gair rhydd - Issue 1000

gair rhydd Monday March 11th 2013 | freeword - Est. 1972 | Issue 1000

Every vote counted

2 / Editor’s Note

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News 4–8 Opinion 9–13 Politics 14–17 Science 18–19 Societies 22–23 Taf-Od 24–25 Puzzles 26 Listings 27 Sport 32-36

EDITOR Chris Williams $0 03%*/"503 Elaine Morgan CREATIVE DIRECTOR Luke Slade 46# &%*503 5PN 1BSSZ +POFT NEWS Kendal Archer Tom Eden Anna Hickman #FUIBO +POFT OPINION Alice Briggs Nick Evans Alex Greig COLUMNIST Liam McNeilly Katie Bennett POLITICS Thom Hollick Rachel Lewis SCIENCE Rhiannon Davies Alexey Underwood SOCIETIES Bethan Lyons LISTINGS Beth Gregory 5"' 0% Tomos Lewis SPORT Ross Martinovic +BNFT 4IBQMBOE GAIR RHYDD AND QUENCH MAGAZINE ARE PUBLISHED BY UNIVERSITY UNION $"3%*'' 1"3, 1-"$& $"3%*'' $' 2/ t REGISTERED AS A NEWSPAPER AT THE POST 0''*$& t ("*3 3):%% 3&4&37&4 5)& 3*()5 50 &%*5 "-- $0/53*#65*0/4 t 5)& 7*&84 EXPRESSED ARE NOT NECESSARILY THOSE 0' 5)& 16#-*4)&34 t ("*3 3):%% *4 83*5 TEN, DESIGNED, TYPESET AND OUTPUT BY STUDENTS OF CARDIFF UNIVERSITY

A note from the editor...

T

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Want to help make the paper?

Final meeting this term: March 11th 5.10pm: Fourth floor of the union We'll then begin meetings again after the Easter break!

Proofreaders wanted!

Got a keen eye for grammar?

Or just enjoy free pizza on Thursday nights?

Come up to the office every Thursday for free pizza and proofing. gair rhydd would like to thank the following for their articles and help in making this issue:

Contributors

Matt Harding, Siobham Carroll, Kathryn Lewis, Kirstie Smith, Philippa Ako, Max Eshraghi, Sophie Chambers, Arthur Crispin, Kirsten Han, Ash Bebbington, Greg Landon, Anisa Khan, David Mason, Chris McSweeney, Emily Cope, Matthew Jones, Helen Griffiths, Gareth Jones, Felicity Holmes-Mackie,

Gerallt Rhys Roberts, Angharad Hywel, Phillip Wilkinson, Edwartd Jenkins, Dylan Mitchell, Emma Hughes,

Proof Readers Anne Porter, Emilia Ignaciuk We would also like to thank Rhys for his riddles.

3

Monday March 11th 2012 | @mediacsu

Election Results 2013

Turn over for three pages of full, in depth analysis and coverage of the elections from our news team.

In this week’s issue...

Science look at gene therapy which has cured diabetes in puppies

Opinion look at the impact of social media in Singapore p10

Match fixing scandal: Swansea and Cardiff are investigated p7

p18

Politics looks at the issue of migration from Eastern Europe

Third year student, Alex Thomson is the new BUCS 8 Ball pool individual champion

p14

p33

4 / News

Cardiff Student Your new elected team Over the past week, 32 Cardiff University students have been campaigning for your votes to become one of the seven Full Time Elected Officers within the Students’ Union.

For twelve months, the Full Time Elected Officers form the executive committee, as well as becoming members of the Students’ Union Board of Directors and Board of Trustees.

The officers, once elected, exercise a great deal of power in the Union, implementing their proposed manifesto.

A total of 4,383 votes were cast by students between Tuesday 9am and Thursday 2pm. This is a small decrease since last year, when 4,478 votes were cast in the 2011-2012 elections.

However, the voting itself was incredibly close; votes for certain roles came down to less than 30 votes between the first and second candidate.

The campaigns were much shorter this year than in previous years: last year the campaign ran for 7 days, however this year was shortened to 4.

Whilst some believed that this made the campaigning process much more intense, the 4 days of campaigning still proved to be full of excitement and in many cases, highly contentious.

Despite this, the new Elected Officer Team have been chosen. BCJ

President Cari Davies This role is the team leader of the Elected Officers. The President takes the lead on the strategic direction of the Students’ Union. With 1,823 votes, Cari Davies was voted as the new Students’ Union President. She is the current AU President and will in September she will become the Union President. Cari said, “I 100 per cent did not expect it - this is such a great surprise!”

VP Welfare VP Heath Park Helen Dent VP Welfare must represent all students when it comes to decisions involving student experiences. The Elected Officer must develop, prioritise and co-ordinate Students’ Union welfare campaigns. Helen Dent won the role with 1,079 votes. She said, “I’m so excited for next year!”

Gemma Wheeler Heath Park Campus Officer is based at the Heath Campus and takes responsibility for healthcare students.

The Heath Park Campus Officer must ensure growth of the Union’s offering at the Heath Campus. Gemma Wheeler won with 1,519 votes, against Nick McAndrew.

VP Sports and AU President

Edore Evuarherhe This role is responsible for the development of the Athletics Union and all the clubs that are a part of the Athletic Union. Edore Evuarherhe won the role with 1,439 votes. He said, “I’m absolutely estatic. I can’t wait to improve sports programmes both indoors and outdoors, and sort out IMG.”

VP Education Ollie Wannell The main role of this elected officer is to campaign and raise awareness concerning the academic issues affecting students. The VP Education Officer represents the entire student body. With 1456 votes, Ollie Wannell was elected as Education Officer. He said, “This is fantastic. There were such great campaigns in this category, I didn’t think I would win! I am so grateful to Abi Sanders and Aled Crow, who also ran for Education Officer.”

VP Media and Marketing

VP Societies and Campaigns

Tom Eden

Elliot Howells

The VP Media and Marketing Elected Officer must oversee all areas of student media. They are in charge of gair rhydd, Quench, Xpress and CUTV. Tom Eden won the role with 1,139 votes. He said, “Campaining was the best week of my life. There is going to be a great Elected Officer team next year.”

VP Societies and Campaigns Officer is responsible for the development of societies and student-led charitable funding. Elliot Howells won with 1,170 votes, and said, “To everyone who voted for me, I can’t wait to work with you next year!”

5

News 4–8

Monday March 11th 2013 | @gairrhyddnews

Election Results

55 votes

Postgraduate Officer: Matt Beckett International Students’ Officer: Dharu Sooriyakumar Welsh Officer: Cerith Rhys Jones

LGBT+ Officer: Adam Duce

in the full time officer elections. This is 94 less than last year.

VP Sports & AU Alex Crabbe

Ethical and Environmental Officer: Rosie Little

VP Media & Marketing was won by only

4,384 students voted

Laurence Lovell

Women’s Officer: Emma Carragher

U S C in s n ing o i t nd f c le tre dif E # as Car w

Laura Browne

Students with Disabilities Officer: Rachel Louise Jones

The Election in numbers

Edore Evuarherhe

Part-Time Officers

1,439

1,116

883

560

The fewest number of votes went to Heath Park Campus Officer:

2,421

15 votes separated Elliot Howells and Barnaby Willis, in the VP Societies and Campaigns category

Highest number of votes went to the Students’ Union President role:

3,343 students voted

6 / News

Election Week: Highs and lows

E

lections week this year has been typically busy. There have been reports of sexism and foul play amongst campaign teams, with one candidate dropping out of the race at the last minute for unknown reasons. The results night was particularly tense, revealing impossibly close voting with one candidate missing out on a position by just fifteen votes. gair rhydd looks back over the eventful week and the ups and downs experienced by everyone involved.

This year, campaigning officially began at 10pm Sunday 3rd March, when candidates were able to collect their posters and flyers, release their videos and officially publish their manifestos.

The seven positions are President, VP Education Officer, VP Welfare Officer, VP Sports and AU President, VP Societies and Campaigns Officer, VP Heath Park Officer and VP Media and Marketing Officer. This year, the traditional number of full-time positions has been reduced from eight to seven in a decision made at the AGM, when students voted in favour of the re-shuffle of the sabbatical positions.

Following a decision made by the current elected officer team, Union Development and Internal Affairs Officer, Kieran Ghandi, and Head of Student Media, Chris Williams, organised an official Elections Launch party to kick start elections week. The event introduced all the candidates running for both full-time and part-time positions and each party’s individual gimmicks and slogans. There was also a danceoff so that each candidate could showcase their teams and start raising awareness about their various campaigns.

During the week, teams put up posters, sent out flyers, visited residences and University buildings, spoke to countless students and tried to garner support for their cause and gain votes. Students were able to vote from 9am Tuesday morning, when voting opened online, until 2pm on Thursday.

Only 4,384 votes were cast this year out of the 27, 000 Cardiff University students who were eligible to vote in the elections. This is fewer than voted last year, but not by a significant amount, as only 4,478 votes were cast in the 2012 elections. Yet the year before that, 2011, 5,429 votes were cast, a record high turnout.

Despite this, the election re-

Words by News Editors Kendal Archer and Anna Hickman, and News Writer Matt Harding sult night, which took place on Thursday evening, was a particularly successful night. Head of Student Media, Chris Williams, and Union Development and Internal Affairs Officer, Kieran Ghandi, opened the night, welcoming everyone along and praising the campaigns of the candidates.

Thanks was given to Emma Mckeogh and Steve Wilford, as well as to CUTV for their dedication to the coverage of the elections. Before the announcements of the results, other unofficial awards were presented for various candidates and campaign teams.

Beth Button presented the first of these awards. The Spam Award for Most Notifications went to Ollie “Where’s Ollie” Wannell. He said upon receiving the award: “Facebook, yeah. I’m done!”

Chris Williams presented the next award for the Best Video after winning this particular title himself the previous year. It was won by Sophie “the Milkmaiden” Hayden for her milk-orientated video. The Lady GaGa Award for Best Costume went to Barney “the Dinosaur” Willis. The Most Energetic Candidate Award went to Tom Eden, who said, “the only reason I have won this award is because I made the decision to dress in the thinnest costume available and had to run around to keep warm. So I owe this award to my own stupidity.”

The Glee Award for the Best Performance went to Elliot “Elly Bean” Howells. The Duracel Battery Award for the Most Energetic Team mate went to Lisa Childs who was part of Rolly “Rolly Parton” Rollinson’s campaign team.

The last award, the Player’s Player Award, went to Claire “iVote” Travers.

Following these more lighthearted awards, the results of the Ministry of Change’s referendum were announced. After the question on whether to fly the Welsh and Union flag from the roof of the Union building, it was announced that 2012 voted in total, 154 abstained from the vote, and an overwhelming majority voted in favour of flying the flags.

Next, the positions of the parttime elected officers were announced. The Chair of the Scrutiny Committee went to Daniel Alaudin, Women’s Officer went to Emma Carragher, Cerith Rhys Jones won the position of the Welsh Officer and Students with Disabilities Officer went to Rachel Jones, who won the vote by a landslide. Matt Beckett was voted into the position of the Postgraduate Students’ Officer, LGBT+ Officer went to Adam Duce by a small margin, Dharu Sooiyaku-

mar was voted into the position of International Officer and, finally, Ethical and Environmental Officer went to Rosie Little.

Finally, the presenters moved on to the announcement of the full-time elected officer positions. First to be announced was the position of VP Heath Park Campus Officer, which was won

by Gemma Wheeler.

The votes for VP Education Officer were particularly close, with the threshold not being met on the first round. In round two, Ollie “Where’s Ollie” Wannell was elected by a narrow margin.

VP Sports and AU President was next to be announced. 3509 people voted for the position and Edore Evuarherhe won it with 1439 votes. Laura “Brownie” Brown received 1116 votes in a close second.

VP Societies and Campaigns Officer was also a particularly tight race: 3485 people took part in the vote but it went to the second, third and fourth round of voting. Eventually, Elliot “Elly Bean” Howell was elected with 1170 votes to Barney “the Dinosaur” Willis’ 1155 votes, winning by only 15 votes and going to show that every vote really did count.

For the position of VP Welfare, 3376 votes were cast and the position was awarded in the seventh round. Helen “of Troy” Dent won out over Sophie “the Milkmaiden” Hayden by 1079 to 922.

The position of VP Student Media and Marketing went to Tom “Garden of Eden” Eden after a particualry close race, which went to the seventh round, when Jo Southerd missed out by only a few votes. Electwit, the mysterious blogging oracle of the University’s elections tweeted that the battle between the two was “the fiercest battle of the year”.

Finally, the VP Students Union President went to Cari “Keep Calm and Cari On” Davies by a considerable margin. She is the first female president in ten years. Cari thanked her competitors, Rolly “Rolly Parton” Rollinson and Claire “iVote” Travers.

Overall, it was a very successful evening. However, the elections did not pass without incident. Many students felt that the week was tainted by the constant harassment from candidates in fancy dress. Some students have even quoted the pestering as a reason not to vote altogether.

Of the students surveyed, 30 per cent attributed their reason for abstaining from voting as being down to the “Gimmick Culture” of student elections, often referring to the week of campaigning as a “glorified popularity contest”. Only 30 per cent of students said they would be

“

The results night was particularly tense, revealing impossibly close voting with one candidate missing out on a position by just 15 votes.

definitively swayed to vote for one candidate over another after reading manifestos, with the same number of students saying the best gimmick would win it for them. 10 per cent of students said they were “just not that interested” in student elections.

This week did not pass without controversy. One candidate running for the Students’ Union President provided a campaign stunt mid-way through a second year history lecture. The particular candidate was running under the campaign gimmick of “Thomas the Tank Engine”.

In the lecture, the candidate allowed his phone to ring (adding to his campaign with the appropriate theme song) before interrupting proceedings to answer and voice his name to the lecture theatre.

Some students have reacted positively to the stunt, hailing the candidate for being so bold.

However, the lecturer present at the time of the stunt openly expressed anger at the interruption, suggesting that this was a move too far for the staff.

This was also the case for most of the students. gair rhydd can also confirm that the same candidate, Tom “Thomas the Tank Engine” Pinnell, who was running to be President of the Students’ Union withdrew from the elections. It is unclear as to the reasons for this resignation and Tom Pinnell has so far been unable to comment.

Claims of sexism and disparagement between the candidates also marred the week, with teams insulting rivals with derogatory terms. Emma Carragher, who went on to win Women’s Officer reported to overhear one candidate “making sexually aggressive comments to a competitor”. She tweeted, “Zero tolerance what now?” Attention was also drawn to the fact that one of the members of a campaign team for VP Sports and AU President wore a t-shirt apparently condoning rape. Electwit drew attention to the contentious nature of the “gimmick culture”, tweeting “We have a candidate dressed up as a famous historical rapist.

Don’t see that every year”.

Despite lower votes than last year and several unfortunate incidents, the candidates and their teams have shown incredible enthusiasm and dedication towards their campaigns that deserves congratulations. And good luck to all those elected, you’ll need it.

7

News 4–8

Monday March 11th 2013 | @gairrhyddnews

1st team rugby in fixing scandal Anna Hickman News Editor Cardiff University is under investigation following claims that the result of a rugby game played against Swansea University has been fixed. The result, a 10-10 draw, has been criticised by other universities following the league match between Cardiff and Swansea’s first XVs. According to a source, the match had been postponed due to wintry conditions earlier in the new year. An allegation has been made to the British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS), the governing body of competitive sport, that the match was not rearranged and was in fact never played. Rather, it has been

claimed that the two universities were in contact with one another and came to an agreement to submit the result of the match as a 1010 draw in order to benefit from the score.

BUCS has confirmed that it is investigating the result between Cardiff and Swansea BUCS has confirmed that it is investigating the result between Cardiff and Swansea, who are respectively sixth and fifth in the Premier South A Division, after

a complaint was registered on February 18th. Mark Brian, head of Sports Programmes for BUCS said, “An investigation is currently going on. I can’t give you any details. It is something that has been brought to our attention.”

He added, “we are going through our usual disciplinary processes to come to a conclusion and find out what has happened.”

Both universities have confirmed that they are under investigation. Cardiff University declined to comment on the issue until the results of the BUCS investigation were published. However, a spokesperson did say that the University has “fully cooperated” with BUCS in their investigation.

A Swansea University spokes-

person said, “We are aware of an investigation by BUCS into the result of a student rugby match but

cannot comment further at this stage.”

How did you get home?

Siobhan Carroll News Writer If you are a student in Cardiff and you over-indulge in alcohol, you may find yourself waking up with more than a hangover from now on.

In an initiative backed by local universities, Cardiff Council and South Wales Police, students who are worse for wear on a night out will be tagged with bright yellow wristbands that ask, “How did you get home?”

In addition to this question, the wristbands will also bear the South Wales Police Badge and a QR code, which can be scanned to reveal more information.

The theory behind the scheme is that students will awake the next day, see the wristband and question how they got home safely. It is hoped that they will then think twice before future heavy drinking.

The wristbands will be handed out by student volunteers and police on a free minibus service called the Student Safety Bus. It was founded in 2011 and operates most Wednesday and Saturday nights. The service takes students safely to their homes, or to hospital if their condition is more serious.

Although the service is mainly for students, the universities joint Student Liaison Officer, Emma

Robson, says that it aims to help anyone who needs it: “The minibus covers what are mainly thought of as the student areas of the city, but if we see someone struggling or in need, of course we'll help them whoever they are - and won't stop to ask for a student card.”

The wristbands will be handed out by student volunteers She continues, “By giving them a wristband, we're not issuing a

warning - they've done nothing criminal. All they're intended to be is a suggestion that maybe it's worth giving a little more thought to what happened.”

Ms Robson also expressed concern that, despite the minibus and triage service in the city centre (affectionately known as 'The Drunk Tank'), the number of excessively drunk people has not declined. The Council, police and health chiefs are working together to relieve Cardiff of its reputation as Britain's booze capital, and it is hoped that these bands will encourage students to seriously reconsider their drinking habits.

There are concerns that these

wristbands may be seen as an achievement or badge of honour by revelling students. However, PC Tim Davies, the Student Liaison Officer for Cardiff University insists that, “It’s just about educating people and making them realise that if you are that drunk, you’re putting yourself into a vulnerable position.”

The manager of Alcohol Concern Cymru has also praised the initiative, but others, including the student body themselves, are sceptical. It cost the Union roughly £150 to create the first 1,000 wristbands, and it remains to be seen whether this endeavour has been worthwhile.

Students’ reaction to wristbands Louise Tingle History 2nd year

“I think it’s a good idea, but it might be a drain on resources. All those wristbands must be expensive!”

Sam Stafford

Biological Sciences and Zoology 3rd year “If you do drink to excess, there is no reason why the authorities shouldn't treat you like an irresponsible child and shuttle you around. In a good way it allows the students that don't need medical attention to be taken away from the city centre and away from potential danger, especially vulnerable girls.”

Michael Mather Archaeology 3rd year

“I think it’ll turn into a competition. People will try to see how many they can get.”

Siobhan Carrol News Writer

Ben Curwen Genetics 3rd year

“I think it’s a cracking idea. It could be useful for naming and shaming.”

Dan Hill

English Language and Literature 3rd year “I don’t see it changing much. The people who go out and get royally drunk are the ones who will see it as a badge of honour, and the ones who don't are unlikely to get a wristband in the first place.”

Tomas Evans

History and Politics 2nd year “I don’t think it’s going to solve anything.

It's just another moralistic attempt to stop people drinking.”

8 / News

Students’ Union accused of encouraging binge drinking

Kathryn Lewis News Writer

Cardiff University’s Students’ Union is to be investigated over concerns that the names of certain nights at Solus promote irresponsible drinking among students. ‘The Lash’ and ‘Drink the Bar Dry’ have been criticised by campaigners from Alcohol Concern Cymru, as they believe the licensed events do not encourage sensible drinking.

‘Drink the Bar Dry’ marks the end of term and sees students drinking from as early as 10am ‘The Lash’, which is very popular among sports socials, runs every Wednesday at the Union, whilst ‘Drink the Bar Dry’ marks the end of term and sees students drinking from as early as 10am.

Andrew Minsel, manager of Alcohol Concern Cymru, raised the concerns regarding the Union’s event names, labelled them as “fun and jocular terms for heavy drinking.” He continues to comment that “event titles like this are hardly going to encourage sensible drinking.”

However, the Students’ Union has defended its brand names.

Commenting on the matter, a spokesperson from the Union said: “The event is focused around entertainment more than drinks.” Furthermore, the Union firmly believe they deliver the safest environment that they can for their students, “We continually aim to ensure that we do not only operate within the confines of the law but that we provide the safest possible social environment to the students of Cardiff.”

Cardiff City Council has said that this issue is going to be investigated by its licensing team.

Current local licensing conditions do not allow premises to use signs or promotions which “condone, encourage or glamorise anti-social behaviour or refer to getting drunk in any positive way.”

The Union firmly believe they deliver the safest environment they can for their students

The Union has responded to this allegation, stating that “we go above and beyond the conditions set out by our premise’s license and the mandatory code.”

However, if this problem is to

be addressed, it should also be applied to the branded event nights in Cardiff’s nightclubs. For example, the names of Glam’s ‘Jagerfest’ on a Monday evening and a night at Revs which is known as ‘Vodka Revolution’, promote drinking as much as the Union’s branded events do.

Students’ unions around the country promote their events through similar slogans Furthermore, students’ unions around the country promote their events through similar slogans: Bristol UWE’s Students’ Union advertises ‘Thirsty Thursdays’, Plymouth University endorses ‘Vodka Saturdays’ and the University of Essex promotes ‘Jager Nation’.

Even if the Union was forced to change the names of the events, the drink offers and deals would still stay the same. Therefore, it would be unlikely that students would change their drinking habits at these club nights. If Alcohol Concern Cymru wants to reduce student drinking, they would need to change the whole basic culture of student life. It’s very unlikely changing a few names would have much of an impact on student’s alcohol consumption.

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Student’s thoughts Julia, 20 “The name of the event won’t stop people drinking unhealthily; they’re just a bit of fun. We’re students we’ll drink regardless of the name.”

Lizzie, 19 “This is political correctness gone mad. Why should the council or any other organisation have any say in what we call our club nights?”

Vicky, 20 “I don’t particularly like the name of the Lash anyway, I wouldn’t mind if it changed.”

Lizzy, 21 “If it doesn’t make a difference to how much people will drink, what is the harm in changing the names.”

Jack, 19 “Changing the names won’t change the drinking emphasis on the event, the point of the event is not defined by the name.”

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9

Opinion 9-13

Monday March 11 2013 | @gairrhyddop

For & Against

Are the Student Elections too much of a gimmick?

Opinion writers Kirstie Smith and Philippa Ako consider whether the Student Union Elections are not taken seriously enough

I

For

t’s Student Elections Week! How many manifestos have you read?

How many of you made it to hustings? Exactly.

This is my third Student Elections Week in Cardiff, and each year I have been a part of a campaign. It is a hilarious experience – bothering people at the crossroads and in halls, elaborate campaigns with fantastic slogans and even better videos, and of course, being out every night in order to ‘reach the voters’.

The problem is however, while I know what the candidates stand for, not many of the students voting do. It is a massive popularity contest, and this needs to change.

What people do not seem to take seriously, is that we are deciding the future of both our university, and the soon to be decided Student Elected Officers. There is a lot of responsibility at stake, and while some candidates are just playing the game to win, quite a few of them don’t really know what they are in for. Their manifestos really highlight this, with some candidates making unrealistic aims, and others not really addressing the problems within the role that they are running for.

It’s a bit of a shambles.

The university has already taken small steps to change the way Student Elections Week operates.

After the 2011 elections, budget rules were tightened to start the campaign on a even playing field. This year, the ‘week’ has

been shortened, with voting lasting four days and campaigning five. This has meant that people have been feeling less harassed than usual on the crossroads, which can only be looked at as a good thing. But there needs to be more. Hustings needs to be more than just a formality; it needs to become a huge debate, attracting the same sort of numbers as the AGM. Candidates need to be challenged on their manifestos and it needs to be stressed that these positions are serious jobs, not just a stopgap for people after graduating.

Voters also need to step up their game and be more involved.

These elections are put in place to benefit us, and there’s no point wasting a vote on an uninformed vote. Many students don't vote because they think the whole process is poor. We need to make sure we know as much about these candidates as possible, and choose the best people for the job. Otherwise we may as well let the university interview and choose the Officers themselves.

Am I being boring? Maybe.

The gimmicks of the current Student Elections are a great laugh, and there is much more visibility this way. But shouldn’t we all be trying to grow up a little now?

There needs to be more focus on the issues.

Oh, and I hope you voted! PA

F “

We need to make sure we know as much about these candidates as possible, and choose the best people for the job

Against

or years, politicians have been exhausting various ways to gain voters. Nick Clegg targeted students through the policy of battling the rise in university fees. From a young age we have all been taught that getting involved with politics, be it a school council, student union or as an MP was always great experience. The Student Elections looming once more over Cardiff University leads the way for bombarding campaigns. Taking occupancy at the Park Place crossroads and student union, there is no escape for passing students.

Every year there is an array of costumes ranging from togas, robots and morph suits. This is just the beginning. The campaigns are plastered over walls, facebook groups and they even go around the cafes to increase their voting potential. In my mind a good campaign is one that will stick in your head. Referring back to Nick Clegg’s campaign, as a new voter I was captivated by his concern for students, hence why he gained my vote. Of course the end result of the university fee policy lost support for the Liberal Democrats, possibly forever.

The use of glamorous costumes do attract student voters, particularly the ones who go all in and paint themselves from head to toe or wear a bull costume in peak summer conditions. Luring students like the villainous child catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

with sweets, is not always a bad way to approach a campaign. Yes it looks like bribery but it does gain the attention of 18+ year olds. Plus food is a yummy way of getting through the often dreary and boring topic of politics.

Cardiff University had a huge student population and for someone to get their name out there to those people is a massive challenge. People ignore emails. People do not necessarily go to the student union every week and everyone throws away leaflets that are put through the letterbox. A shouty campaign is better than a campaign that is ignored from lack of awareness. Putting up stalls, cracking out the megaphones and offering sweets is a way to get noticed. No one pays attention to an email entitled “vote for me”, but someone’s apparel screaming in your face is quite enough to get you noticed by the public.

Getting people to pay attention to you when no one really cares is a hard and gruelling task and if it takes a morph suit and free Haribo then that is what must be done. Rome was not built in a day and elections certainly are not won by doing nothing. KS ? om on d.c i in yd op rrh an gai ot @ G on i in op

10 / Opinion

The Vaccines frontman ‘sells out’ collaborating with One Direction Max Eshraghi Opinion Writer

The Vaccines frontman Justin Young’s recent decision has sparked a question not unlike their first album title: What did you expect from the Vaccines?

Well, not a collaboration with X-Factor rejects-turned-biggestboy-band-on-the-planet, One Direction.

The Vaccines have spearheaded a retro-revivalist trend that has seen a surge in popularity since they broke out just three short years ago. Tongue-in-cheek toetappers like Post Break Up Sex and Ramones-esque rock’n’roll like Do You Wanna catapulted their album to the number one debut album of 2011.

But this announcement seems to throw a curveball into what is already a crucial and seismic transitory period for the band.

Accusations have flown that this marks the band’s loss of musical integrity before their first transAtlantic headline tour. As if The Vaccines have forgotten their modern rock’n’roll-with-an-edge roots at the first sight of American dollars.

But this is not a ‘Bob Rock of Metallica’ level of ‘selling-out’. To make such a comparison would be hyperbolic. Rather, this marks the move of a band at a crossroads.

On the cusp of their American break-out, The Vaccines don’t seem to have decided what kind of band they want to be.

Following a slew of interviews

This most unusual of collaborations seems to have them drifting further from their roots

where Young has championed his group’s evolution, this pop collaboration seems less like The Vaccines ‘selling-out’ and more like a band unsure of their direction. “We don't want to be an indie band any more, we want to be a rock band," Young declared proudly in a recent interview. A few months later and he seems to have forgotten this completely.

"I've always said I love pop music and how much I want to write pop music" were his words taken from the post-announcement interview.

Their latest album, Comingof-Age was criticized for being ‘confused and incoherent’, its best songs those that comfortably aped the success of the first album. It seems The Vaccines are currently stuck in their lucrative but limited wheelhouse. While not poorly received, Coming of Age did not provide the thrust needed to skyrocket them to the next level.

But this most unusual of collaborations seems to have them drifting further from their roots.

One Direction’s style of upbeat, inoffensive, disposable pop, is the prevailing current of the mainstream while The Vaccines are the up-and-coming poster boys of British Indie rock. I can’t imagine many fans wanting them to move towards the style of Britain’s favourite boy band. Or, God forbid, the derivative hard-rock of Nickelback.

Young seems pretty upbeat about the experience. "It's the first time I've ever done anything like that,” assuring sceptics that One

Direction “do indeed contribute" to the song writing experience.

"It was a very different world and very different process - that was one of the reasons I wanted to do it. I really enjoyed it." A good time, it seems, was had by all.

But One Direction are no flashin-the-pan one hit wonders. If anything, they have become an almost inexplicable overnight musical phenomenon. A jump into the boys’ pop world would be an undoubtedly shrewd career move for any artist. Even a collaboration with Gary Glitter would reach obscene levels of popularity. Those sceptics point out that Young is undoubtedly aware of this.

Nevertheless, true to their name, One Direction have cleft a clear and successful path, bolstered by a strong, definable identity. Perhaps the best thing Young can take away from this experience is a lesson in finding The Vaccines’ own character. Because this particular creative collaboration sounds like a line from Coming of Age opener No Hope’ "The whole thing feels like an exercise in trying to be someone I would rather not be."

Care should be based on need

Sophie Chambers Opinion Writer

The Summer of 2012 saw Paralympians hailed as superhumans.

It brought the media-labelled ‘bionic leg’ into the spotlight, from cyclist Jody Cundy, with his Union Jack adorned leg, to amputee Jonnie Peacock breaking the 100m record and winning gold with a time of 10.9seconds. The technology behind such Paralympian’s prosthetic legs is phenomenal, and a world away from

the ‘wooden legged’ hobbling individual that many might expect a prosthetic user to be. However, the average person using prosthetic legs made by the NHS is given a cumbersome limb, using technology that has changed little in decades. I know this because I am one such user.

A few weeks ago the government announced that £6.5m would be set aside for injured military personnel who have had legs amputated, to give them the most up-to-date prosthetic limbs

available. These bionic legs are argued to provide better stability and greater mobility for users, improving the users’ ability to step over obstacles and negotiate stairs.

Six and a half million quid seems like a lot of money, yet it is estimated that this money will help only about 160 people to get bionic legs. Official records show that service personnel injured in Afghanistan alone totals 248 individuals since 2001, and the money is not just for them but for those who have lost limbs in other conflicts also. A key concern is what happens once these individuals leave the forces. The military pays tens of thousands for state of the art prosthetics, but then the NHS is expected to pick up the tab for on-going care on a shoe-string budget.

The government has acknowledged this problem and has committed £15m over three years on prosthetics for those injured but no longer serving. This would go towards setting up specialist units so that they are more in line with the service available from private clinics. However, when thinking through the costs involved it is clear that that sum of money is simply not enough.

Prosthetic limbs don’t last forever: parts break or cease up, a

fancy skin coloured silicon cover tears, or a toe breaks off and you have to fix it with duct tape while waiting for an appointment. In short, care is on-going and costs mount up. If you think about the number of people who are going to need replacements, over and over again, the government grant is equal to pennies. People aren’t going to magically grow their legs back after three years when this £15m period ends. While it should be noted that many soldiers do receive compensation, this is unlikely to cover the cost of a lifetime’s worth of prosthetics and the additional expense of

What about anyone who isn't injured in the line of service... people like myself who were born with limb deformities living with a disability.

Defence Secretary Phillips Hammond said it was a top priority to give troops the "best possible care and support," while George Osborne concurred that "our troops are heroes… it is only right that we do everything possible to help them." I don’t disagree with the statement that military personnel are heroes, but at the

same time, they choose to do that job being fully aware of the risks.

What about anyone who isn’t injured in the line of service: what about the person who is in a car accident and has to have a limb amputated; or people like myself who were born with limb deformities and have been wearing non high-tech, non-bionic, and let’s face it, far cheaper and less fancy limbs for the last 20 odd years?

I consider myself extremely lucky to be able to resort to private care for one of my prosthetics for the last decade, and I do so because the choice on the NHS is non-existent, and the materials they use are so heavy it makes the very object that is supposed to help me walk, a hindrance. A life without limbs is very possible, but at the moment, for me, to live the life I want – one that involves walking, cycling, skiing, sailing and white water rafting – is not available via the NHS. While the trauma that military amputees go through is something that I have never experienced, and can never imagine to its full extent, I think it’s unfair that they are in some way receiving privileged access to high-tech prostheses: care should be based on need, not how and where individuals came to be limbless.

Opinion 9–13

Monday March 11th 2013 | @gairrhyddop

11

Postgraduate tutors: A gift for first years Arthur Crispin Opinion Writer

A recent research paper has discovered that postgraduate students that teach are working double the number of hours they are paid for, thus slicing their earnings in half, according to the NUS. So, the question at hand here is, is this acceptable? Should postgraduates who also teach be earning more or should they be thankful for such a great job on their CV, such good experience and good pay? Well, I'm going to go and say that it's clearly the former, for a bunch of very good reasons. Postgraduate teachers are, it transpires, a gift for first years.

As an ENCAP student, I had to study three subjects in my

first year, which meant a lot of staff contact, what with different lecturers, seminar tutors and personal tutors. This made things very confusing at times, making the familiar and friendly face of my postgraduate tutors a godsend. I can safely say that the postgraduate tutors who taught me for two of my three subjects, were better than the staff-panel tutors which I had in first year.

Here's the deal. Postgraduates are not much older than us.

They understand what we're going through, which is especially useful in first year, when nobody really knows what is going on.

When students are panicking about our first university deadlines, it's great to have a friendly face who can help guide you through, especially with the huge lack of pastoral care at univer-

sity (compared to sixth form and school at least). Due to their age and position, Postgraduate tutors can connect with students on a much more personal level, create a better atmosphere in seminars which, frankly, were a lot more fun.

Not only this, but in first year, when seminars aren't taught by the lecturers, I found it useful to have tutors that a) studied similar things not too long ago, and b) took the time and effort to read the same things that we did, so that they knew what was going on. For one of my subjects, my postgraduate tutor (all of them, in fact) sat in on lectures. They would then know exactly what was said, and what was meant.

This made them so much more useful than for my other subject, in which the staff-panel tutors

often couldn't relate directly because, simply, they hadn't encountered a certain lecturer, their content, or style. (This is no longer a problem from second year, when seminars are taught by the module leaders). The postgrads are on the same page. They are able to sympathise if a lecture was boring and, perhaps more importantly, explain specific

statements and ideas if they were confusing, all because they'd been there when it was all said.

The problem is, a lot of people, in many different jobs, work more hours than they are paid for. It's not as easy as saying they should be payed more, but, whether or not they are already, they should be payed proportionately to the staff-panel tutors.

Singapore and the new media

Kirsten Han looks at the impact that social networking has had upon the political climate of her home country of Singapore

I

f you’re a Singaporean, you’re likely to clock in an average of 25 hours online per week, or so a 2011 Nielsen report says.

Personally, I think that sounds like an underestimate. I know many fellow Singaporeans who are online in some shape or form every waking hour.

Many are likely to just be playing Candy Crush Saga or gossiping about their favourite celebrities, but new media – blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc. – have also opened up opportunities for Singaporeans hoping to become more active citizens.

On February 16th, about 3,000 people gathered in Hong Lim Park – the only place where Singaporeans are allowed to protest without a permit – to signal their opposition to the government’s Population White Paper, which

lays out policies and projections up to 2030. The turn-out wasn’t huge compared to other demonstrations around the world, but was significant for Singapore, a protest-shy country that has only seen one major strike in 26 years.

The protest was largely organised and publicised via Facebook, but the impact that new media has had on Singapore ,stretches much further and deeper into the nation's political landscape and history.

Through various legislation, policies and regulations, the mainstream media in Singapore is often perceived as government-linked or influenced. There are many times when such suspicions are proved right; headlines carefully worded to reflect well upon the establishment, forum letters edited to soften criticism,

editorials written trumpeting the government's narrative.

Previously, people would have had no choice but to accept the mainstream narrative. The Internet changed things. Unlike with print and broadcast, one did not have to obtain a license from the government to start a blog or website. In recent years, socio-political websites like The Online Citizen and TR Emeritus have gained prominence in the country, with thousands of Singaporeans constantly referring to them for news and commentary.

Others have also begun to establish their own blogs, some of which have a sizeable number of followers. And of course, conversations (and fights) have sprung up all over Facebook and Twitter on issues from immigration to education to democracy.

The result is an erosion in

the climate of fear that has hung over the country. Not an eradication, but an erosion. While many Singaporeans may still shy away from tackling really contentious or ‘political’ topics, it is no longer taboo to openly support, or even join, opposition parties.

In the 2011 general elections, social networks allowed people to share photographs, videos and memes from rallies, and almost everyone online had something to say about politics and who to vote for. When the results were announced, the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) – who have been in power since 1959 with very little opposition – received about 60%, their lowest voteshare in history.

For the government, it’s somewhat of a rude awakening.

Although policies can still be pushed through Parliament on

the back of their majority (despite having only 60% of the vote the PAP has 80 out of 87 seats in Parliament), their actions and decisions are now scrutinised and often loudly criticised, with alternative views and arguments spreading like wildfire through social networks. The February 16th protest was just the most recent example.

In response, they too have taken to the Internet, setting up Facebook pages for their members of Parliament and kicking off a ‘national conversation’ with videos posted on YouTube and a Twitter hashtag. It’s a clever public relations effort, one that may yet pay off. But Pandora’s Box has been opened, and many Singaporeans have found their voice.

For better or worse, it’s unlikely that they’ll give it up now without a fight.

12 / Columnist

by Katie Bennett-Davies

Super mum saves the day... again

Y

ou know you’ve got yourself a good man when he doesn’t even gag when he has to take a bag of sick away from you. I doubt many of you have read past that first line, pretty gross eh?

As you might have guessed, since my last column I’ve been unwell. I went home to my parents last week to try to rest up and so that they could help my husband look after me since he is also trying to recover from a virus.

Despite my meticulous packing list (yes I’m that lame), we forgot the most important and essential items to take with us my medicine. I take some pretty strong painkillers for a chronic condition I have and I can’t cope without them. Paul (my husband for those of you who haven’t read my other columns) and I had a mix up that you would expect to see in a bad sitcom. "Can you sort out my tablets" I asked only for Paul to tell me that they were already done.

From this I assumed he meant he’d packed them, but he actually meant that they were in a box ready for me to pack. I am proud to say that we didn’t have a screaming match when we realised that my medication was in Cardiff, which would certainly have been part of the afore mentioned sitcom.

My parents’ house is close enough that my mum can come and collect us from Cardiff, but not close enough to warrant going all the way back to my flat to collect my medication. I did have a few tablets in my handbag and in my bedroom at home I had a stock of a previous painkiller I used to take. Thinking that would be ok to get me through a couple of days we decided to stay.

That was a very bad idea. I tried my best to hang on at home but the pain just got worse and worse, and the meds made me sick. Off we went back to Cardiff yesterday. The whole journey took almost three times as long because we had to keep stopping, and was pretty unpleasant considering the whole having to be sick into a carrier bag issue.

I have never been so glad to see my front door.

I know that some of you will be reading this, thinking how lucky I am. I know a few of my friends who’ve had to take a long train ride with a dodgy tummy.

That’s what this column is really about, how lucky I am to have a great mum. Perhaps it would have been nicer to open with a line about that, but I thought the whole sick in a bag thing would be more likely to get your attention.

It seems quite fitting that I would want to write a column about how great my mum is when we celebrated just yesterday with Mothering Sunday. I often feel quite bad that I still need my mummy to come collect me from university at the age of 22, especially since I’m married. My mother-in-law always reminds me though, that no matter how old we get, our mums will still be our mums.

While I may feel that I should be independent after flying the nest four years ago, in my parents’ eyes, I’m still their little girl. While they may have to travel further these days to collect me from “school” when I’m poorly, they still want to do it in a heartbeat.

I remember one of the hardest dilemmas my parents had to make was the day of my sister’s graduation. I was still living at home so I travelled to Cardiff (she also went to university here) with my parents and Paul, who was my boyfriend at the time. I didn’t have a ticket for the ceremony so the plan was for Paul and I to mooch around the city for an hour or two while my parents went to the ceremony and then we’d all meet up after.

I had just started to get really ill at the time so the pain wasn’t under control, and was very unpredictable. Only minutes after leaving my parents I started to get into bad pain. Paul, only just 18 at the time, didn’t know what to do so rang my parents. They suggested we try to find a medical centre, we asked a nice assistant in M&S (you know that they’re going to be kind to you there) but no such place existed.

They offered us their disabled toilet to sit in until I began to feel

better though.

There we were, praying no one would need to use the toilet, Paul pacing up and down anxiously, trying to think what might ease the pain and me getting worse and worse. By the time my parents were literally walking into the graduation ceremony, I was crying and screaming for anything to take the pain away. In that moment, I have no idea how awful they must have felt. To miss my sister’s graduation would have been very painful for her, but to leave Paul and me in an M&S toilet seemed equally terrible.

They decided to stay in the

ceremony, since in reality there wasn’t much they could do for me anyway and I already had a spot of privacy to stay in. My poor sister had the spotlight taken from her though, coming out of her ceremony she expected my parents to look happy and proud, instead they looked worried and told her that my dad would have to rush away.

My parents never fail to astound me in how far they are willing to go to make my life not just easier, but happier. They have sacrificed a lot for me and my sister, and here my mum is today, sleeping on my sofa with her dodgy hip, so that she can

take care of me like I’m still eight years old. If anything ever goes wrong with Paul and I, they’ll be in the car on the way to Cardiff straight away, without a second thought.

I think part of the reason I’m terrified of being a parent myself is because I’m not sure I could give up as much as they do for me. I guess what I’m trying to say, in the long winded way I do, that I understand why we have mother’s day. It’s one of the few days in the year where I attempt to show my mum just how thankful I am to have as great a parent as her.

Opinion 9–13

Monday March 11th 2013 | @gairrhyddop

W

ith the results of last weeks Union election now known, the majority will be relieved at the prospect of being able to walk freely around campus without being collared

by

prospective

elected

offi

-­ cers.

Facebook

and

Twitter

have

re-­ turned to their former relatively spam free states and Xpress Radio are now free of embargo to discuss campaigns again.

Elections week isn’t everybody’s idea of fun and the thought of the Law

crossroads

on

the

fi

rst

morning

of campaigning is enough to make some people walk the long way round to lectures. But there have been some absolutely brilliant campaigns this year. From the costumes, to campaign videos and of course the unbelievably dedicated teams working through the days and nights to win votes.

To name just a couple, who wouldn’t be entertained by seeing the gair rhydd

News

Editor

setting

of

li-­ brary alarms whilst wearing nothing but

a

fi

g

leaf?

Or

a

video

of

the

Xpress

Deputy Station Manager chasing CUTV members who will not provide

13

by Liam McNeilly him

with

‘innovative

content’?

But

this

of

course

begs

the

ques-­ tion?

What

about

their

manifestos?

What will these candidates bring to your Union once their gimmicks and fancy

dress

have

been

dropped?

The

number

of

people

who

take

an

inter-­ est in Union politics is incredibly low, so it is perhaps a point of worry that elections

are

fought

for

on

the

prem-­ ise of costume and comedy.

Whilst I selected my favourite candidates based on a combination of their manifesto pledges and my knowledge of their involvement in Union affairs in past, that isn’t to say that I haven’t been actively sharing (spamming) the walls of groups with videos to try an encourage voting. It’s seems the best, or at least the most successful

way

of

getting

people

in-­ volved in the voting process, even if it’s a fairly futile gesture within the bigger picture of Union politics.

But

this

problem

is

personifi

ed

by

the

very

nature

of

the

election

pro-­ cess. When submitting manifestos for the various positions, candidates were limited to a mere 250 words when writing their respective manifestos, 250 words that included a Welsh translation. This just isn’t enough to

clearly outline a plan for any of the full-­time

or

part-­time

elected

offi

cers,

never mind the equally important task of describing exactly how you will make your plans achievable.

Creative Director of gair rhydd Luke

Slade,

who

you

may

now

be

fa-­ miliar as ‘Miss Student Media’, ran for the position of VP Media and said, “Considering I’ve worked on gair rhydd for three years, I have a lot of things to say and a lot of ideas which I can’t sum up in 200 or so words.”

Perhaps

the

decision

to

limit

mani-­ festos could be supported by the fact that the Hustings debate took place on Monday evening, where students could quiz candidates on their ideas and the candidates were able to give a little more detail of their plans. Yet this event only managed to further prove

the

lack

of

political

engage-­ ment from students. An estimated 200 people attended the event in the great hall, a number that included a substantial number of campaign team members.

With this the case, there’s little that the majority of people casting their vote based on a gimmick or because they’re

friends

with

one

of

the

can-­ didates. And more to the point, the

Twitter

fact that students are aware of this trait, shows that there is a real need for greater scrutiny of candidates. As things stand, elections aren’t a great example of democracy in practice, in fact it makes a bit of a farce of it.

When asked on Xpress Radio whether

or

not

he

thought

the

elec-­ tions were a case of policy over

popularity, current President, Harry Newman,

answered

simply

and

em-­ phatically 'No.' With the need for greater scrutiny and potentially a change to the type of campagining that occurs evident, it was no surprise when one the greatest exponents of these principles began to emerge online. The electwit blog (@ electwit), which has been set up since 2008, received almost 3000 views this

week,

in

addition

to

the

numer-­ ous twitter exchanges with candidates and voters.

Not everyone is a fan of the overtly critical

analyses

of

candidate

mani-­ festos, but the very fact that there are so many areas to critique just goes to prove the inadequacies of current system.

Speaking on Xpress Radio, the anonymous blogger said, "There's a fair amount of unnecessary gimmicks and

downplaying

of

important

is-­ sues... It's trying to make candidates more

aware

of

what

they're

promis-­ ing."

Whether or not the electwit blog has

a

signifi

cant

impact

on

elections

is debatable. Electwit seems to think not as only those involved Union politics pay it any attention, but who can argue with almost 3000 views in a

week?

And

despite

the

criticism,

the

opinion

amongst

the

candidates

cer-­ tainly seems to be favourable.

So

with

elections

over

for

an-­ other year, we can look forward to gimmick-­free

zone

around

University

again. But perhaps, with a little more exposure,

the

infl

uence

of

electwit

could play a bigger role in future elections,

with

more

balanced

cam-­ paigns allowing for their fancy dress campaigns

to

be

balanced

with

the

is-­ sues that really matter to the Union.

14 / Politics

Lib Dems win Eastleigh

Politics writer Ashley Bebbington reports on the fiercely contested Eastleigh by-election James, said beating the Tories was a “humongous shock” which marked a “seismic change” in UK politics.

Michael Gove said he was ‘gutted’ by the humiliating third place finish

E

“

The Lib Dems managed to hold the seat, but the Conservatives dropped into third place as a result of a strong challenge from the right

astleigh voters took to the polls on Tuesday to re-fill the parliamentary seat left vacant by the recent resignation of the disgraced Liberal Democrat MP and Cabinet member Chris Huhne.

The Lib Dems managed to hold the seat, but the Conservatives dropped into third place as a result of a strong challenge from the right. The UKIP candidate, Diane James, managed to defeat Maria Hutchings by over a 1000 votes, enjoying a combined swing of 24.2 per cent from the two governing parties.

Labour dropped into fourth place on what was to be a poor day for the two usually dominant forces in British politics.

Mr Huhne was forced to resign, after it came to light that he had persuaded his ex-wife Vicky Pryce to take driving licence points for him after a speeding ticket he recieved back in 2003, when he was still an MEP. Both he and Ms Pryce were taken to court for perverting the course of justice.

Turnout reached a modest 52.7 per cent, a drop from 69.3 per cent at the last general election.

Deputy PM, Nick Clegg, applauded Lib Dem candidate Mike Thornton’s success, saying: “we overcame the odds and we won a stunning victory.” The Chris Huhne scandal surprisingly did not diminish their popularity in Eastleigh, a seat they have held since 1994.

Clegg insisted the results proved his party could still “be a party of government, and still win.” He declined to comment on the poor performance by his coalition partners and said they should “explain their poor result.”

However, the Lib Dems came close to losing to UKIP, with their second place finish reaching an unprecedented election result.

The election marked UKIP’s best ever performance in a Westminster election, missing out on the seat by just 2,000 votes. UKIP leader, Nigel Farage, said this showed they had “connected with voters” and he was keen to stress that it was not a “freak result.” The UKIP candidate, Diane

Farage criticised the Tory party for “wasting their time” in working class constituencies such as Eastleigh, referring to them as a “bunch of posh boys who don’t know the price of milk.” He believes the three major parties are “frankly indistinguishable from each other” and the election result showed the popularity of a party who seek to offer something different.

Some critics argue UKIP are still only a “protest vote” party, picking up disillusioned voters and capitalising on the growing unpopularity of the Coalition Government. Prime Minister, David Cameron, was even convinced that this was the case; he believed Eastleigh voters wanted to register their protest and the Eastleigh by-election had served as an opportunity to do just that.

The Conservatives had been hoping to win the seat from their coalition partners, and had targeted it in a shortlist of potential gains for the next general election, which made the result all the more embarrassing. Still, Cameron argued the party would recover and he was confident

they could win back those protest voters in the general election.

Underneath the rhetoric, Cameron must have been troubled by the result, since it is one of the seats the Tories must win if they want a majority in the next Parliament. The fact that they failed overturn the Lib Dems even after the Chris Huhne scandal, means that it is not looking good for an election fought under more typical circumstances.

Education Secretary, Michael Gove, said he was ‘gutted’ by his party’s humiliating third place finish. He insisted that the Conservatives would not make a shift to the right to counter the UKIP challenge, although the party leadership will likely come under pressure from Tory backbenchers who feel that UKIP are appealing to eurosceptic voters, and therefore stealing votes from them.

Labour’s position in the byelection made them look slightly more unelectable than before, with candidate John O’Farrell picking up only 4,088 votes. Ed Miliband did point out however that his party have never come close to winning the seat, even in their landslide election victory of 1997.

Nevertheless it was a bad start for Miliband’s new ‘One Nation’ approach, and which aims to win more seats in southern England.

He called for his party to “redouble its efforts” and increase their appeal to voters in constituencies such as Eastleigh where Labour are not popular.

Politics 14-17

Monday March 2013 | @gairrhyddpol January11th 28th 2013 | @gairrhyddpol

15

Labour ranked top for trust on EU policies Greg Landon Politics Writer

The research company Ipsos MORI released a poll last Monday that discovered Labour had the highest levels of public trust in their EU policies than any other party.

The report surveyed 1,018 people, and over a quarter favoured Ed Miliband’s party when it came to the continent. The Conservatives achieved 21 per cent, UKIP 16 per cent, and Lib Dems only 7 per cent.

However, over one fifth of recipients (21 per cent) did not know which party had the best policies. This captured the growing uncertainty over UK foreign policy and the divides between parties.

Labour may have had a sweeping victory but the combined total of the Euro-sceptic Tories and UKIP still outweighed them.

UKIP may have only ranked third place, but in the last year Nigel Farage’s party has seen a rise in popularity. In the recent Rotherham and Eastleigh byelections, they received 21.7 per cent and 27.8 per cent of the vote respectively.

21 per cent of respondents did not know what party had the best policies

David Cameron insists that his party has suffered from a midterm “protest vote”. Some have argued UKIP are stealing Tory votes because of their EU policy, but the Ipsos MORI poll suggests that Cameron's party is still the more trusted on this issue.

It is clear that the Lib Dems are the major party that did not benefit from this poll, as public trust in their EU policies has decreased 15 per cent since a previous poll in 2010.

will become a potential vote winner in the lead-up to the 2015 general election, with fierce debate from all sides.

48 per cent of voters 35 and overs support euro-sceptic parties

Nonetheless, the European political landscape will undoubtedly change over the next two years. For instance, two years ago Silvio Berlusconi was still firmly in charge of Italy, Spain still had an A1 credit rating, and Athens was engulfed in riots.

There are signs that Europe is on the road to economic recov-

ery, yet obstacles still arise, such as the recent post-election stalemate in Italy.

As these changes play out, we can expect UK political parties to alter their EU policies with the times. But whatever happens, expect Europe to be a more hotly contested issue on the campaign trail than ever before.

Support for Lib Dem EU policies has decreased 15 per cent since 2010 Interestingly, the poll revealed a generational divide on how we view the continent. Over a third (37 per cent) of respondent’s aged 18-34 regarded Labour as the most sound on the issue, while just 14 per cent backed the Tories, and only 7 per cent supported UKIP. Young support is good news for Milliband, as this continues their run of success in pre-2015 polls.

Respondents aged 35 and over took a much different view, with Labour finishing on just 19 per cent, behind UKIP and the Conservatives, who both finished on 24 per cent. The combined 48 per cent support for Euro-scepticism showed a sharp divide.

The public and party divide on Europe suggests that the issue

Britain’s AAA economic status downgraded Thom Hollick Politics Editor

In the 2010 General Election the Conservative Party were the only major party advocating severe cuts to government spending in order to eliminate the structural deficit. The Labour and Liberal Democrat parties also promised cuts for the same ends, but nowhere near in the same scale as those George Osborne recommended.

The fear was that cutting too far and too fast would cost jobs, in both the public and pri-

vate sectors, and demand would shrink, limiting growth. Osborne rejected this, saying that the Government had to act swiftly and decisively, in order to reassure 'the markets' that Britain was still a good place to invest. He promised to safeguard our triple-A credit rating at all costs.

Fast-forward almost three years of Conservative-led coalition government: The UK economy has just been downgraded.

Exactly what George Osborne said he would do everything to avoid, has happened; at the end of last month Moody's, one of

the major credit-rating agencies, took the decision to reclassify government bonds from AAA to AA1. The reasons cited were the persistently sluggish growth figures, as well the unlikelihood of the treasury to reverse the current trends of indebtedness over the next few years.

This may not be a massive problem in itself: that is to say the damage will largely be political rather than economic. Over recent years, France, Belgium and even the USA have been downgraded by at least one of the major ratings agencies, but have not

seen borrowing costs rise significantly. But if the consequences were so minor, why did Osborne invest so much political capital in that one economic indicator.

The fact is that George Osborne set out very clearly at the start of his term in office that his policies should be judged by their ability to keep the ratings agencies on side.

In a speech to the party on February 24th 2010, he said (and this is a direct quote): "we will maintain Britain's AAA credit rating." On the contrary, he has overseen the first government since 1978 to lose that top rating which he prized so much.

Labour are unsurprisingly gleeful at this turn of events.

They never put much store in what credit-ratings agencies said; after all, these were the same people who told us that the subprime bubble would never burst.

But politically, that is not important, because George Osborne did take them seriously, and now it has come back to bite him. Ed Balls took to every media platform available to highlight the extent of Osborne's failure, by every measure including his own.

This is all good political fun so

far, and no one has lost their job (apart from hundreds of frontline public-sector workers, no amount of As could save them...), but already the ramifications are beginning to play out for the highly divided and uneasy Conservative party. On top of their failure to win Eastleigh from their coalition partners, this blow to their credibility is getting a little too much even for the party faithful. There are rumours that if he fails to land a decisive victory for Conservative economic policy in his upcoming budget this month, then both Osborne and David Cameron could face a coup from their backbenches.

The Conservatives have always prided themselves on being the party of economic competence.

No matter what is going on in foreign policy, health, education, or welfare, they consistently poll better than the Labour Party when it comes to who the voters trust more to run the economy. If this is under threat, then I can't see that the backbench members of the party would hesitate much to remove the offending Chancellor, lest they permanently lose any chance of being re-elected with a majority.

16 / Politics

Housing to be witheld from migrants As our borders are about to be opened to migrants from Bulgaria and Romania, the government is looking for ways to limit the associated costs. Matt Harding reports

A

s reported in gair rhydd a number of weeks ago, the current establishment is focused on destroying the image of Britain as a haven for Eastern European economic migrants. This has meant moderate amounts of ‘self harming’, for example the admission of unemployment problems and how terrible the weather is. However the new tactic proposed by the government is in a slightly different ball-park to the Home Office’s negative advertisements.

A large adjustment has been discussed regarding the functioning of the housing allocation and benefits system in order to prioritise British benefit seekers over recently arrived migrants.

With the issue of EU immigration once again dominating British politics, government concerns regarding the future free movement of Romanian and Bulgarian immigrants are at the centre of current debate across the country. The particular aspect of this topic which the current politicians seem so keen to discuss, is how best to continue the ‘curb’ of Eastern European migrants who, in the House of Commons have been labelled in recent weeks by many Tory MPs as nothing more than ‘benefit tourists’.

In 2007, temporary legislation was put in place to restrict the number of immigrants from the newly added nations of the EU. In December 2013, these temporary controls expire, providing people in Bulgaria and Romania unrestricted rights to move and live in the UK, should they choose to do so. This impending date has left many, both politicians and public, calling for government action

once again, to restrict numbers of immigrants from these nations, with some think tanks putting the number of potential immigrants at 50,000 a year until 2017.

The fact is, it is a central principle of the European Union that all European citizens are entitled to move freely within the single market. It is somewhat disingenuous for the UK government to demand total freedom of movement for goods, capital and services, yet reject that of labour.

We signed up to the whole package, and the European Commission will not hesitate to remind David Cameron of that.

The proposal is to alter the

housing allocation benefits program into a ‘previous contribution’ system, giving priority to those who have been in residence in the area for a set period of time before. The proposals have already been put in place by other EU states and have been deemed to be legal by the Court of Justice for the EU, ensuring that, should the proposal be made legislation, it will not be challenged by the wider European community.

However, as this would take place at a local council level, using the now greater powers of the local council, it is likely to also lead to the exclusion of Britons from other areas of the country,

with the requirements for housing being any form of link to the area, such as relatives or education. Those without such links, would be placed at the bottom of the housing list, and be placed in the same position as the incoming Romanian and Bulgarian immigrants.

The proposal to prioritise the previous residents of a particular area doesn’t just stop with housing. There have been other calls put forward for a restriction on the ability of immigrants to use the NHS for non-urgent treatment. The current suggestion is that migrants will be asked to prove they have been in the country for a year, before being entitled to a check-up or standard doctor’s appointment and non-urgent hospital treatment.

The three major political parties have been quick to respond to the proposals, with William Hague largely playing the role of a experienced veteran in these circumstances, carefully tip-toeing around the fact that no one actually knows the exact numbers of migrants who will arrive on the shores of Dover next year.

Nevertheless, he was sure enough to point out that he wished to remove “artificial perverse incentives” to dramatically tackle the predicted numbers.

Nick Clegg was found in a similar position, claiming a lack of facts, whilst attributing the early numbers as “guesstimates,” whilst other sources have claimed that Labour’s predictions

are “wildly wrong.” Despite this, a senior member of the Labour Party, Frank Field, claimed that the minister’s ideas were “ineffective” in curbing the issue, with other members, such as Labour frontbencher Stephen Timms arguing that tightening the rules on benefits would make their implementation far more “chaotic”.

In a recent development, Britain is set to meet with Germany and other members of the European Union to discuss the issues of ‘benefit tourists’ and how best to curb the flow of migrants from the east, seeking these welfare incentives. With Germany at the heart of the European Union, and largely the main spokesperson for maintaining it as a single community, these moves must be interpreted as establishing social and economic barriers in a trade bloc or unrestricted economic community.

These disincentives then, inspire levels of nationalism and self-interest, qualities which are not compatible with the wider European community. There is also a wider question of whether this will actually work; there are already 150,000 Bulgarian and Romanian born people living in Britain legally at the moment, and this number is likely to rise regardless of disincentives offered by the government, as the main pull for many migrants, is the relatively strong UK economy and UK wages, not the benefits which many of the migrants are deemed to be searching.

17

Politics 14-17

Monday March 2013 | @gairrhyddpol January11th 28th 2013 | @gairrhyddpol

‘Israel/Palestine: how can there be peace?’

A Jewish academic speaks out

Anisa Khan Politics Writer

John Rose, a Jewish academic, socialist and author of the The Myths of Zionism, recently came to Cardiff University to give a talk entitled 'Israel/PalestineHow can there be peace?'

The aim of the talk was to promote solidarity, spread awareness and highlight just solutions that can bring about an end to the persecution of Palestinians.

Rose explained that he has been an active supporter of Palestinian rights for over forty years but this was not always the case. He grew up blindly accepting Zionist propaganda like many fellow Jewish students.

Palestine was "rarely mentioned" and there was an emphasis on the Jews who were fleeing persecution. He did not question what was happening in Palestine as the Zionist narrative "seemed plausible."

The six day war was the wake up call. He said the truth was that many Jews were victims of anti-Jewish hatred. One option was for them to go and live in Palestine. Another was for them to stay and fight in Europe (some did). The Zionists would have everyone believe that the fleeing Jews were given an empty land to migrate to. They do not say that they in fact became colonialists, displacing the indigenous population.

He stressed that the process of migration could not have happened alone, without an outside sponsor. The Zionist leaders looked for all kinds of sponsors but "good old Britain" stepped up to the plate. He suggested that Britain's responsibility cannot be overlooked "if you are serious about fighting for Palestine."

Palestinians do not just face Jewish settlers, but the USA and UK sponsors. The USA had began funding Israel like "never before" and Israel's weapons stock quadrupled.

Rose argued that no other state in the world gets anything near to the amount of financial support Israel gets from the USA. America may publicly insist that that they support both sides but this is not the reality.

He said it is a "tragedy" that we all thought that Obama was the one person who would be different, a "breath of fresh air." Obama might have "made the right noises" but he could not even freeze the settlements.

In discussing solutions to end the Israeli occupation, Rose explained three key demands of Palestinians. The first obvious one is ending the occupation.

Secondly, Jerusalem must be shared by all. As it is plays an important role in the three main religions, Rose argued that this should be indisputable but "Israel won't even discuss this question of sharing."

Lastly, the displaced Palestinian refugees must be allowed to return to their homes.

According to Rose, there are lots of diplomatic ways of achieving such progress and excuses need to stop because it can be done. Ireland and South Africa have demonstrated that it is possible to shift colonialism, if the will and pressure is there.

Palestine needs allies. Rose said that Palestine is on the minds of most Arabs. The Arab Spring was a big step forward. Egypt's revolution was assistance to Palestine's liberation.

When Israel entered Gaza in 2008, Egyptians also poured in to show their intense support for Palestine. Thus Rose argued that the Palestinians require Arab help to obtain emancipation.

Rose advocates BDS, a campaign which encourages Boycotting, Divesting and Sanctioning Israel until it stops breaching international law and starts respecting Palestinian rights.

Although BDS has become a global movement, Rose did say that the economic effect should not be exaggerated as it is minimal. However, he asserted it is important for swaying public opinion and showing solidarity.

Americans wanted a "nice Israel, dream Israel but got nightmare Israel instead", Rose suggested. He pointed out that even mainstream religious Jews, who support BSD, stress this (Jews for Justice).

When Rose was younger, Israel had "unconditional support".

Now everyone is becoming aware of the unfair situation and diabolical treatment of Palestinians.

He proposed that this shows the power of pressure movements like BDS, as the support of Israel is fragmenting.

So what can we students at Cardiff University do? Rose said we need to raise the case of BDS, increase awareness and find out if our university is buying Israeli products.

He believes a tougher goal to

tackle is to find out if any of our research professors are engaged in research with Israeli professors. He predicts that they will attest that their research is not political. He counters that it is, as Israeli universities are embedded with the military.

Adam Johannes, from Cardiff Stop The War Coalition, said "this conflict is not rooted in religion, but politics. It's not true that Jews and Arabs cannot live in peace because of some innate religious conflict. For centuries, Jewish culture flourished in the Arab world while Jews were persecuted in Christian Europe".

"The core problem is that Israel was set up on a land already occupied by another society, founded on that society's destruction, and the expulsion of

its indigenous Palestinian people, who today live under military occupation, or as third-class citizens within Israel, or as refugees still denied their right to return home. The solution now is ending racism and giving Palestinians equal rights to Israeli Jews."

He further elaborated "at the recent Student Union AGM it was argued that the union maintain neutrality, but what can neutrality mean when a university invests companies profiting from the military occupation of Palestine?”

Adam revealed that on March 11th, “Cardiff University will see its first Palestinian Freedom Week, supported by five student societies standing up for equality, peace and justice."

18 / Science

Gene therapy successfully cures Beagle puppies of Type 1 diabetes David Mason

Science Writer Researchers from Barcelona's Universitat Autonoma have successfully cured five Beagles of type 1 diabetes using a single session of gene therapy.

The gene therapy treatment consists of an injection of two specific genes into the skeletal muscles of the dogs. These injections contain healthy genes coding for insulin and glucokinase, a glucose producing enzyme.

Five beagles, between the ages of six and twelve months, were induced to develop type 1 diabetes, though it is not uncommon for dogs to develop this condition naturally. Importantly though, whilst the canine version of type 1 diabetes is similar to the human version in effects,

Type 1 diabetes in caused by genetic susceptibility

treatments may not be so easily mirrored across species.

Type 1 diabetes is caused by a natural genetic susceptibility and is not to be confused with type 2 diabetes, which can be caused by a number of factors, including a poor diet and unhealthy lifestyle.

In type 1 diabetes, the ability to sense and regulate the amount of glucose in the blood is lost, due to insulin producing cells being destroyed by the immune system. It is also known as 'insulin dependent' diabetes, given the need for regular supplements of insulin, the body's regulator for glucose.

Dogs injected with both genes made a complete recovery The dogs injected with both insulin and glucokinase genes have made a complete recovery and, four years on, still show no

symptoms of diabetes or secondary complications. However, the dogs that received only one of the two injections have remained diabetic, indicating that both genes are necessary.

It is hoped that the treatment could be effective in humans Testing on larger groups of dogs is planned, and it is hoped that the treatment could be developed to be effective in human type 1 diabetes. Importantly though, due to the induction of diabetes in these dogs, insulin producing cells were destroyed artificially, rather than in a naturally occurring way. As such, there is no guarantee that the treatment will be as successful in further testing, or in humans.

Spectacular NASA Coronal Rain video is online viral hit Chris McSweeney Science Writer

NASA has recently released a stunning online video of the Sun from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) – an $817m project launched in 2010, which is still currently 36,000km above the surface of the Earth.

The video itself, taken in July 2012, captures a rare occurrence.

Over a 12 hour period, a “moderately sized” solar flare shoots out of the right hand of the sun, which then becomes a hollow circled-shaped entity. Whilst this

apparition was spectacular in itself, scientists were blown away even further by what came next.

The entire Earth could fit into the flare approximately 18 times Within the diameter of the open space left by the solar flare, a shimmering stream of light and radiation begins to fall back toward the giant star, creating a dazzling magnetic display known as “coronal rain”. To pres-

ent an idea of scale, the entire Earth could fit into the flare approximately 18 times, with each “drop” of coronal rain measuring around 36,000 miles in length, and 2000 miles in width.

This exceedingly rare phenomenon is caused when hot plasma in the Sun’s corona cools and condenses within strong magnetic fields – usually within

Each “drop” of coronal rain measures around 36,000 miles in length

a solar flare. As a result of this awe-inspiring occurrence, NASA scientists report that they are better able to understand magnetic activity on the surface of the Sun. The coronal rain itself is formed when plasma in the corona, at a temperature of around 49,000°C, cools and condenses in a strong magnetic field, thus falling back into the main body of the Sun. While magnetic fields themselves are invisible, scientists can track the direction of the plasma as it falls back into the chromosphere with powerful

UV cameras. This subsequently grants NASA valuable data to contribute toward an accurate magnetic model of the Sun. The video itself, available on nasa.gov, as well as NASA’s flickr, and numerous other sites, has become a viral hit – undoubtedly shared by many for its stunningly beautiful content. At only three minutes in length, the video has already been described by some as “the most beautiful footage of the Sun ever recorded.”

Science 18-19

Monday March 11th 2013 | @gairrhyddsci

19

The computer that fixes itself Rhiannon Davies Science Editor

Scientists Peter Bentley and Christos Sakellariou of University College London (UCL) have created a computer that allegedly never crashes. Based on the chaos of nature, the computer can find faults within its own system and repair them itself.

Most computers work sequentially, in other words, by executing one instruction at a time.

This, explains Peter Bentley, is what makes them so ill-adapted to modelling natural systemic processes, such as how bees swarm or neurons work. As he says, “ [Nature’s] processes are distributed, decentralised and probabilistic. And they are fault tolerant, able to heal themselves.”

They started on the basis that a computer too, should be able to be just that.

The way an ordinary computer

follows instructions is by fetching one instruction from the memory, which is then executed, and the result of which is then stored in the computer’s memory. A sequential timer called a program counter controls the repetition of this process for each instruction.

By contrast, in Bentley and Sakellariou’s computer the instructions are executed via a method designed to mimic nature’s randomness. A pseudorandom number generator which chooses the times at which instructions are performed.

This makes the computer much better at running simultaneous operations than a traditional

computer. The latter is designed primarily for number crunching rather than performing multiple operations.

As Bentley describes, “Even when it feels like your computer is running all your software at the same time, it is just pretending to do that, flicking its attention very quickly between each program.”

The self-programming computer links data to instructions on what to do with it, hence its

self-programming properties. For example, a temperature reading may be linked to an instruction as to what to do if its too high.

The self-programming computer links data to instructions on what to do with it

The results, rather than simply being stored in the computer’s memory as the next instruction is performed, are divided into pools of digital entities called “systems.”

Each system has its own memory which concontextThe computer is based on systemic tains sensitive data processes found in nature to ensure that it can only

interact with other systems that are similar to it. This is where the pseudorandom number generator comes into play. It means that no system takes precedence and they work simultaneously.

Unlike a conventional operating system that crashes when it can’t access a bit of information, the self-programming computer can carry on as each individual system carries its own information. This computer has multiple copies of its instructions distributed across its systems so if one becomes corrupted, the computer can access another clean copy to repair its own code.

Steven Furber, at the University of Manchester, who is developing a brain-like computer called Spinnaker has suggested that his computer would be a good programmable platform for modelling much larger-scale systemic computing systems. Could this be a future collaborative project?

Could DNA testing prevent another horsemeat scandal?

Max Eshraghi Science Writer

Such was the outrage and panic recently at the violation of health standards, you could scarcely watch the news without the mention of the horsemeat scandal.

However, food fraud has been a problem plaguing the fishing industry as well as rice, oil and other industries for years.

Violations like these can be prevented however, by DNA databases and the falling cost of sequencing, both of which can help close the gaps in our food chain. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) demanded that all food businesses test their beef by February 15th to identify how wide-

spread the problem may be.

Currently, and unsurprisingly under the circumstances, the organisation only look for horsemeat but Liz Moran, president of the Association of Public Analysts, says that donkeys and rabbits are also likely to be found.

New tests have targeted an antiinflammatory drug found in horsemeat She predicts that more horsemeat ‘may be discovered’ and that "Many local authorities don't do meat testing from year to year” which could account for the amount of horsemeat found

in ‘beef’ burgers across the UK. Such tests are only carried out when local authorities demand them or when companies undertake the process themselves.

DNA analysis cost between £200 and £500 per sample but cheaper tests are available at around £50 each. These solely look for proteins specific to beef, poultry and lamb, meaning other animals may slip through the net.

New tests have targeted ‘Bute’ also known as phenylbutazone, an anti-inflammatory drug found in horsemeat that has been at the centre of the health scare.

Currently, the presence of bute is negligible but it is banned in food for human consumption in Europe and the US because of a rare but nasty side effect that can cause a bone marrow disorder called aplastic anaemia. Furthermore, reports that the horsemeat may have originated from retired racehorses, means tests for drugs like steroids could be carried out in the future.

It remains to be seen whether companies will accept this new regulation The FSA headquarters in London

Aside from supermarket meat, the fish industry is ‘rife with food

substitution’ according to Paul Bentzen at Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Fish often become m i x e d once filleted and skinned, re s u l t i n g in packages that Liz Moran claims donkey and contain rabbit meat are likely to be found more than one species. The US Food and Drug Administra- piece of beef comes from, but the tion is making moves to prevent individual animal.

While the FSA has made this however. It has published a DNA database for about 250 moves to increase tests for food commonly eaten species of fish, authenticity, it remains to be which can be used to authenti- seen whether companies will accate a sample at any point in the cept this new regulation.

More DNA testing is likely to food chain.

“DNA databases could be push up product prices for supdeveloped for meat too”, says pliers despite this technology Bentzen, “it costs just a few dol- getting cheaper. It is still a poslars to sequence a fish sample's siblity that much of the proposed ‘genomic barcode’ to identify testing will become politically its species”. Genetic testing can unpopular once consumers apeven make it possible to trace preciate the elevation in food not only the country and farm a costs that could follow.

22 / Societies What Societies are up to this week....

Matthew Jones Societies Writer

Monday, March 11th -7pm Roadmap to Apartheid - free film screening being shown in Wallace Lecture Theatre, Main Building.

Wales Premiere - Award winning documentary narrated by Alice Walker, US Writer ('The Colour Purple') & former Civil Rights activist. There are many lessons to draw from the South African experience of Apartheid relevant to conflicts all over the world.

Tuesday 12th- 7pm Palestinian Frontline

Children

at

Battle of the Bands

the

A talk presented by Betty Hunter, Honourary President, Palestine Solidarity Campaign in the Wallace Lecture Theatre, Main Building, Cardiff University.

Thursday 14th- 6pm Professor Manuel Hassassian, Palestinian Ambassador, will deliver a keynote address on the Palestinian freedom movement.

The event will be held in the Great Hall.

Friday 15th- 7pm The Physics Ball CHAOS society's biggest annual event is taking place at Mercure Holland House on Newport Road, giving an oppurtunity for physics students and lecturers to let their hair down.

Saturday 2nd- 2-5pm Tea Party Society's AGM Tea and homemade cakes will be available, with everyone welcome to attend the event at the Lounge in the SU. There will be board games for everyone to join in and meet new people.

If you think there's something we should be reporting on, send us an e mail: societies@ gairrhydd.com

The Moon Club has been hosting the Live Music Society’s seventh annual Battle of the Bands over the past few weeks. Local acts from all over the capital have been competing over four heats to reach the semi-finals next week at Undertone. From acoustic loveliness to angry rap-rock via a folk band covering Black Sabbath’s Paranoid (yes, really), friendly supporters and fans of live music of all ages have enjoyed a variety of different acts and made each night a resounding success.

Voting which acts would progress into the next round was split equally between the crowd, who picked their favourite act via a voting slip. There was also a panel of Live Music Society judges, ensuring everyone who turned up to watch some live music had a say. One semi-finalist, Sophie Crabtree, enthused that the Battle of the Bands is a “really good way for bands and solo artists to get their music heard and drum up support not only from the public but also friends who may have not heard them play before.” She went on to praise the eager crowd, and was “chuffed with how many people turned up to support me in the first round

and the atmosphere was brilliant.

I look forward to playing some new material including some fiddle tunes in the semi-final.”

The diversity of the artists taking part is reflective of the Live

'a folk band covering Black Sabbath’s Paranoid (yes, really)'

Music Society’s policy of being a “place for all music fans to come discuss and enjoy live music together.” It seems that they will be celebrating their Best Music Event win (for 2012’s Battle of the Bands) at last year’s Society

Awards, by looking to expand their already stellar reputation as the semi-finals draw ever-closer.

President, Charlie Diplock, is extremely pleased with the way the Battle of the Bands has grown in the past year, saying that this year “is shaping up to be a great success, with bigger crowds, fantastic acts and a great atmosphere at all of the heats.”

“We're all looking forward to both the semi-finals in Undertone on March 8th and 14th and the Grand Final, which will be at Clwb Ifor Bach on Wednesday 20th March. Come on down, you definitely won't regret it!”

Pride & Prejudice- The Opera From Calcutta to Cardiff...

Helen Griffiths

Bethan Lyons Societies Editor

On the March 15th and 16th, Cardiff University Operatic Society will perform an original production based on Austen’s well loved story of Pride & Prejudice. Guy Withers, creator, director and president of CUOS, talked to gair rhydd, stating why he chose to construct an opera based on the novel. Guy explained that he is a lifelong Austen fan, expressing surprise over the fact that no one else had ever chosen to adapt the novel before.

He decided to begin writing the opera as a side project as a bit of fun; as his creation developed ,it became increasingly serious, and upon realising that 2013 is the 200th anniversary of the text’s publication, the decision to stage a performance was made with CUOS’s approval.

Guy admitted that the Opera has taken over his life in the last few months, although with the help of others the challenge of adapting the novel into a libretto form has been overcome.

One brilliant aspect of CUOS’s production is that they feel that the usually elitist nature of Opera has been broken down, through both the accessibility of the music and the wide range of degree backgrounds that the performers hail from. Unlike traditional operas, there are many important roles within the production, with most characters having a similar degree of involvement. There is also the presence of a 14 piece orchestra, accentuating the dramatic elements of the opera.

CUOS’s production of Pride & Prejudice will undoubtedly be a resounding success due to the sheer effort and creativity invested into the opera’s creation. The

opera will be performed at The Gate Theatre, Keppoch Street, starting at 7.30pm. Tickets are priced at £10 or £5 for students, an impressively low price for what is guaranteed to be a unique operatic experience.

Societies Writer On Saturday February 23rd, Cardiff University’s Asian Society put on a spectacular show in their annual ‘Elements’ event. Part of Go Global week, Elements was a showcase of talent and a great excuse for Asian Soc’s members

to celebrate their society and respective cultures.

Set in the grand location of The National Museum, it should come as no surprise that the event was, on the whole, a very elegant event. This was mirrored in the attire of the guests - judging by the array of stylish dresses and smart suits on show, Elements serves the same purpose as a ball might for some societies.

The night’s performances fused together a whole range of genres, varying from hip hop to Bollywood, telling the story of a girl who moved from Calcutta to Cardiff in pursuit of her dreams of being a model. There, she fell in love with an aspiring photographer. Despite some slight cultural differences (the boy having grown-up in an Asian family in Cardiff), our hero and heroine overcame a number of obstacles and eventually married. It was an all-singing, all-dancing affair; their story was told not only through narration and acting, but also through a variety of stunning vocal and visual acts. What made these performances so impressive, was the amount of time and effort that everyone involved had invested; the performers’ enthusiasm was really rather contagious.

A fantastic three-course meal followed the show, consisting of a selection of fine Indian dishes and accompanied by a (very popular) chocolate fountain. This was all laid out in the foyer of the museum, which had somehow been completely transformed from its usual appearance into what was, for all intents and purposes, a restaurant complete with a dancefloor. Finally, once everyone’s food had been given a chance to settle, Bhangra artist, H Dhami ,took to the stage – a definite cue to start dancing!

23

Societies 22-23

Monday March 11th, 2013 | @gairrhyddsoc

SVC’s March Madness!

Emily Cope

Societies Writer Fancy getting a bit crazy this month? Doing something a little bit different? Then SVC’s March Madness month is perfect for you. For the entirety of March, Student Volunteering Cardiff (SVC) are hosting a variety of random activities, giving all students a chance to do something a bit bonkers this March.

For those of you who might not know, SVC is the largest studentled volunteering charity in Wales and is run by Cardiff University students for Cardiff and its surrounding communities. SVC is comprised of over 40 different volunteering schemes, varying from Education, Mental Health, Sport, Homelessness, Older people, Learning disabilities, Children and Environment projects.

There are also one-off volunteering events too, as well as superb socials for all SVC volunteers!

On Tuesday March 5th, SVC hosted their first ever SVCfest in Solus. This was a chance for Cardiff University societies and students to show off their amazing abilities in an unforgettable talent showcase. There were many show-stopping appearances from societies such as Funky Ass Dancers and Act One, who performed songs for their upcoming musi-

cal, Spring Awakening. There was an astounding and mystical performance from Nathan the Mentalist, who managed to surprise the audience members by correctly reading their minds.

There were also amazing performances from the duo Nothing North of Alaska, rock band Rise in our Time and English/Welsh singer and songwriter Geraint Rhys. Check them all out on Facebook now; they were all amazing! SVCfest proved to be a great success and the profit made will go towards the development of new volunteering projects.

On March 8th, SVC volunteers supported the YMCA sleep easy challenge, where for one night from 8pm to 6am, a group of volunteers braved sleeping outside in the cold and under the stars to raise awareness and sponsorship for homelessness and poverty.

Do not worry if you were unable to be involved in these events as there are lots more mad events to satisfy your crazy side.

On Friday March 15th and Monday March 18th, there are dog-walking events in the morning at Hope Trust dogs home.

This is one of SVC’s most popular events in volunteering week so make sure you sign up as soon as possible to avoid missing out.

Pop into the SVC office in the

Centre for Skills, Enterprise and Volunteering, situated on the 2nd floor of Cardiff University Students’ Union to sign up.

On March 21st, be prepared to get your ducks at the ready for SVC’s first ever duck race. That’s

right, a rubber duck race on the River Taf! It is going to be a brilliantly unique one-off event to raise money for SVC in order to create new volunteering projects to benefit the Cardiff community.

Ducks will be on sale in the SVC

office or on the day for £2. There will be fabulous prizes for the winning ducks so start buying your ducks now for the chance to be crowned ‘SVC duck race champion 2013’!

Scarlet (Tamsin Roberts), the lecherous Professor Plum (Josh Day), a flirtatious French maid (Jess Taylor), stained Mrs White (Katie Bradshaw) and a nerdy Mr Green (Will Pritchard). Amongst these stood out a very BorisJohnson-esque Colonel Mustard (James Paine) and a wonderfully squawking Punch and Judy

the audience and cast through a whirlwind of events and murders with fabulous clipped tones and very good timing. It was an immensely enjoyable performance.

I think the biggest compliment that I can give the cast is that I desperately wanted to be up there with them running about and gasping alongside them. Being in the audience felt like being a spectator at a murder mystery party with your most ridiculously over the top friends. There were hysterical shrieks of laughter from the audience at points which included many members of the society and, with all the spirit of every drama group ever, there were some definite in-jokes injected into the atmosphere.

It’s delightful to watch both cast and audience having a whale of a time and look like they’re very much in it together in the best am-dram fashion. The term ‘lovey’ definitely springs to mind when watching this and, although not for everyone, it seemed to me that the point of the show was raucous fun and silliness rather than presumptuous high wit.

Clue: A Review Felicity Holmes-Mackie Societies Writer

For some reason I simply cannot fathom, I love a good murder mystery. I also love a bad one… A play based on the game Cluedo?

Count me in!

The curtain was raised on a frankly bizarre play: it was caricatured Cluedo in a nutshell.

Difficulties, however, will arise when amateur dramatics and complicated sets are forced to pair up. The 1985 film which gave rise to the play adaptation is set in a large gothic mansion with many different functional rooms.

Of course it is quite mad to attempt anything which looks like a conservatory on stage, and unless you want to spend too much time changing sets, whilst the audience sits in blackness, then imagination and distraction must be used. This is definitely a flaw of the play adaptation rather than of this particular production; goodness knows student budgets are small, let alone those of a student drama group. What set the cast had, they did very well with, especially whilst creeping round the mansion searching for mur-

derers. The doors, curtains and stage were made excellent use of, helping direct the audience’s attention adequately in some very short scenes.

What truly made the play was the parade of characters. The quite literally colourful array crept, flounced, strutted and bustled on and off stage and looked like they were having a jolly good time of it. There were some dreadfully silly slapstick moments, extremely questionable deaths and melodramatic gasps and screams flowed abundantly (from both cast and audience). It was genuinely hilarious seeing the ‘dead’ bodies get discovered, piled up and then manipulated into human puppet scenes of necrophilia (you have to see it to believe it).

'Amongst these stood out a very Boris-Johnsonesque Colonel Mustard' The characters from the board game came to life in ways I would never have imagined. At the risk of this sounding like a role call, I’d like to mention a sultry Miss

'I desperately wanted to be up there with them running about and gasping alongside them.'

“

It's delightful to watch both cast and audience having a whale of a time and look like they're very much in it together

Mrs Peacock (Lizzie Fitzpatrick); both very good physical actors.

Perhaps the highlight of the show was the performance of fabulous coordinator of action that was the butler Wadsworth played

by Tom Greene. Having to run through three different possible endings is difficult to do and risks being very clumsy; not only is the amount of lines challenging but it’s also hard to make it interesting by the third alternative ending. Thankfully, this butler took

24 / Taf-Od

‘Ffars’ Can i Gymru Gerallt Rhys Roberts Taf-od

Can i Gymru - mae’n uchafbwynt y calendr cerddorol ar y teledu i rai, yn dod a cynulleidfa at ei gilydd yn flynyddol ers 1969 i ddewis y gan orau Gymraeg y flwyddyn honno. Yn wreiddiol fel rownd gyn-derfynol ar gyfer bwriad BBC Cymru i fod yn rhan o Eurovision, mae hi wedi dathlu rhai o glasuron y genedl, caneuon sy’n rhan annatod o unrhyw set DJ noson Gymraeg yng Nghlwb Ifor neu’r Ddawns Ryng-golegol erbyn hyn. Ond dros y blynyddoedd d’wetha, fel caneuon Prydain yn Eurovision, ‘ffars’ yw’r gair sydd wedi cael ei ddefnyddio i ddisgrifio’r gystadleuaeth (ydy cân o’r enw ‘Bws o’r Lleuad’ yn haeddu £10,000? - trafodwch).

Blwyddyn y chwyldro o ran safon y gystadleuaeth oedd 2013 i

fod, gyda newid yn fformat y gystadleuaeth i geisio adlewyrchu gwir safon y sîn. Ond unwaith eto, ‘ffars’ oedd yr union air a ddefnyddwyd i ddisgrifio Can i Gymru gan brif bync-rociwr Cymru – gyda parhad y “‘myth’ fod rhyw arwyddocâd a phwrpas i ennill y gystadleuaeth” yn ôl Rhys Mwyn.

Yn ei ffordd ffraeth ei hun dangosodd Gai Toms y ‘fformiwla’, tried and tested, er mwyn llwyddo: Yn gyntaf, cân ganol-y-ffordd i apelio at gynulleidfa eang. Yn ail, casglu gymaint o gefnogwyr â phosib drwy ganfasio o ddrws i ddrws. Y cam nesaf – cydweithio gyda artist arall er mwyn dyblu’r apêl. Ac yn olaf, cael “rhywun ifanc, golygus, sydd mewn côr amlwg i ganu”. Does dim angen athrylith i ddeall at bwy oedd y bys yn pwyntio gyda’r pwynt olaf, ond cyfeirio at ei ddull ei hun er

mwyn ennill y gystadleuaeth yn 2012 wna gyda’r pwyntiau eraill, cyn casglu £10,000 ar gyfer datblygu stiwdio recordio.

Gwelodd S4C y golau, a newidwyd fformat y gystadleuaeth i gael gwared o’r fformiwla stel ar gyfer Can i Gymru 2013. Daeth diwedd i’r heip X-factor-aidd y stiwdio fawr, â Dyl Mei fel y Simon Cowell Cymraeg, a £3500 bellach oedd ar gael i’r enillydd. Gan gadw rhan o’r arian ar gyfer llwyddiant un can, rhoddwyd £1000 ychwanegol yr un i enillwyr pedwar categori am waith cyffredinol y flwyddyn – ‘Can y Flwyddyn’ Y Selar, ‘Band Byw’, ‘Albwm y Flwyddyn’ a ‘Band neu Artist Newydd Gorau’. Y gobaith o hyn ymlaen felly yw y bydd y fformat newydd yn rhoi dathliad mwy haeddiannol i fandiau gweithgar y sîn a rhoi mwy o hwb i fandiau newydd, bandiau fel Bromas a

enillodd categori y band newydd yng Ngwobrau’r Selar nos Sul. Da o beth fod bandiau gweithgar wedi cael llwyddiant yng nghystadleuaeth Cân i Gymru nos Wener, gyda Jessop a’r Sgweiri yn cyrraedd y brig, a Hud a Catrin Herbert yn artistiaid amlwg yn y 6 uchaf. Ond un neu ddau doedd hyn, na dathlu llwyddiant blwyddyn y sîn roc Gymraeg yng Ngwobrau y Selar, ddim yn ddigon. Doedd dim defnydd i’r gystadleuaeth yn ôl Rhys Mwyn wrth sgwennu mewn erthygl yn yr Herald, gan argymell i’r arian gael ei wario ar “glamp o noson yn Nhreorci neu Shotton gyda llwythi o grwpiau Cymraeg a Chymreig a dwyieithog ac ella James o’r Manics a Cerys Matthews” na cario mlaen gyda’r “myths di-bwrpas” o lond llaw o fandiau lled-boblogaidd yn gwneud dim llawer mwy na

dathlu eu bodolaeth.

Er efallai mai’r Manics neu Cerys Matthews fyddai yn tynnu sylw’r di-Gymraeg tuag at gerddoriaeth Gymraeg (gyda eu caneuon ‘canol-y-ffordd’ fel y gellir dadlau), dyma fydd y “myth” yng ngeiriau Rhys Mwyn – cam-bortreadu cerddoriaeth Gymraeg fel rhywbeth sy’n sownd yn y 90au.

Er efallai bod y sin yn dawelach erbyn hyn nag oedd yn y cyfnod hwnnw, mae’n dal i fod yn fyw, gyda bandiau newydd poblogaidd yn dal i ymddangos. Mwy o nosweithiau fel gwobrau’r Selar sydd eu hangen i roi hwb ariannol ac o gefnogaeth i fandiau newydd ifanc, ac mae dal lle i gystadleuaeth Can i Gymru hefyd er mwyn agor y drws i gynulleidfa ehangach.

Gan obeithio bydd mwy yn mynd i Gorwen na mynd i’r Lleuad o hyn ymlaen yn y gystadleuaeth honno.

LLywodraeth Prydain yn gwrthwynebu awgrymiadau Silk Angharad Hywel Taf-od

O taf D

Mae Llywodraeth Prydain wedi datgan ei gwrthwynebiad i ddatganoli mwy o bwerau i Gynulliad Cymru yn ôl awgrymiadau Comisiwn Silk.

Cyhoeddwyd adroddiad Comisiwn Silk ym mis Tachwedd llynedd, gan awgrymu dylai rhai pwerau trethu a benthyca arian gael eu datganoli i Lywodraeth Cymru. Yn ôl Paul Silk, cadeirydd y Comisiwn ac un o hen lawiau’r Cynulliad a Thŷ’r Cyffredin, byddai datganoli pwerau yn gwneud Llywodraeth Cymru yn fwy atebol am yr arian mae’n ei wario ynghyd â chynyddu ei grym a’i chyfrifoldeb.

Comisiynwyd yr adroddiad hwn gan Cheryl Gillan, cyn-Ysgrifennydd Gwladol Cymru yn 2011. Pwrpas y Comisiwn, yn gyn-

taf, oedd edrych ar system drethu a benthyca Llywodraeth Cymru, gan awgrymu sut byddai modd gwella’r drefn bresennol. Ar hyn o bryd, nid oes gan Lywodraeth Cymru unrhyw awdurdod ar benderfyniadau ynglŷn â threthi Cymru.

Cyhoeddwyd adroddiad Comisiwn Silk ym mis Tachwedd llynedd. Cafwyd 33 o awgrymiadau, megis datganoli treth tirlenwi, treth stamp ar dir, treth ar werthu masnachol ar dywod a graean a tholl theithwyr awyr, ynghyd â throsglwyddo holl awdurdod trethi busnes i Lywodraeth Cymru. Gobaith y Comisiwn yw gwelir datganoli’r hawliau hyn erbyn 2020. Nodir hefyd dylai Llywodraeth Cymru fod yn gyfrifol am hanner treth incwm Cymru erbyn 2020.

Awgrymiadau yn unig a gafwyd gan y Comisiwn. Nid oes unrhyw

ddyletswydd ar Lywodraeth Prydain na Chymru i’w gweithredu.

Yn amlwg, yn dilyn ei gwrthwynebiad wythnos ddiwethaf, ni fydd Llywodraeth Prydain yn mynd ati i gyflawni’r awg r y m i a d a u hyn.

Ym mis C h w e f r o r, galwodd Lywo d ra e t h Cymru am ddatganoli mwy o bwerau, ynghyd â phwerau trethi a benthyca, megis plismona ac yn yr hir dymor cyfiawnder troseddol i Gymru. Drwy ddatganoli mwy o bwerau i’r Cynul-

liad byddai’n cryfhau Cymru fel gwlad annibynnol, ac oddi fewn i’r Deyrnas Unedig.

Wythnos ddiwethaf, datganodd Lywodraeth Prydain ei amheuon am ddatganoli pwerau darlledu, ynni, y farnwriaeth, yr heddlu, p r o s iectau melinau gwynt a dŵr i Gymru.

Credir fod y drefn bresennol yn foddhaol.

Cyflwynodd Lywodraeth Prydain ei thystiolaeth yn erbyn datganoli rhagor o bwerau

mewn adroddiad 114 o dudalennau i gomisiwn trawsbleidiol. Dywedodd Arweinydd Plaid Cymru yn San Steffan, Elfyn Llwyd AS, fod y ddogfen yn siomedig, ac yn “dangos yn glir nad oes gan Lywodraeth y Deyrnas Unedig fawr o ddiddordeb mewn sicrhau setiad datganoli cryfach a mwy effeithlon i Gymru.”.

Mae disgwyl i Gomisiwn Silk gyhoeddi ei holl gasgliadau yng ngwanwyn 2014. Dywedodd yr Ysgrifennydd Gwladol, David Jones, fod gan ‘cam nesaf Comisiwn Silk y potensial i wneud cyfraniad pwysig at sicrhau sylfaen gadarn ar gyfer llywodraethu Cymru yn yr hir dymor iddi fewn i’r Deyrnas Unedig’.

Straeon OD o bob rhan o’r byd... Wythnos yma, Russel Crowe yn gweld UFO...

W

ythnos diwethaf, fe gyhoeddodd Russel Crowe ar trydar ei fod ef a’i ffrind wedi cael llynia’ o ryw fath o ‘UFO’.

Roedd Crowe, seren Les Miserables a Gladiator, wrthi’n ffilmio ystlymod yn Awstralia pan lwyddodd i gymud llynia’ oedd yn ymddangos i awgrymu rhyw fath o wrthrych llachar yn hedfan heibio’r camera. Cafodd y llynia’, a bostwyd ar safle Youtube gan Crowe, gryn dipyn o sylw gan y cyfryngau a’r cy-

hoedd, wrth i bawb mynegi eu barn ar beth oedd yr hyn oedd i weld yn y llyniau. Ymatebod y mwyafrif tuag at honiadau Crowe gyda amheuaeth, gyda llawer yn awgrymu mai awyren neu adlewyrchiad o olau ceir oedd i weld.

Yw’r llyniau’n edrych yn arallfydol i mi...? Well, na.

Yn yr UDA wythnos diwethaf, fe gaewyd priffordd wedi i focs llawn Lego ddisgyn oddi ar dô car oedd yn trafeilio ar y ffordd.

Roedd cymaint o ddarnau wedi

lledu ar hyd y ffordd bu rhaid cyfyngu traffig i un lôn yn unig.

Fe bostwyd ymddiheuriad ar Facebook gan fam bachgen 11 oed lle ddywedodd hi ei bod ei mab yn ypset iawn am ei golled... Efallai buasai prynnu Playstation yn haws, cyn belled ei bod digon call i beidio ei gadw at tô y car.

Yn y cyfamser, yn Efrog Newydd, fe honnodd dyn ei fod wedi cael ei herwgipio i osgoi cael ffrae gyda'i gariad. Yn dilyn darganfod ei fod yn dweud celwydd am yr 'herwgipiad' (roedd rholyn o duct tape dal ar ei arddwn...) fe ddywedodd un plismon - "He's a total moron".

Taf-Od 24-25

Dydd Llun Mawrth 11fed 2013 | @taf_od

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Criw Caerdydd ar y cwrw wrth i Gaerfyrddin gynnal y 'steddfod

Yn dilyn Eisteddfod Rhyng-golegol hynod lwyddiannus eto blwyddyn yma, Gareth Jones sy'n adrodd ar anturiaethau'r Gym Gym draw yn gorllewin

B

u’r utgorn yn galw yng Nghaerfyrddin dros y penwythnos i annog holl fyfyrwyr Cymry Cymraeg y wlad i dref hynaf Cymru. Cyn i nodyn cael ei ganu neu air ei lefaru roedd rhaid i chwaraewyr rygbi, pêldroed a phêl rhwyd y gymdeithas frwydro yn erbyn yr hen elynion yn y gala chwaraeon ar y dydd Gwener. Yn gyntaf, y rygbi.

Lleolir y gystadleuaeth ar gaeau rygbi’r brifysgol, tafliad carreg o’r dref ei hunain. Roedd y dorf niferus yn wych gan leisio eu cefnogaeth yn ddi-ri, dim diolch i’r oerfel dychrynllyd. Gyda’r gefnogaeth wresog tu ôl iddynt llwyddodd y tîm i gipio un fuddugoliaeth yn erbyn Abertawe, chwarae gêm gyfartal â’r Drindod a cholli i dîm pwerus a chyflym o Aberystwyth. Chwaraewr y gystadleuaeth oedd y dylanwadol Steffan (Corcyn) Evans, gydag uchafbwynt y dydd yn dod pan groesodd am gais unigol gwych gan gynhyrfu’r gynulleidfa i’r eithaf.

Er bod y pêl-droedwyr wedi bod yn treillio eu hamser yn mwynhau gwylio’r rygbi gyda chwpwl o boteli roeddynt yn benderfynol o wneud esiampl dda o’u

hunain yn y neuadd chwaraeon.

Does yna ddim byd i’w hatal… (heblaw am Abertawe, Bangor a’r Drindod). Ond mae’n bleser i adrodd mai curo Aberystwyth oedd uchafbwynt y gala iddyn nhw gydag Owain Brown, yn ei rôl newydd fel chwaraewr a rheolwr ar-y-cyd, yn serennu gyda ergyd ragorol a darodd gefn y rhwyd o dros 30 centimetr i ffwrdd.

Tîm mwyaf llwyddiannus y dydd o bell ffordd oedd y tîm pêlrwyd benigamp. Gyda phasio slic a saethu cywir roedd yn anodd rhwystro ein merched ni! Heledd Anna oedd seren y gala yn ôl yr awdurdodau ac maen amhosibl i anghytuno. Gwnaeth y merched yn wych i ymdopi â cholli’r gêm gyntaf i Aberystwyth i guro pob un gêm arall. Profiad a gwaed newydd yn gweithio llaw yn llaw i drechu’r diwrnod.

Ymlaen yr aethom i’r dref ei hun ar gyfer sesiwn go fawr o dan liwt ein hunain. Roedd yn amser i gwrdd â hen ffrindiau o golegau eraill a rheini daeth ar y bws hwyrach o’r brifddinas.

Roedd yn noson hwylus a meddwol gyda rhai o aelodau’r Gym Gym yn dod i adnabod ardaloedd Caerfyrddin ‘ychydig yn well; rhai yn mentro i feysydd parcio’r

dref a rhai i’r man cysgu i ‘rhyddhau stem’.Roedd yn uchafbwynt personol gen i i gael fy nyrnu’n ddisiom gan ddwy ferch fresher tu fewn i dai bach y bechgyn! (A wneith riwun gysylltu â taf-od i esbonio hyn i mi... - Gol.) Profodd yr ail ddiwrnod i fod yn fyd i ffwrdd o’r hyn a ddigwyddodd ar y dydd Gwener. Roedd yn ddiwrnod yr Eisteddfod. Steffan Evans oedd unwaith eto yng nghanol y digwyddiadau gan gael ei fwio oddi ar y llwyfan ar ôl llefaru'r gerdd ‘Tafodiaith’, rhywbeth a blesiodd y ‘gogs’ i gyd mae’n siŵr! Bu’n peri syndod i rai bod llywydd y Gym Gym, Dewi Preece hefyd yn methu curo yn un o’i gystadlaethau unigol, boed ar yr acordion electronig neu ei ddawns greadigol gelfydd.

Daeth buddugoliaeth gyntaf yr eisteddfod diolch i Heledd Lewis wrth iddi gipio’r Goron gyda’i cherdd am derfysg. Yn ôl yr hanes, roedd well gan Heledd eistedd ar y tŷ bach yn hytrach na’r gadair ei hun; ond ar ôl perswâd, rhuthrodd i’r llwyfan mewn da bryd i glywed yr utgorn yn seinio.

Cyrhaeddodd y neuadd â’i chwt rhwng ei chynffon ag eistedd â pheint o bow and black yn ei llaw.

Classy. Llongyfarchiadau mawr iawn i Gwenan Thomas hefyd am ei llwyddiant ysgubol yn y fedal ddrama. Gwnaeth Heledd a Gwenan rywbeth methodd unrhyw un arall gan fedru torri llif buddugoliaethau Gruffydd Antur o Aberystwyth.

Wrth i’r neuadd feddwi mwyfwy ymddangosodd yr enwog ‘fishfinger’ yn amlach. Gyda Caerdydd yn llwyddo i guro mewn mwy o gystadleuthau cododd ysbryd criw Caerdydd a chododd cymylau du’r pennau tost o’r nosweth gynt. Yn ychwanegol, dechreuodd y torf gynhyrfu wrth i bob coleg ddechrau siantio. Aber a’i saint GSE (dal

dim yn siŵr pam?) a Chaerdydd a’i siantiau yn anelu at dwpdra’r colegau eraill…obvs.

Daeth uchafbwynt yr eisteddfod tua’i diweddglo. Yn gyntaf, roedd gwynebau Llion Francis ac Owain Huws wrth iddynt gael ei wâcsio yn rhywbeth i’w gofio am byth. Roedd buddugoliaeth y côr mawr hefyd yn uchafbwynt mawr gan gofio pa mor amharchus oedd y dorf yn ein herbyn. Ond trwy baratoad a sgiliau anhygoel ymdopodd y criw â’r gwatwar, a chreu sŵn bendigedig, digon i gipio’r wobr bwysicaf oll.

Ond, erbyn diwedd y dydd profodd buddugoliaeth Aberystwyth i fod yn haeddiannol. Clowyd yr eisteddfod gyda bloedd o anthem, llawn angerdd ac alcohol mae’n siŵr . Cyn gorffen adrodd am y diwrnod ei hun, anodd peidio sôn am antur Arthur, mascot sinsir Caerdydd. O 10 o’r gloch y bore tan gloi’r eisteddfod roedd ymroddiad Arthur i’r achos yn ysbrydoledig. Gyda phob cân a chanwyd trwy gydol y diwrnod bu Arthur ar ei draed yn siglo o un ochr i’r llall yn mwynhau’r nodau pur. Rhyw ffordd darganfuwyd ei hun ar lwyfan yr eisteddfod yn annerch y trof o nawr ag ymlaen cyn cael ei dywys oddi flaen y gynulleidfa. Bravo Arthur

am ddiddanu’r lleill o oriau man y bore.

Ar ôl ychydig i fwyta roedd rhaid mynd nôl ar y diod meddwol eto am y gìg mawr yn yr undeb. Er bod yn fraint a mwynhad mawr i wrando ar yr holl fandiau, yn enwedig ‘Hud’, roedd yr adloniant i gyd i’w ddarganfod ar lawr. Gyda chwpwl o gwymp fan hyn fan draw a fishfingers noeth roedd y chwerthin a’r yfed yn ddi-stop y nosweth hynna.

Ar ôl i Al Lewis gloi set lwyddiannus roedd yn dda bryd i ddychwelyd i’r dwyrain. Ond nid oedd yna siawns o atal mwy o ddamweinion ar y ffordd nôl; gan gynnwys gwallt Gwen John a thrafferthion Dan Skyrme wrht iddo edrych hyd a lled Caerfyrddin am allwedd ei gar. Gobeithio erbyn hyn fod Dan, Owain a Dylan wedi cyrraedd adre’n saff! Diolch i chi gyd am eich ymroddiad, mae’n wir gwnaethom ni weld mwy na digon o bidynnau ar y dydd, ond roedd yn bris werth ei dalu mae’n siŵr i joio unwaith ‘to yng nghwmni’r YGG.

Meifod i gynnal y Genedlaethol unwaith eto Angharad Hywel Taf-od

Cyhoeddwyd wythnos ddiwethaf fydd yr Eisteddfod Genedlaethol yn ymweld â Meifod yn 2015. Dyma’r ail waith i’r brifwyl ymweld ag ardal Maldwyn yn y blynyddoedd diwethaf; cynhaliwyd yr Eisteddfod ar gaeau Mathrafal yn 2003 hefyd. Daw’r cyhoeddiad yn rhyddhad i nifer, yn enwedig yn dilyn ymgynghoriad y llywodraeth i ddyfodol yr ŵyl.

Cofir Eisteddfod Genedlaethol Meifod 2003, fel gwŷl lewyrchus dros ben. Dywedodd Elfed Roberts, Prif Weithredwr yr Eisteddfod fod “dau beth yn aros yn y cof am ymweliad yr Eisteddfod â Meifod yn 2003. Fe roddodd yr Eisteddfod Meifod ar y map; gyda llawer o ymwelwyr yn dod i’r ardal am y tro cyntaf, ac wrth gwrs, mae pawb yn cofio’r tywydd chwilboeth.”. Gobeithir bydd modd efelychu’r un llwyddiant ar ei hail ymweliad. Bydd paratoadau’n dechrau’n fuan ar

gyfer gŵyl 2015.

Yn fis Hydref 2012, fel y nodwyd yn Taf-od, cyhoeddodd Leighton Andrews y Gweinidog Addysg a Sgiliau ei fwriad i benodi pwyllgor i drafod sut all yr Eisteddfod newid gyda’r oes. Un syniad a gynigwyd oedd i’r brifwyl ymweld â lleoliad parhaol bob yn ail flwyddyn, gan deithio i ardaloedd eraill yn y blynyddoedd bwlch.

Ond, gyda lleoliadau amrywiol wedi’u penderfynu ar gyfer y tair blynedd nesaf, bydd y traddodiad o symud o ardal i ardal yn flynyd-

dol, sydd yn rhan annatod o’r wŷl yn parhau.

Bydd Eisteddfod Genedlaethol 2013 yn cael ei chynnal yn Sir Ddinbych a’r Cyffiniau, ac yna yn Llanelli yn 2014; lleoliadau poblogaidd iawn yn y gorffennol.

Felly, a’i dyma ddechrau cyfnod llewyrchus unwaith eto yn hanes y brifwyl? Yn enwedig yn dilyn cyhoeddiad fod Eisteddfod Bro Morgannwg 2012 wedi gwneud elw o £50,000.

Mae’r blynyddoedd diwethaf wedi bod yn gythryblus iawn i

Eisteddfod Genedlaethol Cymru, yn dilyn colledion ariannol anferth ynghyd ag ymgynghoriad y llywodraeth i ddyfodol y gwŷl.

Dim ond amser a ddengys a fydd y gwŷl yn parhau i ffynnu, ond yn sicr mae dyfodol y brifŵyl yn saff am y blynyddoedd nesaf.

26 / Puzzles

Sudoku

Rhys’ Riddles

Each Sudoku has a unique solution can be reached Easythat Sudoku Puzzles

by KrazyDad, Book 7 Steve has been given a chessboard as a 1000 issue celebration present logically. Enter numbers into the blank spaces so that from Leather Sherlock Holmes. However, Holmes has only given Steve each row, column and 3x3 box contains the 8 pieces. All Queens. Steve's task is to place the 8 Queens on the board so that no pieces can 'take' each other in one move. (Queen's can move numbers 1 to 9.

Sudoku #1

Š 2012 KrazyDad.com

E mail your answers to editor@gairrhydd.com - there'll be a prize for the first person who solves it.

Last week's solution: Steve needs to wait until the Guard is asleep then walk across the bridge for 9 minutes. He then turns around and walks toward the guard who will wake after a minute. The guard will then wait for Steve to arrive (thinking he is a visitor) then send him back.

"Joy in looking and comprehending is nature's most beautiful gift."

-- Albert Einstein

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Listings 27

Monday March 11th 2012 | @mediacsu

MUSIC

Kvelertach Tuesday 12th March at Clwb Ifor Bach. 7.30pm. Tickets £10.

Route 94 Thursday 14th March at Buffalo. 10pm - 4am. Tickets £5 in advance.

Bouncing Souls Thursday 14th March at Clwb Ifor Bach. 7.30pm. Tickets £12.

The Travelling Band Sunday 17th March at Buffalo. 7.30pm. Tickets £8.50

THEATRE

Act One Presents: Spring Awakening Thesday 12th March - Saturday 16th March at the YMCA theatre.

Tickets £7 Rape of the Fair Country Tuesday 12th March - Saturday 16th March at the New Theatre.

Tickets £8.50 - £25.

CLUBS

The Lash Wednesday 27th February at Solus. 10pm - 3am. £3 in advance, £4 on the door.

Comeplay Saturday 2nd March at Solus. 10pm - 2am. £4 in advance, £5 on the door.

Paddy Parade Sunday 17th March starting in Oceana. 8pm - 3am. Tickets £10.

ART & CULTURE

Cardiff Tea Club Wednesday 13th March at Buffalo. Celebrate everything 'tea' while Tea Club DJ's play Reggae, dub and funk. 8pm - 3am. Free entry.

Celebrating Gair Rhydd’s 1000th edition 1972-2013

For properties that move with the times. " &

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32 / Sport

BUCS Review Men's hockey through to playoffs Phillip Wilkinson Sport Writer

Cardiff...............................6 Southampton.....................2 The earlier time of 2:30pm posed no problems for the men's 1st XI as they picked up another impressive win at Fortress Talybont.

In recent games, Cardiff have developed a mental toughness that has served them well and the first half was no exception.

The first 10 minutes smacked of lethargy with Southampton hesitant to press and Cardiff off their game.

The deadlock was broken by Danny Wills finishing a slick short corner move, exchanging

passes with Rupert Shipperly before flicking the ball to the 'keeper's stick side and giving him no chance. This lead was doubled with some good patience from Cardiff who kept their patience against a Southampton team who were looking to counter.

The goal came with a well worked counter from a solid press, finished off by Dom Cooke with a diving finish. 2–0 half time.

After half time, the Cardiff team got lazy in defence and a deflection from a ball struck into the 'D' nestled in the roof past a hapless Andy Hughes.

This spurred Cardiff into showing their class as they went up the other end and applied some pressure. Their superior skills led to some more short corners and, after one was fumbled, Jon Best made an outrageous pick and cooly rounded the keeper to add to Cardiff's advantage.

A reverse strike from Shipperly, followed by a tap-in from Tyson Slat, put Cardiff in a strong position.

Although they conceded late from some lazy defending, they will be relishing the month ahead with a Welsh Cup final, BUCS promotion playoffs and Varsity against Swansea University.

Hockey girls champions of West Phillip Wilkinson Sport Writer

Cardiff................................2 Southampton.....................1 Nerves aplenty in this fixture as both teams knew a win would see them into the BUCS Premier League promotion playoff.

Cardiff have relied this season upon their ability to keep the ball with confidence, but this came under pressure in the opening exchanges. Southampton pressed high and only good strength and

Both teams knew a win would see them into the BUCS Premier League promotion playoff determination from a defence led by Amy Hayes and Louise Linley-Adams saw Cardiff through a difficult patch.

Despite winning some ear-

ly short corners, Cardiff were unable to convert and it was Southampton who took the lead through a short corner. In their attempt to prevent a goal, Cardiff got a stick on a strike which deflected it into the net.

Cardiff rely upon their ability to keep the ball, but this came under pressure in the opening exchanges As with the boys, this spurred Cardiff into life and they began to find their feet. Catherine Macaulay found herself with the ball after captain Grace Pigott had dispossessed the opposition right back.

Macaualy ploughed through three tackles and slipped the ball in at the 'keeper's near post, a sublime composed finish that showed the gulf in class between the two sides.

Buoyed by this goal, Cardiff

became more aggressive in their press and were rewarded when Sarah Barratt burst through the centre of Southamptons defence and found Denise Bootyhagiar at the back post to slot home and make it 2–1. Cardiff piled on the pressure and should have made it more with several short corners to end the half and Southampton pegged in to their own 25.

In the second half, both teams pushed forward but Cardiff were professional in their setup, wide midfielders Jen Tilbury and Katie Davies dogged in defence and Centre midfield Nicole Morrow holding firm to prevent any succesful Southampton forays.

Cardiff were, at times, fortunate not to concede and mention must go to keeper Alice Wills for a solid save to deny a Southampton striker who had a free shot in the 'D'.

The final 10 minutes were tense but Cardiff held their nerve, solid ball retention from Bootyhagiar and Macaulay meant that Cardiff came out with the all important three points.

BUCS mountaineers represent Cardiff in Sheffield Edward Jenkins Sport Writer

On the weekend of February 23rd, Cardiff University Mountaineering Club (CUMC) took part in the BUCS Climbing Championships 2013 at Climbing Works, Sheffield.

After a year’s absence from the competition, Training & Competitions Secretary, Hannah Scott, took a team containing David Fidler, Olivier Goury and William Rees to the event to compete for the University.

The championship was for a specific form of climbing known as bouldering. This is done without ropes over short routes, referred to as problems, and focuses more on the technique, strength and balance needed to complete specific moves rather than covering taller routes in more traditional climbs. Crash mats are used to help prevent the risk of injuries when falling, and it is undertaken both indoors on artificial walls and outdoors on natural boulders. The club is also currently preparing for their annual Easter bouldering trip to the forests of Fontainebleau in France.

The BUCS competition featured 51 Universities from across the country competing on the day in Sheffield. Split over two sessions, competitors had to complete 25 problems across three difficulty levels. The scoring was done on how many attempts it took to complete the problem and firmly grasp the final hold.

A route judge was present at each problem and a first attempt scored 10 points with 2nd and 3rd scoring seven and four points respectively. Bonus points were also awarded for reaching a specific hold if the overall problem was not completed in three attempts. Unfortunately, there was a slight issue with overcrowding leading to some participants not being able to complete attempts towards the end of the session.

The highest placed Cardiff

participant was Fidler, a 1st year student, scoring 162 followed by Goury (111); Scott (104) and Rees (89). The overall winners were Louis Parkinson from Leeds on 238 and Michaela Tracey from Sheffield with 208. The team competition was also won by Sheffield with Edinburgh second and Sheffield Hallam third. Cardiff finished in 46th place.

The BUCS competition featured 51 universities from across the country Despite this lowly position a good weekend was had by all who took part. Fidler summed the weekend up by saying: "I went knowing there was no chance of winning, as we were competing against members of the British team and others whom I've climbed with before who are total beasts, alongside much bigger teams.

"I'll have a go next year and see how my score compares after a year of attempting harder [problems] and trying to avoid injuries. I think all of our team performed admirably and gave it our best shots, which is all that can be asked for."

Each university also had to supply the route judges to score attempts from other teams and this added to what Fidler described as a "nice friendly atmosphere where you talked to random people from other universities".

Whilst in the peak district, a very popular climbing area, the team also spent some time at an outdoor bouldering area called Curbar, with Bangor University.

Thanks also have to go to Hannah Scott’s parents for putting them up for the weekend.

Anyone wishing to get involved with CUMC, regardless of ability, should come to the Mackintosh Pub, at 8pm on a Monday night to sign up for trips on a first come, first served basis.

Sport 32-36

Monday March 11th 2013 | @gairrhyddsport

33

Thomson on cue in BUCS 8-Ball Pool Championships Dylan Mitchell Sport Writer

Third-year Cardiff University student Alex Thomson is the new BUCS 8-Ball pool individual champion following a successful weekend for the club at the annual championships in Great Yarmouth.

The tournament also saw Cardiff 2nds take a bronze medal in the Shield event, and all three Cardiff University teams clinch places at the highest Championship/Trophy level for next season.

Sixteen Cardiff players, and their penguin mascot, made the long trip to East Anglia over the final weekend in February, with the 1sts playing at Championship/ Trophy level, and the 2nd and 3rd teams playing in the Shield.

vided by the 2nd and 3rd teams however, as both teams easily made it through their groups in the Shield.

The 2nds put on an impressive

quarter-final, which finished allsquare after 10 frames. A tense three-frame shoot-out saw Cardiff 2nds edge through to the semi-finals, guaranteeing the

Third team player Matt Vince is also guaranteed a Home Nations trial with 11 wins from 12 frames

The 2nds took a bronze medal in the Shield The 1sts were unfortunate not to progress from a tough initial group stage. Despite a record of two match wins from four, they were pipped to a place in the second-tier Trophy event on frame difference, just behind Strathclyde 1sts.

More than adequate consolation for the club was to be pro-

The 3rd team, too, can be proud of their performance in reaching the quarter-finals, an effort that ensured that they will be one of only two 3rd teams competing at Championship/Trophy level next year.

Third team player Matt Vince is also guaranteed a Home Nations trial with a record of 11 wins from 12 frames.

Despite Cardiff’s sterling efforts in the team events, the undoubted highlights of the weekend came in the individual championship.

unbeaten run to top their group, and the 3rds won three of their four matches to finish second.

Excellent wins for both teams in the last 16 set up an all-Cardiff

six-player team of Matty Evans, Rachel Rowe, Nanak Singh, Phil Ho, Dieter Pospischil, and Dan Turner bronze medals, an outstanding effort.

With many of the tournament’s seeded players tumbling out, including holder Rhys Williams of Edge Hill University, Alex Thomson quietly marched through to the semi-finals, losing only seven frames in as many matches up to that point.

Things were to get tougher in his semi-final match against Tom Barrett of Nottingham University, who had beaten one of the pre-tournament favourites, Mike

Logan, in the quarter-finals.

With an ever-growing crowd watching, Thomson held his nerve in a last-frame decider to set up a final with Lewis Ronaldson of Chester University.

It was a final pairing that few would have predicted, and even fewer would have wanted to predict the winner of, as the finalists nipped and tucked their way to 5–5, and another last-frame decider.

Thomson seized the initiative first with an attempt at a total clearance, breaking down on the final colour; the tactic clearly rattled his opponent, and Ronaldson failed at an attempted snooker.

Thomson proved his mettle once again with a supremely confident pot on a tricky final black to win the frame and title, evoking a huge cheer from the crowd, including former Cardiff alumnus and Wales Home Nations team manager Huw Stapleton.

It was the culmination of a determined and gutsy performance throughout the tournament from Thomson, who becomes the first player from a Welsh university to win the BUCS 8-Ball title.

Thomson's victory was one enjoyed by the whole club, who performed well at yet another tournament despite the loss of their home venue earlier this season.

CURC Novice Men take first BUCS gold Emma Hughes Sport Writer

Cardiff University Rowing Club sent four squads to race at BUCS Head at Boston, Lincolnshire the weekend of February 16th.

This turned out to be an extremely successful weekend for CURC Novice Men, as they came home with what they believe to be their first BUCS gold medal since 2005, when online archive results began. The Novice Men became truly involved by sending out eight crews to race over the weekend. As well as the gold medal picked up by the Beginner 1st VIII, the two other beginner crews came a very respectable 9th and 25th out of a total of 41 crews. The Novice Men also sent out three 4+s and came 3rd, 9th and 11th, which was a great achievement, despite having technical malfunctions fixed by a bit of string holding a rigger together.

With such great results from Saturday, the Novice Men head-

ed out again on the Sunday to see how they would compete against Senior Crews. With a longer distance and stiffer competition, Sunday was never going to be easy. However, the two crews came 16th and 17th out of 27, a great performance putting away many university 2nd VIIIs and any other beginner crew racing.

With an extremely productive weekend, Novice Men’s captain, Tom Tilston said: “Me and Ryan Price are very proud of all the boys’ achievements and are ecstatic that all of our hard work has paid off. The boys have been a pleasure to coach and captain so far. We hope that these results can translate into a successful head season overall and be taken forward into regatta racing!”

The great results didn’t stop there for the CURC Novices. The 1st VIII girls also performed to a very high level and came away with a bronze medal, only 2 seconds off gold. This was an unexpected win for the girls, who pushed off the pontoon not hav-

ing any expectations other than wanting to have a great row and crossing the finishing line with no regrets. The 2nd VIII also showed their potential by making it into the top 10 too.

Overall, it was a really positive

Saturday for all Novices, and their strength and stamina will be put to the test for their next race: WeHORR, a brutal 7km race down the River Thames next weekend.

The Seniors had a tough ride on Sunday, with the calibre of

crews being very high. The Senior Women entered a Champ and Intermediate VIII and managed to secure 9th and 19th respectively. Later on in the day, the Champ Quad stepped up and produced an 8th-place finish, while the Champ 4+ finished in a solid 7th place. Kat Heine, captain of both Women’s squads said that she was “very pleased with all the women’s results, especially with regards to the novices who should excel at the regattas in the summer. Onwards and upwards for CURC women.”

Last but not least, the Senior Men had a mixed weekend with some highs and some lows. The Int4+ came a solid 10th, while the Int8+ came in 4th place out of 27 crews, which was a good result to build upon when heading into regatta season later on this year.

For the Champ 4- and the two Lwt4- crews, the races didn’t go as well as they hoped, but they nevertheless brought in a handful of BUCS points for Cardiff University.

34 / Sport

Focus

Team Talk Special Edition: IMG veteran Justin Savage talks to Sport editor Ross Martinovic about the last 23 years of IMG

I

squad is faring this season.

f the commitment and dedication of IMG players to their competition was ever called into question, look no further than Psycho Athletico's Justin

Are you pleased with how the season is going so far?

Very pleased with the current season. We’ve been involved in some absolutely cracking games, and more recently in the Premiership, having only lost or won by one goal in each of our three games. Our aim was to make it to the Prem and just enjoy mixing it

Savage.

Justin began playing IMG football for the Psychology outfit upon the team's inception in 1991, when he was an undergraduate student at Cardiff.

years, so the timing has been perfect for bringing together a squad with quality throughout. We’ve always been a small squad, and as a departmental team based in Psychology, we have a limited starting base to recruit players from (quite often only 5% of our yearly 200 student intake are blokes).

To this end, we have to cast the net wider and recruit from

Justin Savage, on the far right, in his heyday in the 1991-92 Psycho Celtic team up with the big boys.

Now the School Projects Manager in the School of Psychology, Justin – or Dr Savage, to give him his proper title – continues to turn out weekly for Psycho at the ripe old age of 41, having notched up over 350 games in 23 seasons.

In this special 1000th issue of gair rhydd, Justin describes the changes that he has witnessed in the IMG competition over the course of his many years of involvement, in addition to how the current Psycho Athletico

Being in the Premiership this year after being in the bottom division last year is a fairly remarkable turnaround. Has there been much of an upheaval in the squad?

No, not a big upheaval, but a coming of age with a number of players entering their final year at university. We’ve also picked up some quality strikers and had players return from placement

other departments. We end up in a good position, in that many of the players we pick up are not only top players vouched for by existing team members, but also decent lads whom you’d want to play football with.

Any particular boys catching the eye with their performances this year?

Yes, definitely. Although, genuinely, every single player has excelled in their individual po-

sitions, there have been notable performances in defence and up front. I’m uncomfortable singling out individual players solely on good technique as any manager or player will tell you that it is often the unsung regulars that turn up week-in, week-out that determine a team’s success. Individuals alone do not make a great club.

So, as a big thank you to every member of the team that has turned out for us this season, either as a player or as part of the squad, I’d like to name them all: Matt Lelii, Nat Smithies, Henry Wildey, Jono Brown, Jon Evans, Matt Brixey, Alec Nisbet, Ryan Goddard, Callum Ross Davies, Andy Smith, Andy White, Luke Burnett, Pal Tmk, Nick Goolding, Dean Burnett and Stevie Jenkins.

How would you describe the Psycho Athletico style of play?

Good, honest football with passion. We have a tight-knit squad and all players are willing to cover for each other. As a team, we don’t retain players that could be described as bellends, so it comes as no surprise that we don’t tolerate other teams that bowl up with arrogant and antagonistic players.

Having said that, I take my hat off to many of the players that we have crossed swords with in IMG, as I suspect that everybody metaphorically lives in glass houses, looking out. I’m not agreeing that I’m a bellend, but I’ve certainly been called one on a few occasions (and worse). For the record, if I’ve ever upset anybody, it’s never personal.

Who have been your toughest opponents this year? Who do you think will go on and be in contention for the title?

As our results indicate, we’ve not

yet met any teams that we haven’t been able to mix it up with.

We’ve certainly been involved in some battles, and in previous years, we’ve had scrappy matches against some big teams that expect to turn up and paste us.

It’s probably no secret that we’ve had the odd ding-dong with CARBS, but this only makes the occasion more memorable for the autobiographies that I’m sure some of the boys will go on to write. I think they are currently in the best position to win, but they only just squeaked a win against us at 3–2, so who knows how they will fare for the remaining games?

What's the social scene like for Psycho?

I’m told it’s very good. I have made it out on a few occasions, and although I sometimes recognise the odd tune in some music played, which makes me feel normal, I’m very conscious of being the oldest person in the nightclub.

This has led to interesting interactions with doormen and bouncers, who need to see two forms of ID from me in order to allow me in. I’ve had doormen from the Union try to turn me away for being too drunk when I’ve just driven from an evening game of 5-a-side to join the boys late on a Wednesday social in the Union. Apparently, it’s to do with the way I walk after playing 11-a-side in the afternoon and 5-aside in the evening of the same day, and not because I’m a balding 41-year-old with a shifty demeanour.

It’s a bit weird when players from other teams ask to be photographed with you, which is flattering, if a bit strange. However, due to the numerous footballing injuries I’ve picked up along the

Division Two Premiership

Division One

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Engin Automotive FC

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35

Sport 32–36

Monday March 11th 2013 | @gairrhyddsport

Psycho Athletico FC team that, on their ‘day off’, they should have to supply refs for other games. But it has, in all the years I’ve played, been the most successful solution.

I’ve played when they’ve tried to recruit paid refs, which never worked as refs have day jobs; I’ve played when everybody has to send a sub for a half to an adjacent game, which players and managers never liked, especially when you have a bare 11, and I’ve played in seasons where everybody reffed their own games, which is advantageously successful for those teams that want to win at any cost.

While some players moan about the quality of refereeing, the neutrality has a lot to be argued for. I'd like to see players take responsibility for this issue and for everybody to familiarise themselves with the rules. There are a lot of players who don’t know what constitutes a foul throw, a backpass, an indirect free kick and under what circumstances it is appropriate to call a ref to give an offside ruling.

Related to this, my biggest bug-bear is why teams insist on having linesmen for offsides. No other amateur league in Cardiff does this and is the biggest contentious issue remaining. It is a guaranteed way to swing a game, even if unintentional. Other refs are comfortable calling offsides, and at least this way, bad decisions should statistically even out. I think teams should man up and agree to bin off the linesmen.

I should also point out that Psycho Athletico is bigger than just the IMG 11-a-side. We have, in recent years, had a very good mixed 11-a-side squad that has played in an informal league against other institutions. We also have a strong, staff-based 7-a-side team that has, for the last three years, won the staff ‘Phew’ league. One

way, I suspect my breakdancing days are over.

Is it strange being an older head in such a young crowd?

Socially, see above. Playing wise, it can be frustrating. I’m constantly being reminded by players that they, too, have their own opinion about team tactics, etc.

I’ve had the odd ‘toys out of the pram’ moment that belies my experience, but I sometimes wonder if players realise that I have played a lot of football and often know when a tactic will or won’t work.

Having said that, I try to make the boys responsible for the team’s performance, and as such, always get them to appoint a captain among themselves and get them to pick the team. When they leave me on the bench, I go home and cry. Matt Brixey has a done a great job with the captaincy this year, although I must say that his kit-washing ability is very poor.

I’m one of the few people that enjoy reffing games, and I can see the benefit that age/experience has when it comes to this aspect of the game. For this reason, I’m always sympathetic to those lads that draw the short straw and have to ref when they don’t really want to, so I think we have to be mindful of this. Captains should be more proactive in supporting the refs to ensure the game is managed properly.

What have you thought of the new structure of the IMG this year? Have there been any particular issues for you?

I get asked every year for my opinion on this, and usually it falls on deaf ears. However, this year, for the first time, my suggestion of how the refereeing should work has been listened to and implemented. I know it hasn’t been popular with every

of the things that would be nice to see in the future is a women’s league at IMG level. Alongside the IMG 7-a-side league, I think this would be a positive way for the IMG to expand.

How long have you personally been playing IMG? How has the competition changed and what is it about IMG football that has kept you involved all these years?

I started playing IMG back in the early 1990s as an undergrad. This is my 23rd year and I have been with the Psychology team since

The IMG has changed in those 23 years, most notably shifting emphasis away from a social society to something a bit more institutionally organised. This has brought both benefits and downsides. I think that one of the downsides is the cost of team registration. I’ve seen this rise from £30 per team to £250 – this burns a big hole in most clubs’ accounts and is possibly one of the reasons why the competition has gone from being oversubscribed to undersubscribed. I do think that the University needs to take another look at this to see if this really

does and does not work.

Any final comments?

I would say a big congratulation to gair rhydd on its 1o00th issue.

I have followed it with great affection over the years, with IMG coverage faring variably from one editor to the next. I have many back issues with match reports mentioning Psycho Athletico. gair rhydd has good company – on March 4th 2013, A Question of Sport – a programme I loathe but many love – celebrated its 1000th episode. Similarly, on March 5th 2013, Ryan Giggs – who plays for

Savage is still featuring for Psycho in 2013 at the age of 41 its inception in 1991, when it was set up as Psycho Celtic by Dan ‘Chopper’ Donnelly (who is now a feature presenter on The One Show). It has been through the odd name change, with it finally settling on Psycho Athletico for the 1995–96 season. I was handed the main role of running the team in 1994 and this predominantly comprises of washing the kit, organising the fixture list, dragging players out of bed for a game, ferrying players to A&E and writing personal job references.

represents value for money.

There have been major benefits of the University taking over the administration. In the past, we’ve had to wait for a student to be nominated as IMG Chair, which often happened late in the term and resulted in each new person trying to implement a new solution to fix the old problems of refereeing, first aid and competition structure. The new system should allow for greater year-on-year consistency and enable the management to see what

teams I don’t support but is nonetheless a great player – made his 1000th professional appearance.

Just to put this in perspective, I have probably played around 350 IMG games, and so I hope to one day also join the 1000 League of Fame.

Going by my estimates, at my current playing rate (taking into account injuries and a conservative rate of 16 games per year), to reach 1000 IMG games I’d be double my age at 82 years old. I think I’m gonna make it.

IMG Netball tables Division One

P

W

D

L

Pts

Division Two

P

W

D

L

Pts

Division Three

P

W

D

L

Pts

Division Four

P

W

D

L

Pts

1

ENCAP A

3

3

0

0

9

1

Pharmacy A

4

2

1

1

7

1

Chemistry

3

2

1

0

7

1

Cardiff Dental

3

2

0

1

6

2

Cardiff Uni A

4

3

0

1

9

2

ENCAP B

3

2

0

1

6

2

SOCSI B

2

2

0

0

6

2

Cardiff Medics B

3

2

0

1

6

3

CARBS A

2

2

0

0

6

3

SOCSI A

3

2

0

1

6

3

OPSOC

4

2

0

2

6

3

HistorySoc

3

2

0

1

6

4

Law A

3

2

0

1

6

4

Engin Auto

3

2

0

1

6

4

Psychology B

3

1

0

2

3

4

Pharmacy B

4

2

0

2

6

5

Law B

3

1

0

2

3

5

Cardiff Medics A

2

1

0

1

3

5

JOMEC

2

1

0

1

3

5

Bioscience

3

1

1

1

4

6

Psychology A

4

0

0

4

0

6

Cardiff Uni B

3

1

0

2

3

6

CARBS B

4

1

0

3

3

6

EUROS

4

1

0

3

3

7

Engin Loco

3

0

0

3

0

7

EarthSoc

4

0

1

3

1

7

URNU

2

0

1

1

1

7

Gym Gym

2

0

1

1

1

Men’s novice rowing claim first gold since 2005 << page 33

cardiffstudentmedia.co.uk /gairrhydd

Sport Monday March 11th 2013 | Issue 1000

Success for pool in Great Yarmouth

Sport editor Ross Martinovic reviews a successful week of BUCS action for Team Cardiff

T

he Cardiff University Hockey Club led the way for Team Cardiff this week, with playoff-securing victories for both the men's and women's squads.

The women's side hosted Southampton in a winner-takesall clash for the Western Conference 1A top spot at Llanrumney

and emerged 2-1 victors amid jubilant scenes, while the men thrashed the same opponent 6-2 (see full reports on page 32).

Men's and women's football experienced identical results against Cardiff Met, with both teams unable to be separated in 1-1 home draws. The Netball Club, meanwhile, did manage to overcome their local rivals 2nd VII 44-37 in Western 1A.

Hockey Club cruise into playoffs << page 32

The Hockey Club led the way, with playoff-securing victories for the men’s and women’s squads The men's squash team are another Cardiff side to make the promotion playoffs as a 5-0 vic-

tory at Glamorgan helped them seal top spot in Western 2B. The women's lacrosse squad's fine season continued as they consolidated their position at the summit of Western 1A with a 22-6 win at Bath 2nds, although their male counterparts went down 9-5 in their second versus third clash against Varsity rivals Swansea.

Women's fencing's dreams of a BUCS Championship final were

ended by a comprehensive 13596 defeat at home to an excellent Imperial outfit in the semi-final, while men's rugby were also dumped out in the final four of the BUCS Vase 22-6 at Nottingham.

Men's tennis and table tennis unfortunately both suffered heavy losses, overwhelmed 12-0 and 16-1 to Bournemouth 2nds and Glamorgan respectively.

Team Talk Special: Psycho Athletico << page 34-35