Neck of the Woods Issue 7

The student voice of Highgate Wood, seventh edition March 2017

Trump: normalising the abnormal

EDITORIAL Faye Heron and Patrick Morrish “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists… And some, I assume, are good people.”

Three months into Donald Trump’s presidency, we risk becoming desensitised to his rhetoric. We must remind ourselves that his manner, speeches and offhand comments show a fundamental disregard for basic human dignity, and the progressive society to which we have been striving.

He claimed last week that his administration are “getting along great,

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and getting major things done”. But his vision of making “America great again” is fuelled by misogyny and misconceptions. On International Women’s Day, he wrote on his twitter feed that he has “tremendous respect for women”, but on the campaign trail dismissed inciting sexual harassment as “locker room talk”. An executive order was passed to fulfil his promise of a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States”. He has embarked on an eerily Orwellian battle against “the fake news media” who are the “enemy of the American People”.

That is not to say that other presidents haven’t been misogynistic, racist, or hungry for power. Eisenhower told Chief

Justice Earl Warren he could understand why white southerners wanted to make sure “their sweet little girls [are not] required to sit in school alongside some big black buck.” Richard Nixon broke into the Democratic Party headquarters to better his chances in the forthcoming election, and resigned after the succeeding Watergate scandal. Yet it remains unprecedented that the current head of state should take to social media to accuse his predecessor of “tapping my phones”, without consulting the country’s intelligence agencies, adding “this is McCarthyism!” We cannot overestimate the hegemonic shift in perception that has meant we cease to be surprised by a lack of respect from our leaders.

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NEWS News in Brief

Neck of the Woods, March 2017 member of his administration has provided evidence to substantiate the claim.

A speech on Monday by Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, outlining Right to Buy abolition in Wales demands for a second referendum on th On Monday, the White House Scottish Independence between the On Monday 13 March, the Welsh spokesman, Sean Spicer, softened these autumn of 2018 and spring 2019 seems to Government introduced legislation that claims, noting that the president had put have derailed May’s rumoured plans to will end the Right to Buy scheme. The the terms ‘wires tapped’ in quotation trigger article 50 on Tuesday 14th. After policy, introduced by Thatcher, allows May claimed Sturgeon’s plans had the social housing tenants to buy their homes marks to illustrate that he was using it more broadly to include general “worst possible timing”, No 10 indicated at a discounted price, but has been surveillance.

He also suggested that that it would now not serve notice to blamed for housing shortages.

Trump was not accusing the former leave the EU until the end of March, president specifically, but referring to the fuelling speculation that the PM has been actions of the Obama administration. unnerved by Sturgeon’s speech.

Though Trump has not commented on the issue since his tweets on 4th March, Five hundred years since the beginning the former intelligence director said that of the Reformation the claims were false, and the Department of Justice has announced that they will need more time order to complete a thorough investigation.

Under the Right to Buy scheme, local councils have been reluctant to build new homes as they are forced to offer them at a discounted price. The policy failed to close the gap in housing demand, and the social housing stock lost through Right to Buy has not been sufficiently replaced: it is not that council tenants haven’t had the chance to buy their homes, but that the government haven’t built enough affordable homes in line with increasing demand.

Unicef reports that Syrian children are ‘pushed to the brink’.

Unicef reports that grave violations against Syrian children have increased dramatically, with the past year the worst Luther at the Diet of Worms since the conflict broke out in 2011.

According to the legend, on 31 October According to the report, at least 625 1517 a monk named Martin Luther nailed children were killed in 2016, a 20% his 95 Theses, to a Church in Wittenberg. increase in the year before, and 850 The theses outlined his objections to children recruited to fight in the conflict, indulgences, a practice which had nearly three times the 331 drafted in morphed into a commercial practice 2015. Since Unicef only includes reports whereby one could pay the local priest to The Welsh Government’s Communities of injury, death and recruitment, actual “reduce the amount of punishment one Secretary, Carl Sargeant, hopes that numbers are almost certainly much has to undergo for sins” to reach heaven. scrapping the policy will help meet higher.

But this event triggered a process of affordable housing targets, alleviating the opposition which came to incorporate pressure that has been put on social The report suggests that more than 70% fundamental doctrinal challenges to housing since the 1980s. In 2016, he of Syrian children show symptoms of Catholicism. The solidification of claimed that the “number of sales was post-traumatic stress disorder, including European nations, the perceived equivalent to 45% of the social housing loss of speech, aggression, bedwetting, corruption and decadence of the papacy, stock in 1981”, and has increased those and substance abuse. According to the the impact of humanism and the waiting for council housing, “many of report, 59% of adults knew children and Renaissance which questioned much whom are vulnerable, waiting longer than adolescents recruited to fight. traditional thought, ensured that this ever to access a home they can afford”. schism spread the dispute across Europe, The Bill is now being pushed through to Four-year-old Fares, a Syrian refugee, is resulting in a series of conflict from the Welsh Assembly, who has set a target quoted saying “I don’t know how to read 1517, through the 30 Year’s War to the of creating 20,000 new affordable homes or write – I only know how to draw the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, an during the current assembly term. sky, the sea and the sun”. agreement which prevented the Catholic block attempting to thwart the practice of Protestantism in countries and The White House spokesman defends Imminent triggering of Article 50 principalities which had split from the Trump’s wiretapping claims: they caught up in calls for a second were not meant “literally” referendum on Scottish independence Catholic Church.

The White House press secretary has responded to President Donald Trump’s accusations that former President Barack Obama wiretapped his New York skyscraper during the election trail by admitting that Trump was “not speaking literally”. Despite Donald Trump’s tweet that he found that “Obama had my ‘wires tapped’”, neither the president nor any 2

On the night of Monday 13th, Parliament passed the Brexit Bill paving the way for PM Theresa May to trigger Article 50.

The Lords accepted the supremacy of the House of Commons, as Commons rejected the peer’s amendments aiming to guarantee the rights of EU citizens living in the EU and to give Parliament a ‘meaningful’ vote over Brexit.

The reformation was a vast cultural upheaval, a social and popular movement, rich and diverse in nature, and embroiled those at the very bottom of society as well as heads of state in defining Europe’s future, which is being remembered and celebrated across the continent this year.

FEMINIST

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Feminist news in brief Rosa Elson Women in the news in the last couple of months: Cressida Dick is to become the first ­ female head of the Metropolitan police in its 188 year history, taking over from Bernard Hogan-Howe. Her appointment means that three of the most senior figures in British policing are now women, with Lynne Owens heading up the National Crime Agency, and Sara Thornton the chair of the National Police Chief's Council.

Wiggle High5 Pro Cycling’s Amy Cure took the gold medal in the Madison race in the final round of the Track World Cup, in Los Angeles, California. Riding with compatriot Alexandra Manly in the white, green and gold colours of Australia, the duo held on to their overall lead thanks to their second place finish in Lily Roberts the final sprint, as the duo from New When a significant proportion of the US Zealand threatened to take the victory.

House of Representatives decide not to attend the inauguration of a new leader Protest at 'northern powerhouse' event over lack of female speakers led by Kate for the first time in history, the problem Fox, who said “It felt that this was a good of Trump’s presidency becomes evident. As if that fact alone isn't opportunity to say this is not OK and alarming enough, the Trump hold up a mirror and reflect delegates administration is morphing into one of back to themselves. Is this the diverse cosmopolitan north that we want people the most hostile to women seen in history. The man himself stated that he to invest in?”. was “going to be able to do things for women that no other candidate would be Supporters of Len McCluskey, the head of Unite, have condemned a rival for his able to do”. It has to be said, Trump job - Ian Allinson - for apparently leaking didn't lie. He's done more to harm women a report which alleges widespread sexism in the mere 12 days he’s been in power within the union toward female officers. than most other individuals have done in years of presidency. For example having The grassroots socialist candidate reinstated the Global Gag Rule (which challenger for the role of Unite general bans federal funding for international non secretary, has a link from his website to -government organisations that offer the report, which claims that more than abortions) and passed a bill to make the half the female officers in the union say Hyde Amendment permanent law they have been bullied or sexually harassed by fellow officials or members. (banning the use of federal funds to pay for abortions). To think how successfully he’s restricted the sexual freedom and wellbeing of women in less than a fortnight makes the thought of what four years will enable him to ‘achieve’ terrifying. However perhaps it would be foolish to expect any less of a man who can boast of an ever-increasing number of sexual assault claims being made by women that date as far back as the 1980s?

The statue of taking liberties

The concept that Trump is an essentially offensive individual, although painfully 3

true, isn’t, as many of those critical of the January Women's Marches claimed, the basis of this movement. This is about much more than simply exposing a man who can’t seem to help but dig himself further and further into a hole that functions on the intolerant basis of 18th century commonplace. It’s solely about standing up for the rights of the individual. Regardless of gender, sexual identity, religion, immigration status or disability, everyone deserves to feel unthreatened by the constituency that rules over them. That it feels acceptable to deem a government as ‘good’ on the grounds of it lacking intimidation is sad in itself - we should all feel a sense of fulfilment, protection and progression when acknowledging those who lead us.

When I say we should all fight to achieve this feeling, I mean everybody. Whilst we continue to push for change, we must recognise this as an important opportunity to stop and ask ourselves who we’re fighting for, and to remind us that our feminism shouldn’t just include people who look like us. Feminism must be intersectional if we’re to achieve anything of genuine worth. So, let’s make the best out of a deeply unfortunate situation and push the revived feminist movement forwards in a manner that should be no less visionary, defiant nor unapologetic than those who have fought for what they believe to be right in the past.

All of us can aid this progression. Yes, the notable Women’s March of the 21st of January has passed, but that’s not to say more aren't to come.Your voice and opinion count, you have the right to be heard. Keep an eye out for marches publicised on Facebook, sign the numerous petitions circulating at this very moment (https:// petition.parliament.uk) and take action.

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Centenary of February Revolution leaves Putin uncertain how to commemorate 1917 took to the streets in protest against bread shortages. As the revolution gathered “The last hour has come when the fate of momentum, more workers joined the the fatherland and the dynasty is being march, ensuring that demands for decided”. Those were the words of a “Bread!” mingled with chants for “Down telegram sent to Tsar Nicholas II by the with the Tsar!” Though the protestors President of the State Duma in February were met with violence from Cossack 1917, and though it is often units, the revolution hinged on the overshadowed by Lenin’s October moment that a young girl appeared from Revolution, the events of February the crowd to present one of the officers (March in western calendars) continue to with a bouquet of roses, who leant down divide Russia today. This month therefore from his horse to accept this offer of marks a particularly challenging time for peace. It was a symbolic victory: once the Putin, and as of yet it is unclear whether Cossacks shifted allegiance, the people the official narrative will portray 1917 as knew they could win. Eight days later, a tragedy or triumph.

Nicholas II abdicated, finding it easier to stand down than turn himself into a In the midst of WWI, a freezing winter constitutional monarch. and a collapsing railway system ensured that a series of bread riots erupted into a What followed was the formation of the spontaneous 8-day revolution. On Provisional Government, and a brief International Women’s Day, female experiment in dual power with the St textile workers from the Vyborg factory Petersburg Soviet. However, the policies Faye Heron

of the Provisional Government seemed a continuation of those followed by the Tsar, and opposition to the landowners and businessmen that dominated the interim government increased. As Trotsky claimed, the difficulty lay in the paradox of February: “that a revolution made in the streets resulted in a government made in the salons”. The events of 1917 therefore continued in the tumultuous fashion in which they had begun, and by October, Lenin challenged the brief experiment in democratic rule by staging a coup that ushered in seventy years of Communist rule.

The February Revolution was a revolution against the monarchy: the new Provisional Government defined itself by the negation of all things monarchical, and symbols of the old regime were torn down in popular protest. When the Tsar was killed in 1918, a British agent noted that “the population of Moscow received the news with amazing indifference”.

Politically, the Tsar had been dead since February 1917, and the revolution had come to symbolise so much more. The mixed legacy implicit in Trotsky’s paradox continues to divide Russia today.

In 2016, a survey by Ekho Moscow radio revealed that 53% would not support the February Revolution against Nicholas II, compared to the absolute minority who opposed the revolution in 1917.

Despite Putin’s statement “that we are a single people, a united people, and we have only one Russia”, it appears that modern Russia has never dealt properly with the legacy of 1917. Nicholas II and his family remain as saints within the Russian Orthodox Church, and yet a Moscow metro station is still named after

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the man responsible for organising their execution. Likewise, the Russian film titled “Matilda” that is scheduled for release later this year has already attracted heavy criticism for its dramatisation of Nicholas II’s affair with a ballerina. The Director of the Russian Imperial House, Alexander Zakatov, has claimed the film is “in many aspects blasphemous”, agreeing with a number of Monarchist and Orthodox groups who have deemed the film insulting: in particular, the Orthodox State-Holy Russian group, who have threatened to set fire to cinemas which show the film. The fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 prompted some to call for a restoration of the Monarchy, and there was even talk of reburying Tsar Nicholas’s family. That such nostalgia swept through Russia within living

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memory reveals the unresolved tensions Moscow’s ‘Revolution Square’, despite in Russia’s recent past, and illustrates that skirting over the darker sides of Russia’s even one hundred years later, the collapse past. of the Monarchy remains a sensitive issue.

It is within this context that 1917 is For Putin, the controversy over Russia’s particularly problematic. Though the past is particularly acute. A selective pride Soviet state that followed the revolution in national history has certainly helped to won the war, and whose industrial shape a feeling of unity during his rule, achievements Putin thinks should be and victory in the Second World War has revered, he has also insisted that stability indeed been elevated to something of a and unity be the precepts of his rule, and national cult. Figures from the past have celebrating a year of revolutions thus also been absorbed into the narrative, and challenges the very heart of his political in 2016 Putin commissioned a statue to philosophy. For Putin, the revolution is commemorate Ivan the Terrible for his simultaneously an impressive event and impressive imperial expansion. He has not terrible tragedy. As Gleb Pavlovsky notes, attempted to remove the revolutionary senior adviser to the Kremlin for many iconography that continues to glorify years: “It is going to be very interesting to Lenin’s reign throughout modern Russia, see how the official narrative explains the nor has he changed the name of events of 1917”.

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Life on other planets?

Colette Rogers Whether there could be life on other planets is a topic that has generated much attention in many aspects of life - from iconic movies such as ‘Alien’, to music like Bowie’s famous ‘Life on Mars?’.

Earlier civilisations looked up at the sky and invented stories of gods and warriors to explain the unknown objects in the sky, whilst today we use high-tech equipment like the Hubble space telescope to gain a better understanding of our solar system and beyond.

On February 22nd, an international research team made history, using both ground and space-based telescopes to announce the discovery of a solar system not unlike our own. More than 40 lightyears away (almost 200 trillion miles), there is a small star that has seven ‘earthlike’ planets in its orbit. The ‘ultracool’ dwarf star is named TRAPPIST-1, and is in the constellation Aquarius. The size of TRAPPIST-1 was the reason it was able to be discovered - the star is about a tenth of the mass of the Sun, and about a thousandth as bright. This dimness meant that any planets that passed over the star in their orbit blocked out a greater amount of light and enabled the planetary system to be seen by our telescopes.

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The discovery set the record both for the most Earth-sized planets, and the most potentially habitable planets, discovered around a single star. The conditions of the planets in the solar system could be right for water, and maybe even life.

Whilst the data from the Hubble Space telescope is still being analysed the planets look to be a “winning combination” of Earth-sized, temperate, and ideally suited for follow-up observations to investigate their atmospheres.

Three or more of the planets could contain water, and it is speculated that the inner 6 planets would all be rocky just like Earth. Due to the close nature of the planetary system, all of the worlds orbiting TRAPPIST-1 are closer to the star than Mercury is to the Sun (according to a recent published report in Nature). This close proximity means that if there is any intelligent life then there is a high chance that they have colonised all seven planets.

Thus, at least three of the planets have the right climate to support life. But what does this mean for us? What happens if life is found? Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer at the SETI Institute (Search

Below, above and right: artist impressions of planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system

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Neck of the Woods, March 2017 for Extra Intelligence), aimed to answer some of the burning questions in an interview with NPR news, addressing questions involving what can be seen from the planets, and what the protocol is if life is found. The Institute has been trying to pick up any radio signals from the solar system that would indicate a sign of intelligent life, but so far nothing has been found. According to Shostak, this in no way means there couldn’t be life: it may be that the system is too far away and the technology we have now is not yet advanced enough to detect signs.

“If you were a resident of this system

you'd look up in the sky, and you'd see these other planets, and they’d be clear spheres in the sky - not like how Mars and Venus look like to us here”, claims Shostak.

In the event of intelligent life being found, there is a document, very sinisterly named ‘the protocol’, although it has no force of law and has not yet been adopted by the UN. It should be more simply described as a code of ethics consisting of three main points; 1) if you find a signal, check it out, 2) tell everybody, 3) don’t broadcast a reply

Fair Funding For All Schools campaign attempts to oppose school budget cuts in Haringey

until you’ve discussed with other people what should be done.

With the launch of the James Webb space telescope in 2018 scientists hope to be able to measure the chemical composition of the exoplanets, and discover more about whether there could be life.

organised the meeting, bringing together local leaders to coalesce resistance to the measures, attended by speakers including MP David Lammy, Claire Kober, the Leader of Haringey Council, and Kevin Courtney, the general secretary of the National Union of Teachers. Mr Courtney claimed that “far from being the levelling up that some councils and heads have demanded, this is a levelling down. Even the schools currently worst funded will see real-terms cuts this parliament.”

The measures propose a £22 million cut to the combined annual budget of Haringey’s schools, equivalent of £664 per student and to the salaries of 521 teachers. Fortismere School, in Muswell Hill, has gone into a deficit budget in 2016/17, and has been forced to implement drastic cuts as to return to a surplus, as Haringey Council requires, Greening argued that despite the cuts, Patrick Morrish within three years. Considering the 8.7% schools in London will continue to be A meeting at Park View School on 28th funded to match need. However, Adrian inflation for schools over this Parliament, under current government policies February outlined opposition to school Prandle, who directs economic strategy Highgate Wood is set to lose £892,000 budget cuts, in response to the at the Association of Teachers and government’s new funding formula.

Lecturers, claims that this is just a façade annually by 2019, which is equivalent to a loss of £737 per pupil and twenty to a formula which in real terms would Under the proposals announced by the see around 90% of schools lose funding: teachers. education secretary, Justine Greening, “Without additional funding, schools will As the meeting outlined, reducing the more than 9,000 schools will lose struggle to recruit enough staff, many number of teachers and support staff will funding, with money moving from will have to cut staff, cut the subjects certainly affect the quality of our London and other urban areas which they teach, cut IT upgrades, increase children’s education, with the curriculum have hitherto been well funded, to threatening to become less diverse, class schools in areas which have received less class sizes, cut the maintenance of classrooms, cut extracurricular activities sizes rising and not enough teachers to money in the past. and charge parents for school concerts provide help for children who need extra and plays.”

Despite the government claiming that support and small group attention.

11,000 schools will see an increase in funding, pundits have warned that even This comes as 98% of schools’ costs are As Sarah Williams, speaker at the Fair the ‘winners’ under the report will see rising faster than their income, and 60% Funding For All Schools meeting and a their gains outweighed by real-terms cuts of secondary schools are running deficit parent governor at Park View claimed, “these cuts are not inevitable, reducing to their funding over the next three years. budgets. Already, the National The National Audit Office, Whitehall’s Governors’ Association says that 60% of the school’s budget is a choice”. spending watchdog, warned that under schools will make redundancies this year, Indeed, the government injected the new funding formula schools were including 77% of secondary schools. significant funds into its widely criticised facing an 8% real-terms cut in funding Free School and Academy programme in With Haringey looking to be particularly per pupil by 2020, because of a £3bn cut Haringey. According to the Department hard hit, Fair Funding For All Schools to the education budget.

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NEWS for Education, in 2014 Haringey received 12.8 million to build the Tottenham UTC, a university technical college partially sponsored by Tottenham Hotspur. The school only managed to attract around 40 students in the 2016/17 academic year, putting costs at £15,000 a student. It is set to close in the summer.

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supported by two hundred MPs: his visit has now been postponed until October.

The United States was founded with the Though the issue of Trump’s state visit promise that “all men are created equal, is a minor one in comparison to the refugees denied asylum under his travel and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, ban, it nonetheless proved that opposition can be effective. The January that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” The struggle women’s marches were, perhaps, the for civil rights in the 1960s, reaching its highpoint of opposition to date: one million people marched in Washington apogee with Martin Luther King’s ‘I The government also put aside £600 have a dream’ speech and the passage of and a further 673 marches were arranged million for universal forced the Civil Rights Act the following year, across the globe, occurring in all seven academisation, a policy dropped due to continents. One marcher declared that has inspired a drive for equality across its unpopularity, £30 million spent on “yesterday was dark, but today the sun is the world. These have morphed into academy re-brokering, and, according to coming out”. One in every hundred foundation myths of the American Chancellor Phillip Hammond’s 2017 Americans protested during the January nation, so that for many, Obama’s budget, £500 million on grammar marches. But the recent protests by election was the end of these battles. It schools, which shadow education Native Americans over the Dakota was, in his own words, “the arc of secretary Angela Raynre said was a pipeline, with media coverage limited, history turning towards progress”. “vanity project with no evidence it will indicate that mass opposition has not Trump threatens these very values: he help children move on from socially has already admitted that he “inherited a continued. A failure to continue a mood deprived backgrounds”. “Funding of resistance is a dangerous symptom of mess and is in the process of fixing it”. selective education is a mistake”, general the Trump phenomenon becoming What we have been pursuing for secretary of the Association of Teacher hundreds of years cannot be forgotten in normalised. and Lecturers Dr Mary Bousted added three months. We must remember that on the latter policy, because it “will Trump’s behaviour is not merely Trump is not normal. result in a small minority benefitting at shocking from a head of state, but would the expense of the vast majority of the be distasteful from a friend or family Despite initial outrage at Trump’s country’s young people”. member: his rhetoric lacks the basic election, opposition has not yet been respect with which we are taught to treat Ms Williams stated, “we have to let this sufficient to oust the new others. We must remember the ideals for government know that we will not allow President. Two weeks after his which we have fought, and resist a them to jeopardise our children’s inauguration, Theresa May invited phenomenon which so radically opposes education. There is money available and Trump on a blatantly premature state them. The Trump administration is an our children need it”. visit, a move which was opposed abnormality, a regression, and must be successfully by John Bercow, and treated as such.

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COMMENT

Elizabeth Warren: She persisted and so must we all Rosa Elson Amongst the atrocities committed by the new holder of the office of American President, Donald Trump, resides his utter disregard for the rule of law. It is not his censorship of his Press Office that I refer to, nor his effortless dismissal of state funding for abortions - but, his choice for Jeff Sessions to be the incumbent US Attorney General. (I should note that I was going to add this as a section to the feminist news in brief, but Beth Gosschalk Environmental benefits it felt a cut too deep to compress into a  Animal agriculture produces side note).

Thanks to countless campaign groups, huge amounts of greenhouse gas books and articles, it is received wisdom (19% of UK greenhouse gas Last month, a female senator called that vegetarianism would be better for an emissions) and pollutes rivers and Elizabeth Warren stood in front of individual’s health and the environment, streams, Congress and read a letter written by the and for the economic and ethical widow of Martin Luther King Jr, wellbeing of the international community.  Animal agriculture leads to referencing the aforementioned Jeff It is not to admit defeat to suggest that devastating deforestation, for Sessions. King had objected to Sessions spontaneous, mass conversion to example, every second, one football being appointed a federal judge back in vegetarianism is perhaps unrealistic. field of rainforest is destroyed in 1986 due to his record on race and voting order to produce 257 hamburgers. rights, stating in a letter that Sessions had Nevertheless, a small reduction in meat "used the awesome powers of his office consumption would achieve some of the in a shabby attempt to intimidate and benefits of widespread vegetarianism, and Ethical benefits frighten elderly black voters”. The letter is much more likely. But the esoteric  Eating less meat is a vote to end stands out as a plea against Mr Sessions, arguments of Peter Singer or the the cruel treatment of animals, someone who was previously condemned dogmatism with which the tabloid press

by Ted Kennedy for being both overtly portrays Jeremy Corbyn’s vegetarianism  2.5 million farm animals are and covertly racist. Warren’s reading of are unlikely to convince millions of slaughtered for meat daily in the UK, Coretta King’s letter sparked Republican people to eat less meat.

Senate majority leader, Mitch  Reducing meat consumption can McConnell, to invoke Article 19, which Instead what is needed is a clear outline also reduce famine as a vegetarian stops senators from ascribing "conduct or of the main benefits a reduction in meat diet can feed more people than a motive unworthy or unbecoming a intake would entail. meat-based diet, senator". Mr McConnell said "She was warned. She was given an explanation”.

Health benefits  The grain fed to livestock could While ‘she persisted’, Ms Warren was  Eating meat has been linked to be fed to people, e.g. in the US the silenced until the end of the running for an increased risk of cancer, heart grain and soybeans given to livestock Attorney General, and women across the disease, strokes, obesity, diabetes could feed approximately 1.3 million world immediately started a #shepersisted and food-borne illnesses, people, and land could be used more campaign, with many handing Warren a effectively, e.g. while only 165 de facto presidential slogan should she  As a result, vegetarians have a pounds of beef can be produced on 1 run at the next election: "Elizabeth 12% longer average lifespan. acre of land, 20,000 pounds of Warren 2020: She persisted." potatoes can be ground on the same amount of land.

Whether or not Elizabeth Warren Financial benefits becomes the next democrat candidate,  Meals without meat tend to be facing Trump in 2020, who has already cheaper than meals with meat, Ten billion animals are slaughtered for declared that he will run again, she did human consumption each year. Let’s indeed persist, and so must we all.  Vegetarians can save at least try and change this! £750 more than meat-eaters per year.

I am not going to sit here and lecture you about why you should never eat meat again

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Is bitcoin real money?

Essentially, bitcoins are created through a mathematical algorithm (solvable only by computing power) that creates a finite amount of bitcoins. When someone has successfully mined a bitcoin, they only receive a little bit of that bitcoin; how much they receive depends on how hard it was to find that bitcoin. Since computing power has increased, bitcoins have become easier to find, and therefore, the rewards for finding them have become smaller- in fact, they have been halved. The smallest subdivision of a bitcoin is a satoshi, which is one hundred millionth of a bitcoin.

Florence Penfold Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer system, so Before we delve into Bitcoin, it is transactions take place without an important to discuss the meaning of intermediary. Therefore, the system has a money. Money can be broadly split into public ledger with a record of all the two categories, broad money and narrow bitcoin transactions that have taken place, money. Narrow money is what most of us known as a blockchain. This blockchain would consider as ‘money’, i.e. cash, is stored in the servers of all bitcoin users with the addition of bank accounts where as there is no centralisation in the bitcoin money can be instantly withdrawn. Broad system. Each new group of transactions, money includes longer term bank otherwise known as a block, has deposits and sometimes government a cryptographic hash (aka a hash code) bonds. of the previous block, meaning that the ledger cannot be tampered with. The hash code also ensures the security of bitcoin How Bitcoin works Unlike any other currency, Bitcoin is not transactions. Transactions are validated produced by a central bank, and is by a network of nodes, which are places entirely electronic. where data can be redistributed. Bitcoin transactions have to have one or more

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inputs, and an input must be an unspent output of a previous transaction. You can also make multiple payments at once by having multiple outputs. Multiple inputs correspond to multiple coins in a transaction. In bitcoin, there is an optional transaction fee.

Significance of Bitcoin Bitcoin marks an extremely important development in terms of the technology it uses, as well as in economic terms. The latter is mainly what I’m going to focus on in this section.

Something very significant about bitcoin is that it is the first currency not to be produced by a central bank, or produced centrally at all, putting into question the necessity of banks for storing money.

However, if bitcoin really took off, that would not make banks completely obsolete, because we would still need institutions that lent money in order for various functions to be performed in our economy. Also, unlike conventional currencies, bitcoin is entirely electronic.

This means that money doesn’t need to be wasted through printing, even though it does cost less than the face value of the money.

Part of the technological significance of bitcoin is that it allows for secure, tamper

Neck of the Woods, March 2017 -proof transactions without intermediaries. Bitcoin is particularly hard to hack because any potential hackers would need to alter all copies of the ledger. Also, any potential hackers would need to be able to break through bitcoin’s encryption system, which is practically impossible through computing power (though, if you had a quantum computer then it may be possible).

Bitcoin uses asymmetric key encryption, which is best explained using the analogy of a box.

Let’s say a person called Bob has a box which can be locked both clockwise and anticlockwise. Bob’s box has two keys: one can only turn clockwise and the other can only turn anticlockwise. Bob picks one of these keys and only he has a copy of it; this is his “private” key. The other key, which he distributes out to everyone, is the “public” key. Let’s say Charlotte wants to send a very personal item to Bob. Thus, she puts the item into Bob’s box, locking it with the “public” key, knowing that only Bob’s “private” key can unlock it. This is asymmetric/ publickey encryption.

COMMENT Banking and Financial scandals since 2000 Florence Penfold Since the year 2000, the number of UK/ US banking scandals has gone the opposite way to our interest rates, so I thought I would deposit some of these scandals into one account.

Equitable Life Assurance Society scandal (8/12/2000) This scandal happened when the directors of Equitable Life Assurance Society subsidised people with current annuity rate policies, by illegally using money from people with guaranteed annuity rate policies. The Society closed after a House of Lords case judged against them, and, despite not being insolvent, the company dissolved.

Libor scandal (circa 2003-2012) Around 2003, interest in LIBOR (the London Interbank Offered Rate, the interest rate at which banks lend money to each other) increased. Bankers from banks, including Barclays and UBS, colluded and decided to raise the LIBOR rate. Because LIBOR is a benchmark for various other short term interest rates, by raising LIBOR, banks can raise interest rates elsewhere and thus make more profit on their loans. Fortunately, the UBS trader Tom Hayes, was sentenced to prison for 14 years for his role in this mass collusion scandal.

PPI mis-selling scandal (approx. 2004present) PPI [Payment Protection Insurance] started to be sold around the 1990s, though mis-selling of it really took off Another important feature of bitcoin is around 2004. PPI was intended to help that you can know who sent something to out those who remained too sick to work you. Going back to the box, let’s say Bob or those who had lost their jobs. sends Charlotte some documents in this However, over the course of many years, box, using his “private” key to lock the PPI was sold to those that did not need it, box. Someone delivers this box to and those who could not claim it.

Charlotte, saying it’s from Bob, and Charlotte can know for certain it’s from Bob by using Bob’s “public” key to unlock the box. Therefore, you can prove who bought a particular thing based on their “private” and “public” keys.

What is currently going on?

At the time of writing, we still don’t know who the inventor(s) of bitcoin are, and it isn’t in mainstream use yet. As computing power increases, the rewards for finding bitcoins become smaller: currently, 1 bitcoin is worth £830.81 and US$1037.99.

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Millions who were mis-sold PPI were able to claim thousands of pounds worth of compensation each. According to the Wall Street Journal, $30.3 billion has been paid in compensation so far. Fines for PPI mis-selling began being imposed in 2006 by the Financial Services Authority - although, worryingly, this no longer exists.

Refco scandal (17/10/2005) The CEO of Refco, Phillip R Bennett, somehow managed to conceal $430m of bad debts. They had become a public company only two months previously.

Credit Suisse. First Boston, Goldman Sachs, and Bank of America Corporation underwrote the shares in Refco, meaning they were responsible for buying up any remaining shares of Refco just after it went public. But, the company went bankrupt and its CEO was sentenced to 16 years in prison - quite impressive as far as banking scandals go.

The 2008 financial crisis The 2008 financial crisis happened because the sub-prime mortgage bubble popped in the US; thus, some lenders became bankrupt, due to a lack of capital.

As a result of bad loans, the value of various derivatives, including CDOs (collateralized debt obligations) fell like a house of cards. As mentioned in >>

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Neck of the Woods, March 2017

State Pensions Tommy Escott Pensions are great. They can provide some reassurance of sustained living standards well past one’s sell-by-date. But can the public still afford it, with a ballooning ageing population and an increasingly indebted society?

The Big Short, very few people thought that this was going to happen, so the people that bet on this happening ended up making huge amounts of money. The fall in value of derivatives [a product which is dependent on the value of other products in financial markets] meant that many insurance companies and banks, e.g. RBS, HBOS, Lehman Brothers, and so forth, had a lack of capital.

new investors, rather than from cash generated through legitimate schemes.

Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC was a wealth management business which invested clients’ money in stocks and other products in financial markets. The company has been suspected of fraud since the 1970s, due to the unusually high returns Madoff claimed to be able Then, disaster struck. Lehman Brothers to make. But it took until 2008, when went bankrupt, causing widespread due to the financial crisis the stock panic. Banks raised their vaults and market was falling in value significantly stopped lending to each other. Due to the and Madoff owed clients $7 billion loss of all confidence from consumers, which he didn’t have. The final straw bank runs increased in frequency. The was when he proposed to his sons that most famous of these was at Northern they pay out $170m in bonuses two Rock, where people were rushing to get months early. Understandably, his sons their money out like the next gold rush were confused as to why their father was happening. This forced banks across wanted to pay out bonuses early, when the world to essentially inject emergency he couldn’t pay his investors. This money to stay afloat, because without forced Madoff to confess that the firm that money, banks would have not been was a enormous Ponzi scheme. The next able to give consumers their money day, his sons reported him to the back. However, many banks were authorities. insolvent: thus if we didn’t want all lending to cease, government bailouts Madoff committed fraud worth about 18 were required. RBS, Lloyds, Northern billion dollars, far more money than Rock and so forth were bailed out from most people would know what to do insolvency, and in total, the British with. He also got sentenced to 150 years government spent around £144bn to bail in prison, so essentially, he’s never out the banks. getting out.

Now we have run out of scandals. No, we haven’t - I lied.

Madoff investment scandal (uncovered in 2008) This scandal is notorious for being the largest private Ponzi scheme ever, and for being the largest fraud case in US history. Bernard Madoff is former chairman of NASDAQ and the founder of the firm Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC. By the way, a Ponzi scheme is when an organisation pays off its old investors with cash from 12

HBOS scandal (2016/17) A group of traders at HBOS carried out a £245m loan scam, spending the profits on luxury holidays and high-end escorts.

David Mills, a consultant, gave a HBOS manager, Lynden Scourfield, various luxury goods in exchange for allowing him to agree unsuitable loans to small businesses, allowing him and his accomplices to bank on high consultancy fees. As a result, many of the owners went bankrupt and some lost their homes, and the traders involved have been sent to prison.

There is no doubt that it is a major political agenda item for most major parties. Why wouldn't it be, when turnout among older voters is considerably higher than the youth? The last general election saw turnout of voters aged 18-24 at 43%, dwarfed by the 78% in the over 65s category.

In 2014/15, 42% of the total welfare budget was spent on state pensions, according to the Office for National Statistics, the UK's largest independent producer of official statistics. That's £108 billion, 25% more than was spent four years prior. To put that into perspective, just £3 billion is spent on unemployment benefits. These are official statistics.

The UK state pension is paid for by National Insurance contributions – these come from the wages of people working today. Effectively, each working generation pays for the older generation above them. In theory, this is a sound method of ensuring a sustainable flow of tax revenue, as in general, real wages (wage minus inflation) increase over time thanks to economic growth. However, in recent years, factors such as an ageing population have ensured that it is no longer viable as a steady solution.

One factor in particular is relevant to our generation. Student fees have resulted in a

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Neck of the Woods, March 2017

and Student Debt: an age-old issue

steady increase in debt on graduation since they were first introduced, back in 1998 under the Blair administration. The current average debt is around £40,000 but the latest forecast is that this will rise to £53,000. With 92% of eligible students taking student loans, a high proportion of the country will find themselves burdened with a £50,000 debt in their early twenties. According to a report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, almost three-quarters of graduates will not be able to afford to repay their loans, which are written off after 30 years. Therefore, the government (i.e. the taxpayer) will have to absorb the majority of the cost for these defaults.

Unfortunately, there’s more bad news for our generation. Many of today’s pensioners were helped by owning their own homes. This freed them from the burgeoning rent, especially in areas such as London, and also enabled them to liquidate their properties, moving to areas with a much cheaper cost of living. This will not be possible for the

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majority of today’s youth, however, as it is increasingly difficult to establish oneself on the property ladder due to the boom in house prices. A house bought for £100k in 1990 would have increased in value by 246% on average in the UK, and 419% in London alone.

It is also harder for people in the current economic climate to save, with interest rates being slashed by the Bank of England - to discourage saving, and encourage spending. This will, in theory, increase consumption (and therefore a thing economists call ‘aggregate demand’), which will have a multiplier effect (where an injection of money in

one area has a ‘domino effect’ in another) and stimulate stagnating economic growth.

The sad reality is that, without any radical change in pension provision or taxation, the current UK workforce will have to work longer and contribute more to the ageing retired population.

However, who knows, it may not all be doom and gloom: ‘generation rent’ may have a more robust social support network from their house sharing experiences, and working until we drop may save the locals in Benidorm from further British invasions!

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Photographing the Victoria Park Estate Barney Terrington 14

Neck of the Woods, March 2017

Neck of the Woods, March 2017 Before visiting the estate my perception of living in an estate had been shaped largely by the media and governments prone to austerity cuts – it was one dominated by hardship, despondency and depression, dependant on charity for the council and sapping the pocket of the taxpayer.

However, after visiting the estate near Victoria Park and meeting those who live on it, I realised that those who live on estates are proud of their homes, the fantastic views which the style of housing affords, and as ambitious as anyone. We should call the media into question for an unfair portrayal of those who live in council estates, and governments who use this image as an excuse to cut funding.

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COMMENT

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Neck of the Woods, March 2017

Why the Saudis and Pakistanis weren’t banned

by Trump lot considering the entire defence budget for the UK is $55 Billion. As It’s been a few weeks since Donald recent as last summer, the US got a taste Trump signed an executive order to ban for the consequences of putting the travel from seven ‘terror-prone’ regions Saudis at inconvenience. When Congress and it being blocked a few days later after threatened to pass a bill allowing legal issues ensued. But, what’s Americans to sue the Saudi government shocking, is that if this travel ban was put for its alleged support of terrorism, the in place before the turn of the Saudi government threatened to sell millennium, no major terrorist attacks on hundreds of billions of US assets. We U.S soil would have been prevented, could only imagine how they would including 9/11. US citizens carried out respond to a travel ban. As well as being the most attacks, such as the Boston the world’s largest arms importer, they marathon bombings and recently the are the world’s largest oil exporter at a Orlando night club shooting. In terms of colossal 11.8 million barrels a day and attacks from abroad, the perpetrators have a total oil industry worth $10 mostly had ties with either Saudi Arabia trillion. The US debt is $20 Trillion. In or Pakistan. Which begs the question, if 2003, the US went to war with Iraq, Trump wanted to ban travel to prevent partially prompted by a desire to secure terror, why wasn’t Saudi Arabia or US oil assets in the region. The war cost Pakistan included? them a staggering $2 trillion. This shows the price they would pay to keep stability Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest arms in the oil trade, and thus it is no surprise importer and has the third largest defence that they wouldn’t compromise relations budget. The concern for the US is losing with Saudi Arabia. one of their best customers. In the past, Saudi Arabia signed many high profile The US cutting ties with Pakistan would deals, including a $60 billion deal, the drive the Pakistani government closer to largest America has ever made.. That is a Beijing This is important to Trump as in Talvin Singh Bains

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his presidential campaign, he seemed keen to resolve the Kashmir dispute with India, recognising that it has made the region unstable. The dispute has also led Pakistan to become closer allies with China, leaving India vulnerable to its neighbours. This would be typical of the Chinese administration, which is slowly increasing military presence in the South China Sea. Furthermore, any possibility of the Chinese being considered for the US travel ban ended once they threatened to reduce their cooperation in fighting terrorist groups in Pakistani territory.

Trump’s Travel ban has come and gone but it has shown America isn’t as powerful as it thinks it is. As unrealistic as they were, Trump’s policies are misguided, due to geopolitical obstacles of Saudi Arabia’s grip on the US economy and Pakistan’s loose grip on terror. The Trump administration has high ambitions to ‘Make America great again’, but it is unlikely that this will ever become a reality.

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Neck of the Woods, March 2017

The three million Never underestimate the ruthlessness of the Tories: it is feasible a Tory government would not be so stupid as to rd On the 23 of June 2016, this country force all EU nationals out and kill the made a historic choice. A referendum on NHS. Amber Rudd, the current home whether Britain should be in the EU, or secretary, said last year that she wanted to out. We all know what happened. And let make it harder for British companies to me tell you - I am furious. employ migrants. Already Home Office officials have sent letters to EU nationals There was no need for this vote: it was asking them to leave the country, all merely maneuvering by David Cameron. because they ticked a wrong box on their Switzerland has frequent plebiscites, but citizenship application. would never put such a fundamental question to the population but let a small Now you might tell me to get on with it; minority decide the outcome. The that this talk is all just political posturing.

LEAVE campaign’s rhetoric appealed to But for me, the government’s antilies, fear, and hate, and it has shown me migrant rhetoric is inhumane and the ugly side of this country.

Max Hartel

Although I was born in London and Crouch End is my home, my family is German and I have a German passport.

For me, and 3.3 million other EU nationals living in the UK, Brexit has left a huge sense of insecurity. As the government uses us as bargaining chips in negotiations our futures in this country are under threat. . Although Theresa May does not have much else to bargain with, she is playing hardball with our lives.

Think whatever you like about foreigners but we are an essential part of British society. One estimate puts our economic contribution at £328 million daily. 11% of all NHS staff and 26% of doctors do not hold British passports.

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Left: David Cameron Top: Theresa May Above: Nicolas Hatton

insulting. Now we must be prepared to challenge this government at every turn.

Here is what Nicolas Hatton, the founder of lobby group the3million said in response to an email from NOW: “The Government has conceded that it was an urgent item, albeit without guaranteeing our rights. This is the next step and we'll increase the pressure to get there quickly” I sincerely hope that we do. The government must act now to guarantee the right of EU nationals to remain in post-Brexit Britain.

COMMENT

Neck of the Woods, March 2017

Imagining 2018: Corbyn’s l set to worsen Trump-Putin

Corbyn makeover leads to landslide Labour victory

Patrick Morrish A video released on YouTube today sets a new tone for Jeremy Corbyn’s visit to the Kremlin, and indicates that Mr Corbyn’s sweeping victory in the February 2018 snap election will cause relations between the USA and Russia to deteriorate further.

predicting Labour’s collapse and are now speculating knowledgeably about the cause of the earthquake, consensus is that Trump himself drove Mr Corbyn to Number Ten: perhaps the Tories’ proTrump austerity policies were overdone.

Prime Minister Theresa May’s legislation allowing the Trump Golf company to purchase Britain’s 27,000 public parks,

outbreaks of rioting around the ceriumplated gates of Trump Golf Hyde Park, the realisation that a generation is priced out of housing by competition between pro-Trump investors and Russians, underlined by the scorching summer temperatures and violent rainstorms, finally triggered a backlash beyond the Labour heartlands.

After returning to his official residence at President Trump’s cabinet gathers at Mar-a-Lago Mar-a Lago from his two-week golf retreat at the Trump National Dural in Alaska, President Trump’s reaction to the result was caught on film. The election result was handed to Trump by Third Secretary, Barron Trump: “Shame FirstSecretary Eric and Second-Secretary Donald aren’t back yet - if Eric and Donald weren’t my sons, I would be dating them”. After reading the dispatch the President convened an emergency meeting of his closest advisers. “I thought you told me this couldn’t happen ...

Sanctions? Do we send in the marines?

Can you get a paper from my suit pocket, honey? The one with numbers. No, that’s for the hooker. I mean those codes”.

However, among smug commentators of the North London intelligentsia who were 18

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Neck of the Woods, March 2017

landslide election victory relations But, blaming the election win on Copeland Common being overrun by golf caddies, misunderstands the election’s place in today’s geopolitical milieu, as this video reveals. The election was a means for the Russian President Vladimir Putin to increase his power in Europe, propelling relations with Trump to a new low.

Despite a friendship which saw Russian spies conduct a covert hacking operation to help Trump win the White House, and the marriage of Trump’s son Barron to Putin’s daughter Katerina, relations have declined. Many commentators cite Trump’s ‘night of the long knives’ as the tipping point in the downturn in USRussia relations: on 1st May 2017 James Robart and three Supreme Court justices were removed dramatically from the

Russian President Vladimir Putin teaches the Labour leader how to manage a photo opportunity

It was Putin’s intervention in Britain’s election which was vital to Corbyn’s sweeping victory. After a statement judiciary, after Mr Trump’s accusation released in December 2017 accusing that they were “very bad hombres”. “some colleagues” of “not being very keen on working with me”, Corbyn Despite NOW’s investigation into accepted Putin’s invitation of a visit to populist authoritarianism after the ‘long the Kremlin. Whether posing topless on a knives’ incident, the closure of the horse, or poking deliberately penisWashington Post, the New York Times shaped submarines around the and the Guardian’s US office has meant transatlantic data cables to exaggerate our that Trump-critical media has struggled perceptions of Russian genitalia, the to find elite audiences. Trump has been Russian president’s machismo makes him able to brush off allegations of a deft handler of Freudian propaganda of despotism, directing supporters to Fox the subconscious. On his return to the News or Breitbart, or communicating campaign trail Corbyn ditched his red with the people directly via Twitter, since push-bike to ride bare-chested on a 1971 “I know words, I have the best words”.

Harley-Davidson, and has since rafted in a Siberian river, tranquilized wild tigers Perceiving an unconstrained President and the last polar bear, shot darts at Trump as a probable threat, Putin whales from a crossbow for eco-tracking expanded Russian backing of the Proand attempted to put out the Epping Russian separatists in the Donbass, and forest fire in a motorized hand glider - all increased state funding of Russian bare-chested. oligarchs attempting to buy shares and property in Western European On his return Corbyn tendered John economies. Trump’s response to the McDonnell’s resignation from the post of growth of Putin’s power in Europe was to shadow chancellor, forced the Progress exploit the ‘special relationship’ with pressure group to draw lots, resulting in May, claiming “I know more about ten of its members, including Tottenham foreign policy than anyone”, and used MP David Lammy, being purged from IMF capital to purchase Britain’s parks the party, as former PM Tony Blair for his golfing company. attacked the Labour Party for “corrupting the last decent man in politics”. Research 19

by Glamour magazine suggests Putin’s tutelage has paid dividends, revealing that fashionistas anticipated Corbyn’s election victory, detailing a 500% increase in Corbyn-style beards. After an appearance on Gardener’s World, allotment waiting lists, already long due to the parched soil, have doubled in length.

But Corbyn’s victory sees fortunes on the European front of what many are now calling a ‘second cold war’, swing violently in Putin’s favour. We can only speculate on the wider implications of this development. Putin dominating by Britain might be the nail in the coffin for an already fraught 2018 Winter Olympics: after Canada withdrew its offer to host due to lack of snow, pundits fear that Trump will block the US team’s participation in Ice Golf, now held at the Hemel Hempstead TrumpDome.

While Trump’s next move cannot be anticipated, the leaked video suggests that he will pursue the threat of a Putindominated UK with his customary decisiveness: “the last person to use nuclear would be Donald Trump. I think it is a horrible thing. But I don’t want to take my cards off the table”.

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Neck of the Woods, March 2017

The scientists have got it wrong!

Maddy Baron Our galaxy is being propelled through space by an intergalactic void. If you didn’t know that, don’t worry. The physicists didn’t either.

We are constantly in motion. The earth goes around the sun, the sun goes around the galaxy, and most importantly, the galaxy travels across the universe.

The reason the Milky Way and Andromeda, our neighbouring galaxy, are moving through space seemed to be because the Shapley attractor, a dense supercluster of galaxies, some 750m light years from the Milky Way were pulling us towards itself.

But it turns out that we are being pushed too, by a massive bit of empty space, a dearth of stars, planets and other matter, observable on the far side of the constellation Lacerta, the Lizard, with the awesome name of an ‘intergalactic void’.

This was discovered by Professor Yehuda Hoffman, who believed that the pull of the great attractor was not enough to account for the speed that the milky way is travelling (two million, two hundred and sixty eight thousand kilometers an hour). Hoffman worked with scientists in France and Hawaii to build a 3D map of the nearest galaxies. This revealed that most galaxies near the Milky Way are moving steadily towards the Shapley attractor, and away from a markedly empty region of space, almost directly behind the Milky Way on the same axis.

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It all makes a lot of sense. The movement of the Milky Way is dictated by the gravitational attraction of the galaxies around it. If the distribution of galaxies was even, the pull force would be the same in every direction, but because galaxies often occur in clusters, denser areas draw in galaxies towards them. If a lot of galaxies will pull the milky way, then why shouldn’t an absence of them push it? Regions that are emptier cannot even pull their own weight, so effectively push objects away from them. This is a

dipole effect, which is like the way magnets attract each other. Therefore the void is called the dipole repeller.

Maybe you are like Sherlock and think, “What does that matter? So we go ’round the sun. If we went ’round the moon or round and round the garden like a teddy bear it wouldn’t make any difference.”

But understanding the nature of the universe is as fascinating as it is perplexing, and this new research is no exception.

REVIEWS

Neck of the Woods, March 2017

Secret things to do in London Esme Cavendish Critical Mass

network via typing ‘Critical Mass London’ into Google.

The Breakfast Club Whilst this cafe chain is particularly popular, their bars concealed behind doors disguised as fridges remain a lesser -known secret. After being outraged by apparent queue-skippers and mistakenly believing that Boris Johnson was being covertly entertained in a private back room, I discovered that the words ‘I’m here to see the mayor’ result in you being directed by Breakfast Club staff through a fridge ‘portal’ into a secret bar. The fact that the exit from the bar leads you out through the cafe toilets enjoyably contributes to the conspiracy; it feels thrillingly prohibition-esque. Despite becoming an increasingly open secret, these bars provide the perfect opportunity for a surprise or alternative bar experience.

On the last Friday of every month, a mixed-ability and non-competitive group of keen cyclists congregates on the Southbank under Waterloo Bridge; they proceed to complete a spontaneous mass cycle ride around London. This selforganised event is open to all - even pets and babies manage to tag along in trailers - with the expectation that you advertise to as many friends as you can and take advantage of the pit-stops to socialise with other friendly enthusiasts. The experienced regulars ensure that there is a constant supply of biscuits and music to keep everyone entertained as you make an environmental statement by rebelliously stalling cars with hundreds of bikes. The flatness of Central London makes for an enjoyably scenic ride - for more information, you can access the

The Sky Garden 20 Fenchurch Street, or the ‘walkie talkie’ building as it is commonly known, offers the opportunity to book free tickets to explore its Sky Garden overlooking London. Although its increasing popularity means that you have to book a little while in advance, the experience is infinitely cheaper than its counterparts the view from the Shard, for example, which costs upwards of £19 per adult.

The Sky Bar combined with the breathtaking view, particularly at sunset if you are lucky enough to get hold of that time slot, creates an irresistibly sophisticated atmosphere and makes for a special occasion.

Edith’s House Furnished in the style of the stereotypical grandmother’s house, Crouch End’s newest cafe (opposite Monkeynuts) embodies quirkiness. Their freshly-made scones of assorted flavours arrive warm from the oven and their tea is served in retro china sets; only in Crouch End would you ever be served clotted cream in a Superman egg cup whilst you perch comfortably on a disused toilet covered in pink lace. The resident dog and staff contribute further to the homely atmosphere, with many local students being employed as waitresses and always willing to offer a friendly familiar smile.

Incomparable to the high street chains which so often dominate, Edith’s House offers a uniquely cosy and eccentric experience perfect for any time of day.

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REVIEWS

Neck of the Woods, March 2017

The Immediate Future of Left-field Music

hopefully its shorter track list (9 songs) than Short Movie,her previous album, will provide us with a more refined and focused selection of songs. I expect this album to be one of the best of 2017.

time the singing starts, the hope that this will be a good song is all but gone. The shouty, jumpy singing does nothing to assuage my doubts and then we come to the chorus, which lacks melodic direction. Even the unsurprisingly kinetic, inventive bass playing of Thomas Walmsley cannot save this. The overall effect is that Temples tried to sound like Fever The Ghost, a band they have long admired, but as they are not off their faces on obscure drugs, they were unable to do so. Certainty is simply a bad song.

As you may expect, it was not this song that made me want to listen to the next single but the good quality of the debut album meant that Certainty could easily have been a blip. The equally unpleasantly plastic feel of Strange Or Be Forgotten showed that this was not the case. Despite a nicer, psych-rock melody in the chorus, the disconnect between chorus and verse was still an issue and again the chorus felt irrelevant. The track

Laura Marling – Semper Femina (out 10/03/17) The first we heard from the forthcoming album was a simple, percussive beat and an uncomfortable bass line that moves us away from the expectation of that overall mellow feel of Short Movie and the melodic accessibility of most of Marling’s earlier work. But Soothing, the album’s first single, will grow on you if you let it. The delicate yet sinister chorus brings the most intrigue, thematically and melodically. This song will set the pace as the opening track of Semper Femina, and evidence indicates that we can expect another formidable album from Laura Marling. The second single, Wild Fire, was a more welcoming song that made me more excited about the album- the rest of the songs will not be limited to the minimalist, percussive and brooding tone of Soothing. Wild Fire is more familiar in sound, evoking well-known 60s soul as well as retaining the feel of a Laura Marling song, with the familiar instrumentation of acoustic guitar and accompanying keyboard and soft drums.

The album looks set to expand our expectations of Marling’s albums, and 22

Temples – Volcano (out 03/03/17)

seemed to be a self-parodying disappointment. With this new album, I am expecting to be very disappointed by Temples made the error of putting their this album on the basis of the singles rather meaningless lyrics under the released so far. The aggressive synth that spotlight, which is always dangerous drives the opening of first single when you have nothing much to say.

Certainty is reminiscent of the opening of Teardrop Explodes’ second album in the way that it subverts the conventions of the debut, whilst leaving enough familiarity in Bent Out Of Shape, retaining the sound of the vocals and drums. However, Temples have ignored this responsibility to their fans.. The opening melody sounds like a bad parody of tracks like Keep In The Dark on debut Sun Structures. Worse still is where that sound goes, forging a melody that sounds like it has more right to be on a Mariokart soundtrack than a Temples album. By the

REVIEWS

Neck of the Woods, March 2017

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Gizzard’s label, such as Flightless Flying Microtonal Banana (out 24/02/17) Records, for engaging new music that retains the feel of their older records.

Until now, King Gizzard and the Lizard (Listen to Orb if you liked the music on Wizard has left an average of 5 months King Gizzard’s earlier album, Nonagon Infinity, The Murlocs for things like … between albums since their debut in Mind Fuzz…, Oddments and Float 2012, needing to take a break to remind themselves of the joy of crafting a song, Along – Fill Your Lungs, or The Babe Rainbow for the calm psychedelia of giving it direction, variation, life. They Quarters.) have, however, decided to do the opposite in 2017, giving themselves the ambitious task of releasing five albums before 2018. The first 3 singles released from the first of these albums, Rattlesnake, Nuclear Fission and Sleep Drifter show that in creative terms, this project couldn’t have been devised at a worse time for the band. Adding half frets to their guitars clearly hasn’t given them any more ideas; the new singles sound like watered down versions of songs off last year’s Nonagon Infinity, which already made me feel like King Gizzard were out of ideas. Nonagon Infinity leaned too heavily on the same formula of simplistic, hurried vocals followed by a rush of mosh-pit guitar The Moonlandingz – Interplanetary Class rage, and backed by bursts of drums and Classics (out 24/03/17) long wah-wah noises. This year, the energy has been cut off and replaced by Despite being ‘semi-fictional’, The stale electric guitar played over even Moonlandingz is formed of members of more basic lyrics (‘rattlesnake, The Eccentronic Research Council and rattlesnake, rattlesnake, rattlesnake’). All The Fat White Family, as well as a long of the songs feel like bad remakes of list of collaborators topped by Yoko Ono tracks like Cellophane and Hot Water and Lady Gaga. They are about to put out from the band’s most complete work, I’m an LP, and if it is anything like their In Your Mind Fuzz - the infectious debut EP, I expect that it will be worth nature of those songs has not been listening to. Their EP, which itself was recaptured, and the band has failed to only an accompaniment to The introduce the more varied sounds of King Eccentronic Research Council’s album Gizzard’s earlier work. What was once a Johnny Rocket, Narcissist and Music band that was unpredictable in style, they Machine… I’m Your Biggest Fan, made now seem to be chasing their own tail, some question whether this band ought to slowly fading from relevance and be considered a group in its own right. integrity. The new guitar solos feel However, the outstanding quality of their obligatory, not energetic and first singles indicates otherwise, and the spontaneous. The new songs are boring taster tracks from this next release and don’t go anywhere. I recommend promise a more refined, less punk looking to the other bands on King incarnation of The Moonlandingz.

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Previously, the band favoured the postdisco groove of Black Hanz and its excellently named B-side Drop It Fauntleroy, evocative of bands like Pulp and the outright dream-pop of The Strangle Of Anna, which has a kind of Slowdive feel to it. My fears that this album will suffer from its self-indulgence are confirmed by the silliness of Neuf Du Pape. This album is unlikely to be

limited to really good songs, and why would it be when you could boast about drinking wine with Lady Gaga and Sean Lennon: I expect a mixed album with some good and some unnecessary songs.

Lloyd Bolton

SPORT

Neck of the Woods, March 2017

FA Cup

I take you back to 1972, where in an unparalleled game of sheer confusion, Leyton Orient proceeded to beat Chelsea 3-2. Granted, 3-2 isn’t much of an astonishing score line, but Leyton Orient had a snowballs chance in hell of winning Archie Weir that game. As pleasing as it is to hear I, being an arsenal fan, have had my fair about David beating Goliath for once, share of unpredictability in football Chelsea have proceeded to batter Orient matches and seasons as a whole. Times in both 6-1, and 7-3 in more recent affairs. which we flourish, winning 3-0 against Rather disappointing.

Chelsea with ease, and times where we aren’t quite as fortunate, losing 3-1 to Another incredible moment where the Chelsea, but I really would like to dwell underdogs overcame all odds was in the on that for as little time as possible. A year 1992, where Arsenal visited competition in football that has proven Wrexham. The champions of the country, unpredictable over the long while it’s versus lower league minnows. Wrexham been around is the FA cup. It gives had been written off from the start, opportunity to the less successful teams naturally so, but mistakenly as well. At across the UK to compete with those who the start of the game it seemed that triumph across Europe, which quite often Arsenal would cruise through with is a one sided story. But there are the relative ease as they gained the first goal occasions in which the lesser team, who without trouble. But with ten minutes to rarely have anything to lose, go all out, go, the ‘magic of the cup’ kicked up and give a premier league team a run for something special, and the 37-year-old their money.

Mickey Thomas for Wrexham, fired in a 26 yard free kick. Then Steve Watkin proceeded to net a later header, to finish off the chance of a win for arsenal. And the 11 men who commanded Europe, were dominated by some Welshman from a valley in bloody nowhere.

Chelsea Vs. Leyton Orient 1972

they’d cruise to yet another FA cup title. Throughout the game it had seemed fairly sure that Manchester City would score imminently, but Wigan had other ideas, as Ben Watson pounced to score a stoppage-time header and win the ‘Lactics’ the game. This shock to the system led Wigan to their first ever piece of major silverware. But as the season continued, they finished to be the first ever team to win silverware and be relegated in the same season, back to Wigan’s ways.

FA Cup winners 2016

But as an impassioned football fan myself, I have to say that the FA cup has a special place in my heart. It gives the chance to lower league, sometimes even non-league teams to compete with those who travel the world to play the game, earning ludicrous sums of cash in the process. The fact that the underdogs have In more recent years the FA cup has a chance gives me some hope that not all ruined even more football fans weekends. is lost, in this world of football superstars An example of this being when earning more money than they know what Manchester city faced Wigan Athletic to do with. And that a bunch of blokes back in 2013 for the FA cup final. This from Wrexham can tell their grandkids was an expected win from Manchester that they beat one the of the best teams in city with relative ease, as we all imagined the world.

ROGER THAT! After victory in the Australian Open, how many more wins can he get?

Alfie Peri Roger Federer is a name known to everyone, and for a very good reason. He is, quite simply, the most successful tennis player in history: he has racked up 18 Grand Slam titles, with his nearest rival, Rafeal Nadal, four titles behind.

On the 29th January this year, Federer won the Australian Open, beating Nadal in a gruelling five set match lasting three and a half hours. This match was of great significance in the long lasting rivalry between the two. Before the match, the total number of Grand Slam titles had Federer leading 17 - 14. Nevertheless, Nadal, being five years younger, has much more time left in his career to win more titles. Therefore, the winner of this 24

one match would be favoured to either become or maintain their position as the most successful mens’s singles player.

It was after this win that John McEnroe, who won seven Grand Slams himself, concluded that “Federer had cemented himself as the greatest player of all time”.

Federer is currently ranked no. 9 in the world though throughout his 18 year career, he has been world no. 1 for over 300 weeks. He entered the top ten in 2002 and has held his position there ever since.

However he fell to sixteenth due to a long injury break where he suffered from back problems and needed back surgery.

Despite this, he has fought back, winning the 2017 Australian Open. It is this will to win and determination that sets his legacy in stone, cementing his position as the

most successful men’s singles tennis player of all time.

It is now only a question of how many more Grand Slam titles can he secure.

SPORT

Neck of the Woods, March 2017

Six Nations: The Story So Far Sé Courtney February 23rd As this year's championship gains pace, title holders England lead the pack in the men’s tournament with two games played, and are the only team to be in contention of winning the illustrious grand slam. Eddie Jones’ men have seen off stiff competition from both France and Wales, to put themselves in prime position to retain the six nations title.

achievement, as Sky Sports will be showing all fixtures this year. This tournament, with both Ireland and demonstrates how far the women's England occupying the top 2 places competition has come since 2010, with heading into round 3 with England one ever growing audiences at matches as point behind Ireland. England will be hoping that last year's champions, France, well as television ratings. Many in the can do them a favour by beating Ireland, women's game will hope to follow in the footsteps of Sian Williams who became as this would clear the way for England to the first woman to sign a professional leapfrog them to first place. contract for her country, Wales, during This year’s competition sees a landmark last year’s tournament.

However, there is still a lot of rugby to be played, and the introduction of bonus points has made it possible for 5 teams to Ireland pip Scotland in six nations opener: landmark for women’s rugby as six nations is broadcast live. lift the Six Nations championship, with many pointing to the final game in Dublin as a winner takes all match. The tournament so far has been criticised for being low scoring, boring and predictable, leading to calls for reform and expansion with countries like Georgia dubbed for a place in the tournament. The third round of fixtures see top vs bottom in a game where England will look to maximise points – indeed, it could come down to that in deciding the title. Second place Ireland face a tricky game against France in a game they must win if they seek to keep the pressure on England. The tie of the round could come at Murrayfield, where Scotland take on Wales, with both nations on five points, it looks to be a mouthwatering encounter which promises a lot of hard hitting action.

The picture is very similar in the women's 25

PUZZLES

Neck of the Woods, March 2017

Crossword Across 2. How many countries border Germany? (4) 6. Movie snack (7) 8. Apples and pears (6) 9. Man’s best friend (3) 10. Red, rocky planet (4) 11. Grey, cloudy sky (8) 13. Greek goddess of love, beauty, procreation (9) Down 1. Hours of darkness (5) 3. Shakespeare’s contemporary playwright (7) 4. 6th letter of NATO phonetic alphabet (7) 5. 12-sided polygon (9) 6. Foot doctor (10) 7. Immediately (3) 12. Popular sauce (7)

Maths Puzzle Rowan Juneman A sequence of numbers is generated according to the fol­ lowing rule: the nth term in the sequence is equal to the previous term to the power of n. The first term in the se­ quence is 2. What is the last digit of the tenth term in the sequence?

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Picture clue: 13 across

OBITUARIES

Neck of the Woods, March 2017

Baroness Heyhoe Flint

During her 19-year career as a cricketer, Heyhoe Flint defied the social conventions of the time, becoming a role Gabe Brown model for young girls aspiring to break the glass ceiling of the 60’s and 70’s.

Rachel Heyhoe Flint captained the When Flint’s team took to the Oval England female cricket team for 12 years and led them to victory in the 1973 World cricket ground, the commentator exclaimed:“women taking to the field at cup (which she had also organised). In the Oval, and in a test match too! You’ll addition, she was one of the first female forgive our not calling the players Mrs or members of the MCC (Marylebone Miss, it’s [cricket] a man’s game.” This Cricket Club, formerly the governing example of what we would now consider body of cricket both in England and sexism, discrimination and categorical Wales). In later life, she was vice president of Wolverhampton Wonderers misogyny was then commonplace, and especially in sport; Flint challenged those football club. who attempted to halt the progression of females in sport through tireless

Brunhilde Pomsel

Gabe Brown Brumhilde Pomsel was personal secretary to the notorious Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. A trusted Nazi Party loyalist, Pomsel was the private secretary of Goebbels from 1942 until the war ended in 1945, taking his dictation and transcribing documents, letters, diary entries and other business of the anti-Semitic propaganda chief, who rigidly controlled the news media, the arts, radio broadcasting and films in Nazi Germany. Although she was one of 27

Goebbels’ inner circle, she stringently denied any knowledge of the genocidal activities of the Nazi party during the war, speaking out against her former boss on her 100th birthday in 2011: “I will never forgive Goebbels for what he did to the world or for the fact that he murdered his innocent children.” Pomsel called it an “act of foolery” that she ever decided to work for Goebbels. But the pay was exceptional, so “only an infectious disease would have stopped me” from becoming a secretary to the Nazi propaganda minister, she said.

Attempting to explain her lack of

promotion of women’s cricket. She became one of the first 10 women to become honorary life members of the MCC, helping to push for a more egalitarian sport. “In the days when Women’s cricket got very little press, she was the one lady cricketer who everybody had heard of.” Sir Tim Rice, fellow member of the MCC commented.

Flint received an MBE in 1972 for services to Women’s Cricket; an OBE in 2008 for services to Cricket; and then a Conservative Party appointment to the House of Lords as a peer in 2010. She died on the 18th January, aged 77, a role model to women and girls across the world. liability she stated that “the whole country was as if under a kind of a spell.

I could open myself up to the accusations that I wasn’t interested in politics, but the truth is the idealism of youth might easily have led to you having your neck broken.” As the war came to a conclusion, Pomsel stowed herself away under the Reich Chancellery, the underground system then containing Hitler, Goebbels, Göring, Himmler, Ribbentrop, Bormann and Speer. She carried her denial of any wrongdoing until her death in January 2017, at the age of 106.

PUZZLE SOLUTIONS

Neck of the Woods, March 2017

Crossword answers Across 2. Nine 6. Popcorn 8. Stairs 9. Dog 10. Mars 11. Overcast 13. Aphrodite

Down 1. Night 3. Marlowe 4. Foxtrot 5. Dodecagon 6. Podiatrist 7. Now 12. Ketchup

EDITORIAL COMMITTEE Faye Heron

Patrick Morrish Rosa Elson

Maths puzzle solution In mathematical notation, the rule for the sequence can be written as an=(an-1)n, with a1=2 (here an represents the nth term in the sequence). Using this rule, we have a2=(a1) 2 =22=4 and a3=43=(22) 3 =23x2 . Calculating the next few terms we find that a4=24x3x2 and a5=25x4x3x2 . There is certainly a pattern emerging here; in general it looks as though an=2nx(n-1)x(n-2) x...x3x2x1 . It is common to write n x(n-1)x(n-2) x...x3x2x1 as n! (pronounced n factorial) so we can rewrite our rule for the nth term as an=2n!. This shows us that the tenth term in the sequence is 210!.

in the universe is only about 1080. Even if each digit was printed with a width of one millimetre a piece of paper over one kilometre in length would be required to write it out in full. But, despite the immense magnitude of the tenth term in the sequence it is still possible to deduce its last digit.

The first 12 powers of 2 are 2,4,8,16,32,64,128,256, 512,1024,2048,4096 – notice that the last digits have a repeating pattern of 2,4,8,6 and, in particular, that when the power of 2 is a multiple of 4 (in this set 24, 28 and 212) the last digit is always 6. This is true for all powers of 2 that are Now this number is so multiples of 4. Since 10! large that it is almost is equal to inconceivable - a rough 10x9x8x7x6x5x4x3x2x approximation for 210! is 1 it is clearly a multiple 101092377, whereas the of 4, and therefore the last digit of the tenth total number of atoms term must be 6.

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Colette Rogers

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