gair rhydd - Issue 872

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ISSUE 872 JUNE 02 2008 CARDIFF’S STUDENT WEEKLY free word - EST. 1972

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QUENCH G ET

ISSUE 861 FEBRUARY 18 CARDIFF’S STUDENT 2008 WEEKLY free word - EST. 1972

PHOTO: ED SALTER

S A MAKEO digitalfilm VER featurestr avel m

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STUDENT SCAN on the

BEAT

THIS ISSU

E:

NA-BUST

Police raid cannabis on Cathays house factory uncovers illegal

features on the iss ue of body im age film meet jack black fashion present: lessons in lingerie travel head to india plus all th e latest music , film, ar ts & book review s

gair rhyd d gair rhyd d

n Comb ined stude nt and po FRlic EEe create a sa efforts fer Cardiff n Polic e provide highly visible pr es popular stu ence on dent night s

Samantha Shillabeer News

Editor of 100 plants along with equipment lighting and fans.” exposed the This is the More than high levels crime of drug taken place ninth drug raid that have been 400 cannabis plant has Catha operating in the studen related to find.” in the last discovered s Cathays ys and Roath six months t areas of house after in alone. in .

He added: a raid by locala Cathays It was revea Tappenden “If studen The factor led that addic polic e. ts have any break into y was broke ts will often suspicions that illega cannabis factorrevealed that most of the early n into l activi the the stolen student houses and happening ies are rented hours of in close proxim ty may be then sell the morning in which are aband Wednesday goods in order house s habits. oned by on who return ity to February to fund their we urge them to months of police 6, follow contact the them only to overs their residents immediatel ing With this in investigatio police ee y.”

Each opera gathering of tions. house can mind, PC Bob ns and the Jo Plumm evidence.

Student generate up £250,000 a Keohane, It is year throug to studen Liaison Officer, is Officer, expreer, Education and Welfa curren h drugs tly the ts to be re urging dange whether the ssed sale of the . house, whichunconfirmed regarding any attentive and vigila rs of canna her views on the Tappenden off Mackintosh bis use. nt is situated drug activi was She be keen ty which may going on aroun commented Place, was efforts of the to stress the students. : “Many home to think that Abigail Whit students He explained d them. to criminal local police to put a the drug is Cardi take stop behav that ff actual harml houses being r iour University to grow canna News Edito Special Const used class ly, despite its reclassifi ess but student and and other local citize amongst students r works part-t covering the bis often have tin cation to a C ns.

He part of the able Sam Tappenden foil evide drug in 2004, there is windows, air reading Histoime in the force whils team of offi was messa said: “These raids highli Launched out of the attics increa nce vents ISSU out the t busy ge that the this year E 849 and large comp coming and menta of a link between cannasing raid. OCTOBERcers who carried the scheme ry at Cardiff Unive ambition police would ght the in gardens. conve l rsity, are student areas to ensur health aims to reduc CARD ost 08 bis of a Cardi through the geted y: any form piles and 2007 He expla IFF’Sined problems, like to safe when STUD e student tarff student, South Wale short term of crime and Other signs toENT returning homee students whole gairWEEK the factorfree memory loss. depression the ensure stude LY how simply not be tolera illegal drugs will rhydd With the heartedly. y word - EST. 1972 Increased . of S tive aims s Police Stude “Cannabis nt safety. operations ted in Cardi support of It is not only nt Initia “The police recen to create can property as operated, describing include lightin drug-related to the Students’ dents’ personal safety the stuhave a consta ff. between stronger links- from early eveni tly and operating Union, a website “a massive the of inform your degre also be detrimental equipment is also being the Polic fully be impro that will hope- mation to an office green ng until the nt stream e as heavy being carrie g and heating make He oped with ation from of the morn e and Cardi students. early devel ved, and a lack r. with said: “The bathtu house”. a d a numb SPC ff providing ing, officer foot patrolhours crime preve wealth of information - iour of our stude but also the behav b was filled sources, and over of activity into a house leave it difficult to conce use can fertilizer which Co-ordinate - final year,Tappenden, all ntrate and the coming er of only visitin ntion. with reside you feeling on nts curren a highly visibl s are ion we intend tlyd in his was being pump d by Stude g once nts unmo aroun constantly said: “To student nights are expected In addition, the Un- Union. This will proviwhen leaving the e presence Officer PC the house. ed very confi to execute more raids months tivated.” tired and make this Keohane said a day. the Police on ing camp to create an out. de great benefi for our comm Bob Keohane, nt Liaison and are “This work, dent in uproo will need “In each Initia of last week’ advertisPolice Const aign for the unity relatio Students who ts dents. help from room we found ting disrup is able Sam Tappeand Special housi lly, patrols focus this s just The ns.”

They schem lookin raid: tive have social one Police stuand illegal in excess e g to involv discovery; ly by any on student ng to deter nden, who volunteers are currently lookin business.” it does not or suspicions regard any information e the Stude and are student ‘Com also intend to set would-be In October, means paint teering Group g for later in the to become nt Voluning up activity are issue 849 of the whole THE . evening, moveburglars, and student-po involvemen munity Watch’ with a representatives.” advised to contadrug related picture. gair rhydd There are probably Jonny Cox, lice t towards the THE Wales Police anoth ct the South factories out Student’s BODY Cardi tives living of a series of repres the on 02920 22211 dent, said: there which er hundred Crime enta- stude ff is currently one across Catha BODY “We suppo Union Presi- spons stopp 1 we or call of the nt cities, with AS ers anonymous have yet ys. Their reART rt the ventu ibility would 555111. only five percesafest ly on 0800 re safety students becom AS ART in their area be to monitor the nt of ing victim and relay this comp infor- one ared to the nation s of crime, ISSUE 867 al average in three.

APRIL of CARDIFF’S 28 STUDENT 2008 WEEKLY free word - EST. 1972

INSIDE...NE FREE W LOOK GR /FEATURE S/JOBS&M ONEY/NEW S Police pr JACK BLACK / ce in CathaysINin es SPen O RT BLACK /P SIcr OLITICS/S DE...se KIDS NEW s asS/ CIENCE&EN concerns ea VI rise over JOBS&MONEY RO /FEATURE NMENT/LIST student sa S/TAF-OD/O INGS/TV fety PINION

LLY/POLITI CS

/LONELY HE

T H E CITY

B-BOYS HIGH

All the tournamreesults from last w eek’s nt p.40-48

5 VICTIM S 5 ATTACK S 1 DAY

will go to great length addictions. s to fund their was checking doors The offend IT’S A free-f or-all for in managed to ate for mone ers are usually so despe currently the burgl walk into Cathays and laptop y to rat ars will one house s have police conti large in Cathays, steal the small buy drugs that they shout ‘hello’ from the hallway and items on the become popular stolen as shoes est of items times before left wide nue to find front doors streets of the and jackets three stolen , anyone came open day and sell themsuch as city, with 14 in return for drugs gair rhydd in the last fortni a downstairs. meag and night rhydd has re 50 pence , and so with on for of spoke to the knowledge , gair learn ght alone Local . the house of Often drug This week, ed. and they respooccupants on avera police sources have . tinue to swam this, burglars will the addic Catha saying ts, have the sole said that the thieves con-ys police found ge more than houses with p the studen Cardiff. will our : “It’s hard to remem nded by burgled goal of stealin their doors one property t areas of every day. door ber to lock space of just unlocked in 13 goods to excha is This mean In light of and Roath nge for their g enough automaticalbecause last year it the bag 30 minutes. s Cathays this, DI Joshu ’s burgla of heroin. locked beyon The local next £10 ly when it a said: “We shut. d those for ry rates are far and recognise that burgla “We wish Head dents that police have warned our the ry is a terrib crime that landlo rest they are leavin resi- Detec of Roath and Catha of It is thoug the locks on rd can have le ables, includ tive Inspector ht that reside the city. g their valuys our door morewould make their Keith Joshu CID, they don’t nts leaving pact on victims, but a traumatic im-doors and “We are not secure but TVs, on an ing wallets, laptops seem a, I windo said: would appea peopl talkin to worried cause at least and ws wide open easy-to-reac e to limit g about premi security to with our Cardiff’s crimin half h platter for ing ransacked. These be honest.” ses befront of burgla the opportunities putl to Police estim of these burglaries.

The Catha thefts carrie are opportunist in rs.

It is thoug als. ates ys and d out by crimin suggest that “We are are around ht that the working hard rounding there those 400 als who will ular with burglars Roath area is popstreets sur- walk into homes both Catha becau Cardiff, who frequent drug addic targeting are inhabited ys and Roath will have picke and within 30 seconds populated with multi- se it is densely ts in to lookresponsible, but the £100 a day each need to make public have d up a laptop occupancy by heroin that after their up to be to fund home addicts who gone.” and be of almost guarantee locking doors property and need With a poten their illegal habits the opportunitys repeat steals Earlier this to even when . tial £33,600 . home.” week PC Bob stolen goods they are at With the worth Keohane DI Joshua dictions each needed to fund their of students to return of around 40,00 also urges anyon adyear, there Cardiff in e with is a real and formation on any the last month0 ongoing threat to , of stolen goods burglaries, or the in-Drug dealer homeowners. sale , to call Catha s will swap ys CID on stolen goods 029 2052 7267 or call anonymous ly on 0800 Crimestoppers 555 111.

SPORT/TE

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hich took within 24 pl areas of Cahours in the stud ace ent thays and Roath

LITICS/SCI

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William Taylo News Edito r r

CONT IRLS RAST ALLE

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been threat ened Police in All of the with a knife.

Card street robbe iff are investigat including mobilvictims had perso ing five ries that nal items e phones and 24 hours Detective wallets in Cathays took place within and Roath. of Cardiff Inspector Chris Mulla stolen.

The robbe Central CID, ne, head 1am on April ries occured between to reassure 9pm and 16 the comm said: “I would like unity that Cathays are Attacks were and 17.

Roath safe made on both places, and and Bruce patrols have and Lucas Street been increased in Street also the area to reassurance There were . provi .” two furthe de extra Road and Aline Unge another betwe r assults on Maindy wiss, a thirdNew Zeala en stude Crow nt, was year Journ n Way and nd Road. alism of Wednesdaywalking home on the Three males have been evening 16 when she for further the arrested and inquir bailed to police who warned her was stopped by The victim es. look out for and her boyfr s of “a the iend gang of young between 16 attacks are males”. and 24 and all hooded students. three of themaged Since are Tappe 2007, Special Police Student Liaiso nden has been Const n Officer PC was quick heading up able Sam Bob Keohane Police Initiative, to a group which the Student not related emphasise that the attack claim has to the victim helpe s being stude s were crime in Catha d in the overall the Police The two reduction of nts. ys. in close proxion Wednesday 16 Tappenden took place has offere each other, mity, within five who may be d minut concerned advice to students believe “therewhich has led PC Keoh es of assaults. following the recent is information ane the attacks to suggest to came from that youths”. the same group of However PC was definitely Keohane stressed Continued that on page 4: the recent spate going down in Catha “crime ys” and of attacks was area, which unusu gair rhydd street robbe usually has low crime al for the investigat ry. rates for stu es Victims of dent safe ty and alleged assau the attacks were all subject to reviews lt, two of which claim Cardiff’s to have sta crime tist

stigations ARTS/Lst continue ISre TIet into five roS/ NG bbGR erie sw AB

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Poor student security leads to spate of house robberies in Cathays and Roath Corinne Rhoades News Editor Thieves are walking freely into residences in Cathays as students are continuing to leave their houses unsecured.

Police are urging students to lock their windows and doors after seven burglaries took place on streets including Harriet Street and Ninian Road last bank holiday weekend.

Roath has also been a target for crime in recent weeks.

Two robberies have taken place, one at knifepoint, and police are appealing for witnesses.

The crimes are the latest in a string of incidents to have taken place in the heavily populated student areas over the last year.

In October 2007, gair rhydd reported that police officers had found 13 houses unlocked in Cathays in just 30 minutes.

Students were leaving their valuables in plain sight of thieves, who were reportedly exchanging stolen laptops

for heroine.

Head of Roath and Cathays CID Detective Inspector Keith Joshua urged students to take measures against “opportunist thefts”.

But this most recent crime spate has caused police officers to reissue their plea.

Sergeant James O’Donnell, from South Wales Police Community Safety, said: “Thieves are walking the streets, simply trying the handles of doors and windows. It is their lucky day if it is left insecure and they can get easy access to

the premises.

“Our advice is to always lock doors and windows, even during warmer weather.”

Despite continued advice from police, however, negligence is an ongoing problem in Cardiff’s student areas.

The South Wales Police Student Initiative, which is soon to celebrate its first anniversary, sees students patrolling the streets in an effort to combat student-targeted crime.

Special Police Constable Sam Tappenden, who helped to establish the

PHOTO: Natalia Popova

William Taylo News Edito r r

VARSITY PHOTO: Ed Salter

CRACK DOWN ON CRIME

Initiative, said overall crime against students in the city is down by 25%.

He said: “There’s nothing new to say prevention-wise. Students need to be individually responsible and take simple measures like leaving a light or a radio on when they go out and not leaving boxes for new TVs or computers out in the street.

Continued on page 3

POLITICS/SCIENCE&ENVIRONMENT/LISTINGS/RASPUTIN

02 gairrhydd

JUNE.02.2008

NEWS

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09 OPINION: University faith policy

15

NEWS SPECIAL: Interviews with this year’s sabbatical team

FEATURES: Alzheimer’s awareness

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JUNE.02.2008 NEWS@gairrhydd.COM

FAKE SKULLS Cardiff University researchers have discovered that two giant crystal skulls featured in the latest Indiana Jones film are likely to be fake.

The skulls were initially thought to be genuine Aztec artifacts, originating from Mexico.

They were acquired by the British Museum in 1897 after being bought from famous jewellers Tiffany & Co in New York.

Experts from Cardiff University have been working alongside researchers from the British Museum in London and the Kingston University in Canada to determine the authenticity of the skulls.

Through this research it has emerged that the skulls were likely to have been created in Europe in the 19th Century, and taken to Mexico in 1960.

The skulls were carved using a rotary disc-shaped tool, a piece of technology which was not available in Mexico at the time when the skulls were believed to have been created.

Professor Ian Freestone, a Cardiff University historian and archeologist, was part of the team examining the objects.

He said: “It is always disappointing when an intriguing artefact like a crystal skull turns out not to be genuine.

“However, it is important to be precise about what is authentic and what is fake if we are to understand our past.”

Call for “constructive” Union plans feedback William Taylor News Editor Students are continuing to join external petitioning groups in high numbers, but are not emailing their views on the new Students’ Union (SU) plans to SU President Jonny Cox with the same velocity.

Three weeks have passed since the publication of the redevelopment plans for the Union.

In this time 102 people have sent email comments regarding the new building plans to the SU building plans email address, compared to over 3,000 who have joined unofficial groups on Facebook.

Jonny Cox spoke of the official student responses, saying: “We have

not had nearly as many responses as we hoped for, especially considering the number of reactions on other unofficial forums.

“It is absolutely vital that students continue to provide us with official feedback to the designated email account.

“The feedback we’re receiving is feeding directly into the process that will ultimately govern what our Union building looks like both inside and out.”

Cox added that there is currently “no overall consensus of opinion” with regards to the plans and that much of the responses already received have failed to provide “constructive feedback from people who understand the proposals and the logic behind the reason they look the way they do.”

NEWS Scriptwriting award Samantha Shillabeer News Editor

A Cardiff University student has won a drama award for his first attempt at scriptwriting.

Huw Alun Foulkes, from Bethel, was awarded the Drama Medal at the Urdd Eisteddfod at Llandudno.

His play, Enaid Hoff Cytun, is about two men who both have specific things they want to achieve.

Huw explained: “The elder man wants to find a way to apologise for killing his wife in a car accident many years before.

“The other, younger man, wants to win a chair at an Eisteddfod.”

The adjudicators praised the work, describing the characters as “complete and well-rounded”.

Huw said: “I’ve never written a drama before so to win at my first attempt is fantastic.”

Student book success Sian Symons Reporter

Cardiff University student Nia Wyn has been shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year 2008.

Her book, Blue Sky July, has won huge critical acclaim and is now being distributed worldwide.

Blue Sky July is a biographical account of Nia’s struggle to cope with her son’s severe disabilities.

It was recently chosen as BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week and BBC Radio 5 Live’s Book of the Month.

The rights have now been bought by Penguin.

Nia continues to live in Cardiff while completing an MA in Creative Writing at the University.

The winners of the £10,000 prize will be announced on July 1 at Cardiff’s Hilton Hotel.

Student negligence is blamed for further burglaries Continued from front page “It’s common sense”, he added.

Meanwhile South Wales Police issued an appeal for information about the Roath robberies.

Two masked men broke into the Halifax bank on Albany Road at around 11.30pm on May 27.

Security guards were filling the cash machine when the incident occurred, but the men were not armed and no injuries were sustained.

The robbers exited the scene in a dark coloured VW Golf, making off with what police have said was “a substantial sum of money” towards Diana Street.

A 38-year-old pizza deliveryman also became the victim of a knife-point robbery in Castleford Place at around 11.30pm on Saturday May 24.

PHOTO: Natalia Popova

Sarah Powell Reporter

03

An 18/19-year-old white male, who was wearing a blue FCUK hoodie and was missing a front tooth, is the target of a police search, along with a 17/18year-old white male wearing a black baseball cap.

A third male is also suspected to have been involved in the crime.

The news comes after gair rhydd revealed last April that five street robberies had taken place within the space of 24 hours in Cathays and Roath.

But Tappenden was quick to reassure students that, in Cardiff, robberies involving students have seen a 33% drop.

He described violent crime in the Cathays area as “rare”.

Anyone with information about the burglaries or robberies should contact Crimestoppers on 0800555111.

04 gairrhydd

JUNE.02.2008

NEWS

NEWS@gairrhydd.COM

Med students made homeless

Samantha Shillabeer News Editor Medical students last week staged a protest against Government plans to end free housing for junior doctors.

The demonstration, which was one of several taking place around the country, happened outside Cardiff’s University Hospital of Wales (pictured left), with more than 20 fourth and final-year students armed with placards.

The protest follows changes to the Medical Act ending the policy of giving foundation house officers free hospital accommodation.

It means that firstyear junior doctors could have to find up to an extra £5,000 a year to pay for rent.

Elliot King, the British Medical Association’s medical student committee Cardiff representative, said: “Many medical students and junior doctors are appalled with this decision.

“Medical students already leave university with an estimated £20,000 worth of debt. Adding another financial burden will put more pressure on junior doctors and may also discourage future students from pursuing a career in medicine.”

The British Medical Association Cymru has called upon the Welsh Assembly Government to either continue to offer free accommodation or to compensate those affected.

Victoria Kueppers, a fifth-year medical student at Cardiff, echoed these thoughts.

She said: “I strongly f e e l that we should not be

exposed to this cut.

“The debt that medical students accumulate is quite large and we all feel we are being treated unfairly.”

Chris Templeman, another fifthyear, added: “The Government has said that with the new deal for doctors we shouldn’t be expected to work such long hours and because we will be working shorter hours, we don’t need this free accommodation on site.

“But we will still be expected to do night shifts, we will still be working 50 or more hours a week.

“The Government says it is making things better but they are not fulfilling their end of the deal, instead they are taking stuff away from us.”

MA degrees: Support for diploma “poor quality” Samantha Shillabeer News Editor

More than 100 higher education institutes have issued statements supporting high school Advanced Diplomas, says the University and College Admissions Service (UCAS).

The industry-based qualifications are currently being introduced to England’s schools and colleges as an alternative to A Levels.

It has previously been thought that some universities would look down on the qualification, and so UCAS asked

its 309 member institutions to make their views available to students.

UCAS Chief Executive Anthony McClaran said: “It is very encouraging that a wide cross section of universities and colleges have positively indicated that they view the Advanced Diplomas as a suitable entry route into higher education.”

A Cardiff University spokesperson claimed: “Cardiff seeks to admit students whose potential to benefit from our research-led learning and teaching environment might be demonstrated through a range of qualifications and achievements prior to entry into Higher

Education.

“Cardiff University welcomes the diploma as a means of expanding the opportunities for potential students from a broader mix of backgrounds and educational experiences to progress to higher education.

“We are monitoring developments with interest and will continue to assess the academic rigor and general suitability of the diploma as a route to Higher Education in due course as more information becomes available.”

Engineers wanted Sian Symons Reporter British businesses are thought to be in crisis over a slump in the number of manufacturing and engineering graduates coming out of UK universities.

The director general for the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) Richard Lambert says that major UK companies are already struggling to recruit the engineers they need.

As a result, foreign businesses are apprehensive about investing, as they cannot fully rely on a skilled work-

force being available.

Companies are striving to overcome the issue by recruiting internationally, yet other countries face similar problems.

With the number of engineering students declining by 45% between 2001 and 2006, Mr Lambert has launched an initiative to encourage students onto engineering courses.

Leading engineering companies and two universities, Newcastle and Nottingham, support the initiative, titled the E3 Academy.

Students accepted into the academy can expect an annual bursary

of £2,500, eight weeks paid summer vacation training, a reimbursement of tuition fees after graduation and employment with a partner company.

Bob Owen, a chartered engineer, said: “We are short of tens of thousands of engineers in our industry.”

Mr Owen also stated: “Up to 60% of the graduates with electrical or electronic engineering degrees do not go into the industry.”

It is hoped that E3 Academy will solve this problem and encourage more people into the field.

British MA students may struggle to find jobs abroad because their degrees are too short Emma Barlow Reporter MA students seeking employment overseas could face “real danger” due to claims that UK Masters degrees lack credibility.

According to a report from the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) international recruiters believe UK Masters degrees to be too short.

The concerns stem from a recent article in The Sunday Times which reported complaints from China about the “very poor quality” of some UK Masters courses taken

by Chinese students.

But a Cardiff University spokesperson claimed that this is not the case at every institution.

The spokesperson said: “Cardiff’s position on one-year Masters qualifications is firmly in line with that of the UK HE Europe Unit.”

In 2006 the Norwegian quality assurance agency NOKUT published a paper comparing Norway’s two-year MA’s with those in the UK. The report said: “It is not clear at the moment what this difference [in duration] exactly means in practice regarding the skills and competencies of graduates.”

But the UK HE Europe Unit states: “The one-year Masters practised in the UK has always been successful among European and international students and employers alike.”

gairrhydd

JUNE.02.2008

05

WORLD NEWS

NEWS@gairrhydd.COM

Cat puts railway back on track

World News in brief Ruth Smith Reporter

1€ E-baby

Sarah Powell Reporter A stray cat is helping to improve the popularity of a loss-making railway station in Japan.

The Wakayama Electric Railway had been gradually declining in profit, which resulted in the company greatly reducing the number of staff at the station.

Despite this, the tabby cat Tama continued to live at the station and is

now accredited with helping to boost the station’s revenue by 10%.

Due to her job dedication she achieved national stardom last year when she was awarded the position of ‘station master’ at the unmanned station.

It is reported that she can now be found wearing a black cap and posing for photographs with passengers.

Since her appointment to ‘station master’ the popularity of the station has increased and passengers have returned to boost the numbers to 2.1 million per

The Not-So-Leaning Tower of Pisa Abigail Whittaker News Editor The leaning tower of Pisa is reported to have stopped moving for the first time in its 800-year history, according to engineering experts.

A team of engineers have been working on a project to stabilise the famous tourist site for more than a decade.

The man in charge of co-ordinating the project has now said that the tower should remain stable for at least another 200

years.

Engineer Michele Jamiol-kowski said: “All of our best hopes have been confirmed.”

The project, which has cost 26 million euros (£20 million), has involved extracting some 70 tonnes of earth from the north side of the tower, in a bid to encourage the structure to right itself.

Built in 1173, the 183-foot tower was leaning nearly 15 feet when the restoration work began in 1999.

When the work was initially completed the tower continued to move towards a more upright position.

Several years on, hi-tech monitors embedded in the soil beneath the tower’s foundations show that the building has become stationary.

The structure is now 19 inches straighter and off centre by 13 feet.

Finishing ceremonies for the current work are scheduled to take place in late summer.

During completion of the work the leaning tower of Pisa lost its title as the world’s wonkiest piece of architecture to the steeple of a small church in Germany.

year.

Tama now has her own office in the station in the form of a disused ticket booth.

She also receives cat-food in lieu of a salary and now holds the fifth-highest position in the company.

Yoshiko Yamaki, a spokesperson for the company, believes that it is Tama’s character that has charmed the passengers.

She said: “Tama has patience and charisma and she is the perfect station master.”

Tama also allows the passengers to touch her, and is regularly obliging at being photographed.

Her popularity has become a national phenomenon, resulting in a range of merchandise centred around the station’s mascot, including a picture book entitled, ‘Diary of Tama: The Station Master’.

It is also reported that Tama will appear in a French documentary film about wonder cats from around the world, which is to be directed by Myriam Tonelotto.

Province renamed Government plans to change the name of a previously English territory in Pakistan sparks debate among local tribes Ruth Smith Reporter Pakistan is to rename a province called the North West Frontier in the belief that its title is neither historically or chronologically fitting.

It is hoped that the measure will bring an end to “British colonial anachronism”, as the current name was chosen by British troops in the early 1900s as part of an effort to suppress aggressive Pukhtun tribes.

The leading government party, the Pakistan People’s Party, has agreed on the new name of Pukhtunkhwa in accordance with the wishes of the Awami National Party (ANP), which currently governs the province.

The name, translated as “land of the Pukhtun”, was decided upon because of its common use by local poets.

The Pukhtun society is the world’s largest patriarchal tribal society, made up of an estimated 42 million people.

But the proposals have been contro-

versial and have received opposition from other tribes.

Non-Puktun ethnic minorities such as the groups of Chitralis and Hazara believe that the current name is fitting because it simply means ‘the points of the compass’.

The Province is the smallest of the four main provinces in Pakistan and covers approximately 28,800 square miles.

It was a province of British India from 1901-47.

The leader of the ANP Zahid Khan said: “Sixty years after our independence our demand will be met.”

He added: “The change will be very good for us.”

But Arbab Khan, a public figure from Peshawar, an important military and communications centre in the province, suggested that the name should instead be “Curzonistan”.

This would mean it is named after Lord Curzon, the viceroy of India who originally created the province in 1901 when he eliminated it from the Punjab’s rule in 1901.

A couple advertised their baby on Ebay with a starting price of one Euro because it was too loud.

The seven-month-old baby boy has since been taken away from the couple by police in Southern Germany after they received notification from internet surfers.

The parents claim that the stunt was only a joke and that they just wanted to see if anyone would make an offer.

No bids were made for the baby in the two hours and 30 minutes that it was on sale and the advert has now been deleted by Ebay.

Scorpion attack

A twelve-year-old girl was stung by a scorpion while she was out shopping in West Virginia.

Megan Templeton felt a sharp pain as she was picking up a watermelon in a Wal-Mart supermarket.

The scorpion was later identified as a stowaway from Mexico.

The girl was taken to hospital as a precaution but suffered no lasting side effects.

Wal-Mart employees believe the scorpion arrived in the USA in a shipment of watermelons.

Hot line

A man in Japan has been arrested after spending more than 3000 hours on a freephone telephone number because he was obsessed with the automated female voice.

Tokyo’s Hiroyuki Nomoto rang the number approximately 500 times to hear the woman’s taped message.

The 38-year-old was arrested for possibly intending to obstruct the company’s business, which had to pay call charges of £18,595.

He was nicknamed the ‘don’t hang-up man’.

06 gairrhydd

JUNE.02.2008

NEWS SPECIAL

NEWS@gairrhydd.COM

Have this year’s Sabbatical Officers fulfilled their manifesto promises? gair rhydd speaks to your SU Executive team 2007-8 President

Vice-President

What have you implemented this year?

What have you implemented this year?

I’ve implemented the first ever Go Green week.

Setting an environmental example as a Union makes it a lot easier to lobby the University as you’re actually doing something about it.

We won the Sound Impact Award in recognition of this. Hopefully in the future this will be something we don’t have to push for, but that will just be embedded in the University.

We’ve improved communication with the Heath Park campus, which was something Jo Plummer and I really wanted to do.

We’ve started working with heads of health schools and have launched the Heath Park survey. It’s still ongoing but I’ve learnt this year that things don’t happen overnight.

Freshers’ Crew was created at the beginning of the year as a team of 55 students who went out to welcome new students and help familiarise both them and their families with student life in Cardiff.

I was especially pleased with the success of this initiative as it was something that I pledged on my manifesto and worked to implement over summer 2007.

I’ve also implemented some changes to the election process for the Union Executive.

A lot of new information was put on the website to help students who were wanting to run for positions, and to allow voters to be better informed.

We want to encourage a culture shift towards more informed candidates and voters in the future.

Jonny Cox

Rowena Vassallo

What have you built upon this year?

Is there anything you would like the new sabbatical team to carry on?

The building plans.

No matter what reaction they’ve got I think it’s an achievement as it’s been ongoing for five years.

I really wanted to push it through and get something on paper so that we could start the consultation process.

I really want the Freshers’ Crew to get bigger and better, getting even more students onboard.

We’ve started the process of a Governance Review this year, which will need completion next year, and there’s the ongoing consultation with the building plans.

Is anything still awaiting completion?

In your manifesto you wanted to encourage students to sign up and get involved with the Union throughout the year. Has this been successful?

I’ve successfully lobbied the University to create a communications policy for students.

At the moment there is nothing for students to say what the University could expect from them or what they could expect from the University.

We want them to create a policy which we can feed out of to improve our own policy because they have the resources for greater research.

Lobbying against investment in arms was big last year. Why haven’t we heard much about it this year?

It’s very difficult because the University have done exactly what they did last year and said they are writing an investment strategy in which they will consider their investments.

It is something I believe strongly in but I recognise when there is a time for pressure which will result in action and when my words are falling on deaf ears.

The Freshers’ Crew was great at encouraging students to get involved initially.

In February the series of campaigns also brought many students into the Union and encouraged them to get involved with the Union in more ways.

There’s more work still to do and it shouldn’t be all about Freshers’ Fortnight.

We’re working to get membership management of societies and clubs online, but I hope this will make getting involved even easier.

With hindsight is there anything you’d do differently?

I’m really proud of the way the whole sabbatical team have represented students and stood up for students’ interests this year.

It is difficult having only a year to get everything done.

There are many ideas that we’ve had that we haven’t always been able to implement, but I’m hoping these may be useful in the future.

How did they fare? Students express their views on the Sabbatical Officers they’ve worked with this year Jonny has done really well this year lobbying the University in terms of the spaces they use, particularly ensuring that Great Hall is only used by the University a limited number of days of the week.

He has also been really supportive of all the other officers, both sabbatical and non-sabbatical, and their campaigns such as Invest in Sport and Go Green.

There’s been a good focus on making the University more aware of what students want.

Communication between the Union and students hasn’t changed greatly, but this is always going to be an ongoing problem and there’s no easy solution.

Rowena’s dedication to the Students’ Union has been tireless this year, and her enthusiasm for students is unquestionable.

She is a perfectionist with great organisational skills and a keen eye for good branding, and these qualities have led to many original campaigns and initiatives, including the Freshers’ Crew and the We Love Cardiff recruitment scheme.

Perhaps most notably she has put plans into motion for a much-needed Governance Review that will improve the way Cardiff Students’ Union is run.

Rowena has always tried to involve as many students as possible in Union matters, and this has been her greatest success.

Sam Knight, incoming Ethical & Environmental Officer (elected for 2008-09)

Ben Bryant, out-going Quench Editor and incoming gair rhydd Editor (elected for 2008-9)

gair rhydd wants to know what you thought of this year’s S

gairrhydd

JUNE.02.2008

07

NEWS SPECIAL

NEWS@gairrhydd.COM

AU President

Education and Welfare Officer Jo Plummer

Ben Turner

What have you implemented this year?

What have you implemented this year?

I tried to fund specific activities and training that would advance individual teams.

We had a big Varsity campaign that attracted around 7,500 people and raised over £4,000 for the Welsh National Trust, making it the biggest Varsity in history.

Sexual Health Awareness (SHAG) Week was more prominent this year and I hope this will continue in the future.

We wanted to raise awareness within the student body and gage how much students wanted a GUM clinic.

The Heath Park survey is also new.

We’ve made an effort to gain the trust of the students up at the Heath by asking their opinions and actually doing something with their responses.

What have you built upon this year?

The Invest in Sport campaign was carried on from last year and the Rubber Crumb pitch should be here from September.

In your manifesto you say you will improve transport facilities for sports teams, but the Student Satisfaction Survey showed teams were still not happy. Why is this?

What is happening with the GUM clinic which you said you would campaign for in your manifesto?

I was told that the best way to ensure an on-site GUM clinic got started was to campaign for more money from the Welsh Assembly Government to improve the facilities at the Royal Infirmary GUM clinic because the staff there are too stretched to come all the way over to our site at the moment.

I’ve since had meetings about the possibility of getting an on-site GP surgery which would encompass an STI service because so many students come here and don’t register with a GP.

We have a really good fleet but still things can go wrong.

Improvements will be made to make it fairer and we’re examining the current Transport Policy at the moment.

Is there anything you would like the new sabbatical team to carry on?

Making Varsity bigger and possibly putting a Fun Run in Freshers’ Week so freshers can see Cardiff while they’re running.

Ben has been an integral part of this year’s overwhelming sporting success at Cardiff.

Varsity ran like clockwork and the Fun Run again emphasised the importance of the Invest in Sport campaign and what it stands for.

Unfortunately IMG football encountered teething problems, and the ongoing refereeing difficulties have yet to be resolved, but with current AU Vice-President Scott Pigott taking the AU reins next year I am sure the competition will run a lot more smoothly for years to come.

George Pawley, gair rhydd Sports Editor

gair rhydd Editor Amy Harrison

What have you implemented this year?

CUTV launched in November.

A fantastic standard of programmes been broadcast and people have started to develop more skills so next year’s intake will have students who know what they’re doing, helping to make it bigger and better.

Quench has undergone a big redesign with the new logo and new style. A lot of people who didn’t read Quench previously have started picking it up so that’s good.

What have you built upon this year?

There’s more societies coverage in gair rhydd this year.

We re-jigged the Listings page and made it more obvious for societies to get in touch.

You said you would like gair rhydd to be more reflective of the diversity of Cardiff University. How have you achieved this?

We wanted more of an international focus.

We sent out e-mails to all of the International students at Cardiff asking them to get involved and a few of them have.

We had the only Cuban student in Cardiff commenting on Fidel Castro in the Politics section so it has diversified it a bit more.

I think Amy has done an excellent job at the helm of gair rhydd.

I have really enjoyed the serious issues explored in Features and Sport has been looking very good.

In particular, I’m pleased that Amy was not afraid to divide from the other Sabbatical Officers on the recent issue of the redevelopment of the Union and brought the matter to the attention of the student populace.

Though I do feel that there could have been a bit more in-depth investigation of the University.

Adam Millward, gair rhydd Columnist

Overall, I have been very impressed with Jo’s efforts and achievements this year.

She has been really helpful in contributing to the development and expansion of the LINKS society and provides a constant channel of communication between the society and the Union.

She is extremely enthusiastic about her job and as a result is always friendly and approachable.

And, most importantly, she never fails to provide support when needed.

Danielle Krauss, LINKS President

SPI Officer Sally Airey

What have you implemented this year?

Go Global was an extension of Global Village that got more students involved.

I also set up the Postgraduate Students Committee and the International Students Committee because there was no real direct channel of communication for those student groups.

Is there anything you would like the new sabbatical team to carry on?

Next year we’ll have all the societies working on an online system.

An online sign up to societies will be in place from August, so students can sign up even before they arrive at Cardiff.

What is happening about your manifesto campaign for prayer room facilities?

I’ve tried to approach it from a different angle.

I set up a forum and made sure that while we were lobbying the University we were being helpful as well.

The Religion and Belief policy is a big step forward and we will be feeding back to the University and making students more aware.

I think Sally has done a really good job with societies this year.

Whenever RAG wanted to put on an event she was always there to help and her door was always open.

I think she has built on the work of her predecessor, making Go Global a fortnight and having the Society Awards.

They were great ideas and they were both resounding successes.

Societies at Cardiff have had a great year and I feel a large part of this is down to Sally.

Toby Willis, RAG President

Sabbatical Officers. Let us know at www.gairrhydd.com

14 gairrhydd

FEATURES

OCTOBER.22.2007 FEATURES@gairrhydd.COM

gairrhydd

JUNE.02.2008

Est. 1972

Prevention is the cure This week’s lead story really comes as no surprise, as we see students as victims of crime once again.

Reports of crimes in Cathays and Roath have been regular features in gair rhydd news this year. Although crime figures in Cardiff are declining the message cannot be repeated enough to students that they must be individually responsible and use ‘common sense’ to prevent crime.

The heat of the summer and the euphoria of finishing another year at University can lead to careless actions and unfortunate consequences. When windows and doors are left open to let in a cooling breeze, it is vital that students remember to secure them and their houses before they go out.

Last year gair rhydd reported a student house that was burgled while its occupants were sat in the garden having a party, enjoying the sunshine.

This is a prime example of the fact that the thieves who target students in their homes are largely opportunistic, so by removing the opportunity to steal by locking doors and windows you are dramatically reducing your chances of being victims of crime.

Sabbatical Summary This week’s summary of the Sabbatical Officers’ year in office showcases a team of six former students who have all done what they believe is best to improve our Students’ Union.

A sabbatical role is not simply an excuse to remain a student for another year; it is a difficult position exacerbated by the fact that they are very much in the public eye. The team this year have done their best to make the Students’ Union as inclusive as possible, and have put measures in place to ensure that this is the case in the future.

While not every officer seems to have fulfilled all of their manifesto pledges, this may not be because they haven’t made the effort to put plans into action, but because such plans may be impossible to put into practice.

What... No Sport?

Bad weather this week has meant that all the fixtures due to take place last week had to be cancelled. As gair rhydd goes to print the sun is shining and we hope that the usual sports coverage will resume again next week.

Not a prayer

Corinne Rhoades is unimpressed at the Union’s unwillingness to develop its own policy on religion

L

ISSUE

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9

QUENCH

Now it’s clear that the Union has all our best interests at heart. All year long we’ve heard slogans such as “Your Union, your vote” and “Recycle your student pound”. Even the www. cardiffstudents.com website promotes the Union as “an active, campaigning organisation, operating independently of Cardiff University and according to the needs and wishes of our 25,000 student members.” They’ve said it enough themselves: it’s our Union.

So why are we suddenly depending on the University to act? The Union explicitly advertises itself as the voice

Investigations Lee Macaulay

Co-ordinator Elaine Morgan

Opinion Emma Davies Jamie Thunder

TURNS

50

MUSIC ST OF SCENE

Helen Tho mpson News Edit

or Society MUSLIM is calling to insta on the that they students have ll pus, denonew prayer roomUniversity claim ated and frequently Last year feel hum ed sions as uncing the curres on cam, Cardiff the Univ under stre last a ‘disg nt prov rated seco ss beca iliThe num race’. i- Inter for prayer adequateersity does nd to facilities ber national not provuse at Card prayer in the Stud iff Univ of Muslim stude surv ide be Cardiff facil ersity is nts top ey of internatioent Baromete in the Universit ities. r, a nal UK univ y campus thousands, but estimated to Islamic ersities, students in prayer room otherwis the Cath capacity e outstandi letting dow 30 ays has a of only n its Muslims ng four peop maximum must pray performance. day, and le. five time up to three s a of these Continu can fall ed on Pag e Four

THE FAITH AND THE FURY: lack of prayer room provision has upset some students

Why can’t the Union lead the way with a stance on religion and belief?

Deputy Editor Ben Bryant

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WE CEL EB 50TH RATE QUEN EXTRA-S EDITION WIT CH’S H PECIAL FEATUR 50 ES QUENCH PLUS: FR BRINGS E YOU TH E CD THE E BE LOCAL

Being hallw forced to pr of faciays because ay in ‘humililities in un of the lack Societ ating’ saysiversity is y Pres ident Islamic

Shillabeer Corinne Rhoades

Politics Tim Hewish

Q U E N C H

PRAYIN UNDER G THE STAIRS

Editor Amy Harrison

News William Taylor Abigail Whittaker Samantha

gair rh ydd

FREE

ast week gair rhydd reported that Cardiff University has revealed their draft policy on religion and belief for student comment.

The news was well overdue, coming over a year after on-campus prayer facilities for Muslim students were exposed as inadequate, forcing many to carry out their prayer time in offputting public circumstances such as in corridors or under the stairs.

Muslim students admitted that the lack of provision for their religious requirements meant they had to cut into their studies to travel to the nearest prayer room or mosque. As a result, they were left feeling “frequently humiliated and under stress”.

Now the Students’ Union is undergoing massive changes. It’s going to be bigger and better; a Union from which all students will benefit – except students of faith.

According to www.cardiffstudents. com, as a University “policy” on religion is developed, quiet space which could be used for prayer “will be allocated” in the redevelopment plans.

Now, with the University’s Religion and Belief policy on its way, there seems to be nothing stopping the incorporation of this quiet space into the new Union plans. We’re just waiting for the University to pass the policy; the Union doesn’t want to clash with it on such a supposedly controversial and emotive issue.

JAMES PEROU

freewords

EDITORIAL & OPINION

PHOTO:

OPINION@gairrhydd.COM

09

of the students and not of the institution. So why can’t it lead the way with a stance on religion and belief? Having read the University’s Religion and Belief policy, Cardiff doesn’t establish a particularly divisive or controversial stance on religion. Each point is developed within the guidelines of laws which ensure equality, such as the Racial and Religious Hatred Act or the Human Rights Act. It seems to me, therefore, that the University is not doing that much more than what’s legally required of it.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m pleased that this policy has been developed. It’s a bold step for a university which claims to pride itself on its secular status. But as the Union has seemingly shied away from taking its own bold steps towards catering for religion it has shifted the

responsibility for students of faith firmly onto the University.

Perhaps it should be the University’s concern. Muslim students have admitted to missing lectures so that they can travel to a prayer room, so the current lack of provision clearly impacts upon study life.

By not meeting the needs of students who follow a religion, an individual choice is being denied To this, some may respond that faith is an entirely individual choice. Many,

Science & Environment Sophie Cole

Stephen Florey Pete Dean Scott D’Arcy

GRAB Tom Bentley Hannah Gurney

Picture Editor Ed Salter

Features Emma Thomas

Columnist Huw Davies

Five Minute Fun Narelle

Online Editor Paul Springett Tom Barnett

Jobs and Money Jess Best

Problem Page Ted Handsome

Sport George Pawley Jack Zorab

Listings Josie Allchin Dan Jones

Television TV Guy TV Mariam TV Tim TV Sarah

Proof Readers Aisling Tempany Neil Fairbrother Adam Millward Huw Davies

some students of faith included, would say that it is not the role of the Union or the University to cater for those who choose to impose religious requirements upon their lives. But by not adequately meeting the needs of those students who do follow a religion I would assert that this individual choice is simply being denied.

In any case, by redefining prayer rooms as ‘quiet rooms’, both the University and the Union have, conveniently, escaped any religious connotations. So, if prayer space in the Union is dependent on a policy about religion and faith, will it ever seriously be on the agenda?

In my opinion, both the Union and the University have already made up their minds and the answer seems to be a resounding, categorical “no”.

Contributors Neil Young Ceri Isfryn Richard Brown, Sarah Powell Ted Shiress Julia McWatt Emma Barlow Natalia Popova Sian Symons Ruth Smith Rich Brown Emma Thomas

Address University Union, Park Place, Cardiff, CF10 3QN Web www.gairrhydd.com Email info@gairrhydd.com Advertising 02920 781 474 Location 4th Floor Students’ Union

-GAIR RHYDD AND QUENCH MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED BY UNIVERSITY UNION CARDIFF, PARK PLACE, CARDIFF CF10 3QN n REGISTERED AS A NEWSPAPER AT THE POST OFFICE n GAIR RHYDD RESERVES THE RIGHT TO EDIT ALL CONTRIBUTIONS n THE VIEWS EXPRESSED ARE NOT NECESSARILY THOSE OF THE PUBLISHERS n THE GAIR RHYDD IS WRITTEN, DESIGNED, TYPESET AND OUTPUT BY STUDENTS OF CARDIFF UNIVERSITY n WHATEVER HAPPENED TO... SPORT? n DON’T BLAME THE RAIN n SIX EDITORS AND NO PAGES n CAN’T EVEN RE-PRINT A CRICKET/FRISBEE PHOTO n GIVE OPINION BACK OUR AWARD n WE'LL KEEP BLUE BAR n OFFICE GRINDS TO HALT FOR BRITAIN’S GOT TALENT n WILL ZONES OUT COMPLETELY n FOOTBALL ANYONE? n SPORT VS. EVERYONE ELSE n AS USUAL THEN n MR CARDIFF UNIVERSITY DAN JONES SIGNS OUT A WEEK EARLY n DAVIES LEAVES IT TO THE LAST MINUTE n WHERE’S LEE? n INVESTIGATING n HAH, GOOD ONE n THE END IS NIGH n F

10 gairrhydd

JUNE.02.2008

OPINION Cardiff, Disability and me Ted Shiress gives his take on the plans for the new SU

O

K, let’s get topical now.

The Union (i.e. the building) – what is it like for those with physical disabilities?

Pretty bad, to be honest. As a Union officer I am aware that I should be defending it; however, there is nothing wrong with a bit of honesty.

To start, the stairs up to the Union from Park Place are a complete no-go for anyone with mobility problems – it really does surprise me how many drunkards seem to manage them!

They are steep, they are concrete and the railings are minimal; the phrase ‘accident waiting to happen’ springs to mind. Many able-bodied friends have told me that they find these awkward, let alone those with some kind of mobility problem – intoxication included.

Then there is the lift. That is, the lift that never works. This is located underneath the stairs in a closed corner where drunkards seem to enjoy urinating. So, needless to say, this does not exactly smell of roses! The lift requires a card to operate. Yes, that’s right, a card, note the determiner ‘a’. A credit card, a bus pass or a piece of card, how safe!

The only problem is that it seems never to work; more times than not I have to radio up to reception to get them to call the lift for me. This involves someone calling the lift up (from upstairs) and sending it back down so the door opens for me. Now, not meaning to be cynical but I am sure that there must be a better way. I have, obviously, asked whether they could replace this mechanism and apparently they could not. Hmph!

Another brick wall hit!

As for the reverse entrance to the Union, this is just as problematic, if not more. To start, this involves dodging a few of Cathays’ finest kerbs. Once this feat has been accomplished, the way into the building involves heavy non-automatic doors; just what someone needs in a wheelchair or mobility scooter!

See, I have almost reached the end of my column already and we have yet to step foot (or drive wheel) inside the Union building. Quite frankly, I could not give a frying flan about Solus and whether it will be shrunk or not, there are far more pressing issues and accessibility is one!

--Ted Shiress is currently looking for a domestic assistant(s) for the next academic year. The job would involve helping Ted in the mornings and evening with cooking, laundry, washing, room cleaning and university filing.

Pay is £6.70p/h and if you are interested or have any queries contact Ted ar Ted.Shiress@ntlworld.com.

OPINION@gairrhydd.COM

No support for the sick Students with cancer get a raw deal when it comes to financial support, finds Sarah Powell

E

veryone knows that for students, money is tight. When you think of the typical stereotype, an image of a penniless individual eating supermarket ‘value brand’ baked beans immediately springs to mind. The fact is that it’s an occupational hazard that comes with being a student.

A little known fact, however, is that for students with illnesses such as cancer, money is even more scarce.

It does not occur to most people that applying for financial support is actually quite difficult. As students, we apply for our loans, and everything seems simple. But for students with cancer, the system is much less accommodating.

When my cousin Melissa was diagnosed with a rare type of NonHodgkin’s Lymphoma (cancer) in August 2007, it came to my attention that there is a serious flaw in the financial system which is meant to give support to those in need. The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), to which individuals can apply for financial support, currently fails to recognise students with cancer as worthy of help. Benefits in the form of Income Support, Incapacity Benefit, and Disability Allowance are all available from the DWP to provide financial support to those who need it most, be that single parents, carers, or “people with a serious illness or disability.”

What this body fails to inform us is that students do not fall into any of these categories.

For some students, the idea of returning to university provides an impetus to help them through their illness This meant that for Mel, securing financial help was not only very difficult, but also a very long and tedious process. If she had been a single parent or disabled financial help would have been more accessible. But because she was a student, help was incredibly difficult to secure. She was told by the DWP to take out a further student loan, or give up her degree altogether, which would mean she may qualify for income support benefits. Emphasis here is on the ‘may qualify’. This was by no means certain.

It is a common problem for students to finish their degree with a huge financial debt. To incur further debt through illness seems incredibly unfair; a student loan is in place to support studies, not to supply an income when you are ill and unable to continue your studies. Cancer treatment is often so intrusive and debilitating that students have no option but to take time out of University. But to be forced to give up their studies

ADDING INSULT TO ILLNESS: suffering students are bogged down by bureaucracy altogether in order to be eligible for financial support is completely unjust.

For some students the idea of returning to university provides a psychological impetus to help them through their illness, and it is wrong to take this away from them.

Recently I saw an advert for Macmillan Nurses, which read: “It’s amazing what cancer can take away.”

Where I once would have stopped and spared a thought for those suffering from cancer before proceeding with my life, I now realise the full extent of the phrase. Cancer not only has the power to take away your freedom and health, it also can take away your right to financial support and with it, even a right to your degree.

To me, it’s a no-brainer; the law needs to change. It needs to stop ignoring the needs of students who desperately require financial support.

Instead of subjugating the financial plight of students with cancer, the Government needs to implement change into its policies.

A Facebook group has set about trying to encourage change through a petition which members sign. The group, ‘Time for protection-Students with Cancer have NO RIGHTS’ argues that there is a need for greater protection of students with cancer, and a definite need for better communication between Doctors, universities and the DWP. This would

eradicate the need for students to fill in endless forms to prove that they are ill and to confirm their eligibility for financial help. As the law stands, this is what the current system requires them to do in order for them to have a hope of receiving any form of financial support.

The law needs to stop ignoring the needs of students who desperately require financial support In my view, individuals who are suffering from cancer should be concentrating on getting better, and should not have to fill in extensive forms which require effort and energy, and which could ultimately end up being rejected. Ask anyone who has undergone the rigorous chemotherapy/radiotherapy regime, and they will affirm that the last thing they want to do is go home and fill in a mountain of paperwork.

There is a desperate need for the system to be improved, and it should be made easier to gain access to financial support. Instead, as it stands there are endless forms, with intrusive

questions, and unrelenting amounts of agencies to contact. Most importantly, however, the system should recognise that students are deserving of financial support, and so there should be a special benefit for them that doesn’t require them to give up a degree, or seek a further student loan.

It should be made more accessible and straightforward.

Luckily for Mel, she had very supportive parents who were able to help with the complicated form-filling.

And even with their help she had to give up her studies and wait 5 months before eventually receiving a minimal sum. Until they received this, her family endured a great amount of stress trying to cope with the financial burden of transport to various hospitals, as well as trying to help with medical needs.

Clearly the system is inadequate and need to be radically updated to accommodate the needs of students and their families. Being diagnosed with cancer is stressful and terrifying enough without the added worry of having to secure financial support.

Students shouldn’t have to give up their studies in order to get help. It’s true that cancer can take away so many things – we need to stop letting it take away our right to an education.

gairrhydd

JUNE.02.2008 OPINION@gairrhydd.COM

Puerile politics

11

OPINION

Jamie Thunder votes that politicians should be focusing more on substance and less on style

I

t’s not often that I get to say this, but it’s all been happening in Crewe. In recent memory, only when a toxic cloud threatened to envelop everyone’s favourite railway junction has there been such interest in my home town, and I’m rather enjoying it.

You see, we were Labour’s last stand and an opportunity for the Tories to make their first by-election gain in over 25 years. As a result, I was bombarded with leaflets and propaganda from all three main parties, and it made me despair.

We all know elections are Serious Business. Over Easter, before the announcement of the by-election, I received a leaflet due to my recent eligibility to vote. But not just any leaflet, oh no. That wouldn’t make a very good start to a paragraph. It was a leaflet from the slightly oxymoronic Conservative Future, the Tories’ youth branch, and it seemed to think that as a “young person”, I would find the idea of politics being ‘fun’ an appealing one.

I resented the insinuation that if something wasn’t “fun”, I wouldn’t be interested I didn’t mind that it was from the

Conservatives; I’d like to think that this mass-emailed, de-personalised leaflet was written with the best of intentions and represented an uncynical view towards newly eligible voters’ interest in politics. I resented the insulting insinuation that if something wasn’t ‘fun’ then I wouldn’t, as a ‘young person’, be interested.

For less removed examples of this you just have to look at the recent student elections. A hee-larious costume was seemingly a requirement for success, although this vacuous ideology did give rise to an amazing exchange in one of my lectures ending with the impassioned cry: “who wants to hear about DRINKING?” which was thankfully roundly ignored by all in the room.

Boris Johnson’s victory in the London mayoral election further shows how politics has become far less serious and more about who can shout ‘I’M FUN’ at the top of their voice most often. Here, a man who casually tosses out references to ‘watermelon smiles’ and being ‘down with the ethnics’ has been elected to a reasonably high public office.

In Hartlepool, a man in a monkey costume has won two consecutive mayoral elections. These are dark days indeed.

It’s not just the increasingly patronising messages to voters that are of concern, though. It’s the partisanism, best illustrated by the baying and bray-

ing of the House of Commons. With all the crowing bravado of the newly-laid, these elected, supposedly right honourable people pounce on the slightest mistake by their ‘opponents’. Aside from Gordy’s half-hearted attempt to form a ‘government of all the talents’, party politics is as rife with childish mud-slinging as ever.

Politics has become more about who can shout ‘I’M FUN’ most often The vapid attack earlier this year on Harriet Harman for supposedly showing fear by wearing a stab vest in central London highlights this. Of course she wasn’t in danger; she was flanked by police officers the entire time. No mugger was going to attack her. And if someone went for her on the basis of her position, well, that’s irrelevant to public safety in London, because the public is not Harriet Harman.

The leaflets sent out by campaigning parties for the by-election have followed a similarly puerile line which only serves to deepen the divisions, castigating other parties for their perceived failures while adamantly refusing to recognise their own. Labour’s was also fairly mawkish, centring on the late Gwyneth Dunwoody’s popular-

POLITICS: monkeying around ity, her daughter’s candidacy and rather little else.

You can also take the petulant stormout staged by the main candidates for Mayor of London upon Richard Barnbrook, BNP candidate extraordinaire, taking the podium. This legitimises the BNP’s argument that they’re denied a voice by the media and other parties because they’re scared, which by extension gives credence to some of the rest of their vile claims.

Part of me thinks that making politics ‘fun’ and focusing more on flashy smiles and slick suits might attract younger voters, and that this might be a good thing. That’s not the part that’s winning though.

Whether or not Gordon Brown has a personality or John Prescott is articulate has no bearing on their suitability for office; politics is about a literacy of ideas and working to improve the country, not pathetic personal attacks.

Get to the point

After a reprieve for The Point, Julia McWatt defends the venue

O

nce again it comes down to the old age battles of entertainment versus practicality; of small independent business versus council authorities. The recent potential closure of The Point is the latest example of this, with threats coming from the council after residents’ complaints about noise levels. Petitions were set up, protests were held. Campaigns were organised and the word was spread around the city to ‘Save The Point!’.

The hard work of The Point’s campaigners has paid off and the story ends happily, for those of us who crave entertainment and creativity, within Cardiff at least. The underdog has triumphed, with a proposal by the owners of the venue to install £50,000 worth of soundproofing equipment to bring to an end to residents’ complaints. The council has agreed to this, the battle in court is no longer required and everybody is happy, right?

Perhaps not.

It is a huge achievement that The Point has managed to remain open.

However, the fact that it was threat-

ened with closure in the first place is a cause for concern. We nearly saw a part of Cardiff’s entertainment scene, once again, under threat. Surely part of what makes a city is its culture. Its artistic and music venues, no matter what genre, are included in this.

Councils may soon destroy the distinctiveness that cities benefit from A city’s character and individuality is not formed through its mass influx of residents and housing constructions. Entertainment’s integrity should not have to suffer or come second to residents, who were surely aware of The Point’s existence when they moved in? Even if not, it’s not as if they continue the noise into the small hours of the morning. Throughout the week gigs tend to finish about 11pm, which is hardly a cause for complaint, really. As for the weekends, The Point can’t be creating much more noise than drunken clubbers and pub punt-

ers walking past throughout the entire evening. Or perhaps the Council will try to prevent that soon by banning specific areas of pavement after a certain time?

Cardiff prides itself on its diversity and the way that it caters for everyone and all kinds of tastes and needs. I have always agreed with this notion and have found that there is always something worthwhile, no matter what music you are into, with threats such as these this is in jeopardy.

Once you get past the arguments about entertainment, the attributes of The Point have to be considered. It is one of the few live music venues which really has character and a sense of charisma about it.

The venue, which used to be a church is much more spacious than venues like Barfly or Clwb Ifor Bach.

The church building also makes it more distinguishable and unique than others in the UK. The Point uses its facilities to its advantage. The sound carries well due to its high ceilings, the lighting is well staged and you can get so close to the bands that you can almost touch them,

making it feel like a very intimate gig.

The surroundings and decor are much in line with its ex-religious purpose, giving it a darker feel.

The Point has great line ups but is often neglected as it is situated outside of the city centre. However,

The fact that it was threatened with closure in the first place is a cause for concern making the trip down to the Bay gives the opportunity to go somewhere different than your usual drunken trek up and down Queen Street. There are also loads of pre-drinking venues which are nicer than many in town.

The variety of people is different and the streets are much cleaner, allowing you to have a night out without trying to avoid discarded take-away boxes and vomit.

If threats like these continue, the city will no longer have anything that

distinguishes it from any other. The Point is one of the few venues in Cardiff that is specific to the city alone.

Too many national super-clubs are infiltrating UK cities, alongside all the high street shops make every city and town in the UK look the same. The closure of individual venues will only intensify this trend.

The possible shutdown of The Point demonstrated the increasing threat to small, local businesses. While they add individuality, they are vulnerable to pressure from authorities. They have no means to compete against large scale businesses and clubs such as Barfly which feature in various cities in the UK. Luckily for The Point they triumphed and survived the threat which was posed against them. However, this is not the case for all businesses.

Increasing threats from residents and councils may soon destroy the distinctiveness that cities benefit from, leading to a disaster for creativity and diversity for the United Kingdom.

14 gairrhydd

FEATURES

OCTOBER.22.2007 FEATURES@gairrhydd.COM

14 gairrhydd

JUNE.02.2008

SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT

SCIENCE@gairrhydd.COM

WHY SCIENCE DOESN’T SELL

Neil Young reviews the relationship between journalism and science and critically assesses the reliability of the facts which appear within the media

A

rchie Cochrane. Does that name mean anything to you?

It should. His work, which largely took place in Cardiff where he was a Professor at the University of Wales School of Medicine, has probably saved more lives than that of any other doctor.

Not only was he a brilliant scientist, he was also a genuine war hero. After dropping out of medical school to join the International Brigade and fight in the Spanish Civil War, he served with the Medical Corps during WWII, was captured in Greece and spent four years in German POW camps as a medical officer, treating fellow prisoners of all nationalities. The suffering he and other prisoners endured guided his work and desire to ensure the highest standards of evidence were applied to medical science.

His work on evidence-based medicine, and the subsequent idea that the results of individual, well designed, randomised trials, could be combined together to produce more accurate results are his legacy. There’s an army of scientists, the Cochrane Collaboration, who work towards this goal.

So when you read claims that “using a mobile phone is worse for your health than smoking” then perhaps we should study the evidence for this claim.

Maybe this story worried you. It seems plausible: an ‘award winning’ scientist, Dr Vini Khurana, says it’s true. The notion that microwaves could cause brain cancer isn’t that far fetched - microwaves cook food, why can’t they cook your brain - so why shouldn’t we take the story at face value?

The first question one might like to ask is where this piece of science is published. Has it been published in a mainstream journal? Has it been peer reviewed? How can we assess the quality of the argument?

Dr Khurana’s work turns out to be self-published on his own website and has not (yet) been peer reviewed. Does that mean it’s wrong? No – of course not. But it’s hard to justify whipping up a storm of fear and panic based on work that doesn’t meet the generally accepted standards of science.

What is the evidence regarding mobile phones and brain cancer? Well there are dozens of papers which suggest no link, and a couple that do. But

statistics and the ideas developed by the Cochrane Collaboration can help us analyse this mountain of data and draw some evidence-based conclusions.

Guess what – this has been done and was published in the Journal of Neuro-oncology: “We found no overall increased risk of brain tumours among cellular phone users. The potential elevated risk of brain tumours after long-term cellular phone use awaits confirmation by future studies.”

You won’t have read this in the national press, let alone gair rhydd.

Of course not – it’s not attention grabbing and it wasn’t hyped up and press released into the mainstream.

The basic business model of newspapers is to sell advertising space, the more readers, the greater the profit per inch of advertising space. Scare stories about cancer shift units. Statistics don’t.

These non-stories always make an ‘appeal to authority’ – mentioning that a particular scientist is ‘award winning’ or ‘renowned. ’ As if having a big shiny plaque on your wall, or string of letters after your name makes your unpublished findings more valid.

The quack nutrition industry takes Linus Pauling and his two Nobel Prizes into battle like the ancient Israelites carried the Ark of the Covenant – a guarantee of victory against all foes.

It’s hard to justify fear and panic based on work that doesn’t meet the accepted standards of science A giant in the field of physical chemistry, Pauling won his first Nobel Prize for work on theories of chemical bonding. He went on to win a second Nobel Prize for campaigning against nuclear weapons. A genius by any description, he won more medals, prizes, degrees, gongs and praise than almost any thinker of his generation.

The quack nutritionists, that vitamingobbling, fish-oil-swallowing, colon cleansing lot who are constantly on the GMTV sofa and the pages of neon col-

oured women’s magazines are enamoured of Prof. Pauling. Almost every pill-pushing media diet guru mentions his name somewhere in their advertising spiel.

It would be nice to think they appreciate the powerful elegance of orbital hybridisation models in chemistry.

Sadly, it’s because in later life Pauling became obsessed with the idea that massive doses of vitamin C could treat just about every human ailment up to and including cancer.

Sadly more than one well designed, peer reviewed, published set of experiments, have shown this not to be the case, however attractive the idea might be, the evidence just isn’t there.

Pauling’s reputation is used by the nutrition industry to justify all sorts of claims. There is precious little evidence that vitamin supplements are of any benefit to people eating a normal healthy diet - the type your mother told

you about - yet it’s a multi billiondollar industry.

There’s a body of evidence that suggest vitamin supplements can actually decrease life expectancy and are of no discernable benefit. This evidence was gathered by, you guessed it, the Cochrane Collaboration. Yet, you no doubt read that we should ‘pay that little extra for vitamin supplements.’

It is suggested that vitamin supplements can actually decrease life expectancy I could go on and on – and probably on some more - about celebrity/media/ nutrition industry endorsed ideas on

LEGEND: Archie Cochrane organic food, fish oil supplements, the ideal hangover cure. The very notion that pills can solve complex problems like how to improve exam performance, etc, etc. All seem unlikely.

Yet the media are bloated with this nonsense. Maybe the people writing it know they’re wrong, but just don’t care – the ‘never let the facts get in the way of a good story’ school of journalism. Maybe they don’t have the skills to assess whether something is likely to be true or not. Either way, it’s an insult to people like Archie Cochrane, who devoted his life to cutting through bullshit.

gairrhydd

JUNE.02.2008

15

FEATURES

FEATURES@gairrhydd.COM

Alzheimer’s Awareness Alzheimer’s disease is progressive, fatal and has no current cure.

Ceri Isfryn finds out the facts on a disease that is predicted to be an epidemic by the time today’s student population is drawing their pension

I

f ever there was an acceptable night for a student to stay in and watch trashy TV, it has to be Tuesday. So imagine my surprise when last Tuesday the BBC showed one of the most moving documentaries I have ever seen, which left my macho flatmate and I bawling.

One Life: Mum and Me was all about a daughter and granddaughter’s relationship with a woman who has Alzheimer’s. It particularly struck home for me as my own grandmother is in a similar situation, and sadly the reality seems to be that, like cancer, it creeps into everybody’s lives at some point or another.

depression, so carers have to cater for two diseases that spur each other on.

Help for young carers is, however, widely available with numerous charities, such as The Princess Trust, funding and aiding support projects.

This infrastructure of aid is crucial if the disease is to be cared for appropriately, especially considering the increasing numbers of young carers.

Shockingly, 17,000 sufferers are under 65 but resources for younger sufferers are poor

Dementia affects over 750,000 people in the UK every year, with over a 100 different types Ethel, the patient, says “I’ve got nothing to be sad about here, have I.” The darkly humorous response given by her daughter Sue came as a bit of a surprise: “Well you’ve got Alzheimer’s, your husband’s dead, you’re living in a nursing home. It’s pretty f**king sad if you ask me.”

The frail old woman’s humour and playful relationship with Sue and granddaughter Holly made them seem more like three teenage girls than three generations battling a cruel illness. This made me think.

What support is available to our generation as grandchildren, such as Holly who is currently studying at Glasgow, in the face of such a terrible disease that is estimated to become an epidemic by the time we’re pensioners?

Most students live away from home, and only occasionally get the chance to visit grandparents. The disease makes this especially difficult as visits are few and far between so the deterioration is glaringly obvious each time I visit my grandmother.

Whereas it’s sometimes a relief to be in the bubble of university life, away from the daily pains of living with an ill relative, I often feel very helpless. Seeing a parent mothering his or her own parent is a difficult thing to see, and I sometimes feel guilty for not being closer to help.

Considering the bleak outlook for our generation, it is reassuring that research projects at Cardiff University are striving to find a cure for dementia. Currently, the School of Biosciences is researching into the possible benefits of oily fish for those with Alzheimer’s disease.

The project led by Professor John Harwood, Head of the School of Biosciences which is funded by the Alzheimer’s Research Trust received a contribution of £150,000 from The Freemasons’ Grand Charity towards their work.

Professor Harwood’s team are studying whether omega-3 fatty acids, found in oily fish, can have a beneficial effect. The results could lead to new ways to tackle Alzheimer’s, which currently affects over half a million people in the UK.

Dementia affects over 750,000 people in the UK every year, with over a 100 different types. These include Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s disease. The condition usually develops over a number of years and has several symptoms.

Loss of memory, loss of understanding and learning capacity reflect the disease’s effect on the brain.

Physical symptoms include difficulty with daily living activities, such as personal hygiene and dressing. The disease also brings with it emotional problems such as loss of emotional control and aggressiveness.

Witnessing the complete change of character in a sufferer is heart break-

ing to say the very least, especially for a partner looking after their loved one. The body is still there, but the disease in effect performs a saddening personality transformation.

As people live increasingly longer, it is estimated that by 2025, this figure will have increased to 1,000,000.

Inevitably, by the time we’re pensioners, countless of our friends will be suffering from the derogatory and vicious disease.

Shockingly, 17,000 sufferers are under 65. It seems that Alzheimer’s is classified as an ‘old person’s disease’, and whereas this is largely true, resources don’t appear to be as half as good for younger sufferers.

Only a few clinics exist in the UK that treat sufferers under 65, some of which treat patients in their twenties. Yet, BUPA’s dementia expert Dr Graham Stokes says: “We are treating more and more younger people with different forms of dementia.”

Younger sufferers of the disease inevitably have younger carers. This inevitably becomes time-consuming, emotionally-draining and unrewarding, especially when your mother or father doesn’t even recognise you, let alone the work you’re doing.

It is a difficult disease to care for, as doing too much for a sufferer frustrates them. A large proportion of dementia sufferers also suffer from

It is a difficult disease to care for, as doing too much for a sufferer frustrates them No research will help Ethel or my grandmother, but seeing something being done here at Cardiff to prevent the disease from blighting our generation is both commendable and reassuring.

16 gairrhydd

JUNE.02.2008

POLITICS

POLITICS@gairrhydd.COM

Working Class Disenchantment Rich Brown traces the changes of the Labour party in the last 15 years, and how their move away from socialist values has affected the representation of the working classes in national politics

W

hen Tony Blair became leader of Labour in 1994, few could have predicted the effect that it would have on Britain’s political structure.

Since its inception in 1900, the Labour Party was traditionally the party of the working classes. With close ties to the unions and an emphasis on the working man. The Labour’s party ‘sorigins were unashamedly rooted in socialism. The Labour Party offered representation for the working man, which offered the working classes a party that would defend their interests.

Labour’s socialist influence can be seen right through until Blair’s rise to power, ranging from Ramsay McDonald to Clem Attlee’s radical government, which, amongst other policies, created the welfare state as we know it today, to Michael Foot’s Labour party of the 1980s which offered voters a viable alternative to Thatcher’s Conservative Party.

In short, Labour, until 1994, represented the working classes, seeking to put their interests first and stay true to the origins of the party. The consequences of Blair on the Labour Party have seen the party’s foundations shattered, as ‘New Labour’ has veered from the left into the centre ground. Millions of previous Labour supporters have been left feeling alienated and unrepresented by a party which has been forced to move with the times and adopt an approach which ticks the boxes of middle England’s voters in order to gain power in Parliament.

Britain’s old industrial cities can now resemble ghost towns, with jobs in the traditional industrial market being reduced year on year as Britain’s continues to shake off her industrial past and move into the global economic market.

So why did New Labour have to shackle off its socialist ideals when Tony Blair came to power? It has to be said that, politically, the Labour Party’s shift to the centre ground was a masterstroke by Tony Blair. New Labour’s new leader, assisted by close aides Peter Mandelson, Alistair Campbell and Gordon Brown, the quartet that essentially shaped New Labour, recognised that the Labour Party’s image had been

shattered and was seen as out of touch with the voters.

Four successive defeats from 1979 through to 1992 in general elections left Labour in a position which was dangerously close to disintegration.

The nostalgic Labour Party, with its celebration of the working classes and principles rooted in representing the traditional base of the party, had to change. This change was, of course, facilitated by the devastating effect that Thatcher had on the Labour Party.

Her electoral dominance in the 1980s embarrassed Labour at the polls, with their lowest point coming in 1983, when they won just 27% of the vote, an appalling total.

The Labour Party’s shift to the centre ground was a masterstroke by Tony Blair The Labour Party, therefore, had to move away from focussing on its traditional base of supporters and focus on winning an election, which meant directing policies which Middle England would vote for. The Labour Party, as it was previously known, was cast into the shadows in search of electoral victory.

The consequences of Labour’s shift to the middle ground were huge for the working classes, especially the established base of the party, namely the industrial, urban-dwelling working classes.

Suddenly, millions of people felt cut off from the new politics, which offered the working classes no viable choice of political party to truly represent their interests at Westminster.

In my view, the low voting figures which we have seen in the previous two elections since Blair became leader of the Labour Party, which saw just 59% vote in 2001 and 61% vote in 2005, represent how many voters do not feel that political parties offer any real choice, and this view is especially prevalent within the working classes, with only 45% of unskilled workers

casting votes for Labour in 2005, compared to the 58% that voted for Labour in 1997. These statistics illustrate how one particular demographic within the working classes are beginning to move away from the new Labour Party.

I spoke to a local councillor, Steven Day, who represents the Liberal Democrats, and he told me that ‘In my local election 43% of those who could vote did, which means 57% could not be bothered’. He went on to comment that the message he was getting was that many voters felt ‘it was a waste of time’ and therefore did not vote. In my view, as Labour has moved away from its core vote, millions have stopped voting for a party that previously represented them.

Although under Tony Blair the Labour Party won an unprecedented three elections in a row, from 1997 to 2005, it did so at the cost of alienating its core vote. Although we must acknowledge that in elections in which the result is almost certain, such as Labour’s victories in 2001 and 2005, turnout is generally lower, Labour’s shift to the middle ground has been a core factor in affecting voter apathy, leaving millions of voters feeling unrepresented and alienated by the new political elite.

What has happened to these alienated voters makes for disturbing reading. Many, especially white working class, voters have turned to the British National Party in recent years.

Most disturbingly, in London, the multicultural hub of Britain, the BNP’s London Mayoral candidate in the 2008 election, Richard Barnbrook, won 69,710 first preference votes, which although only translating to 2.9%, is a relatively high number for an extremist party in the modern age. Barnbrook will now take a place in the London General Assembly, due to the fact that the BNP received over 5% of the overall vote for the General Assembly, meaning that the extreme right-wing party gained a seat, to be taken by the Mayoral candidate.

When I asked Councillor Day what he made of the BNP’s impact on British politics he assured me that ‘Labour supporters in northern England, despite everything, are unlikely to vote BNP’ and that ‘at the end of the day, the BNP will pick up votes from its thug ele-

ments but most of those won’t vote either’. Whilst agreeing with the general sentiment, one does have to be worried about the numbers of votes the BNP are picking up, especially in London.

In Barking and Dagenham, southeast London, the BNP became the 2nd biggest party on the local council after the 2006 local elections. Barking MP Margaret Hodge, now in Gordon Brown’s cabinet, courted controversy when she claimed that 80% of white families in the area were ‘tempted’ to vote BNP, but what Hodge illustrated, in reality, was that the effect of the BNP is more than a minority element, but a genuine worry for British Politics. Councillor Day does, however, argue that ‘in the north of England, you may see the BNP picking up seats as disillusioned voters move towards a more right wing policy’, showing that the threat of the BNP is genuine, and they are no longer a party which can be written off and ignored, their challenge must be met head on by modern political parties re-engaging with disenchanted working class voters, and if we don’t, we leave a vacuum for a right-wing extremist party to fill, which could result in social chaos.

Many alienated voters have turned to the British National party in recent years As well as politically, it is important to note that Britain’s economy has radicalised hugely in recent decades.

Northern English cities, such as Bradford and Rotherham, once the cities which drove Britain into a period of economic success during, and after, the industrial revolution, have seen their industries become marginalised by a new economic climate which now exists. For example, in Bradford, a city in which the BNP have found relative success and racial tensions have remained high, manufacturing jobs, according to census figures, fell by almost 24% between 1998 and 2002, compared to a national fall of 15%. In the same time

period, employment in the service sector grew by 8.1%, and we thus see how the economic framework of Britain is changing rapidly.

Cities such as Bradford, with generation after generation of family members entering the same industry, have seen, with the effect of a changing economy and multicultural society, industrial jobs virtually vanish. These jobs used to help define a city, and were an integral part of local pride and culture. Now these jobs have gone, some cities seem to be entering into a new age that many are not prepared for, and the Labour Party, as well as their industries, seem to be leaving nostalgia behind and evolving, like the rest of the nation, into a new economic epoch, with new jobs and no room for tradition.

Labour’s shift to the middle ground, it has to be said, was the right move politically. The political landscape had been redefined following Thatcher’s dismantling of the power of the unions and thus the driving force behind the Labour Party was left shattered by Thatcher’s radical governments. The old battles between the right and left are now obsolete as Labour and Tory alike clamour for the centre ground, offering voters on both the right and left little choice.

The working classes have since been unrepresented, and, unfortunately, many seem to have lost faith in voting and a distinct minority seem to have turned to the BNP as a party which represents their interests, an alarming result of the Labour party disengaging with its traditional base of supporters.

It is important, however, to note that the working classes, as a collective, will never vote in huge numbers for the BNP, for their policies, as one would expect, do not sit comfortably with most voters. The challenge of modern politics must, however, be to reach out to the hundreds of thousands of voters who have turned to the BNP for representation.

Until we do this, how can we go about solving social problems if modern politics does not attempt to engage working class voters? If we continue to ignore such a huge part of our society, it will be at Politics, and our, very own peril.

gairrhydd

JUNE.02.2008 JOBS@gairrhydd.COM

Graduate

W

illiam Hicks, 23, graduated with an Mdes Graphic Communication and Typography in 2007. He now works as a design assistant.

What is your job title?

I’m a Design Assistant for the Penguin Group.

Where are you based?

17

JOBS AND MONEY

Meet... Mr Wales

The jump from getting a job to forging a successful career can be a difficult one. Emma Thomas talks to Cardiff’s self-made millionaire Nigel Roberts to find out how its done in the Welsh capital.

I work on the Strand, London Briefly describe what your job involves, e.g. your day to day responsibilities?

My main responsibility is designing materials.

This can vary from the design of book covers, spreads, presentational material, and going to ideas meetings on information design.

It is a huge variety of work.

How did you apply for your job?

Briefly describe any interview/ assessment process that you went through.

I did my work experience with the Penguin Group and kept in contact afterwards.

My boss came to my final show at the end of my degree and asked me in for an informal interview.

From that I was offered a three month internship and that led to a full time position.

What is the best/worst thing about your job?

I love my job, and the best thing is the invaluable experience I’m gaining for this and future roles.

The worst would have to be the pay!

What advice would you give to students thinking of entering a similar field?

I know everybody says it, but the best advice I can give is to do work experience.

Its a great way to make contacts, and in my case actually led to a job.

It also shows that you really are interested in that field and are willing to learn.

Most importantly, it gives you the opportunity to see what you’re good at and what you enjoy.

Do you know anyone who has graduated recently?

E-mail jobs@ gairrhydd.com

N

igel Roberts’ CV is an endless stream of Welsh pride.

His recent Ashes bid put Cardiff on the world map and as managing director of Paramount Interiors his company has an annual turnover over £12 million for 2006-2007: figures we debt ridden students can only dream of.

So what drove him to these giddy heights of success? And how did he fight the urge to up sticks to a very different capital city?

When I meet him, Nigel’s car space is crowned with a joke-caricature capturing his sparkling pale eyes and wide approachable smile.

As he takes a sip of a well-earned coffee surveying his impressive office empire, he volunteers a rant about mosquito alarms:. “Our kids aren’t all hoodies who’d stab you as soon as look at you.”

He furiously insists children are the future: “Wales’ youth is victimised by a breakdown in society; we need to stop playing with the effects and start dealing with problem causes”.

Such political frustrations are typical of the self-made multi-millionaire from Cardiff.

His CV reads Governor of Uwic, ex-President of the Chamber of Commerce, London in Wales representative

and Director of Glamorgan Cricket club, just to start.

A keen sportsman, Nigel dreamed of becoming a professional cricketer, but admits he lacked one vital thing; talent.

“I’m not a typical capitalist. My focus is people not profits, I prefer laughter to tears ” He was working as a squash coach when he “Literally fell into the construction industry”. What a fall that was.

Nigel owns a list of property companies. The largest, Paramount Interiors, had revenue of £20 million in 2007.

Despite all this Nigel insists “I’m not a typical capitalist. My focus is people not profits, I prefer laughter to tears.”

He also prides himself on employing staff more intelligent than himself: “People think I’m naive but they’re just scared of feeling threatened. We are only on this planet once and I want to see my people enjoying themselves.”

He believes three qualities keep him in check: determination, integrity and

humour.

This motivation must be infectious.

Nigel strives to “Give Wales the passion to jump out of bed each morning”.

His faithfulness to Wales is honourable: “It’s infuriating how businesses believe they grow too big for Wales and move to London. I say lets develop Wales together with business.”

Nigel recycles his profits into local sport. Paramount is the main corporate sponsor of Glamorgan Cricket Club, and his influence doesn’t stop at signing a cheque: “I convinced the Welsh Assembly to invest £1 million to bring The Ashes to Cardiff, a venture which will return £40 million in commerce to the city.”

A benevolent business man, his vision seems limitless and seamless: “We want people to remember a great city, to prove cricket isn’t exclusively English.”

As Nigel speaks, its difficult to remember whether he is politician, events organiser or television director; his ideas licence him as all three: . “Old South Wales invites New South Wales, Kylie Minogue performing with The Stereophonics. Welsh Children playing on the Ashes wicket, Kangaroos run wild in the Castle grounds.”

Nigel’s conquered an obstacle course

of traditionalist resistance. “People like Wales the way it was. They don’t want their sport commercialised. We need to adapt to put Wales on the map.

More people watched India v. Pakistan than the entire population of Europe, that’s the potential were dealing with!”

As Nigel narrates his dreams effortlessly, its clear there’s more ideas yet to come: “I’m like a little puppy who likes to be patted on the head for doing a good job.

He believes three qualities keep him in check; determination, integrity and humour I see problems and want to solve them, but my wife has threatened me I can’t go into politics.”

Nigel’s laughter widens his smile, on his face the wrinkles of power hardly showing, as he admits Prime Minister would be a suitable challenge.

Whats on...

2nd-17th June: New graduate skills programme, including “I haven’t got a clue what I want to do”, CV, interview and money management workshops. Go to www.cardiff.ac.uk/carsv

Cleaner Ref: 075 A children’s nursery is looking for a hardworking and reliable cleaner to work from 6pm - 7pm Monday - Friday, with the possibility of extra hours. Your duties will be to ensure that all areas of the nursery are maintained to a high standard of cleanliness. £5.52 p/h Nursery Assistant Ref: 070 Private day care nursery for children aged 6 weeks - 5 years requires professional, patient and friendly staff who love working with children to assist in the nursery, encourage their learning, talk to parents and assist with feeds and changing. Driving licence an advantage, various shifts available. £5.52 p/h Helpline Advisor Ref: 067 National claims management company is looking for people with a superb standard of customer care and service to join its Cardiff team. You will be taking calls on behalf of various insurance companies from customers with a diverse range of claims, so you will need to be able to be calm and empathetic at all times. £11,700 pro rata Event Assistant Ref: 072 Friendly and outgoing people needed to help out with the organisation of a two day Electronics conference being held in Cardiff.

You will be registering delegates, setting up stands and acting as a general guide and must be organised, friendly and able to work well under your own initiative. £5.60 p/h

gairrhydd

JUNE.02.2008

19

FIVE MINUTE FUN

FMF@gairrhydd.COM

found on facebook Housemate done something stupid?

1. Log on to the book of face Send 2. Join the group ‘Found on Facebook’ more 3. Upload embarrassing photos oddities!

4. Pick up gair rhydd on Monday and laugh

Across

Down

1. Subtracts (7) 5. Socks and stockings (7) 9. Devise (9) 10. An order of classical Greek architecture (5) 11. Prodding (7) 12. Prominent (7) 13. Octopus (9) 15. Sketched (5) 17. Governed (5) 19. An appreciation of beauty or good taste (9) 22. Sexually gratifying (7) 25. Cultivated land (7) 26. Cause to overturn (5) 27. Tidal river mouths (9) 28. Hold back for future use (7) 29. Swindled (7)

1. Clearly characterized (7) 2. An irresponsible risk-taker (9) 3. Vital (7) 4. Paradise (9) 5. Stilettos (5) 6. Burdened (7) 7. Lofty nest (5) 8. A peninsula of Central America (7) 14. Paused (9) 16. Pertaining to insurance risks and premiums (9) 17. Saviour (7) 18. Skeptic (7) 20. A rope for a sail (7) 21. Rumpled (7) 23. Where birds live (5) 24. Vassal (5)

competition crossword

Sudok leaves u fo page 2 r

Exercise your mind...

WINonal ers ng p A aini tr sion ses

Then exercise your body at

Put your entries in the competitio

n box outside gair rhydd

Every week gair rhydd will be giving away a gym package to one lucky entrant who correctly completes the competition crossword, courtesy of Dave’s Gym.

Every winner will receive a free personal training session with one of our qualified instructors. This can be a gym workout, weight-training, boxing or Thai Boxing session. You will also receive a personalised gym programme and a free guest pass so you can come back for another workout or try one of our studio classes: choose from HipHop, Khai Bo, Bodypump and many more. This prize is worth approximately £35!

Conditions: Use of any of our facilities is subject to our terms and conditions and at the user’s own risk. An appointment must be made for the session. Prize must be claimed within four weeks of notification. It is not exchangeable for cash and is not transferable to any other party. Dave’s Gym: Tel: 029 2046 0232 E.mail: enquiries@daves-gym. co.uk Web: www.daves-gym.co.uk

NAME....

EMAIL....

How to enter: Simply complete the crossword opposite and drop it into the crossword competition box outside the gair rhydd office on the 4th floor of the Students’ Union. The first correct entrant to be plucked from the box every week will win the Dave’s Gym package.

20 gairrhydd

JUNE.02.2008

PROBLEM PAGE

From the Desk of

TEd

PROBLEMPAGE@gairrhydd.COM

e m so

d n Ha

He’s an ‘often amusing’ lad.

Ted Handsome’s Reviews Midlands Today’s Presenters An Occasional Series

Having spent a portion of my youth circling the plughole of the UK that is the Midlands, I have inevitably been forced to endure the ball-achingly dull tedium of local news. However, among all the tales of local youths dying in knife fights and the ‘human interest’ stories of skateboarding ducks a dull glimmer of hope exists. For, I believe that the newsreading team assembled at Midlands Today is epoch shattering in its magnitude.

No. 1 - Ashley Blake

This smoulering pile of erupting sexuality is somewhat of a housewive’s favourite. With his boy band good looks, and his dulcet tones, he is the pretty boy of the group. Blake is the perfect pin up for the Midlands Today team as his good looks are undisputed and non-threatening, unlike that shit Ian Winter who looks as if he steals women’s underwear off’ve washing lines to sniff. 8/10

No. 2 - Shefali Oza

There is somewhat of a divide brewing among the Midlands contingent of the gair rhydd office. While I would tend dutifully to the fragrant Ms. Oza and treat her like the elegant and refined lady that she clearly is, TV Tim said that he would ravage Suzanne Virdee from here ‘til next week, with little or no regard for hygiene or personal safety. I do hope Mama TV Tim is not reading this, for I would be completely ashamed of my dirty little offspring. Also, he still wets the bed. Wait, are we still talking about Midlands Today? Yes, Shefali Oza is lovely, although she should probably stop laughing so much. Weather is not funny. 7/10

No. 3 - Nick Owen

Finally, the big man. The head honcho, the big cheese. El Newsreader Grande. This guy IS Midlands Today. His ties are the equivilent of a swift kick to the gonads for your eyes, and his insipid grin has the incurious, docile look of a cow in the queue for slaughtering. His neutered approach to comedy is vomit-inducing at best, at worst it justifies murder. Essentially, what I would really like to say about this man is that he represents all that I hate about local news. The lighter side of life that really grips my shit and takes a sideways glance at the world. The world is filled with misery and sadness, I do not want to hear from fucking Doris in Solihull who has eaten Shredded Wheat all her life and has been given 13 metric tonnes of free cereal. I wish death upon you Owen. 6/10 Apologies that this only makes sense to about 12 of you.

A letter about stealing Dear Ted, I am apoplectic with rage! It has begun to occur to me that you are nothing more than a common charlatan, who constantly, and without cessation, steals brilliant ideas from the internet. Everybody knows that the internet is a veritable goldmine of talent and clever ideas, and to demean those highly talented individuals by putting their ideas into your shitpile of a worthless column makes me sick to my very core. Just hearing your name alone makes me want to fucking vomit. I hate you, I hate you so much I have to wake up early in the morning to fit in all of the hatred. I wish that you had never existed and that you simply crawl

back into the fetid and dank hole that clearly spawned your worthless existence.

Yours Cordially, Sarah Ovine Sarah, This bloody internet malarkey has caused me nothing but bloody faff.

I’m beginning to wonder whether it’s a good idea at all. Tim BernersLee you prick, you have a lot to answer for! Let it be known that I do not necessarily do all of my own research, I leave most of that up to my dear friend/manservant, Bilal.

Bilal loves nothing more than being holed up in his tiny little room, being whipped irregularly with extension leads until his shaking little

hands produce several A4 sheets of tear-stained ideas. I cannot possibly account for the fact that some of my ideas may not have arisen from my own fevered imagination, for I am pretty much the ‘likeable face’ of this whole operation. I’m like the Milli Vanilli of gair rhydd, except I’m not irritating, and my costumes are not ludicrous. Essentially what I am tryin to say is: Don’t Talk To Strangers. Unless they have sweets or say that they are a friend of your parents.

Yours Ted Handsome

A letter about idiocy Dear Ted, hi asl? i am 13 and i tink dat ur page is wel gd i reli lyk it wen u r wel mean 2 al da peepz dat rite in. dey are all wel gay lol!1! wat i want 2 no is coz u r a cool guy yeh, u probz no loads abt sex n relationships yeh!!? wel coz darren g wuz chatin sum shit abt him n stacy going al da way rnd da back ov da yoof cntr, but i wel rckn dat dey ttlly didnt. how do u no if dey iz tellin da troof or wevver dey iz lying? luv ya :) xxxxxxx Terrence Partario Higginsworth Simone Jeffrey Rivers FortingtonSmythe III

Terrence, The dilemma of ascertaining whether a close acquaintance is being totally honest about their sexual conquests is an eternal one. Often, the young, priapic little oaf boasting of the trail of sexually fulfilled young women he leaves across a rapidly dampening countryside is the one tearfully masturbating, alone in a sodden bedsit. Equally, the quieter, even nerdier, individuals who occupy the extremes of society are the ones bound in leather catsuits being whipped by polynesian transexuals, Aren’t they TV Tim? Therefore, in relation to the question at hand, how can you possibly determine the true cause of events?

Well, what I usually do is spread enough lies to the correct individuals and then, slowly but surely, the lie becomes the truth. Before he owed me some money, Richard Gere used to be a mild mannered love interest for Julia Roberts. Now he is nothing more than a gerbil bumstuffer of ill-repute. I am pretty sure that there must be a moral buried under there, so make of it what you will.

Stay Cool Love, Ted xxx

Dear lovely reader, this week, I have mainly been working in a call centre.

I’ve been living in credit on name alone, swanning into various establishments, demanding fine wines and strong cigars; living a life of high culture and low women. Quite simply, I was living the life of a latter day dandy, breezing in and out of high society events like a smug public school phantom. However, this clearly cannot last forever, and I ended up losing a great deal of money paying police officers to keep quiet after a cocaine fuelled binge in which I blared Cannibal Corpse out of my Bentley window while donutting on the Mayor of Coventry’s lawn. Therefore, I have had to supplement my allowance with a brief stint in a call centre. Unfortunately it was all too brief as apparently, harranging the customers based upon which minor public school they went to, is not allowed. TH xxx

gairrhydd

JUNE.02.2008 TELEVISION@gairrhydd.COM .

HOT

!TELLY!

21

TELLY

NOT

Full section next week, we promise x x x

The Inbetweeners is absolute shite.

The acting is god-awful and the storylines are stupid. You can’t believe in the characters and the ‘trendy’ indie soundtrack annoys the hell out of me. The thing is, it’s also amazing.

Now this isn’t a case of it being so bad its good. We here at !Telly! aren’t merely student clichés, oh no. It’s just a great idea for a show, albeit poorly executed.

An inbetweener is someone at school who is neither a cool/hard person, nor a geek. They are the Mr Averages of this world, and the show tells their story through the medium of sitcom. As such, the show is highly relatable as most of us are inbetweeners, and the suburbia it portrays is the same hellish place where many of us grew up. The lead character is Will, a dislikeable bespectacled smart arse who has found himself at a state comprehensive as his divorced mother is having financial problems. With his voice over narrative and quiet superiority there is an air of Mark from Peep Show about him. He has a fit mum.

Then there’s Simon, he’s a mook with gelled hair and a bright yellow Fiat. His

‘thing’ is that he is incompetent with women. All the characters are shit with girls in fairness, but he is more so and is frequently shot down for his buffoonery.

In trying to shag a girl at a caravan park

SOAPS

EXTRA TERRESTRIAL Ricky Gervais may have a lot of fans out there but I’m going to take a stand here and say that the US version of The Office far outshines the original. I’ve heard all the arguments against the US version; about how those bloody americans can’t do subtle comedy, they’ve ruined the idea and it’s an abomination. Most of the people telling me this haven’t seen the show so their opinions do not matter. The US version is a different show just with similar origins. This is an hilarious sitcom about the workers of an office in Scranton as they suffer the mundane work of a paper supplier. Most of the old characters are here in some form with a few new hilarious additions which, along with better writing, acting and simply bet-

he pulls down his trousers and pants. So yeah, deal with that. He is in love with this girl called Carli, Anthony Head’s daughter plays her. I know, I thought he was gay too. It’s the sort of show that tries to be

a bit edgy but comes off smutty. There are a lot of wanking jokes and gay jokes and toilet jokes. Oh, and mum jokes.

Brilliant!

The other two characters are called Jay and Neil, Neil is stupid and his dad is gay. His dad was in the far superior The Thick of It, in this show he enjoys ‘badminton’. Jay likes football. He makes a football friend and the resulting storyline has created The Inbetweeners only contribution to student conversation, the quite brilliant ‘friend’ insult. You basically just say ‘friend’ in a soft high voice to piss someone off in relation to a new acquaintance.

The Inbetweeners has some genuinely funny moments, but is let down by the frequent cringe-inducing moments. I mean the unintentional ones. I’m sure there’ll be a second series and hopefully some of the issues will be ironed out.

Personally I’m “frothing at the gash” for more. Anyway, if you fancy giving your juvenile side exactly what it wants then check out The Inbetweeners. Its on DVD from today and I believe you can catch most of the episodes on 4OD. Give it a try.

ter humour makes this the superior article.

Here the writers have taken the basic idea and run with it, far exceeding my expectations and so duly deserving the praise it gets. Rather than simply refusing to watch because you’re such a fan of the original give, it a chance. It’s damn good, especially for ITV2.

Well it’s all doom n’ gloom in this week’s helping of Soapsies. As you may already know, Sasha’s habit in Hollyoaks is getting nowt better, and on Wednesday she agrees to do the deed and sleep with Nige in exchange for her happy pills. Enders’ Chelsea is right behind old Sash on the path of depression when she turns to powdering her nose with the white stuff to deal with her troubles. And no it’s not a new face powder from the “maaaket” she’s trying out Patrick, the old Jamaican saint, attempts to get her back on track, although I really think he’s got his work cut out - that pout hasn’t left her face since she joined the show! It’ll soon be getting it’s own acknowlegment during the final credits.

In happier regions of Soapland (or are

they really?), David returns to Weatherfield from his trip to the detention centre. Gail’s ecstatic because she really believes he has changed for the better. However, Audrey refuses to buy it - my, isn’t she a clever lady?! Becky is turning into the street’s latest bunny boiler, as she begins to voice her hopes for the future with Jason. Why spoil it luv? You’ve bagged the bloke, now you’re making him run a mile!

FILM MINORITY REPORT, BBC1, WEDNESDAY ) ) ) It’s all futuristic as Tom Cruise plays the head of Pre-Crime prevention who gets accused of a future crime himself. Naturally he goes on the run hiding from the all seeing “man” by any means, even swapping his eyeballs. Good for Cruise fans, if there are any left.

BLADE: TRINITY, CH4, WEDNESDAY ) ) ) This is no Buffy but for some fools that’s a good thing. Wesley Snipes returns as the half-vampire vampire hunter and all kinds of shit goes down. The highlight for me was Parker Posey playing a brilliant vampire baddy helping to raise Dracula for a bit of an epic showdown.

FUDGE TUNNEL

LARA CROFT TOMB RAIDER: THE CRADLE OF LIFE, BBC1, SATURDAY ) She’s back and this time she’s older. Yes everyone’s favourite adventuring archaeologist is back looking for an orb which will in turn lead to Pandora’s box. So totally better than crystal skulls! She also teams up with an old love interest which should add some, erm, dialogue?

22 gairrhydd

JUNE.02.2008

LISTINGS

LISTINGS@gairrhydd.COM

This week: Rasputin takes over part of Listings as Josie does revi

MUSIC

COMEDY

MONDAY ZEBRAHEAD @ CLWB IFOR BACH - Californian furious fivesome whose music combines a mass of arm-waving, fist clenching energy with singalong choruses and rasping guitar licks. 7.30pm. £8.50.

FLASH! FLASH! FLASH! PHOTOGRAPHY+THE ATTIKA STATE+THE TARGETS @ CLWB IFOR BACH - Flash! Flash! Flash! Photography - new exciting band who include a cover of Michael Jackson’s Black Or White in their set. The Attika State - an intelligent and emotive band from Bristol. 7.30pm. £4.00.

TUESDAY THOMAS WHITE+CHRIS T-T @ CLWB IFOR BACH - Chris creates fragmented songs that verge of the cool side of lo-fi with his intimate and occasionally gleefully noisy tales of love and life. Thomas (yes, we’re on first name terms) from the Electric Soft Parade embarks on a solo project with a certain Brakes member.

8pm. £7.50adv.

BLACK KIDS+COLLAPSING CITIES @ CLWB IFOR BACH - SOLD OUT. Ha. WEDNESDAY ROSALITA+EJECTOR SEAT @ BARFLY - Rattling guitars and striding basslines, Rosalita are spliced with synths to make every song a space disco favourite (should such a thing exist). Theirs is a sound that draws on and cross-pollinates Punk, Pop, New Wave, Ska and Electro.

There’s no name for it - yet - but a leaner, meaner, younger British Rapture is not a million miles away. 7.30pm. £5.

DUKE SPECIAL @ THE GLEE CLUB - A singer/ Black Kids at Clwb Ifor Bach songwriter from Belfast, Duke Special has a unique live show that mixes an old gramophone with passionate vocals, piano-playing and the occasional fiddle scrape. 7.30pm. £10/£9.

THURSDAY HEMME FATALE+HECK @ 10 FEET TALL - 8pm. £3.

CARTEL+THE SECRET HANDSHAKE+FAREWELL - 8pm. £8. 50 FRIDAY VETIVER @ BARFLY - Band from San Fransisco, hopefully bringing some much-needed sunshine to Cardiff.

SATURDAY SLOWDANCE @ BARFLY - Welsh rock band influenced by Rival Schools, Hundred Reasons, etc. 7.30pm. £5.

DUKE SPECIAL @ THE GLEE CLUB

WEDNESDAY 04/06/08 ◆ 7.30PM ◆ £10/£9

Huw Davies recommends

W

hen I was a bit younger and a bit less socially able, I wondered who would win in a Home Nations Music Contest – England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. Patriotically (and because of the Super Furry Animals), I always chose Wales, but I remember thinking that Northern Ireland was somewhat dead in the water between the rival countries, only really being represented by the great Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy; without him, just Van Morrison, Ash and some of Snow Patrol.

But of course, I didn’t know then about Duke Special. The dreadlocked, eyelinerwearing father of three writes pure, beautiful poetry and then layers it in a 1920s vaudeville fusion of jaunty piano, dramatic percussion and a jazz woodwind sec-

MONDAY Once again, there is practically no comedy on in Cardiff this week, so it looks like this could be another fairly empty column. If you want comedy, though, try out some Jokes With Realistic Punchlines.

What do you get when you cross a kangaroo with a sheep? A media circus about the morals and ethics of genetic engineering.

TUESDAY Knock knock. Who’s there? Lou. Lou Who? Stop fucking around and let me in, Dan, it’s freezing out here.

WEDNESDAY Have you seen Stevie Wonder’s new house?

Oh, it’s really nice.

THURSDAY A man walks into a bar. He drinks 8 pints, 6 shots of tequila, flirts with the barwoman, gets turned down, necks another shot, takes off his wedding ring, flirts with the barwoman again, fails again, downs 3 more tequilas, then drives home, shouts at his wife, beats his daughter and cries himself to sleep wondering where it all went wrong in his life.

FRIDAY COMEDY AND CLUB NIGHT @ JONGLEURS - Comedy night with top names from the national circuit: Patrick Monahan, Jim Jeffries, Roger D and Zoe Lyons.

Jeffries is a highly-regarded stand-up whose Edinburgh Festival show last year was rated as one of the best at the whole festival, while Monahan is a warm-up comic for such illustrious TV shows as Friday Night With Jonathan Ross, The IT Crowd and, uh, Open House With Gloria Hunniford, and is surely the only IrishIranian-Geordie comedian in the world. Roger D is, according to The Mail on Sunday, “giving black comedy a much-needed edge”, and considering he’s black and that’s The Mail, that’s praise indeed. Zoe Lyons is a female stand-up comedian and therefore unlikely to be funny, but you never know.

Ticket includes free entry to Club Risa - dancing `til 2am. 8pm. £8 all tickets.

SATURDAY COMEDY AND CLUB NIGHT @ JONGLEURS - As above.

SUNDAY SOAP BOX OPEN MIC NIGHT @ GLO BAR - Go on, show the professional comedians how it’s done. Or laugh awkwardly at other people trying to be funny. Either. You’d probably prefer the latter, I imagine.

THEATRE

MONDAY SLEUTH @ NEW THEATR MICHAEL PRAED Veteran actor Michael Praed and S Casualty fame team up to star in the New Theatre. This is more th a young man arrives at the home be drawn into a tangled web of etc thrillers sound the same? Ah well, and Michael Caine starred in the fi 7:30pm. Matinees 2:30pm Thu & Saturday.

TUESDAY 200TH BIRTHDAY OF AN DEATH: CECILIA BARTOLI AND THE DAVID’S HALL Cecilia Bartoli plays Maria Malibra tury diva’s life. I can’t pretend I kno tell you that Bartoli is a wonderful seeing (or hearing).

7.30pm. £20.00 - £55.00.

WEDNESDAY - THE WALL: RANTER TRE - Australian performance-bas £6.00 - £10.00. Runs until Friday.

AN OAK TREE: TIM CROUCH @ SHE For every performance Crouch is ac nothing about the play in which he i the sounds of it. 8:00pm. £8.00 / THURSDAY KONTAKT: SHERMAN MAN THEATRE - Appalling spellin To be honest, I don’t know, but I’ if I told you it was going to be rub be rubbish. Which I don’t. So yes, 18s) / Matinee 5:00pm Sat (und Saturday.

FRIDAY Twiddle your thumbs waitin SATURDAY OVER THE MOUNTAIN: TRE - One for the kids. 5- to 8-yea adults presumably recommended.

SUNDAY Uh...church?

tion, all wrapped up in a gorgeous Belfast accent oozing honesty, pain and heartache with the prospect of happier times to come – perhaps.

It seems strange that Duke is playing at a venue called The Glee Club when he’s such an incredible exponent of heartbreak. In fact, it would be easy to get all depressed if it wasn’t for the fact that he’s such a great performer, unable to stay seated on his piano stool as his boundless energy thumps into every chord.

Furthermore, he is now touring with his full band rather than just the legendary percussionist Chip Bailey, meaning a more relaxed atmosphere and a fuller sound. Thankfully, Bailey will still be there with his cheese grater, egg whisk, 10-foot drum and giant cymbals – not to mention his almighty stumpf fiddle, which, in his own words, is “basically a stick with lots of mad things on it”. These things include bicycle bells, a hooter and pie tins with popcorn inside. A solo is quite something, and it certainly adds to Duke Special’s unique sound.

And then there’s Duke’s wonderful voice: both aching and sardonic, and always with a bitter sense of self-deprecation befitting his lyrics – while cheekily using his Belfast accent to create makeshift rhymes (“Clumsy as a ragtime clown / Or some dancing Frankenstein”).

We can only hope he makes some success, which his collaborations with Neil Hannon may help him to do, but until then, see him in this smaller venue for a night to remember.

Students’ Union, Park Place, 02920 387421 www.cardiffstudents.com ◆ Med Club, Neuadd Meirionydd, Heath Park 02920 744948 ◆ Clwb Ifor Bach (The Wels 02920 399939 www.clubmetropolitan.com ◆ Dempseys, Castle Street 02920 252024 ◆ Iotas, 7 Mill Lane 02920 225592 ◆ Incognito, Park Place 02920 412 www.cafejazzcardiff.com ◆ The Riverbank Hotel, Despenser Street www.riverbankjazz.co.uk ◆ St. David’s Hall, The Hayes 02920 878444 www.stdavidshallcardif uk ◆ The New Theatre, Park Place 02920 878889 www.newtheatrecardiff.co.uk ◆ The Sherman Theatre, Senghennydd Road 02920 646900 www.shermanthea Stadium Can’t miss it. www.millenniumstadium.com ◆ The Point, Cardiff Bay, 029 2046 0873 www.thepointcardiffbay.com ◆ Tommy’s Bar, Howard Gardens (off

gairrhydd

JUNE.02.2008

23

LISTINGS

LISTINGS@gairrhydd.COM

ision and stuff. Dan’s still here, in his usual ‘not here’ kind of way.

E & ARTS

RE - SIMON MACCORKINDALE AND

Simon MacCorkindale of Harry Harper this classic psychological thriller at han any old ‘whodunnit’, apparently; e of a famous mystery writer, only to c. etc. Why do all synopses of stage , this is a good one - Laurence Olivier film adaption. Yuh huh. & Sat. £7.00 - £26.00. Runs until

N ITALIAN DIVA - GENIUS, SCANDAL & E BASEL CHAMBER ORCHESTRA @ ST

an in this dedication to the 19th cenow anything about Malibran, but I can mezzo-soprano singer and well worth

RS THEATRE @ CHAPTER ARTS CENsed arty stuff. Looks good. 8:00pm. .

ERMAN THEATRE - This is interesting. ccompanied by a new actor who knows is about to perform. Mental improv by / £10.00. Runs until Thursday.

CYMRU YOUTH THEATRE @ SHERng, but the show’s probably brilliant. ’d be a poor stand-in Listings Editor bbish. Unless I knew it was going to , its probably brilliant. 7:30pm (over der 18s). £7.00 / £5.00. Runs until

ng for... : THEATRE LOLO @ SHERMAN THEAar-olds, to be precise. Accompanying . 11:00am & 2:00pm. £6.00.

GOING OUT MONDAY FUN FACTORY @ SOLUS, SU - Quality night, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Its perhaps not as ‘alternative’ as ‘an alternative Union club night’ could be, but the tunes are great and there’s always the Oddsoc and LMS room next door. 10pm - 2am.

Free entry with NUS; £3 without it.

TUESDAY OPEN MIC NIGHT @ THE END - All musicians are welcomed and all other talents too for this open mic night (one guy reads poetry). Even if you don’t want to play, there’s enough talent on show for you to be entertained. Enjoy yourself in a pub with a nice atmosphere, 2-for-1 cocktail offers and no one with a gun held to my head, no no, not at all. Alternatively, Shipwrecked at Liquid. Bleh.

WEDNESDAY RUBBER - NO - SPIN - NO, WAIT - SUMMER BALL WARM-UP PARTY @ SOLUS, SU - Celebrity guest DJ yet to be announced, but big Radio 1 names rumoured. 9pm - late. £2 with Summer Ball ticket; £6 without.

CHEAPSKATES @ METRO’S - Call it abusing my temporary position, but I have to plug Metro’s while I’m here. Yes, it’s sweaty, yes, it’s dirty, yes, it’s more expensive than it once was, but Lordy, what a night you’ll have. For the uninitiated, Cheapskates is basically a cheese night at a metal club, which means everything from Rage Against The Machine to Elvis with some ska along the way. £1.19 a double. Yes, it’s that cheap. And it’s open, like, forever. 7pm - 3.30am. £6.

THURSDAY BOUNCE @ WALKABOUT. I heartily endorse this event or product. 9pm - 3am. £1 before 10pm; £2 with a flyer; £3 otherwise.

FRIDAY ACCESS ALL AREAS END OF EXAMS 6-HOUR MARATHON PARTY @ SOLUS, SU - Yeah! 8pm - late. Free entry before 9pm; £3.50 after.

SATURDAY + SUNDAY Sleep off all of the above.

Oi! Listings needs YOU...

Does your club or society have future events that need publicising? If the answer is “yes”, then the lovely people at Listings can help.

Simply e-mail us the details of your event, and we’ll dedicate this column to letting the world know about it. LISTINGS@gairrhydd.COM

MONSTER JAM TRUCK RACING @ THE MILLENNIUM STADIUM SATURDAY 07/06/08 ◆ 7PM ◆ £10 - £20 Listings editor Dan Jones recommends

N

ow I’m not claiming to know or even care much about ‘monster trucks’ etc., but I’ll be honest: there wasn’t that much that I fancied previewing this week so I thought I’d do something which you have seldom, or dare I say have NEVER, seen in the listings pages. I’ve never been, but my brother-in-law is a bit of a petrol head and has seen this sort of thing and assures me it is well worth seeing! It’s very American and over-thetop, but it’s also absolutely mental and extremely entertaining. Oh, and if you get bored of the cars with the massive wheels, there are usually some scantily clad girls dancing around with a couple of massive things of their own. Naughty.

Anyway, here goes nothing. Monster Jam hits the UK for the second time as the World Famous Trucks come

The Listings Top Five...

PLACES TO GO IN THE RAIN by Amy Harris, aged 9 NATIONAL MUSEUM OF WALES Dinosaurs. ‘Nuff said. The Cardiff Museum is home to the finest specimens of dinosaurs in Wales. With woolly mammoths that move and make noises (on a good day) and skeletons of all other types of dinosaurs, this exhibition should not be missed. If dinosaurs don’t float your boat, then head upstairs to the art galleries where there are paintings by Monet. He’s not the one who chopped his ear off, but he’s still quite famous.

TECHNIQUEST - My first trip to Techniquest was a bit of a disappointment. I’d heard amazing stories about a mirror maze and was hugely disappointed to discover it had been removed - bloody health and safety! But despite my initial disappointment it still proved to be a good crack. But be warned: don’t go on a weekend, or at halfterm! And secondly, the puzzles on the ground floor are a lot harder than they look - quit while you’re ahead to avoid public humiliation.

THE DOCTOR WHO MUSEUM - I have never been to this museum and I never will, but if you like Doctor Who then go, as you will probably appreciate it.

THE UMBRELLA SHOP IN CARDIFF MARKET - Come on guys, you should have bought a bloody brolly before you even applied to study in Wales. The umbrellas in Cardiff are nice. They have big ones and small ones and even medium-sized ones. Some have polka dots, some with stripes. There really is a brolly for everyone on this stall.

And what is best about an umbrella is that it enables you to partake in anything and everything that Cardiff has to offer. Just remember it is bad luck to put umbrellas up indoors though!

YOUR HOUSE - Let’s face it, when it rains you don’t even want to leave the house so keep your PJs on and veg out under your duvet with a boxset and some chocolate.

to the Millennium Stadium once more following the success of the first show in 2007. The Monster Jam Series is serving as the most popular monster truck racing series containing approximately 120 events. At events sanctioned by the USHRA (United States Hot Rod Association), drivers compete in both freestyle and side-by-side eliminations. The freestyle competition allows drivers a limited amount of time and an open floor to show off their skills for fans that serve as judges. Side-by-side competition is traditional ‘bracket racing’, where the first truck across the finish line (with the least amount of penalties) is the winner. Monster truck freestyle is two minutes of keeping your truck together while hitting as many of the obstacles on the track as possible. Sounds easy until you realise the obstacles are freight train boxcars, school buses and box vans.

All the monster trucks have names as well – this show sees the returning crowd favourites Grave Digger, Monster Mutt, Maximum Destruction, Batman, Escalade and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. Six more will be announced soon, making a total of 12 trucks for the event.

Next week is my last page ever as Listings Editor, so I’ll say goodbye now for fear of it being too damn difficult next week. Good luck with whatever you do and I hope you never forget everything we’ve been through together and everything I have taught you. Farewell, children.

sh Club), 11 Womanby Street 02920 232199 www.clwb.net ◆ Barfly, Kingsway, Tickets: 08709070999 www.barflyclub.com/cardiff ◆ Metros, Bakers Row 2190 ◆ Liquid, St. Mary Street 02920645464 ◆ The Philharmonic, 76-77 St. Mary Street 02920 230678 ◆ Café Jazz, 21 St. Mary Street 02920 387026 ff.co.uk ◆ Chapter Arts Centre, Market Road, Canton 02920 304400 www.chapter.org ◆ Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay 0870 0402000 www.wmc.org. atre.co.uk ◆ The Glee Club, Mermaid Quay 0870 2415093 www.glee.co.uk ◆ Cardiff International Arena, Mary Ann Street 02920 224488 ◆ The Millennium Newport Road) 02920 416192 ◆

14 gairrhydd

FEATURES

OCTOBER.22.2007 FEATURES@gairrhydd.COM

gairrhydd

JUNE.02.2008

13

OPINION

RASPUTIN@gairrhydd.COM

ra ra R a S P U T I N

Russia’s greatest love machine

A sham of an exam

I

t was revealed recently that pupils sitting a GCSE Music exam were surprised when they found the answers to some of the questions printed on the back of the paper. To me, the shock there is that they were surprised.

News of mistakes in school and university exam papers is becoming worryingly common. Obviously, it’s still a small percentage of exams that are condemned to a question-setter with a bad memory/limited intelligence/a strange sense of humour, and certainly, many people would argue that no one is infallible, everyone is entitled to the odd cock-up once in a while and the following column is all a big fuss over nothing. But you can equally argue that in some disciplines you just can’t afford to make mistakes. I, for one, would argue that.

Surgeons, condom-makers and people in charge of the red button are just a few examples that spring to mind, and while the faceless anonymities who set exam papers perhaps don’t seem as important, it is important they do their job properly.

temptation must be there to treat them as the joke they often are (see illustrations). Last year saw a triple-whammy of incompetence: one collection of students had to abandon their Health in Society exam while students in other rooms continued (1), after last-minute

I’m concerned about the increasingly blasé attitude exam boards are adopting towards error-strewn exam papers But what if they don’t? This time, a GCSE Music paper has a copyright statement on the back revealing the answers to several questions. In the past, it’s been impossible answers in a noncalculator Maths exam, a poem with missing lines in a GCSE English paper and Shakespeare and Chaucer being replaced by Winehouse and Dylan in a Cambridge University English exam (actually, that was this week and it was intentional).

Cardiff University medical students, in particular, must get so frustrated with shambolic exam papers that the

photocopying (2) produced question papers showing the answers (3). The year before, four consecutive finalyear exams featured significant errors, including – brilliantly – no space in which to write answers. The students were so accustomed to mistakes that they laughed when the invigilators announced them.

Mistakes keep happening across the board(s). But should all the students affected resit the offending papers?

In short, yes. “That’s not fair,” people cry, “I did really well the first time round. Now you’re saying that just

because a few questions were messed up, I have to do the whole thing again?

What if I don’t do as well?” But as unfair as that may sound, it’s not as unfair as subjecting an entire set of marks to approximation – which is effectively what ignoring the mistakes does. In the aforementioned GCSE Music exam, some students just copied down the correct answer provided while others worried that putting the right answer, even if they already knew it, would look like cheating. You can’t take those answers seriously. The whole exam becomes meaningless.

And yes, you can arrange resits. Yes, you – no – no, shut up – you – shut up – yes, you can. Sorry for the insistence, but I’m anticipating the same “You can’t just arrange another exam” response as I get from many people. Administration is only a bitch if you let it be a bitch, and the fact is that if an exam is important enough, you can schedule it. After all, a re-take would happily be arranged if nobody took the exam (due to illness, say, or a bomb scare). The same should apply if a flawed exam paper jeopardises results.

If it’s so hard, students should be tested by setting an exam, not sitting it Now, you might question why I’m raising this issue now, and why I’m apparently so keen to stick the boot in.

The reason is I’m concerned about the increasingly blasé attitude exam boards are adopting towards error-strewn exam papers. OCR defended the GCSE Music cock-up by saying, “It is unlikely that any of the 12,000 students sitting the examination would have recognised the value of the information in the copyright statement and subsequently used it.”

Well, there’s confidence for you.

Not only is OCR making a sad indictment on students’ intelligence, it is casually dismissing the facts. This statement was made after it was already clear that students HAD “recognised the value of the information in the copyright statement” – which, by the way, literally revealed the answer; there was no interpretation involved – and makes no attempt to take responsibility or even apologise.

There is no excuse for releasing a school or university exam paper with typos, let alone unanswerable questions, no space to answer the unanswerable questions or the impossible answers to the unanswerable questions printed on the question paper (or all three). And yet exam boards seem happy to do so, when all that’s needed is one quick proofread.

If it’s so hard, students should be tested by setting an exam, not sitting it. I don’t know if question-setters are assessed in any related way before embarking on their careers, but you’d like to think they’re asked, “If you’re testing a student’s knowledge on a subject, should the student be told the answer to a question?”

“Ah shit, I know this one…it’s yes, isn’t it?”

There are, perhaps, bigger questions.

Are exams at university level even wise?

Requiring greater research and more realistic time management, coursework and research projects are more suited to testing a person’s aptitude for a career than exams, which essentially just test your memory. Coursework is arguably less susceptible to idiotic questionsetters, too. But that’s another (better) column.

So, in the spirit of responsibility and benevolence, I advise you not to worry yourself into a state about passing your exam.

And in the spirit of irresponsibility and malevolence, I’ll say you should worry about having an exam to pass, and not a slab of meat left on your desk with a dotted line for your name.

This column?

T

he time has come, I think, for me to apologise for the sheer awfulness of this side-column. Fortnight after fortnight, I struggle to think of anything applicable to the title, and rather than lamenting the passing of something once brilliant – “Whatever happened to...?”, in fact – I find myself musing/ ranting/quoting The Thrills at length/writing limericks.

When I devised it I was so full of hope. What an opportunity, I thought, to wax lyrical about childhood memories, get a large student readership thinking “Ah yeah, I remember that”, and cover up my intense jealousy towards The Millword for his ‘In The Papers’ section. But it was not to be.

So for the record, I’m sorry. I hope this goes some way to making it up to you lovely, lovely readers.

Whatever happened to...

Yo-yos? The Simpsons? Glastonbury? The Sega Dreamcast?

Ireland’s Eurovision entries? How 2? The Segway? Dinosaurs? Rulers? G-shock watches? Jose Mourinho? The Official UK Top 40 with Mark Goodier? Chocolate banana penny sweets? The Bill’s credits with the feet walking away from the camera? Queenie? The Spring sunshine? Etch-a-Sketch? gair rhydd Sport? Madeleine McCann? Bodger & Badger? Footballers endorsing shinpads? The word ‘radical’? 99p doubles in Metro’s? Mike McClean?

Geordie? Penny Farthing bicycles?

The Red Dwarf movie? OPM? Brian Dowling? Tamagotchis? Lidl Biscuits? Andrei Kanchelskis? Press Gang? Real teams being in the Premiership? Channel 4’s 100 Greatest... lists? Rubber Duck? Emilia Earhart? Candy sticks with football cards? Cheap petrol? Veritas? Optical illusions? The joystick? Eddie Murphy’s career? The test card?

Rasputin?