Issue 1133, Monday March 4 - Election Scandal

Cardiff University’s student paper | Established 1972

Silenced:

Gair Rhydd were going to run a story on alleged SU election scandal.

We have since been silenced.

rhifyn 1133 issue 1133

gair rhydd

4 mawrth 2019 4 march 2019

Check out Gair Rhydd online

2

EDITORIAL

Gair Rhydd 2018/19 Coordinator Elaine Morgan

Editor-in-Chief Jess Warren

Deputy Editors Silvia Martelli Reece Chambers Michael Ash

Head of Digital Media Michael Ash

News

Gee Harland Indigo Jones Emma Ogao Matt Tomlin

Campus Life Ashley Boyle Cerian Jones

Taf-od

Llion Carbis Tomos Evans

For more content, head to gairrhydd.com

word

the free

A letter from the editor Inflation makes ‘millenial’ wages equivalent to £337,500 in 1970s

Comment

Alys Hewitt Hannah Newberry Emma Videan

Column Road Karis Pearson

Politics

Charlotte King Silvia Martelli Lowri Pitcher Sam Tilley

Advice

Ashavari Baral Katie Lewis

Saunders’ Corner

Sam Saunders

Science

Daniel Brown Jonathan Learmont

Sport

Reece Chambers Rosie Foley John Jones Laura Price Jack Vavasour George Willoughby

Social Media Editors Indigo Jones Giovanna Coi

Digital Media Editors Maisie Marston Jordan Parker Cadi Thomas

Copy Editors

Sofia Brizio Ilona Cabral Chris Colbourn Abi Dudbridge Elen Fflur Davies Gemma Hopley Steph Rowe

Write to the editor editor@gairrhydd.com

At Gair Rhydd we take seriously our responsibility to maintain the highest possible standards. We may occasionally make mistakes, however if you believe we have fallen below the standards we seek to uphold, please email editor@gairrhydd.com.

You can view our Ethical Policy Statement and Complaints Procedure at cardiffstudentmedia.co.uk/complaints.

Opinions expressed in editorials are not reflective of Cardiff Student Media, who act as the publisher of Gair Rhydd in legal terms, and should not be considered official communications or the organisation’s stance.

Gair Rhydd is a Post Office registered newspaper.

by Jess Warren

Too many treats: Barclays suggest ‘millenials’ should stop spending money on “treats” so they can afford a home.

Source: Artem Bali (via Unsplash)

B

y some accounts I class as a ‘millennial’, I’m 20 years old.

Some consider the ‘millennial’ age bracket to be 22-37, but either way I’m not sat in my four-bed home with a mortgage paid off and two cars parked outside.

Barclays have conducted research that showed millennials spent £3,000 a year on “treats” such as coffee, clothes and socialising. Barclays intent was to explain that these young, frivolous spenders could do much better to save, and acquire much bigger things such as houses.

And this just doesn’t sit right with me. What Barclays are really saying is that our younger generation are much better suited to sit indoors and save every penny than to enjoy their lives by socialising with friends and family outside of the home. Because as soon as you leave the home, that is where

money is spent.

Realistically, any chance of the millennial generation owning their own home is non-existent. We are a generation that have lived through a financial crisis and come out with an economy in shambles.

Now I’ve done some quick maths based on the average ‘millennial’ salary of £22,00 a year. According to the Office for National Statistics composite price index, prices in 2019 are 1,434.09% higher than average prices throughout 1970. However, the pound only experienced an average inflation rate of 5.73% per year during this period.

To put it plainly, £22,000 in 1970 is equivalent in purchasing power to £337,500.47 in 2019, a difference of £315,500.47 over 49 years. This means that we are getting significantly less for our earnings than any generation before us. No wonder the baby boomers were able to climb the property ladder so

easily – they could afford to, and the government was practically dishing houses out for free.

What Barclays also fail to recognise is that there is a considerable housing shortage in the UK, and as the population increases, housing supply can not meet the demand. Heading into the future, we are looking at more innovative and unique ways of living – house shares, community living, and of course living with your family for longer. There just simply aren’t enough houses, and even if there were, we can’t afford them.

So, when we look at this frivolous £3,000 we’re spending on treats, how does this compare to previous generations? Looking instead at purchasing power us ‘millennials’ have, compared to the 1980, prices in 1980 are 76.49% lower than average prices throughout 2019. This means that £3,000 in 2019 is equivalent in

purchasing power to £705.44 in 1980.

Does it really seem that frivolous now? All we are doing is enjoying our free time, socialising with friends and family, buying a coffee here and a glass of wine there.

It’s predicted that our generation will be unable to retire until aged 72 due to income levels and an inability to save the recommended 15% of our income.

So, whilst I’m working far beyond a point that any other generation have, I still won’t be able to afford my own home.

Heading forward, the ‘millennial’ generation have enough on their plates, the burden of student debt, inability to join the property ladder and an extra seven years of predicted work life. The last thing we need is Barclays breathing down our necks and telling us to cut back on the “treats”, goodness knows we need them to get us through this bleak financial future.

What you need to know about Gair Rhydd | your student newspaper here at Cardiff University

We are your student voice Editorially independent and funded by your Students’ Union

Anybody at Cardiff University can

write for us

Simply join the Gair Rhydd Contributors 2018/19 page on Facebook

In print weekly and always online we are printed weekly on a Monday, available for free across campus and online at gairrhydd.com

8 desks

We cover a vast range of content, as you’ll see. You are always welcome to contact any one of

8

our desks, and you can find us on the 3rd floor of the

Students’ Union

Continues from front page

G

air Rhydd received a number of different and controversial allegations of foul play and dirty politics over the course of elections last week.

Up until Thursday 28 February, Gair Rhydd’s front page covered these topics.

On the evening of Thursday 28, Gair Rhydd received a call from an election candidate.

They requested that their side of the story be unconditionally withdrawn, having allegedly been placed under pressure from a member of the Sabbatical team.

In a campaign rife with allegations of foul play, Gair Rhydd has wholeheartedly tried to uncover the truth behind these claims but has been frustrated by actions of some people that wanted to stop this story.

It is important to note that the Students’ Union is not silencing us. But, we have received a demand to pull this story, due to alleged fear within the Sab-

batical team that the fallout of the story would hinder the relationship between Sabbatical officers for the remainder of their term in office.

There were concerns that this storycould cause a scandal that could compromise many personal and public relationships.

Numerous other sources have come forward under the veil of anonymity to share similar accounts of foul play.

Since the start of elections many complaints have been formally lodged with Student Voice. An SU spokesperson stated that: “At present a total of 14 issues have been considered by the Union regarding elections. Ten originated from students as complaints.

“Of these ten, seven relate to a reported breach of rules by candidates or their campaigners and three relate to Union activity. Of the seven complaints about candidates, two have been upheld and action taken.

For action to be taken with a candidate by the Union, a complaint must

reach these three criteria: “Is the action a breach of the election rules? Is there evidence of a candidate or team members actions in doing so? Was an unfair advantage gained?”

A spokesperson from the SU stated: “A number of the complaints or issues raised were not considered to be a breach of the election rules as judged by the independent and external Returning Officer.

“Where the behaviour of candidates or their supporters is within the election rules, it is for the electorate to make a judgement call of whether the behaviour they see is reflective of what they wish to see in their elected representatives.”

We feel this is a news story that is undeniably in the student interest and therefore we are publishing as much as we legally can without fear of repercussion to our sources, or ourselves.

by Gee Harland

C

ardiff University has a brand new commitment to phasing out single-use plastic and has already made significant process around campus.

A Cardiff University spokesperson told Gair Rhydd: “The phasing out of single-use plastics across the University is one of a number of measures that we’ve put in place to help build an inclusive, sustainable and resilient future for our community and to bring about environmental benefits not only to Cardiff and Wales but to the wider world”.

To start this process, they have used blue signage on all the campus drinking fountains, so students can easily find and access water from the refill stations.

Moreover, they have added all 55 drinking fountains on to a new national app called ‘Refill’. The app has uploaded the locations of over 14,000 refill stations worldwide.

It is easy to use, you just download the app, enter your location and find a local refill station.

The app intends to ‘save money and prevent plastic pollution’ by people using the app to find water on the go.

Alongside the app, shop windows have also started putting a ‘Refill droplet’ sticker that says: “Free tap water”.

Refill: Cardiff University continures phasing out single-use plastic through new scheme. Photo Credit: Matthew Gollop (via Pixabay) These locations will also show on the app, as well as just being able to look for shop windows with the new blue sticker.

The app also receives 13p every time someone uses ‘Refill’, which goes towards helping fund our planet protecting campaigns.

To download the free app, you can find it on the app store or google play.

The university has also opened up an

email for students to provide feedback for the app on: studentappfeedback@ cardiff.ac.uk As well as uploading the campus drinking fountains onto the app, the University also introduced non-disposable hot drink cups.

“We would encourage all of our students to use their non-disposable drinks bottles and cups on campus and to fill up their water in our desig-

nated drinking fountains”, said a Cardiff University spokesperson.

These cups can be accessed in any café and restaurant across campus.

Students and staff who use the cups will receive a 25p discount on any hot drink when using the non-disposable cups.

Since last semester, the University recorded 8,000 instances of staff and students using the non-disposable cups across campus.

The University has also managed to reduce the number of water bottles purchased for catering and hospitality purposes by over 25% since the last academic year. This is a decline of 22,320 compared to the previous year.

A Cardiff University spokesperson concluded: “We’re extremely pleased with the progress that we’ve made so far and it’s encouraging to see so many of our staff and students embracing these sustainable initiatives” “However, we are not complacent and will continue to look at ways in which we can reduce our campus footprint, such as phasing out condiment sachets from our catering facilities and engaging with other local businesses to reduce their single-use plastics”.

“We are also currently reviewing how single-use plastics are used across our open days”.

To contact our news desk, drop us an email at news@gairrhydd.com

The University has reduced the number of plastic water bottles by 25% since last year

NEWS

Cardiff University’s new commitment to phasing out single-use plastic

NEWYDDION

by Jess Warren, Lowri Pitcher, Sam Tilley & Tomos Evans

For more content, head to gairrhydd.com/news

Alleged SU election scandal: a silence on Gair Rhydd

3

Your news desk Gee Harland Emma Ogao Matt Tomlin Indigo Jones

4

NEWS

New Sexual Health scheme to reach schools in Wales

by Christopher Colburn

T

he new scheme, renamed Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) will attempt to address the negative tone of sex education and health classes, as well as their narrow focus on the biological aspects of sex.

It aims to have teachers educating students about reproduction, periods and STIs, across the new cross-curricular approach. This was informed by an expert panel chaired by Cardiff University professor Emma Renold, who also address the social and cultural aspects of sexuality and relationships, as well as the increased role the internet plays in relationships.

The panel’s report recommends a rights and gender-based model for RSE, aiming to inform students about the diverse array of personal identities available to them, outside of cultural norms.

The panel also recommends that RSE should inform students about social justice issues, and encourage them to act as ethical citizens in society.

The new guidelines, due to be made compulsory in 2022, will move away from the current heteronormative focus of sex education, including information about diverse sexualities and gender identities.

This more inclusive curriculum will attempt to remove the burden on LGBT+ students to educate themselves about their own identities, by introducing and normalising these identities from a young age.

Under the new guidelines, sex education will not be relegated to a once-aweek health class, consisting mainly of putting condoms on bananas and tampons in glasses of water.

The new guidance aims to give schools the freedom to address a broad array of RSE issues across subjects. History and RS lessons could address the history of gay and trans rights activism and the changes in society that have come as a result.

Schools will also be expected to place a greater focus on the emotional components of relationships, inform students about domestic abuse and teach them about consent, boundaries and respect.

The new reforms aim to empower students to recognise the differences between healthy and unhealthy relationships, and give them the agency to communicate what they do and do not want to their partner, rather than assuming that they have to behave according to social expectation.

In addition to sex and relationship education, health classes will teach children in primary and secondary schools how to look after their own mental health, and recognise when their peers are struggling.

The reformed guidelines that are currently undergoing consultation will continue to implement the panel’s recommendations and aims to provide students in Wales with the knowledge and vocabulary to understand the diversity of the modern world.

Moreover it aims to provide the ability and confidence to take a more active interest in their physical and mental health.

‘Operation Sceptre’ proving successful in stopping knife crimes in Cardiff South Wales police successfully attended 150 incidents and conducted around 350 stop searches

by Indigo Jones

C

ardiff and the surrounding areas have recently become subject to an increase of knife or knife-related crimes.

According to South Wales police: “More than 100 arrests have been made by [the] team set up to tackle knife crime in Cardiff ”.

This rise in knife crimes last year saw the start of ‘Operation Sceptre’, an initiative which began in the Summer of 2018 in order to cut down knife crimes in Cardiff and was initially led by the Metropolitan Police.

According to South Wales police, in the last six months they have: “arrested 101 people, taken 46 weapons off the street and seized nearly £90k worth of drugs and cash”.

Detective Sergeant Dan Sweeney, who leads the team, stated: “We are mainly a proactive team in plain clothes and unmarked vehicles, enabling us to react and respond to intelligence and incidents.

“However, we can revert to high visibility and uniformed patrols at short notice if and when required.”

Recently, a man was arrested on the scene at St Mary Street, on the

St Mary Street: This month several cases of knife crime have been linked to the street. Photo Credit: Jonathon Billinger (via geograph) 8th of February, for possession of a weapon. He has since been charged with possession of a knife, blade or sharp pointed article in a public place.

Cardiff University partners with Eisteddfod

by Hallum Cowell

C

ardiff University has partnered with the Urdd Eisteddfod festival this year.

The concert is going to take place in the Millennium stadium, while the festival takes place in Cardiff Bay between the 27th of May and the 1st of June.

The festival is free to attend but the evening concert requires a ticket. The University is focusing on the free event, the “Maes”.

The University will also support the Crowning ceremony for the winner of the prose competition.

The news come a week after Transforming Cardiff laid out intentions to merge the School of Welsh with other schools on the University

campus.

The festival holds a number of competitions as well, from a range of singing competitions to folk dancing.

More than 15,000 young people are expected to attend therefore it is clear to see why Cardiff University is keen to be present at the event.

Dr Huw Williams, Dean for Welsh language said: “part of our ‘civic mission’ is to promote and celebrate the Welsh language and ensure that we contribute to Welsh cultural life”.

“We do this in many ways already, not least in our participation in and support for the National Eisteddfod every year”.

Craft, Design and Technology Exhibition at Urdd Eisteddfod 2009.

Photo Credit: National Assembly for Wales (via Flickr)

Just over a week later on the 22nd of February, a 17-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of wounding with intent, following the stabbing of a man in Cardiff city centre in the

early hours of the morning.

The Detective Sergeant continued by stating: “Our aims are to pursue those carrying, and using knives in a public place, and to pro-actively patrol areas where there are community concerns.”

Most of the knives that are seized by the team during these weapon sweeps are found in the woods, parks or bushes where criminals tend to hide their knives.

The team includes detectives, a dog handler and road policing officers, yet according to Detective Sergeant Dan Sweeney, they still rely on the work of: “the Neighbourhood Policing teams, response officers, and detectives, who all are contributing to the fight against knife crime and helping to keep Cardiff safe”.

As a team they have successfully attended 150 incidents and conducted around 350 stop searches.

You will find a related video on South Wales Police’s Facebook page or their Twitter @swpcardiff.

It is also possible to learn more about ‘Operation Sceptre’ online through the hashtag #OpSceptreTeam.

New Central Quay Development Scheme in Grangetown

by Yasmin Begum

T

he new Central Quay development will be located on the waterfront of the river Taff opposite Taffmead, separating the build from the historically much older and Victorian-looking wider area.

On the site of the historic Brains Brewery, the proposed scheme could see up to 2.5 million square feet of a mixture of residential property, offices and leisure space.

The Brains site has been a towering entity over Cardiff, emitting a thick smell of hops to anybody living in and around the CF10 and lower CF5 area in the city. The potential of this site to completely change the local area is a topic that’s become widely debated amongst residents.

Renewed plans have articulated a desire to expand the original geographic area of the site to 14 acres, including Cardiff Central Railway station and the BMW garage on the east side of Penarth Road.

Some local residents have said that the development threatens the whole character of the wider local area. It includes apartments, a car park and so much more.

The development cannot be extricated from the concept of gentrification. Gentrification is when the middle class move into a working-class area, making it more palatable for the middle class to the detriment of those communities.

Cardiff is already the second fastest growing city, and Grangetown is also

home to Wales’ most diverse population in terms of racial diversity.

Research carried out by Chwarae Teg found that women in Wales from black and minority ethnic backgrounds are more likely to be out of work than other groups: gentrifying ground zero for Cardiffian BAME communities affects some of the most vulnerable in our society.

Finally, the location has been identified by Cardiff Metropolitan University as a site for a potential school to be built.

That tower of Brains brewery has hung over Cardiff for years as a familiar sight to generations of Cardiffians and non-Cardiffians alike.

That tower will remain the same for years to come, albeit in a different form.

Brains Brewery subject to new development scheme Photo Credit: Alan Levine (via Flickr)

“I ENJOY THE CONTROL AND MENTAL CHALLENGE.”

CELEBRATING FEMALES IN SPORT: 4TH - 8TH MARCH

BYWYD CAMPWS

For more content, head to gairrhydd.com/campuslife

6

Enthusiasm vs. Module Choices Slacking students’ lack of interest damages serious candidates enthusiasm

by Cerian Jones n theory everyone at university is doing what they love or at least sees themself in a career based off of their degree. People should be passionate about what they’re studying. They chose their subject and many courses include optional modules. Students should be doing the things they like but students are finding that peers aren’t as enthusiastic.

I

As I interviewed students on

I want people in my class to be passionate, but I can’t do anything about it

whether they and their peers are enthusiastic or not, I came across the same answers: students on courses with the majority of their modules being compulsory showed less enthusiasm, or that’s what many said:

To contact our campus life desk, drop us an email at campuslife@gairrhydd.com

CAMPUS LIFE

“I feel think that in subjects with more choice, regarding modules, you’ll find people who are more passionate for those niche subjects. The reason I picked Cardiff was because the course was so open, everyone has the opportunity to pick something they want to study.”

Ashley Boyle Cerian Jones

Enthusiastic Enthusiastic students students as as observed by peers by % observed by peers by % 36% 64%

Yes

No

“I feel it can depend on the performance of the lecturer, but on the whole I have found that in optional modules there has definitely been a greater level of enthusiasm which in turn makes me feel more engaged in class” “I don’t expect people to be passionate about compulsory modules, but there are still people who don’t like the modules they chose.”

Engaging teaching is definitely a factor in student enthusiasm.

It’s easy to fall asleep to a droning lecturer reading off of a slideshow you could’ve just read yourself at home.

“Some lecturers aren’t as good as others, or some are boring,

Source: Grovemade (via Unsplash) “Students are definitely more interested in classes for optional modules, and less so in core modules.”

It often seems that the material and teaching style of the compulsory modules are what is putting students off: “Most of my core modules are boring and not very engaging”

Your campus life desk

not all your modules are compulsory it’s easy to see why students are so exhausted.

Sure some modules are going to be both necessary and a bit mundane, but if the majority if

and if the teaching isn’t engaging the students aren’t going to be [engaged]” “You have to go into it knowing that there are going to be classes and teachers that you don’t enjoy or like” I conducted a survey to see if my hypothesis is correct, are students with optional modules more enthusiastic than those with compulsory modules?

The Survey showed that although over half (68%) of the

students who answered did have some if not all optional modules, and got to choose exactly what they studied. However only less than half (36%) confirmed that both themselves and their peers were enthusiastic in and out of class.

After reading student’s responses however the majority agreed that more freedom with module choice would increase enthusiasm and course enjoyment.

Students who have optional modules their Students who haveon optional course by % modules on their course by % 32%

68%

yes

no

enthusiasm plummet as the year goes on. For example courses such as english literature, or language, psychology, and other media courses all have optional modules as a majority but enthusiasm still varies a lot.

“I often feel that other students are not very passionate or interested, which is surprising for the degree (English literature and language). It is especially felt in seminars when no one contributes and spends most of the class on their phones, if they even show up at all. It is discouraging to be surrounded by people who aren’t excited about what they do.”

“Some students give the impression they chose the course because they thought it would be an easy degree (media) which isn’t encouraging.”

Feedback also pointed out that the students doing joint honours degrees get even less choice and often are forced to choose modules they aren’t interested in due to timetable clashes.

Which academic year I turned to other data to see surveyed Whichstudents academic year studentsare surveyed if the year of study effected encurrently in by % thusiasm, the survey showed are currently in by % that approximately half of all students who responded were in their second year of study, this 8% could definitely have an impact 16% on enthusiasm among students as goes the infamous ‘second23% year-slump’ where students in the middle year of their course become more relaxed about their grades and put in less effort to go 53% to class or engage with their lectures.

It’s also true that students become overwhelmed with a larger and much more demanding workload. Many courses suffer in enthusiasm because of the nature of the subject, for example, rigorous, career oriented, courses are more taxing on students, such as medicine, engineering, and law.

“People do tend to choose Engineering for the job prospects, but considering the requirements in the first place, and the course is very intensive, some don’t enjoy classes but still work really hard.”

“There are just some classes that are boring, like statistics, and as a result difficult reports and narrow margins make people tired. Fatigue is definitely a killer of enthusiasm” However even courses that pride themselves on their range of optional modules find student

1

2

3

4+

“You can’t always pick what you want to do, it’s sometimes the best of a few bad options” “In theory I could take purely optional modules but due to clashes I had more limited options.”

As stated it makes sense to most students that they’d be more eager in class if they had more flexibility with module choice. The fact that the statistics argue this point is interesting and leads me to conclude there are many other factors that affect student enthusiasm. Taking all these factors into account, it is impossible to determine exactly what controls student enthusiasm, with personal life, financial problems, physical and mental health, and many other issues that might contribute to students lacking passion for their degree.

All data collected through a survey of Cardiff University students conducted by Gair Rhydd

BYWYD CAMPWS

The Return of Nerd Varsity

7

Sustainability

in Cardiff Cardiff’s Nerdiest Societies invite you to take on a challenge! Week

by Suzannah Murphy

by Ellis Jones rom humble origins on the outer reaches of Cardiff Fringe Festival, Nerd Varsity has emerged as an ambitious programme of fun events which aims to appeal to all, from the casual observer through to the most dedicated fan.

Originally an easy going intersociety meetup between Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Anime, Harry Potter, CRITS and Gaming Societies. This year Nerd Varsity will be better than ever with the addition of two new societies, Quiz and Film! The event has also opened its doors to all students who can’t get enough of all things nerdy, meaning any-

F

one from outside these societies can join the fun and take part in the nerdiest event of the year!

Rhys Lloyd, President of Cardiff Sci-Fi and Fantasy Society had this to say: “This year’s bigger and better than the previous, I’m proud of how far the event has come, and am very excited for what the future holds for Nerd Varsity!”

Highlights of Nerd Varsity include lightsaber battles where you can emulate your favourite duels from Star Wars, a quidditch tournament and potion brewing to enchant the keenest of Potter fans, not to mention a high-octane Mario Kart Championship! These are just some of

Image Source: Stan Zurek via Wikimedia Commons

the many, many activities taking place. Find out more on Nerd Varsity’s Facebook or the Students Union website.

Nerd Varsity Blasts off today!

Events continue for a blockbuster two weeks! With student friendly ticket prices, costing £4 for nerd society members and £5 for non-members for the whole two weeks, this is certainly one to watch. Especially as all profits go to the winning team’s choice of charity helping to support a worthy cause whilst enjoying the events with friends.

Do you have what it takes to challenge Cardiff ’s nerdiest?

Want to show off your lightsaber skills, or cast a spell over the

Nerd Varsity: Get your game face on! Source: Cardiff University Students Union competition? Are you a Mario Kart champion or more of a quiz master? Find out for yourself at Nerd Varsity!

Image Source: Kevinquickle via Flickr

T

he Sustainable Places Research Institute has organised a series of free events marking Cardiff University’s 2019 Sustainability Week, commencing March 4th, with a key focus on food production.

A key event, led by Professor Lang, from City, University of London, explores potential transformation of the UK food system from a stretched and unsustainable (economically, environmentally and health-wise) system to rebuilding ecosystems and a healthier Britain.

This talk, “Should the UK grow more food?”, shall additionally form discussions on the implications of Brexit on food production, as well as a potential UK benchmark diet and implications of eating habits. The event takes place on Thursday (5.307pm).

Further discussions hosted by the Sustainable Research Institute include; ‘Bananageddon- A fruit in crisis’ exploring sustainable methods to keep the banana as a regular in household fruit bowls, as well as ‘Transforming relationships with regional food systems’, a talk on how technology can be utilised to create healthy and sustainable diets. Events take place on Tuesday (2-3pm) and Thursday (1.30-2.30pm), respectively.

For those wanting to get outside, the Institute is hosting a range of activities across Cardiff’s green areas.

They include guided walks around the Bute Park, both Global Gardens in Whitchurch (Wednesday 9.30am1pm), Canton Community Gardens (Thursday, 9.30am-12.30pm), to a tour of the Amgueddfa CymruNational Museum Wales, a botany collection and herbarium (Tuesday 12-1pm), there’s lots to get involved with.

An additional opportunity to catch some fresh air and appreciate Cardiff’s community efforts to become more sustainable is the guided bike ride to Riverside Community Gardens. Includes a scenic ride along the Taf trail and gardening activities once at the allotments on Friday (24.30pm).

Furthermore, the Photovoice workshop, is a practical, taught demonstration of an alternative research method, occurring on Thursday.

Given the importance of diminishing green spaces in cities and the fundamental importance of looking after our ecosystems through sustainable food production, getting involved with Sustainability Week is certainly worthwhile.

The Sustainable Places Research Institute encompasses academics within the field of sustainability and collaborating organisations, enabling the implementation of research into larger projects.

Source: Francesco Gallarotti via Unsplash

ARCHWILIO

8

Student Accommodation in Cardiff

T

This week, we investigate the impact student housing in Cardiff has on the surrounding community.

he student accommodation boom in Cardiff - from the face of it, the rise of luxury student accommodation buildings are emerging as an innovation for 21st century student living.

Some of these have state of the art gyms, concierge services, cinema and games rooms. However, our investigation has found that behind the shiny glass buildings and ongoing city-wide construction, lies a list of, in some cases irreversible, damages to the local area.

We’ve heard from the families forced to move out of the city as landlords reserve empty homes for the student housing market, as well as the businesses forced to shut down to make way for even more student accommodation blocks.

All of this, with the backdrop of overdevelopment and some accom-

To contact our features desk, drop us an email at features@gairrhydd.com

FEATURE

G

Mustakim Hasnath

Park Place Serviced Apartments is one of the PBSAs which have changed purpose due to lack of demand

£4.5bn 9% 100% 70% is how much Knight Frank’s (May 2018) estimates of the UK PBSA market to be worth

Feature this week by

modation complexes feared to become empty and change in purpose.

In recent times, the issue of private developers re-developing some parts of the city has been a sensitive matter, especially with campaigns to protect the businesses at Guilford Crescent after in 2018 Cardiff Council considered treating the area as a conservation site, which would safeguard it from development and demolition.

We also ask Jo Stevens, MP for Cardiff Central what more can be done for the people of Cardiff, as well as interviewing 34 local residents about increased numbers of student accommodation blocks being approved by the council and how impacts them.

Our meeting with an anonymous Cardiff Council worker also questions whether there are more restrictions needed on the construction of more student accommodation.

air Rhydd spoke to Amy from Cardiff Bay. As a mother of two young children, her family of four have struggled finding suitable properties in Cardiff, which are available for rent within her budget.

She says she has been on the housing list for years and despite seeing a number of properties which suit her requirements, they have been reserved for student occupation only.

Recently, she enquired to landlords about why this restriction had been placed, when her family were happy to pay the advertised rent price, ‘I spoke to some landlords asking them whether I

decrease of afforable housing available for students in 201718 compared to previous year, according to Welsh Government statistical analysis report.

could rent for example, three bedroom houses they had available. However, they were advertised for students only.

Most wouldn’t give me an answer as to why our family couldn’t take it, but one of them did. ‘ ...She said that if she had students rent the rooms and had any problems, she could evict them by the end of the year anyway, but with families, the eviction process was much harder and inconvenient for her’.

As a result of lack of availability, Amy and her family moved out of Cardiff due to not being able to afford the rent prices she found.

of the 34 residents Gair Rhydd interviewed were concerned about developing PBSAs leading to parking and litter problems in their community.

of the Cardiff population consists of students, according to the 2011 census.

This imbalance of power has also been found with the commercial developers and landlords who have been proposing new Purpose Built Student Accommodations to be built across the city.

Local businesses on Maindy Road, including Autocraft Garage have been affected by the proposals to demolish their businesses, to make way for a sixstorey PBSA building.

Speaking to Gair Rhydd, Cory, one of the directors of the company, said: ‘We weren’t given any prior notice about plans to demolish the place, but it must have been years in the plan-

ning. The first time we knew anything about it was when a local resident informed us of plans being showed in the library’.

He added, ‘it’s a worry, you’ve got two years to find somewhere else, it cost me £50,000 to buy this business off my previous boss. For a 31 year-old with two kids this means I’m going to have live in rented accommodation for the next three years which is not ideal’.

For the residents surrounding Autocraft, all 19 residents we interviewed expressed concerns about parking and litter worsening as the new building would be developed.

Uncertainty causes a number of PBSAs to reconsider the purpose of their accommodation

by Mustakim Hasnath

O

ur findings suggest a common pattern of newly developed Purpose Built Student Accommodations (PBSAs) applying for a change of purpose, in some instances from student accommodation to private residential purposes.

On Park Place, a PBSA complex near Cathays Park housed 34 student flats, which later in 2018 were converted into serviced apartments for tourists after its application was approved. This was due to demand falling dramatically to just 65% in the 2017/ 18 academic year - down from 94% occupancy just a year before.

Douglas Haig, MD of property business at The Seraph Group and director for Wales of the Residential Landlord Association, said in a statement that it is ‘important to understand that some of these developments are several years from conception to completion and after a certain stage it’s very difficult to change the purpose of these buildings, especially the larger developments’.

Furthermore, he expressed that is may be ‘possible that some developers have looked to use it to get planning permission to then change use’.

Before opening, Bridge Street Exchange- Cardiff ’s tallest building and one of the city’s newest additions to the number of PBSAs- put forward its application to change its purpose from a PBSA to residential block of flats.

Fresh Student Living, who manage the block of 477 student rooms and studios, revealed during our room viewing that they will not be going ahead with the reclassification, as the building is at full occupancy.

As our visit demonstrated, the quality of housing for students in such buildings is of a high standard. The competition in the luxury accommodation market is evident, both for rooms, and between PBSA companies themselves.

However, the uncertainty of whether numbers will be met in years to come and whether Brexit will cause a decline, leads to the

question of whether such businesses will maintain popularity - especially since they appeal mostly to international students.

A Section 106 is a legal agreement between an applicant seeking planning permission and the local planning authority, which is used to mitigate the impact of new homes on existing residents and businesses.

A new development has the potential to increase the strain on public services such as roads, schools and medical practices, and so Section 106 requires a financial contribution to compensate. However, PBSAs and other student accommodations are exempt from Section 106 payments, leading some to believe landlords build PBSAs, intending to have them reclassified later, as a means of cutting costs.

Gair Rhydd spoke to a worker from Cardiff Council, who wanted to remain anonymous due to professional vulnerability. They told us about their experiences on the council’s approval of PBSAs, ‘Cardiff

Council should never have approved the number of Student Accommodation blocks/towers. It’s easier to get the planning permission when it’s classed as student accommodation.

There’s way too many, majority are empty, numbers will continue dropping. Totally pointless eyesores. Yet Cardiff residents have no say or input and homelessness continues to rocket. The student accommodation in this city is something that offends me massively. Having worked for Cardiff Council for some time, I’ve had a few roles, supported many homeless people, placed into the very limited sources Cardiff Council have available. Yet we have all the empty student accommodation and even more are being approved’.

With some PBSAs still pending approval and some expecting imminent construction to commence, the uncertainty of demand has resulted in many questioning whether Cardiff Council should continue to approve the planning for such properties.

ARCHWILIO

9

“The system is broken, it needs complete overhaul.”

by Mustakim Hasnath

We spoke to Jo Stevens, MP for Cardiff Central, about the impact student accommodation has on her constituency

What problems do you see surrounding the rise of PBSAs being built?

I think there is a genuine problem surrounding PBSAs being allowed.

Develops build, they then apply for change of use, because they can’t fill what they’ve built, and through that process they are able to build to a lower standard of building regulation.

As well as this, they don’t have to give Section 106 money, which acts as a contribution to the local amenities .

We’ve got to do this carefully - taking into consideration everyone who’s already living here and the impact it has on them.

By going through the student accommodation route first, it’s a bit like tax avoidance - it’s Section 106 avoidance. This is an area where I feel we need to see legislative changes, where any planning permission that’s granted has a condition attached so that if PBSAs switch purpose to private rented accommodation of the Airbnb type of business you have at Park Place, that the council is entitled to ask for those 106 monies to be paid.

It’s unclear how this would work, maybe it would require primary legislation from the Welsh Assembly, and it would require collaboration between the council and the Welsh Assembly.

With the uncertainty surrounding Brexit, do you think this problem will worsen?

We’re coming to a tipping point.

One thing I’ve been talking to councillors, universities and other related bodies for some time is how we’ve seen a steady growth of students coming to Cardiff to learn, teach and research - which is fantastic. However, we do know that with Brexit on the horizon, the number of students coming to Cardiff will drop.

This means at the same time admission is going down, buildings are still going up. We therefore end up with these white elephant buildings which

are not going to be student accommodation. This is why it’s so important to come up with a strategy to estimate when that tipping point will come and how we can mitigate the effects.

I want students to come to Cardiff, it’s great for the city, it’s great for the economy. However, we’ve got to do this carefully - taking into consideration everyone who’s already living here and the impact it has on them.

Given a significant part of the Welsh Labour manifesto was to increase the number of affordable housing available, how do you explain a 9% decrease in affordable, according to Welsh Government statistics for 2017-2018?

I think the 9% decrease in the building of affordable housing is due to the restrictions on local Government and the budget cuts from the Conservative UK Government. Cardiff Council are going to make 1,000 new properties by 2022. If you take the leader of any council across the country, we would love to build new homes for people.

We have thousands of people waiting for homes, but because of the legislation introduced in the 1980s by the Thatcher government and the right to buy scheme, this has had a very severe impact on the ability to build homes.

It was the Welsh Government who took the brave and completely right decision to end right to buy so we can focus on getting more homes built so families are not spending years waiting on the housing waiting list.

Having heard about the issues Amy from Cardiff Bay is experiencing, what problems have led to this happening and what measures can be made to prevent similar stories?

Firstly, I completely sympathise with Amy and her very unfortunate situation. Our housing market is broken. We’ve got a whole generation of people now who will probably never be able to afford their own homes because of the way house prices have risen over decades. We are not building enough homes because of the restrictions that there have been on local councils.

The law has not has not kept pace on the restrictions on housing and this is why the labour party manifesto is to make sure families, exactly like that of Amy, can have much longer two or three year tenancies so that they have security housing.

This means children can go to a local school, and so they don’t have to constantly move around, changing schools and make new friends simply because the landlord can simply evict them because they’re entitled to do so under the tenancy agreement.

Is there a power imbalance between landlords and tenants?

When you have a combination of increasing house prices, increasing rent prices, which is being fuelled by effectively corporate welfare from the billions of pounds of housing benefit being paid to private landlords by the government, this is effectively subsidising a private business. These pri-

vate landlords don’t pay for local services if they rent to students so this is why I’m saying the system is broken, it needs complete overhaul. The power balance we have at the moment where landlords have the power and tenants or prospective tenants don’t, needs to be changed so there’s equality of arms in that relationship.

Our housing market is broken. We’ve got a whole generation of people now who will probably never be able to afford their own homes Having heard about our findings on Autocraft and other local businesses being forced to be demolished to make way for more PBSAs, what more can be done and how can it be that even local businesses are having to leave the local area?

It comes down to the power imbalance again. Whether you’re a commercial tenant or a residential one, you are the weaker party in that relationship.

This instance where local residents didn’t want to see PBSA being built to the extent that was proposed and objected to it, with the support of their local Labour councillors in Cathays, again was unsuccessful.

In my experience, I get the sense that developers ‘lob in’ something that’s as big as they possible can knowing that they won’t get that but them then they can scale back slightly and get something. Everyone’s voice needs to be heard in this. It has to be dealt with fairly, in accordance with the law and taking into account legitimate objections.

With university owened accommodation being available, why is there a need for PBSAs? Universities used to build, own and run their own accommodation and that generated an income but they were able to do that for a reasonable price for students to live in. I went to university 35 years ago and I lived in university owned accommodation in my first year, but for many years institutions haven’t been able to do that.

As a consequence, private enterprises thought, ‘hang on there’s a chance we can make a load of money here’, and that’s what they are doing.

Combined with the increase of the tuition fee cap by the Liberal Democrat and Conservative coalition government and the removal of the cap from the Conservative government, you generate this whole market economy within universities. The people who lose out on that are students and university staff whose rates of pay don’t keep up with the cost of living.

The whole system is designed based on how much money you’ve got and what you can afford: restricting social mobility, restricting access to higher education because people can’t afford it and it will take a long time to undo the damage that has been done.

Many residents complain that the increase of PBSAs and student accommodation leads to a surge in the amount of litter which is produced across the community.

What is currently being done to tackle this?

This is something that happens every year; I’ve worked for many years locally to try and make improvements.

There’s a massive education campaign that goes on so when new students arrive or existing students move into housing etc., they are informed about what days to put out their bins etc., to make it as easy as possible for people to help the council to collect the waste and prevent litter. Lots of people are great at this, but others don’t give a toss and ignore it.

I remember travelling to New York in 1997 for the very first time and being astounded in Manhattan by how “It’s a cynical process where developers clean it was. This was because of how rigid the system for disposing waste save money by building student accommodawas, where every single resident knew tion and then changing their use citing low what they had to do and what they demand” Mike Metcalfe, Cathays shouldn’t do and followed it to the letter because the penalties and enforce“There’s more student flats than students ment were very stringent.

There are times when I feel that’s so they cannot fill them. While the homesomething we should do more of, but less problem in Cardiff is increasing year there will always be exceptions where people will make mistakes and don’t on year. I don’t have the solution but there’s understand. Parts of Cardiff have some weird dynamics going on in Cardiff residents parking places, some streets don’t. We have a big problem every currently that need to be addressed in the year when one set of students move Sennydd. ” Megan, Roath out of private landlords’ properties, they go in and they do lots of work.

“I live just a 2 min walk from the giant You will see, every year, vans on the road skips full of rubbish, front monstrosity they are building on Herbert gardens covered in rubbish too.

Street, the noise isn’t too bad, but the fact Landlords need to take responsibility around this. This is not just an issue that construction staff have to park on the about students and not just an issue road where she lives means there is virtuabout developers. Private landlords allow a lot of problems to occur. The ally no parking left for residents; I’ve had council spends money trying to clear people queuing to use my space” this up, when that money could be much better spent on front-line serAaron Watkins, Cathays vices.

Gair Rhydd interviewed in excess of 30 local residents, all of whom expressed concerns about the impact PBSAs have on the local area.

We need to stop blaming the council for everything and all of us need to take personal responsibility.

We’ve heard from residents who are unable to park in front of their own homes because of the demands for parking both because of PBSAs but also the construction of them. What is being done to address this issue?

The blame culture needs to stop and we need to be responsible for our actions. We have some areas in Cardiff where residents have requested resident parking permit systems, and some areas where this is not the case.

If you get a penalty ticket, tough.

PBSAs might increase this problem, but does everyone need to bring their car? We’ve got public transport and Nextbikes so there’s really no need.

“I live really close to Newport Road, and they are building some near me at the moment. The building noise is annoying but to be expected, I’m more worried about local trafficparking and don’t they’ll be able to fill it with students and then ask for a change of use.” Sarah Lilley, Cathays

“Perhaps other housing should be prioritised. It’s not just students that need somewhere to live.” Rose Ruqayyah, Cathays “The no parking rule doesn’t work , most of the cars on Maindy Road are students in the accommodation behind Maindy road , nobody polices it.” Jason Lewis, Cathays “Planning permission has been granted for PBSA near me in Gabalfa, despite objections. We don’t need it, what we need is more long-term affordable housing.

Residents.” Elinor Dixon, Gabalfa

taf od

10

Barn y Bobol

Myfyriwr trydedd blwyddyn Cymraeg a Newyddiaduraeth Mae Cymru wedi ennill 12 gêm yn olynol ar ôl curo’r Saeson yng Nghaerdydd dros y penwythnos.

Felly, gyda dwy gêm anodd ar ôl, a gan ystyried ein bod ni heb ennill gêm gyda phwynt bonws hyd yn hyn yn y bencampwriaeth, a all Lloegr ddod ‘nôl a chipio’r bencampwriaeth? Pwy a ŵyr. Ond un peth sy’n sicr, mae gan yr Alban a’r Gwyddelod rhestr hir o anafiadau, felly yn fy marn i, gyda bach o lwc, bydd Cymru’n ennill y Gamp Lawn.

Lleu Bleddyn Myfyriwr trydedd blwyddyn Cymraeg a Newyddiaduraeth

Wrth ganolbwyntio ar yr ornest nesaf yng Nghaerdydd yn erbyn Iwerddon mae bron fel petai rhai wedi anghofio am y gêm sydd i ddod cyn hynny yn erbyn yr Albanwyr.

Er ei rhestr o anafiadau nid gêm hawdd fydd hon o gwbl i Gymru i ffwrdd o gartref yn Murrayfield. Er hyn, anodd byddai peidio cyffroi wedi i Gymru guro Lloegr a chodi i drydydd yn netholion y byd. A pha ffordd well i Gatland ddiweddu ei gyfnod yng Nghymru nag ennill y Gamp Lawn... a chwpan rygbi’r byd?

Ar ddechrau pencampwriaeth y Chwe Gwlad eleni, meddylia llawer o bobl y bydd y Gamp Lawn yn gyraeddadwy i Gymru eleni, yn dilyn rhediad llwyddiannus ym mhencampwriaeth yr Hydref.

Newidiodd agwedd nifer o gefnogwyr ar ôl perfformiadau diysbryd yn y ddwy gêm gyntaf. Wedi gêm llawn ysbryd yn erbyn Lloegr, mae’r gobaith o Gamp Lawn wedi ailgynnau. Ni fydd yn hawdd ond gyda gemau yn erbyn tîm yr Alban (sydd yn llawn anafiadau) a thîm dihyder Iwerddon, mae gennym gyfle da i gipio’r Gamp Lawn.

Am fwy o gynnwys, ewch i gairrhydd.com/tafod

Daeargryn gwleidyddol i Gymru?

gan Gruff McVeigh

B

yth ers sefydliad Cynulliad Cymru, y blaid Lafur sydd wedi ennill grym a chefnogaeth mwyafrif y bobl, dim ots beth yw lliw y llywodraeth yn San Steffan. Awgryma arolwg barn diweddar y gall fod newid ar y gorwel, gyda chanran cefnogaeth Llafur yn disgyn i 32%, cwymp fyddai’n costio naw sedd yn y cynulliad a’u gadael gyda 23.

Dangosodd yr arolwg gynnydd mewn cefnogaeth i Blaid Cymru ac fe adlewyrchwyd hyn wrth i’r pôl piniwn awgrymu iddynt ddwyn tair sedd o’r blaid Lafur. Er bod cefnogaeth i’r Ceidwadwyr wedi aros yn gyson, mae’r canlyniadau’n darogan y bydden nhw hefyd yn cipio pedair sedd oddi wrth Llafur. Byddai’r fath newid yn medru bod yn dyngedfennol yn y cynulliad, gan adael ychydig dros draean yn unig o seddi’r cynulliad i Lafur, sydd ar hyn o bryd â bron hanner ohonynt.

Dyma berfformiad gwaethaf Llafur mewn arolwg barn ers Ebrill 2017, adeg cyhoeddiad yr Etholiad Cyffredinol diwethaf. Er hyn, yma yng Nghymru, nid oes un blaid yn fygythiad i ddominyddiaeth Llafur, eto.

Mae’r Ceidwadwyr a Phlaid Cymru yn lleihau’r bwlch rhyngddynt hwy a

Llafur, ond mae’r rhagolygon yn dangos fyddai bwlch o chwech a saith o seddi yn dal i fod, yn dilyn Etholiad Cynulliad.

Yr un fyddai’r stori mewn Etholiad Cyffredinol, gydag arolwg pleidleisio’r Cymry yn San Steffan yn dangos Llafur yn colli wyth pwynt a disgyn i 35%. Dangoswyd golled o ddau o bwyntiau i’r Ceidwadwyr hefyd; pleidiau llai sydd wedi gweld budd, ar draul Llafur yn bennaf, wrth i gyn-gefnogwyr Llafur symud i gefnogi pleidiau llai ar yr asgell chwith megis Plaid Cymru neu’r Blaid Werdd. Er hyn, mae’r pleidiau llai yn methu cystadlu â’r Ceidwadwyr mewn rhai etholaethau ac mae’n debygol fyddai’r Ceidwadwyr yn llwyddo i ddwyn pedair sedd oddi wrth Llafur er gwaetha’r cwymp yn eu cefnogaeth nhw i 29%.

Fe gynyddodd cefnogaeth Plaid Cymru gan un pwynt, eu canlyniad gorau ers Gorffennaf 2016 sy’n trosglwyddo i gynnydd o un sedd yn San Steffan, gan ddod a’u cyfanswm i bum sedd – mwy nag erioed. Bu’r democratiaid Rhyddfrydol a UKIP yn llwyddiannus mewn ennill dau a thri o bwyntiau, hefyd.

Er nad oes unrhyw un o’r pleidiau yn dangos cynnydd mawr mewn cef-

Newid ar droed?: Prif Weinidog Cymru, Mark Drakeford, mewn cyfweliad diweddar â Taf-od. (Tarddiad: Maisie Marston). nogaeth, un peth sy’n glir yw’r gostyngiad mewn cefnogaeth i’r blaid Lafur. Dyma deimlad sy’n ymddangos yn gyson ar draws y blaid yn dilyn sgandal o wrth-Semitiaeth, gyda saith o Aelodau Seneddol yn ymadael Llafur i ffurfio’r “Grŵp Annibynnol”.

Mae tri o aelodau’r blaid Geidwadol bellach wedi ymuno â nhw, gweithred sy’n uwcholeuo’r rhaniadau dwfn

sydd bellach yn rhedeg nid yn unig drwy’r blaid Lafur ond trwy San Steffan, ynghylch anghytuno dros gytundeb Brexit. Yng Nghymru, mae sialens gan Mark Drakeford y Prif Weinidog newydd, i drawsffurfio adain Gymreig y blaid, a sicrhau fod yr arolygon barn yn adrodd stori wahanol dros y misoedd nesaf ac erbyn yr etholiad nesaf.

Pryd o Daf-od Ffion Middleton

Tom Moore

Myfyriwr blwyddyn gyntaf Fferylliaeth

I gysylltu â ni, e-bostiwch tafod@gairrhydd.com

GWLEIDYDDIAETH

Ar ôl buddugoliaeth Cymru yn erbyn Lloegr ar y penwythnos yn y Chwe Gwlad, Taf-od sy’n gofyn a bod y gamp lawn yn gyraeddadwy i Gymru?

Tomos Rhys Jones

Eich unig gyhoeddiad myfyrwyr wythnosol trwy gyfrwng y Gymraeg.

Sefydlwyd: 2003

Ar yr un wythnos â Dydd Cenedlaethol y Merched, Ffion Middleton, myfyrwraig ail flwyddyn cynllunio trefol a datblygiad, sy’n sôn am ddiffyg cynrychiolaeth menywod yn y diwydiant cynllunio trefol.

Fel llawer o broffesiynau eraill, mae menywod wedi’u tangynrychioli o fewn cynllunio trefol. Awgrymodd arolwg diweddar aelodau’r

RTPI (Royal Town Planning Institute) fod menywod yn y proffesiwn cynllunio trefol yn debygol o brofi rhwystrau i’w datblygiad proffesiynol. Eleni, datgela’r Arolwg Ymgynghoriaeth Cynllunio ddarlun cymysg ar sefyllfa cynllunwyr benywaidd a gyflogir gan gwmnïau blaenllaw. Amrywia’r gyfran o gynllunwyr benywaidd o fewn y cwmnïau yma o 25% i 55%, ond y cymedr yw 38%, sy’n cyfateb i’r gyfran o fenywod sy’n gweithio yn y proffesiwn cynllunio trefol. Er bod y gyfran yma yn cynyddu’n raddol, nid yw menywod yn cael eu cynrychioli o fewn swyddi uwch cwmnïau cynllunio. Dros y Deyrnas Unedig, dynion sydd yn cynrychioli 81% o gyfarwyddwyr cynllunio, gyda dim ond 19% yn fe-

nywod. Amlyga hyn broblem enfawr o fewn y proffesiwn; mae menywod yn cael eu tangynrychioli, yn enwedig o fewn swyddi uchel eu statws. Yn ogystal, nid yw academyddion benywaidd yn cael eu cynrychioli’n eang o fewn cylchgronau academaidd. Er enghraifft, gwelwyd cyfrol gan Gyfres Darllenydd Trefol Routledge yn 2016 yn cynnwys 66 o gyfranwyr, a dim ond pedair yn fenywod, sef 6%. Gwelir yr un tueddiadau mewn cyfarfodydd mawr a thrafodaethau panel pwysig.

Mae’r ffigyrau’n syfrdanol ac yn dangos bod angen gweld newid enfawr yn y diwydiant.

Ond pam bod rhaid inni boeni am gynrychioliad benywaidd yn y diwydiant?

Dywed CRBE, cwmni gyda chyfran hafal o gynllunwyr

benywaidd a gwrywaidd, fod presenoldeb cynllunwyr benywaidd yn hynod bwysig, gan fod cleientiaid yn dod o ystod eang o gefndiroedd, felly mae’n bwysig ymateb i hyn, drwy gyflogi pobl talentog o bob rhyw. Er bod gan y rhan fwyaf o ddinasoedd cyfran hafal o fenywod a dynion, dynion sy’n pennu cyfeiriad polisi ac yn gwneud y penderfyniadau pwysig, gan gynnwys dyluniadau ein mannau agored a phenderfynu sut bydd dinasoedd yn gweithredu. Y canlyniad? Dinas sy’n berffaith i ddynion, yn aml o statws economaidd a chymdeithasol uchel, sydd ddim yn ystyried ffactorau sy’n bwysig i fenywod, er enghraifft diogelwch ar y strydoedd ac ym mannau agored yn y nos. Rhaid cynnwys mwy o fenywod yn y

prosesau a phenderfyniadau yma er mwyn creu llefydd a pholisïau sy’n addas ar gyfer pawb o fewn ein cymunedau, sy’n amrywiol eu gwedd.

Erbyn hyn, dywed fod y gyfran o fenywod a dynion sy’n cychwyn gyrfaoedd cynllunio yn hafal. Fodd bynnag, mae deg o ferched i tua 35 o fechgyn ar fy nghwrs i, sy’n dangos nad yw hyn yn wir ym mhob agwedd. Pwysleisia hyn bwysigrwydd sefydliadau fel Menywod Mewn Cynllunio, sy’n gweithio tuag at greu cydraddoldeb rhyw yn y proffesiwn. Er bod pethau’n gwella’n raddol o fewn cynllunio trefol, mae diffyg cynrychiolaeth menywod a’r prinder menywod sy’n cyrraedd rolau uwch yn y proffesiwn yn haeddu sylw a chraffu pellach.

TAF-OD BARN

11

Cerddoriaeth Gymraeg: Yr allwedd at ffyniant yr iaith?

Adnewyddiad: Clwb Ifor Bach, canolbwynt cymuned Gymraeg y brifddinas. (Tarddiad: Tomos Evans).

gan Llion Carbis

F

el testun, mae’r iaith Gymraeg wedi’i thrafod droeon o fewn cylchoedd Cymreig. Problem sy’n gyffredin iawn ymysg ysgolion cyfrwng Cymraeg, yw diffyg parodrwydd disgyblion i ymgymryd â’r iaith Gymraeg fel un cymdeithasol, un i’w defnyddio yn gyson; iaith sy’n meddu ar bwrpas ac arwyddocâd tu hwnt i furiau’r dosbarth.

Yn ffodus, ymddengys bod agweddau’r disgyblion sy’n amharod i ddefnyddio’r Gymraeg fel iaith gymdeithasol yn newid wrth aeddfedu, yn enwedig y rhai sy’n symud dros y ffin i astudio yn y brifysgol. Dw i’n adnabod

sawl person sydd bellach yn sylweddoli gwerth y Gymraeg ers ymadael â Chymru, a sydd nawr yn trysori’r iaith gyda gogwydd hollol newydd.

Yn gyffredinol, mae’r darlun cyfredol ynghlwm â’r Gymraeg yn hynod gadarnhaol. Ym mis Ebrill 2018, cyhoeddwyd bod miliwn o bobl yn dysgu’r iaith ar gwrs digidol Duolingo. Yn ogystal, ym mis Medi 2018, dangosodd yr Arolwg Poblogaeth Flynyddol fod 874,700 yn medru’r iaith. Mae hyd yn oed cyfrif Americanaidd y clwb pêldroed Almaeneg, Schalke 04, wedi bod yn annog eu dilynwyr i ddysgu Cymraeg gan rannu gair newydd yn ddyddiol ers arwyddo’r Cymro, Rabbi

Matondo o Manchester City.

Ond, sut yr ydym am sicrhau dyfodol cynaliadwy a llewyrchus i’r Gymraeg?

Onid y nifer sy’n defnyddio’r Gymraeg yn gyson sy’n bwysicach na’r nifer sy’n medru’r iaith? Yn ddiweddar, gwyliais ffilm Huw Stephens ‘Anorac’, ffilm ddogfen sy’n sôn am y sîn gerddoriaeth Gymraeg. Thema allweddol y ffilm oedd pwysigrwydd diwylliant i gynnal iaith, modd ydyw o sefydlogi a meithrin iaith. Yma, yng Nghymru, mae’r sîn gerddoriaeth Gymraeg yn ffynnu ac wedi annog carfan o bobl ifanc i ymbleseru yn niwylliant Cymreig; gyda’r iaith yn chwarae rôl flaenllaw yn y mwynhad.

Pwysleisiodd y ffilm allu greddfol cerddoriaeth i ymgysylltu â phobl, trwy oresgyn ffiniau cymdeithasol ac ieithyddol. Mae llwyddiant diweddar Alffa yn ategu’r neges yma. Ar Spotify mae dros 2,500,000 o bobl wedi gwrando ar y gân Gwenwyn, tystiolaeth glir o allu cerddoriaeth Gymraeg i lwyddo ar lwyfan rhyngwladol. Cynyddodd ddiddordeb yn y gân ar ôl i Spotify ei gynnwys ar restrau cerddoriaeth roc boblogaidd.

Dangosa hyn, nad yw cerddoriaeth Gymraeg yn bodoli mewn rhyw siambr ynysig, wedi’i gyfyngu i siaradwyr Cymraeg yn unig, mae ganddi’r gallu i ymgysylltu â phobl ledled y byd.

Ym Mhrifysgol Caerdydd, rydym yn

ffodus bod toreth o gerddoriaeth Cymraeg safonol ar gael. Mae artistiaid megis y Cledrau, Gwilym a Cadi Gwen yn astudio yn y Brifysgol. Yn ogystal, mae Clwb Ifor Bach, sefydliad eiconig a man diwylliannol hollbwysig, wrth galon y ddinas a chaiff ei hystyried fel canolbwynt y sîn gerddoriaeth Gymraeg yn y brifddinas.

Gallu hudolus ydyw i fedru iaith, ond mae’r profiad yn gyfoethocach fyth trwy gyfrwng celf a diwylliant unigryw.

Rydym yn ffodus fod gwledd o gerddoriaeth Gymraeg ar flaenau ein bysedd; mae pob un ohonom yn ysgwyddo dyletswydd i’w chroesawu, ac i’w chynnal, gall ddiogelu dyfodol ein hiaith.

Taf-od-iaith Gair Cymraeg yr wythnos Welsh word of the week

gwobr / award

(gwo-brr)

Mae Olivia Colman wedi ennill gwobr yn yr Oscars yn ddiweddar.

Olivia Colman has won an award in the Oscars recently.

Gwobr: Un o wobrau’r Oscars a ennillwyd gan Olivia Colman yn ddiweddar. (Tarddiad: Davidlohr Bueso, drwy Flickr).

Eich adran taf-od Llion Carbis Tomos Evans tafod@gairrhydd.com

12

TAF OD

Am fwy o gynnwys, ewch i gairrhydd.com/tafod

CHWARAEON

gan Tomos Evans

M

Calon Cymru’n curo’n gryfach wedi buddugoliaeth fythgofiadwy

ae’n bosib teimlo’r wefr o gêm rygbi rhwng yr hen elynion Cymru a Lloegr ble bynnag y byddwch. Boed yn y dafarn leol gyda’ch ffrindiau neu o flaen y teledu yng nghysur eich lolfa, mae ‘na angerdd na ellir ei ddisgrifio yn corddi yn eich calon.

Ond does dim un emosiwn a all gymharu â’r profiad o fod yn bresennol yn Stadiwm Principality yng nghanol yr holl fwrlwm. Nid oes gwell deimlad na bod yng nghanol cynnwrf torf o Gymry’n canu clodydd eu gwlad a’r hymns and arias yn atsain ar draws strydoedd orlawn y brifddinas.

Hanner cyntaf go siomedig a brofodd carfan Cymru wrth i dîm Warren Gatland fethu sgorio’r un cais.

Lloegr oedd y cyntaf i wneud eu marc ar y sgorfwrdd gyda chic gosb gan eu capten Owen Farrell yn sicrhau tri phwynt iddynt. Ymgais gynnar, aflwyddiannus am gais a gafwyd gan Gymru ond cic gosb a wnaeth sicrhau bod Cymru’n gyfartal â’r ymwelwyr o’r ochr arall i Glawdd Offa.

Yna, gyda llai na hanner awr ar y cloc, daeth cais cynta’r gêm wrth i Tom Curry sicrhau pum pwynt i Loegr a gyda throsiad Farrell yn cynyddu sgôr Lloegr i ddeg. Doedd pethau ddim yn edrych yn dda i Gymru ar y pwynt yma, ond daeth dau gic gosb eu ffordd gyda Gareth Anscombe yn profi’n bâr sâff o ddwylo, a thraed, wrth lwyddo cael mwy o bwyntiau ar y sgorfwrdd i Gymru, a’r fuddugoliaeth bellach o fewn cyrraedd.

Daeth newid rhythm wedyn, wrth i’r chwaraewr profiadol Dan Biggar

Mewn undod mae nerth: Cymru’n ymbaratoi i herio Lloegr yn Stadiwm Principality. (Tarddiad: Tomos Evans). gymryd lle Anscombe, gydag un yn derbyn croeso arwr gan y dorf a’r llall yn derbyn diolch felly hefyd.

Cic gosb arall i Loegr a gynyddodd eu sgôr i 13 wrth i Gymru sylweddoli bod angen ychydig o ddychymyg. A dyna’n union a gafwyd gydag ymdrech arwrol gan Gymru o 34 cymal yn gorffen gyda Cory Hill yn sgorio cais dros ei wlad, a Biggar yn trosi.

Doedd hi ddim yn hir cyn i Gymru sgorio cais arall wrth i Josh Adams weld cyfle a manteisio arno, gydag ond deuddeng munud o’r gêm yn weddill. Nid oedd trosiad aflwyddiannus gan Biggar yn ddigon i dynnu’r sglein oddi ar y fuddugoliaeth wrth i Gymru brofi’r holl amheuwyr yn anghywir.

Ac yna, mater o amddiffyn oedd hi am eiliadau ola’r gêm. Roedd hi’n

bwysig i Gymru gadw ffocws a chadw meddiant a dyna wnaethon nhw gydag Aled Davies yn cicio’r bêl oddi ar y cae i ddiweddu’r gêm wedi i’r cloc droi’n goch.

Liam Williams gafodd ei ddyfarnu’n seren y gêm, a hynny’n haeddiannol iawn. Ond, gwaith tîm gwych a geir yma, yn sicrhau y ddeuddegfed fuddugoliaeth yn olynol i Gymru, a’r

melysaf ers meitin.

Yn destun balchder i’w cenedl, y crysau cochion yw’r unig garfan bellach sy’n wynebu’r posibilrwydd o ennill y Gamp Lawn. Efallai nad oedd y rygbi bob tro’n bert, ond dyma ichi dîm o chwaraewyr a wnaeth ddangos penderfyniad a dyfalbarhad wrth iddynt brofi mai mewn undod mae nerth.

Yn Trafod yr wythnos hon... Gwern ab Arwel 1. Pwy wyt ti a beth wyt ti’n astudio?

Gwern ab Arwel, a dw i’n astudio Cymraeg a Newyddiaduraeth.

2. Pam dewis astudio yng Nghaerdydd?

Hon ‘di’r ddinas efo’r mwyaf o siaradwyr Cymraeg yn y byd, a ma’n well na mynd i Aber a Bangor.

3. Beth yw dy gàs atgof?

Yr atgof gwael diweddaraf sydd gena i ydy torri fy nhrwyn ar ôl meddwi.

Llion Carbis Tomos Evans tafod@gairrhydd.com

Y dyfodol.

4. Bwyta mewn neu fwyta mas?

8. Pwy fyddai’n dy chwarae mewn ffilm o dy fywyd?

Bwyta allan, achos dw i’n warthus am gwcio.

Gan fod o’n Gog – Rhys Ifans.

5. Beth yw dy hoff raglen deledu?

Friends.

Eich adran taf-od

7. Dyfodol neu gorffennol?

6. Beth fyddai dy leoliad delfrydol i fynd ar wyliau?

Rio de Janeiro, neu unrhyw le yn Ewrop.

9. Gogledd neu de?

Gogledd, 100%.

10. Beth yw dy hoff ddiwrnod o’r flwyddyn?

Noswyl Nadolig.

11. Pa gân fyddet ti’n ei ganu ar yr X Factor?

‘Loving is Easy’ gan Rex Orange County.

12. Pwy yw dy ysbrydoliaeth?

David Bowie a JeanMichel Basquiat.

13. Pe fyddet yn Brif Weinidog am y dydd, beth fyddet yn ei newid?

Rhoi annibyniaeth i Gymru!

14. Disgrifia dy hun mewn tri gair.

Gwirion, gwylaidd a chyfeillgar.

15. Pwy fydd yn ‘Trafod gyda’r Taf-od’ y tro nesaf?

Tomos Topps.

O

The myth of millennial spending

by Alys Hewitt

F

rivolous, entitled and lazy… these are just some of the words that are intrinsic to descriptions of the typical millennial, their work ethic and spending habits. We are all aware that there is a proliferation of stereotypes surrounding millennials (largely defined as those born between 1980 and 2001), mainly perpetuated by older generations, that are less than favourable. Often these stereotypes are used to justify the bleak economic landscape in which we live, with issues such as minimum wage and a stagnant and increasingly untouchable property market being blamed on the fact that we are reluctant to work as hard as previous generations, and thus ‘do not deserve’ the privileges that were afforded to them.

However, recent research by the Federal Reserve, which examines the income, savings and consumption habits of millennials, disputes these assumptions. The dominant findings of this research point to the fact that, when adjusted for socioeconomic and demographic factors, we are not so unique after all in our patterns of

Millennials: is high spending or low wages the problem?

Source: Melissa Walker Horn (via Unsplash) spending and consumption. It is in fact wider economic factors, such as wages, employment figures and exposure to financial collapse, that are most instrumental in influencing and constraining these behaviours.

It is hardly a revelation that millennials are less likely to own a home at this stage of life than previous generations were; but is this a result of our work ethic and ability to save leaving

a lot to be desired? Not exactly – it is more likely that declining wages and lower and more unstable employment rates have led to an increasingly difficult lending and borrowing situation. As millennials with weak credit ratings and lingering student debt, we are less likely to be trusted by banks in the lending process. Nevertheless, despite these barriers we are no less aspirational than those

who came before us, with the majority of millennials still aspiring to eventually own their own property.

There is also evidence that our economic behaviours are pre-determined, even, by the generations we are born in and the economic conditions that permeated our formative years. Millennials’ spending patterns are intertwined with our experiences of events such as the global financial crisis, which have generally made us both worse-off and less likely to take risks in investment than younger people were in the past.

As this research suggests, the sweeping generalisations targeted towards millennials are not only unfair but untrue. The Federal Reserve’s findings reveal that it is wider and less tangible factors, rather than our own attitudes, that influence how younger generations consume, spend and save.

Fixations on work ethic and our allegedly reckless spending habits is misguided and misdirected, diverting attention away from the real issues at play, such as low wages and job instability, and erasing accountability from those who have brought about these conditions in the first place.

To contact our comment desk, drop us an email at comment@gairrhydd.com

Does celebrating our small victories help us suppress our recent indiscretions? Source: Sharon Farmer (via Picryl) fought hard, it has been impossible to law presents a vacuum where we need find unanimous agreement surround- to assert rights for the general wellbeing the need to investigate gender ing of people beholden to it, why does disparity in the workplace. A tribunal nobody step up to the fore and enforce in Cardiff only this week delivered a change? ‘Not understanding’ gensizeable compensation of £19,000 to a der discrimination is simply plausible claimant, Ms Renowden, who was re- deniability that’s been exploited to go fused a promotion based on her gen- down the most nonsensical route ever. der with sufficient evidence for it to In 2017, there was an enquiry into have clear legal standing. Companies why sexual discrimination cases acfeeling safe enough within current leg- tually declined despite the increasislation to overtly discriminate against ing publicity of these types of matwomen paints a worrying picture that ters. There is a growing dismissal we are missing our opportunities to of cases under the guise of ‘no reahold these people to account every day. sonable cause’, where there seems Judge Wayne Beard maintained in to be a lack of evidence to allow the this case that balancing genders in the claim to stand in the first place. workplace is a phenomenon that reWhile the actual number of mains, ‘not properly understood’ which claims brought has decreased, simply isn’t good enough. When the the ‘reasonable cause’ scapegoat

has become evidently prominent.

This is a collective example of employers, male employees and CEOs finding themselves at risk of litigation, who have discovered a loophole whereby they are allowed to decipher what constitutes ‘actual’ evidence. Perhaps it’s true to say that after the recent scandals involving Brett Kavanaugh, male influence is successfully manifesting itself in sensitive legal contentions and somehow doing it successfully.

It’s a hard issue to resolve immediately as social stigmas mean that many women would prefer to find another job rather than ‘getting emotional’ or ‘kicking up a fuss’.

Regardless, we shouldn’t be deeming these situations trivial just because they falter in comparison to the gender pay gap issues we are still attempting to publicise and countermand on a daily basis.

The claimants of the future need to feel empowered enough to look at the potential for minor litigation around sex discrimination and deem it worthy of their time.

Bader Ginsburg is a true icon for women that seek to settle in positions of power where they can make consistent attempts to enact change. However before this is a feasible option for any women that present the ambition and the work ethic to succeed, we need to address the fundamental and neglected errors in the legal system that works to quash these attempts.

We are not just appreciating, but almost re-celebrating our small successes. A female Supreme Court Justice is excellent, but doesn’t need to be the be-all, end-all when it’s only the smallest step forward

SYLWADAU

n the Basis of Sex is one of two hugely important movies to drop this year, featuring Ruth Bader Ginsburg. If you’re not already familiar with who this woman is or why it’s so crucial that we recognise her, she is known as representing the ‘liberal wing’ of the Supreme Court.

And more importantly, she’s a woman.

Not only does Ms Ginsburg stand proud as the potential beginnings of a true gender balance in a legal environment that overwhelmingly favours men, but she has made every adversarial effort possible to be a tangible stick in the mud when archaic precedent rears its head. Girl power.

Noted for her poignant dissents on controversial case law, she has influenced many US rulings on behalf of systematically underrepresented bodies such as Friends of the Earth, as well as introducing a much needed feminist perspective in a court that is relied upon to introduce law on an impartial basis. One of her most noted contributions to the court was striking down Nebraska’s abortion laws regarding partial-births, where she held that any ‘undue burden’ on a woman seeking an abortion, such as fear of prosecution, was unconstitutional.

On the Basis of Sex tackles gender discrimination as a story that juggles not only Ginsburg’s rise to notability, but also the harrowing reality that there is still a legal ‘bogeyman’ that thrives on the reluctance of adequate reform in the 21st century – sex discrimination.

Moving on from the biographical nature of the film, it leaves a lot to be said for the sex discrimination that still exists today. While Bader Ginsburg

COMMENT

by Hannah Newberry

For more content, head to gairrhydd.com/comment

On the basis of... sex discrimination in 2019?

13

Your comment desk Alys Hewitt Hannah Newberry Emma Videan Columnist Karis Pearson

COLOFN

14

The unspoken plight of male body image

Sam Smith and other celebrities have been opening up about pressures on men to conform.

by Emily Withers

and Mind Cymru have been raising awareness about mental health and suicide prevention for men.

In Wales, the suicide rate for men is higher than any other part of the UK, where it is already three times more likely for men to kill themselves than women.

It is clear that the stigma surrounding mental health problems in men has played a part in these figures.

So what can we do? Sharing personal stories of mental health and

W

ith social media and online articles showing off perfect celebrity bodies, it has become common acceptance that the pressure on women and girls to look like runway models is too much. But little attention is given to the men and boys who are going through the exact same thing.

A 2016 survey found that 55% of boys aged 8-18 would change their diet to attain a certain body type, with pressure coming from friends, family and celebrities to conform to a specific look.

While it is clear that we have a problem with the stigma surrounding male body image issues in our society, there seems to be little we are doing about it.

This year marks an unprecedented number of male celebrities opening up about their own body image issues, including singer Sam Smith, whose unashamedly honest Instagram post opened up conversation about services available for young men who are struggling with body image.

While the focus for women is often to lose weight to attain a ‘flat stomach’, men are statistically more likely to want to gain weight to become more muscular. These ideals of the male body are perpetuated by constant online images and magazine photoshoots of underwear models and celebrities.

However, what is not emphasised by

The stigma men feel surrounding body image is linked to a wider issue of male mental health

Sam Smith speaks about about male body image.

Source: marcen27 (via Flickr) these images is that these body types are not attainable or healthy for all men, and may have been achieved by over exercising and obsessively tracking food intake.

Mental health experts agree that men have a harder time accessing communication regarding body image and talking through issues when they arise.

While there has been wider acceptance of a range of body types in recent years, it seems that there is still some stigma surrounding male body image insecurities and allowing men to talk through their issues.

The stigma men feel surrounding body image is linked to a wider issue of male mental health. It is common to see powerful men in the media who fit the ‘strong’ image of an unbreakable hero. This stereotype is emphasised by common phrases like ‘man up’ and ‘crying like a little girl’. In these images, there is little room for showing poor mental health, and this may leave men feeling confused and embarrassed about having their own struggles.

In recent years, charities such as the Movember Foundation

body image struggles not only helps others do the same, but normalises issues that are out of our control.

There are numerous resources available online, through charities, and through the University that can inform you how to help others who may be struggling with their mental health.

Opening up is the real way to ‘man up’.

It’s not just social media Austerity is also stopping us from coping mentally

by Matt Tomlin ften, social media is the reason we hear for the rise in mental health issues - used by journalists, politicians or anyone else wanting to find a quick and easy way to explain the rise in recent years. I am not about to deny the fact that technology and the social habits the online world have brought to us (in the last decade in particular) have had an impact on mental health issues. The way in which we have become constantly connected, and addicted to, each other’s everyday lives in the format of a fast-

O

A ‘mental health crisis’ in the British population is not just down to simply social media changing and superficial news feed is certainly playing with our heads. It easily exacerbates toxic pre-existing insecurities about ourselves and our social lives which we may have and these are difficult to escape from with social media networks like Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram being addictive and ingrained into our schedules, work lives and of

Has austerity outgrown its use as a temporary economic measure?

Source: Varvara (via Wordpress) course, every way of contacting each other. However, a lot of the time social media gets the full blame, or at least the most immediate blame, for the emergence of the ‘mental health crisis’ in recent years, when there are actually more political reasons contributing to the issue as well. We know that for the last nine years, the UK has been following an austerity policy which involves government cuts to its spending on public services and such. Often police officers, with seriously cutback staff numbers and resources, are having to deal with calls regarding mental health is sues because other services which

had previously been sufficiently funded for dealing with such people have faced austerity cuts. Late last year the police force in South Wales was reporting of significant numbers of phone calls being made to them about mental health issues, that which they as a service are not equipped, qualified or supposed to deal with.

How can the UK expect mental health issues not to worsen when the help on offer is not adequate? Social workers have also faced serious cutbacks meaning they are less equipped, as a workforce, when assigned specifically to

helping those who are more likely to be mentally ill. It would seem the days of ‘care in the community,’ something brought in to replace the harsh and unnecessary asylum system in dealing with mental health issues, have been left behind.

It would have been years for many since they last heard those words used. Some people reading this article will probably have never heard of ‘care in the community.’ Perhaps we as a society have been kidding ourselves that by getting rid of asylums, we are now by default a much better and kinder society.

The way our politicians continue following policies which cut back on mental health services, and subsequently their application in solving people’s mental health problems, would suggest otherwise.

As would the British public’s tendency to vote for such an attitude.

Those fighting to improve our mental health have been locked into a financially constrained formula of dealing with a complex issue.

A ‘mental health crisis’ in the British population is not just down to simply social media. It is caused and prolonged by the attitude from the top-down that help and care are not things which are easily available to us, and that this negative should be accepted as a normal attitude in our lives and our dealings with mental health issues.

How long will it take us to overturn and change this system which is keeping us down in the dumps?

Is your degree at risk?

by Emma Videan ast week, Gair Rhydd reported about the “Transforming Cardiff ” proposals. After a Q&A session, the true impact and detailed scale of the changes are yet to be revealed.

In an open letter to Vice Chancellor, Professor Colin Riordan, concerns of the Students Union were raised, much of which surrounded the proposed ‘reconfiguration’ of the Schools of English, Communication & Philosophy, Modern Languages and Welsh into a new ‘School of Literatures, Languages and Creative Practice’.

Without doubt, the open letter does address the major questions about how a high quality of teaching can be maintained where lecturers will have an increased workload by teaching more students from different areas of academia. There seems to be potential for a reduction of contact hours and the cancelling of more niche modules.

The vague wording about ‘crosssubject opportunities’ with the School of Journalism, Media and Culture suggests that lecture sizes will be larger and content will be broader so that it remains relevant for people studying very different degrees. Arguably, some might see that this will allow students to be exposed to a broader sphere of knowledge and be able to keep their graduate employment opportunities open.

However, this is not a viewpoint I share. Being taught in huge lecture halls with over a hundred students makes me feel as though I am just one of many and often leads to a lacking in direct communication with the lecturer. From a student’s perspective, it feels as though this de-personalized teaching style means that everyone is taught the broad context of a topic and then expected to teach themselves the details, which will no doubt be expected of them in coursework and exams.

Additionally, with large teaching groups, it seems as though it is a certainty that the staff will have a small amount of time that they can dedicate to one-to-one meetings, email responses will likely take longer and, as the open letter points out, there will be an increased burden on Postgraduate Research students working as tutors and demonstrators across the university. Moreover, from a practical point of view if this new school is to work with JOMEC, there are likely to be even more problems that there already are with travelling between buildings for lectures and seminars.

Personally, this makes me concerned for the future of these subjects and the quality of the teaching. The Vice Chancellor has refused to rule out compulsory redundancies and evidence is pointing towards an increased workload for the remaining staff and less interaction for the students, who will still be paying for these services.

L

COMMENT

Karis Pearson

COLUMNROAD

15

The voices of our youth are getting louder, can you hear them?

Source: Alejandro Alvarez (via Wikimedia

H

The voice of a generation

istorically, the voices with the ability to speak the loudest in society are typically those in positions of power; politicians, judges, business people, adults. The advent of ever connected social media networks, in which nobody is as proficient as young people, has shifted this balance, giving the youth of today a greater chance to be heard than ever before. As a result, we have proof that time and time again young people are willing and capable to engage in issues which affect them, their country and even the entire planet.

Killer in Our Classroom: Never Again was a BBC Three documentary broadcast last year. It investigated the unfolding of events after students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida used social media to spread a campaign across the globe, taking hold of the debate on gun control in the United States. The campaign, ran by the high school’s students, began after an an ex-pupil used a semi-automatic rifle to kill fourteen of his previous classmates as well as three members of staff on campus grounds.

The youth of today are taking a stand and politicians would benefit from listening These young people, including 17-year-old British Senior Lewis Mizen, argued against what they

saw as the root cause of the problem, NRA donations to political parties, fighting hard to get politicians to pledge that this would cease. This group of teenagers highlights the capability of young people; having witnessed horrific events and lost friends, they channelled their despair into a campaign which grew to become part of the huge global movement against gun violence in the USA. Not only does this show immense emotional maturity, but is an example of youths taking a stand on a glaring issue of school shootings in US society, an issue which politicians are failing to tackle and which American children and teenagers will continue to face unless changes are made.

Last year, Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg began what has become a series of protests by young people which have come to be high-profile in the media. Despite her age, she has made huge waves in forcing the media and politicians to talk about climate change, not just in her home country but internationally too.

Recently, The Youth Climate march saw students across the UK join the rest of the world in skipping school to march for the Earth.

While students of all ages were busy striking for their future, the UK government’s position on the strikes was far from supportive. Andrea Leadsom, leader of the House of Commons, tweeted calling the protests “not a strike” but merely “truancy”. The use of this sort of language is not helpful in creating a dialogue between the government and the activists who, despite their age, are fighting for something which should be at the top of the government’s agenda: the future of

the planet on which we all live. Politicians, in my opinion, should not be demeaning young people who have the compassion and the drive to fight for changes they wish to see in the world. They might instead benefit in taking some inspiration from them.

The passion felt by young people on the issues that affect them is getting harder to ignore Greta points the finger at politicians obsessed with economic growth, who shy away from fighting for policy which could positively affect the planet, too afraid of bad publicity. Although she was only 15-years old when she began her protest, the actions Greta has taken and the arguments she is continuing to make are not those of an irresponsible truant, despite what politicians may say.

The lack of passion in our politicians becomes clearer when observed next to young people like Great, whose commitment is undeniable. None of the publicity is about furthering a career for Greta, she has even been willing to face a court hearing because of her protesting. The commitment she has to making a stand for the planet has inspired so many other young people to follow in her steps making her goal, to get the media talking about the climate crisis, a success in ways even she may not have have dreamt.

Speaking at the UN conference on Climate Change in Poland at the end of last year, a milestone marking how loud her voice became in just a few short months, Greta declared, “you are never too small to make a difference.”

Continuing the trend of giving a voice to its youth, in January 2019, Welsh Youth Parliament Wales elected its first ever youth parliament, allowing young Welsh people aged 11-18 years to represent the nations youth and engage in the democratic process. The structure of youth parliament is simple, young people raising awareness for the issues that are affecting young people, being backed by young people.

It makes perfect sense, yet the greying politicians of Westminster are surely in a state of despair at such an exhibition, mixing devolved representation with a credible group of young people having their say.

In their first Senedd held last month, youth parliament voted in a refreshing fashion, prioritising issues including Emotional and Mental Health Support and Plastic Waste and Littering. These young people are being given the opportunity to be heard and taken seriously, something which feels lacking across society as a whole, but empowering young people to identify the issues which affect them and raise awareness accordingly is crucial if we want to build a world of compassionate and educated people.

While it sounds cliché, the young people of today are the future of tomorrow and when adults forget to listen to the youth, they ignore this.

It is easy to grow old and assume to know better than those with less age

and experience, but perspective can be paramount and not to state the obvious, but often nobody knows what its like to be in a position better than the person in that position.

The debate on whether to lower the voting age to sixteen is ongoing, but endeavours like youth parliament in Wales pose a good case for it in my opinion. Many public figures argue that young people don’t understand the political sphere well enough, or are just disinterested, as 18-year-olds remain the lowest group for voter turnout. However, if young people are more facilitated to engage and contribute towards solving the issues facing individuals and humanity, which will inevitably come to affect them, this may see more young people inspired to engage.

We must embrace the views of our youth if we are to built a world of compassion After the 2017 election, the Oxford English Dictionary declared “youthquake” - a political awakening among millennial voters - its word of the year. This was due, at least in part, to Jeremy Corbyn’s appeal to young voters. The numbers of young voters turning out still weren’t as strong as they could or arguably should be, proving that further, perhaps more instrumental change is needed to convince young people that their voices matter.

POLITICS

POLITICS

To contact our politics desk, drop us an email at politics@gairrhydd.com

For more content, head to gairrhydd.com/politics

GWLEIDYDDIAETH

16

Your politics desk Charlotte King Silvia Martelli Lowri Pitcher Sam Tilley

Clean Brexit: Clean Brexit Cymru’s campaigns logo. Source: Facebook

Gair Rhydd meets the co-Founder of Welsh pro-Brexit campaign, ‘‘Clean Brexit Cymru - The Grassroots Campaign’’

by Lowri Pitcher

T

here is a growing sentiment of discontent among the UK population that Brexit is being mishandled with many now questioning whether Brexit will be delivered at all.

Clean Brexit Cymru - The Grassroots Campaign, is a Welsh pro-Brexit campaign which promotes delivering a timely and clean Brexit. Callum Vaga, a second year Media and Comminucations student at Cardiff University is one of the founders of this campaign.

Callum has spoken to Gair Rhydd about the campaign’s efforts and objectives.

The Clean Brexit Cymru campaign launched on Facebook on 28 January 2019 and has currently received over 550 likes and followers. Its launch video received 46,000 views and attracted over 750 comments.

What factors drove you to form this campaign?

We formed the campaign to promote the idea of a clean and proper Brexit.

We use social media, particularly Facebook, to target Welsh audiences and to raise awareness of the importance of delivering Brexit in certain areas of the country such the valleys seats, which are represented by Assembly Members (AMs) and Members of Parliament (MPs) who are promoting either a soft Brexit or no Brexit at all, even though their constituents voted to leave.

We don’t believe there is a soft or hard Brexit, you either have Brexit or you don’t What exactly is a “Clean Brexit?”

As a campaign we don’t believe that there is a soft or hard Brexit, you either have Brexit or you don’t have Brexit.

There is no in between. To us, a clean Brexit means leaving the EU on terms that are beneficial to us, given that we have the upper hand in negotiations because of the EU’s reliance on the United Kingdom for trade.

Does a “clean Brexit” include leaving the single market, customs union and the European Court of Justice?

Yes, it means leaving every aspect of the European Union and then once we have left, we could select the parts we want to remain involved in.

Would your campaign be happy for the UK to leave on World Trade Organization rules or accept a no-deal Brexit?

Yes. Why not a Norway-style deal?

It’s better to start from scratch and select what we need rather than starting off with a deal which may not work.

A Norway style deal would also entail allowing the free movement of people and would restrict the UK from forming its own trade deals which we do not believe would fulfil the demands of the 17.4 million leave voters.

The Independent Group are putting their ideologies ahead of the will of the country It is said that Brexit will negatively impact Wales, should we therefore accept the proposal of a People’s Vote now that people have more information?

We don’t think Brexit will negatively impact Wales or the Welsh economy.

One of the arguments against Brexit in Wales is the potential loss of funding that we receive from the European Union for projects such as the Heads of the Valleys carriageway, built using European grant money. However, the UK contributes that money to the EU in thr first place, then receive it as rebate and are told how to spend it.

Is the Welsh Assembly hindering the delivery of Brexit?

No, but they’re spitting in the face of the public because Wales voted to leave. We have an Assembly and First Minister who continually hint at the idea of supporting a 2nd referendum, which is completely out of touch with the public in that country.

What does the Welsh Government and the MPs representing Welsh constituencies need to do in your opinion?

They need to help deliver a Brexit that cuts ties to things like the common market, at best they should stop advocating to remain.

What do you say to those arguing that a 2nd Referendum is the best option?

It disrespects the first vote, we’ve already had a referendum and it would completely undermine any vote that has ever been conducted and any vote that would be made in the future, it

undermines the whole democratic process.

How is Wales going to make a success of Brexit when the UK has not guaranteed all its free trade deals and future arrangements?

Wales is still a member country of the United Kingdom and a number of countries have already come forward to say that they’re ready to make those deals as and when is possible. As a campaign we don’t think that that’s a worry. For example, the UK has already agreed a bilateral trade deal with Switzerland worth approximately £32 billion annually, even in the event of a nodeal Brexit.

Do you think now that politicians are becoming more self-interested, are they still serving their democratic duty to represent their constituents?

Some of them, I don’t think they’re any worse or better than usual,

however a certain number such as the MPs who were elected on a manifesto which promised to respect the result of the referendum, who have since defected to The Independent Group are putting their ideologies ahead of the will of the general public.

What’s next for Clean Brexit Cymru?

In the future, Clean Brexit Cymru plan to create and share more original and engaging online content in order to increase their following and further promote their cause.

We encourage supporters to also get involved with other like-minded groups such as Leave Means Leave which will be holding campaign days across Wales in March. Individuals who feel their views are not being represented can also contact their local MP in order to voice their opinion and discover how their MP is representing their constituents throughout the Brexit process.

What happens next?: A chart showing Theresa May’s proposed plans and their consequences.

Withdrawal agreement to be voted on by March 12th Passed

Rejected

Leave the EU with a deal on March 29th Vote to leave without a withdrawal agreement Rejected

Passed Leave the EU with no deal on March 29th

Vote on whether to extend Article 50 Rejected

Passed Extend Article 50 and continue negotiating

Leave the EU with no deal on March 29th

GWLEIDYDDIAETH 17

Our future: Our Future Our Choice’s campaign logo. Source: www.ofoc.co.uk

Gair Rhydd meets Femi Oluwole, chief spokesperson for pro-EU campaign ‘‘Our Future Our Choice’’

by Maisie Marston and Aliraza Manji

A

fter graduating from Nottingham University with a degree in Law with French, Femi Oluwole embarked on his career in European human rights. After securing his dream traineeship at the EU agency for Fundamental Rights, he decided to cut it short to use his expertise to present his case to remain in the European Union. In 2017, in collaboration with Calum MillbankMurphy, Lara Spirit and Will Dry, ‘Our Future, Our Choice’ was formed.

Representing young people and armed with their very own battle bus, the group campaign to stop the “deprivation of opportunities” that Brexit could cause for the younger generation. In their report, ‘Young People and Brexit’, the group concluded that a hard WTO-style Brexit could cost young people up to three times more than tuition fees.

We caught up with Femi in Cardiff during ‘Our Future, Our Choice’s’ tour of UK schools, colleges and universities.

Tell us a bit about yourself and how you ended up in politics.

I studied law because I liked to argue and I thought I could use it to help people, but I decided during my first year that I didn’t want to be a lawyer.

So, I figured policy was the way to do it. I started doing internships in Brussels, moving into the field of human rights. Then in February 2016 I realised Brexit was going to be a big thing, and so I started making videos online and I started using Twitter more regularly. Then I eventually got to campaigning on the street, I bought a t-shirt from Primark and wrote ‘EU Questions? Just ask’ and stood in the centre of Birmingham for a few hours a day, and then after that while doing an internship in Vienna I grew and grew and grew on Twitter, explaining the basics that weren’t explained by the remain campaign.

So, ‘Our Future, Our Choice’ is aiming to reach 100 events in 100 days, what is the aim of the organisation?

Our aim is to give a voice to a generation that has been, so far, excluded from this whole conversation. You didn’t see young people on TV in 2016, we weren’t leading the debate

but we are now. I mean, I got Nigel Farage to admit live on air that EU members control immigration, on his own radio show. I pointed out to him that citizens from EU countries make up 5% of our population and 10% of our doctors, so I got him to admit that immigration is a net benefit and we can control it. Young people are leading the conversation right now which is something massively new, and also we voted overwhelmingly against Brexit.

The thing is, this isn’t about saying that remainers don’t like Brexit so therefore Brexit shouldn’t happen.

This is about saying the future generations of this country voted heavily against Brexit, and that the people who voted for Brexit don’t even like the Brexit we’re getting. The deal we just negotiated is a deal that people who voted for Brexit absolutely hate, so if we end up in a situation where neither side of this thing is happy, we can’t call it democracy or the will of the people.

Our aim is to give a voice to a generation that has been, so far, excluded from this whole conversation

Do you think that if we do have a People’s Vote then, as in the 2014 Scottish Independence Referendum, over 16s should be able to vote?

If you are able to contribute to the economy you should have a say over how the economy is run, so yes.

What’s the mood among the students you’re talking to?

The mood among young people has been that overwhelmingly they hate Brexit. They know it is a disaster, but the conversation is so complicated that many of them pull out of it, but it’s really simple. We get a third of our food from Europe, we do half of our trade with Europe so if there is any barrier between us and Europe leaving the EU would create, then stuff’s

just going to get more expensive. It also makes the UK a less attractive place to create jobs, given that we don’t have any money and we’re desperate for jobs. Stuff getting expensive and losing jobs is very bad for young people. We have the right as EU citizens to work and live in 31 countries across Europe, Brexit goes against everything we stand for. It basically closes off our relationship with our nearest neighbours. So, young people overwhelmingly don’t like Brexit, but we’re making the point that Brexit can be stopped. And they have every right to stop it because it is their future that is at stake here.

Do you think the Independent Group affected Labour’s recent change in policy?

I think they helped. Before today I was in two minds about which way it would affect things; would the absence of people like Chuka Umunna make Labour more pro-Brexit, or would it put more pressure on them to support a public vote? And now they support a public vote, so I guess we’ve got our answer in that respect.

What are you thoughts on Theresa May’s decision to delay the meaningful vote until March?

I think it just shows utter political cowardice. It’s utterly undemocratic.

She knows parliament doesn’t like her deal. It’s been voted down by historical proportions and so to try and force parliament to choose between a deal that she knows would break the country, because it leaves us with less control over our country when people voted for more control, thoroughly angering both Brexit voters and Remain voters, forcing parliament between a choice of that deal and a no-deal Brexit, which would be utterly catastrophic for the country, is completely doctoral and morally wrong.

So if the amendment to hold a second referendum passes, how do we justify having it to the British people? Is it democratic to have a revote?

Let me put it this way; it would be undemocratic if after the first referendum we had a new referendum straight away. Even if we had the ref-

Femi: Femi addressing the crowd at one of his public events.

Source: Our Future Our Choice erendum in September last year, you could argue that is undemocratic because it would basically be the same as 2016; Brexit could mean 1000 different things depending on what deal we get. It could be a deal where we stay in the single market, stay in the customs union, it could be a Canada-style free trade deal. It could be a no-deal Brexit.

It could be a thousand different things and so that’s part of the reason the referendum was so bad in 2016, because Brexit wasn’t solid.

Whereas after October, we actually had a deal, Brexit in 2016 was four words: ‘Leave the European Union’.

Brexit in 2019 is a 585 page treaty, the detail of which, most people who voted for Brexit absolutely hate. It means we copy the rules of the EU, but no longer have a say in shaping those rules. Now if you voted for more control, you’re p****d. If we end up with a situation where nobody is happy, we can’t call that democracy. The example I often use is the Good Friday Agreement. When they signed the Good Friday Agreement, they had a vote before that where they sent a copy of the Agreement to every single voter in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. They got to see the deal that they were signing before they signed it. What happened with Brexit is, we signed the contract and they wrote the terms 3 years later and were surprised that people weren’t happy with it.

The most democratic way of looking at this is in 2016 we rejected our current relationship with the EU by a margin of 2-4%. In 2019 we have a new relationship with the EU which we’ve just negotiated which people thoroughly hate on both sides of the divide. The only logical thing is to allow people to decide which one they prefer.

What are you doing next for the ‘Our Future, Our Choice’ project?

So, that’s why young people need to speak out, because it is their future at stake, and that’s why ‘Our Future, Our Choice’ has been touring the country speaking to Brexit voters and mobilising young people across the country.

This week we’re going to be in parliament on the 27th, we’re going to be filling the halls with the parliament takeover which you can sign up to on our website. Basically, young people should speak to their MP. You can basically just walk in to parliament and demand to speak to your MP, and tell them that the only way out of this is a People’s Vote. A referendum where people get to choose whether or not the Brexit that has been negotiated is right for their futures and whether or not they actually want to put a stop to this is needed so we can actually get to work on fixing the main issues in the country, many of which led to people voting for Brexit in the first place.

What Happens Next?

by Lowri Pitcher

A

s is demonstrated in the flowchart to the left, the withdrawal agreement must return to the House of Commons and be voted on by March 12. It is unlikely

that the deal will pass (given that the possibility of extending Article 50 is now being widely discussed). If the withdrawal agreement is rejected then Theresa May will move to hold a vote on whether MPs will accept a no-deal

Brexit. This is unlikely to pass as MPs have already indicated that a no-deal Brexit is their least prefered option. If MPs reject leaving with a no-deal, then the government will propose a vote on extending Article 50 for a limited

time period. This may gain a majority in the Commons, though many are concerned about the limit of this extension.

Even in the event of extending Article 50, there is no clear consensus

among politicians, and indeed the general public, as is demonstrated above, about what type of Brexit is best for UK; while such resolute and divisive opinions remain, a resolution to the Brexit debate looks quite unlikely.

18 GWLEIDYDDIAETH

Turning the tide: Labour officially backs a second referendum

by Charlotte King

J

eremy Corbyn recently announced that his party are officially willing to back a second referendum, more commonly known as a People’s Vote, following the defeat of Labour’s proposed Brexit deal last week. This is as a last resort to prevent a ‘damaging’ no deal or hard Brexit and has been a plan in the works ever since the Labour Party Conference. The decision has come after months of mounting pressure on Corbyn from members of his own party to back a second referendum, with the final push over the edge arguably being the fear that the newly formed Independent Group might attract more dissatisfied MPs if Labour did not state an official backing of another referendum.

Last Wednesday, a series of amendments were voted upon in Parliament, namely Labour’s proposed Brexit plan, Yvette Cooper’s amendment and the SNP’s amendment calling to take no deal off the table, even in the event of an extension of Article 50. Labour’s amendment, which included staying in the customs union and stronger alignment with the single market, was voted down by 323 to 240 votes, and the SNP’s proposal was also voted down by 324 to 288. Yvette Cooper’s amendment, which proposed to commit Theresa May to delay Brexit if the House of Commons voted to do so, was by far the most successful, being voted up by 502 to 20 votes, a significant majority.

In lieu of these developments, Corbyn has now committed Labour to backing another EU referendum, but has also stated that he will continue to strive for a general election. However, this has not cured all of the Labour Party’s Brexit-related problems. Last week’s proceedings have shown that whilst May’s Brexit deal has been dead in the water for a while, Corbyn’s deal is not able to garner a majority either, and some Labour MPs remain staunch believers that Labour is wrong to back a People’s Vote and should put all its weight behind ensuring they deliver a good Brexit deal in a timely manner.

What does this mean for the newlyestablished Independent Group? What appeared to be TIG’s main reason for being is to officially back a second Brexit referendum, attracting disgruntled MPs who too wanted to put all their weight behind a People’s Vote. Corbyn’s move to get Labour backing a second referendum however arguably voids TIG of its core purpose. Others argue, however, that this development does not render TIG void as another of their main goals is to offer a centrist option within Parliament.

Following last week’s amendments, there are hints that Theresa May could spring a surprise ‘meaningful vote’ on her proposed Brexit deal this coming week, which is currently scheduled for March 12th. This vote will likely be the next indicator on where the Brexit negotiations will head next.

Does Labour have a problem with anti-Semitism?

With the suspension of another MP just last week, here is a look at the wider problem of anti-Semitism in British society today

by Sam Tilley

I

f there is one key issue consistently placing Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party under strain, it is that of anti-Semitism. The problem has dogged Labour’s executive board for years, but it is only since Corbyn’s leadership that allegations of anti-Semitism have hit mainstream discussion.w Allegations against Labour MP Naz Shah and former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone have led to a cataclysm of claims of anti-Semitic abuse, directed at MPs, trade unionists and grassroots campaigners. The most recent case was that against Chris Williamson, MP for Derby North, who was caught on camera saying that Labour had been “too apologetic” over the anti-Semitic crisis. Whilst he was suspended by the party pending an investigation, other MPs were quick to question why it had taken most of the day to do so. It is clear that some in Labour believe that the issue of anti-Semitism has corrupted what, in their eyes, used to be an open, welcoming party. But just how bad is the problem of antiSemitism, not only inside the Labour Party, but in the wider society today?

A 2015 study by the Anti-Defamation League suggested that 8% of all respondents harboured anti-Semitic attitudes in the UK. An astonishing 27% responded “Probably True” to the statement “Jews are more loyal to Israel than to this country.” If, as the ADL study has, you translate these percentages to the adult population; it suggests that 3.9 million adults in the UK have typically anti-Semitic attitudes and that an astounding 13 million adults believe that Jews harbour more loyalties to Israel. Further figures suggested that 7% of all respondents don’t believe that Jews are just like everyone else and that 17% were not concerned about violence towards Jews, Jewish symbols and Jewish institutions It is interesting to note that none of the respondents to the above survey identified as Jewish. If we bring Jewish opinions into the debate, the figures appear even more damning.

Four out of five Jews believe that anti-Semitism is a major factor in British politics; the highest rate in Europe. More pointedly, 89% of Jewish respondents believe that, since 2012, anti-Semitism has increased and that a similar percentage believed that anti-Semitism was a growing problem in politics.

A 2016 Home Affairs Select Com-

mittee Inquiry was critical of both the Conservative Party and Labour, in addition to criticism directed at Twitter, the police and the National Union of Students. It argued that there was a toxic atmosphere in certain sections of the Conservative Party, especially within certain university political societies, proving that eradicating anti-Semitism is not just a problem for Labour to face.

It also tore into the Labour-backed Chakrabarti Report, stating that the report appeared to skirt around a clear definition of anti-Semitism.

The International Holocaust Remembrance Society’s (IHRS) Working Definition of anti-Semitism states that “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

Labour’s initial reluctance to back

the ranks of Labour.

There also seems to be an anti-Semitic problem affecting higher education institutions as of recent years.

The University and College Union (UCU) faced a similar problem to Labour in 2011 when it disassociated itself from the IHRS’s Working Definition and agreed upon an academic and cultural boycott of Israel; actions that some Jewish members described as “openly racist”. Recently, the University of Essex faced criticism after their policy on enforcing an open vote on the creation of any new society showed a stark opposition to the creation of a Jewish Society. Further controversy was courted when it was revealed that a lecturer at the university was rallying students to vote against, one action amongst a number of potentially suspect activities. Even within Cardiff University, there was outcry at a motion placed forward at this year’s Annual General Assembly which appeared to decry both antiSemitism and anti-Palestinian ac-

Enough is Enough?: Some have argued that under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, Labour has become awash with anti-Semitism. Source: Simple Wikipedia all of the working examples including within the definition and the adding of an addendum requiring “anti-Semitic intent” to be proven in relation to criticism of the state of Israel along with the suggestion that: “It is not antisemitism to refer to ‘Zionism’ and ‘Zionists’ as part of a considered discussion about the Israeli state.” The outcry caused by this decision eventually forced Labour’s National Executive Committee to make a full u-turn but it appears that, based on the recent criticisms of Chris Williamson and the defection of Luciana Berger, there is still a problem with anti-Semitism within

tions was allegedly not produced in consultation with the Jewish Society.

Furthermore, the original motion had accepted heavy amendments in order to clarify its opposition to current Israeli-government policy rather than the state of Israel itself.

It is clear that the spectre of antiSemitism is not going away any time soon and, with the far-right losing their long-held political monopoly on anti-Semitism to pockets of the left, it perhaps is no wonder that Jewish citizens and students are feeling isolated from both national and student politics and wider society in general.

3, 900, 000 Total number of adults in the UK harbouring anti-Semitic attitudes.

Ken Livingstone

Chris Williamson

Malia Bouattia

Suspended, then resigned, from Labour in 2016 after claiming that Hitler was a Zionist.

Suspended after claiming that the Labour Party had been “too apologetic” over antiSemtism.

The former President of the NUS has faced critism for describing universties as “Zionist outposts”.

The Accused: Ken Livingstone, Chris Williamson and Malia Bouattia have all been accused of anti-Semitism. Sources: Wikimedia Commons

POLITICS 19

Violence in Venezuela: Maduro refuses The UK has broken international law by occupying the Chagos Islands, humanitarian aid

“We’ve the right to live in our home”

by Hefin Rees Edwards

UN International Court of Justice decrees

T

he highest UN court, the International Court of Justice, has ordered the UK to return the Chagos Islands back to Mauritius claiming its occupation of the islands to be unlawful. By a margin of 13-1, the court in The Hague ruled that: “The UK has an obligation to bring to an end its administration of the Chagos Archipelago as rapidly as possible and that all member states must cooperate with the United Nations to complete the decolonisation of Mauritius.”

The island nation of Mauritius gained independence from the UK in 1965, however the UK retained control of the Chagos Archipelago and created the British Indian Ocean Territory. The largest island in the archipelago, Diego Garcia, was leased to the United States and has been used as a military airbase ever since. In 1971 the UK began expelling Chagossians by restricting food supplies to the island and denied them permission to resettle. Over subsequent decades, the UK has tried to compensate Chagossians through financial payments and offers of British citizenship, however these offers have been seen as deeply unsatisfactory with the only truly acceptable offer being to allow Chagossians to resettle on the island.

In response to the ruling from the

UN court, Mauritius’ Prime Minister, Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, said: “This is a historic moment for Mauritius and all its people, including the Chagossians who were unconscionably removed from their homeland and prevented from returning for the last half century. Our territorial integrity will now be made complete, and when that occurs, the Chagossians and their descendants will finally be able to return home”.

The ruling has been perceived as a humiliation for the UK with many of its traditional allies in the UN, such as fellow EU member states and Canada, refusing to support its claim over the territory. The UK Foreign Office responded to the court’s decision by stressing that the ruling was only advisory and that the strategic military importance of the islands ensured the security of both Britain and the rest of the world from threats such as terrorism.

One of the former inhabitants of the Chagos islands, Marie Liseby Elysé, testified to the UN court last November. She had spoken of how she and others were treated as they were deported from the islands in 1973: “The administrator told us we had to board the ship, leaving everything, leaving all our personal belongings behind except a few clothes and go. When we

“The UK took our home”: Chagossians protesting the UK’s occupation of the Chagos Islands in Trafalgar Square. Source: David Holt (via Flickr) boarded the ship, conditions in the hull of the ship were bad. We were like animals and slaves in that ship”.

This ruling arguably reflects the steady decline of the UK’s international standing, as well as the ongoing decolonisation of Africa. David Snoxell, Coordinator of the Chagos Islands All-Party Parliamentary Group, said the UK should now “seize the opportunity to engage in serious discussions with Mauritius for an overall settlement. There is no defence, security, political or legal reason to delay it any

longer”.

Ultimately, this has paved way to discussions over the UK’s continued ownership of lands such as the Chagos Islands and whether the UK is denying people access to a basic human right, self-determination. This UN court ruling will only increase pressure on the UK from the international community to allow for the resettlement of Chagossians and to return sovereignty of the archipelago back to Mauritius, but we are yet to see whether the UN’s ruling will be enacted.

Are Trump’s diplomacy efforts working?

The President’s approach to diplomacy is frequently criticised

by Thomas Badham

C

urated over years of publicity, including movie cameos, book releases, and even a WWE performance, Trump’s public persona of a no-nonsense, straight talking businessman became a hallmark of his political style. This certainly helped to deliver him the presidency, but the world of international diplomacy is used to a far more delicate touch. Trump’s disruptive style has complicated and transformed US relationships across the world.

His meetings with world leaders have been punctuated with bizarre instances of showmanship. Trump’s visit to the UK saw a baffling moment when Theresa May appeared to be holding the President’s hand as they approached the press, whilst President Macron has

been subjected to unusually physical on-camera experiences with Trump.

Handshakes between the two are prolonged affairs, as both men try to physically exert their dominance.

Yet Trump often goes further than just perplexing his allies. In 2017 he withdrew the US from the Paris Climate Agreement which aimed to mitigate the effects of climate change. At the NATO summit last year, Trump demanded other members contribute 4% of their budgets to defence spending, doubling the 2% spending target which most members already fail to meet. He then threatened to withdraw from NATO if changes were not implemented, though conceding it was “presently unnecessary”.

It is Trump’s comments on terrorism,

Bromance or showmance?: The Vietnam summit is the latest in a series of diplomacy efforts with North Korea. Source: Wikimedia

however, where he truly ruffles international feathers. Trump fabricated a terror attack in Sweden in February 2017 to highlight issues surrounding immigration, compelling Swedish exPrime Minister Carl Bildt to ask Twitter “what has he been smoking?” A year later, his comments about the police having prior knowledge of the 2018 Parsons Green terror attack were also described as “not helpful” by Theresa May in a BBC interview. These are instances where Trump is performing for his home crowd, giving his vote base in America the chance to see their President standing up and defending their interests on the world stage, even if this to the detriment of international relations.

Trump’s relationship with Russia is often heavily scrutinised and criticised. After the Novichok poisoning attack, Trump reacted by expelling 60 Russian diplomats as well as imposing economic sanctions on Russia, taking a decisive step in solidarity with the UK. However he has consistently failed to hold Putin to account for Russian action in Syria, and his presidency has been plagued by continuous accusations of his relationship with Russia in influencing the results of the 2016 US presidential election.

Trump’s dealings in Asia have been similarly controversial. In 2018, Trump took the decision to start a trade war with China, seeing tariffs totalling over $250bn. China retaliated in kind, im-

posing tariffs worth $110bn. However, Trump recently declared that given China and the US’s diplomatic progress he will delay increasing US tariffs on China which were scheduled for 1 March and will be organising a Summit with President Xi in order to finalise their trade agreement.

The President’s most recent summit with North Korea is just as intriguing.

In contrast to his hard-line diplomacy and cutting comments made to Western political leaders, the first day of the Vietnam summit saw Trump showering Kim Jong-Un in compliments.

Previous interactions between the two leaders have seen Trump pushing North Korea to relinquish its nuclear weaponry for great economic power. In last week’s summit, Trump pushed for the same again, claiming he, and only he, could make North Korea an “economic powerhouse.” Despite the sense of optimism surrounding this summit, talks collapsed after Kim Jong-un demanded that all economic sanctions on North Korea were lifted, a request which Donald Trump refused to realise.

Trump’s diplomacy has had a seismic effect on global relations. Reversing tradition, Trump has been hard-nosed and disruptive when dealing with US allies, whilst taking an arguably softer approach with Russia. Although with approximately two years left in office, Trump’s diplomacy has the potential to cause international distress or success in equal measures.

by Sharon Gomez

D

eadly clashes broke out in Venezuelan border towns on February 23rd as President Nicolás Maduro blocked humanitarian aid from entering the country. Venezuelan troops fired tear gas and rubber bullets at volunteers attempting to collect and transport the aid packages, which included scarce and vital food and medicine.

As a result of these clashes, 4 people were killed and 285 people were injured, of which 37 were hospitalised.

Jaun Guaidó, leader of the opposition-dominated National Assembly, organised the collection of hundreds of tonnes of foreign aid at the country’s borders. In response, Maduro partly closed the country’s borders with Brazil and Colombia. Guaidó insists that citizens need help, while Maduro views aid as a ploy by the US to invade the country.

[The US] are trying to fabricate a crisis to justify political escalation and military intervention to bring a war to South America Guaidó declared himself the country’s interim leader after claiming that Maduro’s rule was constitutionally illegitimate because he held a fraudulent general election in 2018. More than 60 countries, including the US, Canada and the majority of the Western European countries, have recognised Guaidó as interim president. Meanwhile, Maduro’s allies include China, Cuba, and Russia.

Venezuela was once the richest country in Latin America. It has the largest known oil reserves in the world and its democratic government was once praised worldwide.

Today, it has the highest inflation rate in the world, making food and medicine inaccessible to most Venezuelans. Over the last 4 years, its GDP has fallen by 35% which is a sharper drop than was seen during the Great Depression in the US. The country’s murder rate has also surpassed that of the most dangerous cities in the world and at least 2.7 million people have fled the country since 2015. The economic collapse is a result of years of economic mismanagement and corruption which has taken place under Maduro’s authoritarian rule. With Maduro unlikely to change his stance in the foreseeable future, it is likely that these border clashes will continue as Venezuelans become more and more desperate for international aid despite the hardline taken by their President.

CYNGOR

To contact our advice desk, drop us an email at advice@gairrhydd.com

ADVICE

For more content, head to gairrhydd.com/advice

20

How to live independently from your family

by Kaiya Simon

W

hether it’s moving out, going to university or going on a girls holiday, I’m sure everyone has felt homesick at least once in their lives. Although it’s a personal experience and people don’t often feel comfortable speaking about it, there are ways to solve or at least help the feeling of missing your family and your home during this lonely time.

A way to distract yourself is by not spending too much time in your bedroom. Speaking from experience, university bedrooms are small, dull spaces that can feel like prison cells.

Therefore try and keep yourself busy by going to your lectures or to work and study elsewhere instead of your room. You could branch out further by doing extracurricular activities like joining a society. For the time you do spend in your room, make it feel homely by filling it with the things you love as there is nothing worse than a bare, empty bedroom. You can hang a tapestry, bunting and fairy lights along with adding pictures and candles to your shelves or walls. Although it might make you emotional being surrounded by pictures at first, it will make you feel less home-sick and more at home.

Again, it might make you emotional for a while, but remember to take home comforts along to your new home. Whether it’s an old teddy bear or a blanket that you’ve had since birth, they will cheer you up when you’re not feeling your best.

Don’t worry about someone winding you up about it because everyone has

D

Ashavari Baral Katie Lewis Columnist Sam Saunders

You can still reach out to your family: Just don’t depend on them, depend on yourself.

Source: Ian Dooley (via Unsplash) a guilty pleasure or comfort hidden somewhere.

It might make you emotional for a while, but remember to take home comforts along to your new home Also, keep in touch with your loved ones, but not so much so that

you’re constantly relying on them for support. A phone call, text or quick FaceTime will keep you in the loop at home but keeping in touch too much can make you feel worse. Just don’t let it get to the point where you’re communicating more with your family at home than the people you’re currently surrounded by.

Your health will also be impacted by homesickness so it shouldn’t be neglected. It’s very tempting to lie in bed all day watching Netflix, but make sure to go out for a walk or a run fairly regularly, just to keep active and have some fresh air. It might also be a good

distraction to explore new surroundings to get used to your new town or city. If at university, you’re only there for a few years so do some sightseeing or volunteering in the community to distract yourself but also familiarise yourself with your new surroundings.

Moving away is difficult but following these tips will make a big difference to settling in. Don’t forget that there are also services available if you’re attending university which are free to access if homesickness is affecting your mental health. Just check in with student services to find out more.

Being a child of divorce or separation

by Imogen Killner

Your advice desk

Tips on being confident while living alone

isclaimer: I can only talk for my personal experience with divorce, and want to reassure the reader that every human has different coping strategies and feelings surrounding it.

I have been a child of divorce and separation twice, the first when I was 4 and the second when I was 15.

To be honest, there is never an easy way to deal with it. I developed a lot of coping strategies as a child and teenager, such as distracting myself and mentally blocking it all out and reading Harry Potter to escape from reality. These worked really well in the short-term, and are quite popular with other children of divorce, but led to complications in the long-term.

Because I did not talk about my feelings of loss, abandonment, anger and confusion, I learnt to bottle up my feelings in an unhealthy way. Whilst I never showed it, I felt like an outsider at school, as none of my friends had been through the same experience. I couldn’t join in with the jokes about dads because I never really had a real one. This was never a cry for help or a plead for pity, it was just something that I couldn’t relate to.

With the long-term complications of bottling up my feelings, I began to burst during my sixth form years. For

me, the second separation was easier as it was a healthy separation, and I consider my ex-stepdad to be my real father, but a change in routine was nonetheless startling at such a vital part of my teenage years. I have been to various forms of counselling in my life, starting when I was about 11 to discuss my biological father and all the way to 17 when I realized my feelings were more complicated than I expected. I cannot recommend counselling enough, even if it is just one session. The mere act of talking about your feelings lessens the blow of pain massively. I developed new coping strategies, for example my mum and I created an imaginary treasure chest that sat in the back of my head for any good, or bad, memories of my dad that I never liked to acknowledge. In the summer between first and second year I started CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), which I can only recommend to those with mental illness-

‘I cannot recommend counselling enough, even if it is just one session’

Sometimes it is healthier to part ways.

Source : Siora Photography (via Unsplash) es that are becoming increasingly out of control. I would not recommend this purely to children of divorce, as counselling can help with that. For those with psychological issues, CBT works to unwind any behavioral patterns that you develop and helps you to understand how your head works.

CBT was a life-saver when it came to discussing separation and divorce, and has left me feeling like I finally have closure.

This is not to dismiss young adults who are experiencing divorce. I highly recommend using the university’s student support and wellbeing services to avoid bottling up feelings that may affect your grades and mental state. If you have been affected by dicorce, do talk to a professional if you feel as if you don’t have closure.

And remember, it is never your fault, and it does get better.

We would like to clarify, in Issue 1131, the article ‘How to properly deal with rejection’ was written by Rebecca Hodson. Gair Rhydd apologises for this.

CYNGOR

How I manage being a student-parent A degree and a baby? Here’s how I juggle both

by Emily Hattersley

B

eing a student is scary. But being a parent at the same time, is a whole new ball game. I found out I was pregnant in the summer after my first year of uni and, honestly, I didn’t know what to feel. Immediately I was afraid that I’d have to end my studies and abandon my whole life for this little peanut growing in my tummy.

But I was so in love with my course at JOMEC. There was no way on earth I would give up my degree, especially after everything I had already achieved.

There was no way that I wasn’t going to have this baby either. So, there it was.

My decision was made. I was going to be a student mum.

it felt real. It was happening. I looked on the Cardiff university website for their ‘Pregnancy and Matenity Policy’ and it advised me to meet with my personal tutor. I was very shy and embarrassed of my situation (I have no idea why), but my tutor was incredibly supportive and informative. She talked me through the process, and outlined my options. Either I could take a year out after having the baby, and return when I was ready, or I could continue as normal, and if needed, apply for extenuating circumstances for assignments that I was unable to complete. I decided to opt for the latter because I wanted to graduate as planned so I wouldn’t be left behind. The head of JOMEC was

Proof that it’s not impossible: If you have the dedication you can make it work. Source: Emily Hattersley

The university has services to support you: Talk to your personal tutor about your options. Source: Emily Hattersley First things first, we had to tell my partners family (arguably the scariest part of the whole experience!) We were both in university (my partner nearing his final year), and neither of us were emotionally or financially equipped to be having a baby. We had been together for 5 years but we couldn’t even keep plants alive. Safe to say we were expecting to have a good telling off about how careful we should have been, and how stupid we both were. So, after an emotional cuddle, and a promise that everything would be okay, we began the dreaded phone call. I had imagined, in years to come, the announcement of my first child’s existence would have been a little more romantic than the inaudible blubbering that his parents were presented with. But, thanks to my partners insightful translation, they took it very well, and offered us their full support.

And there it was. Now that they knew,

fully supportive of my decision and offered help wherever he could.

We then had to find out how we would finance ourselves. Student finance Wales, as always, were not the most helpful. There are currently no provisions for pregnant students. The financial part has to be sorted out after the birth of your child. Even then, it takes 6-8 weeks to process; an extra worry for a brand-new mother. A student mother, following the birth of her child, is entitled to a maintenance loan, a special support grant, a parental living allowance, and a childcare grant (which pays for up to 85% of the childcare costs). We registered our unborn baby in the Cardiff University Day Care facility (right next to the students union), and that was the business end of things sorted.

I didn’t tell anyone in uni I was expecting. I was worried I’d be treated differently, and there was something

quite exciting about keeping a secret as big as that. I managed to keep it to myself until 20 weeks, when I just couldn’t keep it to myself anymore. The reaction we had was amazing. I was so afraid of judgement, but there was none at all.

Everyone was just so supportive. Our daughter was born in April, so I decided to take advantage of my extenuating circumstances for three assessments that were initially due in May. My partner, who was completing his dissertation at the time, was also entitled to a 2-week extension. We had to isolate ourselves completely from the outside world, in order to complete our deadlines. It was hard, but we managed.

Luckily, in those first few months, our baby would sleep for 18 hours a day, so we could dedicate time to our assessments, while also sparing a few hours to sleep ourselves. It was hard, but we are both incredibly proud of ourselves, and each other. My partner graduated with a 2:1, and I am still on track to graduate this year, with everyone else.

The one thing that I would say is essential is to establish a routine (something I had always been terrible at).

Our daughter attends Day Care 4 days a week between 9am and 5pm, while I go to uni and my partner works. It is hard

to be away from her for so many hours each day, but I utilise the time that I am not in scheduled classes, working in the library on upcoming deadlines, or spending some quality time with my partner on his lunch break. I pick my little one up at 5, give her dinner at 6,

‘I utilise the time that i am not in scheduled classes, working in the library on upcoming deadlines’ and put her to bed by 7, which gives me time to tidy the house, and prepare for the next day.

Our lifestyles have definitely changed, but I cannot even describe how much better it is. Being a parent as well as a student, is doubly difficult, triply rewarding, but completely manageable with enough dedication. If I had a choice to go back and do it again, I’d never choose a different path. I relish the thought of bringing my daughter with me to graduate – and I guar-

Source: Emily Hattersley

21

Maintaining long distance friendships

Keeping up with long distance friendships. Source : Priscilla du preez (via Unsplash)

by Ashavari Baral When I graduated from high school, I knew that when I eventually made my way to University I was going to leave my friends and family behind. It was a pity because I loved my comfort zone. I moved from New Hampshire when I was 5 years old and India became my home, it became my safe space and the friends I made became friends for life. When I left for Cardiff, my friends left me at the airport and said “You have to keep in touch and ring us everyday, we will miss you so much”, I promised as I said my final goodbye’s. When I decided to write this article, I reflected greatly if I stuck to my promise.

Looking back, I think it was impossible to keep in touch every single day. Given our time difference, when I’d wake up, my friends would be in uni, when I’d get back home they’d be asleep. It was really straining to keep in touch and for a long time I felt like I was too eager to keep in touch with people back home over the fear of missing out. My social life in Cardiff was lacking and I didn’t feel present at all. As time passed by, I found a balance between friends back home and life in Cardiff. I started by always making time for my assignments first, but ringing my friends the minute I finished so I could get their opinion on it. On weekends when my friends would be free, I’d take some time off and Skype them. Social media helps a lot, to remain enaged I usually reply to my friends stories quite a bit. If I see a picture of their family, I reply asking how they are and the conversation continues.

But social media can also make you feel like an outsider so I’d suggest also sending them a private message via Facebook or WhatsApp as well, whenever it works out for you. Another point to keep in mind is if you can’t maintain long distance friendships, it’s okay. Don’t feel bad, you have different priorities when you move away from home. Most friends will be understanding as they have a lot of stuff going on with them as well. Another tip, I would give you when you’re walking to uni, or anywhere that is a fair distant. Why not ring one of your friends and have a chat? They’ll appreciate that you thought of them and that you put in the time!

Just remember you cannot please everyone, and are your friends really your friends if they don’t understand your busy schedule?

22

COLUMN

Saunders’ Corner Sam Saunders

An open letter to the Students’ Union

How elections could be improved

A

s it will have definitely not escaped your attention, last week was the official SU campaign week for 17 positions within the Students’ Union, most notably the seven paid sabbatical officers. This number will become eight in next year’s election, with the addition of a full-time Welsh Language Officer position. It’s admirable that the SU is committed to student democracy in this way and that, despite financial hardships, these officials are paid a reasonable salary and that because of this, the union remains run by students, for students. However, as is commented on almost every year, there are numerous ways in which this process could be improved upon, which is what I want to focus on in this column. It’ll take the form of an open letter to the SU, in which I’ll outline my thoughts about the elections, and how I believe they could be improved.

First off, I think that the voting period should be extended to around three weeks, with campaign week sandwiched in between the two ‘fallow’ weeks. I say this because I feel that unless you are actively involved/interested in the elections, then the one week period puts a lot of pressure on students to get au fait with the candidates and manifestos. Instead, the manifestos should be released a week before campaigning starts, then campaign week should take place, with question time scheduled. Finally, a

‘cooling-off’ week after the madness of campaigning would give voters enough time to make up their minds about who they want to vote for. If the SU would be reluctant to implement this, that’s understandable, and I completely get that most students would dread an extension to the election period. If this was the case, I would suggest that the SU should release the manifestos a week before the start of campaigning, so that students could familiarise themselves with the different candidates.

6,851 students voted in the elections in 2016/17, out of a population of 31,597

Secondly, and this is something that I am a fan of anyway, is mandatory voting in the elections, so that the views of the entire student population are represented. Some sort of advantage to voting would have to be offered, but I think it is absolutely ridiculous that 6,851 students voted in the elections in 2016/17, out of a population of 31,597. That’s a turnout of 21.7%. It’s frankly ridiculous that all of the officers are elected on this paltry

Images: The SU in election mode (Credit: Sam Saunders) amount of students. As much as the SU commits to trying to increase the numbers of students who vote, I feel that these first two improvements would dramatically increase participation and engagement in the elections.

Furthermore, there are some improvements that I believe the SU needs to make to the constraints placed upon candidates during the elections. There were several reports last week of candidates tearing down the posters and banners of their direct rivals during campaign week, which I think is abhorrent behaviour. Each candidate receives a budget from the SU for these materials, so it’s ridiculous that some people think they have the right to go around and destroy other people’s property, as this policy is a key factor in ensuring a free and fair election. It’s important as it allows anyone to campaign and removes the chance of those with wealthy parents or relatives steamrollering the competition and the election with superior resources. Therefore, I propose that any candidate found to be doing this should be immediately disqualified from the elections. However, I think that candidates should be able to directly criticise their rivals, as pointing out holes in their policies is surely a huge part of convincing people to vote for you. Perhaps this is too much of a slippery slope, but I think that this should at least be implemented at Election Ques-

tion time.

The current format of question time isn’t great, because candidates have no chance to directly address each other and criticise their arguments, and are allowed to dodge the difficult questions, as they only have to pre-prepare answers to two questions from a possible five. This led to the question of which policy was least feasible due to the financial pressure on the Union going completely ignored, which would have been very interesting. Therefore, I think that the current format should

Candidates have no chance to directly address each other, and are allowed to dodge the difficult questions

be revised into more of an open debate, so that the candidates introduce themselves and then respond to questions posed by the chair. They would also have the opportunity to come back to points made by other candidates. In addition to these changes, election question time must be attended by all candidates or they shouldn’t be allowed to run, as it was ridiculous that only one

of the five AU president candidates was actually there on Thursday before campaign week. There should also be none of this sending in statements for the chair to read, as this negates the pressure of answering unseen questions from the audience and means that students who choose to attend can’t see the candidates in a different environment. I also think that for question time to be an effective tool for testing the candidates, it should be made a bronze tier requirement (with the same constraints as the AGM) for all societies and sports clubs. This would mean that a sufficient number of students would be present to hear what the candidates had to say, as well as increasing student engagement with elections.

Finally, any candidate who nominates themselves but doesn’t bother to upload a photo and a manifesto shouldn’t be included in the manifesto document or the website voting options, which they rightly haven’t been this year. This shows a slight contempt for the SU voting process, and there’s also an environmental issue, as the union could have saved a few pages of printing on each manifesto copy of they had followed this policy.

As always, thanks for reading guys.

This column was more of a ranty comment piece, so I hope you liked the change of flavour. We’ve got a week off because it’s reading week, so I’ll see you all in two weeks.

Deaf Havana

Bury Tomorrow Amber Run

March/Mawrth AJ Tracey

The Good, the Bad & The Queen 13/04/19, £30 ADV

08/03/19 - SOLD OUT/ WEDI GWERTHU ALLAN

DMA'S

Stiff Little Fingers

Stefflon Don

09/03/19, £21 ADV

Deaf Havana

15/03/19, £18.50 ADV

Bedlam Presents: CruCast

29/03/19, from £17.50 ADV

April/Ebrill Sleaford Mods

05/04/19, £19.50 ADV

14/04/19, £18.50 ADV 18/04/19, £16 ADV

Suede

26/04/19, £37.50 ADV

May/Mai Hollywood Undead

October/Hydref Amber Run

11/10/19, £15 ADV

Black Star Riders

24/10/19, £29.50 ADV

November/Tachwedd Happy Mondays

29/11/19, £32.50 ADV

December/Rhagfyr

04/05/19, £18 ADV

Devin Townsend

June/Mehefin

Bury Tomorrow

Clutch

16/06/19, £25 ADV

The Alarm

29/06/19, £27.50 ADV

05/12/19, £25 ADV 15/12/19, £20 ADV

Shed Seven

16/12/19, £28.50 ADV

GWYDDONIAETH

To contact our science desk, drop us an email at science@gairrhydd.com

SCIENCE

For more content, head to gairrhydd.com/science

24

Your science desk Danny Brown Jonathan Learmont

Exploiting viruses for the greater good

“We were interested in developing viruses for therapeutic applications, such as treating cancers, and for vaccine applications.”

by Danny Brown

A

research team at Cardiff University’s School of Medicine have used a combination of X-ray crystallography and computer simulation to investigate in incredible depth how viruses bind to cells and cause infection. This insight could advance the exploitation of viruses for medical treatments and also help in the development of drugs and treatments for infections.

This insight could advance the exploitation of viruses for medical treatments X-ray crystallography is the technique used to look at the atomic structure of molecules and crystals, where the beam of incident x-rays get deflected in many specific directions. By measuring the angles and intensities of the refracted x-rays, it is possible to create a three dimensional picture of the structure of electrons in the sample.

Alex Baker, one of the authors of the study, said: “We were interested in developing viruses for therapeutic applications, such as treating cancers, and for vaccine applications.

“We focussed on two specific viruses, called Ad26 and Ad48. These viruses are in clinical trials where they are showing promise as vaccines to protect against Ebola virus and HIV infection. We wanted to know more about how these viruses work as vaccines.”

The process the team took included making very pure samples of the virus proteins that bind the virus to the cell, infecting the cell. They made crystals out of the purified protein allowing them to perform the x-ray crystallography studies.

Baker went on to say: “We were able to investigate exactly how the viruses attach to proteins on the cell surface and we were surprised to find that they could not bind to a protein called CD46, which had previously been reported as the main virus receptor. Instead, we show that these viruses can bind weakly to a different entry receptor, called CAR. In so doing we identified a previously undiscovered mechanism that adenoviruses use to adjust their attachment to CAR.”

Viral: “This information will help determine what the best antivirals might be to treat outbreaks of these viruses in their natural, disease causing state”. Source: Wikimedia Commons (Natural Philo) The study provided details of the basic biology of the viruses they were manipulating at a molecular level. Dr Alan Parker, senior author of the study said: “This study is important since it provides molecular level detail about the basic biology of the viruses we are manipulating. This information will help determine what the best antivirals might be to treat outbreaks of these viruses in their natural, disease causing

state, but will also help progress their development for therapeutic purposes in the future.”

The study was funded by Tenovus Cancer Care, Cancer Research UK and Cancer Research Wales and was published in the journal, Nature Communications. There were also collaborators to the study based at Oxford and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.

Cardiff Uni receives funding to improve pancreatic cancer detection

by Milo Moran

Institute, who are investigating the cellular processes that cause pancreatic cancer. For example, if mutations in the KRAS gene enable cancerous cells to evade the body’s natural protections, it may be that more mutated strains are more able to do this. The better our understanding of these processes, the more able we will be to diagnose the early stages.

C

ardiff scientists have received over £370,000 to develop new ways to detect pancreatic cancer early. 25 people die every day from pancreatic cancer in the UK alone- the worst prognosis of any cancer.

Survival rates are poor: 1 in 4 people die within a month of diagnosis, and 3 in 4 die within a year.

Early diagnosis can make a huge difference to the patient, as treatment can begin sooner, increasing the chance of survival.

Early diagnosis can make a huge difference to the patient ‘Cancer’ can mean any one of hundreds of diseases, but they all share similar causes and symptoms.

When a cell’s DNA is damaged, this can cause a mutation which makes the cell multiply rapidly. This uncontrolled growth can cause any

Only 1% survive with the disease for 10 years Spread: Currently 1 in 4 people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer die within a month. Source: Ed Uthman (via Flickr) number of symptoms. Most mutations are caused by exposure to environmental factors, like smoking, poor diet, or radiation.

However, 90% of pancreatic cancers occur when the mutation is in a gene called KRAS. Cells with the normal form of the KRAS gene are more likely to become cancerous,

but they are eliminated by other cells which prevent cancer. This suggests that the mutated KRAS gene allows these cells to avoid being detected and destroyed.

In response to this, Cancer Research UK’s Early Detection Committee have given funding to the European Cancer Stem Cell Research

Cardiff University’s Dr Catherine Hogan said “we aim to understand fundamental biological events that lead to cancer”. Only 1% of people witht he disease survive for ten years, a rate which has not improved since the 1970s. Dr Hogan believes that this research will “transform the way we diagnose pancreatic cancer”, which could be a vital development for 25 people every day.

GWYDDONIAETH 25

Eight-letter DNA developed to help detect extra-terrestrial life The molecule may have medicinal and industrial applications too

by Holly Giles

T

he double helix DNA structure is an iconic image known to scientists everywhere. It is formed of the four bases tyrosine, cytosine, adenine and guanine (T,C,A,G). The specific order of these four bases is what distinguishes man from rhino and banana and any other form of life on Earth.

It could code new amino acids with novel properties Until now these have been the only known building blocks of DNA, but this week scientists have developed four new blocks in the hope that this eight-letter DNA will provide an indication of the pro-

teins made by other life forms and what they might consist of.

Behind the discovery of the “hachi-moji” (eight letters) DNA molecule, are Steven Benner and his team at the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution in Florida. The four new bases consist of S, which pairs with B, and P, which pairs with Z. The fact that hachi-moji DNA uses hydrogen bonds between pairs like our DNA means it could be integrated into our DNA to provide a staggering 512 codons compared to the conventional 64 we have now.

The 512 codons make it possible to code for new amino acids with novel properties, which could enable everything from more powerful medicines and industrial catalysts to the possibility of electrically conductive proteins. In order to realise all the potential benefits of this discovery, tools are needed to take advantage of this new code and manipulate it optimally.

Ultimately, the most exciting im-

DNA might be completely different in other life forms plication of this data is the insight into other forms life could take.

Until now we have been focusing on what we see as the essentials for life; water, oxygen and nitrogen.

But these developments suggest we have been approaching any search in space from an overly anthropomorphised view, and although those elements are essential to human life they may not be to life in other forms.

This data indicates life on other planets could be completely different to life as we know it and that their DNA might be at the heart

Breakthrough: The discovery changes our ideas about the potential structure of DNA in other life forms. Source: Max Pixel of that. NASA, who funded the research, said they hope it will help

them expand the scope of their search for extra-terrestrial life.

Cosmic dust formation mystery solved New observations reveal its interaction with supernovae

by Matthew Jordan

S

cientists believe they have solved a longstanding mystery as to how cosmic dust forms using new observations of a nearby supernova.

Made up of heavy elements, cosmic dust is mainly formed within large stars such as red giants and blown off either slowly through solar wind or en masse in a large stellar explosion. It then spreads, with huge amounts of dust being observed in the interstellar medium.

But there was previously little idea as to how so much cosmic dust could exist in interstellar space when so much of it should have been destroyed in supernovae, wiped out in the powerful shockwaves produced as massive stars die. However, new observations of the closest supernova to Earth reveals not so much that dust is surviving the star-shattering explosion, but that it is actually reforming after it is wiped out.

NASA’s research aircraft, the Stratospheric Observatory for In-

It should have been destroyed as massive stars died frared Astronomy (SOFIA), has detected dust in a significant set of rings within supernova 1987A.

These results show that the amount of cosmic dust in the rings is actually growing rapidly, with around ten times more dust present than predicted by theoretical simulations.

A paper published in a recent issue of Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society looks at these results and suggests that dust is actually reforming after it is obliterated in a supernova’s blast. The idea that the post-shock environment would be immediately ready to form dust is new and marks a significant

Galactic: Cosmic dust clouds are involved in the formation of planets and stars in the universe. Source: ESO/R. Colombari.

change in the popular understanding of dust formation and destruction.

“We already knew about the slowmoving dust in the heart of 1987A,” commented Dr. Mikako Matsuura, lecturer at Cardiff University’s School of Physics and Astronomy and the lead author of the paper.

Formation of dust in a post-shock environment is a new idea “It formed from the heavy elements created in the core of the dead star. But the SOFIA observations tell us something completely new.”

When cosmic dust particles are heated they glow and radiate between infrared and millimetre wavelengths. While millimetre wavelength emissions can be observed using ground telescopes, infrared observations are very difficult due to interference from carbon dioxide and water molecules in the atmosphere.

SOFIA flies high in the atmosphere, above most of such molecules which may obscure its vision, providing it with access to parts of the infrared spectrum not observable from the ground.

NERD VARSITY THERE’S A HERO IN ALL OF US MONDAY 4TH - SUNDAY 17TH MARCH

tickets on sale

cardiffstudents.com/nerdvarsity

EVER FANCIED LEARNING SOME BASIC SIGN LANGUAGE? Deaf Awareness Sessions 6th or 27th March | 13:30-15:30 | £6 | Certificate Awarded

• How and in what ways people communicate with one another • Several British Sign Language signs • Guidelines for good communication with people with deafness or are hard of hearing.

BOOK ONLINE AT CARDIFFSTUDENTS.COM/SDS

28

SPORT

For more content, head to gairrhydd.com/sport

England women lose ODI series 2-1 to India

How do you solve a keeper like Kepa?

by Llion Carbis

I

n the face of considerable scrutiny and increased pressure on Maurizio Sarri’s position, Chelsea produced a defiantly characterful display against Manchester City in the final of the Carabao Cup final.

Despite ultimately losing in the cruellest of fashions, a gruelling 3-4 defeat in the penalty shoot-out, Chelsea succeeded to negate the Premier League’s most potent outfit for 120 minutes.

Such is the Italian’s obsession with instituting his favoured style of play, one that has led to heavy defeats against Manchester City and Bournemouth, and disappointing losses to top-six rivals (Arsenal, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur), he had been presented in an unfavourable light. The portrayal was that of a stubborn manager, unwavering in his unwillingness to adapt and play outside his established remit; one that failed to utilise the main strengths of his team, and one that became so blatantly predictable to divisional rivals.

However, Chelsea’s cup final display was markedly different in its composition and character. Sarri’s instruction to press 20 yards deeper than the Blues did in the 6-0 drubbing at the Etihad Stadium was ingenious. As opposed to fighting with City toe-to-toe, Sarri’s side were perceptive and canny in their attempts to neutralise Pep Guardiola’s team, choosing the correct moments to intervene and counter-attack. Uncharacteristically, Sarri’s substitutions were surprising, inspired, and most importantly, impactful.

Regardless of the result, the performance had the potential to be transformative, one that could reverse the club’s meteoric decline.

Chelsea have lost six games in all competitions (including the cup final) since the turn of the year. However, the defiant and dogged display was largely overshadowed by a moment of petulance and insubordination by Kepa Arrizabalaga. With only minutes remaining in the final, and with the game drawing ever-nearer to penalties, the Spanish keeper fell to the ground for the second time in the contest.

The 24-year-old was initially an injury doubt for the final having missed Chelsea’s Europa League triumph against Malmo through a hamstring injury. Introducing Willy Caballero, a former Manchester City player, and penalty-saving specialist seemed like a logical and correct decision by Maurizio Sarri; that was until Kepa had chosen to defy and undermine the authority of his manager publicly. Cue scenes of instinctive and irrepressible rage from Maurizio Sarri. Despite the presence of fourth official’s substitution board, instructing Kepa to be replaced by Caballero, the Spaniard refused to depart the field, fervently communicating to Sarri his insistence on remaining on the pitch, thereby undermining the authority of his manager. Situated in the upper tier at Wembley, I was left utterly perplexed by the incident.

by Laura Price

I

n the first ODI India women outdid England by 66, England failing to chase down India’s 202 runs.

The first day started slowly, India’s batting off to a slow but steady start.

Towards the middle of the order India started to pick things up. England responded well, with left-arm spinner Sophie Ecclestone and right-arm seamers Georgia Elwiss and Natalie Sciver claiming two wickets each.

India’s final push came from Jhulan Goswami’s 37-ball 30, leaving India with a defendable 202 runs.

When it came England’s turn to bat, the side didn’t do themselves justice. They were unable to deal with the Indian left-arm spinner, Ekta Bisht’s superb bowling as she picked up four wickets. England couldn’t seem to get going, with opener Amy Jones falling after just 10 balls.

In an attempt to claw the innings back, the pairing of skipper Heather Knight and Natalie Sciver managed a 73 run partnership.That, however, wasn’t enough. It was Bisht’s bowling that bettered the pair, she took three wickets in an over to condemn England.

After the game, captain, Heather Knight said, “The total was perfectly chaseable, we bowled well, but were unlucky not to take more wickets up front. But we were more than happy with 200 to chase. I don’t think we played it particularly well today. The pitch started to turn and deteriorated too. There was inconsistent spin as well which makes it harder.”

In the second ODI India were triumphant again. Beating England this time by seven wickets.

Opting to bat first to “put some runs on the board” England only managed to set India a dismal 161 runs for victory. India put together a comprehensive batting performance, despite getting off to a bumpy start, with opener Jemimah Rodrigues falling for a duck after ten balls.

Unfortunately for England, the positive start did not last. Smriti Mandhana's score of 63 led the chase with captain Mithali Raj scoring a swift and unbeaten 47 to deputise capably.

India finished the day with an unassailable 2-0 lead heading into the third ODI at the Wankhede Stadium.

Going into the third match, England felt like they had a lot to prove.

India won the toss and elected to bat hoping to put a big score on the board, knowing it would be difficult for the England team to chase.

Opening bowler Katherine Brunt bowled opening batsman Jemimah Rodrigues with just her second ball.

England managed to keep control of the Indian run rate, without taking any wickets. India pairing Mandhana and Raut looked comfortable against England’s bowlers taking India to 84/1 in 20 overs. Finally the breakthrough came in the 29th over when Mandhana was caught by Danni Wyatt off the bowling of Brunt. Brunt was excellent with the ball, taking her 5th 5 wicket hall for England in ODI cricket.

Despite Brunt’s brilliance, India set a respectable total of 205, the largest total of the series, for England to chase in order to avoid a humiliating 3-0 whitewash.

Amy Jones and Tammy Beaumont opened the batting for England, Jones starting with some big shots to kick

Leg side: Heather Knight takes to the crease for England (Photo credit: Wikimedia commons) start the chase. Her efforts, however, didn’t pay off, a big hit off a slower delivery from Jhulan Goswami, ended up in Mandhana’s hands rather than sailing over the ropes.

India took wickets at regular intervals, preventing England’s chase from gaining any momentum.

England’s salvation came when captain Heather Knight and Danielle Wyatt met at the crease. The pair battled through a tricky period to have an invaluable partnership of 69.

Knight knew she had to perform, digging in to make 47 from 63 balls.

Unfortunately Knight was dismissed after edging one to wicketkeeper Taniya Bhatia. This didn’t stop England. With Wyatt taking charge, new pairing Wyatt and Elwiss taking England’s total past 150. Wyatt found

her half century and things started to look up for England’s chase. Wyatt fell when England required another 36 runs for victory with just 3 wickets remaining, leaving a nail biting finish to the final ODI. Brunt scored a crucial 17 off 18 balls taking England closer to glory.

With two overs to go England needed five runs. Anya Shrubsole forced England over the line with a four to win the match.

Although this win did not have an overall affect on the series, it was vitally important for England and their confidence moving forward. They went into the series with the belief they could win and losing 3-0 would have been hugely detrimental to the progress that this England team are making.

Bluebirds in the red despite promotion

George Willoughby considers Cardiff City's financial situation

by George Willoughby

P

romotion in the 2017/18 campaign saw a return to the Premier League for the Bluebirds.

There was joy for fans, players, staff but not for the financial records.

Despite promotion, Cardiff lost a staggering £34m. A culmination of bonuses, transfers and additional issued shareholder loans are the main cost increases in the report.

As well, it is believed that owner Vincent Tan is still owed roughly £70m by Cardiff (BBC Sport). Some slightly concerning figures for sure, especially given that the losses have occurred during the season in which Neil Warnock pioneered a promotion run to restore Cardiff ’s topflight status.

Cardiff fans might not be too

disgruntled with the recent news, mainly because a large part of the cost increase is through player bonuses, which clearly translated into performances on the pitch.

So, without immediately dramatising over the undesirable figures, a significant point to also make is that by the end of the current season, the financial picture could look very different.

The Premier League’s new TV deal has been a talking point for years, and its impact on clubs has been unprecedented. The income that it provides has allowed for teams to advance net profit, and also provided access to a greater pool of players for transfers.

So, from Cardiff ’s perspective, as

to how concerned you are regarding the financial reports is entirely judgemental. As a club, they are not on their own when it comes to making losses after a financial year, the difference being that their revenue is significantly inferior.

This is why retaining Premier League status is of the upmost importance. Not just because what it means to the fans, but also due to the money raised from staying in the league.

A great example of a club that has benefitted from this is Bournemouth. The Cherries are a much smaller club, yet they have established themselves year-on-year through regular TV payments and the overall increase in exposure that

comes with playing against the best.

Cardiff 's financial picture after a few years of consolidation in the Premier League would improve drastically. It would combat their rising wage bill, help start reducing the money owed to owner Vincent Tan, and also maybe start making a profit establishing a sustainable business model for seasons to come.

Of course, that is much easier said than done, as Cardiff are currently battling it out to avoid relegation with the odds heavily stacked against them.

Losing money in a single season is not uncommon, but the Bluebirds need to keep an eye on the figures so that they don't escalate into anything more severe.

To contact our sport desk, drop us an email at sport@gairrhydd.c

CHWARAEON

Opinion: breaking down gender barriers Inequality in sport: Some food for thought ahead of This Cardiff Girl Can Campaign

29

CURFC triumph over Loughborough

by Laura Price

W

by Olivia Howe

I

n the light of campaigns like This Cardiff Girl Can, it is important to understand why breaking down gender barriers in sport is so beneficial to society as a whole.

The gender gap in sport is a problem which has faced athletes and sports governing bodies since women began to compete. The initial argument was that women did not belong in sport – they were not aggressive enough, nor charismatic, strong or tactical. Rather, they belonged at home, fulfilling their biological purposes as mothers and wives of the athletes seen on the tracks and the television.

The gender gap in sports is real, and it is proving hard to close It was once even argued that women should not compete in sports as their reproductive organs were too fragile, and if they were to be damaged the population would be jeopardized. It would appear that the theorist behind this postulation forgot woman’s physical ability to produce, carry, protect and eventually push out a give-or-take-three-kilogram child with said organs.

Yet women have defied the odds and managed to show their grit in a sporting arena, with some female athletes becoming icons in the 20th and 21st centuries (think Serena Williams, Simone Biles, Alison Felix, Tani Grey Thompson and so on). Nonetheless, upon Googling ‘iconic female sports stars’ and browsing the images section, the results are scattered with lists of the hottest athletes (ranked, of course) rather than the most influential or talented.

According to the Forbes’ 2018 list of the World’s Highest Paid Athletes, no

This Cardiff Girl Can: Varsity 2018: Source: Cardiff University women made the cut.

To put this into perspective further, a recent report by Sporting Intelligence found that when comparing the two highest paying sports leagues, the National Basketball Association and the Women’s National Basketball Association “The men of the NBA earn 96 times as much as the women of the WNBA, or £105,728 each week, or roughly twice as much as an WNBA player will earn in a year”.

When investigating the gender divide in football the statistics were even more absurd, with Sport Intelligence reporting that there are “106 times as many men [playing professional football] as women. Or to put it another way, 0.93 per cent of the world’s professional footballers are women.” The gender gap in sports is real, and it is proving hard to close.

During my MPhil focussing on sexism in sport and the philosophy behind it all, I have come to find that there are several reasons that the gender gap exists in this particular part of society. One of the main pillars of continuing sexism in sport is the socially engineered construct of gender. By trying to understand what socially engineered gender constructs are and how they can be tackled, there is a glimmer of hope for gender equality in sports.

A prime example and contentious debate in the current sports discourse is athlete Caster Semenya of South Africa.

Semenya is a 28-year-old middle distance runner, specialising in the 800m race. Her career so far includes multiple gold medals, including golds at London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympics. Semenya has been at the centre of a vicious debate regarding her hyperandrogenism and most recently was ordered by the International Association of Athletics Federations to suppess her hormones to level the playing field. If she does not comply she cannot compete, and her athletic career will effectively be over.

What riles athletes and spectators even more is that Semenya doesn’t conform to traditional gender constructs.

She makes no effort whatsoever to ap-

pear feminine, focussing entirely on her performance rather than appearance contrasting other female athletes who go into a great deal of effort to look good for the cameras. The opposition argument is this: her natural hormones are an unfair advantage and they should be supressed to level the playing field.

Several grey areas arise from this however. What is a normal hormone level for someone to be considered female?

And does this vary for a female athlete?

Without regulations and constraints on how much an athlete trains, what they eat, and how much sponsorship they have, the playing field is full of lumps and loop-holes.

Although it is admittedly difficult for competitors whose hormones are different to Semenya’s, it is without saying that Semenya has used her natural endowment to the best of her ability.

She has not come this far by hormones alone – for an athlete to be successful it requires a Herculean amount of dedication, confidence, motivation and the ability to pick oneself up again and again.

To use your body to its best ability is the pinnacle of athleticism, hence why Candace Parker uses her height of 6 foot 4 inches in basketball. Semenya is no different to these athletes, except she doesn’t conform to our biased preconceptions of femininity and in sport this is no crime.

And if it is not a crime in sports, why should it be in society? To condemn a woman for not conforming to a lowlier status is one that makes no sense. To be perceived as less strong, less tough and less aesthetically appealing is a perception we should challenge, and if we can push the boundaries inside sport it can be done outside of sport too.

Not only does it have both physical and mental health benefits, it is empirical evidence that women can be just as athletic as men. They too can encapsulate every characteristic required for a successful athlete, and for this to be demonstrated alongside men proves that regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation and wealth we all hold the

ability to be the best we can possibly be.

The This Girl Can campaign and Cardiff University Student’s Union’s contribution, This Cardiff Girl Can, are two of several campaigns in the UK which is aimed at tackling the gender barrier in sport, encouraging girls and women to participate in sport and to reap the multiple benefits of better fitness, lower counts of obesity-related diseases, better mental health and an increase in socialisation.

For decades, sport has been promoted as a male pursuit. The consequence is that women, up until recently, have had very little opportunity to fully explore the capabilities of their bodies.

This Cardiff Girl Can is a step in the right direction The current VP Sports, Georgie Haynes, also recently promoted her Find Your Sport campaign targeting the lesser-known or more niche sports clubs Cardiff University homes acknowledging that a diverse range of people require a variety of choice in sports.

May it be the aim of the game, the ethos, or the skills required, sports should be open to anyone regardless of background. If sports can achieve the breaking down of gender in the pursuit of equality, the result will not only be vast improvement of women’s health but a society in which it is evident that characteristics and appearance do not define one’s self.

Sports campaigns like these and the awareness they raise is about more than just playing a game, it’s about fighting for what you believe in.

ednesday February 27 saw Cardiff University Rugby Club's rematch against Loughborough. The away game was set to be a tough match following Cardiff triumph over Loughborough in their last clash.

Cardiff got off to a strong start scoring the first points of the match in seven minutes.

A try from Cardiff followed by a successful conversion showed the home side Cardiff were there for business.

Cardiff brought a strong perfromance to the first half, dominating the scrums and winning penalities.

Cardiff score the second try of the game taking the score to 0-12 after a failed conversion.

Loughborough responded well, driving through Cardiff defense to score their first try.

Cardiff were eager to maintain their lead answering Loughborough with yet another try. Loughborough perhaps getting too passionate, now down to 14 men after one of their players was sin binned.

No skin off Cardiff's nose, the away side were keeping the pressure on Loughborough with no signs of any let up. Just five minutes later Cardiff scored another try, the first half ending 5-26.

It was clear in the second half that home team Loughborough were taking no prison from the outset. Three minutes into the second half Cardiff conceded a try the score now at 12-26.

Loughborough were looking to make a comeback, the home side clearly out to claw back the score. Another try from Loughborough threatening Cardiff's lead.

Cardiff now desperate to retain their lead couldnt quite hold off Loughborough's attack conceding another try.

Now in the last ten minutes the score at 24-26, all to play for, both teams in with a chance.

The last few mintes of the match were dominated by neither side, both desperate to claim more points.

Away team Cardiff managed to cling onto their lead, the match ending 2426, Cardiff leaving Loughborough victorious.

After the match Director of Rugby at Cardiff, Alan Wynn Davies, clearly proud of his squad said "We're massively underfunded compared to other univeristies, but what we have as a group is fantastic."

An all important win for CURFC putting them in poll position to finish in the top eight of Bucs Super Rugby and book a place in the championship rounds.

Cardiff will be the first team in BUCS history to be promoted and then finish in the final eight.

Your sport desk Reece Chambers Rosie Foley John Jones Jack Vavasour George Willoughby Laura Price sport@gairrhydd.com

30

SPORT

Warren Gatland's Wales derail

Welsh spirit heats up Gatland's bid for final Grand Slam

by Reece Chambers

21 Wales 13 England

V

ictory for Warren Gatland’s Wales over England not only sent the whole of Wales into elation, but also recorded a recordbreaking 12th successive win for Welsh rugby.

Wales had come into the make-orbreak Guinness Six Nations match with fluctuating form in the tournament; edging past France in Paris thanks to some routine French handling errors and unconvincingly beating Italy in Rome.

Returning to the capital for a Six Nations campaign always comes with a mixture of excitement, expectation and nerves. But, for Wales, the crunch-match against Eddie Jones’ England provided them with an opportunity to not only showcase their Six Nations and World Cup credentials, but also the chance to upset the odds against an impressive England outfit.

The 21-13 victory for Warren Gatland’s Wales proved that they are a force to be reckoned with throughout world rugby. Victory for Gatland’s side not only showcased the coaching staff ’s ability to formulate a tactical masterclass but for the team to fully execute the plan too.

Gatlland et al. deserve vast amounts of credit for their tactical awareness in outsmarting Eddie Jones’ England. England's physical encounter on Matchday One versus Ireland perhaps gave Welsh fans a scare ahead of the Red Rose arriving in Cardiff. However, Alun Wyn Jones and his men embraced the physical task and managed to get over the line.

With the Rugby World Cup on the horizon, a record-breaking 12 successive wins and 2019 being Gatland's final year in charge of Welsh rugby, there are many narratives that can draw away from the Six Nations competition. Therefore, it is important to note that this win for Wales gives them a serious opportunity to become Grand Slam winners for the fourth and final time of Gatland's tenure.

A trip north to Murrayfield poses a different test for Wales and it could well be an opportunity to take the Grand Slam bid to the final day of the competition. When Ireland come to Cardiff next weekend, it could all be on the line with both teams in contention to win the Six Nations title.

Welsh tactics the difference As Six Nations games go, this one was up there as one of the most physical and brutal encounters of past memory.

Wales' tactical approach deserve

great credit for that being the case too. It is no secret that England have one of the most physical sides in world rugby, with the likes of Courtney Lawes and Manu Tuilagi in their ranks.

However, Wales slowly but surely picked away at England with countless phases of a narrow Welsh pack driving the English defence back towards their own try line.

Such tactical success was epitomised with Corey Hill's try coming at the end of 30-something phases in the English 22. Constant and relentless pressure with pick and go's from the Welsh forwards continued to drive England back and appeared to be a clear tactic throughout the game.

Before kick off, in his pre-match press conference, Gatland stated: “I do not think anyone knows where we are except for us, which is a nice place to be in."

That certainly seemed to be the case at the Principality Stadium as Wales recorded their third win of the competition last weekend. England looked stunned by Wales' approach and had no secondary plan to mount a period of sustained pressure after Wales took the lead.

The right call at 10?

When Warren Gatland announced his starting XV three days before facing England, all eyes were turned towards the number 10 jersey. In what was probably one of the biggest decisions to make, Gatland appeared to have chosen perfectly.

Fans of Dan Biggar were quick to point to his big game experience before kick off, but even the most devout should appreciate Anscombe's performance.

In probably the biggest game of his rugby career, Anscombe executed the game plan perfectly and stood up to the challenge of Owen Farrell. His kicking was near-perfect as he left the field for Dan Biggar.

The biggest challenge for Anscombe was being able to keep the game within five points by the time Biggar was summoned by the Welsh coaching staff.

For Biggar to come on and influence the game as he did was rather impressive. His inch-perfect crossfield kick to set up Josh Adams' try is exactly why a large number of Welsh fans are desperate to see him in the starting XV. To Wales' credit, though, it must be appreciated that the timing of the change showed an expert level of understanding of what both fly halves can bring to the side.

All of the lights: Justin Tipuric wins a Welsh line out in front of a packed out Principality Stadium Photo credit: Replay Images Discipline In a game decided by fine margins, the discipline at the breakdown was always going to set the tone for the match. For England, they continued a worrying trait of ill-discipline against the Welsh.

Wales had only conceded two penalties when the two sides last met in 2018 and continued a similar trend last weekend with just three conceded.

In contrast, England have conceded a total of 19 penalties in their last two outings against Wales.

Such a contrast in the discipline of the two sides shows just how much Gatland and his defensive staff appreciate the kicking abilities of Owen Farrell and Elliot Daly.

It seems extraordinary to say, too, that two of the three penalties conceded by Wales were contentious decisions. Both Justin Tipuric and Rob Evans would have felt hard done by to concede penalties last weekend, but, other than that, the Welsh defensive line and scrummaging pack held firm.

There is a fine line between con-

servatism at the breakdown and eagerness, but Wales certainly showed how it should be done.

With the World Cup on the horizon, many Welsh fans will be wondering what this performance means for Gatland and Wales' World Cup hopes.

The impressive nature of Wales' performance versus England must, first, be put into some context to be able to fully assess Wales' World Cup ambitions.

Given that England had, three weeks previous, dispatched of Ireland in their own back yard in scintillating fashion, Wales' win over Eddie Jones' side looks all the more impressive.

When Wales come around to travelling to Japan in September, they will be hoping to have a record-breaking number of wins in the bank as well as a Grand Slam title.

All will remain to be seen in the coming week in the Guinness Six Nations. But, if Wales' performance against England is anything to go by, they look to be in perfect form ahead of a crucial autumn term in Welsh rugby.

In numbers: Wales v England

Tackles made

121-212 Penalties conceded

3-9

Metres made

368-284

Eddie Jones' chariot

CHWARAEON

Jones must plan for World Cup

by Jack Vavasour

E

ngland were favourites going into their match with Wales, having neutralised Ireland away from home and thrashed France at Twickenham. Few teams claim victory on the road, unless you are playing against Italy.

The real problem with England’s defeat was that Wales had been far from impressive in the build-up to this match, despite their winning run. England had a similar patch at the beginning of Eddie Jones’ reign, as they broke record after record and when they played poorly they still managed to win.

England are a far better side now, despite losing more frequently. It is often stated that you learn more about yourself in defeat than you ever could in victory. England certainly are learning.

After a terrible campaign last year, England have looked like the side to beat this term. They have come on leaps and bounds since this time a year ago and, in reality, one defeat is a shame, but not the end of the world. Wales were the better side and that’s final.

England should look at the positives, as the negatives mainly lie in Gatland’s tactical nous.

Tom Curry played fantastically and, injuries permitting, Jones has found his back-row for Japan. Sam Underhill should fill the bench, but Mark Wilson, Billy Vunipola and Curry look the part.

Vunipola is still slightly rusty, yet, with time he will ease back into his stride and dominate once again.

Jones has also discovered a phenom-

Wales a different beast in Cardiff: Josh Navidi evades the clutches of Kyle Sinckler Photo credit: Replay Images enal centre partnership in Henry Slade and Manu Tuilagi. For the first time under Jones, England’s midfield is looking well balanced and truly dangerous. Pair this with Owen Farrell at 10, and you begin to build your side.

Farrell suffered a rare poor game against Wales, if he wants to lead England to World Cup victory then he will need to perform when the game starts to get away from him. He is potentially the best fly-half in the World and needs to step up in big matches without the aid of another 10 such as Sexton or Ford.

Jones’ biggest failing this Championship has been his failure to trust his subs. The beginning of his tenure was built on his reliance on ‘finishers’ who would close out the game. Many of these players are now starting matches as they leapfrogged the original starters.

Now Jones is left with a fresh group of substitutes, he needs to learn to trust them. Especially relatively new faces such as Dan Robson and Ellis Genge, who could change the tempo of a game and make a real impact. If you can’t trust them in the Six Nations then how are you going to in a World Cup knock

out game with everything on the line?

Jones should use the rest of this Six Nations to refine his squad, give people minutes off the bench and let his side gel as a unit. Italy and Scotland are not the most daunting of challenges.

Jones should not panic and start dropping people, that would be catastrophic. Nor should he revert to old stalwarts such as Mike Brown and Jonathan Joseph. He should continue to move forward and use this time to prepare for the opening game in Japan.

This is a group of players who can mount a serious challenge.

Wales women put on proud performance 12 Wales 51 England

by Rosie Foley

E

ngland dominated the game and the Welsh side could not keep up with their intensity, as the Red Roses came away with a 1251 win.

The first half was dominated by England. After 26 minutes, Simon Middleton’s side were able to come away with a bonus point as prop Sarah Bern and wing Jess Breach scored two tries each, with flanker Marlie Packer adding to the score.

Packer’s try showed England’s pack dominance over Wales, as they effortlessly drove the home side back from a line-out maul allowing the flanker to cross the line. The Welsh defence suffered again, as shortly after Packer’s try, Bern was able to step her way through and score under the posts, showing just what a modern-day prop

can do.

Just before half time, Welsh winger Jess Kavanagh redeemed her side's poor performance, cutting through three England defenders to score Wales’ first try - not only of their 2019 Six Nations campaign, but also the first against England since 2016.

Going into the interval, Wales trailed 5-29.

Wales' second half was much improved from their first. Rowland Phillips' side were able to keep the Red Roses scoreless for 20 minutes, something Kavanagh called a “little win” for the Welsh. However, Wales were not able to keep up this intensity for long, as Catherine O’Donnell, Abbie Dow, Sarah Beckett and Katy DaleyMcLean added another four tries onto the board, stretching England's considerable lead further.

Cerys Hale scored a late Welsh consolation try from a well-worked, long phased forwards' ball, but the game finished 12-51 to the visitors.

Talk of the impact of England now being professionals surrounded the game, but Wales gave this little attention.

Welsh fly-half Elinor Snowsill noted that being professionals meant that the pressure was all on England, and not for Wales, allowing them to play how they wanted.

“They’ve got all that pressure on them, whereas we didn’t have any pressure on us, so we had the freedom to go for it and try different things, which you could see from a couple of cross fields and chips over.”

The Welsh side's game showed many improvements from previous years against England, and captain

Carys Phillips was proud with how the team performed.

“There were definitely some dominant parts of the game from us in the scrum and some of the ruck areas.”

Head coach Rowland Phillips noted the progress of the team from where they were two years ago to now and how different the games were.

“I sat here two years ago when we’d been on the back of 80 minutes where we’d struggled to get any control.”

“It was a competitive game of rugby today, we’ve done a lot of work under the radar and the physicality of the players has improved a lot.”

Wales can reflect on this game and grow from it. They go into their next game against Scotland in Glasgow on March 8th with hopes of coming away with their first win of the tournament.

31

SPORT CHWARAEON

To contact our sport desk, drop us an email at sport@gairrhydd.com

Your sport desk Reece Chambers Rosie Foley John Jones Jack Vavasour George Willoughby Laura Price sport@gairrhydd.com

sport

chwaraeon

Cardif City financially unstable - Page 28

32

BUCS Highlights Page 29

In action: Cobras Huddling up talking tactics. Photo credit: Cardiff Cobras American Football Team

Cobras remain optimistic despite disappointing end to season

Cardiff Cobras missed out on Play-off football marginally, but club president Max Milburn is excited for what next season holds EXCLUSIVE

by George Willoughby

G

air Rhydd have been speaking to Cardiff Cobras’ president Max Milburn to provide us with some more detail as to how they faired in their most recent campaign.

Missing out on the play-offs after losing their last game would not have been one of the Cobras’ pre-season objectives. Here is what Max had to say about their season overall.

“It was definitely tough for us. We had aims for a deep play-off run going into the season, and while at times we showed our true potential, it was mostly a season of not quite hitting our goals and losing some close games.”

Inconsistency seemed to be the Cardiff Cobras undoing this season, as they finished with a 4-4 record. To make the play-offs, you have to piece together a sequence of results, unfortunately this was not the case for

Cardiff.

“This year was our best in terms of recruitment for a long time. We had over 80 rookies come to our trial day in September and a lot of those players have grown into excellent players.

But, for almost all of them it was still their first time with the sport so we definitely experienced our share of growing pains which led to a lot of inconsistent plays.”

The season could have been very different, with the Cobras coming up short in several narrow defeats during the course of the campaign.

Experience is vital in any sport, and Max was quick to point out its significance.

“Experience in prior situations really prepares you when it comes down to the wire.

In eight games, we probably had four where the offence played really

well and put up a lot of points, and another four where the the defence was on fire.

We were just waiting for everything to click, but unfortunately we ran out of time, but at our best, we feel we can beat anyone and we’ll look to prove that at Varsity.”

If you remember from last year’s Varsity, the result was certainly not one the Cobras would like to remember. However, advance a year and this Cardiff team will look to avenge the defeat and hopefully find the consistency that has been missing in their offence and defence.

Looking into the future, without a doubt the Cobras have a lot to buildon.

Expectations will be high even after the frustrating end. A lot of promise was shown, and Max talked us through the process of preparing for

a new season and a potential change in home ground.

“As always, it starts with recruitment.” Said Milburn.

“We did a great job this year and are looking for even higher rookie numbers in September.

For the players we do have, a summer of hitting the gym, and perhaps playing at adult level should help them come back in even better shape.

We’re also looking into being able to play our home games on the Llanrumney 3G rather than grass. This means we should hopefully not have to postpone games in the future.

We don’t have too many graduating starters so next year looks like it should be a promising one for the Cobras.”

Following this, the Cobras are looking forward to their off season, ahead of what next year has to bring.

Six Nations Review: Wales v England

by Reece Chambers

C

ardiff hosted the biggest game of the third round of the six nations, Wales v England. Both teams were in the running for the Grand Slam and a win for either side would sustain a serious Grand Slam bid.

With Wales’ previous form fluctuating and England showing their dominance by beating Ireland, it was thought that this England’s game to win. However, Gatland proved that his side deserved to be world no.3.

Head of Sport Reece Chambers explores in detail the clash between the two teams, the expectations of Wales and the tactical decisions that were made prior to and during the game.

Read: Page 30-31