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2016 WELCOME WEEK EDITION

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19th SEPTEMBER 2016 / ISSUE 01 FREE

Theresa May attacks ‘safe spaces’, claiming the culture undermines free speech Continued on page 3 Photo:cutiemoo @Flickr

G4S will patrol Fallowfield

Concerns have been raised over new security measures implemented by Manchester City Council and funded by the city’s universities to tackle anti-social behaviour in popular student area Fallowfield Jennifer Sterne Editor-in-chief Controversial security firm G4S have been chosen to patrol the Fallowfield and Withington area to address the anti-social behaviour of students.

The University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University have committed to pilot a new night time response to address the actions of a small minority of students who engage in antisocial behaviour in Fallowfield and Withington, “which seriously disrupts the lives of local residents including other students”.

The eight week pilot funded and approved by the

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universities, will last from the 17th of September 2016 – 5th of November 2016.

The pilot will be delivered by Manchester City Council whose accredited security provider is G4S, who are already used for parks and cemeteries.

The Manchester Evening News initially reported on the 14th of September 2016 that two ‘bouncers’ were to patrol Fallowfield during Freshers’ Week to “crack down on nuisance behaviour”; they have since updated this to ‘security staff’. The Mancunion has discovered however that these two ‘bouncers’ are in fact G4S security.

The decision to choose G4S however has caused concern due to the private security firm’s frequen-

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cy making controversial headlines.

The University of Manchester Students’ Union Exec team told The Mancunion they they feel “uncomfortable with the decision that has been made to use G4S for this pilot scheme. We had a number of conversations from the beginning with the university and council on this topic and have voiced our concerns about the use of G4S to them.”

Claims against the company include allegations of torture in a South African prison, which the company deny. Other claims include the death of Jimmy Mubenga in 2010 whilst being deported from the UK and the reported use of excessive force upon a pregnant woman at the Cedars detention

Fears rising for UK universities post-Brexit

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centre for immigrant families.

Most recently they were making headlines over being boycotted by The Labour Party ahead of their conference this month.

Labour voted for the boycott over the security firm’s prison contracts links to Israel. G4S announced in March it would be selling its subsidiary, G4S Israel after continued protests against their involvement in Israeli prisons.

The security firm is also involved in a scandal surrounding their Medway Youth jail, which is at the centre of allegations of abuse and the use of excessive force by staff. Eleven staff were suspended

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Meet the Students’ Union Exec team

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News

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Letter from the Editor-in-chief Highlights P8

Opinion: We need to stop pretending Blairism was a bad thing

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Welcome to the Welcome Week edition of The Mancunion, our first print edition since April. It is fair to say that since then a plethora of newsworthy events have occurred, so you will have to forgive us if we seem to be a little behind the times with our analysis on Brexit, our new Prime Minister, and the plans of the new government. All will agree that these are having, or will have, a significant impact on students, and we believe it crucial to revisit these issues in our first edition to make some sense of them.

On a lighter note, I want to take this chance to introduce you to all the new features of The Mancunion and the Manchester Media Group, and our exciting plans for the year. The Manchester Media Group this year will be bigger and more collaborative than ever: The Mancunion will feature video content and collaboration between Fuse FM and Fuse TV will offer you swathes of content in as many forms as possible.

We will run MMGLive events throughout the year, offering live music performances, debates, and much more to make ourselves as interactive and engaging as possible. Keep an eye on our social media channels for more information.

The Women in Media Conference will be returning for a second year from the 4th to the 5th of March 2017. Last year a group of female students from across the MMG launched the inaugural Women in Media conference with high-profile women speakers from across the media industry. This year will be even bigger, being held at the People’s History Museum and supported by Amnesty International.

The conference aims to empower confidence in female students looking to pursue careers in the media. This year our Mancunion team has more women on it than ever—living proof of the success we had last year—but we know we can go further and encourage more women to dismiss any doubt that they are unable to reach the same heights in media as men.

Finally we have become more social media savvy this year; with a YikYak feed, a Snapchat account, an Instagram page; as well as our Twitter and Facebook profiles.

Follow us on all of these platforms for updates on everything we will do this year.

Alternatively, if you are still fond of face-to-face encounters, then come find us at the Welcome Fair, or visit me in the Activities Office on the first floor of the Students’ Union building during weekday working hours. Most importantly I want to stress that everyone is welcome to get involved, no matter your experience.

Finally I encourage you all to pick up a copy of The Mancunion every week as we promise to fill our pages with all the news, opinions, reviews, and more, that you could ever need.

The Mancunion @TheMancunion www.mancunion.com editor@mancunion.com The_Mancunion TheMancunion

Continued from Page One... ...or sacked in January of this year after a BBC documentary made the allegations.

Students from various universities have also in the past successfully boycotted the security firm over their involvement in Israel.

A student speaking to The Mancunion questioned why these measures “were only targeting nuisance behaviour when student safety is still such an issue”.

Student safety has been a rising concern, especially after the string of rapes occurring in the past few years in the area.

The Students’ Union Exec team posed a series of questions to the university regarding this pilot scheme which have now all been answered.

“We have been told there will be two officers whose roles will be to ‘manage noise nuisance and anti-social behaviour either by attempting early interventions or through professional witnessing’. We have also been assured that the officers will have gone through a variety of training, including but not limited to: Incident Re-

Music: Manchester’s best venues

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Fears rising for UK unis post-Brexit Fashion & Beauty: Manchester Shopping Guide

In this year’s QS world University Rankings, 38 of the UK’s top-4oo universities have plummeted in the rankings. The University of Cambridge has dropped out of the top global 3 for the first time since 2004. In light of these consequences, concerns are being raised for future funding prospects for British universities, as a future without the EU is still unclear.

However, in spite of a general downturn among UK Higher Education, the University of Manchester has achieved its higher ever ranking this year as 29th. When asked about potential fears of cuts to funding for the University of Manchester, Vice-Chancellor Dame Nancy Rothwell said ‘we’ve not known of any European grants that we’ve been cut out of (and) I’ve not known of any European staff that have left’. The fear among the UK’s

P30–31 Visit Our Website www.mancunion.com The Mancunion @TheMancunion

Sport: Manchester sport

Editor-in-chief: Jennifer Sterne editor@mancunion.com Interim Deputy Editor-in-chief: Charlie Spargo deputyed@mancunion.com Postal address: University of Manchester Students’ Union, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PR Phone: 0161 275 2989 Subeditors: Gemma Sowerby, Robert Parris, Jane Simmons, Hannah Foy, Christopher Tchen sub@mancunion.com

higher education, however, remains prominent.

Dame Julia Goodfellow, president of Universities UK (UUK), said that urgent action is necessary to prevent “a likely sudden decline in EU applications” across the country.

In addition to funding scares, there is a growing worry that Brexit has severed community ties between university communities and the wider British population. Some members of local communities in university towns reportedly believe that the pro-EU university campaigns were mostly self-interested and detached from the wider community.

The University of Manchester’s Community Officer, Saffa Mir, said that “the student union does a lot of work with connecting the student community with the wider

Head News Editor: Yasmin Mannan Deputy News Editor: Alexandra Bickell Science Editor: Georgie Hines news@mancunion.com science@mancunion.com Head Features Editor: Jacob Nicholas Deputy Features Editor: Emma Shanks features@mancunion.com Head Opinion Editor: Tristan Parsons Deputy Opinion Editor: Edward John opinion@mancunion.com Head Fashion Editor: Sarah Kilcourse Deputy Fashion Editor: Sophie Soar Deputy Fashion Editor: Talia Lee Skudder fashion@mancunion.com Head Food & Drink Editor: Felix Sanders foodanddrink@mancunion.com Head Film Editor: Eliza Slawther Deputy Film Editor: Shema Begum film@mancunion.com Head Lifestyle Editor: Rachel Adams Deputy Lifestyle Editor: Araddhna Patel mancunion.life@gmail.com

sponse Officers Licencing and Training, Front Line SIA Licenced, SIA CCTV Licenced, Enhanced DBS check.

“We hope to monitor the pilot scheme throughout its 8 week period to make sure students are safe and protected, and if you have any concerns please do not hesitate to get in contact with us.”

A spokesperson for The University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University stated: “As part of the ongoing commitment to positive community relations and enhancing cohesive communities, both Manchester Metropolitan University and The University of Manchester will be jointly introducing a night-time response pilot scheme aimed at addressing anti-social behaviour by students.

“The pilot will utilise existing structures, expertise and partnership working between MCC and their accredited security provider for parks and cemeteries, G4S. “The University of Manchester Students’ Union have been given full information about how the pilot will operate and the Community Officer, Saffa Mir, is in close contact with senior University staff.”

Manchester Community from Access All Areas, who support any student-led project which aims to tackle some of the barriers young people and adults may face in terms of University access and participation, to Student Action who run a huge number of student-led weekly volunteering projects and one off events helping people in the local community.”

Moreover, she highlighted ‘Community Week’ which will take place on 5th December where students run community projects “with the aim to reconnect the students with local residents and create community cohesion.”

Despite the University of Manchester’s success in the world tables and commitment to community healing post-Brexit, there are still widespread fears regarding the impacts of leaving the EU on UK Higher Education which are yet to emerge.

Head Music Editor: Joe Casson Deputy Music Editor: Katie Shepherd music@mancunion.com Head Sport Editor: Harry Newton Deputy Sport Editor: Alex Whitcomb sport@mancunion.com Books Editor: Roma Havers books@mancunion.com Games Editor: Stephen Lewis games@mancunion.com Theatre Editor: Brogen Campbell theatre@mancunion.com Arts Editor: Laura Joyce arts@mancunion.com Head Online Editor Rebecca Carr Deputy Online Editor: Holly Smith online@mancunion.com Photographers: Ege Okyar, Przemek Piwek Copyright of imagery belongs to the photographers and anyone wishing to reproduce them should contact them individually

The Mancunion is the official student newspaper of the University of Manchester., established in 1969 with a readership of around 20,000. It is printed weekly for 20 editions and is distributed across campus and the city.

All writers are volunteers and new contributors are always welcome. No previous experience is necessary, just a passion for student media and a good story. You can get involved by turning up to a meeting, the times of which are listed on the Mancunion website’s Join page.

We gladly accept contributors from outside the University of Manchester.

The Mancunion is part of the Manchester Media Group, along with Fuse FM and Fuse TV. This body encompasses all of the Union’s official media outlets, and organises training, outside speakers, and social events for Manchester students interested in student media.

If you have any comments, questions, complaints, or would like to contribute, please e-mail the Editorin-chief or Deputy Editor-in-chief.

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Theresa May criticises the culture of ‘Safe Spaces’

Jennifer Sterne Editor-in-chief

During Prime Minister’s Questions Theresa May criticised the ongoing culture of “safe spaces” at British universities, calling the practice “quite extraordinary”, causing open debate to be stifled.

Tory MP Victoria Atkins claimed freedom of speech was threatened by students who had a “sense of righteous entitlement”.

Atkins questioned why the fear of offence was trumping free speech, which she claimed to be a “fundamental British value”.

Many universities have adopted the policy of “safe spaces” on campus where offensive behaviour, particularly against minorities, is banned. This has meant that many speakers have been ‘no-platformed’, causing widespread controversy.

During Prime Minister’s Questions, Atkins, MP for Louth and Horncastle, said: “Freedom of speech is a fundamental British value which is undermined by so-called safe spaces in our universities where a sense of righteous entitlement by a minority of students means that their wish not to be offended shuts down debate.

“As students around the country return to their places of learning at the start of this new academic year, do you agree that university is precisely the place for lively debate and the fear of being offended must not trump freedom of speech?”

May responded: “I absolutely agree with you, we want our universities not just to be places of learning but to be places where there can be open debate which is challenged and people can get involved in that.

“And I think everyone is finding this context of safe spaces quite extraordinary frankly.

We want to see that innovation of thought taking place in our universities – that’s how we develop as country, as a society, as an economy, and I absolutely agree with you.”

According to University of Manchester’s Students’ Union official document, the Union’s Safe Space policy is founded on the ideal that the Students’ Union is “a space which is welcoming and safe and includes the prohibition of discriminatory language and actions.”

It “is committed to providing an inclusive and supportive space for all students. This policy

is applicable to the whole student community, whether an individual or a member within a group.

The Students’ Union believes strongly in the right to free speech however acknowledge that this should not be to the detriment of the rights of other individuals and groups. Freedom of speech is important, yet intention to incite hatred is never acceptable.”

A spokesperson for the University of Manchester’s Free Speech and Secular Society said: “The society welcomes May’s statement that universities should not just to be places of learning but should foster open debate. While the society itself does not take a position in favour of any particular political party, a sizeable number of our members find themselves surprised to be agreeing with the prime minister.

“We have had difficulty arranging certain events due to the SU’s Safe Space policy, and events have been cancelled at the uni as a result. This has been happening at universities all around the UK.” In a recent interview with The Mancunion the Vice-Chancellor Dame Nancy Rothwell seemed in agreement with May’s stance stating: “My position, as head of a university, is freedom of speech is one of our core values.

Wherever possible, we try to encourage and support freedom of speech.”

She added that there was a clear distinction between University policy and Students’ Union policy and that if she disagreed with someone’s views she would not “bar them from having a speech on campus… Because that’s what being at university is about—being challenged with people who have different views.”

In response to May’s comments the University of Manchester’s Students’ Union Wellbeing Officer Izzy Gurbuz said: “As is the case with so many criticisms of safe space policies, May’s comments do little more than expose a lack of understanding of what these policies actually entail.

“The safe space policy here at University of Manchester Students’ Union is not about shutting down conversations or denying free speech; this is about keeping our students safe. It does not once mention offense [sic] being caused, rather, it protects against the incitement of hatred and intimidation.”

Photo:WikipediaCommons

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Outcry over new government HE Regulations Yasmin Mannan Head News Editor A new Higher Education and Research Bill proposed by the government—the most comprehensive piece of higher education legislation since the 1992 Further and Higher Education Act—has sparked controversy across UK universities and higher education institutions.

The Bill proposes two new statuary bodies: an ‘Office for Students’ in England which would be bestowed with extensive powers, such as equipping new providers with the power to award degrees, and a single research funding body (UKIR).

Both UUK and the University of Cambridge have warned that this ‘unprecedented extension of powers’ may amount to ‘harmful incursion by the government.’ In particular, UUK claims that some parts of the Bill would compromise the quality of higher education and give the secretary of state worryingly extensive powers at course level.

The worries of both institutions seem to mainly revolve around the fear of erasure of British universities’ autonomy, as the Bill would codify and strengthen government control of university funding. However, multiple concerns have been raised over the extensive powers that may be granted to the secretary of state, the isolation of English Higher Education from the rest of the UK, and a threat to academic freedom.

Moreover, the Bill links the newly created Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) with an increase in fees for universities. TEF measures ‘teaching excellence’ in three main ways: the National Student

Photo: Pablo @ Flickr

Survey (NSS), retention and continuation rates, and graduate outcomes as assessed by DLHE (Destination Leavers of Higher Education). A panel then decides the university’s TEF rating.

There will be three ratings: ‘Meet Expectations’, ‘Excellent’, and ‘Outstanding’: which will determine if the university can increase their fees.

Those who are ‘Excellent’ or ‘Outstanding’ will be able to raise fees and those who fail to meet those standards may have to reduce their fees.

In April 2016, delegates at The National Union

of Students (NUS) national conference voted to take action against the NSS in the form of either a boycott or sabotage in order to show that the NSS is not a suitable method of measuring attainment and impacting tuition fees.

The University of Cambridge views the extension of state powers over university assessments as contradictory to a ‘cornerstone of the UK higher education sector, namely that providers with degree awarding powers are responsible, as autonomous institutions, for the standard of their

awards’.

A University of Manchester spokesman said “These plans are still under consultation but the University will be closely monitoring the situation and working with Universities UK and the Russell Group to ensure the best possible outcome for our students and the vital role that universities play on the global stage.”

It is not yet clear how the situation will develop, as more universities are predicted to react as the Bill emerges further.

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Meet the Execs

Have a look at the line up for this year’s Students’ Union Exec Team, the representatives of the student body at the university Alexandra Bickell Deputy News Editor The Students’ Union executive team are a group of eight full-time employees who are either taking a break from their current studies at the University of Manchester, or have just finished. They are elected annually in March based on a manifesto that each candidate produces, then work from summer to summer, solely for the benefit of the students.

This year, Tamara O’Neill has taken on the role of Activities and Development Officer. She wants to enable as many students as possible to get involved in extra-curricular activities by “knocking down the barriers to participation.” She is currently working on this with talks on more student-specific loyalty cards and potential student discounts on gig tickets.

Tamara is also trying to promote cohesion

between university societies by developing an app, which will contain all campaign and society information in one place. She has additionally organised a host of new resources for current societies, including new apps and a YouTube channel to make them as simple and easy to run as possible.

Emma Atkins was elected to the post of Education Officer, where she has since been working on several of her manifesto points. She is currently increasing awareness of Textbook Rescue, a textbook donation scheme within the university, as well as introducing life skills workshops. These workshops will aim to provide students with essential life advice that they may have missed at school, such as how to deal with bills and taxes.

Our Community Officer for the year is Saffa Mir, who is aiming to increase cohesion between students and the local community by pushing a ‘Good Neighbours’ plan, to allow students to get

Left to right: Tamara, Emma, Saffa, Jenni, Ilyas, Naa, Izzy, and Sorcha. Photo: University of Manchester Students’ Union

to know others in their nearby areas. There will be a Community/Volunteering week based on this running in December—more details will be released at a later date. She will also be organising workshops for first years, helping them to avoid pitfalls in rental contracts that many older students were not able to.

The Women’s Officer is Jenni Smyth, who has already been very busy organising the annual Reclaim the Night march as well as promoting her campaign which aims to increase awareness of abuse in relationships. She will be lobbying the university for future funding for the students’ sexual violence counsellor and to provide consent education for students.

Ilyas Nagdee is the current Diversity Officer and his overall goal is to make the university more accessible. He means this in every sense, from physical access to mental health support and he is very enthusiastic about student involvement, saying “students who have lived experiences of some of the things I’ll be campaigning on are of pivotal importance here.” Ilyas particularly wants to make sure that all positive change made is “sustained” and “long-term.”

Taking up the position for the second year, the General Secretary for the Students’ Union is Naa Acquah, who is currently in the process of forming a North Campus society, as well as working on increasing student involvement in the development of the city of Manchester.

Sorcha Floyd is our Campaigns and Citizenship Officer, whose manifesto clearly stated her two goals—to tackle the high level homelessness in Manchester and to ‘go green’. She has been working on both of these and will continue to do so, hopefully on a “cross-university scale.”

Finally, Izzy Gurbuz has been elected as the Wellbeing Officer this year. She hopes to reduce the stigma around mental health and to improve related resources as well as to work towards rationalising the mitigating circumstances system.

Izzy has many events planned for World Mental Health Day as well as Wellbeing Week, details of which will be included in The Mancunion nearer to the time.

All of the officers have kept closely to their manifestos so far—if you would like to read these in detail, they may be found online at manchesterstudentsunion.com/execteam. Students are encouraged to contact any of the team members with suggestions, questions or comments, either in person by visiting the Voice Office of the Students’ Union, or by e-mail.

Student loan £250 too little to cover living costs Charlie Spargo Interim Deputy Editor Soaring living costs are beginning to have a serious impact on students, the majority of which now say that their student loan isn’t enough to live off.

Research by financial advisory website Save The Student (STS) has shown that while the average maintenance loan sits at just £540 a month, students’ average monthly spend has reached £790.

Nearly half of this goes on rent, with the other amount spent on utilities, phone bills, socialising, and food, among others. This shortfall in funding means that while nearly 80 per cent turn to their parents to support them financially, a significant number have resorted to credit cards, gambling, or even selling their body.

STS’s survey of 2,217 students in May and June of this year found 70 per cent of them don’t think the maintenance loan is enough to live off. Furthermore most students (55 per cent) don’t believe that going to university has been worth the money.

In times of crisis students have reported resorting to desperate measures. One told the survey she takes payment to write others’ essays for them, running the risk of expulsion from university. Marie says “I have no other choice to pay for my own education,” and expects to make around £15,000 this year from this.

Others have said they did erotic webcam shows, sold used underwear, or even sold sex. In fact, one

in ten students say they use gambling or sex work to make ends meet.

This raises questions about why they have nowhere else to go when times get tough. Only 20 per cent say they find it simple to seek advice from their university, while 80 per cent wish their financial education had been better.

More than two in every three students don’t even understand their loan agreements, with the extensive small print and contractual obligations imposed by Student Finance passing many by.

Owen Burek, Editor-in-chief of STS and former University of Manchester student, said: “We get contacted by far too many desperate students struggling to live off their maintenance loan, some on the verge of being forced to quit their studies altogether.

“Unfortunately it’s not always simply of a case of landing a part-time job and many parents aren’t in a position to make up the ongoing shortfall.

“While maintenance loans have increased, they continue to fall far short of rising living costs: 2016’s new starters are likely to find it even harder to get by.

“If you’re finding it hard to make ends meet, speak to your university welfare office: most will have Hardship funds you may be eligible for.”

If you are struggling, the University of Manchester offer a Hardship Fund which can be applied for by students who need financial support. The Students’ Union’s Advice Service can also help you with further assistance on where to turn in a difficult situation and can offer Emergency Loans of up to £100.

Volunteering 2016/2017 Sarah Brown News Reporter There are a great deal of benefits to volunteering, from increasing your confidence to learning new skills and making a difference.

However, you probably know that already, from your A-level tutors rattling on about it as you were writing the sixth draft of your personal statement.

At university, volunteering can be so much more than just another completed section on your Linkedin profile. It can help you to confirm your priorities and ambitions in life, allowing you to try a variety of activities without the pressure to commit long-term.

The Students’ Union offers a variety of student-led, flexible and inclusive volunteering opportunities, including community support, working with children in schools, and fundraising for an array of remarkable charities.

Student Action Student Action runs a huge number of student-led weekly projects and one off events helping people in the local community. From supporting refugees and asylum seekers in improving their English, to providing Manchester’s homeless rough sleepers with a hot drink and friendly chat in the freezing winter months, Student Action offers something to fit everyone’s interests. They also run projects involving the environment, vulnerable women, adults with accessibility needs, elderly people, and children.

Access All Areas Access All Areas supports any project which aims to tackle some of the barriers young people and adults face when it comes to University access and participation. That could consist of almost anything, from creating homework clubs for young people, to supporting arts subjects in secondary schools, as long as it helps to overcome educational barriers and inequalities.

RAG Manchester Raise and Give (RAG) is the fundraising arm of the Students’ Union, and is made up of students bound together by the mutual desire to raise money for charity and make a difference in people’s lives. Past fundraising challenges have included hiking the famous 55 mile walk around Manchester (the Bogle) and climbing Kilimanjaro - for those less athletically inclined, things like pub quizzes have also been really successful! Details of challenges and fundraising opportunities will be released throughout the year.

Societies In addition to the above groups, there are also a vast number of volunteering and fundraising societies. You can find details about Sexpression, the society aiming to line your pockets with condoms at the welcome fair, Cancer Research UK, Save the Children, and a plethora of other societies on the Students’ Union website.

For any more details or to join any of these volunteering groups, visit manchesterstudentsunion.com/volunteering.

The Volunteering and Community Engagement team at the University of Manchester can also help you to find volunteering opportunities. They work with lots of charities and notfor-profit organisations providing local and international student volunteering roles - to find out more information, visit www.manchester. ac.uk/volunteers.

The Students’ Union alone is an Olympicsized pool full of opportunities, with something for everyone - use the time you have at university to build up your experience and knowledge. Where else would a fresh faced 20-year-old have the opportunity to become an editor of a newspaper, or a mum of three do something silly to help fundraise RAG’s 2015/16 annual total of £400,000+ for charity?

All infographics by savethestudent.org

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Wonder Materials:

Graphene and Beyond A new exhibition at the Museum of Science and Industry tells the story of graphene and its seemingly unstoppable potential Georgie Hines Head Science Editor Graphene, the world’s first 2D material, was isolated

by Sir Andre Geim and Sir Kostya Novoselov, both professors at the University of Manchester, back in 2004. Since the discovery, graphene is now at the forefront of the enhancement of current technology, including techniques for water purification and more durable mobile phones.

The Wonder Materials: Graphene and Beyond exhibition is a collaboration between the Museum of Science and Industry and the National Graphene Institute at the University of Manchester, with Haydale working as the headline sponsor. It is acting as the flagship event for Manchester’s tenure as European City of Science 2016, but

with the intention to tour nationally and internationally.

The Mancunion spoke to Sarah Baines, Associate Curator at the Museum of Science and Industry, about the motivation and thinking behind the exhibition and how they have playfully managed to merge art, history, and science.

She said: “We were inspired by the fact that graphene was born when some Manchester scientists decided to follow their curiosity”.

Graphene was surprisingly discovered when Geim and Novoselov used scotch tape to remove graphene from graphite.

“The zones of the exhibition are very different, taking the visitor on a journey from how we got to graphene right

through to an imagined graphene future.”

The space is split into three zones: past, present, and future. The central interest of the ‘present’ zone is the use of ‘clean rooms’, which are used to transport visitors into a scientist’s workplace. Ms Baines noted they added this aspect to show there is “no barrier between you and scientists”.

It is used to showcase individuals using graphene in fields such as bioscience, theatre, and climate change. The zone also incorporates case studies of companies now using graphene, including mobile phone company Moxi as an example of “how technology can influence ethics”.

Visitors are given the opportunity to dress up in coveralls to fully immerse themselves in the

experience. The museum is also running a photo competition alongside this, which you can enter on Twitter using the hashtag #graphenepower.

Ms Baines spoke of the initial struggle when creating the exhibition due to the inability to see or touch graphene.

However, she spoke of how the intrigue of such properties “inspired us to look for creative nonscientific responses to graphene. Musicians, poets and visual artists have been inspired by graphene, and we wanted to reflect that in the exhibition.”

The flagship art piece commissioned is from Random International, a world renowned art collective, and demonstrates graphene’s “unstoppable force”.

Lemn Sissay, Chancellor of UoM, has also contributed to the exhibition.

As an atmospheric exhibition it allows visitors to “come and find out how sticky tape, an Elizabethan cannonball, historic pencils, Alice in Wonderland, graphene pompoms and graphene kirigami fit into the story.

She continued: “Science and art are actually really similar – both involve creativity and inspiration” and by using such creative outlets the museum have managed to “bring out the personality in graphene”.

The exhibit runs until 25th July 2017.

Students urged to get meningitis vaccine

Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health launches Georgie Hines Head Science Editor

Georgie Hines Head Science Editor First-time university students have been encouraged to get the Men ACWY vaccine, which protects against a particularly aggressive strain of meningitis (W), after concerns for public safety.

Meningitis is an infection that targets the meninges, the membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord. While for most individuals meningitis can be relatively harmless, it can become serious if not treated quickly.

Early symptoms include fever, tiredness, general aches, and vomiting, and are known to develop rapidly. Meningitis is also known for its distinctive rash. It is recognisable using the glass test; as the rash does not fade when put under pressure.

A more severe infection can lead to septicaemia, also known as blood poisoning, which can cause permanent damage and lead to long-term health defects, such as poor mobility and hair loss. Figures show that 1 in 10 meningitis cases are fatal.

It is thought that freshers are particularly vulnerable as they are exposed to a mixture of new people and can weaken their immune systems through excessive drinking.

Figures from Public Health England have shown that the number of cases has increased remarkably from 22 in 2009 to 209 in 2015, due to an aggressive strain of the infection.

The threat has prompted a national catch-up programme for all first-time students, up to the age of 25, to get vaccinated against meningitis and septicaemia. All teenagers from Year 9

Photo: Angela Moore for The Museum of Science and Industry

Photo: PublicDomainPictures@pixabay

onwards are also eligible and considered a priority.

Liz Brown, chief executive of Meningitis Now, has said that “up to a quarter of students carry the bacteria that can cause meningitis compared to one in 10 of the general population.

“It’s vital that those going to uni this autumn are not complacent about the threat of meningitis—we urge them to take up this lifesaving vaccine before they go.”

Back in November 2014, a first year student at the University of Manchester, Teygan Sugrue, died from meningitis after being found ill in his room by a flatmate in Owen’s Park halls.

Vinny Smith, from the Meningitis Research Foundation, has stressed the importance to look for symptoms in others as well as yourself. He says, “if they have meningitis it can be like a very bad hangover that quickly gets worse. It can be deadly so it is important to act fast and get medical help.”

The Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health was formed in August 2016 by the University of Manchester and will welcome its first first-year undergraduates this month. This restructure has combined the preceding Faculty of Life Sciences, established 2004, and Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences, which was responsible for courses such as medicine, nursing and dentistry.

It now has over 11,000 students, 3,200 staff and can celebrate having £122 million in annual research income. The Faculty also boasts having over 30 undergraduate degrees and approximately 90 postgraduate courses available.

Speaking of the new collaboration, the university has said that “this new, integrated structure enables us to deliver a truly translational approach to the life sciences, ensuring smooth research pathways - from pure discovery science through to clinical application and patient care.”

This novel change to the university structure has also seen the introduction of Professor Ian Greer, previously of the University of Liverpool, as the Vice-President and Dean of FBMH.

Photo: Stephen Richards@geograph

President and Vice-Chancellor of UoM, Professor Nancy Rothwell, has said of his appointment: “He is highly experienced in bringing success to a large and prominent Faculty, has a track record of instituting an environment where everyone can flourish. Importantly he has a strong track record in partnership working between the NHS and universities in the north of England.

“There are currently fantastic opportunities for us to make Manchester one of the world’s most exciting places for health and social care, and for the University to be at the forefront of this.”

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In theThenews this week... important and interesting stories from the wider world this week.

Stories by: Len Cotton, Georgie Hines, Elise Gallagher, Danielle Kosky, Lexi Bickell, and Harry Newton

Sex video suicide

Italy An Italian woman has killed herself after a personal sex tape of her went viral. After filming, she sent it to her ex-boyfriend and three other men, who put it online. Tiziana Cantone fought for the video to be removed and was granted a ‘right to be forgotten’ ruling by a judge, but the story continued to hound her even after she changed her name and moved to a different area.

The family have responded with a call to the Italian government to act against the shaming of young women and justice for Tiziana. The four men are currently under investigation for defamation.

China launches space station China The Tiangong 2 is the second experimental space station to be launched by China after a prototype was sent into space in 2011. Next month, two astronauts will follow the space station to carry out research. China is now the third country to have sent people into space, after Russia and the US. Research focusses include quantum communications, gamma ray burst research, and fluid physics. China have stated that their space programme remains a priority. Eventually, the country are aiming on having a manned station orbiting Earth by 2022 and a moon walk by 2024.

Trump will be healthiest President ever US Donald Trump has released a letter about his “extraordinary” health. This comes after his Democratic equivalent, Hillary Clinton, published her medical records after a recent bout of pneumonia halted her campaign tour.

The report shows that the 70-year-old is 6ft 3in and weighs 236lbs, giving him a body mass index of 29.5 and putting him in the ‘overweight’ category. Despite this, and the fact he was deemed ‘unfit’ to fight in the Vietnam War, Dr Harold Bornstein, Trump’s personal physician since 1980, has claimed Mr Trump would be “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency”.

Italy pull fertility campaign Italy A controversial social media campaign about women’s fertility in Italy has been pulled. The images, which include captions such as “Beauty has no age. But fertility does”, have been deemed anti-feminist by campaigners.

One magazine claimed the initiative was “part of the misguided attempt to encourage more women to fall pregnant at a young age”.

The campaign was part of the country’s first Fertility Day, happening on 22nd September, which hoped to encourage more young couple to have children. The event is scheduled to have reproductive experts and provide information on pregnancy and its potential issues.

Norwegian man revises testicle story Norway Claus Jørstad, who complained to IKEA on Facebook about getting a testicle caught in one of their Marius stools, has now changed his story. Laughing, he told Norweigan magazine Altaposten “part of the story is a lie… What is true and less true I won’t go into here.”

Jørstad wrote on his original post: “You are Swedish, and I know you don’t like direct descriptions of genitals. So I will call them the skipper and his sailors.”

He then went into graphic detail about how one of his “sailors” became stuck in a hole in the top of the stool.

However, luckily for Claus, eventually the “nut” became “loose from the squirrel stool.”

CATS take over Underground

Baa baa black sheep, have you any dope?

UK It was a purrfect day in London for cat lovers as The Citizens Advertising Takeover Service (CATS) took over Clapham Common station by replacing all the adverts with pictures of cats. The crowdfunding campaign was run by a group of friends in an attempt to inspire people to view the world differently.

They were tired of being asked to buy things all the time and wanted to create a public space that the public enjoyed. Commuters were lapping up the pictures, many of which featured furry felines in need of a caring home. Talk about having cattitude!

US Scandal arose in New Jersey as a five-year-old nursery attendee became a ‘Heroin of his own lunch hour’ after being caught with 30 bags of the drug in his lunch box.

Initially his teacher mistook the substance for sweets, before quickly realising the truth and confiscating the hefty stash of Class A’s.

The boy in question (dubbed the ‘Dinnertime Dealer’) tested negative for any consumption of the drug. Police are currently investigating how the child acquired the obscenely large amount of Heroin, although as of yet no charges have been made.

In Science this week...

Woman finds male co-workers tracking her periods Australia It was found that some male workers took the phrase ‘Down Under’ somewhat too literally when it was discovered last week that they were tracking a female colleague’s periods in order to “stay away from trouble.”

One man began to mark the cycle using a calendar, then sent the information around to all of his male co-workers.

The woman only found out when, during a conversation with the man about relationships, he told her that she was single because she “talked back.” Shocked, she began to cry, leading to the man to ask if she was on her period.

She asked how he knew and he confessed to tracking her cycle “in order to avoid unnecessary situations.”

There are currently several apps on the market designed specifically for men to use to track the menstrual cycles of up to 10 women at a time.

Something for a rainy day

US Customers have begun to notice changes in the price of umbrellas at IKEA when it’s raining outside. At least one branch of the furniture store lowers the price of Grössby umbrellas when it’s raining. As the prices are in dollars it seems the promotion hasn’t made it to the UK just yet. When the sun is shining customers are paying the equivalent of £3.77 but once the rain is pouring you get a saving of £1.51, with a rainy day special price of £2.26.

Not everyone is happy, with customers debating whether the promotion is more of a marketing technique than good business sense. Lower prices may tempt customers to ‘like’ the IKEA brand and in doing so allowing them rack up a profit.

Berry bad news for BBC UK Mary Berry woke up to the news last week that The Great British Bake Off will be moving to Channel Four next year, after the BBC refused to stump up the cash. It is believed that the BBC offered £15million to keep Bake Off on the nation’s channel, but Channel 4 trumped them with a £25million bid.

Last year the BBC spent £204million to keep Match of the Day on BBC One for the next three years, however they felt that Bake Off was not worth the £25million offered by Channel 4. Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood are yet to confirm as to whether they will stay with the show on the other side, but well-loved hosts Sue Perkins and Mel Giedroyc announced that they will not continue with the show. In a statement made by the double act, they stated that they were “not going with the dough.”

Dust cloud creates planet

SeaWorld banned from breeding orcas

Astronomers in Chile have found a newly forming planet in orbit around a nearby star. If the findings are correct, the planet will be about 1.5x the size of Neptune and be considered an ice giant. The star, known as TW Hydrae, is thought to be relatively young (around 10 million years old) and 80% the size of our own sun.

TW Hydrae also has it’s own protoplanetary disk, a gas and dust cloud that forms around certain types of young stars in which new planets are formed. The star is considered a useful subject because of its proximity and how it faces Earth.

California has passed a new bill that outlaws the breeding of killer whales in captivity. SeaWorld has responded to claims that the law was aimed at their program saying it aligned with their own policy of

Randy tortoise saves species

Science by: Georgie Hines, Alec Wilby, and Araddhna Patel

“no more orca breeding in California and to replace theatrical shows with education-based encounters.”

The theme park still owns 24 orcas but insist that as they have grown up in captivity insist it would be more dangerous to release them into the wild. Significant backlash against the company was created after the documentary Blackfish revealed the harsh treatment and the conditions orcas were kept in at the park.

Diego, a Giant Galapagos Tortoise at the Charles Darwin Research Centre on Santa Cruz Island, and his sexploits have almost single-handedly saved his species. Many may call him the Mick Jagger of tortoises as whilst he may be over 100 years old, nothing seems to have slowed him and his libido down.

He has fathered around 800 offspring throughout his life, and is still mating with six other females.

A preservation specialist has said: “We did a genetic study and we discovered that he was the father of nearly 40 per cent of the offspring released into the wild on Española.”

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Data show students from lowperformance universities earn less than those who did not attend university at all Emily Hulme Senior Reporter

Photo: The Mancunion

Protesting staff threatened with pay docks, say Unison Allegations were made that UMC managers threatened any staff who joined Thursday’s rally against job cuts would have an hour’s pay deducted Jennifer Sterne Head News Editor Last Thursday 100 students, staff and campaigners took to Oxford Road to protest the planned cuts of 43 catering jobs across the University of Manchester campus.

It was later claimed by Unison, who represents the caterers, that a number of the UMC members of staff were contacted by a manager of UMC who told them that if they were to attend the Unison lunch time rally they would be deducted an hour’s pay.

As revealed by The Mancunion last month, after implementing the living wage in February, University of Manchester Conferences Limited (UMC) the company in charge of ca-

tering services across the university, then announced plans to make 43 of their staff redundant and to cut salaries by up to a third.

UMC is a private, wholly-owned subsidiary company of the university that provides catering services across campus and in the University’s Halls of Residence. UMC runs the Chancellors Hotel, The Chancellors Collection, FoodOnCampus, FoodInResidence, and BarsInResidence on behalf of the University.

In the original e-mail leaked to The Mancunion it was revealed that 60 out of UMC’s 283 staff have been told that their jobs are at risk.

The e-mail went on to say that if less than 43 of these 60 do not accept voluntary severance, then UMC have announced that they plan to go ahead with compulsory redundancies.

Alongside this, UMC were allegedly planning

NUS President candidate questioned about anti-Semitism

Fashion class of 2016

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to impose inferior contracts on the remaining staff, cutting salaries by up to a third.

These claims of redundancies within UMC came on the back of redundancies and further threats of redundancies to 38 employees and 68 IT staff last year, alongside 28 other staff this year.

Unison has since also told The Mancunion that UMC staff are “feeling pressure from management to take their annual leave during down time to suit UMC services”.

Our source expressed concern with the direction the university is taking, especially expressing concern over the treatment of lower paid staff in contrast with those who earn the most at the university.

The University of Manchester has the 23rd Continued on page 2...

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Data from The Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) show that graduates from the lowest-performing universities were earning less ten years after graduation than non-graduates.

The trend was evident in both male and female graduates, raising questions about higher education’s value for money.

The IFS carried out this ‘big data’ research to find out what hinders and helps graduate earnings. Using anonymised tax data and student loans for 260,000 students since 1998, the IFS found that earnings vary by university, degree subject and parental income.

Despite not naming all the universities used in the research, the IFS did list some Russell Group Universities, showing the London School of Economics to be the only institution where more than 10% of its female graduates earning in excess of £100,000 a year, ten years after graduating.

Predictably, the degree of choice also impacts on earning in the study; creative arts and mass communication graduates had the lowest earnings, earning around £17,000 for men and £12,000 for women, which proves to be less than non-graduate earners. But the gender pay gap seemed to be higher amongst higher earners. In stark contrast to the above, 12 per cent of male and 9 per cent of female Economics graduates were found to earn over £100,000 ten years after graduation. Medicine and law graduates earned a similar amount.

Co-author of the paper, Anna Vignoles from the University of Cambridge, said “students need to realise that their subject choice is important in determining how much of an earnings advantage they will have.” Disappointingly, the study also finds that those with parents on high incomes earn around 25 per cent more than their poorer counterparts, but if the institution and subject chosen is controlled, this can fall to 10 percent.

NUS President Megan Dunn said: “It’s hugely disappointing to see that women and poorer graduates are facing such a massive disadvantage in the workplace.” Echoing Dunn’s sentiment, Lee Elliot Major, Chief Executive of the Sutton Trust, Continued on page 2...

Interview with a graffiti artist

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2016 Exec Candidates

Brexit could damage HE in Europe, warn academics

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Is #OscarsSoWhite really effective?

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Investigation: Racism in Young Labour Jennifer Sterne, Joe C. Evans, Liam Kelly, & Marcus Johns Head News Editor, Current Affairs Editor, Features Editor, & Deputy Editor-in-Chief

The Mancunion contacted 17 Labour MPs

T

he youth wings of the Labour Party have been rocked by further allegations of “institutional racism” and infighting in the aftermath of the Young Labour and Labour Students Conferences in Scarborough over the weekend of 26th – 28th February.

Huda Elmi (pictured), who is the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Officer of Labour Students, told The Mancunion that she and other BAME Young Labour members “felt invisible within the structures of the organisation.”

“We were not heard unless we were spoken for.”

Elmi cited the fact that, at conference, a Labour Students vote was held whilst BAME members of the party were holding a separate caucus outside the conference hall.

She described the situation as “almost a joke… It was as if they were trying to prove that the major grievance of being invisible is true.

“How could they not notice that every BAME person was missing?”

Elmi also highlighted the fact that the position of BAME Officer at Young Labour is currently vacant, and has been for the last six months, after the incumbent stepped down for personal reasons.

She added: “Ever since being elected [as Labour Students BAME Officer], I have been left out of important discussions concerning the committee, refused the tools to act in any kind of autonomous way and made to feel essentially like a token.

“It is blatantly obvious that we were not present bar in pictures used in brochures… We were not heard unless we were spoken for.”

A senior source from Nottingham Labour Students, who was also at the conference, told The Mancunion that he believed the caucus issue was the result of “human error” and was not an intentional slight, but it highlighted the issues BAME members face in the Labour youth movement.

Mo Ahmed was “one of the only BAME Labour Students CoChairs in the country.”

Ahmed and Elmi received a standing ovation for their speech on institutional racism

Photo: Screenshot

He went on to state his belief that “BAME members were particularly vulnerable to some of the negative aspects of factionalism and inter-camp bullying and intimidation that was noticeably prevalent at conference.”

Two separate conferences were held over the weekend in Scarborough, North Yorkshire: A Labour Students conference met over the Friday and Saturday, with delegates from Labour Students clubs across the country electing their national officers and deciding policy for the coming year.

Young Labour, which consists of delegates representing all members under the age of 26, met on the Saturday and Sunday to elect their officers and debate policy.

Mo Ahmed, the Co-Chair of Manchester Labour Students, resigned his position on the Saturday night of the conference. In his resignation statement, lambasted the treatment of BAME students within the youth wings of the Labour Party, saying: “We don’t feel welcome. We are totally invisible.”

Ahmed was, according to Elmi, “one of the only Labour Students BAME chairs in the country” and the fact that he felt his resignation was necessary demonstrated “something is wrong with the system”.

Elmi and Ahmed both gave speeches at the Young Labour conference the day after the latter’s resignation. Their speeches received standing ovations.

In her speech, Elmi expressed her disappointment at Labour failing to live up to its reputation as the “party that promises to be at the frontline, fighting for marginalized groups.”

She also stated her belief that there is “no suitable infrastructure to make sure ethnic minority people are represented in internal politics.”

Following the speech, and as a further response to the racism allegations, BAME members of Young Labour took to Twitter and started the hashtag: #IAMNOTATOKEN. The allegations of institutional racism compound the issues engulfing Labour’s youth wing, following the resignation of the co-chair of Oxford University Labour Club (OULC) after the club’s decision to endorse Israeli Apartheid Week, and accusations of bullying and voting irregularities during the election of the National Executive Committee (NEC) Youth Representative.

Elmi drew a distinction between Labour’s national leadership under Jeremy Corbyn—whose summer leadership campaign she cites as her reason for getting involved in the party—and the “mess that is Young Labour”.

Despite these issues, Elmi hinted she was hopeful about the future, though warned: “Representation without structural change is simply tokenism.”

She said: “The incoming Young Labour committee has to listen to the voices of their BAME members so that we can succeed in our collective fight.”

A report into the bullying allegations is being led by Labour peer Baroness Janet Royall, whilst Elmi is also writing her own report into the events of the conference, where she is “collating personal testimonies and creating recommendations for Labour Students so as to help further integrate BAME members into the organisation.”

In a statement, Manchester Labour Students said: “This conference has raised important issues within our movement. We will support all four of our liberation campaigns—respecting their autonomy—in order to ensure that the diversity of our movement is fully and meaningfully represented.

“We would like to thank Mo for all of his hard work and dedication in what has been a difficult few months for Manchester Labour Students. He has been an invaluable member of MLS.”

“Representation without structural change is simply tokenism.”

Government to miss Higher Education target

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Cameron ban proposed for Senate Charlie Spargo Editor-in-chief

A motion has been put forward for the next Students’ Union Senate to debate the banning of Prime Minister David Cameron from the Union building to stop him manipulating “venerable [sic]” students.

The possibly-satirical proposal, titled ‘Ban David Cameron from the Students’ Union building’, calls Cameron a “dangerous Tory” and his government “undemocratic”.

“David Cameron is a dangerous Tory whom has continually attacked the welfare state with the intent of destroying it since the Tory government assumed absolute power in a so called ‘democratic’ vote”, reads the motion.

“David Cameron and his right-wing Tory government were elected by a minority of the electorate, and zero students voted Tory, therefore we must make a stand against this undemocratic regime by banning David Cameron and his Tory government from our democratic Students Union and our University Campus.”

Cameron’s campaign to stay in the EU is questioned too. “David Cameron has said that we should vote to stay in the EU, but he is a Tory and therefore he must have lied…

“To prevent him being able to manipulate venerable students at the University we must ban him.”

Naa Acquah, General , said: “The recent idea which has been submitted by a student to ban David Cameron is an example of us as a union allowing students to openly submit their ideas and policies to our democratic structure. As a Students’ Union, we are committed to empowering our students to shape what the union does or believes by participating in our democratic structures.”

In February a motion was submitted to Senate calling for the banning of controversial and widely unpopular Republican Party nominee Donald Trump from the building.

Senate will take place on the 14th of April. Other motions to be discussed include opposition to bursary cuts, the introduction of an Inclusion Officer in all society committees, and the creation of a dedicated studio for Fuse TV in the new SU redevelopment.

Should we leave the European Union?

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Interview with an astronaut

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Cameron’s “personal experience” of tax avoidance Jennifer Sterne Head News Editor

David Cameron, despite avoiding media questions, has been ambushed by a student at Exeter University who alluded to Cameron’s “personal experience” of avoiding tax— only a few hours before he revealed this to be true.

Cameron was addressing students on the EU referendum when one student claimed to be “very interested in what the collective EU states could do to combat tax avoidance—something [he claimed Cameron] has personal experience of”.

There were no other direct questions about his tax affairs or the letter which resurfaced recently, which outlined Cameron’s attempt to lobby the EU not to crackdown on offshore trusts.

In response to the student the Prime Minister, with a straight face, stated he had “made tax and transparency the number one issue” at international summits.

The Prime Minister added that Britain was becoming the first country with a register of beneficial owners of companies. He went on to claim that tax, transparency and beneficial ownership would be on the agenda at a planned tax conference in London in May and also spoke of plans to raise £12bn through a crackdown on tax avoidance.

He admitted to the students that more needed to be done to crackdown on tax avoidance, specifically in order to ensure that universities and public services gain more funding.

The press were unable to question Cameron at the event, after the report in the Financial Times revealed he had personally intervened in 2013 to prevent offshore trusts being involved in the EU-wide crackdown on tax avoidance.

After speaking to the students however, he was interviewed by ITV’s Political Editor Robert Peston in which he admitted both he and his wife owned shares in the Panamanian trust set up by his late father.

Continued on page 2...

A Labour spokesperson said: “The Labour Party takes all allegations of anti-Semitism, racism, bullying, intimidation and candidate misconduct very seriously.“Investigations are currently underway into the conduct of individual Young Labour Party members. All relevant evidence will be considered.”

The Mancunion contacted 17 Labour MPs for comment on this story. None were available for comment.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Graduates on lower pay than non-graduates

Updates to this story will be published throughout the week on our website:

www.mancunion.com

Here’s what we got up to last year

Pick up The Mancunion, the country’s biggest student newspaper, all around campus every Monday “Reclaim the Night is so much more than just one night and one street.

It’s about a movement of people who can build unity to stand together, to break the silence and to say enough is enough.” Jess Lishak

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FEATURES: Comedy Week

Socialism & Space: Why Humanity Must Look to the Stars

Revealed: Thousands of HE staff paid over £100k

The bow or the silence?

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THEATRE goes digital

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An interview with Professor David Nutt

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The Union Senate is Fatally Flawed

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National demo turns violent

Investigation by Taxpayers’ Alliance into public sector wages shows that 7,500 employees in Higher Education earn more than £100,000 Vice-Chancellor of Nottingham Trent University—who earns almost £625,000.

The University of Manchester had the 23rd-highest number of staff paid above £100,000 in the country. All data provided by the university did not provide names along with the listed salaries, but positions were included, making it possible to work out the incomes of certain members at the top.

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103 staff at the University of Manchester, a figure that stands at almost one per cent of its total employees, earn more than £100,000 a year—according to data obtained by the Taxpayers’ Alliance—at a time when cuts are being made across the institution.

The same results, obtained by Freedom of Information requests and analysis of annual accounts, showed that more than 7, 500 staff at Higher Education institutions across the country have salaries exceeding this.

This came as part of the Alliance’s Public Sector Rich List, an extensive investigation into the incomes of worker at public institutions in the UK, from Town Halls to hospitals.

The revelations into the salaries of university staff members showed that Oxford University, UCL, and Imperial had the highest number of employees on post-£100,000 salaries, at 622, 500, and 432 respectively 11 staff at Oxford University earn more than £300,000. The highest-paid staff member on the entire list was an unnamed academic at Oxford, who earns £690,200.

This, however, is only the highest of the universities that responded.

The highest paid named member of staff in the research was Neil Gorman,

1 per

Charlie Spargo Editor- in-chief

The Vice-Chancellor and President, Dame Nancy Rothwell, has a salary of £247,500 plus expenses of over £1,000.

Colin Bailey, Deputy President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor, earns £162,500.

11 other staff members at Manchester earn over £150,000, meaning 90 staff earn between £100,000 and £150,000. In the university’s ‘Facts and Figures 2015’ booklet, they state that over 11,000 people work at the institution—meaning that 0.94 per cent of staff earn over £100,000.

This comes alongside ongoing disputes between campus trade unions and the university about job cuts. The university is in the process of outsourcing much of its IT services, a move that has led to the balloting for a strike by the University of Manchester branch of UCU. According to the Higher Education Statistics Agency, in 2013/14 there were 395,780 members of staff at UK HE institutions.

This would mean that almost two per cent of all HE staff across the country earned over £100,000. “ Taxpayers will not begrudge an inspiring headteacher or world-class academic a good salary if they produce great results and motivate their students, but too often this is not what we find,” said Chief Exec of the Taxpayers Alliance, Jonathan Isaby.

“Where institutions fail but financial rewards continue to flow to those at the top regardless, there is clearly a serious problem and taxpayers have every right to be concerned. The pay and perks enjoyed by those working at our schools and universities—a nd indee d across the entire public sector—must more accurately reflect how well they are doing their jobs.”

The University of Glasgow has the highest number of staff earning over £100,000 in Scotland. Despite this, they still charged the Alliance £16.38 for the results.

The University of Manchester has been approached for comment but is yet to respond.

Read our eyewitness account of the National demo on page 3

Outrage at HE shake-up proposals Cup North’s Coffee Extravaganza

FASHION: Men’s Week

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Marcus Johns Deputy Editor- in-chief The government has published a green paper consultation document on the future of Higher Education detailing proposals to fundamentally alter England’s Higher Education system.

The most controversial proposal in the green paper is the plans to give the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, and Skills the “power to set tuition fee caps.” Currently, changes to tuition fee caps can only be raised through changes to legislation by parliamentary vote.

Michael Spence, the Education Officer of the University of Manchester Students’ Union said: “This makes their claim that they will keep the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) at arm’s length from Ministers both laughable and demonstrably false. It is an affront to democracy, a blatant ministerial power grab, and an attempt to shut down debate about what the fee level should be.”

Of the proposals, another of the most contentious is the plans to link tuition fees with university standards using the TEF. Financial incentives are proposed to improve teaching at universities under the plans which will allow universities that can demonstrate high quality teaching to raise tuition fees.

Labour MP Gordon Marsden has likened the proposals to a “Trojan horse for raising fees,” a fear which many students have now ex-

pressed at the paper.

Spence added: “However it is tying TEF scores to tuition fees which presents the biggest problem. Basically institutions which do better in the TEF would be able to charge more their courses. The proposal in the Green Paper is that there would be up to four “TEF levels”, with institutions being able to charge up to a certain amount for tuition depending on which TEF level they reach.

“However all this will achieve is elitism and create a very dangerous cycle in higher education. Since the institutions judged to be better will be able to charge more for their degrees, they will be able to invest more in enhancing their metrics, which I am already concerned will not reflect quality teaching, and hence be able to charge more, leaving other institutions behind.

“This will create a system whereby the wealthy institutions get wealthier and wealthier, exacerbating longstanding problems in the sector.”

The proposals have wide implications above and beyond the raising of the £9,000 limit currently in place. Though previously the Chancellor George Osborne has said they would be permitted to rise in line with inflation in July, this is the first time an explicit financial incentive for teaching has been outlined.

Under the plans, universities would be ranked into three or four groups depending on the teaching quality, which will be assessed under the Conservative government’s recently introduced Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF). Those in the higher bands will be

permitted to raise their fees at different levels than those who perform less well.

Universities Minister Jo Johnson has said that these proposals aim to rectify the disparity between research and teaching, calling teaching the “poor cousin.”

The President of the NUS, Megan Dunn, said that it was “reassuring to see the government putting access to education at the heart of their proposals,” though adding that the NUS was “adamant that the Teaching Excellence Framework should not be linked to an increase in fees.”

The proposals also aim to make it easier for new Higher Education institutions to open, despite the Conservative government’s concerted efforts to tighten controls over higher education and clampdown on international students, including the removal of London Metropolitan’s University’s license to sponsor overseas students in 2012.

Within this it aims to allow new providers “quicker access to student funding” and will not impose caps on student numbers that are prevalent in the current higher education system. It will also be scrapping the minimum number of students required to become a university and ease access to degree-awarding powers, despite its previous rhetoric about the ease for institutions abusing the current system, which is now sees as too restrictive.

President of Universities UK and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Kent Dame Julia Goodfellow said in a statement from Universities UK: “The diversity of providers and the range of courses offered

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Meetings Mondays, 5pm , First Floor Student Union.

Getting Involved

Ed John Dep. Opinion Editor As with any media organisation, those run by students have faced an exponential growth in the wake of recent technological advancements and the advent of online publication. Far from being the small, niche and quasiprofessional outlet it once was, student media has become a truly alternative news source for those not only seeking to keep up with goings on in the student universe, but for domestic and international news as well. Throughout organisations such as our very own Manchester Media Group, television, radio and print journalism networks are coupled with an online platform designed to attract a large readership, both within and outside of the student community. This platform offers a legitimate voice to those who wish to get involved; be it in film, music, sport or, of course, opinion journalism.

It is this opportunity that is perhaps student media’s most important selling point. Contrary to the coveted newsrooms of mainstream media giants, all that is required to contribute to our network is a passion to get involved, and a wish to have your opinion heard regarding anything you see fit. Here, you won’t find your ideas being censored or omitted on a ‘newsworthy’ basis, but instead will be welcomed with the encouragement to create content based upon what you feel matters, whether that’s an international political event, sporting triumph or even just a day-to-day problem you’ve faced within your routine as a student.

Such flexibility doesn’t only extend to the content being contributed however, and as an inclusive, student run organisation, the media group has also been able to offer an antidote to many of the diversity issues faced by mainstream outlets. It would come as no surprise to anyone that a vast majority of our population now feels under or misrepresented by the predominantly white, male dominated industry on which they rely on for news.

With student media, there is a real opportunity to bypass such under-representation, offered in the form of a legitimate platform to voice the numerous issues excluded from national news coverage.

This not only allows for an alternative -and at times more grounded- perspective on numerous news stories, but also encourages the inclusion of a student voice in the wider social narrative; a voice that is undoubtedly missing from the media industry.

ISSUE 01 / 19th SEPTEMBER 2016 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Explore Manchester by wandering

Wandering is the best way to explore Manchester and help to develop our perceptions of cities Tristan Parsons Opinion Editor As a new student–or for any student–of this city, it may be easy to believe that everything one requires and desires can be found on the Oxford Road corridor (Oxford and Wilmslow Road). Tradition denotes that the escapes from this are to be made by shopping, leisure, or work. But stick to tradition and you just might miss out on something special.

To wander is to do many things. It is to walk without direction; to observe; to think or not to think. A wanderer may be finding hidden corners away from the crowds, or they may be inside the crowd, following its movements and seeing where it takes them. To wander is to take a step back–to feel comfortably out of place. By separating ourselves from the ways that spaces influence people, we can find a sense of freedom. This walking–this mere act of one foot in front of another–is of the upmost importance to shaping our perceptions of the cities we live in.

There have been many notable wanderers throughout history. Some of the most interesting involve various documentations of opiate-fuelled hallucinations and ramblings whilst getting lost in the labyrinth of London streets. Here, there is somewhat a connection to a lot of students. An intoxicated journey back from a Manchester club may intrude on an area that a sober self might perceive as dangerous. A phone or a group of people, rather than landmarks or memory, might well guide the first night of Fresher’s Week.

What are the reasons that we travel into the centre of town? One major activity is shopping. But in a scramble to visit the fashion highlights of Manchester, we learn little about the city. We experience the configuration of shops and other

infrastructure (advertisement or indoor shopping centres, for example) but these structures remain unquestioned. By wandering, we can choose new routes that avoid the shops; we can see new, lesser-seen parts of the city; and we can take some valuable moments of calm. The wanderer is without a true destination (except, perhaps, home) and without specific goals to fulfil in the city.

An interesting debate in this subject is the blurring of the lines between public and private land: the privatisation of public space. Take the University itself. The spaces in-between buildings are privately owned and privately governed. As a consequence, the rights that one assumes on public land are not applicable.

This confusion between public and private space is best exemplified by the space outside City Hall, London–an area owned by offshore investment company More London and leased to the Council.

In this space, actions such as taking photographs or gatherings of three or more people give More London’s private security the right to ask the offenders to leave the

site. If the offenders resist, they may be charged with trespass.

Public spaces are vital to a city’s democracy. The freedom and ability to assemble helps to check the power of government. This assembly may be regarded as wandering en masse: a group of people defying the normalities of that space, with new political focal points.

Even as a lone-wanderer, the simple act of walking (and not shopping) through Exeter’s Princesshay Shopping Centre in 2012 might have caused a stir. The company that own the site were tracking people’s mobile phones to analyse patterns of shoppers’ movements around the site. A line that ran straight through the outdoor private space would buck the owner’s hopes of maximising consumers’ spending.

Some advocate trespassing onto private land as a good way to further experience the city. This practice is called Urbex. In Europe, private security guards outnumber police by 25 per cent. Urbex seeks to undermine this securitisation by exploring and documenting some of

Photo:Franck Michel @ Flickr

the spaces controlled by private security.

Wandering might be considered a lessextreme version of this. By walking where you wish in a city and being blissfully ignorant of the lines between private and public space, one might accidentally stumble into somewhere that they are not meant to be. In that place, anything could happen. It could be somewhere tedious or it could create a passionate sense of wonderment within oneself. If asked to

“Go where you wish. Make this city yours.” leave, a smiled apology may suffice.

Manchester, as lecturers may love to tell you, is full of history. But where can we experience this history? If one wants to get away from books and formal study, there are the museums of this city, many of them rather good. But non-formal study of history can escape the walls of museums.

For example, along the route the People’s History Museum are rivers and canals that were important for this city’s industrial fortunes. Oxford Road traverses at least two of them. The travel to-and-from a place of learning is not an anonymous space; it may be full of the stuff of lectures, seminars, and museums.

I could go out into the city, take some serious notes, and be in a position to offer recommendations: The Top Ten Places to Wander in Manchester. But that would contradict the freedom and subjectivity of wandering. Go where you wish, for as long as you wish. Notice how your feelings and thoughts are influenced by the space around you. Make this city, or as much of it as possible, yours.

It’s time to stop pretending Blairism was a bad thing

With the Labour leadership race nearing to an end, Frank Hillman assesses the positives brought about by Blair’s government

Frank Hillman Contributor The word ‘Blairite’ has never had such toxic implications as it does at present.

A legacy destroyed by the Iraq war and financial crisis, to be labelled a ‘Blairite’ in 2016 is an insult rivalled by little else, comparable to being a branded a Tory and tantamount to a total betrayal of the principles of the labour movement.

The toxicity of the term is so potent within the Labour Party that even moderate, centre-left voices associated with New Labour for the last two decades have been forced to distance themselves from the ‘Blairite’ tag. Those proud of the achievements of the Blair years, and staunchly anti-Corbyn -such as Angela Eagle- have uttered the familiar words of denial: “I am not a Blairite”. With Jeremy Corbyn looking certain to retain the leadership with a comfortable win over Owen Smith in the upcoming election, it seems this narrative within the party is only set to continue.

To assess the success of Blairism and New Labour as a project, however, it is vital to look beyond insults and slurs. A look at the accomplishments of New Labour in education, health, and living standards portrays a very different narrative; one that acknowledges that, despite its notable failures, the venture brought noticeable progress to British society. This article is not a defence of the Iraq war, it is not a defence of Tony Blair as a character, and it is not even a direct attack on Jeremy

Corbyn’s leadership. It is, however, fair recognition of the successes that New Labour achieved in British Society, and an attempt to demonstrate that the Blair years were undeniably more than simply ‘Tory Lite’.

“Winning was a means to be able to implement the programme that New Labour thought would improve the state of Britain.”

A common criticism levelled at Blairism is that it abandoned traditional labour principles to achieve electoral success.

For many on the left, moving towards the centre ground in an attempt to win over Conservative voters was an immoral compromise, a watering down of the Socialist principles on which the party was founded. But far from the betrayal commonly depicted, electoral compromise was the central triumph of New Labour; appealing to a wider base of voters on a centrist platform was what paved the way for its successes.

Winning, not the ‘end in itself’ that it is often considered, was a means to be able to implement the programme that New Labour rightly thought would improve the state of Britain. The importance of winning elections is that it allows one to affect change; winning is a means to an end, but change is an end in itself. In a trade off between staying pure to Socialist principles in opposition and offering a compromise in power, New Labour took the correct path.

The argument in favour of New Labour takes further weight when considering the familiar fact that, other than under Blair, Labour has not won a parliamentary majority since 1974. For all his perceived sin in moving away from the traditional Labour principles, Tony Blair is Labour’s most electorally successful leader.

Compared with those who remained on the left, and thus tended to remain in opposition, New Labour benefitted the working people of Britain infinitely more.

Socialist or not, in order to affect change, one has to win.

Which brings us to the most important aspect of New Labour and Blairism; the progressive change that it created. In health, waiting times in the NHS were halved, and close to 120,000 new staff were introduced. In education, the government facilitated the introduction of 100,000 extra teaching assistants and 30,000 more teachers, also achieving record levels of literacy and numeracy in schools. In employment New Labour created 175,000 new apprenticeships, introduced a minimum wage to protect

those who needed it most, all whilst simultaneously cutting long term youth unemployment by 75%. Lifting 600,000 children out of relative poverty and huge spending increases on child tax credits benefitted the most vulnerable young people in Great Britain.

These achievements, amongst countless others, unequivocally changed Britain for the better; improving living standards and transforming the public sector in an extraordinary way. Other than the 2007 financial collapse, an event caused by the collapse of the US sub-prime housing market that was effectively out the hands of the UK government, this change was also implemented whilst, for the most part, sustaining economic growth and low inflation.

Though not the far left set of policies that some expect from Labour governments, the list of achievements were widespread and extraordinary; rivalled by few, if any, other Labour governments. To stylise this venture as the “same old neoliberal nonsense” is worse than just political opinion, it is bad analysis. Condemn New Labour all you want, but as JK Rowling announced on Twitter “call me back when your list of achievements matches [theirs]”.

New Labour made undeniable mistakes, that some may not be able to forgive them for; Iraq, managing the crash, and housing to name the most prominent. But its successes far outweigh these errors, and it is time for those left of the party to acknowledge this. Some call it Tory Lite, some call it betrayal. I call it progress.

Opinion11

ISSUE 01 / 19th SEPTEMBER 2016 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

The burkini: What’s behind it?

Lioui Benhamou addresses the deeper connotations of the debate surrounding France’s banning of the controversial ‘burkini’

Islam was once the greatest civilisation on earth.

Without their progress in science, mathematics and astronomy, we wouldn’t be so advanced. But today, Islam’s impact on the western world isn’t about science. Rather, it is focused on seemingly trivial social problems such as the burkini. Yet, although outwardly insignificant, such issues play into a wider and deeper social issue.

In our western world, liberal democracy is central; we think that the people should have the power. Thus, only elected institutions are able to create and apply the laws by which we live.

But religious institutions claim and feel the same legitimate power, resulting in a conflict in which a nation must choose between allowing religious power at the expense of its own legitimacy, or suppressing such power at the cost of religious freedom and tolerance.

The first option would mean that our ideal of liberal democracy would face a shift to undemocratic liberalism, where rights are respected but the people are no longer able to express their views on social issues. While the second option gives us an illiberal democracy, where democracy prevails over the rights of citizens. If we take the example of the aforementioned burkini, these options become allowing it to be worn, and therefore allowing democracy to suffer, or banning the item of clothing and taking the dangerous path of illiberality.

But why is the burkini considered a problem in the first place? The U.K. and the U.S. have been

harsh on the French for opposing it. After all, shouldn’t everyone be able to dress as they wish?

Shouldn’t rights prevail?

“By wearing a burkini, the message sent to others at the beach is, ‘I'm from an extremist branch of Islam before I am French’” The reality is a lot more complex than some would like to believe. It is not about how much women are covered, otherwise the pareo, beach tunic and surf suit would be part of the debate also. Rather, it is about what message you send to people you are supposed to form a community with. By wearing a burkini, the message sent to others at the beach is, “I’m from an extremist branch of Islam before I am French,” thus creating a juxtaposition, rather than forming a shared identity revolving around nationhood. While I know this juxtaposition can be lived with, some people cannot accept it, and even if banning the burkini is ridiculous and dangerous, calling it an expression of freedom for those women is an equally ridiculous discourse. But we could wonder why rights aren’t the priority in our

free countries.

That’s because we live in a democracy. Thus, if people feel they haven’t had their say in those social issues, which define the very essence of what it is to be from France, they will find a way to get their voices heard. That’s why the U.S is turning toward Donald Trump, and partly why Brexit has passed in the U.K; people are afraid of change in social behaviour, and of extremism, and will find a democratic way to have their voice heard.

Unfortunately, the ones who listen aren’t the ones we need. Populists, such as Trump, the UKIP Party, and Le Pen, gain power by playing the national identity card and forming an ‘in’ group and, in the process of doing so, finding another group to oppose to; Mexicans, Muslims, or Polish.

And here you have it, one of the biggest problems facing our post-colonial era under a liberal democracy? How to live together. Do we form numerous distinct groups separated by religion and culture and face the conflict over difference?

Or do we create one national identity, allowing in those who agree with it, and asking those who don’t to leave? It is a case of populism vs. extremism, and either one is as dangerous as the other.

I wish Islam was a religion with no extremist movement, intellectually at the level it was from the 8th to the 13th century, so it wouldn’t be problematic to anyone. I also wish tolerance was a value easy to define and to apply in the everyday life, but the reality of our world is a lot

more complex, and today’s biggest challenge to liberal democracy is finding the right equilibrium between democracy and rights.

That’s what’s behind the burkini, a symbolic choice for the West. Either sacrifice rights for democracy or democracy for rights. Do we let religion take more and more power into the public sphere but sacrifice democracy because no one has a say in this? Or do we ban it but sacrifice the right to wear it for everyone?

“I wish tolerance was a value easy to define and apply in the everyday life, but the reality of our world is a lot more complex” Even if this particular issue can be easily resolved by saying that the burkini is not a religious outfit but rather an outfit used for different reasons, others issues appear all the time, and soon enough a difficult choice will have to be made.

Grammar school proposals don’t go far enough

The reintroduction of grammar schools offers hope, but more needs to be done to diversify education “In modern-day UK, one’s life chances are decided by their family’s socio-economic background. This is the real injustice ”

I could not have been happier when I listened to the Prime Minister’s first major speech on domestic policy, in which she outlined that she was committed to see the return of grammar schools. More specifically, allowing existing schools to select students academically and to allow new grammar schools to be set up where there is demand. Since the 1998 Education Act was enacted under the previous Labour government, the expansion and set-up of new grammar schools have been banned, in the pursuit of the ideal that children in this country should receive equal education. Politicians have been more concerned about their own political ideals than providing an education suited to the individual needs and talents of children.

“I am sceptical as to whether any grammar schools will be opened in deprived areas” Sir Michael Wilshaw, the outgoing Ofsted chief has said that, “[comprehensive education] works, one size does not have to fit all—if schools have great leadership it can work.” Emphasis must be placed on the conditional. It is the case that in many schools around the country, particularly in deprived areas, there is a lack of leadership. Or, where there is supposedly ‘great leadership’, it simply means a new head teacher stepping in and an increase of the school’s pass rate.

But the percentage of students passing five GCSEs is not to the benefit of higher-achieving students.

Many students are held behind and not given the attention they deserve. Nor are they pushed to their full potential—five pass grades for these pupils is simply not enough. Few state schools have the resources or the time to focus on those at the top.

Instead, they place their efforts on C/D borderline students. Particularly for schools under the eye of Ofsted, these students matter. Those at the top are being failed. Those on the bottom are simply written off for not being able to achieve those coveted

Photo: JackPeasePhotography @ Flickr

Elrica Degirmen Contributor C grades.

In addition to supporting grammar schools, I support furthering vocational pathways at specialised institutes for academically lower-achievers. It is disgraceful of those on the left to suggest that if one does not get into a grammar school, then they will not receive a good education. An academic education is not a good education for those whose potential may lie elsewhere. Mrs May needs to make it clear that she is also offering opportunities to these students. She must direct more funding towards apprenticeships, as well as UTCs (University Technical Colleges) that aim to ensure students can apply their knowledge within the workplace. UTCs are an excellent example of the free school system developing students’ technical skills.

Toby Young, unfortunately, has been extremely vocal on the subject of grammar schools. He set up the West London Free School, whereby schools are state-funded but privately run. They are still, however, subject to state-ruled admissions criteria

and thus are unable to be academically selective.

One of the benefits of the Free School system was to increase choice in the state sector. That is, unless you want your academic child to be educated with other bright students.

In yet another show of his true hypocritical colours in The Spectator, he had the audacity to say that their possible introduction will harm his own free school. If he were devoted to the principles underlying free schools, he would welcome them. Instead, he recommends the idea that governments should “only allow schools to introduce partial selection if they admit more than the local percentage of children on Free School Meals”. This is very similar to quota-based admission criteria. This does not address the real root of the problem: Those living in deprived areas do not have access to good schools in the first place.

It poses concern that the shadow Education Secretary, Angela Rayner, asserts that the reintroduction will “guarantee to reduce the life changes of

millions of children” without providing any further evidence to explain her position. She merely says that the policy “flies in the face of all evidence.” Yet, the evidence lies before our very eyes. In modernday UK, one’s life chances are decided by their family’s socio-economic background. This is the real injustice. Ms Rayner has also commented that, under a grammar school system, children’s life chances are decided at 11 by a simple test. However, this is an argument against the method, rather than the principle, of academic selection. Measures could be brought in whereby a child’s overall progress during primary school is looked at. There could also be multiple entry points post-11, thus rendering her argument completely redundant—much like the position of the Labour Party itself.

We desperately need to offer an education equivalent (or better) to that of a standard private school for all those with the potential to achieve highly irrespective of their background. Mrs May emphasised that she intends for grammar schools to open where there is demand. But with limited finances for the opening of new schools, I fear that extensions to current grammar schools will be prioritised. I am also sceptical as to whether any will be opened in deprived areas. These areas are typically Labour constituencies that will do everything in their power to prevent a grammar school opening in their areas. Jeremy Corbyn was prepared to end his second marriage based on his opposition towards grammar schools. Although plans are incomplete so far, Mrs May’s plans to reintroduce grammar schools offer much hope.

Music

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ISSUE 01 / 19th SEPTEMBER 2016 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Album Live

Note From The Editors

Album: Angel Olsen – My Woman Released 2nd September via Jagjaguwar

A welcome from the editors and how to get involved

Angel Olsen’s new album arrives as a fully-formed classic, writes Cassie Hyde

Cassie Hyde& Katie Shepherd Joe Casson Music Critic

Cassie Hyde

The first issue of the semester, and first music section brought to you by your new music editors is here, and we thought we’d better introduce ourselves and give you an insight into how you can get involved with upcoming issues.

We are always looking for contributors on our Facebook group, so the first step is to join us at The Mancunion Music Section 2.0. This is where we will be posting any upcoming gigs and album releases we think should be covered in the paper for anyone eager to cover. You can also request to get press for any set or new release that you especially want to get your opinions published on. When you write an article for the paper, an editor will create you a Wordpress account to upload it to, where it will then be edited and published.

We hold weekly meetings

on Mondays at 5.30 on the first floor of the Students’ Union building, where we will be discussing everything that will be going into that week’s issue. You can also follow our Twitter and Instagram feeds (@MancunionMusic) to make sure you’re always up to date on what has been getting us excited.

The main thing is to get in contact. We want to get as many of you contributing as possible, regardless of music taste or levels of experience.

And don’t be shy - every first article is scary, but each subsequent one gets easier.

The point is that this is your paper and your music section. As long as you have a passion for journalism and a love for live music then you’re already the kind of person we want.

Angel Olsen is someone who you would not have expected to be a chameleon. With her already producing two albums of introspective indie folk, any other artist would be pigeon-holed into making the same album over and over. So for Olsen to return with synth track, ‘Intern’, wearing a silver tinsel wig, you would be right to expect something different. Something extraordinary!

Olsen’s third album, MY WOMAN , is made up of two distinct halves. Side A is full of three-minute rock n’ roll singles—the 1960s pour out of these songs. ‘Never Be Mine’ has elements of Roy Orbison, as well as a Velvet Underground-style guitar solo thrown in for good measure. ‘Heart Shaped Face’ has the feel of a subtly sexy soul track. ‘Not Gonna Kill You’ has a guitar solo directly ripped from ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’. The list goes on and on.

The highlight of MY WOMAN , ‘Shut Up Kiss Me’, exemplifies the sound and the style of the album. Whilst there is the classic 60s guitar sound throughout, the lyrics are emotional yet strident, giving the song enough detail to offer a different take with every listen. Sometimes it is hysterically funny, while it also makes you want to dance with a tear in your eye. Song of the year?

The other side, side B, is full of deeper cuts, replacing the single length tracks with seven-minute odysseys, ‘Sister’ and ‘Woman’.

‘Sister’ swiftly works it ways through light breezy guitar work, building to a climactic roar. ‘Woman’ starts of as another great 60s track, but quickly settles into a sad groove in the style of trip hop artists Portishead and Massive Attack. The album closer ‘Pops’ takes the sad piano of the previous track, ‘Woman’ and gives a throwback to Olsen’s older material— just her piano, vocals and feelings, all drenched in lo-fi. Beautiful!

the Interview Twin Atlantic The opportunity to see Twin Atlantic—a favourite band of mine—perform in an intimate setting was an opportunity I leapt at almost embarrassingly fast. The setting in question was the HMV store in the Arndale.

Having seen Twin Atlantic before, I was intrigued as to how the show would translate onto the temporary stage erected at the back of the store, amongst the racks of albums and cashier desks.

The performance and following album signing was off the back of the Scottish fourpiece’s latest album GLA; a gritty and refreshingly raw record named in homage to their hometown Glasgow. Listening to tracks such as ‘No Sleep’ and ‘Ex El’, it’s understandable that you might question how the band could truly bring the album to life in such a restrictive venue.

Within seconds, however, they had set the scene with opening track ‘Gold Elephant: Cherry Alligator’. It’s loud, it’s explosive, it’s an immediate departure from the polished pop-rock anthems of previous album, Great Divide.

When I asked about the drive behind this transition from the tracks that had seen Twin Atlantic burst into mainstream success, drummer Craig Kneale nodded, “It probably does sound like a departure, but for us it was about getting back to doing what we really loved and making music for ourselves again.

“We lost that a little bit, because we were thinking about what people wanted to hear,” he confessed, “but once you start to do that it gets a bit diluted.”

GLA is anything but diluted. Uncompromising, unashamed and unapologetically fierce, this is an album that has a lot to say and a refusal to go unheard. It’s messy and it’s volatile, but it’s not chaotic. Quite simply, it works.

This was reflected in the recording process,

9/10

for which the band had Jacknife Lee come in to produce. “He turned everything on its head,” laughed Kneale. “He kind of tries to confuse you. He wants to keep you on your toes. But it definitely works for the songs we were trying to write.”

There’s a definite edginess to GLA that was echoed when, minutes into their set, vocalist Sam McTrusty stepped down from the stage, removed the barrier separating us from them and beckoned us closer, despite the unimpressed faces of security. We, of course, followed orders and the rest of the set was enjoyed at ‘pretty sure that’s Sam’s spit on my face’ proximity. I was instantly made aware of the power of such an intimate set; that connection between fans and a band is too often lost with success. But gone are the days of untouchable Rock Gods. What fans want now is connection, and we got it.

Dancing between the chants of ‘The Chaser’ and the almost desperate cries of ‘No Sleep’, McTrusty’s performance was a diverse display of his talent. In brief moments of intensity he transported us to a place where only he and the microphone he clung to existed, before tossing it from him and opening up, encapsulating the room once again. One of the most memorable elements however, is the rawness of Sam’s voice that breathes a vulnerability into songs like ‘Mothertongue’ that I just can’t get enough of.

But while the frontman captured our senses with his brilliant stage presence, he by no means cast a shadow over Kneale, guitarist Barry McKenna or Ross McNae on bass. Each of them delivered with determined energy and a unique honesty that defines this band.

What is obvious to anyone watching is that Twin Atlantic is a band who are where they want to be; they’re comfortable and genuinely happy to be performing these songs.

“We were writing music that we weren’t

Overall, the main thing about MY WOMAN is how ‘classic’ it feels, in every sense. Many of these songs feel like they have always existed. Aside from all the 60s aesthetics of this album, whilst ‘Pops’ may be a commanding song by Olsen, it also has the feel of a Judy Garland number. Yet, when this sound is combined with Olsen’s confident, almost cocky style, it elevates every song to new highs. To call this a masterpiece seems cliché, but what else is it? An instant classic.

Photo: Album Artwork

Katie Shepherd talks to Twin Atlantic about their latest album and making music that they believe in fully passionate about,” Kneale explained truthfully. “It’s a bit heavier and a bit weirder, but that’s what we’ve always liked.”

What they like is what is truly at the core of this album. “The only goal was to make us happy” the band’s account tweeted on the day of the release and it is clear that in order to achieve this, they took a very personal approach this time around. Not only has the album drawn inspiration from their home in Glasgow, but the club in which the video for ‘The Chaser’ was filmed was actually

Photo: New Street Records

the venue in which the band played their first show as a foursome. “That was cool.

We picked it for that reason, and it was our friend from since the beginning of the band that filmed the video too.”

Essentially, GLA is a record about who Twin Atlantic are and where they come from. It’s a record about identity and about home. Their home may be Glasgow, but if GLA has proved anything, it’s that this is exactly where they belong.

Photo: Leah Hamer

ISSUE 01 / 19th SEPTEMBER 2016 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

the

Feature

Music 13

Manchester’s Venues

From sold-out arenas to atmospheric basements, this Freshers’ guide shows what Manchester’s array of venues has to offer

Joe Casson & Katie Shepherd Music Editors

Al bert Hall Capacity: 2 50 0 Com i ng up: Ba nd of Skulls (21/10), Wa rp a int (24 /10), L aura Mv ula (16/11)

O nce a We s leya n C hap el, t his gra nd building m a ke s for a sp ecia l at mosphere no m at ter what t he s how.

Night & Day Café Capacity: 2 50 Com i ng up: The Pos ie s (2 7/10), O f f The Record (4 /11)

A q uirky a nd t ruly Ma ncunia n venue t ucked away in t he Nort hern Q ua rter, t his is a venue t hat ha s a huge a mount of cha racter a nd even more history.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Academy 1

Academy 2

Academy 3

Club Academy

C apacity: 26 00

Capacit y: 900

C apac it y: 4 5 0

Capacity: 62 0

C oming up: D eath Grips ( 16 / 10) ,

Com i ng up : Mo os e B lo o d (8 /1 0) , Gl as s

C om i ng up : KSI ( 1 /1 1 ) , E den (16/11)

Com i ng up: Wat s ky (28 /9), Angel Ols en

Daughter ( 24 / 10) , Jame s B la ke ( 3/ 11) ,

A n im a ls ( 2 6/1 0) , H i nd s ( 2 6/1 1 ) , S hu ra

Architects ( 12/ 11)

( 9/ 12)

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Manchester Arena

Deaf Institute (editors’ pick)

The Ritz

G orilla (editors’ pick)

C apacity: 21,000

Capacit y: 3 00/2 5 0

C apac it y: 1 5 00

Capacity : 70 0

C oming up: Bastille (6/ 11) , T he C u re

Com i ng up : M it s k i ( 5 /1 0) , Cigare t te s

C om i ng up : M ich ae l K iwanuka (22/10),

Com i ng up: L owkey (20/9), L oyle C a rner

(2 9/1 1 ), The 197 5 ( 13/ 12) , Re d Hot C h illi

A fte r S ex ( 2 3 /1 1 ) , Cl ay (8 /1 2 )

E z ra Fu r m an ( 2 7/1 0) , Cr yst a l C a st le s (8 /11)

(9/10), Whit ney (8 /11)

Bu ilt in 1 87 7 as (wait for it ) an i n st it ute

H av i ng prev iou s ly hoste d The B eat le s,

G orilla’s unconvent iona l décor

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int im ate s ize mea ns it come s of f a s t he

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Peppe rs ( 14-15/ 12)

sure you’ve got the rig ht d ate be fore you rock up in a 197 5 t-sh ir t.

more energet ic crowd at G orilla .

Music

14

unirider

Live

Record Reappraisal Razorlight: Razorlight Released 2006 via Vertigo

Tariq Salarbux revisits Razorlight’s sophomore album, the 2000s, 7/10 and the birth of landfill indie

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Photo: Album Artwork

It’s the mid-2000s and Kylie’s hot pants still linger in the collective minds of the populace.

The kids are relatively all right; curating their MySpace profiles or pursuing stunted MSN conversations when they aren’t busy discovering the debauched pleasures of sexting. As far as the charts are concerned, indie rock is almost as ubiquitous as Crazy Frog ringtones: the holy trinity of guitar, drums and bass reign supreme.

The baton has just been passed on from The Strokes to The Libertines—but being the equivalent of amphetamines in band form, the latter swiftly crash and burn. Enter Johnny Borrell.

Like all great villains, Borrell has an origin story that breeds empathy: Sacked by the Libertines for not having enough ‘musical ability’, he ripostes by forming Razorlight. A quadrupleplatinum debut album followed by a triumphant turn at Live 8 might have been enough approval for most, but it was only step one of Borrell’s master plan.

Razorlight scrapped the streetwise Londonnightlife-commentary of first record Up All Night, and, in a decision of Faustian proportions, released a collection of stadium-sized pop rock anthems. Short and sickly sweet, the whole album clocks at under 35 minutes, but still finds a way to be littered with enough hooks to populate a decade of Lady Gaga singles.

‘In The Morning’ kicks off the album with a frenzy of snug melodies, wasting no time in getting to a coda clearly built for girls in skinny jeans and boys in even skinnier ones to sing along to. It’s also, however, not hard to imagine the latter’s Skoda-driving dads merrily toe tapping along: the song is achingly formulaic by nature, primed and polished to appeal to the masses.

The predictability was almost tangible: ‘Who Needs Love’, ‘Before I Fall to Pieces’ and ‘Los Angeles Waltz’ all feature Borrell’s hows and whys of love, so trite and vague that they make kittens and Chris Martin seem offensive. This, combined with the thoroughly hum-able middle eights, understandably sent Radio 1 executives into overdrive.

The most perplexing song on the record is

‘America’: A pretentious, impenetrable sociopolitical commentary on 21st century USA, written by a 26-year-old from Surrey. It did, however, contain enough “oh-oh-ohs” to bag the band’s first number one; for Razorlight, the end more than justified the means. And with Borrell’s final “oh” lingering over his chiming guitar, ‘landfill indie’ was born.

Razorlight’s success would result in the proliferation of indie bands across the country, each more banal than the last, offering nothing new to an overcrowded and unoriginal music scene.

Record labels would outbid one another, attempting to sign the next big thing before they had even finished puberty. Indie music became ‘independent’ only in name and, looking back, it’s hard not to place some of the blame on Borrell’s oversized ego and ambition.

Taken as a snapshot, Razorlight is a good, even great album. ‘Before I Fall to Pieces’ is euphoric and irresistibly danceable, ‘Back to the Start’ is a can of juicy earworms, and ‘America’, for all its faults, remains a classic soft-rock anthem. The lyrics might have been inspired by an awkward mid-twenties crisis taken too seriously, but they are effortlessly easy to sing along to, despite strongly suggesting a narcissistic personality disorder laced with male sexual insecurity.

The larger implications are hard to look past, though; the record was too grandiose a manoeuvre for indie music. The resulting tailspin spawned terrifying bands like Hard Fi, The Ting Tings and The Wombats; the final nail in the coffin accompanied by a muffled whimper about somebody’s sex being on fire. In a curious case of prophetic irony, some of Borrell’s prosaic lyrics from ‘In The Morning’ had finally realised themselves: “The songs on the radio sound the same / everybody just looks the same”.

Get in touch Facebook: The Mancunion: Music Section Twitter: @mancunionmusic Instagram: mancunionmusic Email: music@mancunion.com

ce ? a l p e h t n #ow u o y l l i w How Annual unirider valid until 30 June 2017. Price based on an online annual ticket valid in Manchester. Prices in other regions may vary.

*

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Games 15

ISSUE 01 / 19th SEPTEMBER 2016 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Feature

Does anyone need the PS4 Pro? Stephen Lewis Games Editor

On the 7th September Sony held a PlayStation event in New York. Is a new PS4 worth your money?

At an event held in New York on the 7th September, Sony unveiled two new versions of the PlayStation 4. The first of these was a slightly slimmer version accompanied by a price cut to £249, and the second being the long rumoured ‘PS4 Neo’ which turned out to be the not as excitingly titled PS4 Pro. These two consoles represent a slight shift in Sony’s thinking for the gaming market, without changing their underlying focus that consoles are made to play games and are primarily for gamers. Looking at the hardware and relative cost of these two products, a target audience can easily be found.

Firstly, the PS4 ‘Slim’ is to be seen as the new standard PS4 model when it releases on the 16th September.

Apart from the outward design essentially nothing has changed internally and Andrew House, CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, spent very little time covering the Slim during the conference. Within the first five minutes it had been announced, demonstrated and accompanied by a price drop to £260 for the 500GB model. This price drop is probably the most important part of the announcement as it has lowered the entry barrier for those who don’t already have a PS4 and have been considering picking one up.

Secondly the Pro model has been designed as an iterative upgrade rather than an entire new generation of console, similar to how every other year Apple releases an S model

Photo: Leon Tera @Flickr

iPhone rather than jump straight to the next number. The existence of the Pro has been confirmed for a while as Andrew House stated as much in an interview with the Financial Times from June of this year, just before E3.

This is the first time a new console has been introduced during a single life-cycle, instead of ushering in a new generation. The PlayStation 5 this is not.

The Pro is capable of playing all the games that run on the PS4, but with some extra processing power so that games can run smoother and have some increased fidelity if connected to a 1080p screen or running on PS VR. If you are one of the small but growing number of 4K HDR television owners, then the resolution can be increased to near 4K resolution and displayed in HDR.

Numerous games were shown off to promote this upgrade such as the recently announced Days Gone and Spiderman (PS4), but the most exciting was perhaps Mass Effect: Andromeda, not because it looked good, but because gameplay had never been truly shown before this point. These demos however were underwhelming to most viewers not at the event, as the livestream had to be compressed and the only way to actually view the 4K images would be on a 4K screen - which most people currently do not own.

If you are considering purchasing or upgrading to this new hardware however, there are a few others facts you should consider: HDR has been made available to all versions of the PS4 through the recent system software update (Version 4.00), so

if you already have a PS4 you can already get those extra colours if you own a HDR TV. Next is the fact that not all games will truly be running in 4K; if higher resolution is that important to you it is possible, at this point, that Microsoft’s Project Scorpio (to be released at the end of 2017) will run in native 4K, and by that time the price of 4K TVs will have dropped as well.

One of the few games confirmed so far to run in native 4K is Elder Scrolls Online and while not a bad game, it isn’t exactly a system seller as it is available on most platforms already.

By looking at these points, it begs the question of who exactly is this console for? As this is the first occurrence of an upgraded console no one is exactly sure. Most people don’t currently own a 4K TV, so that would add a lot onto the price tag from the start, and for that amount of money you could get a more than decent PC setup that could run better and handle tasks such as Microsoft Office and good internet browsing that consoles have never been designed for. Sony have released this in part, as House mentioned in an interview with the Guardian earlier this month, that “there’s a dip midconsole lifecycle where the players who want the very best graphical experience will start to migrate to PC, because that’s obviously where it’s to be had”.

A number that has recently been thrown around a lot in parts of the gaming press is from the specs of

both the Pro and Project Scorpio; the former will run at a processing power of 4.2 teraflops of graphics power, yet the latter will run at 6 teraflops. Compared to the 1.84 and 1.31 teraflops of the original PS4 and Xbox One respectively this seems like a big increase, but compared to a high end PC graphics card such as the GTX 1080 which runs at 9 teraflops and the GTX 1070 that runs at 6.5, it is clear that consoles are playing catch up, which has been true for quite some time now. Consoles do however have an increased ease of use to them which most people, myself included, prefer. It will always be easier to just put a disc into a box and hit play, even though consoles have also turned into streaming boxes for content such as Netflix and YouTube.

If you don’t already own a PS4 then the recent price drop of the standard model could make it a more tempting offer, considering it is still a brilliant console and runs all the games both currently available and to be released for the foreseeable future.

Retro Review

God of War (PS2) Robert Paris Sub-editor God of War first released onto the PlayStation 2 in March 2005. A lot has happened since then, the smartphone revolution changed our lives, America elected it’s first black president, and the Great British Bake Off stole the hearts and minds of a nation. The one thing that has remained largely consistent since then is the phenomenal momentto-moment action of the God of War franchise. The fact that the much anticipated PS4 entry is the first in the series to radically alter the gameplay, isn’t to say that developer Sony Santa Monica has been lackadaisical in the innovation department. On the contrary, it’s because the California based developer utterly nailed the core mechanics of this third person hack’n slash adventure right from the get-go.

Simply put, God of War makes you feel like a bad-ass from the second you pick up the controller. Combat is fast, visceral and consistently satisfying. During my play-through, showers of blood erupted from Cyclops’ eyes, Gorgon’s heads were ripped from their spines, and the finishing moves on the games signature bosses frequently amazed me with their sense of scale and portrayal of violence.

Be advised that this is definitely not one for the kids.

Throughout the game, you play as Kratos, a seven-foot Spartan warrior tasked with killing Ares (the titular God of War) in a truly inspired setting based on Greek mythology. Whilst the story is nothing particularly complex, it has

a solid beginning, middle and end, and exists as more of an excuse to keep the impressive action moving forward. As for Kratos, he can certainly be derided as being a one-dimensional and unlikeable character in the wake of games such as The Last of Us, but for me that was actually part of his appeal. He stands out amongst the crowd of predictably nuanced do-gooder protagonists that you’ve probably played as many times before. His aggressive and arrogant nature, combine with some questionable morals, to create one of the most refreshing characters that I’ve ever played in a video game. He is the antithesis of Nathan Drake in other words.

Kratos’ tale will take you through a number of beautiful and inspired locales not often seen in gaming, particular stand outs include a beautifully rendered Athens under siege, and the depths of the Greek Underworld. Presentation is one of God of War’s strongest assets; the graphics, animations and cut-scenes are polished to perfection. It’s clear that the developers poured their hearts into this game and it has paid off handsomely. There’s a cinematic flair present in all aspects of gameplay, the fixed perspective third-person camera hovering over Kratos remains, unobtrusive throughout, and the title’s numerous quicktime events somehow never get old. The gameplay is backed up by a bombastic orchestral soundtrack that does a tremendous job of escalating the on-screen action.

The sound designers really did their

Robert Parris looks back on a genre defining PS2 Classic

homework here, every audio detail fits within the mythos seamlessly.

Whilst the game is mostly linear, the way in which the levels are designed give a real sense of immersion as each location feels interconnected in a wider world. Combat scenarios are expertly broken up with the occasional puzzle and/or platforming section. Within these the enemy design is exceptional too; the developers have shamelessly drawn from the ancient source material, so expect to fight a number of mythological beings such as minotaurs and harpies. Each enemy has its own a unique attack pattern, requiring you to constantly adapt to new challenges throughout the journey. All in all, these aspects combine to make extended play sessions something of an inevitability. I finished my first playthrough in just two sittings.

However, God of War isn’t by any means a perfect game, and there are some minor flaws to consider. Whilst the game for the most part has a steady difficulty curve, one particular platforming section stands out for it’s unforgiving nature, requiring an extreme level of precision to overcome.

It took me around half an hour to beat this challenge the first time round, and it really bogs down the pacing in the later stages of the game. Perhaps a more significant issue is that by most accounts your initial weapons, the Blades of Chaos, are simply the best armament in the game. The other weapon that you come across offers a unique style of play, but it is grossly under-powered, meaning that there is little reason to

mix up your playstyle for subsequent playthroughs. However, this is mitigated to some extent by the intricate combo system, and the four unique magic attacks bestowed onto the player over the course of the journey. Despite these problems Kratos’s adventure remains surprisingly replayable eleven years later, and considering the game as a whole, these issues can be considered as little more than minor blemishes.

It’s hard to nail down what exactly made God of War stand the test of time, as almost every aspect of the title was of exceptional quality back in 2005. Regardless of which part of the game you deem most important, it is undeniable that they all mesh brilliantly to create a rambunctiously entertaining package. God of War is a power fantasy in its purest form, and exploring the origin of Kratos’s epic legacy is something that every gamer should experience.

Want to meet fellow gamers in Manchester?

Come and visit the University of Manchester Gaming Society stall at this years freshers fair! We host weekly events and have always been a good place to make friends and play some amazing games as a community.

Photo: kyleburning @Flickr

Fashion & Beauty

16

Hello you’ve reached Fashion, how may I help?

As the new term begins, Fashion Editor Sarah Kilcourse welcomes you to the Fashion and Beauty section of The Mancunion and tempt you to enjoy our weekly offerings Welcome to the Fashion and Beauty section of The Mancunion. I would like to introduce myself – my name is Sarah, I am a final year English student and am the head fashion and beauty editor this year. I will be working with my fellow fashion and beauty editors Soph and Talia. We are all so excited to continue the fine reputation of the Fashion and Beauty section.

Just a small brag, but last year we were voted best section of The Mancunion! An award we are certain we can hold onto for another year.

Personally, I have been writing for The Mancunion for the past two years and am thrilled to have progressed to the role of editor over the course of that time. To be a member of The Mancunion editorial team is a fantastic opportunity to explore the ins and outs of publishing, learning and honing journalistic skills that should help towards a career – that far off dream that degrees should help us to achieve. I hope to encourage as many fellow students as possible to join our team of contributors. If you fancy sharing your opinion on any number of fashion related ideas, films, events, trends, articles or anything else you can think of we would love to hear from you!

We don’t require any previous experience whatsoever, all we ask for is that you’re eager to be part of our team and can appreciate the joys, trivi-

alities and all round fabulousness that is fashion and beauty. Both industries that are marred with as much controversy as they are glamour.

Fashion is often judged as frivolous, something that requires little intelligence or awareness of the outside world. However, that is an opinion that could not be further from the truth. Tastes in fashion and beauty reflect the society in which they are created; whether its a period of economic recession or an infatuation with a popular TV show (you can thank Mad Men for reintroducing us to our waists in the mid 2000s). We end up wearing the issues of culture – sometimes inadvertently – on our bodies.

Here we are gifted with a double page spread dedicated to exploring this medium of self-expression. Between Soph, Talia, our contributors and myself I hope we can tickle your sartorial taste buds with some truly delightful fashion moments.

ISSUE 01 / 19th SEPTEMBER 2016 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Pangaea: Take a Trip to Wonderland Struggling for Pangaea make up inspiration? Deputy Fashion Editor Talia Lee-Skudder reveals her beauty top tips for spending a night in Wonderland

Photo: Le Fanciulle @ Flickr

A Southerner’s Guide to the Mancunian Rain Photo: felinenoir@ Flickr

Photo: hamedmasoumi @ Flickr

Deputy Fashion Editor Sophie Soar advises on how to adapt to the Northern climate when starting at the University of Manchester Once again, the weather’s taken a turn, the nights are getting longer and coats start creeping into your wardrobe. That’s right, the summer is over and we’re further into September than we’d like to believe. It is a month home to London Fashion Week and the first sensations of the autumnal chill but also for many, a month of new starts; notably, that of University.

Whether it’s your second, third or maybe even fourth year returning to the University of Manchester (if it’s any more years than that, you’ve undoubtedly and subconsciously morphed into a Mancunian by now), you should be pretty well prepared in packing your winter woollies, stocking up on waterproofs and already debating with housemates at what point is too soon to turn on the central heating.

However, there are some thousands of you migrating from near and far to study at the greatest city in the North West. This means several things: you’re soon to learn the joys of cheesy chips and gravy, taste your first delicacies from the Curry Mile and experience the questionable crowd that frequents the likes of 42s or Fifth. You’ve bought the books, you’re ready for the crippling student debt and you’re equipped with everything your mum deems an essential, from a food processor to a first aid kit. But there is always one breed of the newbie students that already starts at a distinct disadvantage to their new colleagues and comrades: the Southerner.

Now, as a Southerner born and bred myself, there was little to prepare me in discovering the reality of my first Manchester winter. This was also met with much entertainment from my elder sister, then in her third year at Edinburgh (a place her friend once referred to as ‘Where Umbrellas Go to Die’). I’ve taken to delighting at snow for all of two minutes and braving ice in my four inch heels in a bout of stubbornness (let me warn you, defy-

ing the elements is harder than it looks; you are fighting a losing battle).

However there is one aspect you can prepare yourself for, following the city’s reputation that would have inevitably crept your way after telling friends and family of your university destination: rain.

Somewhat deluded into believing the rumours of Manchester’s rain as overstated, exaggerated and mythical, I-along with thousands morecame to realise the error and arrogance of my ways. A fellow Southerner stated upon moving to Manchester: ‘there are just lots of puddles’. Now a third year, she advises ‘be prepared to ruin your shoes’.

To begin, the Southerner is a slightly more delicate soul and far more easily baffled; we stare in wonder at the women who wear heels and strappy dresses on a night out in December and the men who don a t-shirt and shorts in February. It is more times than not that the Southerner will be first to cave to turning on the heating or purchase a hot water bottle in October.

In keeping with my forementioned stubborn streak, I also promised myself after my first winter in Manchester (and spending the entirety of my student loan on the box set of Sex and the City) that I would not (and could not) buy myself an umbrella. Perhaps adopting some Northern determination against the weather, I did however discover a loophole after finding a brolly on the bus.

So for all you who’ve journeyed up the M5 from the deepest, darkest depths of the South, preparing to brave the treacherous temperaments of the North (don’t listen to any derision from Scots or Geordies; the Birmingham M6 Toll might as well be guarded by the Night’s Watch…), I wish you luck as you learn to juggle your books, bag, and umbrella whilst racing onto the Magicbus at 5pm.

You shall however adapt over the following months and years, as one recent graduate demonstrates after moving back down South and claiming ‘I now love the rain. I miss the rain’. Perhaps too much to comprehend just yet, it still provides hope for Southerners.

But for now, we recommend a life long investment in a sturdy coat, substantial developments towards an endless supply of jumpers, and assuming you have more sense than me, a brolly to see you through.

Do you want to write for Fashion and Beauty ?

It’s so easy to get involved! Simply send an article to: fashion@mancunion.com That’s it! No CV, no coverletter and you can be published.

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter: @mancunionfashionandbeauty Meetings are Wednesday at 1pm in the Students’ Union Activity Space.

The biggest freshers’ finale is back, and this time with the theme ‘Down the Rabbit Hole’. Take your inspiration from the all-time classic Alice in Wonderland and embrace the fabulously eccentric dress code. Let one of the famous characters be your muse, experiment with your look and dive head first into the rabbit hole.

For the Queen of Hearts, the love heart red lips are an absolute must. Try Mac’s lipstick in the shade Ruby Woo (£15.50) for the ultimate long-wearing matte lipstick that will stay put, despite drinking copious amounts of vodka throughout the night. With this look you can go all out or play it safe. Invest in some white face paint that will also see you through to Hallowe’en. Cover your eyebrows and thinly redraw them, paint your eyelids with a bright blue eye shadow (Maybelline’s

Manchester Shopping Guide For the freshers joining the University of Manchester this year, a new city awaits discovery. Amongst the new sights and smells lies the Northern Quarter, a haven of vintage treasures... By Sophie Soar, Deputy Fashion Editor For many, this September welcomes a fresh and exciting start at the University of Manchester. Alongside starting a degree too comes discovering a new home, workstation and playground for the following few years.

Whilst the University experience is predominantly about gaining a degree, expanding your knowledge and exploring your future career path, there is a lot more to your time at Manchester than your university professors may have you believe.

Once you’ve passed the confines of a lecture theatre and broken through the boundaries of the library, therein lies a sprawling city, boasting some of the best-kept secrets in the UK but also some of the worst, as you fight tourists for your space on the pavement.

Inevitably, you’ll want to explore and lose yourself in Piccadilly, China Town or the Arndale Centre (there you really may lose yourself—only with time will it become less confusing). However perhaps the greatest of spaces to spend your time, whether new to Manchester or entering your last year, is the treasure trove that is the Northern Quarter.

A famous district in (surprise surprise) the

North of Manchester, the NQ holds an array of vintage clothing retailers, boutique coffee shops and vinyl record stores. It seems to have everything under the sun, from the necessities, the indulgences and the downright weird and wonderful. The discoveries never end from your first visit to your last.

Home to COW and Pop Boutique, Blue Rinse and Oxfam, the choices and variety is aplenty for vintage lovers. Keep your eyes pealed too for the occasional vintage fair held in venues such as the Ruby Lounge; you never know what you might find (for me, it was a shiny silver micro backpack for £5; it is the ultimate clubbing companion and instigator of debate, drawing immensely mixed reviews from friends).

Of course, the Northern Quarter wouldn’t quite be the same without the impressive graffiti, popular nightclubs or inevitable risking of one’s life whilst dodging trams. These do however fall in the shadow of Affleck’s, the slightly hidden yet fiercely dominating force of the Northern Quarter.

Boasting three extensive floors of vintage stores, cafés, salons, a cereal restaurant, retro video games and a piercing studio, it’s a capsule Northern Quarter; Affleck’s Palace captures the area’s draw and appeal in one building. A favourite too of Lady Gaga’s, you can imagine the breadth of shoppers it draws from far and wide.

In reality however, the Northern Quarter is not an area to be described and explained in print. As a newbie, you must visit the district to discover for yourself the nooks and crannies to be loved and frequented. Considering the variety of fun and hidden treasures, there will inevitably be some preferable to you, perhaps undiscovered by others. Search far and wide, high and low, the Northern Quarter will provide and will continue to do so throughout your degree.

A little bit of Movie Inspo Films supply us with fashion moments for every occasion; the return to school/college/university is no different. So here at the Mancunion we have to decided to take a brief run through some of

Photo: rikkis_refuge@ Flickr

colour 24-hour tattoo in turquoise forever is a winner at only £4.99), pop on a beauty mark and you’ll be rocking the queen of hearts look a la Helena Bonham Carter. If this look is too daring then stick with your classic make-up, a slick of red lipstick, and let your outfit do the talking.

The eponymous Alice exudes innocence so keep your make-up simple with this look. A classic cat eye flick and nude lip will ensure that you look fresh-faced in true Alice style.

That is until pre-drinks are over and the alcohol starts to kick in... Maybelline lasting drama eyeliner in black is great if feline flicks aren’t your strong suit. It’s easy to use and at £7.99 it’ll prove a staple in your everyday make up look.

Alternatively, The Cheshire Cat is a more fun character; for the artists among you why not create the ultimate Cheshire Cat look, complete with pink tiger print-esque face paint and the snarling painted smile? If this is too daunting and time-consuming then cat eye contact lenses (take a peek in Affleck’s) with a pinky-purple smokey eye will do the trick.

Make-up Revolution Salvation pallet in ‘colour chaos’ has the shades you need and for only £4.00. Find it at Superdrug stores.

If fancy dress isn’t your thing, there is always the Urban Decay Alice in Wonderland pallet. Create your favourite smoky eye look and still feel like you’ve adhered to the dress code… it is Alice in Wonderland inspired after all.

Fashion & Beauty 17

ISSUE 01 / 19th SEPTEMBER 2016 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Photo: sjsoar @ instagram

Deputy Fashion Editor Talia Lee-Skudder gives you an overview of the top shopping destinations in Manchester Now that our student loans have settled nicely into our bank accounts, our minds can wander guiltlessly to Manchester’s promise of fabulous shopping. The first few weeks of a student loan are bliss until it becomes obvious that you actually have to use it to buy food and other important things (who knew?!)

But until that dreadful moment, make the most of Manchester as your shopping playground.

The Arndale, the hub of Manchester’s central shopping district is home to over 240 shops including the student favourites: Topshop, Urban Outfitters, and River Island. Whilst you will find plenty of shops inside to suit your taste, take a stroll down New Cathedral Street to window shop at the designer boutiques that your student loan just will not cover. It’s especially nice down here during the run up to Christmas where there is a host of market stalls that line the street towards the Corn Exchange. Also on New Cathedral Street you will find the two department store giants Selfridges and Harvey Nichols, helping to give Manchester the title of the ‘mini London’. Whilst Selfridges may not seem student budget friendly, it now holds a Missguided concession that offers a student

discount of 20 per cent. Happy days! Plus you get to walk out with one of those famous yellow bags. If vintage clothing is more your style, then take a stroll to the Northern Quarter where you will find lots of independent vintage boutiques and an abundance of cool restaurants and bars.

For those of you who prefer shopping centres or just want to get out of the city for a day, then the Trafford Centre is only a bus ride away and is a one-stop shopping destination that will keep you entertained for hours. Find your favourite shops under one roof, including another Selfridges, but be prepared to deal with the crowds.

Whether you’re looking for a top you spotted from Zara in a magazine or a unique item of vintage clothing, Manchester has got you covered. Take full advantage of this fabulous shopping experience before the guilt of spending your student loan on a new pair of shoes begins to set in… Happy shopping!

Are you a Fashion or Beauty blogger?

Calling all independent bloggers! We can feature your articles and work closely via social media. Contact us at fashion@mancunion.com

As we enter into the hallowed halls of education, let us remember some of the more iconic student style moments from the big screen

By Sarah Kilcourse, Fashion Editor

Clueless (1995) Now this is a film that has fashion at its core. Every aspect of Cher’s life relates to style: be it the people she chooses to makes friends with, who she crushes on, or how she lifts her mood. Aside from making us all aspire to a computerised wardrobe that would alleviate the daily dilemma of picking an outfit, Clueless also luxuriated in reminding us how fun fashion should be. Clothes are free to be transformative; they can turn you from an average girl to an irresistible goddess who can lure any number of Christians or Joshs.

A yellow plaid mini skirt and blazer in most contexts would have been a horrific no, but in the fashion daydream that is Clueless they became a worldwide sensation.

Photo: Tricks Ware@ Flickr

Photo: c-och-ett-s @ Flickr

Grease (1978) Some may see Sandy’s style transformation in Grease as her submitting to the male gaze: altering her style so she is more appetizing to Danny and the Pink Lady aesthetic. But that assumes that Sandy has changed forever, and I do not for one minute believe she stays in those black high waist pants til happily ever after. Nobody could. Sandy swaps girlie skirts and frills for raunched-up black and cigarettes; she shows that she can be ladylike one moment and sexually assertive the next – all by swapping an outfit. Less controversial is the Pink Ladies jackets. Their pink satin bomber jackets are a clear inspiration behind the mass of satin bombers currently on sale, an easy transitional jacket. I only hope they imbue the wearer with as much sass as Rizzo.

Mean Girls (2004)

Photo: never-never-land @ Flickr

A sad truth about mid-noughties fashion is that we don’t yet – yet being the most important word - appreciate it with nostalgia. As much as Mean Girls is a classic with near enough all women born post 1990, some of the outfits are not yet a la mode. Thankfully Mean Girls did bequeath some gifts to the fashion world beyond over accessorising. Would we be able to cope without the guidance of the plastics? “On Wednesday’s we wear pink” ensures that at least once a week a friendship group can match outfits. Or how about the Mean Girls’ attitude to Halloween, they unapologetically vocalised the long hushed approach to female fancy dress – wear little clothing and stick on some animal ears. For those in doubt at Pangaea take inspiration for either the white rabbit or the Cheshire cat!

Film

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Top 5

Feature

Cheap places to watch films in Manchester

Stranger Things and the future of TV

Arrived in Manchester and want to get your film fix without breaking the budget? Here’s how

Stranger Things signals a change in the way television is viewed and received Georgia Welch Contributor

Photo: stillunusual @Flickr

Mritunjay Sharma Contributor

1. The University of Manchester Film Societies If you want to meet fellow film enthusiasts from across campus, you do not need to go far; the Motion Picture Society is for you. At a small joining fee (£2 last year) you can catch weekly film screenings and participate in discussions afterwards. The society hosts a poll every week where you can vote for which film you would like to see, and also advertises film screenings of other societies. If sci-fi and fantasy is your thing then Warped has you covered, and if you would even like to delve into some filmmaking, the university has its very own Filmmaking Society.

2. HOME Price: £5 for students Last year the well-loved Cornerhouse merged with The Library Theatre Company to create HOME—the centre of the arts in Manchester. Only a short walk away from Oxford Road station, you can watch independent and foreign films. The cinema also showcases a variety of films for specific events, which has included ‘Studio Ghibli Forever’ and ‘Roald Dahl on Film’.

3. Odeon Price: £4.50 At Odeon you can watch all the latest blockbusters at a very low price. However, the cinema does tend to have an increased price for certain films that come out, which you could be paying an extra £1 or £2 for (depending on the film). Generally though, a standard ticket is £4.50, 3D tickets an extra £1.60, and peak time (after 5pm) standard tickets are £6.50. The cinema can be found in two locations; if you are close to the Arndale Centre, the Printworks is the place to go, known to have one of the best IMAX screens in the UK. Odeon can also be found in the Trafford Centre.

4. AMC Price: £5.65 AMC is tucked away in Deansgate and is an alternative to Odeon.

Films can be seen in 3D for an extra £1 at £6.65, but for those of you who are an early bird, you can catch a real bargain. All films, in any format, screened between 9:30am and 11:59am can be watched at the price of £4.50! The cinema does tend to be less busy than others, so hopefully you won’t have to wait too long in queues.

5. VUE Price £5.99 If you are exploring Manchester it is no doubt you will visit Salford Quays, home of MediaCity where the BBC can be found, but also the Lowry Theatre and Outlet are nearby. Vue cinema prices are a bit tricky it usually depends on the film you want to see and whether it is peak or off peak (after 5pm and at weekends). Prices start from £5.99 and go up to £8.49, 3D tickets are an extra £1. However, on ‘Super Tuesdays’ everybody pays the child off-peak price, this starts from £5.29 to £6.79—I told you, it’s tricky.

At this point in time, writing an article about Netflix’s critically acclaimed 1980s-set science fiction series, Stranger Things, feels almost redundant. A show so well received by audiences that you’d be hard-pressed to find a topic more widely discussed this summer. What’s particularly interesting about the show, aside from its compelling narrative, array of intriguing characters and wonderful 80s aesthetic is its significance as yet another accomplishment for Netflix, and thus another step towards online streaming as the future of modern TV. Created by the Duffer Brothers and featuring a warmly welcomed return to form for 90s actress Winona Ryder.

Stranger Things, for those who haven’t yet had the pleasure of watching, follows the strange and supernatural occurrences within a small town in Indiana, following the mysterious disappearance of 12-year-old Will Byers.

Perhaps one of the show’s most exciting and commendable features is its casting of largely unknown child actors to fill its leading and supporting roles. Not only does this enhance the authenticity of the characters

and their believable onscreen chemistry, but also brings some much-needed fresh faces to mainstream television. One of the show’s most notable elements is its pastiche of 80s popular culture, with its premise and character dynamics often reminiscent of classic films of the era, such as Stand By Me, E.T. and The Thing. Whilst this could potentially have been an area of criticism if the show had relied too heavily on the material it references, it was refreshing to

note the interesting character arcs which developed throughout the course of the series, and how effectively it avoided certain predictable tropes.

So, what does the success of Stranger Things mean for the future of television?

Analytics found that in its first week after its July 15th release date, it became the most popular digital series in the US, even more

popular than fellow Netflix original show, Orange Is The New Black, with over three times more demand. This follows reports that proposals for the show were rejected over 15 times by a range of TV networks, with some executives citing the four child leads as a reason why it wouldn’t work as an adult TV show. Those networks must undoubtedly regret that decision, following the series’ viral appeal, signalling the continued growth of Netflix and other online streaming services.

It’s surely a sign of the gradual move away from conventional terrestrial television we appear to be making collectively as an audience, with more and more of the world’s most viewed TV shows stemming from the creative minds working in association with Netflix.

Much to the delight of its ardent viewership, Stranger Things was renewed for a second season at the end of August, so it’s essentially guaranteed that Photo: Netflix its audience will expand even further by the time the next instalment is released.

In the meantime, it is endlessly exciting to look back on the engaging storyline, wellwritten characters and superb soundtrack of the debut series, adding yet another success story to Netflix’s rapidly expanding repertoire. Here’s hoping its second season delivers just as many thrills: long live Netflix!

Review

Everybody Wants Some!!

Linklater’s latest film celebrates American masculinity in all the wrong ways Alasdair Bayman Contributor The year is 1980, Reaganism is yet to plague America and the afterglow of the ‘psychedelic Seventies’ is still in motion.

Jake (Blake Jenner) is a college baseball freshman who, unsurprisingly, wants to get laid and boogie the nights away with his team mates. Acting as a spiritual follow-up to Linklater’s glorious Dazed and Confused and a pubescent extension of the themes found in the critically acclaimed Boyhood, Everybody Wants Some!! certainly fits into its director’s catalogue of film. Yet, behind the veneer of the auteur, one finds a self-obsessed male fantasy that celebrates a boorish attitude towards women, pop culture and combative competition.

Arriving in a 1972 sky blue Coupe- accompanied by the diegetic music of My Sharona– “The Knack”, Jake, is equipped with a box of records and ridiculously good looks for his freshman year at college. From the moment he steps into his new home, it is clear to him that competition and sporting banter will play a significant part in his stay. Greeted with a slight degree of animosity from Jay (Juston Street) and Roper (Ryan Guzman), Jake is instantly given the

cold shoulder due to his pitching status. It is not until he meets the likes of the charismatic Finnegan (Glen Powell) and Dale (J. Quinton Johnson) that his enjoyment of college life truly beings. Whether his baseball teammates are wagering each other over a game of table tennis, or getting their “dicks in the door” with girls, their friendship is as complex as Homer Simpson’s ID, ego, and super-ego.

However, the period setting, mise en scene, and soundtrack stand out in a somewhat

America is undoubtedly captured. The liberation felt by the Civil Rights Movement and gay rights campaigners, such as Harvey Milk, still permeated society, unlike the following 80s which significantly regressed these fronts. The egotistical nature of the majority of Jake’s team is a deterrent to their invested screen time. One simply has to look at Boyhood to see the softening human touch that the director can use when the material is the right one.

Everybody Wants Some!! is not without its enjoyable moments, however. Whether they be comedic moments between Finnegan and Jake or the blossoming romance between the latter and drama student Beverly (Zoey Deutch), Linklater’s macho-centric delusion does hold a handful of amusing and nuanced scenes. The overarching notions of contentious American masculinity and the film’s overall attitude towards women leave a somewhat sour taste after the credits Photo: Paramount Pictures have rolled. Freshers’ Week is upon us and to take a leaf out of Jake’s book would be mundane storyline of screwing, partying somewhat problematic and base. In spite and hedonism. Groovy disco songs, such of this, it is recommended to endorse their as Take Your Time- The SOS Band and Miss levels of alcohol consumption, as all students Broadway- Belle Époque help to soften the should. overall nature of Linklater’s male odyssey.

2/5 Additionally, the rose tinted feel of 1980’s

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Feature

Top 5

Celebrating the life of Abbas Kiarostami Mritunjay Sharma Contributor

“In the total darkness, poetry is still there, and it is there for you.”- Abbas Kiarostami To turn a simple expression or act into a majestic form of poetry is something Kiarostami was known for. His ideas of filmmaking not only challenged the conventional form of films but also questioned the political and religious autonomy of state in Iran.

From a kid trying to accumulate enough money by cheating or stealing for a bus ride to watch a football match in The Traveller, or the act of defiance of a little boy to return the notebook of his friend in Where is the Friend’s Home?, all his films challenge the authoritarian state of the contemporary Iran which

was trying to stop the production of any kind of art. In these films he challenges them by subtly using children as his characters, and minimalist plots as his backdrop.

In 1997 Kiarostami won Palm d’Or for his masterful cinema of ‘Koker Trilogy’ Taste of Cherry. Koker Trilogy is a name given by critics and academics and not

by Kiarostami himself- he just happened to make the films in the same region. In Taste of Cherry the main protagonist Badii drives around to find a man who can bury him after he takes lots of pills and lies in a grave. No reason was given by Kiarostami as to why he wants to commit suicide, the protagonist just wanted to disappear from the miseries around the world. The film is cleverly based around characters who are sad and have gone through some kind of pain, including one who argues with his girlfriend to an Afghani soldier, discussing the prob-

Looking back over some of Abbas Kiarostami’s work as an Iranian film director lems Afghans have faced living on the border of Iran. The film also has been seen as a challenge to various religious beliefs where suicide is considered a sin and an act of cowardice. In the last shot of the film the fourth wall is broken when a camcorder recording is shown, which consists of the production crew filming Taste of Cherry.

Apart from breaking the fourth wall in Taste of Cherry, Kiarostami also challenged the conventional form of fiction and documentary cinema in his “Quasi Documentary” film Close Up. A forger tries to impersonate Mohsen Makhmalbaf and gets arrested, which gave Kiarostami a chance to closely follow the trial and to re-enact the events which occurred before with the help of the family who were being forged. The juxtaposition of these two different forms of film made Close Up an entry into a docu-fiction world which examined the

psychology of the accomplice and the people being forged.

Talking about Kiarostami would never come to an end if I didn’t include the magnificently beautiful and poetic film The Wind Will Carry Us. It attempts to talk about an eccentric filmmaker who wants to film the death rights of an old woman in a village, and also try to fit himself into the village community. How can one person pray for someone else to die so that they can get something out of their death?

“They say that the other world is more beautiful. But who has come back from there to tell us if it is beautiful or not?” is a stunning and poignant line from The Wind Will Carry Us. Kiarostami died on the 4th of July 2016, and I hope that he finds the aforementioned other world. And when I go to that world, he can tell me himself how beautiful it is.

Cosy films to watch in bed If you’re ill with Freshers’ Flu, these are the films to watch

Photo: StudioCanal

5) The Inbetweeners Movie (2011) The Inbetweeners Movie reunites you with the four socially awkward boys of Will, Neil, Simon, and Jay from the hit Channel4 series as they embark on their first lads holiday, a holiday filled with embarrassment, comedy (at their expense) and toe curling cringe. So if you’re feeling slightly embarrassed about something that you said or did during Welcome Week, give this film a watch. You’ll soon realise that your life is nowhere near as bad as this troublesome foursome.

4) She’s The Man (2006) A modern retelling of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night gives you Amanda Bynes as the passionate football player that is Viola Hastings, who must live her life at her new school pretending to be a boy in order to be able to play on the boys-only football team. Watch this piece of comedy gold for a lighthearted viewing that will leave you in a fit of giggles and add a whole new meaning to the phrase ‘girls just want to have fun’.

3) Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)

Photo: Abbas Kiarostami Productions

Feature

Meet the new film editors Eliza Slawther and Shema Begum Film Editors

Welcome to the first edition of this year’s Mancunion.

I’m Eliza, the Head Film Editor and I’m a final year English Literature student. My favourite films and TV shows include Withnail & I, Requiem for a Dream, Spirited Away, Twin Peaks and Arrested Development; and David Lynch, Wes Anderson and Stanley Kubrick are my favourite directors.

HOME cinema is one of my favourite places in Manchester, and I would recommend it to everyone.

Not only does it show a huge range of both hollywood and arthouse films, it also has a restaurant and art gallery.

For this year’s film section we’d really like to not only continue writing reviews and previews but also branch out into the world of student film-making, so if you’re an amateur filmmaker then we’d love to hear from you!

Our weekly meetings for contributors are at 5pm on Mondays on the first floor of the SU and anyone is welcome to come along, regardless of whether you’ve written before. You can also e-mail any questions to film@mancunion.com, and we have a Facebook page called ‘Film Contributors 2016/17’ which is used for announcements.

Hello! I’m Shema, the Deputy Film Editor. I am currently in my final year of studying Law. I have always had an interest in all things film related and the media, I even hope to specialise in media in the future as a lawyer.

When I’m not overloaded with seminar reading I can usually be found binge watching TV shows, and marathoning films. I can watch anything and everything provided it’s not horror. Some of my favourite films include Goodfellas, Drive, Fight Club, Inglourious Basterds, and Stand By Me. I’m a huge fan of Christopher Nolan and anything with Leonardo DiCaprio. If you are interested in writing for the paper, please get involved! I look forward to meeting you all, and the year ahead.

Roald Dahl’s story comes to life as young Charlie and a group of children win tickets to visit Willy Wonka’s famous chocolate factory. With Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka, the film takes the characters and the audience on a journey of self-evaluation and hidden mystery. After Wilder sadly passed away during this summer, it seems to be the perfect time to watch the film that truly is a world of pure imagination.

2) Billy Elliot (2000) As you are studying in Manchester, you are now living in the North of England but not quite as North as young Billy Elliot. With one of the best feel good soundtracks ever to be created, this film will have you feeling on top of the world and may even have you dancing around your bedroom as you try to copy Billy’s famous dance moves. This film about a young boy from the North-East of England trying to make his ballet dancing dreams come true is a one of inspiration and a nod to seizing the dream.

1) Mrs Doubtfire (1993) If you have the dreaded Freshers’ Flu and all that you want to do is cuddle up in your duvet with your teddy bear, box of Kleenex (or Sainsburys basics) and a cup of tea then this is the film to watch; a childhood favourite to soothe any signs of homesickness. With one of the best performances from the late Robin Williams, Mrs Doubtfire tells the tale of a Father that wants nothing more than to spend time with his children and goes to extreme lengths to do so. With humour, tears and moments that will set flames to your heart, Mrs Doubtfire is a childhood classic that must be revisited.

Photo: HandMade Films

Sarah Jane Thoms Contributor

Books

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Recommendations

Top 4: books on new beginnings

3) Don Quixote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes:

Elizabeth Gibson Books Contributor If you are currently holding a fresh copy of The Mancunion, there’s a high chance that the upcoming opportunities and challenges associated with starting a new year at University is a major source of anxiety. Maybe you’re just beginning your freshman year, a returning student moving into an unfamiliar locale, or even a new lecturer only now beginning to familiarise themselves with the University.

Whichever walk of life you come from, facing a new academic year can be stressful and daunting period.

One way of finding some reassurance, is by checking out some literature that deals with new beginnings. It’s a subject that comes up time and time again – as humans we can find ourselves making mistakes and having to start over, or we may be just entering a new stage of our lives. Here are some books that epitomise this phenomenon and help to remind you that you are not alone in your struggles.

Photo: timechaser@flickr

Emily of New Moon, a lesser-known title by the same author, is darker but perhaps even more inspiring, and both books are remarkably forward-thinking in terms of gender relations for the time. Anne and Emily both consider careers and Emily makes real progress as a writer and journalist.

1) Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery:

2) The Chalet School in Exile by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer:

This perennial classic not only tells a powerful story of building a fulfilling world for oneself from nothing, it is also pure comfort reading in terms of the joyous descriptions of the Canadian Maritimes in the late nineteenth century.

Don’t be deceived into thinking that because it has “School” in the title that this series is aimed at a younger audience. It is as much about the staff and families as the pupils, and deals with heavy

topics such as serious illness, bereavement and international relations leading up to WWII. In The Chalet School in Exile, the School has to completely uproot itself from its home in Austria due to the Nazi invasion, and re-establish itself in the UK, which it does with incredible strength and humility. The novel was actually written at the time of the events and criticising Hitler was very dangerous; it must have taken real courage on the author’s part. This is a really important book that I feel everybody should read.

Don Quixote is a book – or, rather, two books – that many people probably mean to get around to reading but are slightly scared to begin.

However, both halves of the story are accessible, fresh and still genuinely funny, four hundred years after they were written. Behind all the drama and pranks and songs and antics there is the solid and poignant tale of an ageing man who wants to do something different and a bit wild before his death, and of the farmer (Sancho) who has a dull life of physical toil ahead of him until he is whisked along on this adventure. Don Quixote is the very definition of timeless.

4) The Point of Rescue by Sophie Hannah: Sophie Hannah’s crime novels are generally gritty and dark but with moments of humour and human warmth. The Point of Rescue is the third book in her Culver Valley series but can easily be read as the first. It is probably the best in terms of a slick mystery with a real “oh, of course!” moment, and in terms of new beginnings, it is important as it shows the main cops, Simon and Charlie, trying to find themselves again and work out their relationship following something unspeakably awful. It makes for a thrilling yet also moving read.

Upcoming

Manchester’s literary goldmine

Roma Havers Books Editor

Maybe this is your first time in Manchester and you’re looking for a way to explore its literary subculture, or maybe you want to take advantage of some great events you’ve previously missed. This list of events in and around Manchester showcases the variety and abundance of literary happenings in this wonderful city.

There are an increasing number of popular Spoken Word nights in Manchester, an extended list can be seen on the Creative Writing Society 2015 Facebook page; these nights offer opportunities for a free night of entertainment, from up and coming successful writers to local regulars.

These also offer opportunities to perform, usually with sign-up taking place in the weeks before. These nights are a fantastic way to find your way around the city and leave the Oxford Road Corridor.

Bad Language Voted the Best Spoken Word Night in the Saboteur Awards, this night takes

place the last Wednesday of every month. The next event will be the 28th September. The night takes place at The Castle Hotel in the Northern Quarter and showcases some of the best performers and performances in poetry and short stories from the city. They are also dedicated to showcasing several firsttime performers every event. On 8th October there is also an extra event for the Manchester Literature Festival at The International Anthony Burgess Foundation – tickets available through Manchester Literature Festival website.

A collection of events celebrating literary achievement, taking place throughout October. These events take place in several venues throughout Manchester, including the Central Library and Manchester University’s Martin Harris Centre. All tickets are online but sell out quickly particularly for high profile writers, so get booking!

Highlights include Margaret Atwood, Zadie Smith, and Eimear McBride; as well as literary tours and local groups such as Young Identity.

Lemn Sissay

Verbose Another very popular Spoken Word night taking place in Fallowfield’s very own Fallow Café on the fourth Monday of every month. The next event will be the 26th September. The Creative Writing Society will be attending as a group, which will be a great opportunity to meet fellow writers in an inspiring, friendly environment.

All details for Spoken Word nights can be found on Facebook.

Manchester Literature Festival

Contact us

The University of Manchester’s Chancellor is the incredibly successful poet Lemn Sissay. Sissay will be headlining the Black and Asian Writers Conference on the 8th October at Contact Theatre - located within the University’s main campus – including reading from his new collection Gold From the Stone .

These events highlight the impressive influence literature and literary performance has on The University of Manchester and the city itself; to miss out on these events would be to miss a significant part of this wonderful city’s cultural power.

Photo:MarkHill@flickr

Get involved Facebook: Mancunion Books Contributors 16/17 Twitter: @MancunionBooks Email: mancunion.books@gmail.com Meetings Mondays, 5pm, Students’ Union Activities Space

Photo:Jamestworow@flickr

M A 3 M P 9 E M I T M R E T F O T H G I N Y R E V E

T R E B L I G N A L FROM A G COMMONS N I N R A E L

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HO W S T N E D U G ST N I T R O P P CE N S SU E E L C O I I V V R C E I S O EST T M O O G D S R D O E E L ALL PROC PERIENCED SEXUA S U B HAVE EX / M O N.C

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Food & Drink

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Review

September What’s Good – Food Online has come, long live the shawarma “It all happened so quickly, and Our favourtie food related podcasts, cooking and lifestyle shows from the web.

some of the details are hazy...”

Food is the New Rock - this is by far the best food podcast going. It is run by a guy from LA who started pretty small but his show quickly garnered attention.

The premise is that musicians and chefs are cut from the same cloth. He invites musicians on to talk about food and chefs to talk about music. So you have Rene Redzepi geeking about Metallica then Cut Chemist extolling the virtues of healthy eating.

Maangchi - A new favourite. Maangchi is a Korean/American woman who lives in the US and has a cooking show on youtube. It is mainly Korean homesyle food, no frills and everything looks fire. She is actually really funny and charming, her personality comes across really well. She is cook you wish your mum was. She has a book out and has done interviews with The New York Times, definiel check her

Joe Taylor Contributor We’re back. Some are excited to start university, others to be reunited with friends, for me, it’s the thought of a trip to Atlas Shawarma that really gets my gears going.

This is not to say I don’t look forward to seeing friends, no sir! I just doubt whether any of them would serve me traditional Middle Eastern wraps for under a fiver.

Many times have I made the pilgrimage down the Wilmslow road, passing the plethora of restaurants along the Curry Mile and musing as to whether their calibre had changed since the influx of asian workers to the area in the 60’s and 70’s had created this stretch of predominantly Pakistani curry houses. With the Mile, often smelling more of shisha smoke than tandoor spices, and with a huge variety of jewellery and desert shops, one could be forgiven for thinking that the heritage of the 70’s had been lost.

Yet through the neon signs, strawberry air and ghastly pictures of food - tasty, cheap meals can still be had.

One spot a cut above the rest is Atlas Shawarma. While its sign advertises ‘Fresh Naan’, it specialises in both traditional Middle Eastern wraps known as shawarma, as well as baking their own naan bread on site. At roughly three metres wide, by five metres deep, it must be one of the smallest food spots along the Wilmslow Road, and while the size of the menu matches the size of the interior (small, very small), the food Atlas cooks, it cooks well. The naan bread is made using a traditional clay tandoor oven, and

cooks in a matter of minutes due to the intense heat of the coals, making them simultaneously crispy and bready.

These are then used to wrap your choice of chicken, lamb, or falafel as the vegetarian option, alongside a range of fresh salads and various sauces.

At first glance, the spits of meat and range of salads may bring back memories of a late-night drunken döner experience, however a closer inspection sees the spits created by skewering marinaded chunks of chicken and lamb, as opposed to the pulverised and then reconstituted spits one might find in your run-of-the-mill kebab joint. They even have slices of tomato and lemon neatly resting on top, and while i’m told this isn’t for flavouring but aesthetics, you can’t fault their attention to detail.

My first trip to there was directed by a friend, having both been out to see a band in Salford, our odyssey home had made us peckish. Sat on the bus moving up the Mile, he suddenly turned to me with a hungry excitement, and said, ‘Have you been to Atlas?’. It all happened very quickly, and some of the details are hazy, but the next thing I remember was ordering a chicken shawarma (£3.50). Restraining myself from ordering the ‘large’, purely because I wanted to test the waters, I nonetheless went full steam ahead with all of the salads and the garlic and chilli sauces. It was wonderful. The chicken was flavoursome, the naan warming and partly crispy, and the salad worked beautifully to

offset what was a reasonably spicy chilli sauce. After the meal I was also very glad to have stuck to the normal size too, for it was truly filling.

A few days later I returned, my first fix having been so successful. This time, feeling like a slightly less substantial meal, I ordered the falafel wrap (£2), once more asking for all of the salads but this time settling on the garlic sauce and what the owner termed the ‘special sauce’.

He told me that it was to go specially with the falafel, but I never quite got its name - all I know is, its green and very tasty. After ordering, I was amazed to see one of the workers take out a tupperware from a fridge and scoop the falafel mixture of chickpeas and herbs into balls before placing them into a fryer.

In just minutes my wrap was made, the naan once more being made from scratch, and the flavours, portion size and price, made it another hugely successful meal from Atlas.

I have since returned a number of times, it quickly becoming my go-to on the move eat, more often than not choosing the falafel, as well as buying naan bread (4 for £1) on it’s own to accompany curries i’ve cooked.

Desert Island Discs Not a food show, but if you go into the archives on their website and search for chefs, their are some amazing interviews. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall tells of killing a duck with a brick at school only to go home and make duck a l’orange. Interesting insights into the early days of Marco Pierre-White’s career.

Cooking With Dog - This is a just a regular Japanese cooking show on Youtube, except the whole thing is narrated by the dog who sits on the counter.

See it to believe it.

out.

Viceland/Munchies - The mecca for online food journalism and features. I first came across it by watching Chef’s Night Out a few years ago, Lee Tiernan is a favourite. Anyway, Munchies has ridden the wave, perhaps better then anyone, of food media popularity. Their new channel called Viceland features Action Bronson’s ‘Fuck That’s Delicious,’ ‘Huang’s World’ and Maty Mathieson’s ‘Dead Set on Life.’ They are all quite lifestyley, shot in incredible locations and are funny. That’s what really sets them apart from traditional food media is that they make the viewer laugh. The only other cooking show that I’ve ever found funny is the classic ‘Cooking with the Roux Brothers,’ from the 80’s I think. Their fraternal bickering is amazing, you can watch it on Youtube.

Chef’s Table - From the man hat gave us ‘Jiro Dreams of Sushi’ then came ‘Chef’s Table.’ David Gelb has brought ellegantly scored slowmo semi-pornographic chef documentaries to the masses, and we are all very grateful. The trailer for seaon 3 is out and it is going to be a thoroughly French affair. Focusing on this new generation of French chefs that are driving things foward. I’m personally looking forward to season 4, that will feature the Jewish-Ramen God, Ivan Orkin.

September has come, long live the shawarma.

Food 4/5 Service 4/5 Value 5/5 Manchester M14 5AH Rusholme

From the whole team here at Food & Drink we’d like to welcome you back to another year of epic food media! You can find more from us here:

Facebook: The Mancunion: Food and Drink Twitter: @MancunionFood Email: food@mancunion.com

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The Japan Review

Photo: Freddie Hill

Felix Sanders Food Editor Catch a train to Kanazawa up on the coast. Go for dinner at this cheap neighbourhood place and get served by the oldest waitress in Asian the history, I kid you not she could have been 100, she was so old when she watched TV she stood maybe 15cm from the screen, blind as a two bats, still killed it though. Got a katsu curry, looked a bit iffy but was hearty. Katsu curry is famous in Kanazawa, or so said our host at the guesthouse. Had prawn tempura on the side, good crunch, lovely batter. Fish market tomorrow, very good, yes please. The perks of being by the sea.

Two outstanding meals today.

Walked around the samurai district in the morning, worked up appetite, go to this big indoor fish and general market, a few meat stalls, a few veg plus intermittent restaurants. They were more or less all serving rice bowls w_ith sashimi on top. We chose one with a little cue and wrote our names on this waiting list. Shown to counter table.

Finally got that tuna I’ve been searching for, it’s all I’ve wanted to eat since being here and it was like having the harshest most tongue wrenching thirst finally quenched. I paid maybe £16 and got

Extracts from a Japanese food journal. Photograhy and Illustration by Freddie Hill. a really generous bowl. The tuna was arranged in a subtle spectrum of fat content going from pink to a deeper red, like a magical fishy rainbow. Started on one side and worked towards that lean goodness, i felt drunk after the last few bites, so good, wasabi dabbing little soy bath, just letting it dip its toes in the sauce.

But that meal was also about the little things, like it had the best miso soup of the trip so far, developing my understanding and taste for miso, its kind of incomparable, and I’ve only come to it later in life. The tray also came with what we considered to be pudding, a little rectangle of green jelly, maybe lime.

Dinner. We were going to go this ramen craft beer place that I had spotted, sat down and one beer was ¥1000. I’m always sheepish about walking in and straight out of a place but in a pinch, sometimes, gotta do it. Fred led the charge. Walked back up the street. How do you window shop and choose a restaurant? The one we chose, was full so we had to wait, it was yakitori, a long open flame grill, the soaring fire reflected in the beads of sweat that adorned the grillmans forehead like a crown, who Fred said looked like Charles Bronson. Asahi in those tall frothy glasses being chinked with fervour. It was definitely one of those ‘we’ve arrived’ inklings.

Sat down and got shown this insane menu with pictures, translations and pronunciations of the Japanese for the dishes. We had warmed up a little now with our language skills, Fred shouts across the bar, ‘SUMASEN!!’ (excuse me) Old lady screams back, ‘HAI!!!’ (yes) Freddie stands on the counter and roars, ‘HARAMI O ONEGAI SHIMASU!!!!’ (pork diaphragm please) old lady picks up a megaphone, blue in the face, and bellows back ‘HAI!!!!’ (yep). we had like six different sticks, hen chicken, tender chicken with spring onion, diaphragm, beef cutlet fried in batter, pork chitterlings, and pork tripe, which was probably the winner for me. All washed down with three beers and fried rice balls, for ballast.

Such a good meal, chatted to our counter neighbours about liking chewiness in their sticks.

Great staff, when we walked out they all shout thankyou and good night, even some in English. Its a nice touch that, when the people working in the restaurant loudly greet you as you go into and leave a restaurant. It makes a nice change from slinking silently into restaurants in England and trying to catch the waiters eye.

Ended up in a bar called Night Spot singing karaoke with some locals. Chatted to some old ladies at the bar. Was charged extortionately for whisky.

Recipe

‘A la recherche du temps perdu’ Ever read Proust? Me neither, here’s how to bake madeleines that reminded him of something.

Makes 24 Preparation time: 20 minutes Resting time: 4 hours Baking time: 20 minuts 45g clar honey 160g unsalted butter 4 eggs 150g caster sugar 20g demerara sugar 160g plain sifted flour 10g baking powder Two things, you will need a madeleine tray and you must serve these hot from the oven. Put the butter and honey into a small saucepan on a low heat whilst stirring . Remove from the heat and give it a chance to cool. Place both sugars and the eggs in the bowl of an electric mixer with a whisk atachment and stir on a high speed for 6 minutes or until it has trippled in volume.

Fold in the melted butter and honey. Sift in the f lour and baking powder then continue to fold until everthing has got to know each other and is incorporated. Rest in a fridge for 4 hours. Put your oven to 180°C then grease and f lour your madeleine tray. Spoon roughly one table spoon into the mould so it is just below rim level. Bake for 10 -11 minutes. SERVE PIPING HOT, you must do this, it will change your life. I like to serve them with strawberry jam and chantilly cream .

Photo: Freddie Hill

Arts

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ISSUE 01 / 19th SEPTEMBER 2016 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Feature

Is Art the Answer to Racism?

Racism is blatantly everywhere. The question is, though, how do we solve it?

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Holly Smith Art Critic Although the abolition of slavery in Britain was rendered successful in the early 19th century, minority ethnicities have never quite been able to break down the social constructs of our society.

They have been the subject of continuous racism.

Take, for example, the shooting of Trayvon Martin back in 2012; a case which immediately

sparked black people around America—and then the world—to take action against anti-black racism. The Black Lives Matter Network was thus formed.

Since then, we’ve seen a constant stream of crimes attracting the media which surround racial hate; including officer-involved shootings in the USA, many of which involved deaths of African Americans.

It’s not even just those from ethnic minorities that have been at the brunt of so-called “racial attacks”. The aftermath of the Brexit vote lead to the graffiti vandalism of a polish community centre in Hammersmith.

Adrian Piper is a successful black artist born in New York. Her work addresses issues such as ostracism and racism. One of her most poignant pieces of work is her video installation “Cornered” (1988) where she declares to everyone “I’m black”.

She proceeds with an argument culminating in the question ‘Should we accept the racist status quo or begin to live differently?’ It’s clever. It’s powerful. It pushes you into a corner and makes you pick a side.

It’s not just American artists that have got a hold on Black art either. The British Black Arts Movement was founded in 1982. It’s a political art movement that was inspired by anti-racism and feminism across the UK. It sought to raise awareness of the issues that surrounded (and which still surround) gender and race. The Other Story (1989) was the first retrospective exhibition of British African, Caribbean and Asian modernism.

It was extremely successful in publicising ethnic barriers in the art establishment and continues to

Editors’ Picks

What’s on this week?

Photo: garryknight @Flickr

inspire many artists to this day.

More recently, however, there’s been a wave of contemporary artists whose art shows the position of a modern society inflicted by racial injustices. Their art has caused awe amongst all.

At the Venice Biennale in 2015, artist Adam Pendleton hung his large-scale installation of black and white paintings blazoned with the words “Black Lives Matter”. He describes that “The political dynamic isn’t new. What’s new is the language that is at once a public mourning, a rallying cry and a poetic plea.”

Kerry James Marshall is one of the few black painters to permeate western art. His success is largely due to the fact that he only paints black figures. Born in Alabama, he uses different types of media to successfully comment on the history of black identity in the western world.

Art can’t change the world overnight. But it can make people talk and reflect upon how they feel. If people can start engaging with the new type of art we’re seeing, then maybe one day it will become more of just a visual representation. Maybe it will be a reality.

To help reach this, the education of minority art is something that artists are pushing to see happen. By promoting the history of black people, Mr Marshall hopes to create a future that will see black figures the norm on gallery walls.

British artist Sonia Boyce, MBE, is also seeking to turn this around with her AHRC-funded research project, Black Artists and Modernism. School curriculum’s still ignore minority artists and this has shown to have a significant effect on the amount of black and ethnic minority students

Dunham’s Lost Years: A Tale of Love and Abandonment Dunham Massey, Woodhouse Lane, Altrincham WA14 4SJ Open until 30th October 2016 Set in the stunning stately home, Dunham Massey hosts an interpretation of the true story surrounding the forbidden love between George Harry, 7th Earl of Stamford and Warrington, and his travelling circus performer bride.

Fancy getting involved?

We love contributors!

If you enjoy art, and would like to write for the Arts section, contact us at mancunion.arts@gmail.com OR Search us on Facebook under Mancunion Arts Contributors 2016/2017.

OR Come along to our weekly meetings in the Activities Space in the Students’ Union. at 5.30pm on Mondays.

Elizabeth Price Curates Whitworth Art Gallery Oxford Road, Manchester, M15 6ER Open until 30th October 2016 Featuring seventy artists, this exhibition by TurnerPrize winner Elizabeth Price encapsulates the many states of human physicality through sculpture.

Boris Nzebo Urban Style Manchester Art Gallery, Mosley Street, M2 3JL Open until 13th November 2016 The West-African artist has creates a collection of paintings inspired by humans and the spaces they inhabit.

Projects: Dave Lynch – The Art of Science and Play The Lowry, The Quays, Pier 8, Salford M50 3AZ Open until 2nd October 2016 Resident artist Dave Lynch poses a public experiment surrounding whether artistic intervention can cross over the boundaries of disciplines.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Feature

Welcome to Manchester’s Art Scene: Top 5 Venues Olivia Gaskill Reviewer

A few picks over the upcoming week across Manchester

accessing art in higher education. Boyce hopes to overthrow this with her aim to ensure that the Black story is “constantly embedded in teaching and thinking”.

Art will always be the best representation of time that we have. When future generations look back to the early 21st century, they will see the struggle and complexities of minority races still trying to breakdown the social constructs that invisibly, yet inevitably, exist.

Slavery may have been abolished close to 200 years ago, but that was only the start in a very long period that will hopefully see the equality of all races on earth. Art is the medium that binds the story together and is, seemingly, our only hope to prove that one day we will all matter.

Moving to a brand new city for university (possibly one you’ve not spent a great deal of time in before) is a hugely daunting experience and one that we’re all familiar with here at The Mancunion! In Manchester however, you can rest assured that no matter what your interests, this vibrant, bustling and diverse city will have something to offer you.

As well as its infamous music scene, Manchester is home to a plethora of art venues, galleries and exhibition spaces, which all contribute to the city’s reputation as a cultural hub within the North West.

We decided to list five of the most exciting and accessible places to see art in Manchester, and if you find yourself a little light on funds after a hectic week of Freshers’ events then you’ll be pleased to know that all of these places offer free admission: what are you waiting for?

1. HOME, Tony Wilson Place, First Street, Manchester, M15 4FN One of the newest additions to Manchester’s art scene is HOME, founded in 2015 through a merger of two of the city’s best-known arts institutions, Cornerhouse and the Library Theatre Company. Housing theatre space, several cinema screens and a restaurant, HOME has certainly made its mark on both fans of stage and screen. Little known however, is its fantastic gallery and exhibition space, which is undoubtedly the trendiest place to see the most cutting edge contemporary art.

2. Whitworth Art Gallery, Oxford Road, Manchester, M15 6ER As a student at the University of Manchester, you’d be hard-pressed to find a university campus which offers more culture right on its very doorstep. Just a short walk away from the main campus is the historic Whitworth Art Gallery, which has been part of UoM’s assets since 1889.

Having undergone huge renovations in 2014-15, the gallery now boasts a beautiful glass-filled interior, bringing a modern feel to a place well-known for its former displays of the works of Pablo Picasso, Vincent Van Gogh and David Hockney

3. Manchester Art Gallery, Mosley Street, Manchester, M2 3JL First founded in 1823, one of the older galleries featuring in this list is Manchester Art Gallery. If you’re interested in fashion this gallery is most definitely a must-see, as its current Fashion & Freedom and Vogue 100 exhibitions are still ongoing until 27th November and 30th October respectively!

Situated right in the city centre, this is definitely a gallery not to be missed out on if you want to add some culture to your shopping trip.

4. Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art, 13 Thomas Street, Manchester, M4 1EU It’s widely known that Manchester is home to the second-largest Chinese community in the UK, so the Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art offers a glimpse into the rich artistic heritage of China, promoting its various exhibitions on a local, national and international level. This is a big year for CFCCA: not only is it their 30th anniversary, but they have just been awarded funding from the

Heritage Lottery Fund to further develop their archive and library. Their fusion of local Mancunian and Chinese culture makes for a hugely interesting take on contemporary art styles and is definitely a place to check out.

5. Nexus Art Café, 2 Dale Street, Northern Quarter, Manchester, M1 1JW On a slightly different note, situated in Manchester’s creative Northern Quarter is Nexus Art Café, a multi-purpose community-led space which is home to exhibitions, music, group meetings and, of course, food! This is most definitely a place to visit if you’re keen to become practically involved with Manchester’s arts community, or simply somewhere to find out what’s going on in the city and how you can be part of it.

You’re always guaranteed a warm welcome, so it’s another great place to stop by after a tiring day’s shopping in the city centre!

So, when you’ve spent all your money on booze, it’s nice to know that Manchester’s art scene doesn’t cost a penny to enjoy.

Photo: Steve Parkinson @Flickr

Theatre 25

ISSUE 01 / 19th SEPTEMBER 2016 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Review

Review: A Streetcar Named Desire

Charlie Spargo Reviewer

Featuring Maxine Peake, now Associate Artist at the Royal Exchange Theatre, in the leading part, this adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ tragic tale of a Southern Belle’s desperate descent into madness marks the beginning of the Exchange’s 40th anniversary season.

Directed by Sarah Frankcom—with whom Peake has worked alongside before on the two widely-acclaimed productions of Caryl Churchill’s The Skriker, and Shakespeare’s Hamlet—expectations ran high for this landmark show.

Streetcar follows fading Mississippi beauty Blanche DuBois (Peake), who turns up at her caring sister Stella’s (brilliantly performed by Sharon Duncan-Brewster) flat in New Orleans, where her collision with Stella’s earthy and brutish husband Stanley, and reality, cause her precariously-maintained stability gradually to fall to pieces.

Ben Batt’s Stanley stole this show, displaying the cynicism and power of the unrefined husband without becoming a simply one-dimensional character. As Blanche’s antithesis he retained the sense that he alone understood what she really Photo: Royal Exchange was under her façade of prudishness and overt modesty. Youssef Kerkour as well, playing Harold Mitchell, played his part with sensitivity and great skill.

However Streetcar was not an overall success. Many productions these days have made a concerted effort to strip back their performance to its bare bones, presumably in order to draw full attention to the core material and raise important questions of their own. This version yet again resorts to this, with a barren set featuring only two mattresses, a small table, a bathtub and a glass screen, as well as an outward rejection of a period to be set in—music from the 70s mixed in with Williams’ 40s dialect, and clothing more

modern than either.

For many plays the reductionist ideal works; for Streetcar, not so much. The long, long first half (an hour and 40 minutes) feels more drawn out because of its barrenness, and the references and questions this adaptation means to ask feel void of nuance.

This is seriously not helped by what I felt were weak points in Peake’s performance. Her Mississippi accent did not land with me, jarring me out of immersion in the plot many times throughout the play. In the difficult surroundings of the Exchange, with the audience watching from all angles, her voice strained to fill every line with relevant emotion.

Clearly, exceptional actress that she is, her acting was great, and her grasp of the character meant she even managed to bring some dark comedy to the part. Interestingly, Frankcom managed to insert some dark humour into various parts of the play, drawing wry laughs from the audience even at some of its bleakest moments.

It was also difficult to work out at what point Blanche’s lies to others became delusions that she herself believed. This blurring of the lines is an important element of Streetcar but even drawing right towards the end I was given the impression that she was still posturing and deceiving, rather than actually at the point of insanity.

The second half, which moves at a much faster pace than the first as everything begins to unravel and go wrong, was far superior to the first. Cracks begin to show between the characters and the show thunders to its raging and terrible climax—though this moment was rather oddly followed by supporting characters entering to meticulously tidy and vacuum the stage. I left the Exchange feeling neither moved nor excited.

As always, the sound and lighting at the Exchange was designed and executed perfectly, bringing the crazed mood to a peak when necessary with coloured strip and spot lights, and immersive music.

“Are you lost?” Blanche is meaningfully asked at the beginning of the play. I felt that, despite some glowing performances and classic material, Streetcar remained quite lost in both its intentions and execution.

A Streetcar Named Desire runs until the 15th of October.

Where to catch your next show Brogen Campbell Theatre Editor ROYALEXCHANGE THEATRE This theatre is known for taking conventional and established plays and giving them a twist. Its main stage is set permanently in the round.

Short on cash? Grab one of the 100 £6 tickets for under 26s and students every Friday. If you want to get more actively involved they have their own Young Company, made up of performers, writers, technicians and creatives.

Location – City Centre (St Ann’s Square) THE LOWRY It houses two theatres and an art gallery. If you fancy seeing more than just Oxford Road and the city centre, why not venture over to Salford? The building itself is unconventional, as it doesn’t resemble your typical grand theatres, but has a more modern design.

Location – Salford Quays CONTACT Specialises and prides itself on providing opportunities for young people. This emphasis translates into its audience being a refreshing younger

crowd. Naturally with a focus on young people they have their own Contact Young Company (CYC).

Location – Oxford Road (by Manchester Academy) HOME Only opened in 2015. This is the newest venue on the list.

Not just a place for theatre, but also art and film. For the unconventional lovers.

Location – First Street (near Oxford Road Station) PALACE THEATRE If you want a more conventional theatre experience this is the place for you. You can catch anything from musicals to ballets. Their sister theatre is the Opera House.

Location – Oxford Road MANCHESTER OPERA HOUSE Don’t be deceived by the name; they don’t only allow operas on their stage. If you like your shows with a splash of music check out the Opera House. Sister theatre is the Palace Theatre.

Location – Quay Street

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26

Lifestyle

ISSUE 01 / 19th SEPTEMBER 2016 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Meet the new Lifestyle Editors Drum roll please…the most exciting time of year has arrived, get ready to meet your new Lifestyle editors

Rachel Adams and Araddhna Patel Lifestyle Editors Hello and welcome to the Lifestyle section of The Mancunion — we’re your editors! We have so much planned for Lifestyle this year, and can’t wait to get started!

If you’re interested in writing for us, please come along to our weekly contributor meetings — anyone is welcome, and you don’t have to have written for The Mancunion before to join! We meet every Tuesday at 4pm upstairs in the Students’ Union (near the Mancunion desks) and would love to see as many people there as possible!

Don’t worry if you don’t have any idea what to write about, we’ll come prepared with a few articles that we would like written and you can take your pick of those.

The main thing we want is for you to be enthusiastic and reliable! If you’ve got ideas to pitch but can’t make our weekly meetings, you can always email us at mancunion. life@gmail.com, find us on Facebook at The Mancunion: Lifestyle, or Tweet us @MancunionLife and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can. If you’re interested in writing for us, please join our Facebook group for contributors — just search Mancunion Lifestyle Contributors 16/17.

Now, let us introduce ourselves…

My name’s Rachel, and I’m the Head Lifestyle Editor. I’m new to the Mancunion team this year. I’ve always wanted to be a journalist or involved in media, and student media

Photo: Srividya Balayogi@Flickr

seemed the perfect way to get a load of experience whilst still at university. I’m a third year studying English Literature and American Studies, so expect a lot of book-related articles from me! I’m also really passionate about all things lifestyle; whether it’s travel, relationships, or keeping healthy. This year, I’d love for Lifestyle to get a really good team of contributors who help each other to write articles throughout the year, and maybe even join The Mancunion on a more permanent basis!

Hello! My name is Araddhna, and I’ll be your Deputy Lifestyle Editor this year. As Rachel said, we’d absolutely love for you to write something for Mancunion Lifestyle — remember, our student newspaper is Britain’s biggest, and has a readership of over 20,000 people, so you could be our next writer!

If you’re looking to entertain, inform, or just get real journalistic experience, pop into our meetings and say hi. Pick up a free copy of The Mancunion in print on campus or check us out online on the Mancunion website. I’m also new to the team this year. I’m in my third year studying Ancient History, and when I’m not studying, I love to read, write, and search the endless vortex that is the Internet for puns. Although I’ve never written for The Mancunion before, I want to get more involved this year — as should you! I’m really excited to be an editor, and I am confident that we can get some really great articles published. Enjoy this issue, and we hope to see or hear from you soon!

Volunteering Abroad — good or bad?

Is volunteering abroad just a way to prove your superiority, or is there a real benefit to it?

Rachel Adams Lifestyle Editor Imagine the scene: you’ve just moved into your new flat, and you’re meeting your flatmates for the first time. The talk turns to what you’ve spent your summer doing; most have either been working or enjoying their last months of freedom. Suddenly, someone pipes up that they spent their summer volunteering abroad. The inevitable jokes about ‘gap yahs’ and ‘finding yourself’ aside, the popularity of so-called ‘voluntourism’ has grown in recent years.

University students are the perfect audience for

companies to target; but is it really a good idea?

Google ‘volunteering abroad’ and you’re bombarded with websites offering opportunities all over the world—from Africa to South America to Asia, we’re not short of places to get that perfect Instagram shot. Recently, some of these destinations have come under fire for being less than ethical; Thailand, for example, has been criticised for encouraging tourists to ride their elephants despite the permanent damage it does to the elephant’s spine. Similarly, there have been reports of volunteering opportunities set up just to take advantage

of rich tourists looking to gain some good karma and superiority; opportunities that don’t actually provide any benefit to the local economy or community, and may in fact damage it.

The perception that volunteering gives you that edge above others who haven’t, making volunteers more likely to be chosen for jobs in the future may have some truth.

It’s important to stress to those thinking about volunteering that research is essential. Those who want to volunteer should research the organisation that they’re thinking of signing up with thoroughly.

This involves more than just

Photo: U.S. Department of Defense @Flickr

a Google search—previous volunteers recommend talking to others who have gone with the same company, to get a bit more of a sense of their aims or objectives. What did the company, ultimately, hope to achieve through organising these volunteering opportunities?

This is particularly important if you want to volunteer with animals or conservation centres; it’s useful to find out about the treatment of the animals, and whether the animals are going to be released back into the wild or kept for tourism. A friend who has volunteered abroad said that researching the project that you would be expected to carry out whilst volunteering was also an important part of the choosing process. What sort of work would you be expected to do?

How much free time to explore the area will you have? Take some time before you go to really think about what you want to achieve from your volunteering, and then tailor your research to this.

Despite all the doom and gloom about volunteering that make the headlines, many people have such positive experiences that they return, year on year, to carry on improving communities across the world. The friends that can be made through volunteering are often friends for life, regardless of nationality or age. It’s one of those unique

situations where complete strangers come together in a different country just to help others.

“There have been reports of volunteering opportunities set up just to take advantage of rich tourists...” a

experience has stressed how hard it is. They work long hours, in difficult and different environments, often with a lot of responsibility for the short time that they are volunteers.

However, the skills they learn from their experience are invaluable, and set them above and apart from other people.

Therefore, volunteering abroad doesn’t necessarily deserve the negative press it has. Volunteering itself doesn’t make you a better person. The skills and life lessons you learn through volunteering do, and that is not something achieved through your ‘voluntourism’ holidays.

Everyone who has had positive volunteering

Photo: seanhabig@Flickr

Lifestyle 27

ISSUE 01 / 19TH SEPTEMBER 2016 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

An Alternative Freshers’ Week

Bored of the constant hangovers in Freshers’ Week? Aiswarya Kishor explores alternative things to do in Manchester this September Aiswarya Kishor Contributor If you are one among the rare species of incoming freshers who don’t particularly enjoy dancing to EDM or creating memories that you won’t even remember, you may feel like Freshers’ Week is just one never-ending, drunken party. Fancy an alternative? Living in a vibrant city like Manchester — that is constantly bustling with opportunities — you don’t have to go far to find alternative events that you might enjoy!

Every year, the Students’ Union upholds its promise to include alternative events for freshers “with not a Jägerbomb in sight.” If a cosy night in sounds like fun, there is a daily event called “Film at Five,” where a different movie is shown every night. To entice you further, there’s delicious pizza and popcorn free of charge! Definitely a good alternative to a hangover!

Events such as Speed Meet and

Mingle, Conversation Corner, and the International Society BBQ are organised throughout the week. Here, you can meet loads of new students like yourself, including those from cultures you may never have heard of.

The Welcome Fair is a popular event where you can sign up to any of the student societies on campus. As Britain’s largest student community, The University of Manchester offers over 400 societies. These range from Dodgeball and Linguistics to Indian Dance and Harry Potter Society (Accio free sweets!).

September is, by far, the best month in your first semester to travel and explore the city because you won’t have as many deadlines to meet. Definitely make the best of the very rare sunshine, and travel widely to unearth the city’s hidden treasures. For music or sports enthusiasts, check any and all websites online for tickets to concerts, gigs, and matches well in advance to avoid disappointment.

The Northern Quarter, famous for its quirky street art and vintage stores, is a place you cannot miss. To help you discover some of the area’s best-kept culinary secrets and latte art, the Students’ Union has organised a “Northern Quarter Café Crawl.”

The Curry Mile, only a short bus ride away from campus, is another treasure trove of delights to satisfy any hungry student.

Freshers’ Week is also the perfect opportunity to get to know your flatmates. Having an open-door policy and planning pot-luck dinners will help you become friends sooner rather than later, and it keeps the homesickness at bay. There is much truth in the saying, “The way to a person’s heart is through their stomach.”

Getting settled into university life can be difficult for anyone. When the relentless parties overwhelm you, rest assured that there are many kindred spirits among the 40,000 students who will not hesitate to help

you, and that includes your Academic Advisor at university. There are countless opportunities are out there in Manchester, and what you make

of them is entirely up to you. Carpe diem!

Photo: dullhunk @Flickr

sober. The Students’ Union also runs a night-time shuttle bus service from the Learning Commons to your door for between £2 and £4—or just hand in your student card and pay later.

4. Make sure to stay in brightly lit areas and avoid quiet areas away from main roads. It’s preferable to add a few extra minutes to your walk home if it means walking down a well-lit, busy road rather than venturing down a dark, sketchy looking alley. If you have to, make sure to have a source of light handy such as your phone’s torch or a handy keyring. Having your keys ready when you arrive home will also help get you safely inside as quickly as possible so you can be downing a pint of water and snuggling into your bed in no time (or polishing off your kebab, we won’t judge you).

Photo: dullhunk @Flickr

Be smart and be safe this Freshers’ Week

With Freshers’ Week looming, make sure you know how to keep you and your friends safe on the streets of Manchester Megan Byrne Contributor As Freshers’ 2016 gets underway, thousands of students both new and old will be heading out to enjoy events at bars and clubs all over Manchester. While it is a fun and exciting time to enjoy our city’s nightlife, it’s also a time to be more cautious than ever when it comes to keeping safe. Manchester is one of the biggest cities in the country and boasts one of the largest student populations in Europe, and unfortunately statistics show that 1 in 10 students will be a victim of crime during their time at university. A big night out can be an unforgettable experience but it’s important to make sure that it’s unforgettable for the right reasons. Here are our top five ways to keep yourself and your friends safe whilst having the time of your life.

1. Having your bag stolen on a night out can be more than just a night ruiner. Wearing a cross body bag with a secure zip or fastening is a great way to prevent thieves from seeing you as a target. Make sure to take only what you need and not to take any unnecessary expensive possessions with you. It’s also a great idea to have some money in a safe place—maybe an inside pocket or even tucked in your bra. This means that if the

worst does happen, you can always get yourself home.

2. It’s best to make any journeys with other people as it’s true that there is safety in numbers. If this isn’t possible then always make sure that someone knows where you’re going and when you expect to be back. There are also a number of ingenious apps such as ‘Companion’ which allows you be walked home virtually by a person of your choosing, for example a parent, partner or housemate. The app allows you to tell your ‘companion’ that you’ll be heading out alone and then with just one tap you can alert them that you are safe and have reached your destination. You

5. Finally, if you do become a victim of crime it is important to know what to do. If you have a problem with an individual, get away as quickly as you can without engaging with any problematic behaviour. If someone attempts to take something from you, it is best to let it go as staying safe is more important than material possessions. If you feel your safety is under immediate threat, it’s a great idea to utilise a personal alarm such as the Mini Minder Keyring (£3.75 from personalalarms.com) in order to attract the attention of others. Another option is to ask for help from the number of local businesses who are designated ‘Student Safety Zones’; a full list can be accessed via the Manchester City Council website. Crimes committed against you are not your fault and you should never be reluctant to report incidents to the police.

can also tell them if you feel nervous or if there is an emergency and you need urgent help. It also gives you the option to contact the police directly.

The Companion app is available free on the app store.

3. Manchester has no shortage of safe, convenient ways to get home. The popular choice is the Magic Bus which runs throughout the night and you can hop on with a unirider or pay £1 before midnight or £2.50 after. Another option is the Uber app which allows you to see the model of the car as well as the driver and their name, this is amazing for providing peace of mind when getting in a car… especially when you’re not 100%

Photo: companionapp.io

Photo: Amazon

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Welcome Week is one of the most exciting times in a student’s life as you are settling into a new place and making new friends. Making sure that you’re aware of both your own and other’s safety is the best way to avoid your memories of this week being ruined by the actions of others and that Welcome Week 2016 is a time you can look back on with a smile.

WELCOME YOU’VE SHARE YOUR BEST #MADEITTOMCR SNAP AND THE BEST ONE WILL WIN A 50 VOUCHER OF YOUR CHOICE

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/TheMancunionSport Joe Murphy Sport Reporter

Name: Paul Pogba.

Status: Missing.

Last Seen: Manchester Airport.

Reward: £93,000,000

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The big question regarding Paul Pogba is simply whether Manchester United have signed one of the best players on the planet for a reasonable fee, or overspent on an overrated player who they released a few short years ago. When the 23-year-old re-signed for Manchester United from Juventus for a world record fee of £93 million, there was always going to be tonnes of pressure on him to perform and justify his price tag.

Although we are only a few games in to his second stint at the club, fans and critics alike have both been wondering whether or not Pogba is worth the money. Alarm bells started ringing for some fans during the recent derby defeat to Manchester City, where he failed to make any sort of impact. The problem is when you arrive as a world record signing, you are expected to perform consistently, scoring goals and creating chances. So far, Paul Pogba has failed to

The Paul Pogba Case The Pep Appeal

Photo: Thomas Rodenbücher @ Flickr

Harry Newton was present for The Mancunion Sport at Pep Guardiola’s first press conference as Manchester City manager a few weeks ago. This is what he found of the experience.

The press room fell silent at half past one and everyone looked at each other with the same facial expression. The look was a mixture of emotions that can only be described by comparing it to how a 50-year-old woman must feel when Gary Barlow gets a new haircut. Anticipation, excitement and the feeling of not being worthy.

The cameras flashed more than an uncle at Christmas, as the new Manchester City Manager Pep Guardiola made his way to his chair. Every time he looked up or made a slight change in

facial expression, the cameras went wild with clicking. One camera self-destructed as it felt unworthy to take photographs of such a footballing genius.

The way he answered the questions threw up a problem for journalists in the room, as they had to decide whether to write an article or an erotic novel. Fifty Shades of Sky Blue. When he answered questions in Spanish, some English reporters opted for the translation live in their ears, while others sat and listened to his silky smooth tongue, understanding nothing—and yet every-

do this. He is yet to score, assist, or have a standout game, so people have started to question his true ability.

However, at only 23 years old, he has at least another decade ahead of him so has plenty of time to readjust to the Premier League and become a key player for Manchester United. If we look at his last few years with Juventus, he has become one of the best midfielders in the world. Renowned specifically for his physical power, strength and influence up and down the pitch, he is exactly what United needed. On his day, £93 million is a bargain, especially with so much of his career ahead of him and the amount of potential he still has to offer. Furthermore, as Jose Mourinho pointed out, inflation in the transfer market is a factor for the fee being so high. Ten years ago, the top clubs were spending £20-£25 million on a top player. Now, Championship clubs, not even those in England’s top tier, are spending that. This is partly because of the added TV rights in English football, specifically for the Premier League. It is costing TV companies billions of pounds as supposed to millions, giving clubs a much larger revenue. This is particularly the case with clubs as globally supported and sponsored as Manchester United.

Therefore, £93million may seem like a lot now, but in 10 years, it will be a commonplace transfer. For example, when Ronaldo went to Real Madrid for £80 million, that was huge and a world record at

one was nodding in agreement. He just gave off a certain essence that what he was saying was absolute brilliance.

As the press conference ended, there was a sudden bout of Post-Pep Syndrome. A few reporters went to vomit in the loos. One woman sat rocking in the corner asking for him to return. One man left the room to ring his wife and tell her he wanted a divorce: “I just feel nobody will be good enough for me anymore.”

I’ll now try and stop wafting myself with a fan, and move away from my romantic tone for a moment, in order to tell you what the Spaniard actually said.

His first words in his Barcelona press conference were “fasten your seatbelts,” and here in England Guardiola opened his conference with “fasten your seatbelts from the other side.” City fans will definitely be rubbing their hands together at the prospect of Guardiola repeating his Barcelona form here in Manchester, which he went on to say is his aim. When asked on whether his passing style of play would suit the Premier League, he said “this is why I’m here,” with a cool mix of arrogance and humility. If James Bond was Spanish this would be him.

“My dream for Vincent Kompany is to be fit,” he said after being quizzed about where he sees his captain next season. I feel this is the only time where me and Pep disagreed. My dream for Vincent Kompany is that he picks me up from work one day and takes me to his house for a beer and a curry. But, with the signing of England centreback John Stones, and the conversion of Alecksander Kolarov into a centre-back, the future of the captain will be something to keep an eye on this season as Guardiola has never shied away from getting rid of big players at clubs in the past.

A personal highlight for me was watching Champions League winner and astute genius Pep Guardiola refer to ex-Sunderland manager Sam Allardyce as “the Big Sam.” I can just imagine Allardyce swooning in his living room right now. I’m sure Pep was distraught when Allardyce left Sunderland for the England job a couple of weeks after the press conference, meaning that

@Mancunion_Sport

the time, now, people say he is worth way more than that (Ronaldo himself claiming near the billion-pound mark). Judging by the way things are going financially in football, it could be quite a good investment for a player of this quality.

At the end of the day, I feel it is how a player performs as to whether or not a club spent well, or overspent on a player.

If Paul Pogba fades away, underperforms and sits on the bench whilst Marouane Fellaini runs the show, then he will be a waste of money. However, if he reignites Manchester United, restores them to the summit of English football and wins lots of trophies for the club, then he is a superb purchase. Having such a hefty price tag will always come with its critics and a huge amount of pressure. Fans may have to wait a few games yet before we can decide if Pogba is a flop or a bargain.

Only time will tell.

Pogba by Numbers as of 16/09/16 (from whoscored.com) PL appearances: 3 Minutes: 270 Goals/Assists: 0/0 Shots per game: 3.7 (higher than last season at Juventus) Pass success %: 83.7 (higher than last season at Juventus) Aerials Won: 2.3 (higher than last season at Juventus)

City would have to face David Moyes’ Sunderland instead.

The weekend before this press conference, Manchester City put on a large weekend bonanza for the fans at their City Football Academy, where Pep was unveiled. Something he said at this event was that it was City’s academy that attracted him to the club, which he said again in this press conference. He said he wanted to create an English core, like he did with Germans for Bayern Munich, and Spaniards for Barcelona… although he did then add that the English are very expensive. This will be great news to the ears of Raheem Sterling, who received a call from Guardiola during the Euros this summer to boost his confidence. The winger struggled for form last season but Guardiola said he is looking forward to working with and improving Sterling’s play. Indications have already showed this season that this could be a big season for the English winger.

Guardiola said that he was nervous before the press conference, as he was scared to come out in front of the press. He said “I know that when it is not going well then you won’t be here to help” to the press. I personally wouldn’t mind giving him a cuddle after a defeat, but he may have a point about the rest of the English press there. Although he seems apprehensive about the English press, he is not apprehensive about the English weather. He cited the “freezing” and the “windy” weather as a reason for why he wanted to come and manage in England—to see if he could do it.

He was in touching distance of saying “I wanted to manage on a cold, rainy Tuesday night in Stoke” but managed to steer clear of the cliché.

Whether it’s for his suit, his beautiful style of play, or his wild emotions on the touchline; most of the country is looking forward to what he has to offer. He is currently sitting pretty at the top of the Premier League table with a 100% record, and is yet to lose in the Champions League… but surely this form cannot last forever.

Sport does not write itself!! The Mancunion Sport is written by students who volunteer to write. No experience is necessary - just turn up to our meetings at 5pm on Mondays, on the first floor of the Students’ Union! Alternatively, you can email us at sports@mancunion.com if you want to write. Whether it’s national, local, or university sport, all is welcome.

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Alex Whitcomb Sport Editor Ever since the disappointment of losing two Olympic bids, Manchester has become Britain’s sporting capital. Such was the extent of Manchester’s contribution to Team GB’s success in Rio, that it prompted the Manchester Evening News to report that the region could claim as many as 23 of Britain’s medals. Cycling has been singled out as Manchester’s major success story from Rio and previous games, but the city has produced a number of achievers across many sports. Much of

this has come as a result the “medal factories” at the SportCity complex in East Manchester, that were largely built for the Olympic Bids and the 2002 Commonwealth Games.

Cycling The Great Britain Cycling Team won 22 gold medals at the last three Olympics, and are currently based at the National Cycling Centre at SportCity in Manchester.

Originally built for Manchester’s unsuccessful bid for the 2000 Olympics, the Velodrome has since hosted the Commonwealth Games and the World Track Championships, and is one of 5 Olympic standard tracks in the UK. Laura Trott, Jason Kenny and Bradley Wiggins are regulars at the

Revolution Series that takes place in Manchester every year, and the track is also open to the public for training and rac i ng— i nclud i ng the BUCS national championships in November.

It’s also the location of one of the only indoor competition BMX tracks in the world. If that wasn’t enough, Team Sky— just off the back of a fourth Tour de France win in five years—are also based at the Velodrome, and continue to be the world’s best cycling team.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Rugby Rugby League is deeply rooted in the north, with the game’s showpiece event taking place in Manchester every year.

Super League’s Grand Final will be played at Old Trafford on October 8th, will be the climax to the 21st edition of the competition. The finalists haven’t been decided yet but Greater Manchester’s Wigan Warriors have qualified for the semifinals already, alongside Hull FC, Warrington Wolves, and St Helens.

Last year the match was even held as England almost simultaneously played their final Rugby Union World Cup game on the other side of the city at the Etihad Stadium. The North West

is represented in Rugby Union’s Aviva Premiership by Sale Sharks. The professional offshoot of

Sale FC—whose stadium is used for Manchester’s rugby varsity—currently play at the Salford City

stadium and were champions of England in 2006.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

England ODI captain refuses to tour Bangladesh Toby Webb Sport Reporter England’s ODI Captain Eoin Morgan has decided not to join the tour of Bangladesh this October because of the heightened security risk in country due to a terrorist attack in Dhaka, the country’s capital, in July.

All players in contention for selection, both for the three ODI matches and two Test Matches, were given the option not to tour, with the squad being announced last Friday on the 16th of September.

The England and Wales Cricketing Board (ECB) confirmed that players who

decided against touring would not be discriminated against in selection for future matches. Eoin Morgan is the biggest name to decide against touring, but is also joined by names such as Test and ODI opening batsmen, Alex Hales.

Conversely, England players Stuart Broad, Moeen Ali, Chris Jordan and Liam Dawson stated they would tour.

No international side has been to Bangladesh since the July incident, with Australia cancelling a tour in October 2015 because of security fears. Morgan’s decision has resonated through the cricketing world. His decision has brought into debate the length to which personal

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

safety must be considered over the demands of sport.

Immediate reaction to Morgan’s decision has been mixed. England player Ben Stokes took to twitter to offer his support for players choosing against touring, while ex-England player Graeme Swann also offered his support when he stated that in the current situation he wouldn’t tour. On the other hand, ex-West Indian Courtney Walsh, the current Bangladesh bowling coach, has stated Morgan’s decision has ‘surprised’ him. The harshest criticism has arise-

“I will always back, not just my captain, but also my fellow team mate’s decision on matters like this...”

– Ben Stokes, England allrounder from ex-England captains, Nasser Hussein stating Morgan ‘should be with his team’ and Michael Vaughan saying he was making ‘a big mistake’.

Hussein and Vaughan have focused in on Morgan’s role as captain of the ODI team, suggesting that he is letting the team down by prioritising his personal safety. While they are entitled to an opinion, I think it’s easy for Hussein

and Vaughan to criticise Morgan from the comfort of retirement. I feel they are hanging onto outdated ideas of captaincy. Morgan’s role as captain should not have influenced his decision on whether to tour or not. His ability to captain a cricket teams should by no means translate into the ability to lead people in adversity, as Hussein and Vaughan are suggesting.

Moreover, I feel that Hussein and Vaughan see the captain as the be all and end all. On the contrary, some of the best teams are made up of several leaders. The seasoned ODI player Jos Buttler has been announced as captain for the tour, this is an excellent opportunity for him, as well as other players, to show their leadership capabilities.

The ECB announced in August that, after stringent analysis of the threat in Bangladesh, it would go ahead with the tour. The ECB would never want to even slightly endanger England players. The confirmation of the tour is an expression of absolute confidence in players’ security and safety. Moreover, the Foreign Office describes “a heightened threat of further terrorist attacks” in Bangladesh; a similar warning is issued for the majority of European cities, including London, where cricket is played throughout the summer.

Morgan has personal experience of safety issues: he was playing in an IPL match in 2010 when a bomb went off in the ground. He told the BBC: ‘Once or twice security became a distraction and, when it has been, I told myself that I’d never put myself in that situation again.’

While I understand Morgan’s reasons, I feel his decision shows an acute lack of trust in the ECB. Moreover, in losing the ODI captain, the ODI series becomes merely a training exercise. Morgan’s position in the ODI team is undoubtedly cemented. While fringe players will get

a chance to play international cricket, in my mind matches that don’t include the complete 1st XI lack purpose. If matches lack purpose, what’s the point in going to

“Whilst we understand and respect Eoin and Alex’s decision, we are disappointed that they have made themselves unavailable for selection for the Bangladesh tour.”

- Andrew Strauss, Director of England Cricket such lengths (contending with such risk) to play them?

Morgan has staked that the demands of his role as an England player are subordinate to the personal safety and security risks. While I respect it, I think his decision not to tour Bangladesh, discounting the assurances given by the ECB, is wrong.

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Photos:Wikimedia Commons, jo_sal77 @Flickr , James Lobley @Flickr

Football

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Of course Manchester’s other major contribution to the world of sport are two of the largest football clubs in Europe, with both gathering global support.

Manchester United claim to have the support of one tenth of the world’s population, as only they would, and is Manchester’s most well recognised brand around the world. Manchester United have traditionally been the dominant force in the city, with City being described as the “noisy neighbours” but with the new investment flooding in from 2008 onwards, both sides in Manchester can claim to be world class teams. The fierce

rivalry between City and United has been raised to unprecedented levels this year by the personal animosity between their new mangers, Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho.

Bragging rights are currently with the blue side of the city, courtesy of a 2-1 win just before the start of term, but with a long season ahead and the return derby at the Etihad in February, there is still very much to play for.

The region is also home to five other football league teams, the National Football Museum and the annual Soccer Aid charity match at Old Trafford. If you’ll be short of anything this year, it certainly will not be football.

Cricket Old Trafford is grand old home of Lancashire Cricket, who have won the county championship eight times in the past, and have produced countless England stars. The ground is one of the best venues in the country to see T20 cricket, with 2015 champions Lancashire Lightning playing regularly over the summer—including the much-anticipated roses match against Yorkshire— and the new Women’s Super League franchise Lancashire Thunder also based there.

The stadium has hosted international matches since 1884, with highlights of this including the first Ashes match in England, Shane Warne’s “ball of

the century” against Mike Gatting in 1993, and in 2005 having to turn away 10,000 ticketless fans from the conclusion of the 3rd Test against Australia.

Only a fortnight before freshers week, Pakistan thrashed England in the only T20 of the summer in front of a crowd of 26,000.

Add to all of this Tyson Fury’s world heavyweight rematch against Wladimir Klitschko at the Manchester Arena in October, and it becomes clear how much the world watches the city’s sport with a very close eye.

Great Britain became the first country to improve on a home Olympic games, something many, me included, didn’t think possible.

Manchester’s presence in this success

story proved too much and it was decided that the the national celebratory parade would take place in this city. The precise date hasn’t been confirmed yet but will likely be in October after the Paralympics have finished. Many of GB’s most successful athletes are based in Manchester, and

this parade is in part a recognition of how much of Britain’s sporting infrastructure and talent is in the region.

Certainly, looking at Manchester now, those failed bids for the Olympics seem like a very long time ago.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Competition Time Snooker’s top stars will be in Manchester in October for the new English Open—and here’s your chance to win tickets!

The world ranking event is the first of the new Home Series tournaments and is set to feature many of the sport’s leading players, including Mark Selby, Judd Trump, and Neil Robertson. Any player who wins all four Home Series events will win a massive £1 million bonus!

The English Open will run from October 10 to 16 at Event City, next to the Trafford Centre. The tournament will feature 128 players, with all of them needing to win seven matches to claim the prestigious trophy.

Tickets are already on sale, and start at just £10—fantastic value to see the top green baize stars. For details see www.worldsnooker.com/tickets Here’s the opportunity for three lucky winners to receive a pair of tickets to all sessions of the first two days of the tournament, giving you the chance to see all 128 players in action and enjoy the atmosphere! For a chance to win just answer this easy question:

How many pockets does a standard snooker table have? a) 4 b) 6 c) 8 To enter, email your answer to sports@mancunion. com with ‘English Open Snooker Competition’ as the subject header—or tweet us at @MANCUNION_SPORT.

Manchester City have had a blistering start to the season under Pep Guardiola, and are giving you the chance to watch the Blues live at the Etihad Stadium in their new seats, with two free tickets. To enter, answer this simple question.

Who scored the first goal in September’s Manchester derby?

A) Kevin de Bruyne B) Kelechi Iheanacho C) Sergio Agüero Email your answer to sports@mancunion.com with ‘Manchester City tickets’ as the subject header – or tweet us at @MANCUNION_SPORT.

Mark Selby. Photo:Roddy Bisset

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