone out can always be a huge help, even if it’s a little trip to the corner store. Mental health problems are usually unpredictable and definitely don’t disappear over the course of time. It takes years to figure out people’s triggers and how best to help them but once you do, it can be a huge relief. Like I said, taking care of someone with mental health issues is not easy and can even be mentally and physically exhausting but it’s definitely worth it to see them happy!
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Reamin patient whilst subtly reminding them you’re always there.
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Keep up with all the Varsity action, add ‘cardiffstudents’ on Snapchat. You’ll also be able to snap away with our new Varsity filter on the big day!
- AWARDS SHORTLIST SPORTSWOMAN OF THE YEAR Sarah Mckeever - Athletics Rebecca Jordache - Lacrosse Zainub Akbar - Trampolining
SPORTSMAN OF THE YEAR Andrew Wright - Athletics Lewis Oliva - Cycling Dean Bale - Rifle
AU PRESIDENT’S AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING ACHIVEMENT Elizabett Yashneva - Tae Kwon Do Holly Thomas - Rowing Dan Barratt - Boxing Catherine Henderson - Netball Rachel Woodman Trampolining
TEAM OF THE YEAR
FRESHER OF THE YEAR
Ladies 1st Lacrosse Team Ladies Hockey 5th Team (7ths) Ladies 1st Squash Team
Lowri Roberts - Squash Ayesha Garvey - Surfing Pheobe Smith - Lacrosse
CLUB OF THE YEAR
COACH OF THE YEAR Anni Seaborne - Lacrosse Richard Jones - Ladies Rugby Callum Hindle - Mens Rugby Emma Fitzpatrick - Rowing Joanne Lewis - Ultimate Frisbee
Aerial and Pole Sports Rowing Tae Kwon Do Trampoline
MOST IMPROVED CLUB OF THE YEAR Triathlon Ladies Football Volleyball
MOST IMPROVED SPORTSWOMAN OF THE YEAR Lizzie Robertson - Cycling Mairi O’Shaughnessy Dancesport Kai Tan - Tae Kwon Do
MOST IMPROVED SPORTSMAN OF THE YEAR Ian Wallis - Cycling Daemon Reah - Dancesport Liam Evans - Ultimate Frisbee
POLITICS
politics
21
Editors: Adam George Ellise Nicholls @GairRhyddPol politics@gairrhydd.com gairrhydd.com/politics
Britain triggers Article 50
“Thank you and goodbye” is the message from the EU President Tanya Harrington
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When Tusk accepted the letter on Wednesday, it formally triggered Article 50 of the Lisbon treaty, which became a part of EU law in 2009.
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Adam George
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n a formal letter delivered to EU Council President Donald Tusk on Wednesday, Prime Minister Theresa May delivered the longawaited verdict, a decision laced with controversy since the EU referendum of June 2016: “We are leaving the European Union.” It was a movement she later described in the Commons as being “an historic moment from which there can be no turning back.” She also emphasised that in doing so, “the government acts on the democratic will of the British people,” referring to the results of the 2016 referendum, in which 51.9% of voters chose to leave the EU. This slight majority has been reflected in the actions and sentiments of the UK since, with political parties and ties between countries increasingly divided by differences in opinion and global aspirations. When Tusk accepted the letter on Wednesday, it formally triggered Article 50 of the Lisbon treaty, which became a part of EU law in 2009. As a result of this, it is expected that negotiations for Britain to leave the EU should be settled before April 2019. Already, there has been debate regarding the content of May’s letter to the EU, with some arguing that Theresa May is using Europe-wide sharing of defence-related intelligence as a “bargaining chip” in the upcoming negotiations. In the letter, the Prime Minister
B
wrote that “in security terms a failure to reach agreement [on trade] would mean our cooperation in the fight against crime and terrorism would be weakened.” Some, including Guy Verhofstadt, the EU Parliament’s Brexit negotiator, have referred to this as “blackmail.” In an interview with Sky, home secretary Amber Rudd stated that “If we left, we’d take our information with us.” With an estimated 40% of European intelligence information coming from the UK, this tactic could prove to be equally powerful as it is divisive. Leader of the opposition Jeremy Corbyn called Theresa May’s plans and conduct with regards to Brexit negotiations “reckless and damag-
ing,” in the Commons on Wednesday, referring to a need to “represent the whole country, not just the hard line Tory ideologues on her own benches,” and warning of Labour’s refusal to allow the government “a free hand to use Brexit to attack rights, protections and cut services.” He also emphasised the need for “full access to the single market,” disputing the Prime Minister’s earlier inference that “no deal is better than a bad deal.” However, the Labour leader refrained from making any reference to Brexit at the Prime Minister’s Questions on the same day. With both the UK and EU remaining divided on crucial components of the negotiations which are about
to proceed, it appears that a period of instability may lie ahead. It is hoped that all governments involved will work co-operatively to reach the best outcome, but with the EU potentially wanting to provide a “hard deal” to discourage other member states from leaving, this could be difficult. Speaking on the matter, Donald Tusk said that there was “no reason to pretend this is a happy day,” but said that “we will act as one and start negotiations by focusing on key arrangements for an orderly withdrawal.” Finally, he said: “what can I add to this? We already miss you. Thank you and goodbye.”
Pictured: The Union Jack and the European flag outside a building of London (photographer: Dave Kellam)
UKIP’s sole MP defects from party
ack in 2014, Douglas Carswell, the Conservative MP for Clacton, defected to UKIP, saying that he wanted to see “fundamental change” in British politics. He won the by-election that followed comfortably, becoming the first ever UKIP representative in parliament. Carswell had represented the Conservative party in Parliament for almost a decade and the decision was seen as a big turning point in the history of UKIP. His new leader, Nigel Farage, asked how many more MPs would follow suit: “Two, seven, ten?” There were many rumours that other right-wing, Eurosceptic Conservatives might follow Carswell across the floor. However, this wasn’t to be the case, with only Mark Reckless defecting the following month. Reckless did not enjoy the same success that Carswell had enjoyed, losing his seat in the 2015 general election. Farage’s prediction never came to
fruition, and now it has started to go into reverse. Last week Carswell decided to quit the party and sit in parliament as an independent, leaving UKIP without an MP once again. The decision has prompted backlash from within the party and amongst its supporters. Farage has dismissed Carswell as a “Tory party posh boy”, the irony of this comment obviously not apparent to the former banker that once belonged to the Tory party himself. UKIP’s main donor, Arron Banks, has even threatened to stand against Carswell at the next election. None of this seems to have bothered Carswell, who has claimed that he only defected to pressure David Cameron into promising a referendum and to prevent UKIP from damaging the Leave campaign’s chances of victory. He has said that he leaves “amicably, cheerfully and in the knowledge that we won.” Carswell also believes that there is no need for
a by-election as he is not planning on joining another party. Ukip, he added, had achieved its founding aims with the vote to leave the EU. “After 24 years, we have done it. Brexit is in good hands,” he said. Shortly after the announcement on Saturday, the Ukip leader, Paul Nuttall, said the party had not “benefited financially or organisationally from having Douglas in Westminster”. “With this in mind, his departure will make no difference to my ability or focus on delivering the reforms I promised when elected as leader,” he said. Carswell’s departure has created fresh uncertainty over UKIP’s future as Britain begins the process of leaving the EU. When asked about the party’s future, Farage has likened Ukip to “the turkeys that have voted for Christmas”. “At the moment there is huge trust in Theresa May to deliver Brexit, but I
think already we are beginning to see concessions being made, over fishing, the fact that she wants to stay in the European arrest warrant,” he said. “My guess is that a year down the road, there will be a lot of people who are very frustrated with the Brexit process. So UKIP needs to bide its time and get its messages right.”
Pictured: Douglas Carswelll (photographer: Steve Punter)
22 POLITICS
Terrorist attack kills five at Westminster
Lydia Jackson
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There will be a major counter-terrorism exercise in Scotland later this year in October.
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Rhys Thomas
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Coyne has tried to raise the profile of the campaign and has made an issue of McCluskey’s apparently improper use of union funds.
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S
hock and horror was brought to the nation last week with a terrorist attack committed in central London on the bridge of Westminster and outside of the House of Commons. The tragedy left five dead and approximately 40 injured. Since then, we have seen both divisive and supportive comments emerge, and significant acts of solidarity such as Muslim women linking hands, followed by the marching of police officers on the bridge. A series of heroes have emerged in the face of terror, such as Tory MP for Bournemouth Tobias Elwood who ran in the opposite direction to everyone else in order to stem the blood flow and perform mouth to mouth resuscitation on stabbed police officer Keith Palmer. Palmer has also been coined a hero for preventing attacker Khalid Masood from entering the House of Commons at the gate, although tragically lost his life in the process. The emergency service respond-
I
ents involved also deserve a great deal of praise. The event, which has impacted many, has undoubtedly had political implications and consequences, which can be felt through politicians’ comments and media coverage. A first question for many will be what impact does the attack have on security and public safety? Theresa May has stated that Britain “is not afraid”, and assured that Democracy and British values will “prevail”. She met officers in Glasgow last week, and has since revealed that there will be a major counter-terrorism exercise in Scotland later this year in October. It will be a multi-agency response exercise as part of the UK Government’s National Counter-Terrorism Exercise Programme. London Mayor Sadiq Khan has also increased the number of armed and unarmed police officers in Lon-
don, in order to keep people safe, whilst claiming that London “will never be cowed by terrorism”. There have been calls by Home Secretary Amber Rudd to increase online surveillance, after expressing concerns that online messaging apps give “terrorists a place to hide”. However, there are no planned cyber security measure increases, as a change could leave MPs and others’ communications open to hackers. A multitude of political figures across the world have contacted the PM, expressing solidarity and a refusal to bow down in the face of terrorism, including French President Hollande, President Donald Trump, German Chancellor Merkel, and Dutch PM Mark Rutte. The far Right have also expressed support for the people of London, whilst also expressing the need for furtherance of action. Farage initially called for people to “point the blame” at politicians such as Tony Blair which have encour-
aged multiculturalism. Although, he later publicly admitted that immigration had nothing to do with the terrorist attack. French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has called for tightened security measures, stating “we must control our borders”. French elections are to take place this year in May. Far Right Dutch PVV politician Geert Wilders simply retweeted the events with no comment. Donald Trump Jnr has expressed disagreement with Khan’s response: “You have to be kidding me?!: Terror attacks are part of living in big city, says London Mayor Sadiq Khan”. Despite these varied responses, one which can be seen to resonate quite clearly is that of European Parliament chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt, who says the Westminster attack shows European nations need to stay united and share intelligence, despite the triggering of Article 50 and Brexit.
Pictured: The palace of Westminster with Elizabeth Tower and Westminster Bridge (source: Wikipedia)
Britain to vote for new Unite leader
t is rare for a trade union leadership contest to make headlines or attract much interest, but the contest for Unite General Secretary has done just that. It is not just a battle for control of Britain’s biggest union, but also a battle for the soul of the Labour Party and the future of progressive politics in the United Kingdom. Incumbent leader Len McCluskey (a key ally of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn) prematurely triggered a leadership election in December last year, opting to renew his mandate instead of serving a full term. His main challenger is Gerard Coyne, a moderate who leads Unite in the West Midlands. The two main candidates serve as an extension to the battle-lines in today’s British Left. McCluskey has the support of the Corbynistas - those on the hard-left of the Labour Party who swept to power in September 2015 and who are seeking total control of the party. Coyne is backed by all the antiCorbyn forces including Labour MPs and represents the moderate, centre-
left who are licking their wounds after two successive losses in Labour leadership elections. The approach of the two frontrunners has also crystallised this split - Coyne for example has been in papers that aren’t naturally friendly to Labour and the unions such as The Sun, stating that he respects “the hundreds of thousands of Unite members who read The Sun”. This predictably led to howls of derision from the McCluskey camp with their candidate having secured the backing of the Morning Star who shot back with “If someone seeking union election is prepared to stoop to the level of using The Sun for their campaign, then you have to question what else they would do”. McCluskey received an early advantage when 1,185 Unite branches representing 559,000 members backed him, compared to 187 branches representing 98,000 members for Coyne with third candidate and self-described “grass-roots socialist” Ian Allinson receiving 76 nominations covering 37,000 members.
However, this has not been without controversy with Labour MP John Spellar claiming that 178 of the branches that nominated McCluskey were in fact “dormant” and used to make multiple nominations. Coyne’s team believe that a large turnout could swing the election in their man’s favour (the last contest in 2013 saw only 15.2% of those eligible voting) with their aim being to hit 20%. Coyne has tried to raise the profile of the campaign and has made an issue of McCluskey’s apparently improper use of union funds with more than £400,000 of Unite money being used to help purchase a central London flat, and he also accuses the former Liverpool docker of being “obsessed with Westminster power games” and shifting the Union towards a “highly politicised agenda” rather than standing up for ordinary Unite members. For his part, McCluskey has stuck rigidly to the Corbynista line - that Coyne is a right-wing puppet and that the Parliamentary Labour Party along with the media are colluding to
bring down McCluskey and his allies on the left. Add into the mix a plot uncovered by the Guardian for hard-left Corbyn fan club Momentum to formally affiliate to Unite if McCluskey wins next month (which he has denied) then the stakes have become even higher. The money and power that would flow to Momentum would seriously bolster Corbyn and further stifle moderate hopes that their wing of the party can stage a comeback. Labour Deputy Leader Tom Watson pounced and said this was further evidence of hard-left entryism which he has been warning about for months. Clearly this election has been angry and ill-tempered with accusations flying from both sides. Labour types may well be exhausted by all the infighting with Unite being the latest chapter in a bitter struggle. This election will end on April 28th - but whether McCluskey or Coyne triumph, the infighting on the Left will continue with renewed intensity.
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The infighting on the Left will continue with renewed intensity.
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24 SCIENCE
science
Editors: Tanya Harrington Kat Pooprasert @GairRhyddSci science@gairrhydd.com gairrhydd.com/science
Are we closer to eradicating Tuberculosis?
Caterina Dassie
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Scientists aim to eradicate the spreading of the disease by 2035.
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O
n the 24th March, world tuberculosis day, Oxford and Birmingham University researches spread the news of being first scientists to have done a discovery in the recognition of tuberculosis (TB). Via the whole genome sequencing method (WGS), they are able to detach specific strains of the wellknown bacterial infection. Almost one year ago, Oxford University researchers started a world-reaching partnership named CRyPTIC (Comprehensive Resistance Prediction for Tuberculosis: An International Consortium). This collaboration has since been founded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, MRC Newton Fund and the Wellcome Trust. They aimed to accelerate the detection of TB, gather, scrutinize and manage drug-resistance experiments with more than 100,000 samples. And finally, eradicate the spreading of the disease throughout the world by 2035. In 2013, researches showed that more than 480,000 people affected by TB were resilient to the foremost antibiotics used to attack the disease and 1.5 million victims died because of it. The time-consuming process of detecting which drugs can eliminate
precise TB contaminations, delayed diagnosis and the attribution of the right medicine to patients, increasing the chance of the spread of the bacterial infection. What is more, England is one of the highest rated country In Europe of cases of tuberculosis. When the partnership was firstly established, by utilizing the WGS, scientists’ aim was to read letters of each tuberculosis sample’s genetic code to then categorize TB rebellious to specific drugs. Because as Professor Derrick Crook - who leads Oxford’s Modernizing Medical Microbiology team and is the Director of National Infection Service at PHE (Public Health England) - agrees: “the key is that you need to know which genetic mutations cause drug resistance – it turns out there are a host of rare mutations which are the culprits, and so we have assembled a consortium to collect a large number samples from across the world, and both measure their drug resistance and decode their genomes.” However, a few days ago, the PHE reported that Oxford and Birmingham University researchers are using the sequencing method to classify diverse strains of TB. The increment of the drug-resistant strains of TB num-
Rats injected with human teenagers’ blood exhibited improvements in “memory, cognition, and physical activity.”
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ber was distancing the researchers from eliminate the disease. This new practice leads to faster the treatment and recognition of the best drug to be given to the patient. WGS is, in fact, able to sequencing DNA of dissimilar genomes in almost a week. Previously, this process took scientists mouths in order to detect all the necessary information, increasing, thus, the chance of spreading the bacterial
infection. By reducing the time of TB-affected patients’ identification and treatment selection, Britain is moving closed to eliminate the disease from its shores. In the future, the method could be also used to quickly diagnose and cure a wider spectrum of infections, stopping the spread and perhaps reduce the costs to NHS in hospitalization.
Scientists in search of blood rejuvenation
Charlotte Gehrke
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Pictured: We might be one step closer to eradictiing this very common disease. (Photographer: NIAD).
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team of scientist at the University of Ulm in Germany, led my Professor Hartmut Geiger, found that a protein named osteopontin can make older people’s blood stem cells appear to perform as younger ones would. Professor Geiger’s team conducted a number of experiments on rats of various ages, the results of which may be replicable on human beings. In the experiments, an older rat was sown together with a younger one in order to create a shared cir-
culatory system between the two of individuals. While the younger rats’ health suffered, the older rats displayed improvements from their previous condition. The results of this experiment have been replicated with other animals of varying ages since, showing consonant outcomes. Similarly, rats injected with human teenagers’ blood exhibited improvements in “memory, cognition, and physical activity”. Correspondingly, a study investigated the injection of
Alzheimer’s patients with teenage blood after also having observed improvements in the condition of older rats injected with younger blood. However, the stitching together of rats (or other test subjects) creating a shared circulatory system is not a new practice in this field of research (see for example the report by Clive M. McCay, Frank Pope and Wanda Lunsford of Cornell University on Experimental Prolongation of the Life Span, presented at The New York Academy of Medicine in 1955). Yet, in the past, the majority of research on the rejuvenation of cells through injections of ‘younger’ blood has been concentrated on plasma, rather than focusing on the cells, as Professor Geiger suggests, since “they are better able to move into the body’s tissue”. Yet, the number of human being’s red and white blood cells decreases with age due to the deterioration of so-called mother stem cells in a person’s bone marrow. The latter create the red and white blood cells, therefore the decline of mother stem cells
decreases the overall production of blood cells. According to the team’s head scientist Dr. Hartmut Geiger, this has the effect that “usually the immune system in the elderly is not prepared to fight infections very hard”. The team of scientists at the University of Ulm is currently working on the development of a drug that “should boost the immune system of elderly people”, says Geiger, using an activating protein and the previously mentioned protein osteopontin in an attempt to make blood cells to act ‘young’. The scientists at the University of Ulm are optimistic that such a drug would boost patients’ levels of mother stem cells possibly preventing or fighting heart diseases, infections, myelodysplasias and anaemia. Nevertheless, with the focus on blood and in experiments such as the ones previously described primarily using young people’s blood, the problem of the blood’s relative scarcity arises with scientists reliant on blood donations. Therefore, studies such as these call for young people to ignore thoughts of Dr. Frankenstein that might come to mind when hearing of mice being sutured together and instead support scientific advances in the field of blood rejuvenation by donating blood.
Pictured: This discovery could have many scientific applications (Photographer: Wellcome Images)
SCIENCE 25
Japanese ghost town Namie may be re-populated Silvia Martelli
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Namie’s 21,000 residents were asked to leave on the morning of 12 March 2011, following the nuclear alert.
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N
amie, a Japanese town inside the Fukushima nuclear disaster exclusion zone, was hurriedly evacuated following the 11 March 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown. It has been a ghost town ever since: among the deserted streets and shuttered shops, the only sign of life has been some weeds pushing through the frequent cracks of paving stones. Heavy black bags of radioactive soil, piled up at every corner, remind gloomily of the accident. However, the town is hoped to reanimate soon: from April 1, inhabitants will be able to return, although it is highly uncertain whether or not they will want to. Located only 5 kilometers away from Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, Namie’s 21,000 residents were asked to leave on the morning of 12 March 2011, following the nuclear alert. Due to the high risk of radiations, the town was not searched for bodies until a month later. Since then, former inhabitants have been occasionally allowed to come back and collect some belongings, rigorously wearing anti-radiation suits and masks, and never staying for longer than a couple of hours. What the majority of the public does not know is that back in 2011, the town was dangerously radioactive only for a few days: the isotopes were soon gone. “People could have been returning after a month, when the iodine had disappeared,” says
Pictured: The once desolate town will be re-opened soon (Photographer: Diricia De Wet)
Shunichi Yamashita, a thyroid cancer specialist at Fukushima Medical University and advisor of the Japanese government in the aftermath of the accident. Yamashita’s consideration was however ignored due to Japanese government’s concerns with safety, and it was only recently decided that Namie is now ready to be repopulated. In April 1, the first train will pull into the railway stations and buses will run again. However, it is highly questioned whether inhabitants will come back to their old homes. Naraha, a nearby town, has registered only a fifth of
its former inhabitants returning, and surveys suggest it will be no different for Namie. In fact, although records prove Namie’s radiation dose is around two millisieverts, with the standard threshold set at 20 (a fifth of the level at which long-term health effects are likely), the chaotic aftermath of the accident strongly reduced public trust in official reassurances about radioactivity. Ken Nollett, director of radiation health at the Fukushima Medical University, acknowledges the public’s mistrust: “It’s very difficult to convince the public that it is safe to return. They don’t accept the
scientists’ view, because they see us as nuclear allies”. Recent reports of sky-high radiation levels inside the molten core of one of the reactors -- levels that would kill humans in seconds -- can only worsen the spread fear. Another cause of the reluctance to come back is that years have passed since the evacuation, and families have now moved on: new homes, jobs, and schools for children. It seems therefore very likely that Namie’s destiny will be of desolation and its main population of wild animals as last summer’s bear spotted in the suburbs of the town seems to suggest.
23 Russell Group Universities in “fake research” crisis Michael Maccallam
“
In a world of increasing distrust towards news outlets, it’s troubling to see that research seems to be vulnerable to such inconsistencies too.
”
F
ake news seems to be a phrase uttered almost daily lately, whether it be about American politics or the scandal that has hit Facebook. A less spoken about topic though is the problem of fake research, concerning misconducts or in-formalities conducted in the medical field. According to a BBC investigation, the scale of so-called ‘fake research’ has been vastly underestimated, with official data contradicting information collected by the BBC. Official figures have stated that 30 allegations of research misconduct have
taken place between 2012 and 2015, but the BBC understands this figure to be far higher, even in the hundreds, following a Freedom of Information request that reveals huge misconducts in 23 universities alone. Following the emergence of this scandal, the House of Commons Science and Technology committee have launched a formal inquiry to reassure the public that the integrity of research has not been impaired. Worries have been growing globally about the accuracy of research, particularly in countries where research
is funded publicly, including the UK. The chairman of the Commons committee, Stephen Metcalfe, stated that public trust in research was vital, going on to say that ‘what we want to do is to investigate how robust the mechanisms are for ensuring that research is ethical, it is accurate, it is, to a degree, reproducible.’ The BBC’s Freedom of Information request revealed that 300 allegations were reported at 23 researchintensive Russell Group universities between 2011 and 2016, a worrying figure that does not match with the
official data given. More than 30 research papers had to be retracted because of misconduct in research, but despite this a spokesperson for the Russell Group went on to comment that ‘the UK has a global reputation for the quality of our scientific research. This is not least because our members are rigorous in their approach to research integrity.’ The implications of intentional research fraud could be disastrous, since public healthcare and medicine relies almost wholly on the integrity of thorough research that ensures no risks to the public when a new form of medicine, for example, is introduced. There has been a recent increase in calls for a UK regulatory body to oversee and supervise publicly funded research, as similar models have been used in the US and Denmark to great success, but Mr. Metcalfe has said that at the moment ‘there is no appetite for that in the wider community’. In a world of increasing distrust towards news outlets and information displayed on social media, it’s troubling to see that research seems to be vulnerable to such inconsistencies too. With official data not in line with figures discovered by the BBC, it calls into question the integrity of this publicly funded field. The Commons inquiry will hopefully go on to identify coherent solutions to tackle this problem, but for now it seems that time will tell as to how successful they will be.
Pictured: The validity of research is under fire (Photographer: United Soybean Board).
26 SCIENCE
CCI and “nappy science gang” set bottom line for diaper dilemma Harry Bligh
“
There will be a funded PhD opportunity from September working with CCI and Dr Edwards.
”
E
xperts from Cardiff Catalysis Institute at Cardiff University’s School of Chemistry are helping parents to explain and prevent the build-up of ammonia in their infants’ reusable nappies. Only around 5% of parents choose to use reusable nappies on their infants compared to the more popular disposable nappies commonly seen in supermarkets. Reusable nappies can set parents back around £20 each and with 4 or more changes a day, multiple need to be purchased meaning this method is quite an investment. The problem with disposable nappies, despite seeming more affordable and hygienic, are the environmental and ethical impacts. A single nappy can take around 500 years to fully degrade, and that’s assuming its in open air, often used nappies are buried deep landfill sites. Parents contacted the ‘Nappy Science Gang’, a citizen science project run by cloth nappy users and scientists, complaining of a strong ammonia smell coming from their children’s nappies. Ammonia is a very basic chemical which is irritant and can cause severe nappy rash. The team found that there was a common mineral build up in the reusable nappies, possible after washing them, called ‘hydroxyapatite’, a crystal compound comprised of calcium and phosphate. It’s likely that this mineral harbours bacteria (found in faecal matter) which then reacts with urine, catalysing the break down of urea and
Pictured: Nappy line (Photographer: Richard on flickr).
producing ammonia. The first question was working out where the calcium and phosphate was coming from. To answer this, the researchers synthesised hard and soft water in the laboratory and mimicked washing cycles that parents would use when washing the nappies. They hoped to decipher how exactly the mineral was formed. They found that calcium was common in hard water (common in southern and eastern areas of England). It could also be found in urine due to the the large quantities of milk in babies’ diets. Phosphate is also present in water but in very small quantities, one theory was that it may be found in detergent. Their hypothesis was that the hydroxyapatite formed in solution from
calcium and phosphates and when the nappy dried, tiny microcrystals stick to the lining of the nappy forming ‘nucleation points’ meaning more crystals of hydroxyapatite will form and build up over time. Now that the mystery behind the formation of ammonia has been solved, the next step is to find a way to wash nappies, stripping them of hydroxyapatite or to avoid the initial build up of the mineral to prevent ammonia formation. Leading the team from CCI are Dr Jennifer Edwards and Dr Jonathan Bartley who are working with citizens and other scientists in the ‘Nappy Science Gang’ funded by Wellcome Trust and Royal Society of Chemistry. This team have already managed to change the NHS guidelines on the
washing of reusable nappies. Alongside Dr Edwards, this research has also been undertaken by BSc student Elliot Rees and assisted by PhD student, Alex Howe. Dr Edwards hopes to continue with this ground-breaking research and hopes to find the ideal method to wash reusable nappies combining low temperature and low chemical content so that the washing is ecofriendly and the nappies are free from anything harmful. They also hope to look at advancements in the disposable nappy industry, potentially making recycling them more of a reality. There is possibly a fully funded PhD opportunity from September working with CCI and Dr Edwards, if you are interested in applying contact edwardsjk@cardiff.ac.uk
“DNA origami” advancements could aid research Josh Green
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A technique called “DNA origami” is an established technique to the 1980’s.
”
A
s we should all know from our GCSE’s (and equivalent times that seem so long ago) the very complex molecule called DNA, the full name of which is deoxyribonucleic acid, contains all of the genetic information in all known living organisms. A tremendous amount of research goes into further understanding DNA, and how the information inside expresses itself in all living things, and also goes into how scientists can manipulate DNA for various applications. One way of being able to manipulate DNA is by folding it. A technique called ‘DNA origami’ is an established technique going back to the 1980’s and was first pioneered by Paul Rothemund at the California Institute of Technology. However, there exists a problem when trying to create 3D structures with DNA. At their current ability, scientists trying to do ‘DNA origami’ have to remove DNA from a cell and manipulate the DNA molecules outside of it. This leads to problems such as having to take DNA out of a system that its suited to and introduces the problem of having to synthetically create chemicals as a result. Tackling this issue, exciting news from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has come forward. Two TUM researchers, Florian Praetorius and Hendrik Dietz, have managed to come up with a new method which allows for ‘DNA origami’ to be conducted inside the cell.
Pictured: Not quite this type of oragami (Photographer: Carollina_Li on flickr).
In ‘DNA origami’ proteins are used to construct the DNA structures. These types of proteins are called ‘staple proteins’. There is a type of protein in nature called TAL effectors and these researchers at TUM have based their staple proteins on the TAL effectors. These specific proteins are used by bacteria to attach onto certain parts of DNA structures which, for example in nature, can nullify a plant’s ability to fight the bacteria off using its own defence mechanisms. Praetorius and Dietz have created a variant of the
TAL effectors so that the protein can bind to two separate parts of the DNA structure and effectively act as a staple. Using these newfound staple proteins alongside DNA double strands that have lots of ‘binding states’ the DNA can be manipulated into more and more complex shapes. When these structures have been made, the staple proteins act as anchoring points for other types of proteins and create hybrid structures that leads to the possibility that cells can create all of the components needed
to create the hybrid structures and for those structures to form as well without external influence. The researchers were able to see this occur, when using types of environments very similar to real cells, and state that there is a strong probability that this will be able to be seen in real cells as well. This method could lead to improved research techniques in the field of cell biology and biomedical technology, leading to very positive real-world applications in time.
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Ewch i food.gov.uk/ratings i ganfod sgôr hylendid bwyd ein busnes neu gofynnwch inni beth yw ein sgôr hylendid bwyd wrth archebu. / Go to food.gov.uk/ratings to find out the food hygiene rating of our business or ask us for our food hygiene rating when you order.
28 SOCIETIES
societies Michelle LentonJohnson
C
Editors: Aletheia Nutt Tom Morris @GairRhyddSoc societies@gairrhydd.com gairrhydd.com/societies
You’re invited to the VOSCARS!
ardiff Volunteering is proud to present its second annual Ball “The Voscars” on Tuesday 2nd May 2017. This ‘not to be missed’ event will include a drinks reception, 3 course meal, casino, magician , live
musical and dance performances, an incredible raffle with the opportunity of winning some fantastic prizes and of course the illustrious Voscars awards. With a headline performance from one of Cardiff ’s finest bands,
live DJ’s and lots more surprises you’d be mad to miss it ….. We hope you will dress to impress and come and help us celebrate in style !
Be quick : there are a limited
number of Early Bird tickets available at the incredible price of just £15. To book your ticket visit https:// w w w.cardiffstudents .com//jobsskills/volunteering/the-voscars/
Pictured: Banner. Like Bruce. But for the Voscars.
Michelle LentonJohnson
C
Now recruiting Lead Volunteers
ardiff Volunteering is now accepting applications for lead volunteers for the following academic year (2017-2018). Here’s 5 reasons why you should consider being a lead volunteer! 1. Gain Leadership Experience: Being a lead volunteer gives you additional responsibility to being a general volunteer. You’ll be in charge of a team of volunteers who will rely on you to ensure the project runs smoothly. You’ll be involved in all stages of the recruitment and management of these volunteers! You’ll also have the opportunity to be more involved with our charity, and can help make decisions about the future direction of your project, alongside its day to day running such as what activities you will be doing each
week! 2. Enhance your University transcript: Your role as a Lead Volunteer will be listed on your University transcript when you receive your degree and show potential employers that you have ‘gone the extra mile’ whilst at Uni . All of our lead volunteers receive bespoke certified training. The sessions will help prepare and support you throughout the year, but are also great standalone sessions to include on your CV! They show employers you are proactive in your learning and development! 3. Develop a variety of skills: We could talk for hours about all the different skills you will develop by being a lead volunteer, and by the end of the year, you’ll be able to too! You will be able to evidence fabulous
organisation skills, communication with students/staff and external organisations, time management (especially if you’re a final year!) commercial awareness… the list goes on! Your teamwork will no doubt increase massively, as you’ll be able to talk about your volunteer team, your lead volunteer team and working as a team with members of staff – plenty to talk about in any interviews you may have. Cardiff Award students, can you see how it’s a perfect opportunity for you yet? 4. Get work experience: many of you may be starting to think about future career paths following University. Taking an active role on a project that’s linked to your plans after Uni, such as working with children, those with disabilities, the elderly
or even sports will help you test the waters, find out if that’s definitely the area you want to go into and give you first hand experiences that will help give you the edge over other candidates. 5. Meet new people and give back: It may be cheesy but it’s true. You’ll get to meet likeminded people both on your project and other projects, and help give back to the local Cardiff community. Volunteering is very rewarding and we challenge you not to have fun! For more information on being a lead volunteer, please visit our website over at cardiffstudents.com/ jobs-skills/volunteering, or email us at volunteering@Cardiff.ac.uk with any questions you may have or an application form!
International Student Support looking for International Ambassadors
Elisabeth Williams
F
ollowing on from the success of Global Week, the International Student Support office are planning to recruit a team of International Student Ambassadors to assist them in welcoming international students to the UK. From the moment they step out onto the concourse at Heathrow airport, the
ISAs will be on hand to offer help and advice, answering questions as diverse as how to register with a GP to where is the best place to buy an authentic samosa in Cardiff. There will be all sorts of events throughout the year but the new ISAs will be particularly busy during induction, when it is planned to make our
overseas visitors’ transition to life as a Welsh student as painless as possible. In addition to helping with the mechanics of enrolling and settling in to new accommodation they will be involved in lots of fun activities giving opportunities to home and international students alike to make new friends from all over the world.
If you think you’d like to be an International Student Ambassador you need to get your skates on! The deadline for applications is Wednesday, 5th April; for more information and an application form search the intranet for “International Student Ambassadors” or email iss@cardiff. ac.uk
“
Meet new people and give back: It may be cheesy but it’s true.
” “
Help our overseas visitors make the transition to life as a Welsh student...
”
SOCIETIES 29
Around the world in 60 minutes
“
Pictured: Fadhila at Oman’s stall, and Arif and Adel at the Saudi one. (Photographer: Tom Morris)
Saudi Arabian students at Swansea Uni live in Cardiff for the company.
” Tom Morris
L
ast week was Global Week at Cardiff University. Monday featured the Global Village, an event based in a marquee in main building car park, where countries and groups from all over the world had stalls featuring information and even food from their native regions. First I spoke to Jayati, of India’s YUVA society, and Vani from the international students association. They got me started on the cake trail and told me about their Bollywood film nights. Next up was Ana from Romania, which doesn’t have a society. Ana told me that there was once a Romanian society, but interest tapered off. Sometimes, an official body isn’t needed- she said that Romanian students often prefer to meet different people than those they might have met at home anyway. Her one hot tip for GR readers: visit Romania. Moving along, I visited the Latin American society, and spoke to vice president Tattiana. I asked her, might we see an intercontinental fracas in this tent later on? She disagreed: the only fights here might be for the last piece of cake. So how will students benefit from joining Latin American society? She said it’s nice to have people you know here in the UK who also speak your language, and share your culture. Is there anyone at Cardiff from that little place in Argentina that speaks Welsh (Y Wladfa)? Tattiana said she wasn’t aware of anyone at Cardiff Unibut she’d met an Argentine who speaks
Spanish with a Welsh twang up at St. Fagans. The next stall along was Saudi Arabia, with some exotic coffee and a very fancy setup. President Arif and treasurer Adel introduced themselves to me as founders of the society. They told me there’s 400 Saudi students spread out between Cardiff, Cardiff Met and USW. There are even some Swansea Uni students who live in Cardiff as they prefer the company. Across the way from the grand Saudi stall was a Danish representation led by Catherine, a SOCSI student. Until she was asked to do the stall, she didn’t know any other Danes at Cardiff. She, however, was born and raised in Luxembourg, and had lots of friends going to UK universities- making Cardiff a natural slot. There is no Danish society, but she doesn’t mind- she likes mixing with people of all colours and creeds. One thing that struck me at the event was the prevalence of people I recognised from Cardiff’s newest sports team, Softball. One, Prodromos, was at the Greek stall next door to Denmark’s. He says there’s more Cypriots than Greeks who tend to come along to their Greek themed nights- every fortnight at Revolution. Next up, another garishly devised stall, featuring the logos of the Sultanate of Oman. Here I met next year’s VP Education, Fadhila, who had just finished her final presentation of her degree and was evidently pleased with herself. She gave me a history lesson
about the split between Oman and the United Arab Emirates. Suddenly, I was face to face with the wheel of morality at the Christian Union stall- where Lydia put the case for cultural relativism straight to my face. I wasn’t quite sure where this discussion came from amongst the light hearted nationalism and cake eating, but it was a refreshing break. Lydia told me how Christianity, as a world religion, helps students from different countries connect with each other over common ground. Moving round the floor I met Shazia and Maisha, president and secretary of Bangladesh Society. Their society is two years old but a lot of Bangladeshi students join Pakistani or South Asian society because they don’t know about it- so their appearance at the Global Village ought to raise their profile. They hold two socials every month, typically games nights featuring traditional Bangladeshi games and (possibly not so traditionally Bangladeshi) pizza. They recently raised money to support Syria with a competition to see who could eat the most chili. The food theme is common. After a quick trip to the barren England stall hidden away in the corner like some kind of Brexit metaphor, Kenny from Malaysia says that people are mainly interested in the food. They’ve prepared boxes for sale with actual Malaysian meals rather than just snacks. Malaysians are strong at Cardiff- the society has been running for an amaz-
ing twelve years! The salty salmiakki liquorice at the Finnish stall was definitely not good for my palate. However, Emilia at the stall tells me about gay porn illustrator and national hero Touko Valio Laaksonen whose art has been featured on Finnish stamps. Finland sounds like a fun country. Another country I’ve always wanted to see is Canada, whose stall is across the way from Finland. They say there’s not many Canadians at Cardiff, and although brits often think of Canada as similar to us they have a different way of life. Canadian students like to join the society as it feels homely. The German society representatives are happy to see the variety in the tent and, they say, didn’t expect so much dancing. I’m not sure what Irish society were expecting, but their Tayto offerings were much appreciated. What third year can visit a fair without sniffing out graduate jobs? Not me. The Government have some jobs to give out, but most interesting is the National Commonwealth Office who are looking for a brand ambassador who would travel the world. However it’s not for me- they want current students. After being shot down like that I needed a dose of familiarity so the last stall I visited was Wales. Why should we be proud to be Welsh? Well, say Leah and Daniel, occasional Gym Gym members, it’s got the oldest language in Europe, a lot of great literature and a decent football team. Let’s stay put for now, then.
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One hot tip for Gair Rhydd readers: Visit Romania.
”
Pictured: The works of Touko Valio Laaksonen, popular in Finland.
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The only fights here would be for the last piece of cake.
”
“Your confidential, independent advice and information service”
Student Advice Cyngor i Fyfyrwyr
Member
TAF-OD 31
taf-od
Golygyddion: Osian Wyn Morgan Liam Ketcher @Taf_od tafod@gairrhydd.com gairrhydd.com/tafod
Undeb Myfyrwyr Cymraeg Caerdydd i’w sefydlu Yn y lluniau: I’r chwith: Undeb Myfyrwyr Caerdydd (Tarddiad: Myfyrwyr Caerdydd) O dan: Bathodyn siarad Cymraeg (Tarddiad: Comisiynydd y Gymraeg)
Osian Wyn Morgan
P
an redais i fod yn Swyddog y Gymraeg y llynedd, un o brif bwyntiau fy maniffesto oedd ymgyrchu i sefydlu Undeb Myfyrwyr Cymraeg Caerdydd, a fydd yn ymdebygu i’r UMCB ym Mangor, ac UMCA yn Aberystwyth. Yr wythnos diwethaf, cyflwynais gynnig i Senedd y Myfyrwyr ynglŷn â sefydlu UMCC, ac rwy’n falch iawn o gyhoeddi y derbyniwyd y cynnig, gydag 87% o’r seneddwyr yn derbyn y cynnig. Dyma fy natganiad llawn amdano: Ar ôl misoedd o waith y tu ôl i’r llenni, a chyfarfod hefo amryw o fyfyrwyr Cymraeg a chynrychiolwyr o’r Undeb, mae’n bleser gen i gyhoeddi’n swyddogol y byddwn yn mynd ati i sefydlu Undeb Myfyrwyr Cymraeg Caerdydd (UMCC)! Mae hwn yn ddatblygiad cyffrous a hollbwysig i fyfyrwyr Cymraeg Caerdydd, ac rydym yn anelu at ei sefydlu erbyn dechrau’r flwyddyn academaidd nesaf. Yng nghyfarfod Senedd y Myfyrwyr yn yr Undeb ddoe, pleidleisiodd 87% o’r seneddwyr o blaid sefydlu UMCC, gan roi sêl bendith, a rhoi mandad pellach i ni fynd ati i’w sefydlu cyn gynted â phosib.
Ers sefydlu UMCA yn Aberystwyth yn 1973, ac UMCB ym Mangor yn 1976 , rydym wedi bod pedair degawd ar ei hôl hi o ran cynrychiolaeth i fyfyrwyr Cymraeg a dysgwyr yn ein prifddinas, ac mae datblygiad fel hwn yn rhywbeth a ddylai wedi digwydd degawdau yn ôl – ond gwell hwyr na hwyrach. Rwy’n hyderus y bydd sefydlu UMCC yn gam cadarnhaol ac angenrheidiol ar ein taith i sicrhau cydraddoldeb ieithyddol i fyfyrwyr Cymraeg yn ein Prifddinas. Bydd UMCC yn gorff a fydd yn ein cynrychioli ni, siaradwyr Cymraeg a dysgwyr Caerdydd, ym mhob agwedd o’n bywydau yn y Brifysgol – boed yn academaidd, cymdeithasol, ieithyddol, gwleidyddol, neu gyda materion lles o fewn yr Undeb a’r Brifysgol. Bydd UMCC yn gorff a fydd yn cynrychioli pob siaradwr Cymraeg. Boed yn siaradwr rhugl neu ddysgwr pur. Boed yn fyfyriwr yng Nghampws Cathays neu’r Mynydd Bychan. Boed yn rhywun sydd eisiau siarad Cymraeg bob dydd neu ei ddefnyddio yn achlysurol. Fydd UMCC yn cynrychioli pawb. Bydd UMCC yn gweithio’n agos
iawn gyda’r cymdeithasu Cymraeg sydd eisoes yn bodoli yn y brifysgol, er mwyn eu cefnogi yn y gwaith gwych y maent yn ei wneud yn barod, ac er mwyn gwella’r profiad o fod yn fyfyriwr Cymraeg ym mhrifddinas Cymru. Rwy’n benderfynol o sicrhau y bydd UMCC yn gorff mor ddemocrataidd â phosib, ac y bydd yn gweddu yn agos iawn at sut yr hoffech chi – siaradwyr Cymraeg a dysgwyr Prifysgol Caerdydd – weld UMCC yn gweithredu. I wireddu’r amcan hwn, byddaf yn galw arnoch chi fyfyrwyr dros yr wythnosau nesaf, i gyflwyno’ch syniadau a’ch dyheadau chi am beth yr hoffech weld UMCC yn ei wneud. Yn ogystal, byddwn yn cynnal etholiadau cyn diwedd y flwyddyn academaidd, i ethol Llywydd, a phwyllgor gwaith ar gyfer UMCC. Mae llawer o’r gwaith caled, fodd bynnag, o’n blaenau, ac rwy’n edrych ymlaen yn arw at weithio gyda myfyrwyr Cymraeg a chynrychiolwyr o’r Undeb yn ystod y misoedd nesaf, er mwyn sicrhau y bydd UMCC yn gorff llewyrchus a llwyddiannus o fewn yr Undeb, ac er mwyn sicrhau y bydd UMCC yn rhoi i fyfyrwyr Cymraeg a
dysgwyr y Brifysgol, y gynrychiolaeth y maent eu hangen a’i haeddu. Hoffwn ddiolch o waelod fy nghalon i bawb sydd wedi bod o gymorth i mi hyd yn hyn, rwy’n edrych ymlaen at barhau i weithio gyda chi dros y misoedd nesaf i sicrhau y bydd UMCC yn gorff y mae siaradwyr Cymraeg a dysgwyr Caerdydd yn ymfalchïo ynddo – ac y bydd yn gwireddu ein dyhead i fyw drwy’r Gymraeg yn y Brifysgol.
“
Boed yn siaradwr rhugl neu ddysgwr pur. Boed yn fyfyriwr yn Cathays neu’r Mynydd Bychan. Boed yn rhywun sydd eisiau siarad Cymraeg bob dydd neu ei ddefnyddio yn achlysurol. Fydd UMCC yn cynrychioli pawb.
”
32 TAF-OD
Anthem Genedlaethol Cymru/ Wales’ National Anthem Cymraeg/Welsh
Seineg/Phonetics
Saesneg/English
Mae hen wlad fy nhadau yn annwyl i mi,
My hen oo-lad vurr n’had-die un ann-wil e-e mee
This land of my fathers is dear to me
Gwlad beirdd a chantorion, enwogion o fri;
Goo-lard bayrth a chann-tor-eon enn wog eon o vree
Land of poets and singers, and people of stature
Ei gwrol ryfelwyr,
Ane goo-rol ruvv-elweir goo-lard gar-weir tra mard
Her brave warriors,
Dros ryddid collasant eu gwaed.
Dross ryth-id corllar-sant ay goo-eyed.
Shed their blood for freedom
Gwlad, gwlad, pleidiol wyf i’m gwlad.
Goo-lard, goo-lard played-eeyol weave eem goo-lard
Land! Land! I am true to my land!
Tra môr yn fur i’r bur hoff bau,
Tra more un beer, ear beer horff bye
As long as the sea serves as a wall for this pure, dear land
O bydded i’r hen iaith barhau.
O berth-ed eer hen ee-eye-th bar hi.
May the language endure for ever.
gwladgarwyr tra mad,
fine patriots
Pob lwc i’n holl myfyrwyr sy’n cystadlu yn farsiti cymru 2017
ffocyswch ar un Peth Vicky Perrio, caPten clefyddaeth Merched.
Farsiti Cymru 2017 dydd Mercher 5 ebrill Mewn lleoliadau ar draws caerdydd.
Prifysgol caerdydd V Prifysgol abertawe
fixtures #teamcardiff
welshvarsity.com
Monday 3rd April Sport / chwaraeon Venue / lleoliad time / amSer equeStrian triley fieldS equeStrian centre 10:00 boxinG y plaS - cardiff StudentS’ union 19:00
Wednesday 5th April Sport / chwaraeon triathlon Golf ladieS’ lacroSSe archery ladieS’ ultimate friSbee rifle tae kwon do netball SwimminG american football freSherS’ ruGby imG football men’S lacroSSe men’S ultimate friSbee ladieS’ baSketball men’S tenniS ladieS’ tenniS men’S waterpolo badminton cricket ladieS’ football ladieS’ hockey men’S baSketball kickboxinG ladieS’ fencinG men’S fencinG ladieS’ SquaSh men’S SquaSh Staff football men’S hockey men’S football Staff netball ladieS’ Volleyball men’S Volleyball ladieS’ ruGby men’S ruGby
Venue / lleoliad maindy pool and track radyr Golf club SportS waleS hockey aStro Sport waleS - Jubilee hall Swalec Stadium outfield penarth rifle ranGe Sport waleS - doJo Sport waleS - main hall cardiff international pool llanrumney GraSS cardiff armS park llanrumney 3G SportS waleS hockey aStro Swalec Stadium outfield Sport waleS - main hall cardiff caStle / lawn tenniS club cardiff caStle / lawn tenniS club cardiff international pool cuStV - talybont - field hall Swalec Stadium cardiff armS park Sport waleS - hockey aStro Sport waleS - main hall Sport waleS - doJo Sport waleS - Jubilee hall Sport waleS - Jubilee hall Sport waleS - SquaSh courtS Sport waleS - SquaSh courtS llanrumney 3G Sport waleS - hockey aStro cardiff armS park uniVerSity - cuStV - talybont Sport waleS - main hall Sport waleS - main hall principality Stadium principality Stadium
time / amSer 09:00 09:30 09:30 10:00 10:00 10:00 10:00 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:00 11:00 11:00 11:00 11:30 11:30 11:30 12:30 13:00 13:00 13:00 13:00 13:15 13:30 13:30 13:30 13:30 13:30 14:00 15:00 15:00 15:00 15:30 15:30 17:00 19:00
* All fixture detAils And results Are provisionAl And subject to chAnge.
ON THE DAY #teamcardiff
welshvarsity.com
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Where To Go! 1 SWALEC STADIUM 2 SPORT WALES NATIONAL CENTRE 3 SPORT WALES HOCKEY ASTRO 4 CARDIFF ARMS PARK 5 PRINCIPALITY STADIUM
6 CARDIFF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ UNION ★
FOOD AVAILABLE TOILETS BAR FIRST AID
36 SPORT
Welsh Varsity 2017: Venue by Venue Guide
Principality Stadium
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he Principality Stadium is the flagship venue in Welsh Varsity 2017 and will play host to both the Ladies and Men’s Rugby fixtures. Originally named the Millennium Stadium before being changed for sponsorship reasons last year, the 74,500-seater stadium was built for the 1999
Rugby World Cup. Since hosting the final of that tournament, the stadium has become widely regarded as one of the top sports venues in the world as a result of its intimidating atmosphere and central location within the city. The Principality Stadium is the second-largest stadium in
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The Principality Stadium is the flagship venue in Welsh Varsity 2017 and will play host to both the Ladies and Men’s Rugby fixtures.
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T The 12,125-capacity stadium is attached to the North Stand of the Millennium Stadium, colloquially known as Glanmor’s Gap, and is the home stadium of Cardiff Blues.
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in front of their home crowd to end up on the right end of the scoreline this time around. On the flip side, the Men’s side finished second in the BUCS Western 1A Division behind Bristol, with Swansea 18 points behind them in fourth spot. Cardiff should, theoretically, enter as favourites having claimed two victories over their arch rivals this season including a convincing 43-8 triumph at Llanrumney in February. However, there are whispers that Swansea are set to include a number of players involved with the Ospreys who aren’t usually involved in University rugby in a bid to boost their chances in the biggest game of the year. With Cardiff boss Alun Wyn Davies insisting he will stick with his regular side, who have performed so well over the course of the season, the Welsh Varsity encounter could be a very different affair to their league encounters. After missing out in a nail-biting game last year, Cardiff will be desperate to up their game and reclaim the prize to cap off an encouraging season under new management.
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The Principality Stadium is the secondlargest stadium in the world with a fully retractable roof and will play host to the UEFA Champions League Final just a few weeks after Welsh Varsity on June 3.
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BT Sport Cardiff Arms Park here is perhaps no sports venue in Wales draped in as much history as the BT Sport Cardiff Arms Park. The Arms Park has hosted some of the biggest sporting events ever to take place in the country, including the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, the 1991 Rugby World
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the world with a fully retractable roof and will play host to the UEFA Champions League Final just a few weeks after Welsh Varsity on June 3. The Ladies’ Rugby will be the first game to get underway at the stadium on Wednesday, with a 5pm kick-off in what is a major milestone for the team. The inclusion of the game at the Home of Welsh rugby is a big step forward for Women’s University rugby and is already garnering plenty of attention. Cardiff and Swansea both compete in the same division, although Swansea are likely to enter as favourites. The visitors finished second in the BUCS Western 1A Division, just behind winners Hartbury, and although Cardiff were in third place there was an 18-point gap between the sides in the table. However, they have not done battle since the opening week of the season back on October 16 when Swansea edged a narrow 14-12 win over Cardiff. The return fixture in Swansea fell foul to the weather later in the campaign, and Cardiff will be keen to rise to the occasion
Cup and the first two Heineken Cup Finals. The site of the former national stadium, the current form of the Cardiff Arms Park was built in 1969 and has traditionally been home of Cardiff RFC. The 12,125-capacity stadium is attached to the North Stand of the Millennium Stadium, col-
loquially known as Glanmor’s Gap, and is the home stadium of Cardiff Blues. Since 2013, the BT Sport Cardiff Arms Park has been able to boast a top-quality artificial FieldTurf surface enabling sport to take place in any weather conditions. This is sure to give organisers of Welsh Varsity a welcome sense of relief given the unpredictable nature of the Cardiff climate. Perhaps fitting of the historic venue, some of the most popular sports in Welsh Varsity are set to take place at The Arms Park. The popular Freshers’ Rugby game will begin proceedings at 11am, with Cardiff looking to begin a massive day of rugby with a win before the evening’s two fixtures at the Principality Stadium. Their match will be followed by the Ladies’ Football, which is scheduled to kick-off at 1pm. Swansea’s Ladies’ team have enjoyed a solid year, finishing second in the Western 2B Division. However, Cardiff claimed the Western 1A Division title on goal difference and should
Pictured: The Principality Stadium (top) and the BT Sport therefore enter as favourites to Cardiff Arms add another major accolade fol- Park (below) lowing a memorable season. via Flickr. Thousands of spectators are then expected to flock to the venue for the Men’s Football at 3pm in what is likely to be the last stop for many supporters before making their way to the adjacent Millennium Stadium for the rugby. Cardiff and Swansea both spent this season playing in the Western 1A Division, but Since 2013, Swansea eventually claimed the the BT Sport league title. They won 2-1 and 3-1 in their Cardiff Arms two games against a Cardiff side who eventually finished fourth Park has been in the table and will be hungry able to boast for revenge at Welsh Varsity. Yet the close nature of their a top-qualtwo earlier encounters will give ity artificial Cardiff plenty of encouragement that if they can edge in front FieldTurf they have a chance to pull off a surface huge win to end their season. Regardless of how the three enabling sport games unfold, an afternoon of rugby and football at the BT to take place Sport Cardiff Arms Park is cer- in any weather tain to whet the appetite for the main event of Welsh Varsity at conditions. the Principality Stadium a few hours later.
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SPORT 37
Welsh Varsity 2017: Venue by Venue Guide
The SSE SWALEC Stadium
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he SSE SWALEC Stadium has been the home of professional cricket in Wales for exactly half a century. Glamorgan County Cricket Club moved to the venue when the Cardiff Arms Park cricket ground closed in 1967 and have been based at the stadium ever since.
Traditionally called Sophia Gardens and located alongside the River Taff, the stadium was renamed as part of a sponsorship deal in 2015. In recent years, expansive redevelopment of The SSE SWALEC has made it one of the top cricket facilities across Great Britain.
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In recent years, expansive redevelopment of The SSE SWALEC has made it one of the top cricket facilities across Great Britain.
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Sport Wales Centre
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ocated on the same site as The SSE SWALEC Stadium in Sophia Gardens, the Sport Wales Centre will be one of the busiest venues during Welsh Varsity 2017. A host of sports will take place inside the 1,200-capacity sports hall, whilst a number of games will also be played at the astro turf
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The Centre was opened in October 1971 in order to assist the development of elite athletes in Wales.
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International cricket was first hosted in Cardiff during the 1999 Cricket World Cup, whilst England played their first ever game there in a One Day International in 2006. And after a £9.4million redevelopment, Sophia Gardens became the 100th venue in Test cricket by hosting the opening Ashes test between England and Australia. A nail-biting encounter, ending with England salvaging an unlikely draw, gave Cardiff a spectacular introduction to Test cricket. Another Ashes test was held at the ground in 2015, and this summer will see the ICC Champions Trophy arrive at the venue. In the meantime, cricketers from Cardiff University and Swansea University will have the honour of playing on the historic pitch at Welsh Varsity on Wednesday. The two sides will play an action-packed T20 game, with the first ball scheduled to be bowled at 1pm to get their showdown underway. Unlike most sports, which are coming to the end of their
pitch located just outside. The Centre was opened in October 1971 in order to assist the development of elite athletes in Wales. Several governing bodies of sports are based in the Centre, whilst Welsh national teams from sports such as Netball, Gymnastics, Hockey and Judo all train at
the venue, whilst Superleague Netball side the Celtic Dragons also use the facility for matches. It will be Netball that will get the Welsh Varsity indoor action underway at the Sport Wales National Centre, with Cardiff’s Premier Division side looking for a big win at 10am. Archery will take place at the same time in the smaller Jubilee Hall, with Tae Kwon Do also on site at the Dojo. Once the Netball has concluded, Ladies’ Basketball will take to the court in the Main Hall at 11:30am with Cardiff entering as favourites having plied their trade in a higher division than their Swansea counterparts. But a much more evenly matched game is expected to follow in the Men’s Basketball at 1:15pm after Cardiff finished just three points ahead of Swansea in the BUCS Western 1A. Ladies’ and Men’s Volleyball will be the final events to take place in the Main Hall, with matches played simultaneously at 15:30 before supporters flock to the nearby Principality Stadium for the rugby. Kickboxing (1:30pm, Dojo), Ladies’ and Men’s Fencing (1:30pm, Jubilee Hall) plus Ladies’ and
season, cricket are just getting started with their outdoor campaign. As a result, there is little basis to predict how things will turn out apart from the fortunes of the Cardiff and Swansea teams during the indoor season over the winter. Swansea finished just ahead of Cardiff in that format, but the different demands of the outdoor game coupled with the occasion of Varsity means Wednesday’s encounter is delicately poised and could potentially swing either way. In the morning, the outfield of The SSE SWALEC will host Ultimate Frisbee with the Women’s game starting at 10am and the Men taking to the field at 11am. Cardiff Men’s team should have the upper hand in their game having won three of their first four games this season and defeated Swansea 15-9 in their last fixture. But it is the cricket that is expected to garner plenty of attention as players from Cardiff and Swansea follow in the footsteps of some of the greatest players in the history of the game to play on the Sophia Gardens square.
Men’s Squad (1:30pm, Squash Courts) will also be based at the Sport Wales Centre. Outside on the astro turf pitch, a highly-anticipated Ladies’ Lacrosse game will begin early in the morning at 9:30am as Cardiff look to continue a memorable season with a Varsity victory to take plenty of momentum into the play-offs. The Men’s Lacrosse team will then take to the field at 11am in a grudge match which appears too close to call on paper. The Ladies’ Hockey team will play at 1pm, with top tier Cardiff expected to come out on top despite finishing bottom of their division as they face a Swansea side who were pipped to the South 2B title by Cardiff’s 3rd team. Finally, the Men’s Hockey starts at 3pm in the final action on the Sport Wales Hockey Astro. Cardiff, who finished second in the South B Division, will be taking on a Swansea side who also finished second in the tier below, the Western 1A Division. The Sport Wales Centre certainly appears set to be a hub of plenty of Welsh Varsity activity, and it looks to be well worth a visit in order to watch the widest array of sports possible on the day.
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Another Ashes test was held at the ground in 2015, and this summer will see the ICC Champions Trophy arrive at the venue.
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Pictured: The SSE SWALEC Stadium (top) via Flickr and Sport Wales Centre (below) via sport.wales
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A host of sports will take place inside the 1,200-capacity sports hall, whilst a number of games will also be played at the astro turf pitch located just outside.
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38 SPORT
Welsh Varsity: Selected previews
American Football
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ardiff Cobras are a wounded animal heading into their Welsh Varsity showdown with arch rivals Swansea at Llanrumney on Wednesday (11am). The Cobras enjoyed a sensational season, defying pre-season expectations to win their division for the first time in a decade. After securing the BUCS Western 1A crown they advanced to the South-
Netball
ern Final of the play-offs but suffered a heart-breaking 10-8 defeat at the hands of Portsmouth to miss out on promotion. They will now look to send a clear message to the Premier Division by looking for victory against a Swansea side who enjoyed a solid introduction to the top tier. The Titans defeated the Cobras in the play-offs last year on their way to pro-
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omen’s Lacrosse head into their Varsity match-up with high confidence after a superb 2016/17 season. The girls enjoyed an undefeated BUCS campaign and are still in contention for promotion from their division. Durham 2nds did beat Cardiff 15-10 in the Big BUCS final in Bath a fortnight ago. The girls fought valiantly and were unlucky to fall short.
rofessional rugby left the Valleys in 2004, it’s not returned since. Now it’s returning, albeit for one day only. Due to a Newport County FC game taking precedent on the same day, the Dragons have been searching for a ground to host their final day fixture against the Blues. Various solutions to this puzzling problem have been debated. The Blues kindly, and ironically, offered to host the game at the Arms Park – there was no way the Dragons were going to allow their home fixture against bitter rivals to become an away fixture. The option of moving it to the Principal-
Cardiff 6 26 Swansea 2016
season, during which they won six of their 10 matches. Swansea, meanwhile, ply their trade two tiers below in the BUCS Western 2B and play at the same level as Cardiff ’s 2nd and 3rd teams, albeit finishing above them in the table. Although Cardiff are expected to come out on top, they will need to be on their guard in what is sure to be one of the most popular events of the
day. Lauren Fraser will captain a Cardiff team who have put in some impressive performances over the second half of the season before being knocked out of the play-off quarter-finals at the hands of a powerful Loughborough side. Swansea, meanwhile, visited Cardiff just a couple of weeks ago, taking on Cardiff Medics Netball on March
22. Their trip to Talybont yielded a 6022 win, and although the class with Cardiff ’s 1sts will be a step up they will make the short trip to the Welsh capital with plenty of momentum. Cardiff will no doubt be aiming for a repeat of last year’s convincing win to give the University’s Welsh Varsity Shield hopes a bg boost early in the day.
Cardiff 49 16 Swansea 2016
BUCS Western 1A, with Swansea finishing third and Cardiff just behind in fourth in both leagues. A strong line up in the men’s team, is headed up by Captain Dom Pearson, who has put together an impress number of wins. Alongside him is Sam Tullet an experienced player who is hoping to make it back to back Varsity wins for the club over the Swans. The two teams drew 6-6 in their
Ladies’ Lacrosse
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Yet Cardiff firmly believe their opposition possess frailties they can expose as they look to claim an upset win. The Cobras defied the odds two years ago, winning a nail-biting encounter 2018 at Sketty Lane after a last-gasp Swansea field goal fell just short. They will be desperate for a repeat on home soil in what has been one of the most competitive Welsh Varsity fixtures in recent years.
By James S. Lloyd
t has been a tough season all round for the tennis club, however with the home advantage and string of recent performances, there is belief that they can get the job done. Both the men’s and women’s league tables looked identicale from a Cardiff and Swansea perspective at the end of the season. Both clubs ply their trade in the
Gareth Axenderrie Cardiff Blues Columnist
motion before capping off a fine season with a comfortable Welsh Varsity win. But last season’s encounter was the fourth meeting between the sides within the space of just a few months, and there will be much less familiarity between the two teams this year. Swansea have enjoyed great success in recent years and possess some extremely talented players in skill positions.
By Rich Jones
ardiff University Netball will look to get the day off to a strong start as they take on Swansea at the Sport Wales Main Hall at 10am. Cardiff, who claimed a crushing 49-16 win over Swansea in last year’s fixture, will be firm favourites to secure victory against their local rivals. They finished fourth in the BUCS Premier South Division after a mixed
Tennis
2016
By Rich Jones
BUCS encounter earlier this season, but which team will have the edge when they meet again at Varsity? An influx of fresher’s for the girls team means they are strong as ever, with Chloe Binmore looking to round off her first season with the club in style. Electra Northrop leading the girls team from the front will also be looking to continue the winning streak.
The women lost 8-4 to Swansea in February but will nonetheless be hoping to turn things around. Matches are set to start at 11:30, and will be held at Cardiff Castle Lawn Tennis Club. This is set to be an epic head to head with the perfect venue slap bang in the heart of Cardiff and cheap drinks all day. What more could anyone ask for? Wimbledon’s got nothing on this.
Cardiff (2) (0) (0) (2) Swansea 2016
By Alice Petheram
Attention is firmly on smashing Swansea on Wednesday – aiming to repeat the 17-2 hiding last season. Bex Jordache has been in stupendous form this season and has been nominated for Cardiff’s Athletic Union’s Female Athlete of the Year. Fresher Phoebe Smith has also been rewarded with a nomination for Fresher of the Year, at the AU Awards, whilst Maeve McKenny – a Wales internation-
al – is another player to keep an eye on. The team are unbelievably excited for the crunch fixture, and hotshot Jordache is relishing the opportunity to play in front of the Cardiff crowd. She said: “The team are going in quietly confident about this year’s varsity seeing as we’ve convincingly beaten Swansea the last two years. The girls are super keen to finish off an unreal season with another competitive game and
hopefully another successful win to add to the list this year! “I’m sure our last training session on Tuesday night will be filled with anticipation and excitement to get our varsity kit on the next morning, and step out against Swansea on our own home turf! None of the team have been involved in a varsity based in Cardiff yet so that brings another whole level of enthusiasm!”
ity Stadium was binned for similar reasons. If the game was going to stay in Gwent, the options were limited. Ebbw Vale’s Eugene Cross Park was a possibility, as were Cross Keys and Pontypool. Another option began to gain traction however. This curve ball solution presented itself in a town at the periphery of the region, a town that hasn’t seen top level rugby grace its turf since the days before regional rugby. Caerphilly hosted Taffs Well in the quarter final of the Swalec Bowl in February, and with all eyes on the Constructaquote Stadium for an afternoon, they had the oppor-
tunity to audition. In all fairness to Caerphilly RFC, they pulled out all the stops. Over 1,500 people turned up, pyrotechnics greeted the players as they ran out onto the field, and the club plastered social media with their efforts. Since that day, Caerphilly’s bid the host the Dragons and Blues has ridden the wave of momentum. Knowing people from the town and surrounding area, something has felt right about the game coming to the town. There has been a real desire from the club and rugby lovers in the area, and now that it has been confirmed,
it would appear every mon, woman and their dog are keen on grabbing a ticket. It was a sad day when top-level rugby left the valleys. It’s a region in itself, and one that has produced more than its fair share of Welsh greats over the last century. My heart says the Valleys absolutely deserves professional representation at the top level. Sure, the Blues make an effort to represent, but Cardiff and the Valleys are worlds apart in rugby terms. Perhaps a regional return to the area will show professional Welsh rugby just what it’s been missing.
Cardiff 17 2 Swansea
SPORT 39
Welsh Varsity streaker bares the truth on his Liberty Stadium parade last year James Lloyd
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I only remember little snippets really, the best bit was looking up at a massive wall of red and the cheering. Varsity Streaker
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f you were at Welsh Varsity last year, you are likely to remember the Cardiff streaker who valiantly ran onto the pitch in the buff during the half-time break. At the time, the Swansea Sirens cheerleading group were performing their routine, until the streaker decided to ruin that in some style. And in an exclusive interview with Gair Rhydd, the Varsity Streaker has revealed what the experience was like at Swansea’s Liberty Stadium. He said: “The stewards had asked me to leave after I took my top off and waved it around. Me and my mate had been talking about doing it all day so I quickly got into my birthday suit, got a leggy over the barriers, side stepped a steward and ran onto the pitch. “I did a little loop, but I ran out of breath and had to run back to my mate. I only remember little snippets really, the best bit was looking up at a massive wall of red and the cheering.” The streaker admitted he was taken away by police after his jolly around the Liberty pitch in front of 20,000 people. “I was doing a windmill and I think the officers didn’t like it very much,” joked the streaker. “They kindly escorted me to the local police station and I spent a few hours there before having to get a £60
Pictured: The Welsh Varsity streaker (via Huw Evans Agency).
taxi back to Cardiff – excellent hotel service, I would highly recommend.” Asked if we could expect a repeat at this year’s event at the 75,000 seat Principality Stadium, the streaker
quickly dismissed the possibility. He said: “There was talk of me about possible sex offender charges, so I don’t really fancy that. But I reckon if everyone takes there tops off and
waves them around then they cannot kick us out. We need to sing and support Cardiff as much as possible and make it a really good atmosphere.”
Ladies Football miss out against Belgians
Rich Jones
Harry Borg Cardiff City Columnist
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ardiff University Ladies’ Football enjoyed a historic Wednesday last week with two huge games. They took on Belgian side Katholieke Universiteit Leuven FC as part of a double header with the Men’s team for Global Week at Llanrumney. And their 1st XI were simultaneously taking on Portsmouth on the south coast in a huge encounter in the BUCS play-offs. The game at Llanrumney eventually ended as a 1-1 draw with the Belgian side claiming a 3-0 victory on penalties. The visitors dominated the first half but Cardiff first year Alice Cato found the back of the net against the run of play and they held on to lead
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nce again the International Break™ has proved detrimental to this column. With Cardiff City out of action last weekend there has not been much to cover. Frankly, Warnock’s side are in the classic nearend-of-season limbo, their 2016-17 league campaign is over. Warnock, the players and all the coaching staff will have started booking their holidays to the cultural hubs of Ibiza, Dubai and Marbella. The fans will no doubt be wondering what books their heroes will be taking with them. Perhaps it is War and Peace for Zohore, maybe 1984 for Whittingham, and
at the break. After taking the upper hand, the home side controlled more of the possession in the second half, yet the Belgian’s always looked threatening going forward. They had a penalty appeal turned down at the midway stage of the second half before piling on the pressure in the final five minutes. Unfortunately for Cardiff, the Leuven-based side got their reward with a shot deflected into the net in the 89thminute to salvage a draw. A penalty shoot-out followed, and after two saves from the Leuven keeper, Cardiff ’s third spot kick was blasted over the bar to give the Belgian’s victory. Loralie Castle was voted as Car-
diff ’s Man of the Match after a fastpaced game during which they were unfortunate to just miss out. Meanwhile, Portsmouth edged a 2-0 win in a tight encounter in the BUCS play-offs, which leaves Cardiff on the back foot as they prepare to host the second leg on May 3. Cardiff booked their place in the play-offs after finishing top of the Western 1A Division ahead of Exeter on goal difference. A goalmouth scramble from a corner saw Portsmouth, who suffeered just one defeat on their way to the 1A South Eastern Divsion crown, take an early lead and control the ball until the break. After battling hard defensively to keep the score at 1-0, Cardiff lost
captain Aoife Swords to a wrist injury less than a minute after the break. And their afternoon got worse as a smart through ball set free Portsmouth’s striker to slot home under the legs of the goalkeeper. It proved a tough game for Cardiff against a well-organised and physical Cardiff side, but they will have high hopes of mounting a comeback in the second leg. Their afternoon did end on a high, with a 4-3 win in the penalty shootout which followed the match as part of BUCS regulations. Two fantastic saves from Lucy Venables made her the hero in the shoot-out, and they will be looking to take that momentum into the return fixture.
potentially Wuthering Heights for Sol Bamba. Once the fans have finished speculating on the literature choices of the players they will be free to indulge in transfer rumours. Transfer rumours are no longer just reserved for the close season. These days the whispers happen all season long. Obviously actual football is better but the rumours are fun. It is also impossible to deny witnessing some bloke’s YouTube compilation titled ‘Welcome player X to club Y’ being rendered utterly pointless when player X signs for club Z is hilarious. But dreaming of who you could be
watching from the stands come the new season is exciting. The Bluebirds have been linked to Joe Ledley and Wayne Hennessey in the past week. Both would be very sensible signings. Ledley would provide the stability, grit and consistency Cardiff ’s midfield requires. Another positive is his chant which is good enough to be the sole reason to sign him. If you were wondering it is to the tune of Chaka Khan’s Ain’t Nobody and goes ‘Ain’t nobody like Joe Ledley, makes me happy, makes me feel this way.’ Hennessy unfortunately does not
have a chant but he would be a decent choice. However, as with all transfer rumours they need to be taken with a pinch of salt. I cannot shake the notion that the only reason these players are being linked to a move is because they are Welsh. But rumour has it Warnock is interested in Gareth Bale, Joe Allen, Ryan Giggs and John Hartson. Cardiff ’s next game is against fellow mid-table dwellers Barnsley in a game that will decide almost nothing but the beauty of football is that effectively it does nothing but it will always mean something.
sport
Editors: James Lloyd Mark Wyatt Rich Jones Gareth Axenderrie @GairRhyddSport sport@gairrhydd.com gairrhydd.com/sport
Also this week
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Sam Warburton: Welsh Varsity is one of the biggest fixtures on the Welsh rugby calendar James Lloyd
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am Warburton has hailed Welsh Varsity as one of the biggest rugby events on the calendar. Cardiff University will do battle with arch-rivals Swansea University at the Principality Stadium on Wednesday. And Warburton – who captained the British & Lions to a tour win in Australia four years ago – reckons the importance of the Varsity fixture cannot be underestimated. He exclusively told Gair Rhydd: “That is a massive game for those boys, it is a huge moment in their careers. “It is a great shop window for some to kick on to semi-professional or even professional rugby, it is a massive occasion for them and a huge game on the Welsh calendar.” Warburton has widely been tipped to retain the Lions captaincy for the New Zealand tour in June. The
28-year-old presented the game shirts to the Cardiff team last year ahead of their 16-10 defeat to Swansea at the Liberty Stadium. “I went to Cardiff University for a year and they have given me an honorary degree,” added Warburton. “The university have been great supporters of myself. They asked if I would do a jersey presentation last year and it was a no brainer, so I went along and did that.” Ospreys and Wales second-row Rory Thornton is another man with close links to Welsh Varsity. The 22-year-old played for Swansea University at the then called Millennium Stadium in 2014, where the White & Greens ran out 19-15 victors. Speaking of the experience at the Home of Welsh Rugby, Thornton praised the unique atmosphere. He said: “I played in it a couple of years ago. It was the last one in the Millennium, I think. It was awesome to be fair. “It was an awesome experience,
packed out with all the students having a good laugh, so yeah I really enjoyed it.” “It was a loud one I can tell you that, it is a really good atmosphere. It is good to see two universities going at it and enjoying the day, that is the main thing.” Thornton had been a part of Rob Howley’s Six Nations squad, but is still searching for his first international cap. And Thornton explained the professionality of the Varsity camp and how it mirrors an elite model. “It was good letting the boys training with the region for Varsity,” said Thornton. “It’s great getting that experience and preparing for it with the coaches.” “I think Ben John was helping out at the time coaching, it was good building towards it. You travel together, eat together, it was exactly like you do as if you’re setting up for a professional game.”
Pictured: Sam Warburton brushes off a Richie Gray tackle in Wales’ Six Nations defeat to Scotland. (Photograph via Huw Evans Agency)
Welsh Varsity: Your ultimate guide to the student showdown P29>>
Welsh Varsity: Individual team previews P28>>
Football: Ladies’ lose out on penalties to Belgium side P28>>