Issue20

16th MAR 2015/ ISSUE 19 FREE

MANCHESTER’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER

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Could she lose? Naa! - Naa Acquah storms to a recordbreaking victory to become the first female BME General Secretary in the Union’s history - 3 current Executive officers were re-elected to the Committee Charlie Spargo Deputy Editor-in-chief

Interview: Dame Nancy Rothwell

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General Election Party Profiles

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ARE UNIVERSITIES FUELLING FRACKING? - The University of Manchester has received grants for fracking research totalling £657000 -Following a leaked letter revealing government intentions to use academics to sway public opinion, The Mancunion has found evidence to suggest such grants are now being awarded to universities situated in contested fracking areas Lauren Gorton News Editor A report by Fossil Free UK entitled ‘Fracking with education: Public Money, Research and Fracking’ has revealed that for the 2014/15 academic year, the University of Manchester has been awarded grants worth just under £657000 to carry out research into fracking.

The grants have been awarded by the National Environment Research Council (NERC), one of seven UK research councils and a publicly funded, non-departmental government body.

The report shows that just under £4 million in public money has been spent on research into shale gas and that since 2008, 14 universities and four public bodies have received such grants from NERC. The University of Manchester has received two successful NERC research grants, the first being awarded on the 1st of September 2014 for £74789 and the second on the 30th of November 2014 for a further £582119. Both grants have been awarded to the Earth Atmospheric and Environmental

Sciences department.

The grants awarded this academic year to the University of Manchester are the largest fracking research grants to be awarded to a UK university by NERC or any other UK research council. In total the two grants make up 65 per cent of all grant money awarded to universities by various research councils for fracking research during the 2014/15 period—with the total sum of research grants being worth approximately £1006721.

Other universities which also successfully received NERC grants for the purpose of researching fracking this academic year were the Universities of Leicester, Portsmouth, Leeds, Bristol, and Hull.

While the University of Manchester is free to accept and research the purpose of any grant awarded to its various departments, the NERC research grants awarded to all of the six UK universities this academic year might potentially play a role in the Government’s current agenda of pushing through controversial fracking and Coal Bed Methane (CBM) extraction plans.

Continued on pages 4 & 5...

Mr Frack Head , the mascot for environmental lobbyists outside of Westminster.

Photo: The Daily Bull @ Flickr.

In an elections campaign which saw the highest turnout of voters in any Union election since records began, Naa Acquah has been elected General Secretary, becoming the first female BME General Secretary of Manchester Students’ Union.

Announcements of the results of the Students’ Union elections took place on Thursday evening, and saw the reelection of three officers.

2014/15 General Secretary Charlie Cook introduced proceedings, thanking the Union staff, the candidates and the voters, who made it the largest ever.

The announcements were somewhat delayed after the 2-hour postponed closing time, which was announced after technical faults in the voting system.

Naa Acquah will take up the position of General Secretary after a race that took the highest absolute number of votes for the position since it was created in 1974, or before, when it was President.

She cried as she announced to the crowd, “any promise I have ever made, I will fulfil them!”

Speaking to The Mancunion, Naa added: “To my knowledge, I’m the first ever black female Gen Sec at this university, and I want things to really shake up. Every single thing everyone voted for, I’m going to make sure it happens!

Joel Smith will return as Activities and Development Officer next year, and Jess Lishak will resume her role as Women’s Officer.

Joel told The Mancunion, “I think it’s an absolutely fantastic turnout. I’m really excited by the new Exec team. I do have some big names [lined up] for future Pangaeas, but I do not care to disclose at this stage the headliners.”

Jess said she was excited by “the first ever black woman Gen Sec of Manchester Students’ Union, I think the whole team is really exciting, and I can’t wait to see what we do. Six out of eight [on the team are female] again, we’re continuing a strong trend, so I’m very happy.”

Harriet Pugh, formerly Education Officer, was elected Community Officer. She said: “I’m really excited, really proud and happy I’ve been elected again. I’m really surprised at some of the team, and that’s going to take a while to sink in but I think we’ll work it out. It’ll be nice, I’m really excited to work with a new team.”

At 9704, the turnout for voting for the Activities and Development Officer was the highest number of votes ever cast for any position, at any Union, ever.

The first winner to be announced on the night was Natasha Maria Brooks, who takes up the position of Diversity Officer after seven rounds of vote-counting. She, however, had nothing to say about her victory.

Hannah McCarthy was elected Campaigns and Citizenship Officer. Speaking afterwards, Hannah said: “It’s just incredible, I’m so so grateful, and I feel genuinely privileged to have been a part of the biggest Students’ Union election in the history of UK universities.”

Lucy Hallam will be Wellbeing Officer, saying: “I just wasn’t expecting that result, at all!”

Also, Michael Spence was elected Education Officer. Spence added, “[I feel] absolutely amazing, I just can’t believe that happened. I put in so much work over the last few weeks for this campaign and for it to pay off like this… I feel like I’m living a dream!”

University Free Speech Rankings Released

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02 : NEWS

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Highlights P12

Music: Interview – Bicep

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Fashion: What to look out

Picture of theof week - “Flipping pancakes!”

Picture the week - “Thegood results are in.”

The 2015/16 Executive Committee. Photo: The Mancunion

Union election turnout highest in UK history Aidan Gregory Deputy Editor-in-chief

for in SS15

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Theatre: An Ode to British Comedy

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Over 13264 students voted in the University of Manchester Students’ Union Executive elections, smashing the national record of 11501 set by the University of Nottingham last year.

Last year, just 5997 University of Manchester students voted in the election, causing some commentators to talk of a crisis of apathy within the UMSU. In the morning of Thursday the 12th, the number of votes cast stood at 9680. Having hit 12000 at 3pm, the decision was taken to extend the voting deadline to 5pm due to a technical fault.

This means the elected candidates to the 2015/16 Executive Committee command the largest mandate ever held by a UMSU sabbatical team.

Reacting to the news, a spokesperson for University of Manchester Students’ Union said: “We are absolutely over the moon with the turnout so far. Manchester students have made history by taking part in the biggest Students’ Union election ever in the UK. “12000 votes is beyond what we originally hoped for and we couldn’t be prouder of the student body today. The candidates have all worked so incredibly hard over the last few weeks and they should all be congratulated on their amazing efforts.”

Conor McGurran, Campaigns and Citizenship Officer of UMSU, said: “The incredible turnout for this year’s elections is testament to the unbelievable work that the staff at the Union have put in. The Student

Voice team in particular have worked tirelessly to get students involved in choosing their representatives for the next year.

“The candidates and their supporters should also be congratulated for running some fantastic campaigns, and the positive tone of this year’s races has been really encouraging.”

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He added further: “The impressive turnout is indicative of the direction that the SU is moving in, with a dedicated staff team that strives to empower students to have a stake and a say in their Union.”

The Mancunion can reveal that 61.3 per cent of votes were cast in the last two days of voting.

Joel Smith took the highest number of votes cast for any Union position ever. Photo: The Mancunion

Food & Drink Editors: Elena Gibbs & Adam Fearn foodanddrink@mancunion.com Film Editors: James Moules, Thomas Bruce, Martin Solibakke, & Andriana Hambi film@mancunion.com

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If you have any comments or questions, or would like to contribute, please e-mail the Editor-in-chief or Deputy Editor-in-chief. The times of meetings are listed on our website.

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NEWS : 03

Harry Leslie Smith inspires students to vote for their future Jenny Sterne News Editor Harry Leslie Smith, a survivor of the Great Depression, a second world war RAF veteran and an activist spoke last Thursday at the Manchester’s Students’ Union on the importance of registering to vote. Harry has written a number of books and often speaks publicly about income inequality, public services, and what he sees as the diminishing prospects for young people.

Harry’s most notable and unforgettable speech was made at the 2014 Labour Party Conference, where he warned the audience of the dangers of losing the NHS. Harry brought the Labour delegates to their feet and reduced some of them to tears with the plea: “Mr Cameron, keep your mitts off my NHS.” On Thursday, Harry’s speech was as equally impassioned as he addressed students on the importance of registering to vote and then using that vote to secure a better future. The event was organised by No Vote No Voice, who also had a voter registration bus on campus signing students up on the day.

No Vote No Voice is the Daily Mirror’s campaign to encourage everyone in Britain to take advantage of their right to vote. They joined forces with Bite The Ballot, Unite Union, Mass1, Hope not Hate, NUS and NUT to launch the campaign. It is non-partisan and aims to register a million new voters by the general election.

According to a report by the Electoral Commission at least six million people were not registered to vote in the last general election.

half of those registered actually turning out–so that means only around 25 per cent of 18-24-year olds voted in the last election.

This situation is likely to be impacted even more due to the Government’s new Individual Electoral Registration scheme–now each individual person has to register, rather than one from each household.

Before October 2014, first year students tended to be registered by their college or university who acted as their “head of the household”; this ensured almost 100 per cent registration. Due to the swift change in legislation this is no longer the case, and student registration has fallen considerably.

Harry’s speech aimed to address this worrying issue and encouraged those in the audience to spread the message of importance of voting.

Harry opened his speech saying: “The defining moments in our country’s history have been decided by elections”, and he declared that “if power is held by the few the many will suffer a lifetime of misery”.

He continued: “If you don’t register to vote, your society will die along with your hopes and dreams for a decent life for yourselves and your offspring. You won’t have more than a bread and drippings life if you don’t register to vote. I know this because I am not a historian, but I am an eye witness to history as I turned 92 last month.”

Harry went on to parallel his generation with our own saying his were also “cynical about politicians and distrusted elections and they only seemed to maintain misery and ensured that we were denied healthcare, affordable housing, a

With young people the situation is worse, with less than half being registered, and then less than

proper education and a chance to make decent lives for ourselves.”

However he said his “generation realised a simple fact of life that if you sit on the sidelines of life others will decide for you whether you win or lose.

“This election may go down as the most important election of your generation, like 1945 was for mine. So it would be a great misfortune for your future and Britain’s future to not participate in something that will make a difference for good or evil to your life. Regardless of your political beliefs you must register to vote, then you must go on Election Day and vote with your head, your heart, for a new tomorrow.

Some have called my generation the greatest, but I think your generation will be the greatest, because you will finish the job my generation started. If you don’t vote your future will be handed to the 1 per cent to do with as they like.

Austerity is not just about fixing the country’s finances, it is about turning us into a Downton Abbey where the 99 per cent serve the elite”.

After the speech Harry answered a few

questions from students. The first asked him whether he believed in tactical voting. His response was a resounding no, reiterating that you must vote for the party you believe in yourself.

Another final year student nurse asked if Harry had any ideas how to encourage and inspire people to vote, if they are disillusioned about the political parties. Harry responded simply by stating he would suggest you tell them to read his latest book ‘Harry’s Last Stand’.

When questioned on Russell Brand and whether he was a help or a hindrance, Harry responded saying it was downright irresponsible to advocate not to vote. However he suggested there may be a planned debate between him and Russell Brand in the future.

Finally he was asked what he thought of David Cameron, to which he said “He’s a personable looking guy… enough said, soon is mended.”

The deadline to register to vote in the general election is 20th April.

Photo: Standup4Labour@Twitter

Halls 2 Home: Putting ‘Unity’ UoM ranked eighth Back Into the Community best in UK Marcus Johns News Editor

Tom Bruce Film Editor On the 7th of February 2015, some students may have been aware of a ‘Community Fun Fest’ which took place on a stretch of Derby road in Fallowfield in between Amherst and Mitford.

Halls 2 Home is a project which aims to support students in their transition from Halls of Residence to private sector accommodation. The campaign was created by Manchester Student Homes and works in partnership with The University of Manchester’s Pastoral Care Team.

The event was advertised as an effort at returning ‘unity’ to the community by allowing different people from the residential street and neighbouring area to get to know one another in a friendly, entertaining, well-policed zone.

The Derby Road Fun Fest was promoted through the use of posters and flyers in the Student Union building, certain places on campus as well as around the student hub of Fallowfield. Those living on Derby Road

and the roads nearby were informed of the plans by posted letters.

There was a large turnout throughout the day as people came to and fro to enjoy free live music, hot food, face painting and more. One of the event’s main organisers, Community Officer Ellen McLaughlin, said: “the idea for the festival was to bring together students and local residents in a fun and friendly environment”.

In light of intense media scrutiny and criticism from non-student residents regarding the large house parties that have been going on in the community recently, Ellen said: “Community relations in South Manchester have been high on the agenda for the University and the local media and our intention was to do something positive and proactive to try and alter perceptions about the student bubble.”

On the success of the Derby road Fun Fest, Ellen stated that “it went really well. We asked people who came to the festival for feedback and by and large comments were that people wanted to see more events like this.”

The event was also used as a means of spreading anti-burglary tips and

fire safety awareness among the vulnerable student body. It was also held in recognition of the hard work done by many students who volunteer in the local area. Community Officer Ellen hopes there will be another similar event in the summer and that this time students and residents that live in the local area will get involved in the process.

Poppy Humphrey, a representative from Manchester Student Homes, said: “The Community Fun Fest enabled all those that live locally to come together, learn about each other and the local area in a relaxed and family-friendly environment. We received great support from our partners, including Greater Manchester Police and Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, who gave personal and household safety advice to students throughout the day. We are also delighted to learn that Halls 2 Home has recently been recognised in terms of the benefit to the student experience with a nomination for an associated award.”

Forthcoming Halls 2 Home campaigns will focus on environmental issues and student safety.

The University of Manchester is now the 50th most reputable university in the world, placing eighth in the United Kingdom, according to the Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings 2015, revealed on Thursday.

Behind Oxbridge, Imperial College London, UCL, LSE, University of Edinburgh, and King’s College London the University of Manchester has returned to the top 50.

The University of Manchester has climbed up the rankings over the past six years. In 2011 the university was placed in the 61 – 70 range, in 2012 in the 51 – 60 range, and last year dropped back to the 51 – 60 range after a brief stint at 47 in 2013.

The university’s reputation score is now 5.3, which is broken down into 4.5 for teaching reputation and 5.6 for research reputation. The University of Manchester is the last university to be given a place as any institution placed

below 50 is only given a range. Any university below 100th place is excluded from the rankings.

The United Kingdom is the second best represented country in the rankings, following the US but ahead of Germany. The UK has more universities in the top 50—with eight—than Germany has in the whole top 100, with six.

The top six group of US and UK universities have strengthened their lead over other universities.

Despite the shuffling of the top six’s order, the top six universities—Harvard, Cambridge, Oxford, MIT, Stanford and UCB—have remained the top six for the past five years.

The University of Manchester is celebrating yet another success after rising to 38th in the Shanghai Jiao Tong University rankings this year, which are based upon the number of academic achievements at each university. The Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings, however, are a measure of how academics around the world view universities’ teaching and research.

In addition, the university also came 52nd in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings this year with an overall score of 64.5, which made it the eighth-best British university overall in the world this year.

According to the Times Higher Education rankings this year, the University of Manchester is the eighth most reputable and best university in the United Kingdom, but its reputation in the world at 50th is two places higher than its overall score which ranks it at 52nd.

The University of Manchester also has 25 affiliated Nobel laureates, which makes it the fourthhighest in the United Kingdom and 23rd highest in the world.

A University of Manchester spokesperson said: “We are pleased that academics around the world have ranked The University of Manchester in an improved 50th place.

This is further support for our vision of making our institution one of the top 25 research universities in the world by 2020.”

04: NEWS

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...Continued from page 1 Osborne and addressed to members of the Economic Affairs

research councils, including the National Environment Research

Committee. Its content not only lays bare the Government’s close

Council (NERC), are assessed and awarded based on overall research

relationship with Cuadrilla and its intentions to make rapid progress

excellence through a peer-reviewed process involving national and

David Cameron infamously announced at the beginning of 2014 that

on implementing plans for the development of the fracking industry,

international experts.

he was “going all out for shale,” with shale extraction techniques such

but also explicitly states plans to “build on [the] existing network of

“A 2012 report produced by The Royal Society and the Royal

as fracking playing a key part in his government’s long-term economic

neutral academic experts available to provide credible evidence-

Academy of Engineering carried out a review of shale gas extraction,

plan to secure Britain’s future, despite Scottish and Welsh moratoriums

based views on matters of public concern.”

concluding that fracking as a means to extract shale gas could be

Lauren Gorton News Editor

on fracking for shale gas.

This statement, outlined within the ‘Recommendations on moving

managed effectively in the UK.

This policy remains in spite of London Assembly members recently

to full exploration’ section of the annex to the letter, suggests the

“The university will continue to carry out leading research, and

voting in support of a motion to divest over £4.8 billion in pension

Government is intending to use research evidence obtained by UK

teaching and learning, in the area of shale gas to ensure any future

funds away from fossil fuels.

universities to push forward fracking plans in areas where fracking

extraction of this precious resource is carried out safely and effectively

and CBM sites are in contention or are still under consideration by

whilst minimising any effect on the environment. The university also

local councils.

continues the debate on the merits of shale gas within the energy mix

Besides these statements in January 2014, Cameron also announced additional council incentives to enable fracking within their local areas. He stated that councils who actively enabled fracking would be

Further research conducted by The Mancunion shows that for the

entitled to keep 100 per cent of business rates from fracking operations,

2014/15 period NERC fracking research grants were awarded to UK

“Meanwhile, we continue apace to research and develop all low-

further estimating that from one typical well site, local councils could

universities that are situated in regions where shale gas extraction and

carbon forms of energy, in terms of its source, transmission and use,

receive around £1.7 million.

CBM site planning applications are still under consideration by local

with the ultimate aim of significantly reducing the world’s dependency

councils.

on fossil fuels.”

This is on top of an industry pledge by fracking companies to give

in terms of overall carbon and the effects on the environment.

local councils an initial £100000 payment to enable fracking, as well

The only apparent exception is the University of Leicester, although

The closest site to the University of Manchester is the Davyhulme

as an additional one per cent levy from the well-sites, which according

this falls within an area where the Government has recently opened

site, situated 5 miles away, which IGas Energy is currently attempting

to Energy Minister Michael Fallon could be worth around £10 million

bidding for fracking companies to argue for planning rights.

to renew its planning application for CBM test drilling in the area.

The six universities awarded the fracking research grants are,

Whilst CBM does not strictly fall under the technical definition of

This pro-fracking stance has recently been cemented in legislation

on average, 32.5 miles away from contested sites, whose planning

fracking, in November 2014 Trafford Council, following a motion

with the Infrastructure Act, which introduced new provisions to

applications where still under consideration during the time period

proposed by the Labour group, voted unanimously to ban fracking in

further deregulate fracking by changing trespass laws in England to

from the 1st of January 2014 to the 1st of January 2015.

the area until “until such time as it can be proved to be safe.”

per wellhead.

enable companies to drill under citizens’ homes without needing to notify or seek the permission of the landowner.

Further, amendments to the original bill also enable fracking companies—in unspecified, exceptional circumstances—to drill

This is in stark contrast to NERC fracking research grants awarded

Yet the safety of CBM, particularly by IGas, has itself been questioned

for the 2013/14 period, prior to the plans stated by George Osborne

by recent evidence given by environmental expert Dr. Aidan Foley,

to build upon the network of academic experts to push forward the

who found dangerously high levels of contamination, including

development of the shale gas industry.

carcinogenic chemicals, in the earth outside of the perimeter fence of

horizontally beneath national parks and protected areas such as Areas

For the 2013/14 period, NERC grants were awarded to universities

of Outstanding National Beauty, Sites of Specific Scientific Interest and

which were on average 82.25 miles from the nearest sites where

the Barton Moss test drilling site.

Whilst Foley claims that he would need internal access to the site to

groundwater source protection zones, where the wells start outside

planning applications were being considered during the time period

establish its source was in fact from the test drilling machinery and

the boundaries of these areas.

from the 1st of January 2013 to the 1st of January 2014.

that drilling mud had been left uncontrolled at the site—in breach of the

The Act was granted Royal Assent on February the 12th 2015,

On average, this shows that since government intentions to use

environmental permit—any such attempts have so far been blocked

despite the Government’s own public opinion polls indicating that the

universities to provide evidence to sway public opinion were made

by IGas, in spite of concerns heard in court that such contamination

measure was opposed by 74 per cent of the English population.

clear, the NERC grants have been awarded to universities 49.75

could proceed to drain into nearby water sources.

While the Government’s position on fracking is clear, a leaked letter, obtained by environmental group Friends of the Earth in January this year, has called into question the relationship that universities have to fracking giants such as Cuadrilla and IGas Energy.

The letter, dated the 24th of September 2014, was signed by George

miles closer to contested sites, raising the question of whether NERC research grants have been awarded on a basis of merit or location.

However Colin Bailey, Deputy President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Manchester, speaking as a representative of the university, stated that: “Research grants awarded by the UK

The issue of safety is one which Councillor Andrew Western, the leader of the Trafford Labour Group, focused upon when asked by The Mancunion why the Labour group made the motion to oppose fracking: “Our view on fracking has arisen over a number years and is, essentially, a direct result of the inability of anybody, quite frankly, to prove the process entirely safe.

“There has been talk, in particular, of plans to frack in the Davyhulme area… This is not something we can support given existing pollution levels. The Labour Group would much prefer to see investment in renewable and green energy sources as a means of meeting the UK’s energy needs.”

He continued, “it is clear to me that the Conservatives are keen to promote fracking as best they can. In particular I feel that the incentives offered to councils to allow fracking are totally out of order whilst the science remains unproven in safety terms.”

However, although previous work has been done at the University of Manchester in regards to the environmental impact of fracking, the research grants awarded to the university do not appear to consider the issue of human or environmental safety.

The abstract for the largest grant, of over half a million pounds, states that research is to focus upon a range of aspects of shale gas exploitation, with these aspects, and petrophysical properties of the rocks, being essential to the optimisation of production which is necessary for the successful development of a shale gas industry in the UK. The grant for £74789 gives reference to there being learning required in new well delivery so as to “enable safe drilling and completion planning and execution.” However, on the basis of its abstract the grant focuses mainly upon building upon the existing track record of

Universities awarded NERC fracking research grants in the 2013/14 period: University of Edinburgh, University of Bristol, University of Durham and the University of East Anglia. With red tags representing fracking sites and orange tags coal bed methane extraction sites under consideration during the same time period.

Universities awarded NERC fracking research grants in the 2014/15 period: University of Manchester, University of Bristol, University of Leicester, University of Portsmouth, University of Leeds and the University of Hull. With red tags representing fracking sites and orange tags coal bed methane extraction sites under consideration during the same time period.

research at Manchester into the geology and characterisation of UK Carboniferous petroleum systems and associated shale resources.

This would be in line with previous NERC-funded research on shale petroleum systems and potential shale reservoirs undertaken by the university, so as to enable “a step forward in knowledge and

ISSUE 19/ 16th MARCH 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

NEWS : 05

capability in the assessment of resource potential and development of UK Carboniferous shale resources.” This is despite fracking yet to be proven conclusively safe.

However, it is notable that previous research done at the University of Manchester which has been funded by NERC was also cosponsored by oil company Shell USA. Furthermore, there is clear association of many members of that research team with the Society of Petroleum Engineers, a charitable organisation “devoted to safe and efficient exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas resources,” questions the intended neutrality, outlined in the leaked letter by George Osborne, of funded academics.

This issue also arose in regards to research done by Fossil Free into researchers at Durham University in 2013, who were shown to have past ties with the oil and fracking industry. Further, the Durham led ReFINE research consortium, which focuses on the issue of shale gas and oil exploitation, and in which NERC has invested, was found to be funded by Shell, Total and Chevron, with government environmental agencies participating in an advisory stakeholder capacity.

Speaking to The Mancunion, Andrew Taylor, who investigated the Durham researchers and authored the Fossil Free Report, stated that: “The funnelling of public sector money into fracking research is nothing more than a subsidy for an industry that the majority of the population have turned their back on.

“Students are increasingly challenging the moral case for the fossil fuel industry to be on their campuses, now universities need to start to listen.”

However, speaking to The Mancunion, Dr. Kieron Flanagan, Senior Lecturer in Science and Technology Policy at the University of Manchester and a blogger for The Guardian, said: “I’m not so worried about academics being funded by certain companies or being members of societies. If you’re an engineer, it is almost expected that you would be and would need to be a member of certain groups as part of your career. The key thing is that it is transparent.

“My real concern is where companies such as Shell sign agreements with publicly funded research councils such as NERC. The issue here is one of transparency and reputation. NERC needs to be seen to be neutral and that its work is in the wider public interest and when companies like Shell are suspected to have privileged

access in terms of influencing research agendas then this research might begin to appear biased.

“A problem with criticising those academics who are doing research funded by or associated with companies such as BP or Cuadrilla, is that then on the other side of the spectrum we should also be criticising those academics working with Greenpeace or Fossil Free.

“Otherwise it becomes a tit-for-tat argument, as can be seen now with regards to the sending of Freedom of Information requests in America surrounding climate science, where activists and politicians on both side begin to criticise academics for holding different opinions from their own.

“Whilst it is true that today’s research agenda will shape tomorrow’s technologies, industries and their social, economic and environmental impacts, and that it is legitimate for society to debate these, prematurely closing off research lines now reduces options in the future, for instance for future generations who may have different needs and problems.

“But investigations such as [The Mancunion’s] raise a bigger question in regards to transparency about how research funding agendas are set and what roles economic actors, elected politicians and citizens should play in shaping those agendas.

Some students at the University of Manchester, however, still find the potentially close relationship between their university and the fracking and fossil fuel industry uncomfortable.

One such student is the current Activities and Development Officer for the University of Manchester’s Students’ Union, Joel Smith, also a member of the Fossil Free campaign. In a statement to The Mancunion, Smith stated: “It’s unfortunate that the University is actively supporting a government-driven agenda to grow the fracking industry.

“This approach to energy consumption is incredibly short-termist, the fracking industry is time-limited by our need to drastically cut our carbon output and we should instead be competing for grants to research technology that can last thousands and not tens of years. With extensive investment into this new industry future governments will be obliged to maintain it, locking us into a fossil fuel future for longer than our planet and its people can handle.”

The anti-fracking lobby group Talk Fracking are set to release a new report on Tuesday focusing upon the questionable relation-

ships amid those in academia and the fossil fuel industry and will be launching their national day of action ‘Frackademics Day’.

The Mancunion reached out for a comment from all of the individual Trafford Council party groups, however at present the Labour group are the only councillors who have replied.

Last month, University of Manchester students protested for divestment outside University P{lace. Photo: Fossil Free University of Manchester @Facebook

A history of Manchester’s fossil fuel shares Andy van den Bent-Kelly Science & Technology Editor

The University of Manchester holds shares in multiple oil and gas exploration companies, despite opposition from multiple politicians, environmentalists and human rights groups.

This was exposed in 2012 by the then News Editor of The Mancunion, Joe Sandler Clarke, in an article which saw him longlisted for Amnesty International’s Student Human Rights Reporter of the Year Award.

Following a Freedom of Information request, The Mancunion was able to obtain documents revealing the shares held by the university over the past six years.

The 2014 investment portfolio was already known following an earlier FOI request by Activities and Development Officer, Joel Smith. Data between the years 2009 and 2013 inclusively was then received.

The diagram below shows that there was a sharp drop in the number of shares held by the university in oil and gas between March 2011 and March 2013. A possible reason for this is Sandler Clarke’s piece in 2012.

2010 2009

2011

When the 2012 figures were released, his article had been live for nearly two months. It is unclear whether or not his damning exposé, which received national acclaim, influenced the university.

Of the various companies concerned, BP PLC suffered the most, with the university selling more than half of its shares in the oil and gas giant.

BP were found to be primarily responsible for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in October 2010, the largest accidental marine oil spill in the petroleum industry’s history.

The subsequent plummet in the value of the shares may have caused the university to sell up, as well as the negative publicity generated by the disaster. sold at some point in the following year. Again, it is possible that The chart to the right shows the number of shares held by the Sandler Clarke’s article may have been partially responsible for university in 2013 in the following oil and gas exploration compathis decision. nies: BG Group, BP, Royal Dutch Shell and Tullow Oil. However, all these figures could be potentially misleading, due Despite the drastic drop from previous years, the university still to share price fluctuations over time. By researching the value of holds far more shares in BP than in any other oil and gas company.

2011 2010 one share at the end of March for each year, the total worth of the In spite of everything, the university increased its shares in fossil 2009 2010 university’s shares was2011 calculated. This can be seen in the chart fuels in 2014. This was revealed in a previous issue. below.

2009 Another interesting revelation was that all of the university’s 2014 Royal Dutch Shell PLC is seemingly the2012 only oil and gas company shares in Cairn Energy PLC and Soco International PLC, which 2013 with whom the university have not2012 significantly cut ties. Over2014 the combined were worth over £1.75 million at their peak in 2011, were period 2009 – 2013, the total value of the university’s shares in 2013 Shell was consistently around the £3.5 million mark.

Shell has frequently come under fire for its human rights record and alleged environmental negligence, which has led to calls for the university to end its association with the company. However, these results clearly suggest that this has not happened.

Based on this most recent increase in oil and gas shares, the university is evidently not intending on cutting ties any time soon.

2014

2012 2013

Graphics: Marcus Johns

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06 : News

Exclusive: Vice-Chancellor defends salary and flight expenses - In an exclusive interview, Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell was asked whether it is right that Vice-Chancellors are earning average salaries of £260k at a time when increasing numbers of students are relying on food banks.

- Rothwell also answered questions on Labour’s plans to cut tuition fees to £6000, the university’s investments in fossil fuels, and spending £22000 on flights Aidan Gregory Editor-in-chief Given that she works a 70-hour week, regularly advises the great and the good of British politics, and has previously been named as the 15th most powerful woman in the country, it is a rare moment as an undergraduate to find yourself sitting in the grand office of Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell.

The obvious topic to begin an interview with the Vice-Chancellor and President of the largest university in the country is fees.

Two weeks ago Ed Miliband announced that if Labour win the next election they will cut fees from £9000 to £6000 and described the coalition’s introduction of £9000 fees as “one of the most expensive broken promises in the history of British politics.” I ask Rothwell whether she supports the proposal.

“I certainly would not oppose the £6000 fee,” she declares. “What [UK ViceChancellors] have said is that they are very concerned about the ability to make up the gap, because without being able to make up that gap universities will have a huge deficit.”

Following Miliband’s announcement, Vince Cable described the proposals as “financially illiterate”. Reflecting on Cable’s comments, Rothwell says she doesn’t know anybody “who has looked at the economics and seen how it can work. Even if it could be made to work, there will be a time gap. If a Labour government was to commit to filling that gap, which is nearly £3 billion a year probably, great, fantastic. But it has got to come from somewhere. That’s the big worry. But a £6000 fee I’d be very happy with.”

“Would £6000 fees even solve the problem?” I ask. “Even if Labour get elected and reduce fees, there will still be a cohort of students, myself included, who will have been paying £9000 fees for three years.”

She responds: “Well, we don’t know what will happen actually, because they haven’t come out and said what will happen to students who fell into that period that did pay £9000, or the students that will be in the system during the change.

“The other thing we don’t know what will happen is to the offer agreements for widening participation. Any university that charges over £6000 has to pledge a significant part of that extra towards helping students from disadvantaged backgrounds. We’ve put a lot of money into that, about £20 million a year. So if it was dropped to £6000 would we still have that requirement? We don’t know yet.”

Moving on from fees, I remind the ViceChancellor of a lecturer’s question time that took place in Fallowfield last week, which featured a panel of five senior lecturers from the School of Social Sciences, including the Head of Politics, Professor Andrew Russell. They were asked whether the university should divest from the fossil fuel industry, in which it has invested

Editor-in-chief Aidan Gregory talks to Nancy Rothwell in her office. Photo: The Mancunion

almost £40 million, and concluded unanimously that it should. Given the support that clearly exists amongst staff and students for divestment, I ask if it’s time for the university to think seriously about divesting from fossil fuels.

“I think possibly we should. It’s not my decision. It’s the decision of the finance committee of the board. They wrestle with this frequently, because we don’t choose who we invest in. We give [the responsibility] at arm’s length to another body, but we give them parameters, and those parameters don’t include ‘not fossil fuels’. But they might do in future.”

She appears to be referring to the university’s ethical investment policy, which includes the clause that the university “will use its influence in an effort to reduce and, ideally, eliminate, irresponsible corporate behaviour leading to environmental degradation”—a condition which the Manchester Fossil Free Campaign have argued is breached by the university’s financial involvement in companies such as BP and Shell.

Rothwell continues: “What we’re going to do is raise it again at the next finance committee meeting, saying this has been brought up, and that there’s a lot of feeling. Then they may choose to change the parameters that are given to the investment company. I can’t comment on whether they will or not.”

The conversation turns to ViceChancellor’s pay. Last year, despite taking a pay cut of 0.3 per cent, Rothwell earned £291000—an eye-watering sum of money to a student in their overdraft.

I ask whether or not it is right that ViceChancellors earn on average £260000, at a

time when increasing numbers of students in Manchester are resorting to food banks in order to get by, disabled students’ allowances and bursaries are being cut, and £9000 fees are in force.

“I guess the answer depends on what you want from Vice-Chancellors of universities.

The UK is one of the lowest paid countries for Vice-Chancellors. Is it fair in any society that people should earn twenty or a hundred or a thousand times more than other people? In my opinion, possibly not.

But on the other hand, you wouldn’t get reasonable Vice-Chancellors unless you pay a reasonable rate. I’m paid less than the average, for the largest university in the country. You quote my salary as £291000, but that includes pension. And I’ve never had a pay rise.

“There is an issue, and I’m not sure that it’s right, but it happens in the private sector quite a lot, that there’s a sense [that] if a ViceChancellor or CEO is paid less than the rest of the sector, they must be not very good. I don’t quite buy into that because you should judge someone on their merits rather than what they are paid. But that is certainly something that prevails. I mean US salaries, [they’re] probably four times higher.”

With regard to American salaries, she perhaps has something of a point. In 2013 for example, it was reported that the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Massachusetts, a public institution with exchange links with the University of Manchester, earned a salary of $784468. In the same year, the University of Chicago’s President Robert Zimmer was paid a staggering $3358723, although 40 per cent of this income was a result of deferred

compensation.

In a time of food banks and cuts, the 2010 parliament has been one of the most elitist in recent memory. A report by the Sutton Trust in 2010 found that over one-third of sitting MPs attended public schools. The house is also only 20 per cent female. In a similar vein, until quite recently, Rothwell was the only female Vice-Chancellor of a Russell Group university and for this reason is seen as a role model to many.

Given this context, I ask what advice she would give to female students who aspire to the higher professions such as politics and academia.

“I think it’s easier than it has been in the past because there is a genuine predominance of the view that we need more diversity, whether that’s gender or ethnicity. It’s much, much stronger than it’s ever been before. I would encourage female students to absolutely go for that profession if they want.

“One of the sad things I find is that in academia, some outstanding women get to a point in their career and say, ‘I just don’t want to go onto that next step because it’s so hard and it’s such long hours.’ We have to change that view and make them think: ‘You can do it!’ There is a significant confidence issue amongst women.”

It isn’t exactly a controversial thing to say that the Russell Group is still a very elitist group of universities. The University of Manchester has a better record than many of the other universities in the group, but it still suffers from of a distinct lack of black professors and students from state schools and ethnic minority backgrounds are still underrepresented.

Rothwell appears to share this concern:

“It’s a big worry for us; we’re doing a lot of work on race equality. One of the issues we do find is that [of the] Manchester Access Programme students who come through from very disadvantaged backgrounds, quite a few choose not to apply to certain universities because they feel that they won’t be at home there. So they might be more likely to apply to Manchester and Liverpool, than they might be to some others because they feel that there will be more people like them there. It becomes a bit self-perpetuating. My father pushed me to go to Oxbridge, but I said I just don’t want to. I was from a state school.”

At this point Rothwell laughs and asks me why I haven’t grilled her yet about claiming £22000 on flights, seeing as the story was on the front page of The Mancunion this week. I put it to her that I personally would expect someone who has worked their way up to being Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Manchester to be flying business class.

“I don’t think it’s an expectation,” she responds. “I didn’t comment on the M.E.N. article because I didn’t think there was much point. It was interesting actually.

In the vote at the end of the article, 40 per cent thought it was reasonable. But it’s not reasonable for the luxury. I flew to France and back for a conference and I went economy obviously. You only fly business class if it’s more than six hours. I went to Singapore. I arrived at 5pm; my first meeting was at 7 that night. I did a dinner, I started the next morning at 8, worked all day, had dinner, took the 1am flight and was back in the office at 9am the next morning. There is no way I could do that on economy.”

Before becoming Vice-Chancellor and President in 2010, Rothwell had a long and successful career as a scientist, conducting vital research into the causes of stroke and the role of inflammation in brain disease.

She was made a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2004. Given her scientific background, I wonder what she would say to humanities students like me, who often feel marginalised in a society that appears to favour science students.

“I don’t think they should feel that at all.

Most employers, unless it’s for a specialised career, want a student from a good university with a good degree. Humanities degrees are highly valued by society. I think humanities almost has a chip on its shoulder at the moment and I don’t think that it should. Get a good degree, never mind the subject.”

To conclude, in a moment of shameless idealism I ask the Vice-Chancellor whether she thinks that we will ever reach a point of deficit reduction where fees can be abolished altogether again. “I think we might,” she reflects. “It depends on whether society accepts that university education is beneficial to society as well as to the individual.”

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NEWS : 07

Bebo and cannabis: An interview with Paul Birch

Chair of the UK’s first party campaigning solely for legalising cannabis speaks to News Editor Anna Phillips about the War On Drugs, cannabis in the media, and the vision of the legalisation

Photo: CISTA

CISTA, which stands for Cannabis Is Safer Than Alcohol, is a new political party that is campaigning for a Royal Commission into existing UK laws regarding cannabis.

The party is planning to field as many as 40 candidates in this May’s General Election in order to force the issue of cannabis legalisation on to the parliamentary agenda. Paul Birch, who co-founded social network site Bebo before it was sold to AOL for £548 million in 2008, is among the party’s election candidates.

Birch told The Mancunion that he was inspired to found the party after he became aware that cannabis was significantly safer than alcohol and that the media had failed to be transparent with people about the reality of the drug. He spoke passionately about the UK’s failure in the War On Drugs and why legalisation would be so beneficial for both our society and our economy.

“More recently, I’ve been inspired by the success in Colorado and three other US states where they’ve got fully regulated legalised cannabis and I thought this was a time when the UK needs to get its act together and go and do it properly, not have an illegal market that supports criminals.”

Speaking in an article about Channel 4’s Drugs Live programme, in which viewers could watch national treasure Jon Snow being sent to a ‘dark place’ after being given

a huge amount of high strength cannabis or ‘skunk’, Birch suggested it was “the equivalent of forcing a teetotaller to down a bottle of vodka and then asking him how he feels”.

Making the obligatory Jon Snow reference, I asked him whether he thinks there is stigma surrounding the drug and whether the media is partly to blame for failing to correct and furthering misinformation.

“I think there is a lot less of a stigma than there used to be but what’s happening now is that the media and some of the tabloids are trying to mislead people as to how dangerous cannabis is, hence this whole term ‘skunk’ which is basically a way of confusing people.”

He referenced an online article by the Daily Mail, which published a series of American studies that found that cannabis is 144 times safer than alcohol.

“Daily Mail did publish it online but it didn’t make the newspaper print copy.

Then The Daily Telegraph covered the same story but couldn’t bring themselves to mention the fact of it being safer by ‘114’ times, it was quite a bizarre article. The papers have definitely changed their tune a little bit in the last few years. They used to be more against cannabis than they are now. It is definitely a move towards being open to it but they’re still not honest with people about what is safer.”

According to a YouGov poll commissioned by CISTA, 44 per cent of respondents supported the legalisation and regulation of cannabis in a manner similar to that of alcohol, 42 per cent voted against legalisation and 14 per cent were undecided.

On the issue of comparing the safety of cannabis to alcohol, 18 per cent of voters agreed that cannabis is safer than alcohol, 19 per cent thought that alcohol was safer than cannabis, and 51 per cent thought they were about the same.

“What else we found out from our poll is that 82 per cent of people who said they thought cannabis was safer than alcohol, also said that it should be legalised which is why the media are so determined in part to confuse people about its safety, because they know that once people understand how safe it is, most people support regulating it.

“So we see that those people who think it’s ‘about the same’ can easily be tipped into understanding that it actually is significantly safer. Young people in particular are much more understanding of the safety element than older people.”

On CISTA’s website it states that the current drug policy costs the UK an extra £361 million per year; this amount is spend on things such as extra policing and the treatment of those who consume illegally traded cannabis, which is often adulterated with PCP or glass. Based on research carried out by the Institute for Social and Economic Research, it also suggests that if cannabis was legally regulated, the Exchequer would benefit from as much as £900 million, as the state of Colorado has already made $50 million in cannabis tax since legalisation in 2014.

“There are lots of economic justifications.

There is basically no coherent argument against change; there are none. You will not find a politician who will give you a coherent answer, all they will give you is rhetoric and then move on to the next topic. They will say something like ‘cannabis is dangerous’, but alcohol is dangerous and yet it is licensed and legal and it kills anywhere between 10 and 20 thousand people a year depending on which stats you want to believe.

“I think it is considered a significant issue. I think it is a significant issue that the two major parties don’t really want to talk about. I challenge anyone to find any labour or conservative policy spending more than a minute quickly fending off the question and moving on to the next topic because

they don’t have any evidence to support what they’re doing. Their arguments are non-existent for supporting carrying on what they’re doing. They don’t have any rationale apart from ‘I think I might lose a few votes if I decide to change it’.

“Obviously liberal democrats are very pro-reform and there’s going to be a lot of drug policy quotes in their manifesto, I believe, when they publish it in the near future. But typically parties like the SNP, either they don’t have any drug policy in their manifesto or they have one or two sentences and nothing ever progresses.”

So far CISTA has been campaigning across the UK for candidates to stand in May’s General Election. They currently have around 15 candidates and are set to gain at least 40 leading up to the Election. Their candidates range from age 18 to over 50 and are dotted throughout the UK and Ireland.

“People have been applying at a rate of two people per day to be candidates, so a lot of people feel very strongly about the topic which is in part why we set it up. We think Manchester is a great place for us to be doing campaigns as there is a lot of support, partly because there is a significant student population.”

I ask him about the issue of young cannabis users, in light of statistics that revealed the legalisation of cannabis in Colorado lead to a significant decrease in the number of young people who used the drug. Colorado legalised cannabis and state-wide retail sales of the drug in 2014.

“In Holland they have a version of legal cannabis, and consumption amongst young people is less there than it is in the UK. The legal market is quite potentially protective of young people because they diminish the black market and therefore the regulated suppliers where people go do an age check, which no illegal drug dealer is ever going to bother with. There’ll be less criminals operating within the market as opportunity is diminished [sic].”

Ultimately, CISTA stands for harm reduction, it wants to break stereotypes, and cut the UK deficit while pushing people towards safer cannabis options. Birch suggests that in the long term, “people would be healthier as they are more informed and are consuming drugs on more of a level playing field, whereas at the moment people are pushed to consume alcohol.”

CISTA’s manifesto is set to come out at the end of this month and should see a mix of their own policies, as well as some from the Liberal Democrats, the Greens, the Labour, and Conservative Parties.

According to Birch, CISTA hopes that “one day one of those parties deals back elements of our manifesto when they want to progress their own manifesto in this area”.

“If you think that cannabis should be legal either vote for us, or if they are really excited about it then visit our website which is CISTA.org and consider being a candidate. There’s no shortage of opportunity.”

Photo: CISTA

Undercover Warwick: Plain Clothes Security Both the University of Manchester and Warwick University have admitted to using plain-clothes security officers in an undercover capacity after the confrontation of one such security officer ocurred on Warwick’s campus The Mancunion can reveal that Warwick University is employing plain-clothed security officers on its campus. A video, published by Warwick for Free Education, shows students confronting a security officer.

The students appear to have recognised the security officer and approached him. He was asked by the students: “You’re a security guard, aren’t you?” The guard did not reply to the initial question but replied when asked by a second student: “Are you Warwick security?”

The guard was asked “Why are you wearing plain clothes?” He replied “Because I am instructed by manage-

ment to.” He then declined to answer further questions, saying: “If you want to ask my management, they’ll be able to give you the information.”

However, he did reveal to them that “a lot of members of staff” do wear plain-clothes and he believes they have been doing it in the past. He then showed his identification card to the students filming the video but neglected to show it directly to the camera.

The Mancunion contacted Warwick University and a spokesperson for the university said: “There is nothing new or unusual in this. For as long as I have been here—25 years—our security staff have been deployed both in and

out of uniform for a range of duties.

“The very fact that they remain easily recognisable to students who have had interactions with security and that this member of staff was happy to confirm his role when asked should be noted. You will of course I am sure also note that there are quite a number of comments from students on that Facebook posting, which are supportive of that officer in his work.”

Warwick for Free Education released a statement, which said: “Warwick has its own secret police! We can reveal that uni [sic] security are now regularly deploying plainclothes security staff ‘for our own safety’.

Thanks Warwick, we feel so safe now!”

The University of Manchester assured the Mancunion that it was rarely done at the University of Manchester. A spokesperson said: “In rare circumstances where there is a specific crime issue on campus against students and staff, such as theft from person, cycle or vehicle crime, the University will use security officers in a plain clothes observational role in conjunction with the police.

This role is supported by fully uniformed security officers and CCTV.” We spoke to a second-year Warwick student who told us that she wasn’t aware of it and said: “As a

Warwick student, I find it unusual that security officers are deployed in plain-clothes because in the event of an emergency, students would not know to turn to them.

“In a way it keeps an eye on students in a non-invasive way whilst keeping campus secure but on the other hand it’s difficult to identify non-uniformed security.”

08 : Features

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Political Party Profiles Jenny Sterne News Editor

The Mancunion spoke to youth branches from the Students’ Union of the five main political parties running in this year’s general election.

The general election is to be held on Thursday 7 May. The youth branches were questioned on the actions they are taking in the run up to the General Election and why they think student participation is important. We also questioned them on the policy and

Gen-

pledges of their parties and how this promises will benefit students.

There is still time to register to vote here https://www. gov.uk/register-to-vote and all next week the Students’ Union are running a week of voter registration events ranging from free tea and coffee to a 50ft Helter Skelter.

This year’s general election is set to be one of the closest and many important issues are being debated. Make sure you don’t lose your say in the future of Britain.

The Labour Party What are you doing as a youth branch of your political party in the run up to the general election? And why do you think it’s important that students get involved in politics?

Lots and lots of door knocking! We go campaigning in Withington every Wednesday (we meet outside the Friendship Inn at 2pm) as it’s our local key seat and we want to do as much as possible to get John Leech out and Jeff Smith in. On the weekends, we usually attend a national campaign weekend – where Labour Students from all over the country come together to campaign in a key seat. 197 seats could be completely swayed by students at the next General Election. This means that we have the power in our hands to completely change the future of the country, so we need to get out there and vote for the party that offers the best alternative for young people – i.e. the Labour Party.

What is your political party’s stance in regards to tuition fees and higher education in general?

The Labour Party will reduce tuition fees to £6,000 a year and increase maintenance grants by £400 per year, however we will be looking at moving towards a graduate tax in the future.

Students who are currently in first year will also have their tuition fees capped at £6,000 for the rest of their time at university. We will increase the teaching grant that universities receive by £2.7billion to ensure that a reduction in the fees universities receive from English students will not affect the quality of teaching they give students.

If your party wins the general election how will they tackle the issue of youth unemployment? And what would they do about exploitative unpaid internships?

We will guarantee a paid job for every 16-24 year old that has been unemployed for over a year.

We will stop exploitative unpaid internships by making it a legal requirement for firms to pay full-time interns the national minimum wage after four weeks.

What is your party’s position on lowering the voting age to 16 for UK elections?

The Labour Party have pledged to lower the voting age to 16 when in Government. They will also improve citizenship education in schools to ensure that young people are informed about the political system from a young age in order to improve engagement.

To sum up, why do you think your political party is best suited to run the country for the next five years?

We are the party who will look after the interests of the many, not just the privileged few. A Labour Government will do better for young people at all stages in their lives: from giving 25hours of free childcare to three and four year olds; to smaller class sizes in Primary schools; lower tuition fees for university students, and better quality apprenticeships for the 50% of students who do not wish to go on to further education but have been forgotten by this Government; then after leaving education we will have a job for every young person has been unemployed for over a year. We will put patient care back at the heart of the NHS and repeal the Health and Social Care Act which has only focused on profit and ensure that everyone earns wages they can afford to live on by increasing the minimum wage to £8 an hour. Voting for the Labour Party is a vote for a Government that will make fair choices that allow a better future for everyone in Britain.

The Green Party

If your party wins the general election how will they tackle the issue of youth unemployment? And what would they do about exploitative unpaid internships?

What are you doing as a youth branch of your political party in the run up to the general election? And why do you think it’s important that students get involved in politics?

We would end austerity and restore the public sector, creating over one million jobs that pay at least the living wage. We believe that Interns and trainees should be entitled to the national minimum wage and no-one should be forced to take an unpaid internship or required to pay in order to work.

3 of our parliamentary candidates in the Manchester constituencies are young adults, as are many of our councillor candidates. We know that people like our policies when they hear them, and we will be emphasising the fact that in many parts of Manchester, particularly in areas where students live, the Green Party is now the second placed political opposition so that Green votes really could get Green politicians elected. So many of us will be standing for election, and those who aren't will be campaigning for them.

It's important for students to get involved in politics as throughout history it has been shown that students are often at the forefront of creating change. It is important that students make sure that politics is something that we do, rather than something that is done to us.

What is your political party’s stance in regards to tuition fees and higher education in general?

Green Party policy is that we shouldn't have tuition fees and that higher education should be paid for by progressive general taxation because we believe that education is a public good. We would like to see all existing tuition fee debt brought on by previous governments removed from graduates and current students.

What is your party’s position on lowering the voting age to 16 for UK elections?

The party fully supports votes at 16.

To sum up, why do you think your political party is best suited to run the country for the next five years?

The Green Party don't just care about the environment (as important as that is), we have a wide range of policies that many people agree people with. As well as those listed in this interview, we would also fight for: a publicly funded, publicly provided health service free at the point of use, secure and affordable housing for everyone and return the railways to public hands to stop profits being put before passengers. If readers are unsure of voting for us in the General elections, we would urge them to at least vote for us in the local election so that we can have a Green voice on Manchester council.

Features : 09

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UKIP What are you doing as a youth branch of your political party in the run up to the general election? And why do you think it’s important that students get involved in politics?

Despite being a new society, Manchester UKIP Students is getting fully involved in the UKIP general election campaign. We’re joining action days around the Manchester constituencies, particularly in the UKIP target seats, which we have a very good chance of winning. We’re also setting up debates with the other political societies, to increase awareness of UKIP’s policies amongst students.

Decisions made today impact everyone’s lives, including students, whether it’s now in higher education policy and the cost of living, or in the future when you’re buying a home. As many people as possible should get involved to ensure the best decisions are made for this country.

What is your political party’s stance in regards to tuition fees and higher education in general?

In the UK we are incredibly fortunate to have a world class higher education system. However, the target of 50% of young people going to university has seen the value of a degree decrease, whilst driving the cost skywards. UKIP would remove this target, and instead prioritise degrees in areas where there is high demand for quality students, offering free tuition to approved degrees in science, medicine, technology, engineering and maths. UKIP also believes that not everyone is suited for university, and that many people are better off doing apprenticeships and vocational courses rather than racking up huge debt for a degree that won’t get them a job at the end of it.

edy this, UKIP would broaden our education system, allowing students the option to take an Apprenticeship Qualification instead of four non-core GCSEs. An Australian, points-based immigration policy would help alleviate the oversupply of labour, and we would allow employers to prioritise young British workers, ensuring they can get that first step on the career ladder. Whilst UKIP has not issued a specific policy on unpaid internships, we would condemn any form of labour which could be classified as exploitative.

What is your party’s position on lowering the voting age to 16 for UK elections?

UKIP is opposed to lowering the voting age. The majority of 16 year-olds are still living at home and in full-time education, and so don’t have any experience of independent living, managing a budget or dealing with the cost of living. Therefore, we don’t believe that a 16 year-old has the experience or maturity to influence decisions in these areas. In addition, if a 16 year-old is allowed to vote then they would also have to be allowed to stand for parliament, which for the same reasons we think would not be appropriate.

To sum up, why do you think your political party is best suited to run the country for the next five years?

The UK political system has been dominated by career politicians who have led us into unnecessary wars, crippled the NHS with debt, opened our borders to uncontrollable mass immigration and destroyed democracy by handing power to unelected bureaucrats and big business in the EU. The British people deserve better and UKIP is the only party committed to controlling immigration through a points-based, skills-focused system that is fair and ensures sustainable migration. The only party which will genuinely protect the NHS and improve social mobility through grammar schools. But above all else UKIP will restore democracy in Britain by offering an immediate EU referendum, and championing direct democracy in British politics.

If your party wins the general election how will they tackle the issue of youth unemployment?

And what would they do about exploitative unpaid internships?

We believe that youth unemployment is the result of two major issues: a mismatch of skills in training and education, and an oversupply of unskilled labour from uncontrolled immigration. To rem-

Conservatives

If your party wins the general election how will they tackle the issue of youth unemployment?

And what would they do about exploitative unpaid internships?

What are you doing as a youth branch of your political party in the run up to the general election? And why do you think it’s important that students get involved in politics?

The issue of youth unemployment is stubborn and difficult to solve, the key is not reactionary measures, but instead a long-lasting commitment to equip young people with the skills they need to get on in life: from primary right through to higher education Conservatives are investing in young people. Under this Government a million more children are being taught in schools that are either good or outstanding. We are a nation of strivers, education like this is the only real way to tackle youth unemployment and let people be limited by nothing but their ambition.

As Manchester Conservative Future (the youth branch of the Conservative Party in Manchester), we’re all working flat-out in supporting our local candidates: not a week goes by where we aren’t pounding the pavements or working the phones. I also believe each and every member of the society has a responsibility to spread the achievements the Conservatives have made whilst in government. Raising the tax free allowance, creating more apprenticeships than ever before and supporting an economy that rewards those who work hard: these are all Conservative achievements that are improving the lives of young people up and down the country, which we should be immensely proud of.

Young people often feel isolated and disengaged from politics, but if they do not stand up and make their voices heard, things will never change. Not everyone wants to join a political society or become actively involved in politics, but each and every one of us has a right to have our say in the way in which our country is run; and I believe we all have a duty to do so.

What is your political party’s stance in regards to tuition fees and higher education in general?

A good quality degree is an investment in your future, on average graduates earn more and enjoy a better standing of living than those without a degree. We must also all remember that if this investment doesn’t pay off, you pay nothing back. Whilst the increase in tuition fees has been controversial, the figures speak for themselves: more university applications than ever before, more students from disadvantaged backgrounds than ever before and higher student satisfaction for their degrees. As a student and a Conservative I’m proud that my party’s policies are increasing social mobility and letting people get access to the high quality education they deserve.

Where companies are blatantly exploiting young people, they should face the full force of the law.

But we must also remember the benefits and skills internships can equip us with and as such, no policy should result in lowering the number of internships which would simply result in hurting the young more than before.

What is your party’s position on lowering the voting age to 16 for UK elections?

We are against lowering the voting age, and here’s why: The UK has some of the lowest voter turnout of any developed economy and to me lowering the voting age seems to be somewhat missing the point. Isn’t it far more important to engage with those who already have the vote and encourage them to use their democratic right before going further? Even as someone who is throughly immersed in the political world, I’m not sure I was ready to vote at 16: it’s better to wait, develop your opinions and have your say when you, yourself are sure in your convictions.

To sum up, why do you think your political party is best suited to run the country for the next five years?

This election is a straight fight between the Conservatives and Labour despite what anyone else may tell you. The Greens, UKIP and the Lib Dems can’t, and won’t decide this election. Who you vote for comes down to what you believe: a country that rewards those who contribute, a government that refuses to saddle countless future generations with mounds of debt, a party that will boost and every one of our living standards- that’s what you’ll get with the Conservatives. Vote Labour for skyhigh debt, broken promises, weak leadership and a complete lack of vision. Red or blue, you decide.

The choice is as stark as that.

Liberal Democrats Did not respond to all attempts The Mancunion made to gain responses to these questions.

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Opinion

ISSUE 19/ 16th MARCH 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

@MancunionOp

Editors’ Procrastination by watching TV is good for us!

Foreword Is primetime televesion a useful diadactic tool to inform us about stigmatised illness?

Marcus Johns Morris Seifert

This week is the last print issue of The Mancunion and therefore the last print issue of the Opinion section.

We would like to thank all of our contributors this year for some truly well written, well argued, and memorable articles. We would also like to thank guest contributors and other editors for their excellent content and support.

This year’s has certainly been the best year Opinion has ever had and it’s all because of our excellent submissions.

We will still be updating the website and you should follow us on twitter to keep up: @MancunionOp. Like us on Facebook too for news about next year’s issues at facebook.com/MancunionOp

Editors’ favourites 2015-16

Religion: Force of Evil of Force for Good?

Ben Farren & Samuel Gilmore Issue 02

Leanne Charlotte Contributor Many of us students procrastinate by watching our favourite TV soap operas such as EastEnders, Coronation Street, Emmerdale and Hollyoaks. In recent years, these soaps have merged education with entertainment, often taking controversial topics and highlighting the key concerns facing those affected. Because soaps reach a much wider audience than most health media campaigns, their impact can shape public understanding of a range of issues and everyday challenges concerning the general public.

We become engrossed in the storylines involving our favourite characters, and this can have a huge impact on how we perceive forms of illnesses, in particular those concerning mental health. Previously, sufferers have been afraid to speak out about their experiences and seek help. The introduction of such storylines in soaps has opened the door to important discussion and research surrounding mental illness.

In Coronation Street, publican Steve Macdonald is a witty, unassuming and muchloved character. The storyline traces his developing symptoms of depression until he eventually agrees to see his GP and attend counselling. The Coronation Street team were commended for the research they undertook prior to the storyline which led to the excellent portrayal of the illness and its detrimental effects, encouraging sufferers to come forward and seek help. This is echoed in Emmerdale where Belle, following her involvement in a tragic death, shows mental health problems affecting a young teenager.

It is about time people realised the impor-

tance of recognising mental health issues in today’s society. The issues don’t mean a person is “crazy” or “violent”–rather it simply means they need guidance and support to overcome the obstacles which are in no way self-inflicted.

I am so glad that the media are creating these storylines so individuals aren’t afraid to speak up and gain help. It shows how mental health problems can affect anyone of any age, gender and circumstance, and importantly, highlight that help is available and that sufferers are not alone.

I can see how this could become the catalyst for viewers who identify with the problems being played out in ‘Soapland’ and encourage them to seek medical advice in reality.

Other serious health issues which have been covered recently include Emmerdale’s Cain Dingle having a life threatening brain aneurysm, Eastenders’ Carol Jack-

son’s battle to overcome breast cancer, and a Hollyoaks character coping with being HIV positive. All this is valuable because it reflects our real life challenges, and the influence soaps have on individuals shouldn’t be undermined. In the wake of the Jimmy Saville, Rolf Harris and Gary Glitter sex abuse cases, and with the child grooming scandals from Yorkshire and Greater Manchester fresh in our minds, Emmerdale have featured a powerful storyline of sexual assault.

Alicia is attacked by a troubled 14-yearold schoolboy, Lachlan. She falls asleep following too much birthday champagne, but awakens to find him sexually assaulting her. This is a shocking event given that she has missed the warning signs of his infatuation, but the situation turns darker when she, in turn, is accused of grooming him and is then wrongly labelled a paedophile.

Some people have argued that this sto-

Could watching this thing all day actually be good for us?

Photo: Kevin Simpson @ Flickr

ryline is a step too far, and complaints have been made to Ofcom, but I feel that this is an important angle to explore. Just because something is controversial does not mean that soaps should ignore such storylines. Although some may see this as TV companies capitalising on people’s personal struggles and negative experiences, there’s a wider positive effect taking place as people become more educated on issues that matter.

Such controversial issues lead to increased activity on social media as viewers use Twitter or post on Facebook whilst the programme is being aired. I know that talking about issues such as mental health storylines via social media allows viewers to discuss with a wider community issues raised which may be relevant to their own lives, which is the first step to sufferers pursuing help and other individuals understanding their struggle.

It also changes the perception of issues which the viewers may not have had personal experience of and helps remove the stigma attached to certain illnesses. For me, this can only be a good thing.

Some storylines go beyond social media and become hot topics within newspapers and television news programmes. In Coronation Street, terminally ill Hayley Cropper’s decision to end her own life through assisted suicide caused heated debate across the UK. In the end, Hayley did not need assistance to drink the lethal drug, but her actions reignited fierce debate about the ‘right to die’.

Given that Lord Falconer’s Assisted Dying Bill is about to be given its third reading soon, this storyline did much to inform the public. I believe this shows how right soaps are to sensitively highlight such important topics.

Religion and faith: two different ideas?

Should we criticise Israel?

Ben Farren & Deepanshi Marina Iskander Issue 05 Contributor

The Hateriarchy Swane O’Pie Issue 06

An Ode to Christmas Joe Evans Issue 12

The Misinformation Age Charlie Spargo Issue 16

With the world constantly afire with news of terrorist groups carrying out brutal crimes, it seems as if they all have one common basis: religion. At first face, it truly seems that any belief so strong and radical, may it be of any God or an allegedly holy book, must be a source of evil. However, by looking at different cultures and backgrounds, the issue seems to be a problem of how religion is addressed and not religion itself.

In a recent poll by the Student Union, University of Manchester students were asked if the world would be more peaceful without religion. With 49 votes for the “undecided” option, a very slim majority (141) believed that it wouldn’t be, as opposed to the 107 voters who did. However, had the question been asked to students of the same age group in a different part of the world, say the Middle East, for example, the outcome would not have been so close; there would be an almost unanimous agreement that religion is a source of good.

It seems, therefore, that how one is raised to regard religion has a much bigger affect on their attitude towards it than whatever their religion actually is.

For the purpose of comparing how religion is seen in different cultures, societies can be divided into two categories: individualist and collectivist. The terms were first coined in the 1970s by researcher Geert Hofstede, who collected information about different cultures and divided them into different dimensions. On one hand, a collectivist culture is one where people are encouraged to do what is best for society as a whole; community needs are put before those of the individual, and the idea of family is central. On the other hand, in individualistic cultures, people are more independent and their actions do not represent their family as a whole. Unsurprisingly, it is the collectivist cultures that tend to be more religious. In places like central Asia, the Middle East and South America, religion is central to one’s identity, mainly because of the inherent need to have a uni-

fying force between the closely-knit members of each community. Generation after generation, it becomes firmly established that everyone must fall neatly into a certain faith and not step out of its traditions or morals. Any change of the norm does not only shame the individual, but also their family and friends.

Take Egypt for example. While this may seem hard to believe here, but in Egypt, a citizen’s religion is written on their national identification card. Religion, in such cultures, is more than a matter of faith, but it is instead part of one’s identity. In Egypt specifically, your ID will either read out Muslim or Christian – there is no middle ground. People may have their own beliefs, but that can never change the family they were born into. It also does not matter that the majority of Egyptians are Muslim: this culture of religiosity makes Egyptian Christians more religious and traditional than Christians in countries like the United States, for example. It is unsurprising,

therefore, that something so essential and close to one’s persona is of great value to them. Attacking their religion is more than attacking their opinion, and is rather an attack and on their very core.

This often has devastating consequences. Setting aside any stereotypes attached to either of the above-mentioned religions, the most essentially peacefully religions can easily become radicalised when their followers feel personally victimised or attacked. Whether these feelings, or their reactions towards them, are justified is a whole other issue.

As an Egyptian Christian who has only recently moved here, my first visit to church proved one thing: there is a huge difference between whole-heartedly choosing to follow a religion and being raised into it. In Egypt, being a Christian meant that your parents are both Christians who baptised you when you were young and have taken you to church every Sunday since. Being a Christian here, however, more often than

not, means that you took the educated choice of following a certain faith with all it may entail. The former, which is often found in collectivist cultures, fits its purpose perfectly: you are raised to traditionally follow your religion, without stepping out of line or embarrassing your family.

The latter option, however, entails that you actually chose whom to be, and will thus follow your faith as a matter of personal autonomy and not because you feel you are forced to.

At the end of the day, all that is left is a group of people who, to their core, are taught to follow the rules of their community. Their religion has determined their way of life for as long as they have existed, and thus it means more to them than any westerner can fathom. While this in no way vindicates the inhumane acts of any terrorist claiming to fight for their religion, it at least serves to explain that it is more than a belief that has made them so violent, it’s their identity.

Is there a dark side to religion and faith?

Photo: John Suler @ Flickr

Opinion

ISSUE 19/ 16th MARCH 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

facebook.com/mancunionop

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Beware those who fly their flag Joe Evans Contributor Last week the area around Manchester City Hall was essentially locked down by the arrival of the English Defence League. I wandered down, and witnessed around 400 EDL supporters marching through Manchester, arousing little more than a raised eyebrow. The infamously violent far-right group managed just four arrests, shouted a lot of incoherent slogans and left. Manchester didn’t want them here, and largely responded with a brilliant display of total apathy to their march.

If the event then was such an exhibition of futility though, why have I chosen to bring it up?

It’s because this movement is driven by a greater disruptive force than just 400 hundred English men feeling united by a sense of Queen, country and Fosters. It is driven by a resurfacing sense of nationalism than is simmering all over the country. While Manchester barley flinched at the EDL’s arrival, the emergence of UKIP, the BNP and Britain First all evidence the trend. Britishness is becoming more and more vocal. It is not only becoming more vocal but it is becoming harder, and more dangerous, to ignore.

Ignore the ignorant is normally the advice I would give for dealing with these kinds of groups.

The trouble is that they are getting a little to big to ignore. Furthermore they evoke nationalism not in order to promote pride or kinship, much as they would claim to do so. They evoke nationalist ideology in order to provoke fear. ‘This is our way of life, we all like it and its changing’. A glance to ‘Meet the Ukippers’ evidences just this. These people are taking advantage of a small world syndrome that permeates many of England’s provincial towns. In the name of national pride and history they are convincing people to support a movement built on anti-assimilation and the creation of binaries.

Without an ‘us’ and ‘them’ mentality, the movement falls flat. Without a sense that anybody different is threatening, the emerging far-right has nothing to attack. In that sense nationalism is its greatest tool in the promotion of driving people to extremes. Evoke national pride and patriotism and people will live and die for an imagined sense The Oxford dictionary defines Feminism as the following: “The advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of equality of the sexes.” I define Feminism as the following: “The advocacy of a vitriolic rodomontade on men, blaming societal maladies on the artificially constructed and nonsensical patriarchy.” Which of these two definitions is correct? Well, one of them in coruscating fashion alludes to the notion that equality of the sexes is not going to be achieved by focusing on the rights of one sex over the other; to capriciously assign blame to the other sex whilst simultaneously claiming to be an allencompassing movement IS NOT being an allencompassing movement. I am here to argue that Feminism is a dated, obsolete movement that needs urgent renovation to hold credibility, or to forever lose itself to societal critique as an extremist movement.

Feminist ideological thought finds the hub of its axis at a concept known as the Patriarchy. The Patriarchy stands as the pernicious, acrimonious enemy in which all men consciously or otherwise form a part of. In common parlance; men stand with an advantage in today’s society.

Feminists frequently perpetuate the “Genderwage pay gap” myth to elucidate this point of conjecture. Yet, this is an incorrect and dated argument, and here’s why. First, the equal pay act of 1970 (superseded by the equality act of 2012) clearly states as law that: “the right to equal pay for equal work” this is one that must be maintained in any workplace. This, by definition renders any “but two of my friends are both lawyers and B earns X and G earns Y” arguments null. There has to be another explanation for any disparity between our good friends B and G, and there are a multitude of possibilities for this, instead of simply blaming ubiquitous sexism: B could have simply been more aggressive in the wage negotiations, a simple clause in his contract stating that he would be paid X amount, which just so happened to be more than G agreed to.

A recent inquiry into the Gender-wage pay gap highlights the real reasons behind any correlation that may be found of men earning a higher wage. Career expert Marty Nemko analyses the reasons behind any gap that may be found, and offers the following as suitable alternatives. First, there is a tendency for men to work more hours than their female counterparts,

The causes of radicalisation are becoming America’s heritage?’. What this to me highlights is the difficulty for some in detaching themselves increasingly difficult to pin point from national pride to build a considered response.

Photo: Mr Gareth M @ Flickr

of nationalism that is promoted as a binding force.

Look to the brotherhood amongst EDL protestors.

It stems from a sense of being bound by a greater force, but ask them to explain the greater force and they have no idea what it is.

That isn’t an attack on the intellectual abilities of the EDL’s support base, because nobody really knows what it is. Your nation is a randomly assigned locale of birth that comes attached with an abstract idea of what it is to be born on this patch of soil rather than a different patch of soil. Put into this context any sense of national attachment seems ridiculous. A person who joins a gang based on their postcode is deemed, by most, to be insane. The question most would ask is, ‘What are you fighting for?’. However, expand the borders of loyalty to a nation, rather than a postal address, and suddenly living and dying for that soil is rationalised.

Nationalism as something to bind us is a totally

absurd idea. I have more in common with a humanitarian, liberal German than with a UKIP supporting Brit. Based on this alone I won’t bind arms with him and salute the flag based simply on being born within the same 94,000 square miles of British soil.

Nationhood, with all its strange history and symbolism, is complex and cultivated by a lack of consideration of what it is. We blindly identify with whatever it is to be British without really considering what it is that we are saying.

Nationalism, it seems to me, gets in the way of independent and rational thought.

A few weeks ago I wrote an article about America and its relationship with guns. What struck me in the response was how often vitriolic, patriotic, rhetoric replaced any sense of rational.

‘Might it be that Americans love their guns because the empowerment of individual liberty their ownership manifests is a core element of

Feminism overlooks inequality of both genders Is Feminism right to focus on one gender or should it strive to include both?

What is being articulated in that argument is not a rational approach to gun regulation but a sense of attributing pseudo-religious importance to national heritage. Patriotism is replacing evolution and consideration.

To articulate this in slightly less verbose terms what that response serves to evoke is a shared sense of Americanism. He is evoking a sense of shared ideals amongst him fellow American’s.

To suggest any sense of shared ideas which we should join under the flag to praise is ridiculous, yet it slips into arguments like the debate surrounding guns and stagnates any chance of development.

This isn’t an attack on America either. It is true in the United Kingdom as well. The NHS is seem as something the British should be proud off.

Civilised, universal, healthcare delivered by Great Britain. However it is a humanitarian achievement not a British one. It happened on British soil, but it could have happened anywhere with a humanitarian outlook. If it’s a sense of intrinsic Britishness that led to its foundation that doesn’t explain modern British plans to privatise it.

Nationalism, as a phenomenon, is invented. It’s a myth. It is an impossible to define abstract that creates imagined communities amongst totally different people. This all seems benign, a force for good but beware it’s rise because it relies on tensions and on difference.

Anybody who evokes a sense of national pride in order to gain your support or trust does so to distinguish you and him from somebody else. It’s made clear in the rise of UKIP and the 400 EDL brothers in arms marching through Manchester.

They are there promoting one sense of national prides legitimacy over another when in fact we should be bound by our opinions and our outlook rather than our randomly assigned nationality.

I am no more proud of being British than of being a man or being left-handed, and I align myself no more with fellow Brits than anyone else for this reason. Humans should be bound together, regardless of their place on a map, and national divisions only provide another boundary in preventing that. to be brought about by assigning blame to the other half of society: claiming disadvantage in relation to men’s advantaged position; equality is not a zero-sum game, one does not gain while the other loses. Men suffer just as much from the ‘patriarchy’ as women do, albeit in different ways.

If we are going to play the skewered statistics game, consider that: 1. Men are four times more likely to commit suicide than women. The reason: The gender role men have been forced into by societal pressures. A real man: stoic, unemotional and uncompromised. All a recipe for a emotional explosion of repressed feeling.

2. Women are in 84% of cases the winner of custody. This is important, as custody is traditionally decided on who as the ability to take care of the child (care is defined as the ability to provide for the needs of the child: food, water, a safe home.) which, given that we are in a ‘patriarchal’ system logically it follows that men should have more custody, and yet…

3. 97% of combat deaths are men. This statistic maintains the argument that men are more willing to work in dangerous locations etc.

Photo: Peter Wright @ Flickr

Dan Smith Contributor that is to say 15% longer than the average fulltime working woman. Second, Men are far more likely to take work in uncomfortable, isolated and undesirable locations that pay more. This explication serves to propound the primary difference in motivation for men and women: for men, it is certainly money, whereas women place a higher premium on shorter work weeks, close proximity to their primary habitation, fulfilment, autonomy, and safety, according to Nemko.

This holds true in the business world as well, in which female business owners make less than half of what their male business

owner counterparts make. Before we jump on the allegorical patriarchal band wagon, let us examine that claim for a moment. As a business owner, they have no boss, meaning it is independent of discrimination. Again, this can be attributed to the difference in motivation.

Now that you and I, dear reader, have debunked the most pernicious of all feminist myths, let us examine the nature of the patriarchal evil that feminists so vehemently promulgate. Feminism is right to recognise that women suffer in today’s society, and of course, I want equality for women as much as the next man does, but, this is not

To conclude, it is clear to see that feminism is wholly right in highlighting the inequality that women suffer, the issue of contention lies in its subversive blaming mechanism which fails to appreciate the extent to which society pressures both of the sexes.

Thus, I would argue for a movement away from feminism, and assigning blame to society’s matrix as a whole, rather than attributing it to a certain sex within the matrix. There is a term for this, known as the Kyriarchy.

It was coined by Elisabeth Fiorenza a feminist in 1992 to enunciate her theory of interconnected systems within society: it stands as a social system or connecting social systems built around domination, oppression and submission.

It goes beyond gender when addressing the issue of subordination of one person or group to another, and therefore in my eyes is a far more suitable starting point when addressing the issue of inequality.

Music

12

ISSUE 19/ 16th MARCH 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Editors: Patrick Hinton, Lowell Clarke

Samuel Ward, Dan Whiteley

Interview Feature

Photo: Press Shot

the

MUSIC INTERVIEW

Patrick Hinton Music Editor

Bicep

Patrick Hinton speaks to Bicep about the musical culture of Manchester, being labelled 90s house revivalists, and who can bench more

Bicep: from bloggers to the big time.

Andy Ferguson and Matt McBriar started out posting their eclectic music taste on feelmybicep.com in 2008, and have grown in stature exponentially since with a string of impressive releases and DJ bookings across the world.

The musical culture of Manchester has influenced many a person towards dance music over the years. Andy studied at our fine University, but was also attending raves in Belfast from the age of 15. I question if Manchester was formative to his interest in dance music, or if he arrived in the city with a well-established interest: “Yeah I went to Manchester Uni to study Chemical Engineering and used to pick up this paper all the time around campus, mainly to check what was going on that week. When I went to Uni there was a vibrant - albeit very small - underground house music scene.”

“When I moved to Manchester all I knew was Shine in Belfast which was a techno Mecca, and moving to Manc at the time seemed like a much smaller scene. I used to hit up Sankeys Soap all the time in my first years, and that was a pretty special place and probably up there with my favourite clubs. When it changed to Sankeys it lost a bit of the grimey factor that I loved in the first place, it’s still ace but not a patch on what it was.”

“The city was definitely in a transition period for a few years when I arrived - WHP starting, Sankeys Soap coming to an end, and lots of small clubs also closing their doors (most notably Bierkeller in Piccadilly gardens where

Tramp! had their Wednesday party).

I would go out to the likes of Ricardo Villalobos at Sankeys Soap and there was max 300 people on occasions, whereas now there would be 10 times that at least.”

W e prefer to keep sharing tracks because then you keep digging for more “WHP has definitely changed the game in Manchester and got a bigger crowd into the underground music scene which I think is only a good thing.”

Bicep are set to play Warehouse Project’s festival Parklife this June.

“We have played Parklife since the first festival, Mad Ferret, and every year since so have grown with it. We have loved every year, Manchester Festival crowd is one of the best you can play.

Down early, going hard all day till late

and really in tune with the music, what more can you ask for?”

Looking further afield, the duo have DJ’d to crowds across the globe. “We love touring Europe, so many great countries and cities within a couple of hours from London. Sub Club, Panorama Bar, Robert Johnson and Concrete in Paris are some of our absolute favourite places.”

“It’s really nice to get the chance to visit Australia with our job, really love it down there. Also last summer doing Coachella and getting to spend a week in the desert in Joshua Tree was pretty special.”

Following his graduation, Andy spent time living in New York. “The idea of New York in the past (70s/80s) probably influenced me more than actually being there. As a child and growing up watching so many films I love (The Warriors, Escape from New York, Taxi Driver etc) set there, I found NYC nothing really like that.”

“There is no real sleaze factor there anymore, like when it was actually a dangerous place to live. Those john Carpenter-esque sounds and ideas still heavily influence the music we like and like to make though.”

2012 was a big year for Bicep, with the release of ‘Vision Of Love’ garnering a lot of attention. This however led to many slapping the duo with the tag of “90s house revivalists”, a term I felt lacked scope to the range of their production and sets. I question how they responded to this categorisation and if they now think they’ve transcended it: “Yeah I mean over the last couple of years there has been a take on a sound that was was big in the 90s (M1 organ and pianos

combined with a TR909) and that has become really popular, like MK even getting a number 1 hit from a style he championed back in the 90s actually.

It’s quite natural for journalists to label things; essentially it’s just a lazy way of trying to define a sound.”

“I would say looking at the wider sound of 90s house music, from super deep to jazzy to rave to nu groove type madness, we can look at some tracks from each part of the spectrum and see how some have influenced our work. In our heads it’s not really a revivalist thing it more a case of using analogue gear they did back then but making it work for a modern audience.”

Andy and Matt work together on all their tracks, but have also produced a number of collaborations with artists such as Midland and Ejeca which causes them to change their approach. “We generally let the other person lead the process, because generally they will take you in a complete opposite direction from the start.”

“We like to start out of the comfort zone, then its more exciting and challenging, from there we all work together to add our own stamp and make sure everyone is happy with the end product.”

Continuing on plans for future collaborations, Andy shares: “We’re planning to do something with the Simian Mobile Disco guys, but because our schedules are so busy its becoming harder to get a proper session together.

It will happen, just when the stars align.”

“Recently we have done a few more tracks with Hammer, one with a Manchester based artist Lapelle and another with a few guys from Toronto called Ebony which we will put up on our SoundCloud very soon.”

Starting Feel My Bicep at a time when there wasn’t exactly a lack of dance music blogs, the site managed to stand out from the crowd with an eclectic mix of genres and rare gems ripped from their own extensive vinyl collections.

Thousands now look to the blog to

find tracks; have there been any secret weapons the pair have regretted sharing with the world? “Haha no not really, we prefer to keep sharing because then you keep digging for more.”

Feel My Bicep parties have also gained world renown for the curation of stonking line ups and, of course, Bicep’s own DJing skills. Many of the world’s finest DJs have played, but one guest who hasn’t that they’d love to book is “Aphex Twin”. Branching out from DJing, Andy reveals plans are in motion for a Bicep live set: “Hopefully sooner rather than later, both of us are really excited about starting this venture.”

Finally, a duo operating under the name of Bicep – the question on everybody’s lips is surely: who can bench more? “Never had a competition, but Matt benched a girl in the Green Room of Corsica Studios, I wouldn’t have been able to do that.”

Matt benched a girl in the Green Room of Corscia Studios

Bicep will be playing on the Bugged Out stage at Parklife Festival on Sunday 7th June. For more information and tickets please visit: http://parklife.uk.com/

Fs Dan

Top 5

TOP

Songs

5

1. The Cure - Boys Don’t Cry

in the field of Goodbye

Samuel Ward, Music Editor

True, but not for music editors.

2. Queen - Another One Bites The Dust

3. Caribou - Can’t Do Without You

4. Frank Sinatra - My Way

5. Hudson Mohawke Scud Books

Hopefully the memories of our beloved term will echo through the ages within the beat of this song, along with Gladiators.

Bou hou we’ve been muttering this to ourselves all afternoon.

It’ll be hard to hold back the tears at Parklife...

The world’s most popular funeral song, probably. Frank is dead, and so are we.

The end of the adventure, like a cheesey 90’s film - an epic electronic castrophany so immense it could be heard far away in space. Credits roll.

ISSUE 19/ 16th MARCH 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

: @MancunionMusic : / TheMancunionMusicSection

The Mancunion Festival Guide WIRELESS 3rd - 5th July Wireless is hosted in Finsbury Park again this year after its brief stint at the Olympic Park in 2013. 2015 sees the festival celebrate its 10th anniversary and once again does not disappoint in bringing the biggest names in urban and dance music to London this summer. Headline acts include Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Nicki Minaj, David Guetta and

SECRET GARDEN PARTY 23rd - 26th July

From the 23rd to the 26th July, acres of Cambridgeshire will be home once again to Secret Garden Party. This eclectic festivals boasts creativity like no other as a mix of people create shows, stalls, floats, art and more, in a beautiful setting of landscaped garden, river and lake. This year’s theme of Childish Things will encompass the

FARR FESTIVAL 16th - 18th July

Farr Festival returns for its 6th incarnation. As ever, boasting an all star line up of well established producers and DJs, alongside up and coming artists such as sampling genius Romare, who is just starting to be recognised for his copious talents.

Resisting the temptation to bump capacity, Farr remains one of the most exciting and intimate small

Avicii across the 3 days. After Drake previously pulled out due to illness, the anticipation of his performance this year is doubly exciting. Other acts performing across the weekend include Mary J Blige, Major Lazer, Joey Bada$$, Duke Dumont and Stormzy. Dinesh Mattu fields with a whole toy box of wonders and suprises.

What’s more, the fantasy land of a festival raises the bar with a line-up including Kate Tempest, Marika Hackman and Jungle. So get ready for jelly and ice cream and the annual Sunday paintfight!

Marina Garvey Birch festivals around.

Lacking the pretentious vibe of many boutique festivals, it instead focuses on booking an eclectic variety of quality-over-quantity artists. With a lineup featuring house favourites Roman Flugel and Prosumer, alongside disco pioneer Hunee, Farr packs a punch, especially considering its initial bargain basement £30 ticket prices.. Fraser Brooks

28th - 30th August

in Thailand, this should be one to watch. Festival favourites Jamie T, Royal Blood and the Maccabees also play over the weekend, with a surprising amount of dance acts such as Hannah Wants, My Nu Leng and Jamie XX also featuring in the line up.

Matthew Staite

16th - 19th July

all-round national treasure Noel Gallagher. Away from the music, the festival will also feature a wide range of theatre, art and cabaret for your viewing pleasure; the 10th Anniversary of Latitude is not to be missed! Dan Whiteley

6th - 9th August

GOTTWOOD 11th - 14th June

Don’t be fooled that a trek to Croatia is required to find a beautiful festival: only a considerably shorter trip across the border is needed. Nestled into the stunning surroundings of leafy North Wales and boasting a beach to rival the Adriatic coast is Gottwood. With support from a number of the UK’s best promoters – including Manchester’s own Dog

ness invites the outdoors back into the arms of the artistic. Workshops throughout the weekend include deer butchery and woodland foraging, with the promise of wild medicine walks and dips in the spring-fed lake. What’s more, queen of alternative living Björk will be trumping the musical line-up.

Cordelia Milward Eat Dog and Hit&Run they’ve put together a stellar line up featuring Ben UFO, Move D, Zip and many more. In their own words: “striking a delicate balance between rising stars and established veterans drawn from all corners of the scene”. Final release tickets are on sale now priced at £125 for the weekend. Patrick Hinton

BEACONS

13 th - 16th August A youthful festival in terms of age, Beacons is growing up fast, and already waving goodbye to its country home in the Yorkshire Dales to take up residence in three of the most exciting cities in the North. The move has apparently been motivated by the growing expense of traditional camping festivals, but for those fearing the loss of some of that ‘festival feel’, the new form of Beacons, Beacons Metro, promises

to deliver the same level of commitment to supplying the excellent Film, Music, Art and Food that they are well known for. The partners for 2015 include huge names such as Crack Magazine and Resident Advisor, as well as Vice Films and 2020Vision; all of this makes for an encouraging view of what they have to offer in 2015, something that I personally am very excited to see. Bradley West

END OF THE ROAD 4th - 6th September

Nestled in the tranquil grounds of North Dorset, End Of The Road Festival welcomes you with open arms into a haven of love and creativity. You’d be hard pressed to imagine a more fitting location for modern folk legend Sufjan Stevens’ first ever UK festival performance. Elsewhere on this year’s line-up, My Morning Jacket and Tame Impala bring the psych, Sleaford Mods and Ex Hex bring the punk, and Future Islands bring the righteous dance

SHAMBALA

The return of Shambala to an obscure location in Northamptonshire promises to unite the festival’s own guiding principles of creativity and openness with a unique and diverse range of artists spread across the four days. The late August bash boasts appearances from a kaleidoscope of musical talent, from Andy C to My NU Leng and Kate Tempest to

moves. But there’s also late-night cinema, live comedy, gourmet food washed down with Dorset’s finest ciders, and the occasional free-roaming peacock. Cramming all of that into one weekend will be harder than cramming your tent back into its bag when Monday morning comes around. Henry Scanlan Public Service Broadcasting.

Alongside the array of aural delights Shambala will seek to integrate its audience closely with interactive workshops and small art exhibitions, all of which will highlight their “people come first,” tenet. The all ages festival holds bucketloads of charm and intrigue. George Scrafton

DIMENSIONS

If the location – an abandoned fort on the coast of Croatia – wasn’t already enough to get your festival glands watering (or, more accurately, sweating) then the line-up for Dimensions festival will leave you a mushy mess of musical hype. From the opening live show with Four Tet, Little Dragon and Floating Points - who will be accompanied by a small

orchestra of classical musicians – to the stellar lineup which includes Moodyman, Mount Kimbie, Ben Ufo, Pearson Sound, Daniel Avery and many, many more… This is set to be the supersized whopper of festivals abroad this summer.

Lowell Clarke

SONAR

Born in Barcelona in the 90s, Sonar brings the city to life with a string of parties and has grown exponentially into Europe’s premiere electronic music festival.The deliberate mix of underground and mainstream makes Sonar special; exemplified by the Sonar by Day/Night setup. Sonar by Day showcases homegrown talent and keeps the underground roots of the festival alive ,while Sonar by

Night is a concert arena fit for impressive headliners.Highlights are the exceptional Mr Daniel Avery, The Chemical Brothers, Flying Lotus and Kindness.

Sonar is the unmissable start to festival season.

Rachel Connolly

GARDEN

1st - 8th July The festival that started it all. Croatia’s seminal and renowned The Garden Festival celebrates its tenth and final year from 1st – 8th July. Held in the earthly paradise of Tisno, you can bathe on the luxurious beaches by day and dance to some of the world’s finest electronic acts at night. The festival has gone all out for its last hurrah; DJ Harvey, Session Victim

and Jackmaster are amongst the names helping them say goodbye in style. Tickets for the week long party are on sale now for just £120. Patrick Hinton

6th - 7th June

17th - 19th July Bonobo, Nils Frahm, Clark and Zenker Brothers.

There is an alluring lake to be taken advantage of to cool off after some heavy duty dancing. Expect to be spoiled with the ominously beautiful setting, pyrotechnics and astonishing quality and quantity of music. Alyssa Vongapai

Field day returns to east London’s Victoria park on the weekend of the 6-7th June for its 9th iteration.

The line up spans an extensive range of genres; with legendary artist Patti Smith one of the main draws as well as headliners Ride, and Caribou. A slew of well-known acts including Mac DeMarco, Diiv, Django Django, FKA Twigs, and Gaz Coombes

are just a drop in the ocean of what’s on offer; with over 50 other artists featuring alongside DJs to round off the current, partial, line-up. Weekend tickets are priced at £83, making Field Day well worth

Y NOT

BESTIVAL

31st July - 2nd August

10th - 13th September It’s easy to shrug off Bestival’s name as marketing nonsense, but on the English festival circuit there’s definitely more than a shred of truth to it. Maybe it’s because its location is on the most tropical of British Isles, the Isle of Wight. It really is the only festival where people seem to care less about how many crates of beer they can carry back into the

display across the weekend. Tickets are on sale now priced at £89.50 for the weekend and £54.50 for the day. For further details see: www.parklife.uk.com Patrick Hinton

FIELD DAY

MELT!

Melt is an open-air cheerful and hip playground, with all the benefits of a huge festival. It takes place in quirky Ferropolis, an open museum of old huge industrial machines. It is very generous with its refreshing line up, with a spectrum of anticipated acts, ranging from global mainstream acts to underground. They will spoil you Kylie Minougue,

The Number One event in the summer calendar of Manchester students returns to Heaton Park on June 6th & 7th with a line up that asserts just why it’s the worthy holder of that title. The star studded DJ cast includes the likes of Dixon and MK, whilst there’s live performances coming from acts such as Disclosure, Caribou and Nas – and that’s barely scratching the surface of the wealth of incredible music on

18th - 20th June

WILDERNESS As the two well-established festival teams Lovebox and Secret Garden Party fused creative ideas, an illegitimate lovechild was born, and Wilderness first came to life. Now in its fifth year, Wilderness praises itself for a harmonious combination of creativity, gastronomy and revelry. Located in the beautiful Cornbury Park in Oxfordshire, Wilder-

6th - 7th June

26th - 30st August

LATITUDE

Taking place just off the Suffolk coastline, Latitude has, in the decade since its inception, grown from being a small-time affair to become one of the highlights of the UK’s festival calendar. This year’s lineup is perhaps its most impressive yet, boasting appearances from artists as diverse as Jon Hopkins, Seasick Steve and Femi Kuti, as well as a closing mainstage set from Britpop legend and

13

Parklife

27th - 30th August

READING / LEEDS Love it or hate it, Reading and Leeds are two giants in the UK’s festival calendar (and are seemingly everyone’s first ever festival experience). This years headliners come in the form of previous Glasto headliners Mumford & Sons, and Metallica.

The Libertines, champions of Reading and Leeds past, also return to headline the event. With their return to form and a new album being recorded

Music

campsite more and more about how many quality acts they can see. With a line-up including The Chemical Brothers, Duran Duran, Tame Impala, Flying Lotus and Jamie XX, there’ll barely be a moments rest. Lowell Clarke

Y Not Festival is known for its smaller scale and more intimate nature than many of the other British summer festivals, without skimping on the quality of the acts on offer. The 2015 edition is set to be no different, with headline appearances from genre-defying indie rockers Primal Scream, electronic music stalwarts Basement Jaxx and hip hop

royalty Snoop Dogg already confirmed. Rae Morris, We Are the Ocean and Pulled Apart by Horses are also on this year’s bill, and with much more to be confirmed across ten stages, this summer is the perfect chance to check out one of the festival season’s hidden gems. Dan Whiteley

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Music

ISSUE 19 /16th MARCH 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

What’s Right... Or Shite....

Lowell Clarke

This week in Music This Tattoo

Yes, it may quite possibly be the shittiest thing you’ve ever seen, but doesn’t that also mean that its doing something incredibly right? Its up to you and ‘Jon Bovi’ to decide.

Photo: Reddit

Jimi Hendrix Returns

A BLEND ON THE BRIGHTSIDE Created exclusively for Manchester Academy by Brightside Brewing Company, this midweight, modern IPA is brewed from a blend of four fruity American hops, selected to create a refreshing flavoursome beer with a zingy, bitter finish.

Academy IPA will be available in all Academy venues and the Union Bar in bottles, cask and keg.

AVAILABLE NOW!

After 50 years of unreleased purgatory, a new Jimi Hendrix song, ‘Station Break’ is set to be released.

Photo: Public Domain

Pinton and the Hatricks The discovery of our very own Patrick Hinton’s teenage band has been a definite highlight of our time as the music editors.

(And they’re still better than Muse) Photo: Courtesy of Patrick Hinton’s Facebook

Anonymous v West Following a stolen laptop and another song leaked online, an anonymous video was posted declaring war on Kanye West for being a spoilt man child. Time to grab some popcorn and wait this one out.

Photo: YouTube Screengrab

Drones

4.5% abv

The state of Muse’s new album artwork... with the political leanings of a 12 year old having read his first George Orwell novel. Really makes you think!!!

Photo: Album Artwork

Last Mancunion...

But before you ruin this paper with your Hydro Pump tears, we’ll still be online and back in print next September!

Doot-doot-a-doot-doot!

Games

ISSUE 19/ 16th March 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

15

Editors: James Thursfield, Matthew Cole

Feature King of the North 2015 On Wednesday 11th March The University of Manchester Student’s Union played host to the 2015 King of the North gaming festival. Expertly organised by the university’s own eSports society, the event saw to a rambunctious Academy 2 packed out with hundreds of student and nonstudent gamers eager to participate in the various casual and competitive games on show.

Drawing the majority of the crowd

eyes, the finals were fun to watch and an optimum level of rowdiness was reached in the hall.

Onto the winners: taking home the StarCraft 2 prize was RobbyG, one of UoM’s own, who overcame competitor Razorblade to claim a nifty £100 in this individual tournament. Another local success came in the way of the Manchester Gucci Boys (also UoM representatives), who defeated 4 Protect Beesa in the DOTA 2 final to

Photo: Archontia Manolakelli

were the three separate eSports finals of StarCraft 2, DOTA 2, and League of Legends, with the university having conducted the crucial qualifiers back in February. Raised like demigods onstage, the competitors toiled behind their set-ups as the audience gazed in awe at the live strategic masterclasses projected on screen. Riling up the feral gamerlings from the opposite end of the room sat the student commentators, who did a remarkably entertaining and professional job of explaining the action to n00bs and elite thumb-twitchers alike. My fellow editors and I fell squarely into the n00by, uninformed camp, and whilst we had little understanding of the dragon-slaying and ‘cheesing’ antics that unfolded before our unworthy

Review To start this review off I’m going to begin with a disclaimer. I have never played an OddWorld game. Now, before the mob comes after me, let me explain myself. Despite owning a PS1 back in 2000 and a grand total of 4 games, I never ran across OddWorld.

During the 6th generation of consoles I was aligned towards Nintendo firmly with the Gamecube, so I never got to see OddWorld. Through the 7th generation I was an Xbox gamer and never saw the sight of OddWorld there either. Strangely enough, it was this generation, the generation I refer to as the “Re-master Generation”, that I came across OddWorld. It was at E3 2014 where I saw a demonstration showing off OddWorld and it was love at first sight. Wallet ready, I was desperate for OddWorld to be released. To my dismay it was only on the PS4 which I did not own. So I waited. 7 months after release it finally dropped onto Steam, I bought it without hesitation. And boy was it worth the wait.

“Ok” you say, “what is OddWorld New ’N Tasty?” It is a re-master of the 1997 Abe’s Oddysee which stars the franchise’s central character, Abe.

win £500. And in the late competition of the day, the Nottingham Bears clinched the League of Legends title over team University of Birmingham Storm, bagging £800 in the process.

All winners left with a Cooler Master gaming headset courtesy of Cooler Master, who also sponsored free-toenter competitions for all muggles in attendance on the day, whilst Riot contributed to the overall prize fund at the event.

For those wise enough to join in with the festival for the paltry £2 entry fee, there was plenty to do aside from spectating in the eSports finals.

The UoM Gaming Society, along with several sponsors, worked together to provide free gaming booths for the public to play at their leisure. SCAN

Computers hosted a Hearthstone tournament, the European Gaming League and Team Xbox both offered console booths running the latest multiplayer games, and MSi showcased their cutting edge gaming laptop technology for public testing.

Being a moderately experienced Smash and Halo player, I spent most of my time hogging the latest iterations of these games in the way they are enjoyed best – in local multiplayer with a lager to hand. After murking my co-editor James in a remastered Halo 2 match I managed to catch the Smash Bros tournament final between two casual attendees.

One gentleman opted for Sonic, the speedy blue hedgehog who has grown inexorably taller and more American with age, whilst his rival plonked for Bowser, a maverick decision considering the latter’s comparatively plump posterior and lumbering gait. Indeed, Gentleman Two paid the price for his naïve selection in the first round, and was promptly rekt by Gentleman One’s rapid combinations. Gentleman Two did return a sound compliment to his competitor’s face in the following round once he’d selected the queen of camp, Captain Falcon, delivering a technical move known in the trade as a ‘meteor smash’, I’ll have you know.

Yet this was still not enough to stem the tide of wagging index fingers from Sonic’s corner, and Gentleman One went on to triumph in a whitewash victory, winning £100. GG. In summary, the event was a resounding success. The eSports finals lived up to their billing on a competitive level (as I was reliably informed by the commentators), the student organisers were extremely welcoming and ensured the event ran as slickly as possible, and, perhaps most importantly, everyone seemed to have a jolly good contest playing games against strangers. Bonds were forged, kings were crowned, wins were won, losses were lost, and general larking about ruled supreme.

If I had one complaint, it would be that Doritos and Mountain Dew were

OddWorld: New ’N Tasty He is one of hundreds of Mudokans who are forcibly enslaved by a race of big-wig, corporate types called the Glukkons who run a large food corporation. Abe and his kind are housed in the Rupture Farms complex where subjects are forced to do slave labour for the Glukkons, maintaining the factory and cleaning up mess until the day they die. One day, Abe is cleaning around the factory near the boardroom, observing the different products the company has made for many years, and dreaming of eating the delectable produce, when he stumbles across a group of Glukkons complaining that profits are in free fall.

They need something new to sell fast.

The leader of the Glukkons, Molluck, has a plan that will send the company’s profits to record highs. There is only one problem. The new product, New ’N Tasty, as Abe calls it, is going to made from the flesh of his race, the Mudokans. In a panic, Abe flees the plant and intends on freeing his race from slavery, hoping to save them from certain death.

As a technical piece, OddWorld New ’N Tasty is a marvel. The thing that

sets this apart from many re-masters is that this game was a complete reconstruction of the game in a completely different engine, the Unity engine. The result is an excellent reimagining of the game. The game pops with detail and colour. Environments are beautifully rendered in a 2.5D style that really suits the game and conveys a sense of environmental depth which carries over into the gameplay. The environments are beautifully varied, ranging from the rusty, fiery hell that is Rupture Farms, to the beautiful lands that exist around OddWorld.

Unlike its original, New ’N Tasty has no transitions between different parts of a level like it did back in 1997, so the levels simply flow nicely between different areas.

However, the heart of any game is its gameplay. And OddWorld’s has excellent gameplay. The game is 2.5D platformer title harkening back to a time in the 1990’s when the platformer was king. The key gameplay premise is that Abe is trying to escape from Rupture Farms and must attempt to save 299 of his kind who are in the factory. It’s not mandatory to

Matthew Cole snoops in on the fantastic university-led gaming festival

Nottingham Bears, LoL winners Photo: Archontia Manolakelli

criminally underrepresented. Until next year! FaZe out.

Vox Pop from Tom Bruce, FILM EDITOR: Where else could you see a giant Swedish gaming celebrity stroll between booths wearing a t-shirt of his Twitter tag? At what other venue could you write a meme, actually write it, on a big board, with a pen, and experience a palpable sense of approval amongst your peers? And

where else can you and a friend hog an Xbox One for well over an hour to attempt the first level of Halo 2 (remastered version, obvs) on Legendary co-op while ignoring a growing queue of rabid Evolve fans who want to play as Cthulu? Not many other places, that’s where.

Special thanks to Archontia Manolakelli for the photos and to Jacob Harrison from the eSports team for helping with this article.

UoM eSports staff and friends Photo: Archontia Manolakelli

Marcus Winchester reviews a classic game that has been successfully re-mastered save all of them and you will find yourself slipping up from time to time, resulting in their death. If you are feeling merciful, using the game’s GameSpeak system, you can choose to talk to one or two Mudokans in a crowd and prompt them to follow you to a predefined rescue position.

Although, before attempting to rescue Mudokans, you usually have to find a way to kill the game’s various enemy types. In Rupture Farms, you’ll run across some gun-toting enemies who are hypersensitive to any form of sound and are a deadly threat. You can dispose of them in many ways, whether that is leading them over a mine, through an electric wall or even possessing them and having them kill their buddies before self-destructing.

Each encounter forces you to think and plan out how you’ll deal with the threat whilst at the same time attempting to save the Mudokans.

Also, for New ’N’ Tasty the development team included a difficulty level that is fairer to the modern gamer and it makes it so that Abe isn’t instantly killed the minute he is spotted and attacked by an enemy.

However, the real way this game should be played is on Classic mode where Abe dies upon being hit with no second chances – it is challenging and really fun.

If I had to leverage a complaint against New ’N Tasty, and this is a trivial and subjective one, it’s that I don’t like the ability for a player to quick save their game. It removes the challenge of the game and on Classic difficulty I feel it should be disabled by default. Another complaint I have is that the game, after comparing it to Abe’s Oddysee, doesn’t feel as dark in tone.

In the end, I was really pleased coming away from playing OddWorld.

The game is sufficiently long enough that you’ll get your money’s worth and the gameplay is both varied and interesting enough to make you play it over and over again. It’s so rare these days that you get a re-mastered game as well made as this. It serves as a great example to other developers who are looking to rework old IP’s and bring them to a modern gaming audience.

This game is fantastic and gets a hearty recommendation from me. Go out and buy it, you won’t regret it.

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Editors: Gráinne Morrison, Aimée Grant Cumberbatch, Nikki Patel

ISSUE 19/ 16th MARCH 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Trends

SS15: Trend report

/mancunionfashionandbeauty

ISSUE 19/ 16th MARCH 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

@MancunionFash

17

Readers respond

Event

Not sure what to wear as the weather starts to warm up? Sarah Kilcourse is here to help

Fashion

Charity pop-up shop for We Teenage Cancer Trust Ask Did someone say sale? By Gráinne Morrison

You Answer Spring is just around the corner so last week we asked you “Does the warm weather spell dream or disaster for your style?”

Photo: Mia Champion

H&M, £19,99

New Look, £14,99

Topshop, £40 Asos, £32

Zara, £35,99

The ‘70s Perhaps the biggest and newest trend for the current season, it involves an influx of flares, platforms and boho dresses. The ‘70s is perfect for summer with light flowy fabrics, halter necks and sheers - this is a trend you can easily dip your toe into if you’re a bit unsure. On the high street, Topshop and Zara have a great offering of smock tops, button up skirts and platform heels that are sure to bring out your inner hippie.

The Midi Skirt It’s been lingering around for a couple of seasons and now it’s time to embrace the more elegant midi skirt. Fitted tube midi skirts are perfect with a pair of heels or wedges; they flatter everyone and give you that Jessica Rabbit wiggle. Admittedly in the heat you may prefer something looser and more floaty. With this style, heels are your best friend - they will lenghten your legs to inifinity. Wear with a crop top or a tucked-in vest.

The Bucket Bag Every season there is a defining accessory and for SS15 it is the bucket bag. They look fabulous worn across the body or in the crook of your arm, either way they are an easy way to update your look with one simple piece. And, let’s face it: you can never have enough bags!

Pair with these cat-eye sunnies for extra style points!

White Over the past couple of seasons white has been getting some major press in the fashion world and the theme is set to continue. No, it’s not the easiest colour to wear for obvious practical reasons but it does look fantastic on everyone.

An easy way in is white jeans or white shorts, or for the more adventurous, head to toe white is essential, especially when paired with a beautiful summer glow.

So it’s week 8, our loans seem like a distant memory and our

the 16th of March. The shop will be stocked with heavily

bank accounts are looking… well, let’s not even go there. And

discounted clothes from labels such as Mink Pink, French

our wardrobes have never been so neglected. On top of this

Connection ,Vera Moda, Blue Rinse and Black Score. Yes you

we’re faced with 20 deadlines all at once meaning that even if

read that correctly: Heavily discounted— this is not a drill. And

we had the finances, we wouldn’t have the time to go all the way

best of all, all profits will go towards the Teenage Cancer Trust,

into town and traipse around the shops. I mean just popping

an incredible charity that provides care for cancer patients aged

into Zara takes up an hour of one’s day (well, if you’re doing it

between 13 and 24. We couldn’t love this event more. Come

properly).

along between 11am and 4pm to Room 2 of the SU and shop,

This is why Mancunion Fashion and Beauty are all over this

shop, shop!

pop-up charity shop event in the Students’ Union on Monday

Agony Aunt

Ask Adrienne

Resident fashion guru Adrienne Galloway solves a spring style conundrum

Dear Adrienne, It’s now March and I refuse to let my coveted winter wardrobe go. Do you have any tips for adjusting my garms during this winter to spring transition?

The weather around this time of year is particularly unpredictable. Leaving the house without an umbrella, or wearing a skirt in gusty winds can prove fatal. Here are my four tips to help with that winter/spring transition:

Profile

What goes up...

1

Check the weather forecast. Having to lug around a heavy coat when the sun suddenly comes out is a pain in the arse. It’s time to stop envying those who have managed to be so well prepared with sunglasses and a light cardigan…whilst you haven’t. The answer is right at your fingertips (literally!). Checking the weather forecast in the morning can help avoid serious fashion mishaps. Nobody wants to be that girl wearing dusty pink ballerina flats in heavy rain.

Although it might not always be accurate, it’s a good tool to gauge what exactly you can get away with.

Contributor Kathryn Murray investigates the rise, fall and rebirth of John Galliano

John Galliano, the famous Gibraltar-born British fashion designer is not exactly a refined character.

From an early age his mother, a flamenco teacher, dressed him in his ‘smartest’ outfits even for trips to the shop. Apparently, this experience combined with his creative flare was what made him the designer who some people love, and some people love to hate.

Over the course of his career, he has been at the helm of Givenchy, Christian Dior and his own label

Asos, £28

John Galliano. He has also been decorated with the title of Designer of the Year (four times!), CBE and

2

RDI (Royal Designer of Industry). Fancy.

Unfortunately for Johnny boy, it all went Pete Tong in 2011 when he was arrested over an anti-

Lighten up. Enough about practicalities, let’s talk fashion. It’s time to replace your beloved woolly sweatshirts for a lighter option. Their comfort and warmth has guided you through the frostiness of Oxford Road but it’s time to move on now. Try layering a cami top with an oversized cardigan or cotton shirt to feel more summery. This bohemian and carefree flair is what spring is all about.

Semitic tirade in a Paris bar. Not only did this set Galliano back €6,000 worth of fines, but he also lost his job at Dior and the respect of many. But that is what happens when you supposedly declare your love for murderous dictators.

But if you think this was the end of his career, you are sadly mistaken. In an interview broadcasted

Galliano’s first collection for Maison Martin Margiela.

His debut was welcomed with open arms by fashion giants, bloggers and close friends (apparently he is best buds with Anna Wintour). His Margiela show was praised as a ‘pure triumph’. It seems that

Yumi, £28

Galliano has been well and truly welcomed back to the cut-throat fashion industry. Quite the feat.

Photo: privateinvesigations.blogspot.com

Photo: clotheshorse-diaryofaclotheshorse.blogspot.com

‘I live for our yearly week of summer, it’s my only chance to show off my floaty dresses and crochet crop tops.’

-Nuala Timoney

‘I hate the catcalls inevitably provoked by my shorts, I haven’t got my legs out for your satisfaction.’

-Anjana Selvanathan

‘I hate summer. Sweat patches, chafing thighs and heat rash are not my accessories of choice.’

-Nadia G

Brighten up. Colour is a significant factor in the seasonal transition. The “rainbow effect” (going too bright too quickly) can sometimes shock the system, better to simply add in a pop of colour. Floral patterns are always a good call. Start by swapping your dark, bulky parka with a bright boyfriend or cocoon jacket.

Pastels also work especially well this time of year.

the beginning of his comeback and after four years of disgraced absence, January 2015 saw John

‘Sun’s out, guns out.’

-Ben Murphy

Topshop, £58

3

an invitation from Oscar de la Renta for a temporary residency at his studio. This opportunity was

‘It’s fine for a day drinking Pimms in the park but dressing for a lecture in 28 degree heat is not chic.’

-Gráinne Morrison

New Look, £7.99

in the US, Galliano talked about his readiness to create, stating “I hope through my atonement I’ll be given a second chance.” And a second chance is what he has got. In early 2013, Galliano accepted

‘The heat doesn’t bother me because it’s a perfect excuse to prance around in my birthday suit.’

-Phillip Shuttleworth

Zara, £35.99

Though this is our last print edition for the academic year, you can stay up to date with the latest in student style, fashion news and opinion at mancunion.com.

See you there!

18

Film

ISSUE 19/ 16TH MARCH 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Editors: Tom Bruce, Andriana Hambi, James Moules, Martin Solibakke TV Binge

Feature

Community Hollywood’s Three Amigos James Moules tells us why this trio of Mexican filmmakers should have your full attention

Photo: Sony

For a few years, the start of May was a special time of the year for me. Not only due to the fact that summer was slowly coming and girls took their clothes off, but also because it meant the people in NBC were scratching their heads, busy deciding whether to renew Community for one more season or cancel it once and for all.

The single-camera sitcom follows an ensemble cast of students at Greendale Community College, a college where dreams are crushed and no main characters ever graduate. The show is perfectly casted, from the talented and stunning Alison Brie (Mad Men) portraying an innocent good-girl, to Donald Glover (aka Childish Gambino) whose character, Troy, is constantly receiving racial abuse from the old and grumpy Pierce Hawthorne (Chevy Chase).

For the first two seasons the show was renewed without much hassle, it was a breath of fresh air and all the other comedy shows from NBC failed miserably. Fortunately for Community, in television show business you have to outrun the guy next to you, not the bear chasing both of you.

From there, the problems started to arise gradually for the cult show. Its ratings declined, and NBC removed it from their mid-season schedule. And this is exactly where the story turns beautiful; we started to see the first signs of dedicated fans refusing to give up on their show. Petitions and online campaigns were set up, demanding NBC to Save Greendale.

NBC listened and renewed the show for a third season, but the ratings got even worse and next May the executives in NBC faced the same dilemma. This became an annual thing, and the likelihood of renewal got slimmer and slimmer each year. Journalists with ‘inside information’ wrote articles preparing their readers for the worst, as a cancellation was destined to happen. But each year had the same outcome: Community got renewed for a third, fourth and fifth season against all odds, cancelling shows with better ratings in the process.

Fans of Community have always been very clear on one thing: We want six seasons and a movie. Surely they could not pull the plug one season short?

In the end, that was exactly what NBC managed to do. Producer Dan Harmon said it was over, fans raged and cast members went on twitter to thank the fans for keeping the show alive for such a long time. In 99 out of 100 cases, cancellation is final and means a show is dead. More often than not, viewers are sad when their shows get cancelled until they two minutes later forget about it and move on with their lives. But weeks later, Community was still trending on Twitter and Hulu and Netflix had to go out and confirm that they were not saving the show, after having received hundreds of emails and threatening phone calls.

On the last day of June last year, the cast’s contracts were due to expire in one hour when Yahoo Screen announced they had saved Community, picking it up for a sixth season set to premiere on 17th of March. Oh yeah, and a movie.

Everyone loves an underdog story, and there you have one. Community will always be the greatest show you never watched.

Martin Solibakke

It’s a somewhat rare occurrence that such a small group of artists can generate such vast ripples across their medium, but this is exactly what these three Mexican filmmakers – branded with the rather misleading name of ‘The Three Amigos of Cinema’ – have achieved. Their combined artistry is arguably up on the same level as the ‘New Hollywood’ movement in the 70s that saw the birth of such talents as Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola take to the world stage.

“But why is this name misleading?” I hear you ask. Well, if a majority of cinephiles are to be believed, I don’t think that Hollywood would consider any challenger of the status quo to be their amigo. In our days of megafranchises, higher-stakes sequels and gritty reboots, it’s not all that often that mainstream attention comes to original and creative filmmakers (unless you’re name is Christopher Nolan, but even then the description of ‘original’ is somewhat doubtful).

Enter the three directors in question— Alfonso Cuarón, Alejandro González Iñárritu and Guillermo del Toro. These three Mexicans have brought us some of the most daring, original and beautiful movies to grace the silver screen in recent years. Each one of them has at least one masterpiece under their respective belts already, and collectively they have five Oscars to boast (and I doubt that’ll be all they ever get). If you’ve been able to ignore them up till now, it’s going to be hard to do so in the near future.

Alejandro Iñárritu is probably the member of the trio in the centre of the spotlight at the moment, having just won the Academy

Awards for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay for his metacomedy Birdman. Although this writer is one of the film’s few detractors, Iñárritu more than deserved some recognition for his work up until this point. Boasting a filmography consisting of Amores Perros, 21 Grams, Babel and Biutiful, Iñárritu has given us some great pieces of work that are a the perfect fresh alternative in cinema for anyone exhausted with superheroes and giant fighting robots.

Alfonso Cuarón became the first Latino

Gravity is probably the closest thing cinema has yet come to producing a true virtual reality picture that the audience actually experiences rather than merely watches.

And finally, we have Señor del Toro, who has arguably made some of the most giddily entertaining films produced in recent years. After tackling Blade II and Hellboy, del Toro also provided us with one of 21st century cinema’s most moving and thoughtprovoking masterpieces – Pan’s Labyrinth.

This WWII-fantasy drama is a potent allegory for the monstrosity that humanity is capable of achieving if they can merely attain obedience from others. Del Toro has since given us a second Hellboy movie (make a third one already, dammit!) and the wickedly dumb-fun sci-fi flick Pacific Rim. This guy sure loves his monsters.

To put it exceptionally bluntly, just look at that talent up there! These three Mexicans have thrown down the proverbial gauntlet in front of Hollywood, daring all filmmakers Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures out there to think about what their medium is capable of doing. This person to win Best Director last year for his year, both del Toro and Iñárritu have films space masterpiece (yes, it is – hate on me all being released (Crimson Peak and The you like) Gravity. Famous in the business Revenant respectively). I say they can’t come for his gorgeous visual style – especially the soon enough—I’m sure anyone who’s at all unbelievably long tracking shots – Alfonso familiar with these guys will agree with me is one of cinema’s true geniuses. He’s the on that. If you haven’t seen anything from our man to thank for what is, hands nailed to Three Amigos, now’s the time to catch up. As the floor, the best of the Harry Potter movies they often say, you don’t know what you’re (that being The Prisoner of Azkaban, of missing. course), the energetic sexual odyssey Y Tu Mama Tambien, and the haunting dystopian James Moules thriller Children of Men, the latter of which is one of this writer’s personal favourite films. He’ll be influencing young directors for generations to come—I guarantee you that.

Classic Review

Snatch

Believe it or not, Guy Ritchie is more than just one of Madonna’s conquests. There is genuine directorial talent behind the name. While Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) introduced Ritchie to the British crime genre, Snatch (2000) proved that the man didn’t just get lucky the first time around. Although he is better known for the Sherlock Holmes blockbusters, I thought it would be a good idea to talk about the movie in which Guy Ritchie finalised his formula for a great crime film.

Ritchie’s second feature takes a lot from its predecessor, just as RocknRolla (2007) takes after Snatch. The film’s multifaceted plot revolves around Turkish and Tommy, an underground boxing promoter duo played by Jason Statham and Stephen Graham. The two fine gentlemen find themselves mixed up with violent bookies, Russian gangsters and foulmouthed members of the Travel Community. Eventually this puts them in the middle of a free-for-all rumble for a diamond and a dog. I know what you’re thinking, ‘pff, sounds like my Tuesday night’, but let me tell you that this is a concoction that shall keep you entertained from start to finish. And speaking of finish, the ending is original and incredibly satisfying. All in all, the film just feels fresh, fastpaced and fully confident in its comical nature.

Director: Guy Ritchie Starring: Benicio del Toro, Brad Pitt, Jason Statham, Vinnie Jones Released: 2000 As is his MO, Guy makes excellent use of witty dialogue and colourful characters that almost make the underbelly of London seem like a fun place to be. Even more impressive is his ability to make Vinnie Jones look like a decent actor!

vulgar, yet somehow surprisingly clever humour; ruthless diplomacy; and questionable personal hygiene.

These qualifications equally apply to Brad Pitt’s Mickey, a caravan-obsessed “pikey” with a sweet spot for his mum. I know that you are probably sceptical at the idea of a Hollywood hunk in a British gritfest, but Snatch made me respect Brad Pitt as a versatile actor.

Curious yet? You should be. And I haven’t even started on Rade Sherbedgia’s Boris the Blade!

To conclude, Snatch is a movie full of comedy, intrigue and fantastic quotes. I would definitely recommend you consider the awful Revolver (2005) a waste of time and dive right into the rest of Guy Ritchie’s filmography with enthusiasm. It will distract you from all the dreadful teen saga films that just keep you wondering ‘didn’t the last one come out two weeks ago?!’ and it will kill an hour and a half that Photo: Colombia Pictures could be spent on Uni work. You’re welcome.

The character of Bullet-Tooth Tony, a gun for hire and a general loose canon, fits Mr Jones like Arne Dumez a glove and marks himself as one of the most memorable elements of the film. His encounter with Vinny (Robbie Gee) and Sol (Lennie James) especially leave a particularly persistent smile on your face; it may even provoke a giggle! Brick Top, portrayed by Alan Ford, is the embodiment of what makes Snatch a fantastic film: dark,

Film 19

ISSUE 19/ 16TH MARCH 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM /MancunionFilm @mancunionfilm

Review

Top 5

Chappie

Cinematic Stare Fests

Die Antwoord eviscerate the fabric of reality by appearing in this malfunctioning sci-fi

Director Neill Blomkamp’s latest directorial effort follows the story of Chappie,a police droid who is irrevocably damaged on duty only to be given the gift of true artificial intelligence by his maker. Chappie begins life as a child who must grow and learn quickly about the dangers of the world he has been brought into. His parental influences are polar opposites. On one side is his amiable creator, played

by Dev Patel, who wants Chappie to fulfill his true potential and nurture his creativity. On the other his gangster surrogates, played jarringly by the rap group Die Antwoord, want to turn Chappie into a heartless killer to aid them in their criminal endeavours. The interplay between a young naive Chappie and his adoptive family leads to many of the comedic highlights of the film and the main emotional thrus, as Chappie must learn the cruel nature of human life… that it cannot last forever.

As a study on the effects of nature vs nurture, the film does excel. Chappie presents the interesting debate of whether or not a child can aspire and truly become more than just a product of its own environment. If the film had based its main motif and themes around this conceit, then Chappie could have contained a poignant narrative. Instead the final act is where Chappie suffers. The film oddly diverts course and attempts to act as an examination of the human consciousness. Chappie sadly pales in comparison to a film realised earlier this year, Ex Machina, which dealt with the same issue with much more intelligence and realism.

The film is tonally uneven. The kid-friendly, Pinocchio inspired story never gels with the darker subplots and in-

Sigourney Weaver is sorely underused as the head of the company. Conversely it is refreshing to see Patel not have to adopt a caricature Indian accent for once. Finally, Blomkamp’s lucky charm Sharlto Copley once again has a major part to play, this time portraying the central character Chappie through motion capture. He brings a childish charm through youthful mannerisms that instill the character with a believable innocence. Credit is deserved for the remarkable amount of emotion created from just a couple of bunny-like ears and an LED display.

Chappie feels very much like the conclusion to a spiritual trilogy of Blomkamp’s work; once again featuring a near future South African setting paralleling real-life political issues. It also features the stylish visual effects and bombastic action that are also part of his trademark style. Blomkamp’s directorial career seems disappointingly to be on a downward trajectory.

Photo: Columbia Pictures From his ground-breaking debut District 9, to the distinctly average yet visually cool tense violence of the closing moments. The action scenes Elysium and now Chappie, a deeply frustrating film that are well shot and Blomkamp is clearly in his element with works only in fleeting moments and drops the ball on too explosive set-pieces, but this doesn’t sit well with the earmany occasions. It is a misstep, well intended but poorly lier goofy charm of Chappie. Thus begging the question of executed. Hopefully Blomkamp can return to form with whom exactly is the target audience? With less bloodshed his next project…the long-gestated Alien sequel. and profanities, a lower rating certificate may have benefited the film greatly. The acting performances are a mixed Imran Bukhari bag. Hugh Jackman is clearly relishing playing against type as the film’s main villain, a mulleted Aussie, bitter because his own law-enforcement robot has been cast aside. Jackman, however, remains ultimately one-note, as a villain who must be a villain for the sake of plot momentum.

Cornerhouse Pick of the Week

Still Alice

4) The Lord of the Rings Peter Jackson shows that staring goes particularly well with a hint of epicness. Stares almost come naturally with the stunning scenery and painfully slow speech rate of middle earth– so dreamy.

3) The Good, the Bad & the Ugly The Western has to be number one on the stare chart, as rarely any other genre invests so much time into character close-ups. Also worth a mention is Once Upon a Time in the West, which for obvious reasons (Clint Eastwood) remains runnerup in the ‘best stare of the west’showdown.

Photo: United Artists

You Can’t Handle the Truth!

House of Cards Isn’t so Ace

She has an Oscar, but is Alice more than just forgettable, HoC needs to stop cheating by using super glue to stay upright, says political correspondent/TV reviewer Nik McNally.

Disease of the Month tripe?

disease is followed, and in some particular moments, they are funny. But this is not the only focus. Still Alice explores family relationship dynamic as well as familial love.

Kristen Stewart portrays worried daughter Lydia, building on the dynamics between parent and child.

For a film which approaches the subject matter of Alzheimer’s Photo: Sony Picture Classics disease, as well as being an adaptation of a book, If you know about the Oscar win, I think Still Alice successfully takes I think it’s fair to say that Julianne an audience through an emotional Moore without a doubt stood out in this journey of a central character’s particular film. If you didn’t. Well… Now problems, into problems of our own, you do. Expect a really, really gripping thinking about the values of love, performance by Julianne Moore. family, and memory. I didn’t cry, but The protagonist of this film is Dr. I did feel a wave of emotion hit me in Alice Howland, a successful academic, certain parts of the film, and before I left a mother to grown up children going the cinema, I made sure to check the on with their own lives and a wife to a faces of those behind me and saw an man (Alec Baldwin), who also works army of red, puffy faces. just as much as she does career-wise.

That being said, what seems to be a Nadia Cheung really good picture perfect life where everything is going well begins to take a downfall when Alice begins to start losing her memory, setting you up for a wave of all kinds of emotions (because this is a drama). Still Alice is a typical drama film in that it explores the conventions of emotions and complex subject matter so any action you’ll see in this film will most likely be those associated with emotions, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

The focus of the film stays at home, where Alice’s journey of Alzheimer’s

5) Zoolander The one film on this list which openly makes staring its number one theme unsurprisingly stars the role models for anyone in need of staring advice. Their famous invincible stare still stirs the

Known for its remarkable subtlety, House of Cards opens its third season with Frank Underwood pissing on his father’s grave, because apparently two seasons worth of killing animals and shoving people in front of trains in broad daylight haven’t quite bludgeoned in that we’re dealing with yet another Kevin Spacey sociopath in a suit. This is not necessarily a bad thing; Spacey’s scenery-chewing Southern drawl – less Jimmy Carter and more Futurama’s Chicken Lawyer, if you’d argue the two aren’t the same entity – is undeniably entertaining, best utilised whilst spitting venom with wife Claire (Robin Wright), whose scenes of mutual scheming provide the perfect stimulus for games of spot the personality disorder (don’t worry: there are no wrong answers).

House of Cards borrows from Othello rather liberally, from direct allusions sprinkled throughout to Frank’s soliloquies that drip with contempt for anything approaching good will, to the delight of Nietzsche worshippers in parents’ basements across the globe. So it’s a shame that this adoption extends to Othello’s most frustrating aspect; the fact that every scheme’s success hinges not on its creative genius, but the glaring mental lapses of every pawn waiting to get taken. All the intrigue provoked by Frank and Claire – who look significantly more aroused whilst plotting various downfalls than during sex – is punctured by their crushing lack of opposition. Has Lackey #1474 grown a conscience that threatens

2) Only God Forgives No list about staring stars would be complete without Ryan Gosling.

His pretty face is always a handy distraction from any lack of plot.

Nonetheless, entertainment will be guaranteed to anyone who brings a spoon of cereal to the screening

Photo: Netflix

to expose your plans? Nothing that staging the guy’s suicide right outside his house can’t fix, undetected nonetheless.

Well, what if a journalist you’ve been feeding information to cottons onto your involvement in that murder? Wear your edgiest fedora and shove her in front of a train consequence-free, slipping away from that highly populated station in time for dinner.

So The President knows that you’ve been not-so-subtly poisoning his administration from within and is ready to throw you in jail, how do you wriggle out of that one? With a heartfelt letter of friendship. Wait, what? Yes, even and especially the President is – and I believe this is the medically accurate term – implausibly stupid. With Sarah Palin once hovering dangerously close to the White House, hunting rifle in hand, incompetence is not a foreign concept to politics. But as each potential challenge to Frank’s machinations is effortlessly swept aside, the stakes become non-existent along with our reason to care.

It’s forgivable that House of Cards’ mix of moral bankruptcy and idiocy has nothing to say about American politics that can’t be learned from a two minute date with Fox ‘News’ and a bottle of brain bleach, but the lack of formidable conflict drains one of the world’s most

Photo: Lions Gate

1) The Twilight Saga (a.k.a. the films that put the star in staring) Originally planned as sexy stares, looks of lust took an unfortunate turn into pervy peeps in the abyss of vampire franchise. However, (partly thanks to snow-white’s make-up artist) all creepiness quickly turns into repeated acts of cringing. Some genius has edited all the staring scenes together in one YouTube video—it’s nearly half an hour long.

That is all.

Photo: Summit Entertainment

Sarah Wolff

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Books

ISSUE 19/ 16th MARCH 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

/TheMancunion: Books @MancunionBooks

Top 5

Editors: Leonie Dunn, Ali Pearson Feature

Top 5 Feminist Books The Lasting Significance of Salinger’s “The Books Editor Ali Pearson looks at why J.D. Salinger’s With March being Women’s Catcher in the Rye” 1951 novel still has cultural significance after 63 years History Month Books Editor Leonie Dunn looks at 5 of the top feminist works

Image: stltoday.com

JD Salinger’s 1951 novel, Catcher in the Rye, was an important landmark in the rise of the teenager. It’s difficult to imagine in the present day that there was once a time where being a teenager wasn’t a cultural identity.

However, it was only in the 1950s that young people started to gain unique interests that alienated their parents, and was a world away from their days of being children. Elvis Presley came to prominent fame in the 1950s, and quickly became a symbol for teenage rebellion when he performed on the Ed Sullivan show. His dancing caused an

Photo: Skara kommun @Flickr

premiered, Ensler 1. A Vindication of the first Rights of Women- Mary performed all the monologues herself. Now it’s been staged Wollstonecraft One of the earliest works of feminist philosophy. It is a response to 18th Century political and educational theorists who did not believe women should have an education. As such this principled and logical tract has been an inspiration for three centuries of subsequent human rights thinking. While in today’s world it is lacking in many areas this book has been credited as one of the most original and influential feminist works ever.

internationally and televised

by HBO.

Orbach’s original exploration of the body fascism of diets and body obsession was ground breaking in 1978 and yet is, sadly, even more relevant in today’s society. This book is a pioneer on the focus of body image and anti-dieting which has now firmly established itself as a classic.

3.

The Vagina Monologues, Eve Ensler (1996) The Vagina Monologues, a play made up of a series of monologues, premiered in New York City in 1996. The monologues cover a variety of topics from a feminist perspective from sex to menstruation, birth, rape, female genital mutilation, and more. When the play

Winterson’s novel is a memoir about a life’s work to find happiness. It’s a book full of stories but also a book about other people’s literature, one that shows how fiction and poetry can form a sting of guiding lights. This work, if anything else, highlights the power of the individual and the hope of finding an identity and equally a belonging.

Leonie Dunn

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at the same time too immature to be considered an adult. This is why this novel is such an important landmark for the adolescent reader. Before this you would have a similar problem to Holden when it came to reading - either too advanced and boring, or too childish and silly.

There have been countless novels that have directly or indirectly taken inspiration from Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, that it becomes a risk to accredit him with actually creating teenage angst. Consider Plath’s Bell Jar, or Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange, or in the modern day, Submarine

by Joe Dunthorne or The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. All these books deal with a variation of Holden’s character.

It’s difficult to calculate precisely how much influence Salinger’s novel actually had but it shouldn’t be underestimated.

Despite being over 63 years since the publication, the book reportedly still sells a quarter of a million copies every year, and is still included in lists of the greatest written works, as well as lists comprised of the most controversial pieces of works. The book may well be dated in terms of location, but Holden’s alienation and angst of the world will remain relatable and significant for the rest of time.

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4. Fat Is a Feminist Issue, Susie Orbach (1978)

5. Why Be Happy When You Could Be normal, 2.

The Feminine Jeanette Winterson Mystique, Betty Friedan (2012) (1963) Friedan’s investigation into ‘the problem that has no name’that being the unrepentant unhappiness she found among housewives is by far on of the most influential books of the 20th century. Friedan originally intended to publish an article on the topic, but no magazine would publish her article and as such her book became a controversial bestseller and is generally credited with being the catalyst for the rise of the second-wave of feminism in the US.

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outrage because he swung his hips. Again, the is incredible by today’s standards that this event caused outrage, but just imagine it as the 1950’s equivalent of Miley Cyrus twerking at the VMAs. James Dean was another idol for the adolescent, with “Rebel Without a Cause” the defining film of a generation.

Away from the cultural side of things, it’s interesting to see what the other factors were when establishing why the teenager started to become its own established identity. The end of the Second World War had caused another economic boom in the

US. Families had more disposable income, and this meant more money and freedom for their teenage children. This resulted in teenagers being able to actually purchase items they liked, such a records, books, and movie tickets. Despite there being an honest threat of a nuclear holocaust, Americans felt undeterred to spend and spend, and were rejuvenated by it.

Catcher in the Rye fits into this as a sort of symbol of what it was like to be a teenager before being a teenager was a thing. It’s main protagonist is a 16 year old boy named Holden Caulfield. He is the living embodiment of angst and cynicism. He narrates the story as he travels back home to New York for the Christmas holidays. However, instead of going straight home, he decides to spend a few nights by himself and doing things that he wants to do. This involves him sneaking into clubs, drinking, smoking, and inviting a prostitute to his hotel room. In the backdrop of this is Salinger’s sensational writing ability, where he seems to perfectly capture the mind of a moody teenager.

Words like ‘phoney’ are chucked around frequently, as Salinger portrays Holden as an disenfranchised youth. He appears too mature to be considered a child but

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1. Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen is the icon for classic romance novels so it should come as no surprise that she holds the top spot. Not only is Pride and Prejudice one of the most popular books in the English language ever, it’s also one of the most romantic love stories you can find. Elizabeth Bennet is facing the prospect of marriage, along with her four sisters. An unpleasant relationship with a Mr. Darcy turns into a much more complicated relationship as the two play the dating game in the 19th century.

2. Nicholas Spark’s The Notebook Nicholas Sparks has to be the most popular romance author of our time.

While many of his novels could have made the list The Notebook is the one that stands above the rest, perhaps due to to the now-classic film adaptation.

After a summer romance like no other, Noah and are pulled apart by Photo: Allie JamesGardinerCollecsocial class in the early 1900’s. Years later, the two reconnect, but it might be too late since Allie is engaged.

3. Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights Possibly the most heartbreakingly beautiful love story ever written, Wuthering Heights was initially called

vulgar when it was published and it was criticized for its difficult characters.

Of course, now we can recognize the complexity of this relationship, which showcases that societal standards shouldn’t dictate our happiness. This novel depicts the romance between Catherine and Heathcliff, whose love seems to both destroy them and keep them going throughout their lives.

4. Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind First published in 1936, many consider this novel historical more than romantic, however the Civil War romance between bad boy, Rhett, and Southern belle, Scarlett, is not to be missed. Torn apart by war, it’s a relationship that doesn’t seem possible until they’re reunited many years later.

It’s a beautiful yet extensive Romance novel whose reputation lives on today with thanks to the Classic Academy Award-winning film adaptation.

5. Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet One of William Shakespeare’s most celebrated works and quite possibly the most influential love story of all time, how could the list not include this classic. This tale of “star-crossed lovers” has been told and interpreted time and time again. A story all lovers can relate

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YOUR UNION IS CHANGING – HAVE YOUR SAY As part of the University Campus Masterplan, we’ve been granted funding to improve and increase the size of the Students’ Union.

We’ll be extending the building and making some huge changes to the way we operate and the services we deliver.

We want you to get involved in shaping the future of your Union. You’re invited to our focus groups to ensure that you are at the heart of everything we do, so come along to have your say or share your thoughts online at: http://svy.mk/1ET1EIX

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Food & Drink

Editors: Ellie Gibbs, Adam Fearn

ISSUE 19/ 16th MARCH 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Food Politics: The Underlying Struggles of Social Eating Ellie Gibbs Food Editor

Does anyone else have this problem?

As a 21-year-old female, I know I don’t need to ask that question.

I opened up honestly with a friend recently about this topic—expressing the struggle that is every day in the life of the food-obsessed.

Constant calculations of when I’m next going to eat, how can I make sure that it’s healthy, what is my backup healthy eating plan, would it be better to eat now at uni something averagely healthy or to wait until I get home, or would that be too late to digest? Should I just not eat?

In a world where every food on the planet is available to us in a nearby supermarket, the suggestion that we be health-conscious is not easy to dismiss. We have access to the ingredients, and thus no excuse not to subscribe to this lifestyle.

How about when we’re in uni 12 – 8, and there is no time to prepare a home cooked meal? Do we ‘cheat’ and buy a wrap or meal deal from Sainsbury’s? And not really enjoy it because we feel too guilty as we check the scientific nutritional breakdown and wince at the numbers in red. I can’t help feeling that despite the numerous benefits of a healthy lifestyle, the national obsession may be going too far.

Things I have done in the name of ‘health’: - got distracted in 70% of lectures while planning nutritious meals - obsessively scoured menus in advance to avoid choosing an unhealthy option in a rush/under pressure - felt unable to enjoy ‘bad’ foods due to ‘guilt’ association - felt disappointed in self for eating ‘bad’ foods, also associated with lack of restraint,

willpower and weakness - eaten 3 slices of cake to replace meals for fear of calorie overdose - panicked at the thought of going to a restaurant socially—no one wants to be the girl with a salad, or get plate envy, or spend the entire evening thinking about food/weight when the real purpose of the event is the interaction (supposed to be enjoyable).

The last one is tricky. I’m sure people experience varying levels of food anxiety, and I have felt envious of those who seem to have got it down—nonchalantly ordering what they fancy and eating as much as they feel like. In public, I have previously felt obliged to choose something that doesn’t say ‘I’m on a diet’ and even points more towards the ‘I don’t give a shit about weight loss, look at me feast’. I would then eat more than my stomach was asking for, thus enlarging it and my lack of confidence.

So what is the solution? Maybe menus and quick conveniences need to universally cater for the health conscious. Maybe.

Maybe we all just need to chill out.

I think the real issue here comes back to the notorious size zero/photoshop perfection that is forcefully present across advertising.

Does anyone feel good when they see these images? How many people look at clothing posters in shops, try on the model’s outfit and think ‘yes, I look like that’ in the changing room mirror? Bodies come in so many shapes and sizes and the world needs to be more aware of that. Health is an important factor in life but it stops being healthy when the need for it becomes a mental obsession.

While I’m still personally trying to find the

balance with this, I’d like to share some ideas for maintaining a healthy and nutritious mind as well as body: - Enjoy every meal, whether it be healthy or not—you need food to survive and you shouldn’t feel guilty about that - You are your own harshest critic, no-one is judging your ‘imperfections’ in the same way as you, positive people look for positive things - Work on your personality over your image. it’s easier to change a personality flaw than an appearance based one - Not being a certain size or weight does not make you inadequate - You are beautiful, and happiness comes from within These are very important things to remember. Of course I believe in healthy eating most of the time, but I also think we need to be assured that it is okay to have something that does not necessarily satisfy the recommended quota of our daily amount.

As long as you are a healthy weight for your height and make sure you apply a reasonable amount of restraint at the urge to eat entire trays of brownies, tubs of ice cream and third helpings of chips, you should be happy.

A basic knowledge of what’s good for you and what isn’t should be held on to, but the moment food starts affecting your confidence, social presence and ability to focus on other tasks, then it is time to rethink.

Why are so many of us aiming for this elusive ‘perfection’? Confidence is the biggest form of attraction, and it can hide a world of complexes than can eventually lead to their eradication. So you have excess fat on your thighs, is anyone else going to change their

Ask me about Ask When the longstanding (and, in my opinion, longdisappointing) Piccadilly branch of Kro closed its doors at the end of 2014, many Manchester diners were filled with speculation, wondering what may take on the imposing space arguably slap-bang in the centre of the city. Shortly after Kro’s admittal of defeat, I read that two businesses had signed up to split the place down the middle. The first, another of the fast-growing ‘Byron’ burger chains (because we need more burgers in Manchester), and the second, an Ask Pizza. Growing up around York, I have always been familiar with this chain, as many of my friends from the South are. To me, it has the reputation as one of the better corporate pizza places, delivering dependable and familiar food favourites.

However, funnily, Ask seems to have eluded the Manchester dining scene, the newly opened Piccadilly Gardens branch being their first in the city.

I was invited along to their launch event, and as soon as we were seated and happily gulping down glasses of complimentary Prosecco, we were introduced to Chris, the Brand Manager; I asked him why Manchester had so long remained off Ask’s map. His response, that they were waiting for the perfect site and would settle for no less, cannily both asserted the high standards of the chain and implied that the chosen site is something special.

On the second point, he was certainly right: the space is huge, with high ceilings and lofty acoustics.

There is plenty of light, with candles ensuring intimacy on each of the many tables that snake around the bar and open kitchen. Floor to ceiling windows

make for excellent people watching, and anyone who has cast their eyes around Piccadilly Gardens will see the merit in such a vantage point (I once saw a guy walking his pet raccoon around there).

With no raccoons in sight, however, we turned our gaze to the menu. Whilst perusing, we nibbled on ‘Piccanti’ almonds—served hot, lathered in chilli oil, they were an unusual and delicious addition to the bog-standard menu we expected. To start, we split a single serving of the ‘Fritto Misto’ - a mixture of peppers, courgettes, calamari and whitebait all battered and fried and served with a zingy aioli dip.

The vegetables retained an al dente bite, while the seafood—in particular the salty, meaty whitebait— added softness to the dish.

For mains, we decided to go Dutch, a seeming geographical fauxpas. On Chris’ recommendation, we shared one of Ask’s intriguing new sourdough pizza bases, this one, the ‘Carne’, topped with Luganica sausage, dollops of pork and beef ragu, smoked prosciutto and fresh herbs. The base was light and the distinctive sourdough flavour gave a delightful undertone to the rich, meaty and smoky toppings. Our second sharer was the ‘Ravioli Marittimi’ - soft pasta pillows filled with crayfish, crab, salmon and ricotta, served in a creamy tomato sauce, with a massive shelled king prawn whacked on top for good measure. The sauce was sweet and mellow, lifting the delicate taste of the ravioli, and I had a high old time seductively sucking the meat from the mammoth prawn shell. All was accompanied by a large glass of red wine (unfortunately, due to the previously

opinion of you based on that? If they are, do you want to be associated with them? Same goes for stomach, arms, hips, chin, neck, ankles, etcetera, etcetera; the list of potential body-anxieties is virtually infinite.

This is a socially constructed anxiety which should not exist. The problem of obesity and binge eating cannot be ignored but the negative effects of the opposing side are not as openly discussed. Something non-existent can actually hold us back in life, make us sad and even loathsome of ourselves.

We should stop aiming for perfection and view that it’s already there, right now. Look in the mirror and see a bump or a bulge?

Embrace it, it’s you, it’s alive and natural and not stopping you from doing anything.

It doesn’t make you any less of a person than the photoshopped model with a thigh gap and a flat stomach. Not to say that she isn’t beautiful too.

That said, if we want to choose something less calorific at a restaurant, we should not feel embarrassed to make that choice.

The friendly urges of ‘go on, treat yourself’ actually exacerbate anxieties with regard for the need to please others whilst caring for the self. We should all be more open about this topic and I would not be surprised to find that many of our consciences are alike.

Having the perfect body is not a competition; there is no prize. Live for yourself, make your own choices and be comfortable with who you are and what you decide to do.We’re all beautiful for who we are, not what we look like. Let’s be proud of that and get on with the more important things in life.

Hester Lonergan goes along to the opening night of Piccadilly’s lastest restaurant addition, Ask Italian.

mentioned Prosecco-necking, I do not remember exactly of which variety).

Slowly approaching satiety, I sounded the alarm with my companion, and we got what remained of our mains packed up to go in order to make way for dessert. Sadly, the special I had my greedy eye on, a pistachio and olive oil cake, was sold out, so I settled for a slice of warm chocolate and almond cake, served with hazelnut gelato. I wasn’t grumbling; the cake was rich and strong, yet surprisingly unsweet, leaving the ice cream’s sugariness to cut through.

My companion chose a warm almond, plum and pistachio cake, which stood rather solitarily on its plate, but the harmonious flavours of which served to explain its lack of accompaniment. These we washed down with single measures of Disaronno amaretto, and squiffily discussed the lunacy of those who don’t appreciate its glory.

With nowhere on the menu left to venture, we stirred our stumps to leave. Promptly, however, we were sidetracked by the offer of more free Prosecco. After all, it would have been rude to let it go to waste. Finally defeated, we tottered out of the vast glass doors and parted company. On my 500-metre walk home, I mused on the difference between my expectations of a meal at Ask Pizza and the realities of my evening. I went in expecting tasty yet unsurprising and unimaginative food. I got the tasty part right; however, considering the variety and authenticity of their menu, I saw a healthy amount of surprise and imagination in their food. Enough to warrant a return trip, but not too much to repel the

everyday diner. Ask me about Ask, and I’ll tell you its appearance in Manchester may just have been worth the wait.

Photo: Hester Lonergan

If you fancy your hand at food and drink journalism, whether it be interviews, recipes, reviews, or some interesting culinary anecdotes, email us at food.mancunion@outlook.com or get in touch via Facebook or Twitter .

ISSUE 19/ 16th MARCH 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

The Mancunion: Food & Drink @MancunionFood

Top reviewer Hester Lonergan is delighted to find not just another greasy burger joint.

Holy Filthy Cow! Once upon a hungover Wednesday, we ambled around the side streets of Manchester, near St. Anne’s Square, pushed forward by the promise of hamburgers and milkshakes. I am not usually one for the ‘dirty burger’ trend - it is alarmingly overdone in Manchester, as the burgers also often are.

But the claims on the website of burgers to beat all others (plus my insatiable eveningafter-the-night-before desire to sink my teeth into a hunk of meat) caused me to gleefully silence my usual protestations and see just exactly what ‘Filthy Cow’ had to offer.

Welcomed by a hanging sign of a crossdressing cow, we opened the door and stepped into a casual haven. Tables and chairs of varying material and size (stripped wood, wrought iron) are imposed upon by exposed-brickwork walls, with an orderingstation-cum-kitchen set back from the dining space. We approached and were warmly greeted by a waitress, who served my companion a crisp white wine and myself a diet coke, enquiring as to whether I wanted it in a glass or just the can (feeling fancy I went for a glass). We climbed upstairs and found the same pared-back, almost farmyard chic on the second floor; the space is great for chilling out, not feeling pressured to either stay too long or outstay your welcome. Having chosen our seats, I leapt up and made a beeline once more for the bar, where I ordered two burgers, fries, coleslaw and two milkshakes. I was issued with an extra-terrestrial looking LEDfitted plastic disc, informed that when the food was ready it would light up and vibrate.

The milkshakes arrived promptly after ordering - supplied by Ginger’s Comfort Emporium (based in Chorlton, can also be found in Afflecks), their thick and sweet creaminess was medicine to my fragile state. The chocolate was lovely and fulfilled expectations (and stomachs), but the peanut butter and salted caramel version - officially named ‘Chorlton Crack’ - was really and truly something to behold. If that’s what drugs are like south of Fallowfield, find me a dealer and my nearest vein.

Jordan, the 23-year-old creator and owner of ‘Filthy Cow’ came and sat with us for a while, discussing her accountancy past, her numerous jobs in different burger joints (learning what and what not to do), and her fervent passion for finding the precise and top-secret temperature at which to cook her pure steak burgers. When we jumped at the buzzing of our digital alien dinner disc, she headed back down the stairs, returning a minute later with a plastic tray brimming with paper packages, wooden cutlery and an armful of condiments.

We frantically fumbled to unwrap our burgers, revealing shiny buns sandwiching overspilling fillings. The first, their signature ‘Filthy Beast’, was a beautiful marriage between tender, pink-in-the-middle steak burger, bacon, cheese, lettuce, tomato and gherkin. Waylaid temporarily by logistics of working out how to a) hold and b) bite into the burger, its freshness and lack of grease was a real pleasure to eat once achieved. The second burger, their vegetarian offering, was a halloumi and mushroom stuffed bundle of joy. As Jordan had promised, the power couple managed to

Review: All Star Lanes

Adam Fearn and Lise Millerjord review All Star Lanes, a swanky new restaurant in the heart of Manchester.

All Star Lanes offers a fantastic bowling, dining and drinking experience every night of the week. Located at The Great Northern Warehouse in Deansgate within the heart of Manchester, the building houses eight bowling lanes, a cocktail bar, a large restaurant and a fantastic whiskey tasting room. For private events, an exclusive party room can be hired, equipped with 2 bowling lanes, private cocktail bar and karaoke facilities. The cocktail bar is well stocked, boasting an impressive list of premium spirits, beers and wines, making for an excellent spot to enjoy drinks in between bowling and dinner. Like its décor, All Star Lane’s food revolves around classic American dishes with their indoor barbecue smoking up some great dishes.

When we visited, we sampled February’s special: the BBQ Pulled Chicken Sandwich. Served on a bed of crunchy slaw and topped with pickled red onions, the sandwich oozed flavour and was cooked to perfection. The highlight of the meal was the crispy chicken crackling that accompanied the main. Golden brown in colour and crispy in texture, it complimented the lighter shredded chicken perfectly. Instead of having traditional sauces, All Star Lanes provide samples of their own BBQ, mustard and spicy chilli sauce, all of which were divine. Although slightly pricey at £9.50 for the sandwich alone (all sides have to be purchased separately), the lively venue definitely justifies the price. it should be mentioned that the vegetarian range is less sufficient: Mancunion News editor Lauren Gorton recalls a horrendous and scarring occasion when the Goats Cheese and Sweet Potato stack caused violent vomiting and when she consumed her vomit found little difference in the taste.

If you're after an evening of fun, dinner and drinks then All Star Lanes Manchester should be right up your street; with 4 successful and highly-acclaimed venues already in London, this new Manchester offering is bound to be a winner.

Food & Drink 23 deliver a meatiness that would defy any vegetarian critic out there. The fries were crispy and golden and perfectly shaped, thanks to the professional potato cutter they employ specifically for that purpose. The slaw was light and crunchy and refreshingly restrained on the mayonnaise front. We squirted all manner of sauces onto our tray, troffed to our hearts content in a very inelegant manner (warning: not one for a first date), and turned our napkins into balls of saucy filth.

With only three beef burgers on the menu, the halloumi and mushroom and one monthly special, plus three sides (we missed out on onion rings), the selectiveness is testament to Jordan’s passion for quality and fresh, local ingredients. Bar the freezer full of ice cream, everything is delivered and prepared onsite daily; the veg comes from Bolton and the wines and beers are specifically selected on a rotating local basis.

Having finished in record time, we asked about the dessert menu, which rolled off Jordan’s tongue (unsurprisingly, considering it consists of one dish at a time). The 100% vegetarian lemon cheesecake currently featuring was very light and moussy, with a nice level of citrus zing. She also brought us her favourite of the Ginger’s ice creams they stock - Lyle’s Golden Syrup. We were not disappointed and, slipping into a dairy-induced coma, marvelled at the gorgeous Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc she cracked open a bottle of, especially for our degustation.

Wiping our hands on the wet towels provided, we made declarations of return visits.

It is neither difficult nor unlikely to imagine ‘Filthy Cow’ becoming a regular spot for crowds of diners. Its laid-back, unassuming atmosphere and menu makes it the perfect place to zip in for a pre or post activity bite, and the takeaway-safe packaging of the food means you can just as easily pick up and indulge in the comfort of your home or on a street corner. In a market oversaturated with expensive and hyped-up burgers, ‘Filthy Cow’ delivers honest value and honest taste, flipping this epidemic on its head, as competently as it flips its burgers.

10 Tib Lane, Manchester M2 4JB 0161 839 5498 www.filthyfood.co.uk

Photo: The Mancunion

Pub of the Week: The Beagle Sam Joyce and Charlie Filmer-Court check out the food as well as the beer in this recently revamped Chorlton pub.

Photo: The Beagle

Photo: All Star Lanes

The Great Northern, 235 Deansgate, Manchester M3 4EN 0161 871 3600 www.allstarlanes.co.uk

The Beagle is a bar/eatery in trendy Chorlton which has recently undergone a major menu and interior revamp. We had been drooling over their Tex-Mex food on Twitter for a while now, so we decided to swing by and check them out. We were glad to be seated in the conservatory, which seemed to be the buzzing heart of the bar. The funky orange wall paintings and candlelit tables combine to create this sort of perpetual warm summers evening vibe.

The beer selection was impressive, and you’d expect nothing less from the sister bar of Port Street Beer House. We stuck to the Beagle pale, an impressively hopped session beer brewed in collaboration with Summer Wine Brewery in New Mills. It was nice to drink, a really enjoyable house beer especially after hundreds of ram lagers.

We didn’t have starters, we had ‘pick and mix snacks’ (we secretly think these may have just been starters).

We went for Jalapeno Cornbread, Popcorn Shrimp, and because we came with a vegan, the Korean Tofu Tacos. All were a success, the Jalapeno cornbread was lovely, nice and buttery and perfect with the spicy sauce, we would have appreciated a bit more of that though. The Korean Tofu Tacos went down well, it’s nice to see a place make a real effort to cater to the vegans amongst us. The highlight though was the shrimp, lovely and crunchy and balanced well with

the chipotle mayo.

On to the mains, which we had decided upon well in advance. Our vega n continued the tofu theme, this time a burrito stuffed as tight as can be with various veggie goodies including sweet potato fries. The Mexican Burger had beef (from a local butchers) jalapenos, nachos, pico de gallo and copious amounts of cheese and hot sauce, all nestled between two brioche buns.

It’s the kind of burger you excitedly smash into your face, and you actually could taste each individual component, provided those components aren’t running down your arm and into your lap.

The homeslice chicken bucket was what we had all been looking forward to, however. An actual stainless steel bucket, bursting with homemade fries and buttermilk fried chicken was carted over to our table.

Now, we have eaten a lot of fried chicken. I’d go ahead and say I’m a fried chicken connoisseur, and I approve.

The wings were just greasy enough to be fantastic, and the coating was crispy and on point.

In all honestly, we were really impressed with the food at the beagle, and we would return again to get better acquainted with their burritos and burgers. We did like the atmosphere as well, but us being a bunch of students, there is little chance of us returning for a casual pint with their beer prices as they are.

Arts & Culture

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ISSUE 19/ 16th MARCH 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM /TheMancunionArtsCulture @ArtsMancunion

Editor: Holly Smith What’s on

Competition

Bored over the Easter break? Look no further as The Mancunion gives you the top events happening around the city.

This photograph is from Joe watts, a 1st year medical student.

What Is On?

Mystery of The Human Form @ AWOL Studios, Hope Mill Saturday 28th March – Monday 30th March Prices vary depending on course A series of art courses are running over the weekend, aiming to empower your creativity and drawing processes to enable you to draw more freely, intuitively and expressively. Experience the use of charcoal, chalk and oil pastel, pencil, ink, acrylic, watercolour paints, and collage amongst other materials.

Visit their website to find out more and book a place. http://www. creativeartcourses.org/

Archives New Zealand@Flickr

Image and Word: The Julian Francis Collection of Prints and Illustrated Books @ MMU Special Collections

Photo Of The Week

This exhibition of 50 prints and 50 illustrated books which have been selected from the highly regarded collection of Julian Francis and spans a period of 80 years, starting from the end of the First World War. Work by artists such as Edward Ardizzone, John Farleigh, Barnett Freedman, Lucian Freud will be on show.

Cartography Exhibition @ The Exchange Theatre Until Wednesday 25th March Free Entry Have a love for geography, or just marvel at the art of map-making? Get down to this unique craft exhibition celebrating cartography, including prints, jewellery and textiles. The quirkiness of this exhibition is not one to be missed.

Until Friday 27th March

20 15

Free entry

Have you received inspirational teaching or outstanding support from University staff this year?

Why not nominate your lecturer, graduate teaching assistant or support staff for a Manchester Teaching Award?

Guidance and nomination forms available at www.manchesterstudentsunion.com/teachingawards

Theatre

ISSUE 19/ 16th MARCH 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Editors: Nicole Tamer, Luke Sharma Comedy

An Ode to British Comedy

When I moved to Manchester as an international student, I was surprised about the role comedy held in British society. I have always admired British comedians and TV shows; anything by Monty Python and Fry & Laurie had a special place in my heart. But since I moved to England, another kind of world of comedy has opened it’s doors to me: stand-up comedy.

In Freshers’ Week, I realised quickly that it was completely normal to pop into Squirrels Bar to have a laugh and a few pints. I noticed more and more how comedy was advertised with big posters, everyone had their favourite comedians and comic relief day was a big conversation topic for some people. Of course other cultures have stand-up and their own kind of comedy, but in England it was the first time for me that I was constantly surrounded by jokes, sarcasm and ‘banter’ (which was a new word for me back then), and I absolutely loved it.

The anthropologist Kate Fox, the author of Watching the English (a fantastic book about British culture and a must read for every international student) wrote in her chapter about humour: “Humour rules. Humour governs. Humour is omnipresent and omnipotent.”

From my experience, she is completely spot on. She mentions further that there is a reserved ‘time and place’ for humour in other cultures and I completely

Review

Photo: Paul Townsend @

agree. Some people were surprised that I understood their sarcasm in conversations because they thought sarcasm was only used in England. This narrow minded view is not necessary laudable, but it shows the importance of humour in English culture. It doesn’t matter to whom I talk, whether they be lecturers or cashiers, there is always an undercurrent of humour.

Kate Fox is right when she mentions that most English conversations will involve at least some degree of banter, teasing, irony, understatement, humorous self-deprecation, mockery or just silliness and this is really hard to grasp for a lot of foreigners. It is especially important not to take yourself too seriously, which takes me back to stand-up comedy. I have been to performances of amateurs and students in Squirrels or Frog and Bucket and I have paid a sum to see some of my favourite comedians at the O2 Apollo or The Lowry. What unites them all is their self-deprecation.

I personally like a wide range of different comedy genres, but I early realised that no matter what topic or context the comedian on the stage will at some point, pardon my French, take the piss out of themselves and the audience will love it. British humour is very introspective and observing oneself is something that sounds easy, but is only funny when done right.

Some comedians create their whole stage persona out

Ben Farren

Nicole Tamer

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Editors’ Picks

Oklahoma!

of the exaggeration of one flaw. This also explains the popularity of comedians like Jack Whitehall, whose career basically revolves around his poshness.

Some people argue that this is an easy way to get into comedy and that comedy has been watered down over the years in the favour of quiz and reality shows.

I have to agree with this notion because when looking back at the last 50 years there have always been a few comedians that stood out during every decade, and they changed the perception of comedy to some extent. Most notable are the ones that belonged to the Footlights, the infamous amateur theatrical club based at Cambridge University. Most famous Alumni are three members of Monty Python, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Rowan Atkinson, Emma Thompson, David Mitchell and Richard Ayoade. When I found out about the Footlights, I was at first delighted that comedy comes from such bright minds, but then became more aware of the inequality in representation in comedy.

A very self-aware moment ensued in one of the episodes in the ‘The Young Ones’, a TV show about four undergraduates from Scumbag College whose characters could be described as ‘anarchic antifootlights’ (Fresh Meat sadly didn’t manage to portray students as refreshingly). The main characters partake in The University Challenge to face snotty upper class opponents played by Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie and Emma Thompson from Footlights College.

This clash of humour and class united in five glorious minutes is, what I love most about British humour: its ability to surprise, reflect and satirise itself at the same time. It is not anything like America’s slapstick, Japanese goofy humour or Germany’s absent humour (just kidding); it doesn’t take itself too seriously and thereby succeeds in being self-deprecating in a way that makes you cringe and chuckle at the same time.

“Oh what a beautiful morning!” The classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical is back with a bang. The brilliant musical following the days of Oklahoma territory before it was a state, with the heroic cowboy Curly facing off against the slightly deranged Judd Fry for the love of Laurie Williams, a strong, independent woman.

With a side-plot featuring the love triangle between Will Parker (a dim young cowboy), Ado Annie (A promiscuous young woman) and Ali Hakim (a travelling Persian salesman) you get about as much bang for your buck as possible with this one!

The Lowry 17/03 - 21/03

Hindle Wakes It’s the end of the Wakes weekend in the fictitious mill town of Hindle in Lancashire, just before the outbreak of the First World War. Mill worker Fanny Hawthorn and mill owner’s son Alan Jeffcote are returning home after a weekend alone together in a Llandudno hotel - kept secret from their parents, and from Alan’s fiancée Beatrice.

But when a dramatic turn of events exposes their deception they find themselves in conflict with both sets of parents. Faced with the pressure to ‘become an honest woman’ Fanny is determined to pursue her own future.

Octagon Theatre Bolton

Photo: The Young Ones

13/03 - 21/03

Preview

Luke Sharma

The Producers Review Ben Far-

Marcus Johns

La Traviata

Morris Seifert

Photo: Digital Theatre

Photo: All Music

Drawing: Marcus Rice

With clichés in art it’s always important to check the date of the original. “A Clockwork Orange” was published

by Manchester’s own Anthony Burgess in 1962, and so many characters we are familiar with appear in it. We have the main character Alex DeLarge (played by the electrifying George Parker): the disturbed protagonist.

The nuances of good and evil were received extremely well, with Alex’s internal drama being followed along by the marvellous University of Manchester Drama Society cast with great ease and professionalism.

More (what we would now call) clichés include the evil doctors and Orwellian (forgive the added cliché) government, played with great humour and sliminess respectively by Matt Dunnett and Oliver Maynard. These parties provide the enemy of the story, even though they somehow manage to stay in the background for us, the viewers. The persistence of Alex is just one of the great contradictions of the play, Alex’s lack of choice is placed opposite his constant presence and agency, even though we are shown he does not have much.

Indeed the central question of the work is whether there is moral equivalence between being evil by choice or forced to be good, particularly for another’s aims.

The direction of the play was extremely effective with these thoughts in mind, Alex’s persistence, and his positions of power changing in both the story and in space transfer very well into the mind of the viewer. Even the seating arrangements: two blocks diametrically opposed with the stage in between, I certainly felt the competition between the id and the (simultaneously mild and extreme) superego.

Special mentions must firstly go to the only female actor who appeared on the stage, Jess Wheeler, who played 5 characters and yet managed to give each one genuine presence. She refused to be a stereotype, handling particular violent scenes with gravitas which held the entire room. Secondly, James Blake-Butler’s first character in Mr Deltoid was, along with Parker’s Alex, the most technically proficient, and wouldn’t look out of place on a bigger stage.

The play was excellently written, with on point professionalism from the actors. It wouldn’t have been served badly by being performed on a bigger stage with less obtuse effects, sometimes the levels of light and sound felt slightly out of place. Other than this, a fantastic performance on its own merits, never mind as a student production.

La Traviata is a beautiful opera into which Giuseppe Verdi wrote joy, folly, love, and tragedy. Like any good tragedy, the idea is to become attached to the characters and enthralled by their situation.

Unfortunately for Opera North, the poor performance

by Ji-Min Park as Alfredo Germont in the first act delayed the necessary affectation required for the final scene.

I am pleased to say, however, that Ji-Min Park’s disappointing start was overcome during the second act, as his love for Violetta became clear and his sorrow at her departure was sufficiently mournful.

Moreover, his poor start was overshadowed by the ensemble’s joyful celebrations, which quickly distracted the audience away from his shortcomings.

It was still a shame, though, that Ji-Min Park’s voice, expression, and acting were so underwhelming in the first act, because Anna Jeruc-Kopec played the perfect Violetta.Theirlovestorytooktoolongtogetofftheground due to the lack of emotion emanating from Alfredo.

Jeruc-Kopec played the role with grace, elegance, and a youthful stupidity that was beautiful to watch. Her vocal range was breathtaking and her gentle glides around the stage were mesmerising.

Alessandro Talevi’s stage directions created excellent ambience, especially during Violetta’s final moments.

The use of masked characters applauding in the background, contrasting with the despair of Alfredo in the foreground, provided for an enthrallingly tragic moment with a hint of confusion and madness, which served as a perfect allegory of the death of a loved one.

A review of Opera North’s La Traviata would be incomplete without reference to the set and costume designer Madeleine Boyd. Boyd’s set design was both simple and subtle while providing for a strong look and excellent space around which the cast could move. The beautiful costumes really defined the first act’s celebratory feel whilst the use of gentle white bedding subtle peppered with blood stains grounded the final act in sickness, despair, and the loss of a young and innocent Violetta Valéry.

One of Manchester’s theatre events of the year!

This rendition of The Producers features an allstar cast including comedians Jason Manford (as Leo Bloom) and Phil Jupitus (as Franz Liebkind) alongside dancer Louie Spence (as Carmen Ghia).

Directed by the masterful Matthew White (writer and director of Top Hat) you can be sure that this will be a show not to miss.

Adapted from Mel Brooks’ 1968 satirical comedy film starring Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel, The Producers is about Max Bilaystock (Corey English), a failing Broadway producer who charms elderly women as a way to finance his plays. Enter Leo Bloom (Jason Manford), an accountant who finds that Max is in fact committing fraud.

In realizing that a producer could make much more money from a flop than a hit, they team up and hatch a foolproof plan to create the worst Broadway production ever. Naturally not everything goes to plan and after their NaziInspired love letter to Hitler, “Springtime For Hitler” written by real ex-Nazi Franz Liebkind (Phil Jupitus) becomes a hit, Leo and Max’s grand scheme comes crashing down around them.

This particular tour has been running since 6th March starting at the Churchill Theatre in Bromley and has been received to rave reviews with the Guardian stating that it “Puts the comedy back into musical comedy”.

The Producers has won many accolades during its various runs on Broadway and The West End, including (a record-breaking) 12 Tony Awards and 3 Olivier Awards. You can be guaranteed to be in stitches. A must see for any theatregoer this year.

Manchester Palace Theatre 16/03 - 21/03

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Lifestyle

ISSUE 19/ 16th MARCH 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Editors: Kitty Treverton Jones, Molly Allen Features

Nightmares in The Second Semester Slump Ali G It’s hard to walk into the building without feeling infuriated by something. Sarah Heaton and Josepha Griffin Parry know exactly how you feel…

If you’ve spent more than an hour in the Learning Commons, you will have become familiar with the unique set of politics that governs deadline season. On the odd occasion, some imbeciles choose to violate these rules.

What follows is an examination (rant) of some of the most annoying (infuriating) problems (people) you encounter in the Alan Gilbert Learning Commons, also (always) known as Ali G. Firstly, who are the people that insist on getting the lift to the first floor? If you are an able-bodied human it is your moral duty to not clog the lifts up for those of us who scale the 6 flights of stairs to the top floor. And don’t get us started on those of you that need Photo: sydigill@Flickr help going down stairs, gravity does the work for you. Exercise for the body is exercise for the mind and realistically you’re going to do nothing else today, so sort it out. Lazy fuckers.

Equally (if not more) irritating are those who think it’s acceptable to use their laptop at a computer desk, whilst barely even logging on to the computer. People hate you.

After working for 11 hours solid, we all go a bit mad and begin to invent ways of entertaining ourselves. You develop unexplainable crushes on random people or inanimate objects, inventing identities and relationships with them. When the inevitable accidental eye contact occurs it is important to remember

that they don’t know what you’re thinking, and nobody knows how special you really are. Especially when you bump into them at Sankeys (we’re looking at you Milky Beige Sloth Boy).

Territory is very important in Ali G. Why do people think it’s OK to come and sit on our sofa that we’re not using and never have? It’s clearly part of our lounge, get off our property.

You have to be ruthless when it comes to study rooms: if we’ve booked it, it’s ours. We don’t care how important your work is, you should have thought of that earlier. We don’t have a problem making a scene and we’re not going away, so just pack up and leave.

Lunchtime is that period of sweet, sweet relief where you get to think about nothing and eat everything. Or is it? Not if you accidentally find yourself sat next to an overzealous member of the public that speaks 67 languages and wants to teach you Icelandic. Or tell you the story of how he helped to bring down Hitler. We all like people, but there’s a time and a place (not here, not now). Top tip – take a pair of headphones or look like you’re about to cry. You’ll be left alone.

Apologies if we sound bitter and lonely, it’s because we are.

Stuck in a uni rut? Entirely fed up with life? Molly Allen explores exactly how to pull yourself out of the second semester slump

Photo: scui3asteveo@Flickr

Photo: avenuesofinspiration@tumblr

Second semester. These words are usually met with a series of groans, eye rolls and general feelings of dread.

Which is entirely understandable. Second semester sucks. We’re welcomed back to uni with exams, for those who usually have it, there’s no reading week, the weather is shite and you have no idea what to do over summer. Or if you’re in final year, what to do with the rest of your life.

Along with these delights (and around this time of year) you usually find yourself in a slump; you’ve finished exams but have a few deadlines, you’re eating the same shitty, boring food that you can’t quite get to taste like how your mum makes it and you’re not going out because… well either you’ve got 2 deadlines or you’ve forgotten that bars, alcohol and dancing exist.

I have recently found myself in this slump and need to make the most of Manchester before I’m exiled back to Wales for Easter, so here is some advice on getting out of this rut:

Enjoy Manchester culture – whether it’s visiting the many tea shops or doing something a little more highbrow, get yourself out of the house/Fallowfield and mingle with people who aren’t students. Visit the Manchester TimeOut website for inspiration.

Eat a different cuisine – one of the beauties of being up North is food isn’t phenomenally expensive.

Break into your overdraft and try a cuisine or dish you’ve never had before.

Visit a new bar – you don’t even need to get blind drunk, grab a couple of friends, have a quick google and venture into the unknown. Who knows what you might find.

Go for a walk – wander round Platt Fields or Birchfields Park and enjoy the fresh air. Not recommended on a rainy day but who doesn’t enjoy the slight nip of the cold on your face if you’re correctly layered up.

Look at the world around you – OK so Fallowfield/Withington/Victoria Park aren’t exactly bustling hubbubs but Manchester is! Visit a library if you’re a bookworm, jump on a train to the Peak District and go for a walk, enjoy some Corn Flakes at the new cereal café (promise me you won’t be dull and have Corn Flakes) or stay at home in your uni rut, it’s up to you.

How to spend your summer

It’s a little bit ridiculous how much time we get off in the summer months. Kitty Treverton Jones gives you a guide to the variety of things you can do to occupy your time over the holidays Internships

Volunteering

Festivals

University life can be quite a selfish existence; you live by yourself

Yes, summer is a great way to enhance

A great alternative to a holiday if you have

for yourself with little responsibility, so sometimes it’s important to

your future career prospects. Whether

a job and can’t take more than a couple of

give something back to the world. Volunteering can also be a great

it’s two weeks or two months, there

days off work, festivals are places where

way to combine travelling and a boost for your CV; there are so many

are thousands of companies that offer

it’s always summer even if it’s raining and

projects you can undertake abroad in communities or for charity.

summer internships for students. Who

personal hygiene is no longer a thing. If you

Alternatively, look up volunteering projects you can do in your local

knows, if they like you it could even

feel like doing something different to the

community. You’ll be surprised how fulfilling it is giving something

lead to a post-uni job offer. Don’t know

large-scale ones such as Glastonbury (or if

back!

where to start? Head to the Careers

you’re still just bitter you didn’t get tickets),

Service in University Place, they can

try a smaller one – sometimes they’re

help you with the search as well as

better than the sprawling city-like festivals

checking your CV and applications.

as well as being cheaper. Alternatively,

Internships can be unpaid, however, so

there are so many festivals abroad that

you may choose to work somewhere

have great line-ups and are likely to have

Whether it’s a short city break, a hot-flop in the sun

you can earn money once your loan

better weather, look up Hideout (Croatia),

or full-blown backpacking, travelling is without a

stops coming in.

Sonar (Barcelona) or Melt (Germany).

doubt the best way to spend your time when you’re

Alternative to all of the above: Bum around at home making the Photo: changinglanesagain@wordpress

Travelling

most of home-cooked meals and having your washing done for you.

You worked hard this year, relax. Invest in a Netflix subscription and watch all six seasons of Breaking Bad. Again.

a student. However, being a student unfortunately means you have zero money. Get your old sixth form job as a waitress/bartender/babysitter back, earn some money and book a flight. Southeast Asia is very popular among students as it’s a cheap place to travel in. Interrailing is also a great idea, you can get cheap flights to Europe then make your way around the continent on trains.

Photo: bethan@Flickr

Photo: Evie Christadoulou @Flickr

ISSUE 19/ 16th MARCH 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

The Mancunion: Lifestyle @MancunionLife

Lifestyle

Finance Features

The Fear As much as the media and our families would like to think studying at university is three years of dossing around, blowing thousands of pounds of government money on cheap vodka and generally not contributing an awful lot to anything, this isn’t actually the case. The truth is that most of us are usually worrying about something, from the moment we rock up to halls mid-September with our parents and all our worldly possessions in tow and wonder what we’ve let ourselves in for, right up until we’re standing in front of a fancy building holding a diploma, baffled as to where the time has gone and what on earth we’re supposed to do now. Sound familiar? Here’s a run down of ‘The Fear’ year by year, and how to fight it off.

First Year Fear: The “40% isn’t that hard to get, right?”

Is the ratio of food to basics vodka in my kitchen cupboard verging on worrying? Is it

What are you worrying about this year? Lauren Howells knows how you feel every step of the way... and has the advice to help you through

worth the FOMO of not going on a flat outing to Sankeys to get a grade on this essay that I can actually tell my parents about? Is it true they kick people out for bad attendance? How important is that Monday 9am lecture anyway? And when did 40% start sounding more like a target than a disaster?

Overheard University of Manchester

The funniest things you’ve been saying around campus this week

“If my daughter turned out to be a porn star I’d kick her in the face” Overheard in the union

Solution:

Find the balance! First year is probably the least responsibility and most freedom you’ll ever have in your life, so take advantage of it. Join a society, play a sport, go out an obscene amount, but don’t be afraid to take some time out Photo: rollerrcoaste @tumblr from the madness to put some effort application for a Nobel Peace Prize. You’re not, into your work. It’ll ease your conscience, and and you will be fine. it might even remind you why you wanted to do your degree in the first place.

Second Year Fear: The “I am the only person on the planet without work experience”

Maybe I should get a part-time job. Does bar work count? I could totally go and do charity work abroad. Everyone has an internship this summer. Should I have an internship this summer? What am I even going to do an internship in? I am going to end up unemployable and living in a box. FML.

Final Year Fear: The “I must do all the things before I leave”

I need to finish that coursework/revise for that exam/write my entire dissertation. Should I have a job lined up by now? Maybe I should look at more grad schemes. Oh, and seeing as I’m leaving Manchester, I HAVE to find the time to go to that bar/club/restaurant/festival and spend as much time as possible with my friends and be happy because it’s all going to be over soon and WHAT AM I GOING TO DO?

Solution:

Solution:

Photo: silvyyy@tumblr

First of all, stop panicking. You still have loads of time to get valuable part-time work, if you want to. If you see an internship, work experience or volunteering opportunity that interests you, go for it! If not, don’t fall into the trap of thinking you’re the only person in the world whose CV doesn’t read like an

Change sucks, but it happens. Just keep taking the time in between the stress to enjoy the company of the people who have become like family over the last few years, and when you do get some free time use it to tick something else off the Manchester Bucket List. It ain’t over till it’s over, so stop moping and make the most of it!

“He blocked the toilet with the loo roll from his wank last night, AGAIN” Overheard in Fallowfield

“I’m not friends with her, the fat ox” Overheard in Uni Place

“According to Tinder, he’s a penguin tamer!”

Overheard in the Chemistry building

“I thought my lecturer was telling me it was student erections not student elections” Overheard outside Ali G

“I didn’t know girls had three holes until a year and a half into my relationship” Overheard in Withington Overheard anything hilarious this week?

Tweet us @MancunionLife

Nightlife

Travel

Top 5 Bars

Don’t mess with Texas

If you fancy something different to grimy student club nights, Perisha Kudhail takes you to some of Manchester’s best bars With tales of the most glorified nights out at our fingertips, it’s no surprise that students rarely know where to start.

Thankfully I’m here to guide you through an amazing night out.

Beginning with number 5, The Alchemist. If you fancy a night of quirky beverages then The Alchemist is for you.

The Alchemist caters for everyone’s taste buds and provides a relaxed atmosphere, with an outdoor seating area, which makes it a perfect date location.

Manchester is spoilt for choice with two locations (Spinningfields and New York St) which means you have no excuse for not trying it out.

At number 4, Revolución de Cuba.

Known to some as ‘Revs de Cuba’, this is one of Manchester’s first loves and is ideal for a night packed full of dancing and drinking. It’s got a Latin atmosphere with exciting cocktails and Salsa nights. Be warned of keenos grabbing you to start twirling but that’s all part of the fun. Wear a flared skirt for maximum impact.

Following closely behind Revs de Cuba at number 3, The Hula Tiki Lounge. This Northern quarter delight is perfect for those who want to take

a quick trip to Hawaii without even having to pack a suitcase. The cocktails here are literally on fire means that this night out is great for any celebration. If you’re looking to have a guaranteed brilliant night out Hula Tiki is the place for you (did I mention the low entry price?)

From fiery cocktails to fiery Jazz, Matt and Phred’s Jazz bar upholds Northern Quarter’s delightful reputation. A wide variety of live bands bring musical joy to your ears, but if that’s not your thing they also have burlesque nights and Soul Jazz. Matt and Phred’s is the place if you fancy the buzz of a club night out, without the tiresome after effects. After the Jazz show is over, you can stay for drinks or move along to explore more of Northern Quarter’s offerings.

Finally, heaven is at Cloud 23. A luxurious bar, located at the top of the Hilton Hotel. With a city view of Manchester from the twenty third floor, a cocktail is perfect way to ease into the night.

Be prepared to save if you want to exploit this luxury to the max. It is recommended that you take a rich relative with you and hope the drinks are on them.

27

Going travelling in America? Kitty Treverton Jones shows why you should put Austin, Texas on your list of must-see cities

I hadn’t heard much about Austin before visiting the USA. When I thought of Texas I thought of it as one of the biggest states in the country, with cowboys roaming around the hot, endless landscape. While I wasn’t completely wrong (I definitely saw a vast array of cowboy hats and boots), visiting Austin whilst on a trip in the States completely changed my perception of the place and Austin became one of my favourite cities in

Photos: The Mancunion

America.

I travelled there in the middle of summer, and the heat was almost overwhelming.

Walking around in the daytime, the city felt deserted: there were barely any people or cars on the roads, even in the centre of the city. However at night it completely came to life. Austin is hailed as the “Live Music Capital of the World” and you can see why.

Simply walking down the street in the evening you hear live music from every bar you pass; they close off 6th Street (the nightlife street) to cars every Friday and Saturday night. In Texas it is legal for women to be topless in any location men are allowed to be, so it isn’t unusual to see half-naked women strolling down the buzzing street in the evenings.

There is a real sense of pride in Texas, more so than in other states I visited.

I was told by a woman in a petrol (sorry, “gas”) station that “Texas could

be independent at any time we want, you know!” It is known as the “Lone Star State” referring the time it was an independent country in the 19th century. There is still a strong call for independence; there is a petition with 80,000 signatures calling for the secession of Texas on the White House website.

Austin itself is also very patriotic. Its motto is “Keep Austin Weird”, which refers to the commitment to keeping small businesses flourishing. I spent a very leisurely day ‘Tubing’ (floating down the river on rubber rings drinking beer) and the only Texan our group would not let us make a mess: every time someone dropped a can in the river he shouted: “Don’t mess with Texas!” and swam to pick it up. I loved being a part of the whole Texan experience and I cannot wait to visit Austin again.

HOW WILL WE USE THEM?

YOU DECIDE...

On May 07 2015, the country will turn out to decide who governs for the next five years.

With around 100,000 students in Manchester, we could finally make our concerns heard over poor housing, high crime, extortionate tuition fees and more.

Even if you were registered last time, you must register to vote for these elections.

Register at: www.votebooster.org/register/umsu

2014

GOT ANY

COURSE WORRIES?

If you feel like you’re on the wrong course, the best thing that you can do is give it a bit more time. Don't forget that the course content will be different next term and there may be different tutors, so it’s often worth hanging on to see if things change.

Changing course isn't particularly easy, as most courses are already full and have already started. If you really feel that your course isn't right for you, speak to one of our Advisors who can help you with this process and can discuss the possible financial implications of a course change.

For further information visit: manchesterstudentsunion.com/adviceservice

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ISSUE 19/ 16th MARCH 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Formula 1: Season preview

Daniel Jenkins predicts a clean sweep for reigning champions Mercedes and questions Alonso’s drive for the sport Daniel Jenkins Sport Reporter

The new 2015 Formula 1 season will ignite on the 15th of March, with intense rivalries set to resume, witnessing new teams and ground-breaking drivers entering the high fuelled drama.

With pre-season testing finished, Melbourne prepares itself to host the inaugural race of what is expected to be another dramatic season, one which seems to surpass the exceptional Mercedes dominance of 2014. With Lewis Hamilton ostentatiously oozing confidence on the back of his impressive World Championship victory, inevitable clashes with teammate and noteworthy rival; Nico Rosberg will undoubtedly reach boiling point again. Fractious team relations have already appeared with former two time World Champion Fernando Alonso remonstrating with McLaren hoping they would be ‘more competitive,’ fuelling speculation that he doesn’t want to race the less than impressive car, after a pre-season crash. F1 history shall be created instantaneously with the chequered flag, with 17-year old Dutchman Max Verstappen set to become the youngest ever Formula 1 driver for Toro Rosso.

Mercedes’ trophy cabinet looks set to remain empathically coveted by the trailing teams, with the driver’s title seemingly heading to reigning champion Lewis Hamilton or his German counter-part Nico Rosberg.

With an impressive 16 of 19 races won last year by the pacey and efficient Mercedes, coincide with their impressive early pre-season testing, it is quite inconceivable to visualise either Constructors or Drivers titles going anywhere. With commentator, James Allen and Broadcaster

Tom Clarkson venting their clear expressions that ‘nobody’ or ‘no one’ can catch Mercedes, sets the stage for a tantalising, nail-biting, two- horse race between two exceedingly competitive drivers. A reversal back to the olden days of a drivers, talent, bravery and skill comprehensively affecting his destiny, rather than see the spoils of victory traced back to emotionless exsanguinous cars which undoubtedly dictate and create a fortuitous victory for a driver.

Two competitive drivers, racing in two incomprehensibly identical formidable cars, with old scores to settle, this year will ultimately see the driver’s title decided on human determination and talent not bloodless mechanical creations.

Numerous changes of driver’s has caused a stir for the new season, with four time champion Sebastian Vettel aiming to resurrect the Ferrari team who have seen titles and victories slip away in recent years. However with the inclusion of Vettel at the prancing horse, triggers the ejection of Fernando Alonso to McLaren which seems to not of initiated a productive working relationship. Toro Rosso create the other notable driver change, with the recruitment of Max Verstappen whom will become the youngest ever driver in Formula one’s history, his talent is unquestionable however will he be able to cope with the demanding pressures and strains of a relentless campaign.

The story to have dominated Formula one before the season’s curtain opener in Australia, has been Fernando’s Alonso’s crash. Refusing to slide away with him missing the opening race under medical advice, however constant waves of varying credible theories have attempted to fill the void left unanswered by the crash and its aftermath. With teammate Jenson Button stating that the crash was ‘a bit

Alonso’s crash has been shrouded in controversy.

Photo: Wikimedia

strange,’ adding further speculation to why a driver of Alonso’s quality who was conscious and braking could not avoid the car from hitting the wall. Has an undetected medical condition caused the driver to spin off rendering him un-fit for the first race, or rather cynically has Alonso just lost the passion for Formula One, after his move from the titans of Ferrari to recent underachievers McLaren, rendering himself ineligible to race for a team he doesn’t fit. Whatever has happened former F1 driver David Coulthard categorised it all as not adding up, however what is for sure is this incident won’t disappear quickly.

As Mercedes look set to dominate again with both their drivers fighting for the championship, the majority of the teams will be left competing for the remaining podium positions with Williams, Red Bull and Ferrari left to compete with themselves in a minileague for the remaining top positions. If Williams maintain their ferocious style

and start the year brightly then they will become a force to be reckoned with, with potential future star Valtteri Botas picking up points in all but two races last year driving alongside veteran Massa, Williams could present Mercedes with the greatest threat to their title.

With Ferrari’s acquisition of fourtime champion Vettal partnering Kimi Raikkonen, whom both appear first and fourth respectively on the most wins among active drivers table, they could taste success this year, especially if Ferrari maintain stability, as the consequent season witnessed three team bosses come and go, while sacking a plethora of senior technicians.

The recent dominate force of Red Bull who are celebrating their 10th year within Formula one, have crumbled slightly in recent years however with their impressive set up of promoting and rewarding talented drivers from their sister team ‘Toro Rosso’ they will maintain their challenge with the other

major teams.

Further down the field both, Lotus and McLaren will hope and expect to improve on their pitiful displays of 2014, especially with Lotus using a Mercedes engine generating inevitable greater power; however McLaren’s use of a new Honda engine will have to showcase and prove its talent, if it has any. Finally leaving; Force India, Toro Rosso and Sauber to fight amongst themselves to not become the last placed team on the grid.

2015 promises to be a enticing spectacle of old fashioned driver’s talent and determination dictating the outcome of the championship, as competitive renowned teams aim to claw the dominant Mercedes back into their reaches, while new record breaking drivers shall be pitted against illustrious aggressive drivers to determine their worth. Expect a whole heap of action from 2015.

‘Heart’ attack: British sport’s obsession with passion is misplaced Skill needs to be emphasized over singing, argues James Haughton

James Haughton Sport Reporter The England’s men’s cricket team defeat to Bangladesh consigned them to a group-stage exit, a sorry end to a miserable campaign. It is not just the cricketers, however, as England’s men’s football and rugby union teams suffered early exits from their last World Cups, and England’s women’s football side were terrible at the 2013 European Championships. After each one of those tournaments there were inquests about why such lacklustre results were achieved and what improvements were needed to rectify the situation, and the England Cricket Board will undertake a similar process after England’s final group game finishes.

But these post-debacle outcries highlight one of the main problems, I believe, with British sport: the tendency from some in this country to blame below-par performances on a lack of passion and gut, rather than on technique and tactics.

Take the men’s football team’s exit at the last World Cup. Much of the talk in the aftermath centred on the players’ supposed lack of passion. But I ask this?

If these players, all millionaires, did not care, why would they spend over a month of their break in Brazil, often cooped up in a hotel and kept away from their families, knowing they will be pilloried at home if they fall below expectations?

If they did not care about winning the World Cup, they would have retired from international duty and been free from the scrutiny that playing for England brings. Each one of the England

players wanted to win the World Cup because being a World Cup-winner is the greatest accolade that a footballer can achieve.

The Spanish and German squads that won the last two World Cups were full of multi-millionaires, so large wages are also not the reason why England’s players cannot win a World Cup, either.

What all World Cup-winning teams need are immensely talented players and coaches who ensure that the team is an expressive and cohesive unit. The Germany side that won last year’s World Cup contained players like Bastian Schweinsteiger and Toni Kroos; and the Australia side that won three consecutive cricket World Cups included such phenomenal talents as Ricky Ponting, Glenn McGrath and Adam Gilchrist. A dearth of world-class talents, especially creative ones, is what hampers England and the other home nations at major tournaments.

However, some still insisted with the notion that England lost in Brazil because of apathy, as if World Cup winners are chosen based on who can sing the national anthem the loudest. In the Daily Mail, Neil Ashton bemoaned the lack of England players willing to die for the country before losing a football match, and Stan Collymore (ghost) wrote an article for the Daily Mirror titled: “Passion, pride and belief: I dream of a day when our England players care as much as the Brazilians.”

However, it was plain to see that the Brazilian players were far too emotionally invested in the World Cup, with Thiago Silva, for instance, crying during the national anthems and turning into an emotional wreck before a ball had been kicked.

In the defeats against Italy and

Uruguay, England lost because they were unable to create enough clear-cut chances against two resolute sides and the defence looked fragile whenever Italy or Uruguay attacked, exacerbated by the lack of a Javier Mascherano, who not only stops opposition attacks, but now regularly takes the ball out of defence and starts attacks for Barcelona, in midfield.

Talented English players have endured a chequered history with the national side. Michel Platini claimed that Glenn Hoddle would have played for France 150 times if he had been born in France. But Hoddle is English and only played 53 times for his country.

John Barnes’s England career is famous for two things: his brilliant goal in the Maracana and his inability to replicate his club form for England more often.

Plus, Matt Le Tissier only played eight times for England.

English sport’s obsession with passion and guts is detrimental in other ways, too. Until 2014-15, children as young as eleven played eleven-a-side matches on full-sized pitches; consequently, the emphasis for young British footballers was not on learning to skilfully navigate their way past opposition players, but on being able to quickly run long distances.

A lack of highly qualified coaches in this country also stunts the development of youngsters. In a Guardian article published in May 2013, Stuart James wrote that, “according to UEFA, there Germany has 28,400 (England 1,759) coaches with the B licence, 5,500 (895) with the A licence...”

Consequently, in Germany there is a country-wide talent development players in which promising young footballers – some members of professional academies, some not – are

Glen Hoddle is a prime example of a player who was undervalued by England in the past. Photo: Wikimedia

trained and scouted by a network of over 1,000 coaches who have at least the UEFA B licence. This coaching and talent-spotting is not present in England, due to a lack of qualified coaches, so is it any wonder why the Germans produce more vibrant, skilful young players than the British?

It is not just football, however, where England have misused their most talented players. The obvious example is Kevin Pietersen, whose England career was as traumatic as it was recordbreaking and seemed to be overly short for a genuine match-winner who scored over 8,000 runs in test cricket.

Furthermore, England men’s rugby union side, under Stuart Lancaster, is seen as being functional and dependable but lacking the creativity needed to win a World Cup. The desire to win does not need to be sacrificed in the pursuit of technical ability; in fact, an improvement in the

skill levels of the England players – and hence the aesthetic quality of the performances – will lead to winning more matches, improving confidence amongst the squad and fostering a greater desire to play for their country.

I would go so far as to write that anyone in this country who chooses to blame below-par performances at major tournaments on a lack of passion is actually hampering the chances of future generations by diverting attention away from more fundamental issues. So instead, let’s concentrate on increasing the number of highly qualified grass-roots coaches and on eradicating the deep-seated mistrust in talented eccentrics that seems to be so prevalent within British sport.

SPORT : 31

ISSUE 19/ 16th MARCH 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM/

MUBC row to France

In their latest charity feat, Manchester University Boat Club are planning to row to France for Sparks Emily Cornish UMBC On Wednesday 18th March, the University of Manchester Boat Club will be rowing the distance of here to France in just 6 hours outside of the SU, a challenge that the members are excited to take on!

The men and women’s squad have been training hard in order to raise as much money as possible for the charity Sparks and to get the women’s squad the new boat that they deserve.

Besides raising the money for Sparks, a charity for medical research for children, MUBC has received incredible support from Redbull, Spotify and Victoria’s Secret PINK uni reps so it is set to be a very fun-filled event with all parties involved on the day and lots going on.

After a successful head season, with wins at Pairs head, Trafford head, Indoor BUCS and White Rose Head the team is ready to take on the regatta season with the Women’s squad looking forward to competing in a new boat! MUBC took on the largest amount of members this year with over 130 beginners taking on the challenge of learning to row. Since

Head down to the grass area outside of the SU between 10am and 4pm to see what’s going on, to support the charity and to get involved. Keep an eye out for the rowing purple army around campus too!

UMBC after BUCS indoor success Photo: Mancunion Sport

then, the squads have developed into a strong standing community and a force not to be reckoned with. This weekend the women took part in their biggest head race, Women’s Head of the River Race on the Thames, and in Easter the men will be taking on the same challenge at Head of the River Race. MUBC are expecting good results.

This year MUBC have also upped their social media presence and presence around campus. You may have seen them row for 24 hours outside the SU back in October where they received huge amounts of support form the student community through donations online and in the bucket collections. If you haven’t already be sure to check

out their Facebook page and twitter, @ rowingMUBC to keep up to date with all things rowing as well as their website, www.mubc.org.uk. Moreover, the MUBC Parklife inspired playlist has really taken off as part of the Spotify SoundClash competition so be sure to give it a listen and a follow!(www.mubc. org.uk/scc)

If you would like to donate to the cause please visit their just giving page https://www.justgiving.com/ Manchester-University-Boat-ClubMUBC/, or text MUBC88 + the amount to wish to donate to 70070

How to beat the Bogle Still to come...

The Mancunion Sport’s very own Jessie Benson was part of the first women’s team back from the greuling 55 mile treck around Greater

Despite being the last print issue of the year, there is still plenty to come from the Mancunion Sport on mancunion.com

Jessie Benson Sport Reporter The first time I set off for Bogle, 3 years ago now, I did what most people did; I launched at the challenge with the blind hope that I would somehow plod my way round to the end of the painful 55miles. And I did it. This year when I signed up again it wasn’t just a fundraising target that my Bogle-Partner and I set ourselves – we set ourselves a finish time of 18 hours or less too.

Bogle is a long standing Manchester tradition started back in the dark ages when some, possibly drunk, Manchester lecturers had to walk their way back from Lancaster having missed the last train back. Oops. Since the route has been modified many times and it now takes you around most of Greater Manchester in two gruelling loops, touching the airport at the south end and crossing into Bolton in the north.

55miles is no mean feat on pavement and there are all kinds of tricks to making it to the end – don’t stop for long, where possible don’t sit down, eat lots, bring clean socks. While not the biggest it’s ever been, this year saw a brave turn out and more than 25 walkers stubbornly refused to be beaten by the 54th Bogle. Oxford Road felt the longest it’s ever felt as I finally hobbled up to the finish line and I have nothing but respect for the three walkers that came in before us. I was proud of my time but they had kept smashing 4 miles an hour for 13-14 hours each, relentlessly marching through check points ahead of schedule and they still seemed to be smiling at the end.

It’s not just the walkers that don’t get to sleep. We are all so thankful to the sleepless volunteers because let’s face it, no one really wanted to work the

Jessie with her medal!

Photo: Mancunion Sport

Midnight-6am shift at a scout hut did they? I am always impressed by their cheeriness, regardless of the time of day or night and they’re commitment to giving up their time for absolutely no glory of their own – I got a medal, all they got was to clean up our rubbish as we steamed out of the check points. It really is a full team effort to raise the maximum amount we can for the charities of our choice.

It was tough, bruising, really fun and surprisingly not too cold, I couldn’t have had a better Bogle and I couldn’t be prouder of everyone who beat it this year, or who even attempted. I don’t feel the need to try it again in a hurry though.

Rugby League and Football Varsities

Remember to check mancunion.com for sport updates for the rest of the year, including Rugby League and Football Varsities!

SPORT

16th MARCH 2015/ ISSUE 19 FREE : @Mancunion_Sport : /TheMancunion

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MANCHESTER’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER

Formula 1 Preview

P.30

Rowing to France

P.31

Manchester rally to relay success UMACC record historic results at this years BUCS Indoor Championships

Around the Grounds

Lizzy Demetriou UMACC Club Captain

Women’s Basketball (League) Manchester 1st 55-62 Edge Hill 1st

On the 20th February, the University’s athletics team travelled to the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield to compete indoors at the annual BUCS Gatorade Nationals. The 15-strong team pulled out some great performances and BUCS points were attained galore!

Personal best (PB) performances made several appearances across the weekend. Alice Oyeniyi and Yusun Yugire both ran 8.28 and 9.24 respectively in the Women’s 60m heats on Friday afternoon, both achieving PB’s. Simon O’Meara tackled the deadly fifteen laps in the Men’s 3000m managing to break the nine minute marker after several attempts this season. Jerome McIntosh made the semi-finals in the Men’s 200m, as did Callum McLean in the Men’s 60m.

A special mention goes out to scholarship athlete Kate Anson who, after struggling through a tough year last year with an injury pulled through to jump onto the podium on Saturday morning. Her dedication over the winter training season has seen her jump a strong season’s best of 1.75 to grasp that silver medal.

“I definitely didn’t expect a medal. There was three 1.80+ jumpers there and 11 people not including myself had a PB of over 1.70 from the past two years so I was really shocked and pleased. I still don’t have a proper run up, so going to work on that through April so hopefully will be flying come outdoors! I’d like to

Men’s Basketball (League) Manchester 2nd 61-80 Edge Hill 1st Women’s Netball (League) Manchester 2nd 34-65 Liverpool 1st Women’s Netball (League) Manchester 2nd 34-65 Liverpool 1st Women’s Netball (Cup) Cardiff Met 1st 56-53 Manchester 1st Manchester’s succesfful 4 x200m relay team.

Photo: Mancunion Sport

win outdoor BUCS so I’ve got the full set of medals!” – Kate Anson.

Manchester had an incredibly strong 4 x 200m relay team, confident in getting through to the final and that is what they did, running a 3.20.22 in their heat, with Liam Thompson storming through the finish line a good few metres ahead of St. Mary’s. Drama took to the track as the final kicked off. With UEL, Loughborough, Cardiff Met and Birmingham in the final, it was hard to call Manchester’s chance of medalling. Jerome McIntosh ran a brilliant second leg, pulling Manchester back, closing the gap after the changeover with Callum

McClean. As he ran around the bend to the home straight however, Cardiff Met decided to cut in front.

Karma got the better of him, as he tripped and got disqualified. This caused distress for Manchester but Sam Harvey, third leg, held on strong handing over to Liam Thompson who again stormed through his 200m.

Meanwhile, UEL tried to overtake inside and was shoved by Leeds Beckett both of which got disqualified also. These disqualifications weren’t announced until after an intense five to ten minutes waiting to hear the verdict. The announcement that Manchester had come third was unreal, the boys were jumping

in excitement, AU Chairman Rory McCloskey was present also, completely astounded by the race and Captain Lizzy ran onto the track to celebrate with them. This was a university record. The video can be seen on the Vinco Sport website here: http://www. r u nju mp t h row. co m /v i deos/10996 Lizzy Demetriou, club captain said, “I was confident to deliver strong performances but was not expecting a relay medal.

I’m so proud of the whole squad. We had some amazing performances and made new university records so the weekend was a massive success. No matter how good or bad the

team competed, everyone was incredibly supportive and really showed what purple pride is all about! I could not be happier!0 Athletics is not a BUCS Wednesday sport, therefore does not get much recognition across the university, but their performance across the weekend has proved that they are up in the top ranks in SPORT Manchester and they will no doubt continue this victory into the outdoor season. “I feel like this success has raised the profile of our club and will hopefully attract more students across the university to come out and give athletics a go!’’

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Women’s Water Polo (Cup) Manchester 2nd 7-5 Durham 2nd Men’s Table Tennis (League) Manchester 1st 5-12 Lancaster 1st Men’s Hockey (League) Manchester 3rd 2-2 Salford 1st Women’s Water Polo (League) Manchester 1st 18-6 Leeds BC 1st Women’s Netball (League) Manchester 4th 50-44 Salford 1st