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WWW.MANCUNION.COM 28th SEPTEMBER 2015 / ISSUE 2 FREE

‘Piggate’ and university initiation ceremonies

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UCU threaten industrial action

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Housing crisis tensions

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NUS begins legal action against government

Photo: LewishamDreamer @Flickr

The National Union of Students has begun legal action against the government’s plans to scrap maintenance grants on the basis of the implications for equality Jenny Sterne Head News Editor The National Union of Students (NUS) has taken the first steps of legal action over the government’s plans to scrap maintenance grants.

NUS lawyers have written a judicial review preaction letter to Business Secretary Sajid Javid, in which they write that according to the Equality Act 2010 the proposed abolition of maintenance grants is a “serious and unlawful failure”.

The plans to scrap the maintenance grants for full-time students were announced in George Osborne’s budget back in July.

Alongside these changes the government also froze the loan repayment threshold of £21,000 for five years and permission for Higher Education Institutions to increase tuition fees in line with inflation from 2017/18.

As it stands students whose families income falls below £25,000 are eligible for grants worth up to £3,387 plus a loan of £4,047 if they live away from their home and outside of London.

Students whose family’s income is below

£60,000 are entitled to partial grants on a sliding scale.

Starting in the 2016/17 academic year the government wants to scrap the grants and replace them with loans.

The NUS has stated that the “abolition of maintenance grants, along with other welfare cuts, will mean students from low socio-economic backgrounds will be hit the hardest. We also believe that black and ethnic minority students are likely to be the most affected because of concerns over taking on debt and the terms of student loan repayments”.

They added that “The government has said it will carry out an ‘equality analysis’ when the regulations are laid, which is too little, too late”.

In the letter submitted by the NUS they claim that “the Chancellor made no reference to the work on student support that has been conducted in recent years by experts in the field, including government-commissioned work such as the Browne review and the Independent Commission on Fees (neither of which recommended the abolition of maintenance grants)”.

Continued on Page 2...

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Picture of the Week: Welcome Fair Highlights P10

Opinion: The over-sharing of Generation Facebook

P12 Over 42000 slices of pizza were given away, 4000 more than last year 9322 society memberships have been made by our students, up from 8758 last year Photo: University of Manchester Students’ Union

Music: Interview: FLESH

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Food & Drink: Quinoa Frittata: What a wonderful phrase

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Sport: Referee Respect

4924 individual students have joined these societies, up from 2949 last year

Continued from page 1... the abolition of the maintenance grant will cause a significant increase in the debt of the poorest students from attending university.

Jo Johnson, the Universities Minister, revealed that there was no research on the effect of the Budget measures on the number of students applying for and attending university.

He told Chuka Umunna, the then shadow Business Secretary, in a written Commons reply: “The growth in student numbers since 2012 [when fees trebled], including those from disadvantaged backgrounds, suggests that students are not deterred from entering higher education when asked to bear more of the cost of their study.”

Labour accused the government of abandoning “evidence-based policy” due to this revelation.

NUS President Megan Dunn said in a statement: “The #CutTheCosts campaign I launched in July has seen students and students’ unions across the country taking action to show the government our maintenance grants are not for scrapping. Today, I am taking steps to ensure these changes never come into effect. This reckless plan needs to be stopped.”

On Friday 18 September the NUS and over 60 students’ unions across the country took part in a national constituency-based lobby of MPs to fight the plans to scrap

Visit Our Website www.mancunion.com The Mancunion Mancunion Extra @TheMancunion Editor-in-chief: Charlie Spargo editor@mancunion.com Deputy Editor-in-chief: Marcus Johns deputyed@mancunion.com Postal address: University of Manchester Students’ Union, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PR Phone: 0161 275 2989 Subeditors: Gemma Sowerby, Shaun Carter, Nadia Cheung, Lauren Nolan

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maintenance grants.

NUS research has shown that a third of students would have chosen not to go to university without having the help of the grant.

Salima Budhani from the legal firm Bindmans, the firm in charge of the case, said the NUS were calling for the plans to be halted in order for the government to “gather information to enable [them] to properly consider the complex equality consideration at stake”.

After such action, they call for “an open minded reconsideration of the policy” to then take place.

A spokesperson from the Department for Business Innovation and Skills said students would not have to pay back anything until their earnings rose over £21000.

They added that the maintenance loan for all students would rise from next year to £8200: “the highest amount of support ever provided”.

Michael Spence, Education Officer at the University of Manchester Students’ Union, told The Mancunion: “As a student movement we must do everything in our power to stop the abolishment of maintenance grants, so naturally I am delighted that the NUS is taking legal action against the government. If we do not stop the government’s actions on this then higher education will be put further out of reach for many in society.”

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

All writers are volunteers and new contributors are always welcome. You can get involved by turning up to a meeting, the times of which are listed on the Mancunion website’s Join page.

We gladly accept contributors from outside the University of Manchester.

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

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

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‘Piggate’ allegations shed light on UK university initiation ceremonies

Following the recent ‘Piggate’ revelations, The Mancunion reports on the prevailing and dangerous phenomenon of initiation ceremonies at UK universities Jack Howell Reporter An unofficial biography of David Cameron written by the former Conservative Party donor Lord Ashcroft made headlines this week after making some of the most bizarre allegations in recent political memory.

The book, to be published serially in the Daily Mail, not only claims the Prime Minister was aware of the peer’s offshore tax status before the 2010 general election, but also asserts that he was involved in drug taking and a somewhat unconventional initiation ceremony involving a dead pig during his time as a student at Oxford University.

Co-written by award winning investigative journalist Isabel Oakeshott, the biography claims to have seen photographic evidence of the hog-related incident from its only source. Number 10 refused to comment but, inevitably, bemused journalists, politicians and commentators competed on Twitter and in papers to make the best pig-related puns.

‘Typical!’, Paddy Ashdown tweeted. ‘David Cameron once again hogging the headlines at the Lib Dem Conference.’ Even the Russian embassy rose to the occasion, following @ CameronPig - a spoof account which had amassed almost 20,000 followers by Tuesday morning.

Of course, ceremonies

Piggate has taken the country by storm. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

like this are not exclusive to Oxbridge dining clubs.

Students across the UK are familiar with initiation horror stories which are, although perhaps less disturbing, similarly humiliating and degrading. In April 2014, The Independent reported at length how a student in the Midlands was made to eat fish heads and drink spirits from a pig’s heart during an initiation

ceremony.

Similarly, a Welsh university’s rugby team was reported to have forced their players to eat dog food and drink milk until they vomited into a bucket, the contents of which - after being urinated into - was then fed back to them. Even more shockingly, students at Welsh universities have been forced to eat tampons which had been inserted into their teammates’

anuses, according to a report from the Huffington Post earlier this year.

Stories like this are disgusting, degrading, and numerous. It is also often the case, especially with male sports clubs, that such ceremonies are also sexist or homophobic. Last year, a leaflet distributed to freshers by the LSE Men’s Rugby Club described women who play sports as, among

other things, ‘beast like’, and claimed that the club would ‘not tolerate any homosexual debauchery’.

The incident received wide coverage and the club was disbanded.

Similarly, in November 2014, The Guardian reported the suspension of Oxford’s Pembroke Rugby Club following the distribution of an email entitled ‘Free Pussy’, which encouraged players

to spike the drinks of female freshers during an initiation party.

‘Rape banter’ and pressure to engage in overtly misogynistic and predatory behaviour like this appears to have become integral to not only many initiation ceremonies at British universities, but the very functioning of some of our sports clubs and societies.

With one in seven women having suffered sexual assault according to the NUS, and as many as 90% of rapes going unreported according to Rape Crisis England & Wales, many believe the attitudes and ignorance such ceremonies reflect and encourage is simply unacceptable.

Jess Lishak, UMSU Women’s Officer, said “We take lad culture and sexual harassment very seriously and have a zero tolerance approach to any form of harassment, discrimination and bullying, whether that’s through initiation ceremonies or in everyday student life.

With the ‘We Get It’ campaign, we have developed an online report and support tool, so that you can report such behaviour either anonymously or for further support”.

If you are concerned or worried about any behaviour you’ve witnessed or experienced you can contact Jess at jess.lishak@ manchester.ac.uk or speak to the confidential and independent SU Advice service.

Staffordshire University Anti-Tory protesters to apologise to student ‘Take Back Manchester’ accused of terrorism Charlie Spargo Editor-in-chief A Master’s student from Staffordshire University was accused of being a terrorist after being spotted reading a textbook on terrorism in the university library.

33-year-old Mohammed Umar Farooq was studying towards a Master’s in Terrorism, Crime, and Global Security when he was approached by an official in March who questioned him on this thoughts about IS, AlQaeda, and persecution of homosexuals.

Farooq was under the impression he was being asked questions by a fellow student, but the official reported him to university security because his answers “raised too many red flags.”

“I could not believe it,” he said. “I was reading an

academic textbook and minding my own business.

At first I thought I’d just laugh it off as a joke.” He says his answers were mostly academic and he emphasised that he opposed extremist views.

He dropped out of the course as he felt unsettled and worried, and challenged the claims with the help of a lawyer. After three months of investigation, the university have apologised and admitted their mistake.

“We have apologized to Mr. Farooq and are in dialogue with him on how we can support him to continue his studies with us,” they said in a statement. “In light of recent legislation, we are ensuring all staff at the university have the right guidance and training.”

They acknowledged it was a result of the difficulties

of implementing the government’s Prevent strategy, aimed at countering radicalisation on campus.

The university said its guidance “[contained] insufficient detail to provide clear practical direction in an environment such as the university’s.”

“I believe it is absolutely unacceptable for individuals or groups of students to be targeted because of their race, religion or mental health conditions,” said President of the NUS, Megan Dunn.

“I have consistently raised several serious concerns over the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act and Prevent.

“Students must feel free to learn, explore their politics and campaign on social justice issues while at university.”

Katharine Mawford Reporter

Take Back Manchester, a five-day event organised by the Manchester People’s Assembly, will run from the 3rd – 7th of October. The Manchester People’s Assembly has said that “thousands of people, from across the country, are expected to descend on the Tory Conference to demand a better society.”

Take Back Manchester is set to begin with a flashmob at Manchester Piccadilly on the afternoon of the 3rd of October. Throughout the protest, associated events will vary from a National Demonstration against austerity at 12pm on the 4th October called by the TUC, to a comedy night featuring Frankie Boyle at Manchester Academy on the same day.

Monday’s events are set to be more closely centred on Conservative Party’s policies, with multiple protests planned. An anti-TTIP protest and a demonstration against cuts to disability benefit will occur

at 12pm, with the Student Protest against cuts to be held outside the Conference at 2pm.

Monday will also play host to several debates and meetings including ‘The People’s Post’ rally at Manchester Cathedral at 7pm. Jeremy Corbyn, the newly elected Labour Party leader, will speak at this event along with Communication Workers Union secretary Dave Ward and Green Party leader Natalie Bennet, among others.

A protest against the privatisation of the NHS will be held at Central Hall on the 6th of October, followed by a film screening of ‘We Are Many’ and meetings on the topic of austerity and stopping the spread of war. The day will end with a cross faith vigil in Manchester Cathedral.

The protest series will close with the Disabled People Against Cuts demonstration, an anti-fracking protest, and finally a People’s Question Time.

A spokesperson from The People’s Assembly told The Mancunion:

“This Government continues to cut spending, sell off and privatise our vital services & attack the poorest and most vulnerable in society.

After over five years of austerity, the gap between rich and poor has grown - it’s clear the Tories priority is making the majority pay for a crisis they had nothing to do with while those at the top have gotten richer. Students and young people have been hit hard. The trebling of university fees, scrapping of maintenance grants and EMA, access to housing benefit for under 25s under threat.

But this Government is increasingly unpopular and weak.

A mass movement on the streets, in our universities, our workplaces and communities can create a political crisis they can’t recover from. We need to make sure the Tories are met with mass opposition when they come to Manchester. If you want to see a society run in the interests of the majority and not the few at the top - join us to Take back Manchester!”

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UCU threaten industrial action

The UCU have threatened the University of Manchester with industrial action if an agreement regarding changes to the redeployment policy is not reached by October 7th Eve Foster Reporter Last Thursday the University of Manchester’s UCU announced potential industrial action during a protest against changes made to the university’s redeployment policy.

The protest, which also involved Unison and Unite, and took place between the Samuel Alexander and Alan Gilbert buildings in the centre of campus, follows a meeting on Monday September 21st between the UCU and the university during which terms could not be agreed.

The meeting concerned the University’s redeployment policy, which has recently been altered. Now workers on the redeployment register for over three months will be forced to take a compulsory redundancy. In April, 37 staff on the register were given a choice of voluntary severance payment or compulsory redundancy, and 219 more IT staff have been informed that they are ‘at risk’.

The protest’s key speaker was UMUCU President Adam Ozanne, who announced the potential industrial action.

He said: “The University is in breach of its existing redeployment policy, and has failed to provide unions or the staff with any assurance that it will avoid redundancies, and by failing to negotiate these changes before implementing them it is in breach of UCU’s

Union members demonstrate outside Samuel Alexander last Thursday Photo: The Mancunion

procedural agreement with the University.

“We will give the university until the 7th of October to settle this agreement. We need to give the university this deadline because quite frankly what has been happening over the summer is one delaying tactic after another.

“What I find shocking the way in which you hear management saying one thing one day and quite the

opposite the next day, so we have given a deadline now and that’s a deadline within which we genuinely hope to reach some agreement.

“If we do not reach an agreement by October 7th and we are not satisfied by any counter-proposals that the university brings forward, then the next step I’m afraid will be to move towards the balloting all of our members for industrial action.”

Ozanne and the UCU are

requesting that the university further negotiate the revised redeployment policy, agree that there will be no compulsory redundancies due to the ‘at risk’ notices redeployees have received and that there will be no future breach of agreed policies and procedures.

Among other speakers were part-time student Adam Neal and PhD student Jess Patterson, also of Free Education Manchester, who

called on students to show their support and see the issue in a wider context.

She said: “This University’s annual financial situation is good. The last figures show that they are operating at a surplus of £45 million, and that’s a profit that we’re not seeing, it’s not benefitting staff or students.

“I’d also like to draw your attention to the fact that this issue is a national issue, alongside maintenance grant

cuts and changes to the repayment terms of student loans.

“I want to emphasise that students are here to support the unions and anyone who decides to take action, but also to implore you to see this in a wider context, which is the university’s decision to turn education into a marketplace.

This is bad news for students and staff alike - it will mean more cuts, more outsourcing and fewer students from diverse backgrounds.”

In a statement Ozanne expressed similar concerns, stating: “Threatening staff with compulsory redundancy is nasty and unnecessary; it is damaging to the reputation of the University and will deter top class student and staff from coming here.”

A University of Manchester spokesman said: “The University fully recognises and values the role of the trades unions and is keen to work in partnership with them in managing these difficult changes. All changes involving staff that are undertaken by the University are given very careful and serious consideration. The University is committed to ensuring that these processes are conducted fairly and transparently and will always seek to explore opportunities for the avoidance of redundancy. The University is committed to a continued dialogue with the trades unions.”

Half of female students experience sexual harassment at university

Drinkaware has released statistics that show sexual crimes, such as harassment and sexual assault, are commonplace in the clubs, bars and streets of university towns across the country Joe Astill Reporter Drinkaware, an independent charity that focuses on reducing alcohol misuse and harm, has recently published a survey of 2000 students that suggests that universities must do more to tackle alcoholrelated abuse in the bars and clubs of university localities.

Half of female students and 1 in 7 male students claim to have experienced some form of inappropriate sexual comments, abuse or sexual assault in the last year whilst at a bar or a club in their university town/city.

A further 43% said that this kind of behaviour occurs every time they go out to a bar or a club, and most said that this has made them disgusted or angry, with a minority saying it made them feel upset.

Arguably the most surprising figure to come out of the study was that a staggeringly low 1% of students actually contacted

their university’s student support or welfare authority in relation to their experiences with sexual abuse on nights out, preferring to tell friends instead.

These findings are extremely telling and this seems to have translated to an active desire by students for university authorities to take action on the matter. Most of the students (73%) surveyed

by Drinkaware thought that universities themselves should take action against the perpetrators of sexual abuse in order to secure justice for the victim.

Moreover, 61% of students surveyed felt that their university should campaign against sexual abuse and 56% said that the victims of these incidents should receive counselling.

Now the charity has released a video entitled ‘You Wouldn’t Sober, You Shouldn’t Drunk’ highlighting the fact that people don’t just walk up to

other people in the street and start touching them inappropriately, therefore you shouldn’t do the same in a club or a bar when under the influence of alcohol. The CEO, Elaine Hindal, adds that many students just consider abusive behaviour a normal occurrence when out and about, and feel as if they are not empowered enough to deal with it properly.

The Students’ Union organises events such as Reclaim the Night, in which people take to the streets in protest of all forms of sexual violence against women, so the university is no stranger to tackling sexual crime.

Many students have their own stories to tell. Second year Sociology student Jade said “it would get to the point where you actually had to leave the club.”

“You would have crowds of men that will say things like ‘you know you want to’.”

Similar experiences were

Drinkaware have released data on alcohol related abuse at university Photo:Designatic@pixabay

reported by Medicine student Hannah, “it’s not just during nights out, I had a guy on the bus trying to touch me.”

Jess Lishak, women’s officer for the Manchester Students’ Union told The Mancunion: “For me, what’s sad is that these statistics are not shocking at all; we live in a society that expects, legitimises and belittles sexual harassment and violence

through ‘jokes’ and ‘lad culture’ to the point where even when women experience such harassment most times they go out and admit that it makes them angry or disgusted, they still don’t feel like they can or should tell any authorities.

That’s why we create the ‘report and support’ button online through the ‘We Get It-zero tolerance to sexual harassment’ campaign,

whether you want to report something anonymously so that the university and the union are aware it’s a problem, or for further support from a harassment advisor, you can report any form of harassment or discrimination online, whether it happened in lectures or off campus.

You can find the ‘report and support’ button at www. manchester.ac.uk/we-get-it.”

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Students protest homeless evictions Scores of students gathered to protest MMU’s controversial ‘social cleansing’ eviction of the homeless under the Mancunian Way redeployment policy which has resulted in 219 staff members jobs being put at risk.

William Brown News Editor Scores of students outside Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) gathered this Wednesday to protest “social cleansing” on MMU’s campus following last Friday’s eviction of ‘the Ark’.

In the midst of Manchester’s homeless crisis, ‘the Ark’ was created this August as a “self-serving community” to provide some measure of protection for up to 20 rough sleepers under the Mancunian Way. However, MMU claims rights to the land and was granted court permission to disassemble the site last Friday.

Throughout Friday morning violent altercations between protestors and MMU enforcement officers broke out, as bailiffs tore down tents and barriers and discarded any personal items.

One homeless activist, Jen Wu, was hospitalised after she appeared to be dropped by four male enforcement officers. Videos from the scene drew scathing criticism from many university officials and students.

In open letter to the Vice Chancellor of MMU published on the 18th of September, sixty senior lecturers and members of staff called for the university to “demonstrate its commitment to social justice by putting our learning and research to good use in the demand for proper

housing and services for this vulnerable group of people.

‘The University should be seeking educational futures for these people, not condemning them.

‘This is a key moment for MMU – an opportunity to join the wave of humanitarian support we have witnessed for homeless refugees, and extend a hand of friendship to these homeless people on our doorsteps. As academics, staff and students we have a wealth of expertise and resources. It is time to put these to good use in combating homelessness and its effects. We urge you to drop the lawsuit against these victims of cutbacks in welfare and services, and consider the damage that may be done to the University by any attitude or action which smacks of ‘social cleansing’.”

At Wednesday’s protest, about a hundred student protestors chanted to bewildered first years, “Say it loud, say it clear, the homeless are welcome here!” and “Lives not land!”

Homeless members of ‘the Ark’ have been told not to protest without a license in the vicinity of the Mancunian Way, however many rough sleepers made an appearance clearly glad of the solidarity displayed by the students.

One member of ‘the Ark’– Dominic, told this reporter “This is amazing, it’s so good to see these students getting involved, and it’s absolutely brilliant!”

Photo: The Mancunion

Rosa Methol, the organiser, told The Mancunion that “After witnessing Friday’s heart-breaking eviction of ‘the Ark’ homeless shelter and speaking with lots of people on that day, we realised how much sadness and outrage there was amongst MMU students and staff as well as the general public about the decision MMU made.

We decided to put this feeling into action with the

protest today and feel it was a very positive step to raise awareness, especially with new students whose Fresher’s fair took place today.

This Thursday, the University of Manchester Executive Committee of the Students’ Union have issued a statement, saying that they are “appalled” by the “treatment of those at The Ark homeless shelter”.

‘The camp was set up by local

homeless people to provide rare shelter as the number of homeless people in Greater Manchester continues to grow by thousands.

‘This is a shocking reflection of the society that we live in; whereby instead of providing support and resources to the vulnerable, Manchester Metropolitan University and the Council worked to use excessive force to remove the homeless from the area, in

what can only be described as an act of social cleansing.

“Instead of using their positions of power and privilege to improve the conditions of poverty and deprivation, they are choosing to sweep this issue under the carpet, hiding some of the visible effects of their continued £59million worth of public spending cuts.”

UK students excluded Japan cuts humanities from medicine at UCLAN departments in half Jenny Sterne Head News Editor A medicine degree course at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN), has been made available only to overseas students.

The medicine course costs £36,500 per year and a total of £182,500 over the five years.

The university announced it was unable to admit UK students due to government’s limits on places to study medicine.

38 overseas students are in the initial intake, while students from the UK or anywhere in the EU are unable to apply.

Deborah Streatfield told the BBC “this does absolutely nothing to help young students from disadvantaged backgrounds who struggle to access medical courses and then face five years of fees and tuition loans. These students would love to work and give back to the NHS if given a

chance.”

A spokesperson from UCLAN has said that while they would like to admit UK students, the government limit set on medicine places for UK students prevented them.

Student number controls for 2015/16 entry was lifted for most degree courses, but is left in place for medicine.

This restriction has been left as medicine degrees, part funded by the NHS, cost more than the £9,000 limit on fees in England.

Cathy Jackson, head of UCLAN’s medical school said “we are very much not an elitist organization… these international students selffund their course in the same way as international students do at every other medical school in the UK. Unlike other schools however, we don’t yet have any home students.”

Jackson confirmed that if there was an increase in the number of UK medical students permitted “we will

certainly be making a bid for those increased numbers.”

A Department of Health spokesperson told the BBC that they “fund student places for doctors based on the numbers the NHS tell us it will need in the future to ensure we get value for money for the taxpayer and we are committed to deliver an estimated 5,000 more doctors in general practice by 2020.”

This all comes after research from the Medical Schools Council released in December showed half of UK schools and colleges had not provided a single medicine candidate in recent years, leading to concerns that universities are not doing enough to recruit students from a range of backgrounds.

The report released in 2014, examining the issue of widening participation into medicine, found that 80 per cent of all medical students came from just 20 per cent of schools.

William Brown News Editor Across Japan, university humanities, law, and social science departments have come under systemic fire over the past few weeks.

Hakubun Shimomura, Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology has sent a letter to Japan’s 86 national universities strongly encouraging them to take “active steps to abolish [social science and humanities] organisations or to convert them to serve areas that better meet society’s needs.”

The order from Tokyo is not binding, but the letter has led to a purge with more than 25 universities announcing they will close or severely cut departments.

The institutions will instead focus on engineering and sciencebased subjects.

The news of Japanese university departments’

closures comes as the Japanese parliament last week voted to reform the ‘pacifist’ constitution which has been in place since the horrors of WWII and the Japanese occupation of China.

Both moves are widely seen as part Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s broader attempt to revitalise Japan’s stagnant economy and reassert Japan’s geopolitical standing in the world.

While Japan enjoyed incredible economic growth figures in the post-war years, since 1990 Japan has been experienced the so called ‘Lost Decade’ with both incomes and GDP declining significantly.

Economic growth in the postwar boom years was largely based on high-tech manufactured goods.

Reports suggest that the Japanese government’s hope is that by driving more students into science and engineering they might stimulate more sustainable

economic growth.

This would avoid the unpredictable route towards a service-based economy many Western countries have taken.

Moreover, as Time reports, the move is most likely connected to the ongoing financial pressures on Japanese higher education.

Japan’s low birth rate and ageing population mean there are increasingly fewer students to fill university places, with many institutions running at half capacity.

However, commentator Noah Smith, writing for Bloomberg View, argues that given that Japan’s humanities departments lean heavily to the political left, the recent move might be part of a darker attempt “by the social conservatives— Abe’s main power bloc—to move the country in a more illiberal direction by stifling dissent and discussion.”

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£11.5m Physics extension announced The Schuster Building becomes the latest structure to benefit from the University’s £1 billion ten-year Campus Masterplan Andy van den Bent-Kelly Science & Technology Editor

The University of Manchester has announced its intention to expand the Schuster Building, home of the School of Physics and Astronomy.

The Schuster Annexe will be constructed on the eastern side of the building, on the corner of Brunswick Street and Upper Brook Street. This area is currently unoccupied and this development is expected to cost in the region of £11.5 million.

The news comes shortly after it was announced that the university is to build a new £350 mil-

lion engineering campus. Both of these developments are part of the university’s £1 billion Campus Masterplan, which aims to unite all the departments on a single state-of-the-art campus by 2022.

By extending the building rather than constructing an entirely new one, all members of the School of Physics and Astronomy will be able to benefit from this development.

Students and academics alike from other parts of the building will easily be able to cooperate with colleagues based in the new section.

A planning application for the proposals will be submitted at the end of the month.

Constructed in 1967, the

The annexe will be constructed on unused land on the corner of Brunswick Street and Upper Brook Street. Image: University of Manchester

Schuster Building was one of the final structures of the University’s Science Quadrangle to be completed. It has an illustrious history; the ‘supermaterial’ graphene was first isolated in the laboratories there in 2004 by Professors Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov.

Having undergone a major refurbishment in 2007, this latest expansion will enable the department to cater for the growing interest in physics

Image: University of Manchester

and other STEM subjects.

The University has seen a significant increase in applications to the School of Physics and Astronomy in recent years and this new development will enable the University to take in more undergraduate and postgraduate students than ever before.

It is hoped that the extension will enable both the School and the University to improve the learning experience for all students who use

the facilities within the building.

Other ambitions include diversifying recruitment and enhancing transferable skills.

One of the School’s main focuses is increasing the employability of it students and providing them with career and workplaceknowledgeandadvice.

By upgrading the facilities and focusing on creating spaces to develop these skills, the department aims to make its students even more attrac-

tive to potential employers.

Professor Martin Schröder, Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, said: “The Schuster Annexe development continues the University’s drive to invest in new core facilities to improve teaching and learning for our students.

“It will enhance the skills and employability of our students and extend our outreach capabilities.”

Cause of animals’ Manchester part of EU eco-friendly internal body clocks discovered chemicals initiative Manchester and Edinburgh researchers identify specialist cells responsible for seasonable adaptations in mammals

A team from The University of Manchester will work with other European institutions to improve biocatalysis methods

Andy van den Bent-Kelly Science & Technology Editor

Andy van den Bent-Kelly Science & Technology Editor

Researchers have discovered the cells responsible for driving the annual body clock in animals that enable them to adapt their bodies to the different seasons.

The team, made up of scientists from the universities of Manchester and Edinburgh, have identified a specific group of cells in the pituitary gland as being accountable for the changes that many animals go through depending on the time of year.

These so-called “calendar cells” are found in the ‘pars tuberalis’ part of the gland’s anterior lobe and respond according to how many hours of daylight there are. This provides the animal with an internal genetic clock.

The behaviour of many animals varies drastically throughout the year, which can now be explained by the fact that these cells produce different proteins in the summer and winter months.

This switching of proteins repeats itself over the course of the year and enables many

mammals to adapt accordingly.

The study was led by Professor Andrew Loudon of The University of Manchester’s Faculty of Life Sciences.

Professor Loudon said: “Scientists have long puzzled over how many animals seem to change their physiology according to the seasons.

“Animals need to change their physiology to predict the changing environment and increase their chances for survival.

“For example, some animals hibernate through the winter and others, including sheep, will time mating to the winter so they can give birth in the spring – when more food is available.

“Now we have a much stronger understanding about how the body’s so-called circannual clock regulates this process.”

The study, which was published in the journal Current Biology, focused on the seasonal behavioural patterns of sheep and was conducted over the course of three years.

In addition to enhancing our knowledge of animal physiology and behaviour, the study could also prove

beneficial in explaining how humans respond to different environments and seasons.

Even though humans do not demonstrate any adaptions as dramatic as hibernation, it is believed that internally, there are still multiple changes taking place.

Dr Shona Wood, a Research Associate at The University of Manchester, said: “A similar structure can be found in most animals - including humans.

“Scientists once believed that humans did not show seasonal adaptations, but more recent research has found that this may not be the case and in fact there is seasonal variation in protection against infectious disease.

“Our study gives more increases our understanding of how this may work.”

Professor Dave Burt of The University of Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute added: “The seasonal clock found in sheep is likely to be the same in all vertebrates, or at least, contains the same parts list.

“The next step is to understand how our cells record the passage of time.”

The University of Manchester is to take part in a multimillion pound project to produce more eco-friendly chemicals for multiple industries.

The £8.5 million project, called ROBOX, is an initiative brainstormed by Horizon 2020, the European Union’s biggest ever research and innovation programme.

Led by Dutch firm DSM, ROBOX aims to transform the way in which chemicals are manufactured for the pharmaceutical, food and materials industries.

Researchers from Manchester will work alongside a host of other universities and companies from across Europe to develop sustainable alternatives to current industrial oxidation processes.

Most chemicals are synthesised industrially using a catalyst to either speed up the process or spark it into action.

Many of these catalysts are themselves created artificially and their use can result in unwelcome environmental side effects.

These chemical oxidations frequently use environmentally damaging solvents, toxic metals and dirty compounds.

An alternative to artificial catalysts is the use of biocatalysts, such as protein enzymes.

These can be found in nature and then further developed for optimal use in industry.

This is a much cleaner way of manufacturing chemicals and can even result in higher-quality products.

Many examples of biocatalysts can be found in the human body, such as the enzyme that breaks down alcohol.

A major advantage of biocatalysts is the fact that they often only require very tame conditions, such as room temperature, neutral pH and standard atmospheric pressure.

They do, however, often need to be tailored to the chemical conditions appropriate for the reaction in question.

ROBOX will use biocatalysis to demonstrate that safe and sustainable substitutes to traditional chemical manufacturing methods can be introduced to the industry.

Manchester’s main contribution to the project will be to develop and use these new techniques, specifically focusing on Cytochrome P450 enzymes. This will produce drug metabolites, which can then be used to improve new drugs and make them safer to use.

This will be overseen by the University of Manchester’s Professor Nicholas Turner, who works at the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology.

Professor Turner said: “A lot of the processes we use currently are expensive and not very cost effective.

“This is a unique opportunity for academic groups to work alongside chemical companies and specialist SMEs to develop innovative biocatalytic processes for applying oxidation for chemical synthesis.

“We believe that challenging problems of this nature are best solved on a pan-European basis by bringing together under one roof the combined expertise of many groups to establish a world-class research hub in biocatalysis and sustainable chemical synthesis.”

Global 7

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In the news this week...

The important and interesting stories from the wider world this week.

Stories by: Merle Streck, Charlie Spargo, Joe Evans, William Brown, Andy van den BentKelly

Pope’s visit to the USA United States of America Pope Francis addressed the US Congress last Thursday with what is now perceived to have been a “bold speech” alluding to issues such as the death penalty and marriage.

The topic of immigration was particularly stressed. Referring to the current refugee crisis and his personal experience of growing up as a son of two immigrants, Pope Francis said: “We need to avoid a common temptation nowadays: to discard whatever proves troublesome.”

News reports have indicated that the Pope was also implicitly criticizing Republican presidential candidates such as Donald Trump, who is known for his often insensitive and offensive remarks about immigration.

VW chief exec resigns after emissions scandal Germany Following the scandal surrounding the manipulation of US diesel car emissions tests, Volkswagen chief executive Martin Winterkorn resigned from his position last Wednesday. The former Chief Executive, whose contract was due to be extended last week until 2018, said he “was not aware of any wrongdoing on my part”.

The scandal affected 11 million cars in the US and Volkswagen shares have decreased by 30 per cent since the scandal was made public. After UK lawyers have reported several complaints by VW owners, the UK government has launched an official inquiry to investigate manipulated VW vehicles in the country.

Deadly Hajj stampede kills hundreds Saudi Arabia More than 700 people have been killed during the Muslim pilgrimage of Hajj to Mecca.

In the city of Mina near to Mecca, where pilgrims go through on of the rituals of their journey, an uncontrolled stampede meant that at least 717 died, according to the Saudi defence service.

This was the deadliest event during the yearly pilgrimage since 1990, when a similar crush of pilgrims cause 1,426 deaths.

Burkina Faso coup threatens stability Burkina Faso This week a coup in Burkina Faso threatened to plunge the country into further political crisis. The coup occurred as members of the Regiment of Presidential Security detained the interim president, Michel Kafando, and the Prime Minister, Isaac Zida. Attempts were then made to install General Gilbert Diendéré as the new leader of the country.

The pair were held for two days, prompting protests and violent clashes on the streets of the capital, Ouagadougou. Following emergency talks with the Economic Community of West African States, lead by Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari, Kafando was returned to power on Wednesday.

His reinstatement came after long negotiations in Abuja and threats from French president François Hollande, that the coup leaders would face the “consequences” should they not surrender immediately. In as announcement he said, “The transition has been restored and this very minute I am resuming the exercise of power,” Diendéré justified his attempt to seize power saying that he “decided to take action to prevent the disruption of Burkina Faso due to the insecurity looming during pre-elections.”

Striking Kenyan teachers forced back to work

Kenya In Kenya, a month long strike led by the key teachers’ unions has led to millions of children not attending school.

However, now an industrial court has ordered the unions and the government to work together to resolve their disputers within the next month.

Teachers have been striking over what they see as unfair wages; however the government has said that only very small pay increases are affordable.

Super-fast Bloodhound put on show

United Kingdom The car that is expected to smash the land speed record has been put on show for the first time.

Bloodhound SSC, which is nearing completion, was exhibited in London ahead of its first proposed record run in October 2016.

The current land speed record is held by Thrust SSC, which reached 763mph back in 1997. Bloodhound will start running next year on a specially-built track in South Africa.

It is expected to surpass 800mph on its first run, although the overall goal is to hit 1000mph in the future.

The team hope that this will be achieved in 2017.

Dalai Lama makes sexist comment United Kingdom The spiritual leader of the Tibetan Buddhist faith, the Dalai Lama, has made a comment whilst speaking to the BBC that has been criticised for being sexist.

He told an interviewer that a female Dalai Lama would have to be “very, very attractive” or else wouldn’t be much use.

Campaigners for gender equality have called his comments “retrograde.”

In Science this week...

Supermoon & lunar eclipse over UK skies On Sunday night the moon over Britain reached a state of total lunar eclipse at the same time as the supermoon phenomenon occurred. Due to the elliptical orbit of the moon, it came closer to the earth and looked 14 per cent larger, and its position in relation to the earth and Sun turned it a coppery red.

The last time these two incidences occurred was in 1982, and it will not happen again for 18 years. The colour occurs because of the Sun’s light being refracted around the earth.

Cannabis “forest” in south-west London London In South West London police were stunned this week as they stumbled upon a cannabis “forest” in an area of urban wasteland. Photos show police posing next to cannabis plants, one plant appears to be taller than the officer standing at a full 5ft.

PC Sarah Henderson, of Kingston, said told The Guardian: “The area these plants were growing on was the size of a football pitch, it looked like a small forest of Christmas trees and was complete with a gazebo.”

Police tweeted the images along with the hashtags #TheseAren’tXmasTrees and #weedkiller.

Vietnamese films will cut sex to seconds Vietnam A proposal made in Vietnam to limit sex scenes to a maximum of five seconds has been strongly criticized by filmmakers. The plan was put forward by the head of Vietnam’s national movie bureau, Ngo Phuong Lan. While the changes have not been confirmed, Vietnamese filmmakers such as Nguyen Van Nhiem have stated their discontent about the restrictions of artistic freedom.

This is not the first time that Vietnam film censors have made the news: Fifty Shades of Grey was cut by a total of 20 minutes before being released, removing all scenes in which S&M was practiced.

Happy Birthday now available to all United States of America A US federal judge has ruled that the song Happy Birthday is no longer valid for copyright. The tune was originally composed in 1893 by two sisters in Kentucky.

However, over the years the years the song has been bought and sold by a number of companies and is thought to have been worth some $2,000,000 a year in royalties to whoever owned the copyright.

Snowden’s worries that we can’t contact aliens Russia Our ongoing efforts to protect online data may hinder our attempts to contact aliens, according to Edward Snowden. By encrypting information, the US government whistleblower believes that communication with other civilisations will become less and less likely.

As encryption techniques become more sophisticated, the signals will become less apparent, to the point where they will not even be distinguishable from background noise, meaning that aliens will not be able to pick up our signals. This problem could potentially work both ways.

Assuming that any alien societies that might be out there also encrypt their messages, we may well be unable to listen out for them.

London Underground should slow down Washington, USA A mathematical study has revealed that London Underground trains might be travelling too quickly. The researchers compared the time taken by trains to cover a certain distance with the corresponding journey time in a car and showed that if Tube journeys are too fast, there will be an increase in overall congestion levels.

This is particularly relevant to suburban areas on the network; some key locations, where commuters switch to other transport methods, become bottlenecks.

The model predicts that Tube trains should travel at 13mph to minimise this problem. The current average speed is 21mph. By contrast, New York’s Subway system is designed in such a way that faster speeds are always more efficient.

Meerkat, monkey and llama keeper in love triangle

London A violent altercation arose at a zoo Christmas party due to a love triangle between a monkey keeper, meerkat keeper, and a llama keeper.

Caroline Westlake, the meerkat keeper at London zoo, assaulted her colleage— who looked after monkeys— by cutting her face with a glass and then beating her at the zoo’s Prince Albert Suite.

They were arguing over llama-keeper Adam Davies, with whom they had both had relationships.

Swindon police apologise for “woo-woo” “nee-nah” debate Swindon Police who were repeatedly turning their sirens on and off to settle a discussion with a group of fouryear-olds have apologised to local residents.

Reception pupils at Haydonleigh Primary School were having a talk on the emergency services by North Swindon Police service in their first week at primary school.

When they couldn’t decide whether a police car made a “nee-nah” or a “woowoo,” the PCSOs turned the sirens on and off repeatedly.

They later apologised in a Facebook post to people “who may have been disturbed by our sirens yesterday morning.”

This post went viral on Facebook and the Headmaster was “overwhelmed.”

“Parents and staff are in bewilderment but it’s a real feeling of pride. And it’s hilarious.”

For future reference— ”woo-woo” won 60 votes to 26.

Telepathy could one day be possible, say scientists Scientists at the University of Washington have found that the idea of mind-reading may be more realistic than previously thought. A brain-to-brain interface (BBI) could be used, with the assistance of a specially-designed computer, to allow for one individual to guess accurately what is on the mind of another.

The current extent of what they can do is limited, but the potential for medical treatments is looking hopeful. Those who need rehabilitation for communication problems could benefit from being able to talk to others without needing to be able to move their limbs or muscles.

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Feature

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Housing crisis tensions continue to escalate

The UK is in a time of crisis where housing is concerned, and in Manchester, homelessness continues to be a major social and political issue. Liam Kelly investigates

Photos: The Mancunion

Housing and homelessness charity Shelter has consistently sounded warnings about the chronic shortage of affordable housing available in the UK. One of the starkest warnings yet was its recent report that, since the broadening of the ‘Right to Buy’ scheme in 2012 under the coalition government–which allows council tenants to buy their council home at a discount of up to £75000–one in three local councils had failed to replace a single home sold through the scheme.

The charity said just 8% of councils had built enough homes to replenish half of its stock.

The growing need for more affordable housing is a cause that has consistently united politicians from across the political spectrum in calling for more to be done.

However, despite these emphatic and repeated calls to action from all sides, house building in the UK continues to be in a state of inertia.

The government says it is committed to building 275,000 affordable homes before the end of this parliament.

Statistics compiled by the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG)–which are hosted on the Shelter website–show that the number of homes owned by Manchester City Council decreased by almost 1500 between 2010 and 2014.

After the broadening of ‘Right to Buy’ in 2012, the council sold 245 houses under the scheme, to the end of 2014. Since the year 2010/11, the amount of new houses built by the council–both completions and starts–totals only 40.

With less and less affordable housing available in Manchester, more and more people are finding themselves homeless or sleeping rough.

Compounding the issue is fact that the Salvation Army previously managed a 120-bed homeless shelter on Wilmott Street, but it closed two years ago. The Manchester Evening News (MEN) reported in June that an estimate of the rough sleepers in Manchester in 2014 showed a six-fold increase since 2010.

Since the spring, there has been a marked escalation in the tensions resulting from the dearth of affordable housing and increasing levels of homelessness, and continue to rumble on as the new academic year starts.

Firstly, in April, a group calling themselves ‘Homeless Rights of Justice’–made up of around 30 people who had been homeless for a long time–organised a protest outside Manchester Town Hall to raise awareness of cuts to funding to aid homeless people, such as mental health provision and housing benefit.

When facing eviction, the group then moved to St Peter’s Square, outside the Central Library.

Tensions increased during a row over the use of library facilities by members of the group.

This bizarre cat-and-mouse game between the council and the homeless activists continued into June, when the group were evicted from St. Peter’s Square and set up a new camp in St. Ann’s Square, just around the corner. The evictions kept coming, and the group subsequently moved on to Castlefield, and then King Street.

Eventually, in August, the council applied for an injunction to prevent anybody from erecting a tent in the city centre in protest at its homeless policies. A judge granted the injunction, and now those who are found to be in breach could face up to two years in prison, or a fine of £5000.

Then, in early September, a new camp made up by homeless people sprung up under the Mancunian Way overpass, between two buildings owned by Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU).

‘The Ark’, as it was known, attempted to take on this issue of almost biblical proportions.

I went to ‘The Ark’ to talk to Ryan McPhee, a 24-year-old man who has led the charge in this crusade, a modern day Noah taking on those desperately in need of help. He is uncomfortable at the idea that he is the “leader” or “boss” of this group, but instead claims to be someone doing whatever he can to help. So, how did ‘The Ark’ come into being?

“This bridge has been used by homeless people since I was a child… I used to see people sleeping here, and when I first became homeless myself I used to stay here in a cardboard box. A series of events and strange happenings led to a friend and myself living here, homeless, living together in a tent.

“And I built a windbreaker to the side of us,

which I ultimately made into four walls, and the council said I was ‘protesting’. And because we’re ‘protesting’ they’re trying to forcibly remove us.”

Obviously, ‘The Ark’ was a makeshift set up: pallets and sheets of plastic created windbreakers, a tattered sofa and a picnic table provided a sitting area and, most distinctively, the group slept

in tents.

Adorning the outside walls of ‘The Ark’ were pleas for support from passers-by, donation buckets, and denunciations of both the council and MMU. One said: “THESE TENTS ARE HERE TO PROVIDE HOMES AND SHELTER. THEY ARE NOT HERE AS A PROTEST.” However, as McPhee pointed out to me, ‘The Ark’ was much more than a group of people sleeping in tents under a bridge: “It really feels like a home… We’ve got hot rings so we can cook food, we’ve got a TV, and we can watch DVDs. “We’ve got 230 volts mains power, we’ve got 110 volt power and we’ve got 12 volt power. Some of the equipment has been bought from the donation bucket; some of it has been donated by lovely people who wanted to help us.

“The whole setup probably cost about £300, but it gives somewhere for homeless people to come, get warm, eat some hot food, charge their phones and sleep a bit more soundly.”

This is the crux of the issue: those who found themselves homeless felt abandoned, and took it upon themselves to create a safe space.

However crude the nature of the shelter’s construction, it did not dampen the spirits of the members of this “self-serving community”. There was a real sense of community at ‘The Ark’. Resources were shared in a selfless way; whilst discussions were had about how to save the camp from its impending destruction.

You would be forgiven for thinking that ‘The Ark’ was a desolate place, but it really wasn’t. Members of the group were laughing and smiling sat around a fire in the middle of the complex, much as students do in their accommodation. The apparent contentment may well have resulted from the security they felt at being in that place.

During the brief time I was there, they welcomed a new member into their midst without interrogation or prejudice, immediately offering him a place to stay until he gets back on his feet.

A petition organised by the members of ‘The Ark’ against the group being evicted gained over 3,500 signatures on Change.org.

The members of the group are also a dab hand at social media– which is so important in getting recognition for a campaign today–and their Facebook page has over 2000 likes. The page has been used to update the supporters of the group, organise demonstrations, and even meditation sessions.

Early in the morning of Friday 18th of September, as reported in The Mancunion, the camp members were evicted from their position under the bridge by a combination of police officers and bailiffs.

Videos from the scene show physical altercations between the members of the camp and the

enforcement officers whose job it was to clear the camp, remove the infrastructure and the personal effects of the camp members.

A reporter for The Mancunion, who was at the scene when the camp was removed, saw artist and homeless activist Jen Wu forcibly dragged from her tent screaming, before later seeing her be carried into an ambulance on a stretcher.

During the afternoon of 18th of September, Manchester Metropolitan University released a statement about the eviction of the camp members, claiming that the majority of those removed “are not recognised as homeless individuals, either by the City Council or by Greater Manchester Police”.

The site that previously played host to ‘The Ark’ has now had a metal fence erected around it, and is now used for the storage of refuse bins.

McPhee was arrested for breaching the peace on the day of the eviction.

Last week a protest led by students from the University of Manchester and Manchester Metro-

politan University was held in solidarity with the members of the group, urging MMU to return the land to the group. Over 70 people took part in the demonstration, with placards that read “Lives not Land”, and “People before Profits”.

The increasing tension between the homeless and the authorities is symptomatic of the housing shortage in the area, as well as cuts to mental health provision and insecure jobs. However, this problem is not merely confined to Manchester, but to the UK as a whole.

All sides would likely view the current situation as being unsustainable, as the pattern of evictionrelocation-eviction appears to be never-ending. I asked McPhee how, in an ideal world, he would see it resolved: “It’s not going to be resolved overnight; it needs a massive strategic plan and total overhaul.”

And would he try and keep the community together?

“Of course. You have to.”

Got an idea for a feature? Come to the Features section meeting on Mondays at 5:30pm in the Students’ Union Activities Space, or email features@mancunion.com and get involved.

Feature 9

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Interview: In Our Time producer

Victoria Brignell is a producer of BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time. Editor-in-chief Charlie Spargo talked to her about the programme’s role in academia, access to a career in the media, and the future of Radio 4

In Our Time, BBC Radio 4’s discussion series exploring big ideas, began on October 15th, 1998. Veteran broadcaster Melvyn Bragg has presented every episode from the beginning, a number approaching 700.

This is an extraordinary track record, says producer Victoria Brignell.

“In Our Time is a bit like a university seminar, and Melvyn is very experienced at guiding the direction he wants [the guests] to go in.”

Where does its success come from? “The presenter is one factor, the huge variety of topics I think is another. We’ve covered Jane Eyre, Dark Matter, the California Gold Rush, Sappho, and we’ve even done programmes on Eunuchs and the Kama Sutra.”

Guests on In Our Time are leading authorities in their fields, either university academics or representatives from top museums. It sets itself apart from other talk shows in this respect, which often talk solely to journalists, politicians, and other public, media-savvy figures.

“One of the nice things about In Our Time is that we’re not governed by the news agenda,” says Brignell. “We choose topics because they are interesting in themselves. We don’t interview guests because they’ve got a new book out, or they’re promoting a new film, our guests are chosen because they are experts in their field.

“In the early years it very often involved contributors who were journalists or writers, but nowadays we have a policy of only using guests who hold positions at universities or leading museums, because we feel it gives it more authority.”

The show has six broad topics around which it picks its conversational subjects—philosophy, science, culture, history, religion, and classics.

Despite Bragg being sharply intelligent and university-educated, he clearly can’t have academic qualifications in the range of subjects covered. I ask why it is better to have one presenter with fewer qualifications, than an expert host for each episode, like many subject-specific programmes on BBC Radio and TV do.

“I think that’s one of the reasons why the guests respond well to the questions, because they know they’re talking to someone who is, essentially, a layperson,” she explains. He’s a very interested layperson, but doesn’t necessarily have a qualification in the topic that they are discussing.”

It also helps keep the programme accessible to the listener, contributing to its success. “We say to our guests that the programme is being broadcast to a whole range of people. Some… may have some knowledge already on the topic, but loads of people will only have a limited knowledge of it. We need to make sure that they don’t exclude listeners who are new to the topic.”

Also unlike other Radio 4 programmes on science or culture, In Our

Victoria in the studio. Photo: John McCafferty

Time is not prerecorded. There are three reasons for this. “First of all, Radio 4 likes to do as much live as possible.

“Secondly, live programmes tend to have a certain momentum to them, which prerecorded programmes don’t. Some people relish it, some people don’t, but we often find that programmes that are live have a bit more energy in them.

“The other advantage is that there’s actually less work involved,” she says. As long as there is a competent host, not having to edit or cut what is said means that well-briefed guests will produce a good live show.

One thing that In Our Time manages to do is introduce people to topics they wouldn’t have had a chance to study themselves. “For example, a few years ago we were contacted by somebody who used to be a lorry driver. He happened to hear an episode of In Our Time about philosophy when he was in his cab, and he became fascinated by philosophy, so he did a university degree.

“From hearing an episode of In Our Time he had [gone on] to get a BA

in Philosophy. It’s stories like that that make the job really worthwhile.

You feel that you’re broadening people’s horizons and expanding their understanding of the world.”

Furthermore, “In Our Time is a wonderful vehicle for academics to promote their subjects and spread awareness of their research,” she says.

“We get a lot of positive feedback from academics who have been on the programme, who have been pleasantly surprised at how much comment they get from their colleagues and the outside world after they’ve been on the programme.”

I ask if she has any advice for students interested in getting involved in broadcasting production. Her route into the career was not typical— being a tetraplegic wheelchair user, she benefitted from a BBC traineeship aimed at giving disabled people the opportunity to get into production.

“There’s a separate scheme called Extend, which is also aimed specifically at disabled people, and that offers placements for people who are disabled to learn about broadcasting production.”

For those interested in a career in journalism or media, “my advice… would be that you’ve got to be very tenacious. It’s very competitive; a lot of people wanting a career in the sector, lots of people chasing relatively few numbers of posts.

Though she didn’t get involved in student radio when she was at university, she calls it “a great way of experimenting, [and] finding out what works and what doesn’t work.

“It’s a space where you can try out new things and it doesn’t matter too much if they don’t work as well as you were hoping. If your university has a radio station it’s a good opportunity to learn some skills that might well be useful later in your career.”

In the future, she is confident that Radio 4 will increase its appeal to a younger audience. “There are a lot of programmes on Radio 4 which will appeal to young people. The 6:30pm comedy slot in particular, and programmes like the News Quiz, Now Show, [and] The Unbelievable Truth.

“I would definitely encourage young people to switch on to Radio 4.

Sometimes people have a misconception as to what Radio 4 can offer, and a lot is equally valuable to a younger audience as it is to the older audience.”

In Our Time returned to BBC Radio 4 on the 24th of September. The first episode covered Perpetual Motion. All In Our Time episodes are available to listen to and download via the In Our Time webpage.

Opinion

10

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Will Murdoch pollute National Geographic?

Alex Daniel Contributor

com

Meetings Mondays, 5pm , First Floor Student Union.

Butchering the Beeb Joe Evans Opinion Editor With the future of the BBC under scrutiny and the Royal Mail being increasingly privatised, the safety of just about any British institution now seems under threat. What once was sacrosanct is no longer so, all is founded on shifting sands and constantly open to questioning. All that remains to be seen is how the Beeb is carved up, basted, and served back to the public.

Culture Secretary John Whittingdale is the man pulling the strings. He is a self-professed horror movie fan, reflected in his attempts to turn his voting record into a fear-inducing feature-length. He has in the past voted against gay rights, the hunting ban and banker’s bonus taxes. A fitting candidate, then, to head up a committee looking into diverse and representative culture.

Specifically, he cites ‘torture porn’ pioneer Eli Roth as a favourite director. It’s an influence that both promises a surprising change of direction for the BBC and also perhaps illuminates why he is content working for a man who allegedly plunged his genitalia into an animal.

Everything is culture I suppose.

With swine in mind, the committee surrounding Whittingdale looks like a who’s who of money rich but culturally poor business minds, snouts in the trough, digging for any aspect of the BBC that can be monetised.

Whittingdale is joined by Dawn Airey, former Chair and Chief Executive of Channel 5 when footage of Rebecca Loos pleasuring a pig was aired.

She was forced to defend her channel as more than “films, football and fucking,” a claim that smacks of no smoke without fire. This becomes especially true given the overriding scent of burning that emanates from Keith Chegwin’s poorly performing nudist show Naked Jungle, a show aired under her leadership.

Nudity and national airing of animal gratification aside, appointing the head of a channel forced to defend itself against such claims and asking her to decide the future of the BBC is comparable to casting a eunuch to appear in one of Roth’s films.

Pigs have disproportionately dominated both this weeks news and this piece. It’s a fitting sentiment given that an intelligent institution looks set to be dragged through the mud. What remains to be seen though is whether it is respected or left defiled like a humble ham at a Piers Gaveston Society dinner.

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The National Geographic Magazine has, in its own words, been “inspiring people to care about the planet since 1888.” It is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational organisations in the world and one of its chief interests is the “promotion of environmental conservation.” It is, without doubt, a tremendously valuable institution to anyone who takes even a remote interest in the planet upon which we live. It is obvious then, why 21st Century Fox’s recent majority purchase of the magazine has made waves.

21st Century Fox is the same company that has publicly (through their news channel, Fox News) called climate change a “superstition” a “scam” and a “hoax.” Their founder and executive cochairman, Rupert Murdoch, has said of rising sea levels that “we’ve just got to stop building vast houses on seashores and go back a little bit.” How can the interests of a magazine that is committed to reducing Global Warming and exposing the truth about the harm humans are doing to the environment be reconciled with those of such a cancerous enterprise as Fox? Clearly, something isn’t right here.

There has been an element of confusion surrounding the deal, so the basic facts of the transaction are thus: 21st Century Fox have taken over 73% of the magazine for $725 million, while the National Geographic Society, the owners since its inception 127 years ago, retain a 27% stake. This has been described as merely an expansion of a venture that has been going on for some time; Fox have owned the associated Television channels (still under the NatGeo name) for 18 years, and they have thus created a new entity called National Geographic Partners.

Upon hearing the news, many voiced

their concerns that the National Geographic Magazine will take a U-turn in its editorial line on the issue and follow that of its new owner, with desrisive tweets including “I give National Geographic 18 months before publishing its first piece of climate change denial.” Irish Green Party Politician Dan Boyle was one of many who posted mock-up covers of future editions, with titles including “If Global Warming is real, why is it so cold out?” and “Who needs animals anyway?” as well as “How rising seas are giving whales more room to swim.” Satire it may be, but it is a huge worry.

The National Geographic has been leading the way in exposing and addressing the human impact upon climate change for many years. Is all of this going to take a backseat now that the magazine is owned by a multinational corporation that has little to no interest in climate change, aside from displaying its occasional scorn for those naïve enough to trust science?

Meanwhile Murdoch himself, aside from his farcical comments about rising sea levels, has made it fairly clear how much credence he gives to the irrefutable

evidence pointing to an impending environmental crisis. In a 2014 Sky News interview, he claimed that in the wider scheme of things, Australia isn’t contributing much to climate change and so doesn’t need to take action, while China does. True as it may be that China has a far bigger carbon footprint than Australia, that is because it has more people. This phenomenon, known as the Travesty of the Commons, is equivalent to you or I leaving the lights on 24/7, “because one person won’t make a difference.”

It is essentially the process by which humanity is driving, flying and burning its way towards catastrophe. Murdoch, one of the most powerful people on the planet, is a major proponent of it.

His company’s takeover of the National Geographic seems a pretty damning example of capitalism conquering a cause.

The trouble is that the magazine is stuck between a rock and a hard place. Like so many other print publications, it has been in decline with the growth in popularity of online journalism, not to mention the vast freedom of information that the web now provides. In short, people no longer need

to subscribe to the National Geographic Magazine to gain awareness of the scientific, geographical and historical issues that it has led the way in exposing for so long, and it has been on a low trajectory towards extinction for quite some time.

The National Geographic Society has admitted as much in a statement, and their CEO Gary Knell said the venture will help to “continue to fulfil our mission long into the future,” while Susan Goldberg, the magazine’s Editor in Chief was more sheepish, saying that Fox “have not always represented the National Geographic brand […] in a way we loved or even they loved.” She added, “Holding still and doing the same thing is not a sustainable position.” National Geographic needs the money, and the sad fact is that a partnership with Fox is the only way to preserve the company’s longevity.

Those most worried might take comfort in James Murdoch’s – son of Rupert and CEO of 21st Century Fox – comments, saying he revered the magazine, which he has purportedly read from a young age. It must also be noted that Fox would potentially be shooting itself in the foot from a PR perspective in ruining the good work that the National Geographic has been doing for so long.

That said, one must ask the question: since when has bad publicity ever bothered a Murdoch-owned news outlet?

One can only hope that this is merely the end of the magazine’s non-profit status, and that nobody intends to meddle with its content or cause. Only time will tell.

Does Murdoch’s influence threaten the editoral independence of National Geographic Magazine? Photo: Greyloch @Flickr

The over-sharing of Generation Facebook

Cecilia Bicknell examines the damaging effect of Facebook on our social interactions In her book Not That Kind Of Girl, Lena Dunham was widely criticised for sharing that she had harmlessly explored her sexuality and body with her sister when they were both young children. Anyone who has read the book and understands the context of the situation will know that Dunham acted as many young children do on the cusp of puberty. It is not, as some tabloids reported it, paedophilic, depraved or malicious. Dunham has always been a self-confessed ‘over-sharer’, and her large fan base has praised her for it. And yet over this intimate confession of childhood innocence, she was deemed a pervert. It would appear that for Dunham, the public embraced and rejected her openness.

The concept of “oversharing” is prevalent in both journalism and social media, with more selfies being taken than any other form of photograph on Facebook. It would appear that Generation Y has become Generation “is this my best angle?” While selfies are occasionally mocked, they are accepted as the social norm; the idea of sharing intimate, often nude, photos of oneself for thousands to see is a naturalised phenomenon in the present day. The same can be said for posting personal beliefs (even if they cause great offence to others) on various platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr. And this is apparently a “normal” form of self-expression.

When talking to my technophobic mother the other day about starting a Facebook account, the differences occurred to me between her generation and mine on the line that divides

personal and public information. I wouldn’t hesitate before uploading a picture of my puppy playing in our living room, whereas my Mum’s immediate reaction was “what about weirdos seeing our house, where we live, my furniture!”

I asked myself whether the 30-year age gap between us was the answer to her pedantry about keeping our private lives private, or whether it was because I have become fundamentally hardened to the chronic “oversharing” cultivated by my fellow Facebook friends.

“Facebook succeeds in both giving and taking away anonymity” While sharing the odd selfie on a particularly good hair day isn’t exactly setting the world on fire, the constant barrage of personal pics flowing daily through Instagram can lead to the promotion of so-called fantasy relationships. We’re all guilty of it, stalking girls we despise simply because we stumbled across them on Instagram and they have better clothes, better skin, and a better body. After seeing 50 pictures of some poor girl you’ve never even met and whose birthday party you weren’t even invited to, you begin to feel like you know her. She’s out of reach, but only just. If you look at her long enough on Facebook you can learn every detail about her life, you’re basically friends. But what happens when this turns nasty? She may think she’s posting a harmless photo

of her family, but does she really want all 653 of her “friends” to see her Nana’s 90th?

It feels as if we have become deadened to the notion of privacy. When does sharing cross over into the frightening realm of giving up your discretion in favour of a form of public ownership?

Without going into too much sordid detail, I have recently been rather embroiled in a love tryst. Of course, I’m over-exaggerating, but in basic terms a boy thought I was “leading him on” because I would occasionally reply to his rather bizarre Facebook messages.

Not wanting to appear rude, I’d try to be congenial and subtly deter his somewhat full-on advances. Foolishly I thought this would be the end of it, little did I know the guy had been cultivating a fantasy relationship between the two of us and my offhand replies were the fuel to his burning passion. While I don’t know for sure, I dread to think of my profile pictures being the object of sweaty desire for an afternoon’s self-fondlings.

Anyway, to avoid being crass, it’s over now. However, it did get me thinking—if those brief and frankly quite boring Facebook conversations had happened in real life, would the outcome have been the same? I am left thinking that when things happen over the Internet, they take on a whole new code of social conventions. Facebook succeeds in both giving and taking away anonymity—you can know everything about a person and nothing at all.

I suppose the crux of my argument lies in my deep fear of the power of “oversharing” in desensitising our generation to the wonderful intoxicant

that is secrecy. When every moment has to be retweeted, regrammed, and relived, nothing is sacred anymore.

“Without going into too much sordid detail, I have recently been rather embroiled in a love tryst.”

You can “hate” a person you’ve never even met just for their poor choice of Instagram filter and you can fall in love for the very same thing. It sounds jaded to say this, but maybe we all need to take a step back from our laptops, and put the iPhones down, just in case we’ve given our lives away without even realising it.

Photo: jakerust @Flickr

Opinion11

ISSUE 2 / 28th SEPTEMBER 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

The Murder Marketplace Grace Iona Annesley-Mair reflects on the implications of the UK’s stance on the refugee crisis as international arms fairs continue to be held in London You don’t need to be a genius to know that generally speaking, weapons equal death.

The annual Defence and Security Equipment International Exhibition (DSEI) was hosted at the ExCel centre in London earlier this month, guaranteeing the glitz and glamour of a fair that caters for technologically innovative and efficient murder.

While David Cameron traveled to refugee camps near the border of Syria, lambasting the atrocities he saw around him, his Government hosted the world’s largest arms fair in the heart of London.

With the guests including countries such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Israel, the UK Government must take its share of the responsibility of the human cost of supplying the arsenals of these regimes, and yes, that includes helping refugees.

The hypocrisy of UK Government policy in relation to the arms trade is nothing new. In 2006 Tony Blair quashed investigations by the serious fraud office into the alleged corruption of the Al-Yamamah arms and oil deal with Saudi Arabia, which had been set up during Thatcher’s administration. In 2011, during the height of the Arab Spring, the UK government was kind enough to export potassium and sodium fluoride to Bashar Al-Assad, which are both used in the production of chemical weapons which would later be used against civilians.

In 2012, MPs carried out an inquiry into how

defence BAE Systems, and BP were involved in the loan of £35 million of taxpayers’ money to the admirable humanitarian Robert Mugabe.

Only six months into 2014 £63.2 million worth of arms export licences had been granted to states that had previously been on a blacklist for systematic human rights atrocities. I’m sure that the realisation that UK Government armed both Iran and Iraq during the Gulf War during the 1980s comes as no surprise. Nor is there any shock at the fact that the British firms, with government approval also supplied Sarin—one of the most important ingredients used in chemical weapons—to Syria during civil war.

Quite often when we discuss atrocities, or chemical weapons such as Sarin, it is done in a way which is quite clinical and detached from their immediate and physical effects. For those that don’t know, Sarin is a chemical agent that inhibits our enzymes from breaking down neurotransmitters (those clever little things which mediate the signals around your body).

Because the body can’t break down these neurotransmitters, the same signals are sent over and over in rapid fire.

Within seconds of being exposed to this odourless and tasteless gas, these signals go into overdrive, meaning that whatever your body initially does to deal with the foreign gas repeats in quicker succession. That means you cannot

stop your eyes from watering, you cannot stop your lungs from coughing into convulsions, and you have no control as your stomach empties itself of bile and would be entirely powerless to do anything as your bowels give out. This can quickly move into convulsions and paralysis, and with enough exposure, you could be dead in ten minutes.

Sarin takes away the control you have over your body and nervous system. That’s right, the UK Government doesn’t seem to mind our domestic firms selling this stuff. Considering the impacts Sarin has, I’m sure we can all appreciate the irony of David Cameron’s kindness in dealing with the so called “swarm” of refugees in Europe.

As much as I might wish it, the UK’s track record hasn’t improved. Despite widespread condemnation of the actions of maniacal dictators across the world, arms sales continue.

By March this year, the UK government had issued arms licences that are worth more than £5.2 billion.

What makes the situation slightly more difficult to grapple with is the level of state intervention within the arms trade. The arms sector is one of the most heavily subsidised areas of the UK economy with estimates sitting between £450 – 930 million per year. What seems most bizarre is the willingness to invest in arms, which means by default the state is not only happy but willing

to sponsor murder. Amnesty International estimated that around 85% of the killings they document are a direct result of guns, with a further 60% of all human rights abuses being directly related to the arms trade.

In the context of the biggest refugee crisis since the Second World War, it becomes impossible to ignore the intrinsic link between arms sales and the systematic dehumanisation, brutalisation and murder of human beings globally. If anything, when we see refugees who are after all, human beings like the rest of us–with families, hopes, dreams and fears. Our humanity should extend beyond borders, crossings and checkpoints.

It should be a reminder that refugees are not just running the risks of drowning in the Mediterranean for the sake of it. When we see what is reality for so many other human beings, such as the haunting images of Aylan Kurdi, our hands are not clean.

Refugees are running to survive, and more often than we would like to admit, they are running from the same regimes that the British arms industry has funded, equipped, and armed. They are also running from regimes that have been able to reinforce their false legitimacy through violent power, and it is the same violent power that the UK Government has been happy to supply.

Historical hangovers threaten Northern Ireland’s peace .

Opinion Editor Isaac Atwal assesses the implications for power sharing after the murders of two ex-IRA men

Over the past few months, Northern Ireland has seen increasing levels of political turmoil with the power sharing deal that was a product of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement coming under increasing strain. A recent upsurge in dissident republican activity, with the deaths of two former IRA hitmen being the most high profile, has brought about accusations from unionist politicians and others that the IRA is still active. This claim has been refuted by Sinn Féin, who maintain that the IRA does not exist anymore and is not orchestrating violence. The IRA ordered a formal halt to its armed campaign in 2005.

Disagreements have arisen in the fallout of the murders and have plunged Northern Ireland’s Stormont Assembly into crisis, with the Democratic Unionist Party’s (DUP) First Minister Peter Robinson stepping down in protest against what the DUP claim is the prospect of the IRA still being active. This comes after deadlock in the Northern Ireland Assembly over the implementation of welfare reform that has been blocked by Sinn Féin, who are opposed to changes, despite initially approving them in March.

Theresa Villiers, the Northern Ireland secretary, had previously said that if a solution could not be found to the deadlock then the Westminster government was prepared to step in and suspend the Northern Ireland Assembly and rule from London as a “last resort”. This is something that the DUP isn’t entirely adverse to. With Northern Ireland Assembly elections to be held next year, a suspension now, with a view to restoring power sharing next year, could give the opportunity for a renegotiation of the power sharing agreement that would yield more favourable terms and to tar Sinn Féin with the dissident brush.

Since the start of the year there have been five bombs found in Northern Ireland. Of these, one exploded outside a probation office in April, and two partially exploded near an army reserve centre in Londonderry in May. This time the devices were placed close to residential houses.

These are not an immediate assessment of the IRA or the Provisional IRA; dissident republican action has continued in dribs and drabs since the end of the Troubles. However, the shootings of two ex-IRA hitmen in four months has called into question the continued existence of the Provisional IRA from unionist politicians. After the murder of Kevin McGuigan in August–who was one of the suspects in the murder of Gerard Jock Davison, a

Photo: David, Bergin, Emmett and Elliott @ Flickr

Isaac Atwal Opinion Editor fellow ex-IRA man killed only three months earlier–First Minister Peter Robinson stepped aside after the police claimed that there may have been Provisional IRA involvement in McGuigan’s death.

“The shooting of two ex-IRA hitmen in four months has called into question the continued existence of the Provisional IRA.” Robinson remarked when stepping aside and leaving one DUP minister to remain First Minister that he was taking this action “to ensure

that nationalists and republicans are not able to take financial and other decisions that might be detrimental to Northern Ireland”. However, Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams has said that the IRA has “gone and is not coming back”.

In addition to this, the chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), George Hamilton, said that the Provisional IRA still exists with respect to command structures and that some of its members were involved in the murder. However, Hamilton stated that there was no evidence of the murder being sanctioned by the group. He also added that the organisation’s purpose had “radically changed”. He stated that the police assessment was that the Provisional IRA remains committed to politics and is not engaged in violence. Instead he placed blame for the murders on a fall out within parts of the republican community involved in “personal gain or personal agendas”.

Now, there seems to be confusion over whether the IRA or any associated organisations are still in existence and functioning, or if the recent spate of violence is being committed by people who used to be involved in these organisations during the troubles, but are now settling personal scores.

Indeed, a look into Kevin McGuigan’s past shows that, having worked previously as a hit man with Gerard Jock Davison, the man he was suspected of the killing months earlier, the murders may have more to do with personal rivalries than a revival of republican violence. These two men were part of a campaign group, with Davison, Direct Action Against Drugs, an assassination unit consisting of exIRA members that would target alleged drug dealers in Northern Ireland that had fallen foul of those who killed a dozen people between 1995 and 2001.

A catalogue of violent incidents attributed to McGuigan in these years eventually came to a head when his volatile nature ended in a dispute that required the IRA’s internal discipline unit to be called in. McGuigan’s sentence was a “six-pack” which meant gunshot wounds to the feet, hands and elbows. It is alleged that after this incident McGuigan harbored a grudge against Davison. A former IRA prisoner turned author, Anthony McIntyre, who visited McGugian after the shooting, recalled that McGuigan felt Davison has “hijacked the army and punished him for reasons that were unfair–the result of favouritism and personalities”.

It would seem that the murders of these two men maybe have more to do with organised crime, a shared legacy of violence, suspicion and vying for dominance in quasi-political and paramilitary organisations than the full scale resumation of organised political violence in Northern Ireland.

The Westminster government said last week that they would establish a commission to assess paramilitary organisations and organised crime. The DUP have said that they are “content” with this announcement and will be entering cross-party talks due to start soon. Sinn Féin have also said that they are entering these talks and the PSNI have welcomed the clear focus on organised crime. It is no doubt that cross-party talks will now see all involved trying to secure a better position for themselves.

It remains however a great shame and evident that, for whatever reason, structures put in place during the Troubles still exist and political point scoring invoking the past still goes on. Furthermore, whilst widescale organised paramilitary action seems to be a thing of the past, organised crime is still prevalent and as long as this remains the case, so will personal score settling that has a long and bloody history to feed on.

Music

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Feature

Opinion

photo: Youtube user ‘LUVFLESH’

the Opinion

Photo: Steve Berryman@flickr

“It’s better to burn out than fade away...”

Cassie Hyde pontificates on a recent slew of “rock’n’roll suicide” documentaries Cassie Hyde Contributor So far, 2015 has seen documentaries about dead music icons come out left, right and centre. These range from high budget flicks, such as Amy and Montage of Heck, to the smaller scale: Soaked In Bleach is another Cobain doc and Heaven Adores You covers Elliot Smith. This type of music documentary seems to have stuck a chord with fans and regular cinema goers alike.

What does this say about the public’s relationship between these musicians and the gloss that death gives to their career?

At a glance, it’s easy to be cynical and view these films as being rose-tinted. We put dead celebrities on ridiculous pedestals all of the time, to the extent that they begin to feel unreal, even warped. This can split people into two camps of response; either mindlessly treat them as the idol that they’re portrayed as or become completely jaded about it.

However, once you dig beneath the surface, you realise that this superficial polish really is just that. They’re real people with emotions, faults, goals and regrets. Not just that - they are people falling apart.

It’s also important to realise that the quality of a documentary doesn’t necessarily correlate to the size of the star being covered.

Some of the best documentaries are about relative unknowns.

For example, Searching For Sugar Man is based around littleknown folk singer Rodriguez and it’s beautiful and profound. Sure, having a documentary about a big name may make money (Amy is now the biggest grossing documentary in the UK), but this does not guarantee critical success. Good documentaries should draw in the audience on the themes of the subject’s lives rather than the name of the subject. This is what both Amy and Cobain: Montage of Heck achieve really well.

Amy is just as much about drug dependence, the price of being famous and extreme media intrusion as it is about Amy Winehouse. Towards the beginning of the film, much of the footage is that shot by Winehouse at the beginning of

5

for a Quid

Your Jukebox Playlists Dominic Bennett Contributor

her career, but the last shot of her, showing her body being put into a private ambulance, was filmed by an unknown person.

The move from personal to very impersonal footage of Winehouse is an intentional metaphor for Winehouse’s own alienation from the world, as well as the way in which much of the press failed to treat her like a person. As a result, Amy at times feels very much like a film made in reaction to the Leveson Inquiry, a visceral call to arms against the worst aspects of journalism.

Montage of Heck shares many similar themes. At its heart, it documents of the downfall of someone constantly battling their inner demons. The film’s exploration into Cobain’s suicidal tendencies as a teenager clearly demonstrates that the odds of survival were stacked against him, way before fame, heroin and Courtney Love came along. The use of his family and friends as talking heads only goes to show how raw his death still is to them 20 years on. Ultimately, Cobain’s story can only really be viewed as one thing: a tragedy.

The only way to view these people’s lives as glamourous is at a glance. Once you dig a little deeper, you realize that these are people unravelling and ultimately dying at tragically young ages. To put it simply, there is no polish.

photo:Maia Valenzuela@Flickr

the

Interview FLESH

Zakk Brown chats to hot young things FLESH about a scattershot of influences and their self-defined ‘Snotpop’ brand Zakk Brown Contributor It’s always easy to categorise and define a band’s sound for them, which is what I found to be the case while reading around FLESH. They are the Manchesterbased proprietors of ‘Snotpop’, a genre which tends to be branded as a form of Britpop/Madchester music with a blend of grunge. Being the ambassadors of the new genre who are yet to release an LP to cement Snotpop as a unique and identifiable genre, without the unnecessary comparisons to other genres from the surrounding press, I thought it best to uncover their take on their own creation.

“Yeah well it does kinda sound a bit like that”, bassist Haz states when the comparisons to Madchester are brought to attention, “Madchester just comes out”. He and frontman Robbie reiterate that the Madchester-esque percussion “comes from the fun of the music rather than a love of Madchester”. The pair cites Seal and other “adult music we shouldn’t like”, “a Jane’s Addiction vibe”, and a bit of “gabber shit” for good measure as their influences. This bizarre recipe of interests, as well as citing Steve Vai as an influence in previous interviews are a far cry from bands like The Happy Mondays and Oasis and their lingering presence that the press

“I feel like I’m Bono”

seem to marry FLESH to. They explain that the band’s clearly differing tastes in music along with a shared interest in heavier, industrial rock are what formed Snotpop. “It just came naturally because of who we are” says Haz on creating their music, explaining that their sound comes from their fun-loving nature and enjoyment of inventing a style of alternative rock that suits all the band’s musical cup of tea. He goes on to say that they’re attempting to mix “music that naturally should hate each other”, which Robbie jokingly chimes in with “then they come together to love each other on stage”. It is revealed that all four band members have interests in electronic dance music, with Robbie stating that they “Wanna bring the rave to the rockshow”. It seems that the band are trying to take alternative rock in a more fun, enjoyable direction with their Snotpop brand, something which hasn’t been seen prominently since the height of pop-punk and the peak of Blink-182.

The fun-loving and mischievous aspect of their music can certainly be found in the character of the band as well. After previously stating in other interviews that the name comes from an LGBT night at Hacienda, which is probably the main reason for the name, the band give a more tongue in cheek response this time. “There’s definitely an element of ruffling some feathers” explains Robbie upon questioning the band’s choice in name, which is reflected in some of the disturbing, Eagulls-style imagery in their music videos. “We’re also scared robots are gonna take over” chimes in Haz. “There’s already a laptop on stage, who’s gonna go first?” he jokes. The band also have a piss-taking side. In reference

to their single ‘Avin it up in Ibiza’, I asked whether they’d ever been to Ibiza.

“Actually no” replies Robbie, with Haz claiming he’d only just been on his first flight last year to Amsterdam. It seems the band have taken the iconic party Island as a mocking irony at the famous air of debauchery found in Ibiza. “Yes we have... in spirit” says Robbie, jokingly changing his mind. I suppose if you only go in spirit you can avoid abusing the Island’s inhabitants and the rampant sexually transmitted infections.

Having all met in Manchester from smaller places and expecting them to become more popular over the next year, I asked the band what being from a small town and seeing big city gigs is like. “We’ve been here to see loads of bands” says Robbie, explaining that “U2 changed my life forever” after a gig here.

“Nottingham was okay, but sometimes you have to go bigger” says Haz on his experiences on seeing bands in his hometown compared to Manchester.

Directing the conversation towards what it’s like going from the crowd to the stage of gigs, Haz says “We played gigs before where there was more people on stage than in the crowd. It took a while to get there...it was smooth but it wasn’t quick”. The band has worked hard over a couple of years to get where they are now. “I feel like I’m Bono”, says Robbie on their current climate of fame and fortune. I believe that FLESH has the potential, tracks and personality to be extremely popular amongst the indie crowd and become NME-style alternative rock darlings... just maybe not as big as Bono.

1. Hot Chocolate – Every 1’s A Winner

2. Mac DeMarco – Ode To Viceroy

3. Fountains of Wayne – Stacy’s Mom

4. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Stagger Lee

Surely no-one can resist this 70s funk hit to start the evening off?

Everyone is indeed a winner, even you.

Show the world how wavey you are by choosing everybody’s favourite indie rock slacker. It also helps that this is a legitimately great song.

Drink and sing along with this classic tune about milfs, then regretfully reminisce about how 14 years old was the last time you were truly happy.

“I’m a bad motherfucker don’t you know, and I’ll crawl over fifty good pussies just to get to one fat boy’s asshole.”

5. Bruce Springsteen – The River The night’s taken its toll. Now’s the time to mourn the death of the American working class dream, with your horrifically middle class uni friends.

Music 13

ISSUE 2 / 28th SEPTEMBER 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Feature

Fish Out Of Water

We pluck our first fish of the year, Rob Paterson, from his indie rock waters and hurl him into a tranquil pool of traditional Indian raga at Bridgewater Hall.

Photo: pixabay

I think I speak for the majority of the white, western world when I say that my only exposure to classical Indian music is down to one band, and really, one man; George Harrison’s psychedelic odysseys on Revolver and Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band. Whilst ‘Love You To’ and ‘Within You, Without You’ are the only Beatles songs that sound more Indian than they do western, Harrison’s obsession with Indian music and culture was influential throughout their late era output, with the lead Sitar line on ‘Norwegian Wood’ and what I could previously have only described as “that Indian sounding drone” throughout ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’. I was no wiser as to how that noise was created as it slowly bubbled up from the trio of musicians playing as Sur Sangam: Music For The Mind And Soul. As the concert went on, I found my mind drift to the Indian dabblings of the Beatles, but also to psychedelic music in general, which made me wonder: has the monolithic presence of The Beatles in western music conditioned me to associate classical Indian music with psychedelia or is there something intrinsically psychedelic

within it?

As is probably to be expected in a concert venue like Bridgewater hall, I was younger than the average age of the room by about 40 years.

What was more surprising was that white people held the majority in the audience by some way.

Whether they were more culturally educated than me, I know not, but Shirin Sengupta offered some explanation of that afternoon’s proceedings regardless. She introduced the piece as “a beautiful afternoon Raga” and introduced the group; she’d sing, Kousic Sen would play the tabla and Rekesh Chauhan would play the harmonium.

When I’m watching a band I don’t know, I like to construct their characters and relationships in my head. Shirin and Kousic looked relaxed, often played with their eyes closed and, appropriately given the concert’s title, looked as if they were feeling the music. Rekesh on the other hand was significantly younger and cast nervous looks to his fellow musicians without as if to say “am I doing it right?”. “Don’t overthink it”, return glances seemed to say back. It was no shock when Shirin said that it was his first performance.

Review Gig

Florence And The Machine 18th Sep Manchester Arena

Despite this, their synchronicity was mesmerising. The harmonium, which looks and sounds very similar to an accordion, echoed the seemingly sporadic vocal melody, which built from tender coos to full chested, soaring notes. I had some idea of what tablas sounded like previous to the concert, but was taken aback by how wide a range of tones that could be produced by the little drum.

The rhythmic taps seemed to vary in pitch and scampered across the soundscape, only to be broken up by the gigantic wallop of what sounds like an 808 beat bass note.

They seemed to be playing instinctively; to put it in western terms, jamming. Having done a little research since, I have found out that this was more than likely the case. In fact, the technical difference in musicality between different Ragas is often minimal; what sets them apart is mood they’re trying to portray. In the pitifully small music scene of York, a local favourite was a group of scraggly haired yuppies that made guitar based psych music. Similarly, their songs were barely discernible musically; they riffed on simple chord

sequences, adding wave after wave of blissed out pedal fans. But ask the flock of drugged up teenagers throwing their limbs around and they’d say it wasn’t about the music, “it was about the viiiiiiibes”.

As the piece wound to the end after over half an hour, I was left with questions that remain unanswered. How did she vacillate between notes so quickly that it sounded like she was singing through a fan? What did the words that she was singing mean? Were they pre-planned or did she slot them in at random times? Where the hell was that drone coming from? But as I looked on the tranquil face of a woman in a saari, my original question was in some way answered.

It was a startlingly similar expression to that of an infamous member of York’s psych entourage dubbed ‘Glenn the bin man’, though I doubt the woman was on magic mushrooms. Maybe psychedelic and classical Indian music have more in common than just the Beatles.

Singles

Album

Sam Harrison rounds up his pick of the week’s singles

Ought: Sun Coming Down Released 18th Sep Via Constellation

Sam Harrison Contributor

Andy Wells Contributor

Rob Paterson Music Editor

Florence + The Machine came to Manchester last Friday for their seventh date of the How Big Tour at The Manchester Arena. The London-based band were supported by The Staves, a folk-rock trio of sisters. Despite the venue being a little too cavernous for their mellow sound, they provided the perfect aperitif Feature of vocal harmony and soft guitar melodies to wet the bustling crowd’s appetite for the main event. Shortly after, the iconic auburn hair fluttered as Florence Welch bounded up to the stage to assume her spot behind the mic in pure white flared pants, a mustard blouse and barefoot – you’d have thought she learnt a lesson from Coachella?!

Behind her newfound understated dress sense of a business woman, Florence Welch is an eccentric character to say the least. Throughout most of her performance she was leaping and pirouetting across the stage like a ballerina on a caffeine high. There were some clichés, like a song being dedicated to the city, which the cynic in me believed was also dedicated to Sheffield the week before. Regardless, she built a near intimate rapport with her audience. One stand-out moment was during Rabbit Heart when, like a child running in the playground, Florence sprinted through the crowd to the first tier of the arena with a panicking security guard left in her wake.

Florence’s operatic voice filled every available space of the packed arena.

They opened with dark, Ceremonials track ‘What The Water Gave Me’, which may have been a little bleak but built to a bombastic sound. By the third track, Shake It Off, she asked, in her surprisingly soft speaking voice, that the exuberant crowd be her choir. We obliged, singing and dancing as the show rattled on with consistent energy. A touch of respite was welcome when Florence performed an acoustic rendition of Cosmic Love. After eighty minutes the main set came to a finale with the The Dog Days Are Over which, at Florence’s command, saw the crowd become a sea of waving garments of clothing and seminaked fans. Of course an encore is pretty much mandatory at such an arena gig and a couple of softer songs would have been an ideal warm-down. But of course not! It started with a punch from What Kind Of Man and then ended with the thumping, rousing Drumming Song that gave everyone the adrenaline to carry on the party… or rush for the last train home.

The Machine are dynamic and musically mesmeric while Florence remains one of the most enchanting and zany performers of the 21st Century, if not ever.

Ought are a lazy music journalist’s wet dream; “they sound like David Byrne had a child with Mark E. Smith and hid it for 30 years in Thurston Moore’s monitor amp”. Add between 3 and 5 more comparisons and recommend that any self-respecting post-punk fan buy their discography immediately. But part of what makes Ought stand out from the mob of artists trying to gain such praise is that they’re more than the sum of their influences. Sure, the vocal delivery on ‘On The Line’ is reminiscent of Smith’s, the lyrics on ‘Beautiful Blue Sky’ sound like something Byrne could have written and the electrical storm of guitars on ‘Men For Miles’ suddenly swallows the stabby instrumentation elsewhere in the same way Moore’s guitar work can, but at no point do they sound like songs by the Fall or Talking Heads or Sonic Youth.

Ought’s debut last year established a distinctive and fully formed sound and, unsurprisingly given that it follows hot on the heels of its predecessor, they’re working with the same pallet on Sun Coming Down. There is still tight interplay between the rhythms and counter melodies of the drums, bass, guitar and organ. This is particularly pleasing in the uncharacteristically pretty ballad ‘Passionate Turn’.

Each element is equally weighted in the mix and there’s no extra instrumentation, giving them a raw, live feel. This is compounded by the jammed out noise sections such as that on the title track.

As on the debut though, the star of the show is Tim Darcy’s vocals; he’s blasé one moment and intense the next, listing dull conversational topics as if they’re sources of inspiration and barking common idioms for seemingly no reason. Their comic appeal is upped from the debut, but not to the point where it comes across contrived; rather, Darcy sounds more confident, as if he isn’t holding back.

I’m often dubious of quick follow ups, but spontaneity suits Ought’s style.

Sun Coming Down is not as well put together as their debut and by track 7 I was begging for variation. However, ‘Beautiful Blue Sky’, ‘Men For Miles’ and ‘Passionate Turn’ are amongst their best work yet. It’s the sound of a band that are totally comfortable within their own skin and are too excited to stay still.

7/10

The Dead Weather - ‘Cop and Go’ from Dodge and Burn Third Man Records The release of this single serves as a sigh of relief to those who are chronically nostalgic about the old Jack White. ‘Cop and Go’ from The Dead Weather’s forthcoming album Dodge and Burn exudes that raw tenacity we so dearly missed in the form of rolling basslines and savage guitar riffs. Mosshart’s vocals are particularly ravenous in the chorus as she snarls “Please, would you give a little back to me?!”. As the song nears an end, a crescendo of howls and a venomous guitar lead serves as a clear indication of the kind of ferocity we can expect on this long-anticipated release.

Floating Points - ‘Silhouettes (I,II &III)’ from Elaenia Pluto Records This three-part epic is punched into existence with a deep horn subsequently followed by a gradual jazzy breakbeat which has become common practice in Mr Shepherd’s music. As the song materialises, cello and piano begin to weave their way enticingly through the musical landscape. There’s a beauty in the way Shepherd is able to still remain true to his sound without becoming too orchestral.

The best example of this is the breakdown wherein a harmonious and quite breathtaking collation of voices and strings ticks over that trademark Floating Points-esque beat. This track is a wonderful demonstration of Shepherd’s eclectic taste and highlights his unique twist on electronic music.

Battles - ‘FF Bada’ from La Di Da Di Warp Records FF Bada opens up in typical Battles fashion. The imposing organ sound that has become somewhat of a trademark of theirs in recent years, bellows over some jittery guitar-play. The New York mathrock trio then plunge their way into a crisp, intricate groove; the highlight of which being John Staniers’ tub-thumping, resonant drums. Regardless of the pleasant interplay however, FF Bada seems to lack personality due to the mechanical nature of them being an instrumental outfit. The loss of frontman Tyondai Braxton in 2010 is a void that still, based on this track, is yet to be filled.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Photo: Youtube user ‘Shrinking Man’

Music

14

ISSUE 02/ 28th SEPTEMBER 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Album Micachu & the Shapes: Good Bad Happy Sad Released 11th Sep via Rough Trade Jacob Bernard-Banton Contributor

6/10

Mica Levi is an idiosyncratic figure in the increasingly grey, retrograde world of indie. Her early mixtapes became, as Wikipedia notes, “sought after on the London club scene” during her stint as a DJ, and she produced the score for Jonathan Glazer’s sci-fi/arthouse flick Under the Skin. Her work with keyboardist Raisa Khan and drummer Marc Pell as Micachu & the Shapes is pop music that’s unique and profoundly strange, stripping songs down to their sparsest elements; pared-down affairs that amount to little more than a few hooks and half a melody.

Even so, the opening twenty seconds of “Unity” might shock listeners familiar with the trio, opening with ear-splitting noise like that found in an industrial factory and gets ever more dissonant and discomforting as it goes on – a bizarre left-turn from an already leftfield artist. ‘Relaxing’ sports a malnourished Mac DeMarcoish vibe, a sketchy tussle of ideas and riffs that stealthily builds without warning with Levi’s gasping vocals adding a dose of suffocating paranoia. There’s more of that elsewhere, where the sense of anxiety is heightened by the haunted production.

At its best, Good Sad Happy Bad is wonderfully confusing, impenetrable and unpredictable. ‘Thinking It’ is ramshackle like a garage band roughened up by sandpaper; as the music fights with the vocals – obscured by echo just enough for them to bleed into the distinctly odd clamour – you struggle to divine what the hell is going on. Oh Baby, the best track here, fuses together early J Dilla with Dean Blunt and Inga Copeland’s Hype Williams project. The drums rattle and thump like pots and pans, foregrounding Levi’s hoarse, forlorn vocals, which are supremely affecting.

Alas, the stream of great tunes is interrupted. There are often flashes of Levi’s brilliant pop genius: the grinding, funky groove of ‘Crushed’ that’s offset by the moaning, uneven vocals awash with reverb. But, at its worst, the album invites you to sneer at people like Levi: classically trained musicians trying to make music that sounds unlearned. Waiting isn’t a song at all, composed entirely of a tinny arpeggiated hook; L.A. Poison lurches unsteadily out of a drunken stupor, sounding like a forgotten, stagnating cassette tape of old hip-hop that’s spent the past twenty miserable years gathering dust. The half-baked ‘Dreaming’, which comes off like a lo-fi King Krule, is an idea in search of a tune.

Sadly, the weaker material here simply dissipates into the ether. The guitars waver queasily in and out of pitch, the drums slacken then suddenly speed up; there appears to be a garbled atmosphere swirling underneath it all as though everything was conducted amid a thick fog of marijuana smoke and under the influence of crippling hangovers.

Of course, there’ll be people who like that sort of thing.

The album has the unfortunate side-effect of making you yearn for the smart pop nous offered on Levi’s earlier albums. The better moments here are enough to remind you of what Micachu & the Shapes are capable of, even if they never quite achieve it with consistency and panache.

Record Reappraisal Roxette: Joyride Released Feb 1991 via EMI Liz Gibson dusts off a 90’s gem and defends an overlooked and often maligned brand of pop Liz Gibson Contributor The early career of pop duo Roxette followed a fairly standard the synthesiser. They amassed a whole orchestral string section to trajectory – the tentative first album, the breakthrough album, the play just a few bars in one song and the sound reflects their effort. “riding high” album – and then they went experimental. A year ago I can see how Joyride has suffered with the passing of time, probI made the case in the Mancunion for why Look Sharp!, their breakably more so than any of their other albums. As mentioned, I think through, should still be listened to today. Now I want to do the same its marketing and image have been the main cause of this. However, for their “riding high” album, Joyride. the music is brilliant and I hope you’ll give it a chance.

In 1990 Pretty Woman came out and with it a reworking of one of Roxette’s oldest tracks: “It Must Have Been Love”. As we know, the film was huge and the song’s success – it was a US Number 1 – meant that the world eagerly awaited their next album. When Joyride arrived, the title track shot to the top end of the charts all over Europe and to Number 1 in the States. Their other singles made a decent showing. They had a world tour.

And yet… I think the album could have been bigger then and it could be remembered better now had they done some things differently. As a Roxette fan one thing that pains me is that they aren’t very good at judging what will make a good single. Several album tracks that were overlooked could have been very successful, such as the rocky “Small Talk” and the haunting “Perfect Day”. Then there’s “Soul Deep”, a truly joyful celebration of soul which they did release back at the very start of their career. A re-release now they were as big as they were could have taken America by storm.

The cover does the album no favours either: brightly coloured and circus-themed, it may as well have “kitsch” stamped across it. Joyride is anything but. Roxette had some cheesy stuff later on when they were clearly pandering to a certain audience (nostalgic eighties fans) but their early albums perch gloriously on the boundary between rock and pop and there is a rawness to them: both members play instruments and there is little left to Photo: Youtube user ‘Andreas Eivik’

The B u z z Feed

(No relation)

• Strike 1: One of three child sex abuse allegations filed against Cliff Richards has reportedly been dropped. Hallelujah?

• Happy Birthday to Everyone: A court judge has ruled that the lyrics to ‘Happy Birthday To You’ are no longer protected by copyright.

• Draking it in: Spotify’s list of top played songs by students reveals 3 Drake songs in the top 5.

• There was a light and it’s just gone out: Morrissey say’s he’s played his last ever UK gig.

• Julian Casabicycle: Strokes frontman has filed a patent for radical new bicycle.

The catch: no pedals.

Photo: Youtube user ‘Various Artists - Topic’

get

INVOLVED

Want to write for us? We are always looking for enthusiastic contributors with a passion for music.

No previous experience is required, although a good grasp of grammar and punctuation is important.

Email us at music@mancunion.com to find out more about joining The Mancunion team.

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Games 15

ISSUE 02 / 26th SEPTEMBER 2016 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Feature

The Best Things in Life are Free(ware) Connor McBride Contributor First of all, a hearty welcome from me to any freshers reading The Mancunion for the first time! I have a few words of wisdom for you to help you nurse the hangover you are currently experiencing from fresher’s week.

Firstly, Gemini Café near Whitworth Halls does a great full english breakfast.

Second, the cheap paracetamol from Lidl works just as well as the fancy stuff.

And third, the word “Free” is your new best friend.

That last point is very important. You can get a lot for free, bottle openers, frying pans, and even decent games.

Here are some great free games that you can play while you are still recovering from freshers’ flu. I have excluded any MMO’s or anything with a large online element, as I can assure you that you do not need another time sink in first year.

Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and the Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist is actually a funny exploration driven comedy game and not just a futile attempt to pad out an article with its title. To explain this game runs the risk of spoiling it, but I will do my best.

Voiced over by Simon Amstell (the one who did Never Mind The Buzzcocks), you explore the lesser seen ‘Behind the scenes’ of video games and stumble through their inner workings when all of the backstage crew have gone on strike. I have probably said too much there alone really. While extremely short at fifteen minutes, it’s perfectly formed.

Continuing in the spirit of games that I should recommend but not really talk about in great detail, Eversion is a cutesy

Money is always a hot topic amongst students, but even without spending a penny there are some great titles out there Photo: Adi Sur@Flickr

platformer that just reeks sickly sweet charm where you have to rescue the flower princess from the evil ghulibas of the north. The obnoxious soundtrack will gnaw at your mind like a migrane. I can assure at no point whatsoever does it take a hard left and become a much more interesting game than what I just described above.

Nitronic Rush is deliberately retro in its stylings (at one point it lists a Sega Dreamcast mouse as an input device), but it presents a novel twist on the racing genre. With its futuristic setting and high speed action, there are lots of high

octane moments to be had. This game is the result of Burnout and Wipeout having a child and then dropping the ‘Out’ surname. It’s fast paced and fun, but do yourself a favour and play it with an Xbox 360 controller. It really benefits from it.

Finally, I would be doing you a disservice if I wrote an article on free games while omitting Cave Story. A brilliant action platformer with a great soundtrack and a touching story, and to think it was made by just one man! It’s not just one of the best free games, it’s one of the best games. There is a paid

version available on steam, but the free version does the job just as well.

These are some of my favourite free games, and I hope you get something out of them as well. That is not to say that these are the only free games worth playing, given time, I could have gone on for days. Just remember free can be fun, and that the student finance loan will not last forever.

For links to all games mentionned in this article please visit the Mancunion website.

Want to meet fellow gamers in Manchester?

Come and visit the University of Manchester Gaming Society!

We host weekly events and have always been a good place to make friends and play some amazing games as a community.

Review

World of Warcraft: Legion Alexander Bamford Contributor Nearing its 12th Birthday, one would expect the game that became a byword for adolescent escapism would have had its day in the sun. Had you been the non-playing associate of someone who did so all those years ago, you might even wish that to have been the case. Yet World of Warcraft is, with the exception of a few hiccups, still very much in the bright light.

30th August saw the release of Blizzard Entertainment’s ‘Legion’, the sixth expansion to this aging titan of the gaming industry. Over the first 24 hours more than 3.3 million copies were sold, and its “launch week player concurrency” (the peak number of concurrent players worldwide during the week proceeding launch) struck its highest point since 2010. It is safe to say that this expansion has already been a roaring commercial success.

To understand why this is so, we must venture into the depths of WoW’s most recent iteration and see how it compares to its priors.

With the release of Legion comes yet another continent, The Broken Isles, to the sprawling world map, with yet another to-do list that’s practically endless. Starting in Azsuna, the SouthWesternmost province I find myself flung into the fight against Legion’s main antagonists, the Burning Legion. My character is recruited to help the Illidari, a ragtag band of demon hunters in the service of a prior villain turned unlikely ally, Illidan. Their instructions vary from

Photo: beketchal @Flickr

‘compelling’ information out of captive demons, murdering attackers by the dozen and assassinating their leaders, which I set to with joyful abandon.

Pausing for breath, I crack out my Dragon-encrusted Fishing Pole and cast out to a nearby stream. Five minutes and a dozen catches later; time comes to cook my newly caught ‘cursed queenfish’ into more practical nutriment to store as a means of ‘buffing’ my character at some later point. Moving back to demonic vendetta, my character is tasked with killing some 4-legged mammalian ‘vile stalkers’. I head over to their den and slay a handful, yet one appears oddly overpowered. The fight continues for a minute before I realize that I am in fact fighting a shape-shifted human character of opposite faction. We have

both been horribly inconveniencing each other’s’ progress against the demon horde. Our fight draws to a close, we apologise to each other using the game’s extensive ‘emote’ system, and carry on our way. Asides such as these give rise to the ‘World’ of Warcraft.

By WoW’s standards, these escapades are par for the course. Legion, however, has taken the formula and breathed into it a new lease of life. It excels in submersing the player in a rich narrative. As a Paladin, my character undergoes a sub-story quest beginning with a choice of which specialization to take. I choose ‘Protection’ (attracting enemies’ attention and get hit a lot), and embark on a quest to attain an artefact weapon of immeasurable power; the shield ‘Truthguard’ and its sister sword ‘Oathseeker’.

Alex Bamford weighs in on the latest WoW expansion

In the chain of adventure that follows, my character winds up (alongside thousands of other players who chose to play paladin) as the head honcho of the Paladin order, the Knights of the Silver Hand. Characters who had constituted the furniture of the WoW universe were picked off a la George R.R Martin in order to lend this transition finesse, and by the end the character emerges as the one (amongst others) hero to save the proverbial day.

On arriving at the Expansion’s new level cap of 110, it becomes clear that Blizzard are set on ensuring that WoW does not become stale for its players. Character progression, be it via improved items and armour, enhanced professions, exploration or any other vector has had new life breathed into it.

Whereas previous expansions had seen a proliferation of abilities and spells, Legion allows a core set of abilities to prevail, allowing a truer sense of player class identity.

In the realm of PvP differences in player gear have been marginalised, making battles in Arenas and Battlegrounds a testing area for coordination and skill rather than a predetermined affair based on gear and stats alone. Professions such as Enchanting and Blacksmithing have been given a wholly new path of progression and are now interspersed with quests that send the character to far flung locales to further their craft.

Perhaps the best addition is that of World Quests. These are refreshed daily and offer luxurious rewards that scale upwards with your progression, giving

the player reason to venture back to the beautifully crafted regions of the Broken Isles that previous iterations of the game have given scant purpose.

Combined with the fact that flying mounts having been locked off for now, Legion feels very much like a return to the immersive qualities that first drew to WoW an army of fans.

For those that have dipped their fingers into MMOs and found no lucre, Legion will have little to offer. For those that have tried and felt that behind the manifold frustrations there might lie a genuinely brilliant game, Legion offers perhaps an opportunity for hours of enjoyment.

Interested in streaming?

The Mancunion will soon be setting up a Twitch channel for the Games Section!

The streams will focus on all types of games and there will be discussions of current topics in gaming.

If you are interested in taking part or have any suggestions please send an email to games@mancunion.com

Games 15

ISSUE 2 / 28th SEPTEMBER 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Feature

Gamescom 2015 from a Square Enix fan Were you interested in Gamescom 2015? Jasmin Tiyer gives her thoughts on one of gaming’s biggest events!

This August I was lucky enough to visit Cologne, Germany, for the annual Gamescom convention with my friends. We arrived at the venue on the Thursday afternoon – day one of the convention – and were immediately consumed by the world around us.

Thousands of people, many of whom were dressed in cosplay, swarmed through the convention centre, entering and exiting the various halls that were packed with experiences.

After picking up a map, we made a plan for the day ahead.

Following the straight path in front of us, we entered our first hall.

Here, the first thing that caught our eyes was the set up for an Oculus Rift virtual reality experience.

The concept itself was quite simple—put on the headset, get onto a bike and start riding; but the actual results were hilarious.

Falling off the bike at least once was guaranteed and had it not been for the staff standing around the bike to catch people, there would have been a lot of cuts and bruises.

It was amusing to see everyone Feature convinced that they were the ones who would not fall, so they would start off slowly, build up a bit of courage and then begin pedalling away; until they had to take a corner and swung themselves off the bike!

Taking the safer option, I decided to adorn the headset and look around.

My eyes fell into a field leading towards high trees, fathered by clear skies and a distant, burning sun. Trippy, right?

We left the virtual reality station pumped with excitement; now we had to decide which set up to go to next. Some of us wanted to visit Konami, a couple others were eager to head straight for Bethesda and Ubisoft; however, my own personal priority was Square Enix.

We decided to split up.

After finding my way to the hall, I stared into the face of what I had been desperate to see: Final Fantasy XV. I had made it just in time to catch the Q&A panel with the development team.

Although most of the questions and answers were lost on me due to the conversations being translated

Photo: SQUARE ENIX CO. LTD.

into German, it was nonetheless a wonderful experience to see everyone around me so passionately engaged with such a beloved series and, after the panel was over, we were all invited to take pictures and receive autographs from the team, as well as try to catch the various goodies thrown into the crowd—I caught a very nice wristband.

My assumption that this station had finished was wrong. We were all then thrown into a frenzy of shock and excitement as the team revealed that they had a surprise for us all—a brand new trailer.

The hundreds of us who stood there fell silent as we stared up into the huge screen that gave us a glimpse into what we were all waiting for. A prequel to the events of the game, showing a young Noctis clinging onto his crying father, who contemplated his son’s fate with grief.

It was a short scene, but it was powerful. For those of us who had played the demo, we were aware of Noctis’ particular relationship with the “stars”, which grant him powers and aid him; however, the trailer suggested that these powers must come at a painful price.

Finally finished there, I wandered around the hall, visiting the other setups. In front of FFXV stood an impressive stage that hosted approximately 40 computer screens, all of which were engaged in a Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward tournament. Having played FFXIV: A Realm Reborn very briefly, I hadn’t developed too much interest in the series because I was quite

disappointed by the initial online attempt of Final Fantasy XI Online, and upon the release of FFXIV, the server and patching issues that took over the game were another put off. However, Heavensward managed to change all of that. As someone who plays MMORPGs on and off, it was refreshing to see a game that lived up to my expectations of what makes a fantastic MMO, had a vast, active population and, of course, was Final Fantasy!

The graphics were beautiful, the gameplay was smooth and the overall atmospheric feel of the game exuded everything that is loved about the Final Fantasy series. The only downside was not being able to play it myself due to queue length; however, I will definitely be purchasing the game.

A few yards to the left of the FFXV setup, Hitman came into view. Here, I was reunited with a few of my friends; however, another lengthy queue crushed their hopes of testing its gameplay.

Although Hitman had not been a priority game for me, I was still eager to check it out. From my very limited and basic understanding, the game has evolved now into a dynamic experience, consisting of “real life” aspects.

In short, what this means is that whatever you do is whatever stays.

Missed a target? Tough luck, they’re gone for good. There are no second chances in Hitman, and I love that!

Perhaps when the game is released I may give it a shot, and who knows, I may become a fan and grow to love it!

Our attention was drawn towards

something much more in line with my tastes—Dragon Quest Heroes. I love RPG games, especially those with a turn-based system reminiscent of Final Fantasy, and Dragon Quest had it all! The art style and graphics were cute and cheery—a chibi anime-style similar to that of MMOs such as Eden Eternal and Grand Fantasia. I instantly fell in love and wasted no time in grabbing the nearest controller and having a go. Out of all the games I had seen, Dragon Quest was immediately at the top of my list of games to buy.

While Dragon Quest Heroes takes a step away from the typical JRPG roots of previous Dragon Quest titles, it is still the type of game that makes you feel happy to be a gamer. For those days when you do not want to be emotionally crippled or mentally scarred by fear, and instead want to just slash up monsters with your friends, Dragon Quest Heroes is there!

That was everything from Square Enix. After leaving Square’s hall, we decided to try out another and eventually settled on a part of the map that was not particularly to my interests, and upon getting there, it was a surreal experience to see WWE superstar Daniel Bryan, on stage, hosting a Q&A session with the crowd, who stood around the set up for WWE 2K16.

Uninterested in this, I decided to wander off until I came across a set up that, again, intrigued my fantasy genre RPG senses—Relics of Gods.

Before I decided to join the queue to have a go, I was a bit sceptical. How good could a mobile platform game be in living up to my expectations?

In short, quite. The concept of the game is similar to the MMO League of Legends, in that you are able to unlock and play with a number of different heroes, each possessing their own abilities, and, once more, the game made use of a turn-based battle system.

While the gameplay was not as smooth as it could have been, for example not responding in time to the actions made, and the interface being confusing at times, it was still fun to play and an interesting experience on a phone (both Android and iOS!).

I’m hopeful about this game,

especially since we players were each given a survey to complete after playing the demo to suggest any improvements that we thought could be made.

Although in terms of games there were many, many more to be seen and played, the ones I have mentioned were my particular favourites. Among some of the bigger names were Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain, Fallout 4, Assassins Creed: Syndicate and Halo 5: Guardians; however, I must admit to not being a fan of any of these series.

The crowds around them, though, were going wild, which I’m sure must mean great things! It was evident that these were the games that stole the show and stood out the most, if not because of themselves then definitely because of the hype that their fans created.

Aside from the games, Merchandise Village and Cosplay Village were a gold mine for fans of every genre and series. Both of these sections were a perfect way to end our twoday tour of Gamescom—meeting many of our beloved characters brought to life, and then buying them!

Even though by the end of it we were exhausted and aching in agony, our feet killing us with each step taken and our minds shutting down from the extreme heatwave that had hit Germany, it was all worth it, and it will be worth it next year and every year after that.

Photo: IO-Interactive, SQUARE ENIX CO. LTD.

Preview

Cuphead Connor McBride Contributor

Hidden among the other “Coming to Xbox One” games, Cuphead is a cooperative run-and-gun shooter, where you play as the titular Cuphead and his friend Mugman. The storyline?

Cuphead and Mugman have lost a game of craps with the devil, and now have to do his bidding for eternity. You take part in a variety of fun and varied boss battles, which constantly throw new obstacles and challenges your way.

The main charm of the game is the art style. It mirrors the style found in old cartoons such as Felix The Cat, old Walt Disney cartoons and Popeye.

It would have been very easy for the developers to animate in a slightly

cartoon-like fashion and be done with it, but they went the whole nine yards.

The attention to detail is brilliant, from the characters’ gentle bouncing motion when idle, to the scratches and marks that run across the screen to imitate an old projector.

It takes the “faux-retro” feel other games go for when they use 8-bit graphics and turns the dial back to 1932.

Gameplay-wise, this game is difficult.

Each character only has 3 hearts and when you lose them, you’re gone, and the fight doesn’t get any easier when you’re down to one person; however, when you reach “game over”, it is easy to get back into the fray.

As hard as it was though, it never

Photo: UoM Gaming Society

Want to meet fellow gamers in Manchester?

Photo: Studio MDHR

stopped being fun for me and my new friend, whom I met in the queue.

We were having a blast right up until we got the polite tap on the shoulder.

The difficulty never became frustrating and it was not the game’s fault when you died, it was never unfair, all the impetus was on you to stop sucking.

Short of the developers completely changing the game before release into a text-based adventure, I am really looking forward to this one.

It is a quirky shooter and is a refreshing break in the land of first person shooters and realistic racers.

Come down to The Grove at Whitworth Park on Wednesday 30th September for the University of Manchester’s console night. We have great games like Halo, Rockband, Super Smash Bros and more. So, if you want to make some new friends or just want to have a beer and play some amazing games, then come on down! /gamingsociety

Fashion & Beauty

16

ISSUE 2 / 28th SEPTEMBER 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Feature

Walk This Way, Fashion This Way

Kathryn Murray Fashion Editor

Print blocking Hippie chic

Want to be ahead of the curve? Kathryn Murray walks you through the hottest trends, from New York’s to London’s Fashion Week and how to make this year’s purchases last from season to season

For those of you who thought that the 1970s trend would slowly fade out, sorry. Flares, flower garlands, suede and bold prints are here to stay.

Luckily, chunky layers also fit in nicely here. You can be a trend-setter months before the spring/summer seasons.

Huge names such as Diane Von Furstenberg, Tommy Hilfiger and Victoria Beckham all went print-blocking bonkers when it came to showcasing their new designs. Luckily, this is a pretty easy trend to go along with.

Layer some bold prints, we dare you.

Since autumn is just around the corner, most of us are thinking about purchasing that all-important fluffy jumper or those handy leather boots. But those higher up the fashion chain are past all of that, and are now focusing on what we will all wear in spring and summer next year.

Talk about forward thinking.

Here is the lowdown of what is to come: Photo: River Island

Crochet I have only just come around to accepting crochet as a fashion choice.

Once associated with kettle covers, crochet has been a major trend in 2015 with knitted swimsuits suddenly gracing the beaches… but not the sea. That wouldn’t work well. Tommy Hilfiger and BCBG Maz Azaria had crochet pieces on their catwalk, so stock up now.

Photo: Miss Selfridge

Photo: River Island

Photo: ASOS

All the fringing

Show off those shoulders

You may have noticed this trend slowly making its way onto the high street. A little trim of fringe on a bag, maybe a beaded, 1920s style dress, even a suede jacket with some fringing on the sleeves. Well, next year, expect the world to go fringing mad. Usually used for added texture, the clothes of the future will be in full swing… literally. Add some fringing into your wardrobe, designers including Christian Siriano and Prabal Gurung have.

Remember those bardot tops you bought a few months ago? Congratulations, you called it! You will be on trend next spring if you keep these bad boys handy. Givenchy, Lacoste and Victoria Beckham all loved this bare shoulder look, with many pieces cut down just enough to expose a bit of collarbone.

Photo: Miss Selfridge Photo: Miss Selfirdge

Photo: Topshop

Photo: River Island

Photo: Topshop

Feature

What To Wear: Autumn The two months following the summer are always the most awkward, fashion wise. It’s known as that ‘inbetween’ weather, where it’s too chilly to leave the house in short sleeves, but too humid to layer on the thick coat and scarf. What are we supposed to wear?

After searching through my favourite online stores (and adding far too many items to my ‘save for later’ list), I have compiled two perfect Autumn outfits: one for the chicas, and one for the fashion-conscious chicos.

For the female outfit, I have put a strong focus on the accessories. The colours that accompany autumn are definitely my favourite part. Rustic oranges, faded greens, and deep reds—the ultimate colour trio to keep you warm from the dropping temperature. With that in mind, I have chosen a fairly basic t-shirt and jean combination, allowing the rest of the outfit to bring it to life. First off is a stripy t-shirt

from Zara (who doesn’t love a striped tee?). For me, the star embellishment really makes it stand out, providing it with that extra tier of detail. The tee has been matched with a mid-wash pair of skinny jeans from ASOS, to keep the look nice and simple. The first burst of colour that I have thrown into the mix is the gorgeous bright yellow raincoat from Joules. Layered on top of such a humble outfit, the coat would definitely be an eye-catcher. Adding another pop of colour, I have included a thin oxblood scarf from ASOS, which would be an optional feature depending on weather. If worn, it would give your outfit that additional autumnal vibe, really screaming, “I am ready for my Pumpkin Spiced Latté now!” To finish the outfit off, I decided on a classic pair of white hitop Converse, allowing you to show off any summer tan still remaining. Just try to avoid the thousands of puddles on campus….

Fashion & Beauty 17

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Trends

Celebrity

Have You Got The Fashion Factor?

Kathryn Murray Fashion Editor Autumn is swiftly approaching, and that can mean only one thingX-Factor is back on TV. Congratulations if you have managed to kick the habit, I promise myself that I won’t want every year and then manage to find myself switching over to ITV. The singing isn’t always awe inspiring; however the fashion choices are usually entertaining enough.

With glam gal Cheryl Fernandez Versini on the judges panel, it is almost certain a few interesting pieces will be worn. Obviously there will be the odd beaded ball gown, perhaps a thigh-high split to add a bit of risk to our Saturday night, and maybe even a tailored suit! Our girl Cheryl usually goes for a strong look, and is usually successful. It will be interesting to see how newbie Rita Ora will measure up in the fashion stakes. With being known for some controversial choices (you know, wearing a suit jacket but no bra or top underneath on morning TV certainly got tongues wagging), we can expect to be intrigued by what she wears every weekend. After seeing a few questionable choices in the early stages of this year’s series, I can’t say I am a fan of her miss mash of colours, or clothes…because surely a jacket has two sleeves? But I am sure Miss Ora will be styled exactly how she wants to be, and with her out-of-the-box thinking, the result can only be captivating.

Where Nick and Simon are concerned, I am afraid things will be a bit more boring. Simon will wear a V-neck white shirt, maybe with a blazer, maybe without. But that is about the only thing that needs to be guessed about his fashion choices. Nick Grimshaw on the other hand is also a fresher at this judging business, leaving us slightly more in the dark about what lurks in his wardrobe. Only time will tell if he goes for a more adventurous style than Mr Cowell and obviously Louis Walsh.

Although that can’t be hard to do.

With the judges being the main fashionistas of the show, it is sometimes hard to forget that the contestants are there to be noticed too.

I have to admit, I do enjoy the “make-overs” that the final 12 acts go through, even if it is a trim and a quick dab of lipstick Any acts that

are in the group category can usually be expected to go with a colour scheme which is equally embarrassing and cute.

Then of course there is what is going on with other people on-stage!

It must be an unwritten rule that a female dancer must strut around any young male contestants, so expect flipping of short skirts and prancing around in heels. The dancers are often randomly dressed, usually in similar colours. Maybe with weird accessories like gold masks, or even a leg warmer or two. I really have no idea what goes on with the dancer’s outfits if I am honest. But surely there must be some logical explanation?

So there you have it. Expect big hair, bold make-up, embellishment, sky high heels, and probably some misplaced shoulder pads! It is basically the same very year. But the generic nature is what we have to love.

Photo: ASOS

Photos: Wikimedia Commons

Autumn leaves Nothing champions an autumn beauty edit quite like nail colours. As soon as the temperature drops, it’s away with the pastel blues and sunkissed corals and it’s time to rummage for those leafy shades again.

Here are some of our favourites, from left to right:

‘Fifty shades of greige’ A fabulously mediocre new term coined on the Marc Jacobs catwalks, ‘greige’ is seemingly the new black when it comes to a smoky eye. Don’t reach for moody, dark tones around your peepers and instead try a wash of something more neutral. Burberry went for ‘natural, earthy tones’ and Prada for warmth in their models’ eye looks.

Photo: Office Photo: ASOS

Photo: ASOS

Photo: Zara

Photo: Jules

Photo: River Island

Moving onto the male outfit, I have chosen to go coat-less, opting for a jumper instead. You know– sweater weather is better weather, and all that.

Alike the female outfit, I have tried to keep it as simple and suave as possible, interweaving beautiful autumnal colours throughout. To begin with, a plain white tee from ASOS. We can’t really get any simpler than that, can we? Combined with a pair of black skinnies, you will look like the epitome of ease. Sprinkling a dash of autumn ambience, I have chosen a crew neck jumper in a sophisticat-

Photo: Daniel Wellington

ed olive green to layer on top. As a colour contrast, these oxblood Converse would look super stylish as well. Lastly, the Daniel Wellington watch would compliment the entire outfit, especially with a redtinge to the strap. If you’re looking for autumn flair, this outfit would tick all the boxes.

70s glow In line with the injection of seventies style into Autumn/Winter fashion this season, the makeup looks also pertain to the retro and flamboyant decade. Many brands were channelling seventies glamour icons such as the likes of Farrah Fawcett and Jerry Hall; radiant, bronzed skin that’s more natural than the caked-on, contoured looks we’re seeing today. Balmain’s ‘glowing skin and Gucci’s ‘no-makeup makeup’ were fine examples of the seventies effortless style, with Max Mara also keeping it ‘fresh but sexy’. Who said bronzer had to be limited for summer time?

Whether it’s a suede bag or a leather coat, patchwork jazzes up any fashion piece. In particular, I am lusting after this vintage a line skirt from Milk It. With a mishmash of autumnal neutrals, this skirt screams 70s.

Paired with a fringed shirt, like featured on the ASOS website, you will be acing autumn’s top trend.

Folk Blouses Although slightly more summer appropriate, you could definitely rock this look well into the coming season. With a lace up top, and flaring bell sleeves, this ASOS blouse is the perfect pick. Paired with your favourite jeans, and layered with a thick scarf, you can be both warm and stylish.

Pinafores This is definitely my favourite fashion trend from SS15, and I cannot wait to wear it through to the end of the year. These beauties are literally all over the high street, and are popping up in cord as well as denim. Styling the ultimate autumn colours, they can be found in shades ranging from deep mustard, to raging burgundy (like this one from Topshop).

Fringing As mentioned, fringing is a key pawn in the 70s fashion game. Adding a bit of texture to your everyday outfits will make your autumn that bit more exciting. My top tip is to invest in a heavily fringed bag, preferably in an autumnal colour. The one that I have picked out is a beautiful oxblood over the shoulder bag from Zara.

Suedette A Line Skirts

(L-R) No 7 Hot To Trot

Photo: Zara

Photo: Missguided

Patchwork

Photo: ASOS

Fruitful lips Bold lip colours are popular every season and this year is no exception. In a move away from the trend of deep, vampy lips in the colder months, fashion houses made up their modules in warmer, fruity tones: Marc Jacobs chose ‘velvety, eggplant’ colour lips, with Carolina Herrara and Emmanuel Ungano opting for berry; raspberry and blackberry.

Photo: Topshop

Flared jeans, bell sleeves, and frills galore–the 70s have made a theatrical comeback in 2015, and it looks like the trend is here to stay. With Jackie Burkhart as my fashion icon (shout out to That’s 70s Show fans), I couldn’t be happier that the style savvy trend is making an autumnal transition. Here are a few items that you might want to consider adding to your shopping basket…

Millie Kershaw Beauty Editor

Photo: Topman

Whilst some of your fave summer trends are disappearing from the high street, Kassi Allcock gives you the 411 on how the 70s trend will continue through to autumn.

Photo: Zara

Fresh Off The Catwalk: Season Make-Up Trends Summer has well and truly blown itself out and we are left resigned to Manchester drizzle from hereon in. But fear not! Not everything need be grey and bleak. You may be casting aside your shimmery cheek colours and coral-hued lip-glosses until another sunny day, but Autumn/Winter Photo: River Islandcatwalk trends are equally vibrant.

Kassi Allcock Head Fashion Editor

Photo: ASOS

Beauty

Kassi Allcock Head Fashion Editor

Stuck in the Seventies

Kiko Olive Drab

Photo: The Mancunion

Another a line skirt has successfully landed on this hit list! Released in a variety of denim shades throughout the summer, autumn is opting for a suede slant on the style. Sporting a beautiful olive green, this pick from Missguided would look fab worn with a pair of tights and some little black boots.

Maybelline Midnight Red Estée Lauder Blue Blood

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Film

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TV Binge

Feature

Narcos

Conflict in the French Film Industry

Narcos is the essential drug lord drama to watch in the post-Breaking Bad TV age

Photo: Netflix

Barney Weston Contributor Netflix is the primary way to engage in any TV binge, especially when what you’re watching is a Netflix Original TV Series. Despite having seen a trailer for Narcos go viral on YouTube, I hadn’t come across anyone declaring this show a must-watch. Having now waded halfway through Season One, I still don’t understand why I haven’t found anyone with whom I can share my passion for this incredible show.

Narcos is a take on Pablo Escobar and the efforts of the Colombian authorities and US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agents to stop him.

A notorious Colombian drug lord, regarded as the wealthiest criminal in history with an estimated known worth of $30,000,000,000, “the King of Cocaine” is often regarded as the reason why life in Colombia was, and is, so bloody.

The series’ violence reflects this brilliantly. Each episode is filled with dramatic, tension-filled stand offs where friends will be talking menially, before pulling guns on each other; DEA agents are continuously raiding cocaine labs; drive-bys are frequent (leaving you nervous every time a conversation takes place in a car); and assassination attempts come out of nowhere, leaving the series with a kill-count that puts Game of Thrones to shame.

The truth behind each of these scenes of violence also makes the series stand out. Archival footage is mixed into the plot to emphasise this and it is refreshing to see an actual photo of Pablo Escobar instead of the man who is portraying him (something that is unfortunately not done in almost any other form of entertainment based on a true story nowadays). This footage, as well as the use of the main DEA agent’s narration, played by Boyd Holbrook, are both extremely well-woven into the series threads, taking time to inform viewers of the specific details, instead of throwing them away.

The characters, too, are well integrated into the series. Drug lord José Rodriguez Gacha, played by Luis Guzmán, and another DEA agent, Javier Peña, played by Pedro Pascal, are both to be lauded. Wagner Moura as Pablo Escobar, however, is fantastic. It is difficult not to like this man, and the show does well to test whether you’re comfortable with this or not.

All of this fits into a different narrative in regards to the drugs scene of the 1970s and 1980s. One far away from the cocaine-filled streets of Miami and instead closer to the cocaine labs of Colombia. Here, macho men drug lords reminiscent of Al Pacino’s Scarface, as well as some of the characters from Breaking Bad, rule both the day and the night, and they always speak in their native language, leaving the series littered with extremely satisfying scenes full of Spanish (don’t worry, there are subtitles).

Luckily, viewers are slowly catching on to this fantastic series and the fact that Season Two has already been confirmed for next year assures me that Netflix is committed to producing great content.

All ten episodes of Narcos are available to stream on Netflix.

The release date for the show’s second season is yet to be revealed.

Photo: Netflix

The French film industry finds itself in a constant struggle between crowd-pleasing public films and more daring independent films Dylan Kerlann Contributor In the recent years following 2008, the French State has especially been criticized for its wrong allocation of resources. This raises questions when it comes to the cultural segment of the economy, with private movies tending to be more profitable than publicly funded ones. France is known to heavily fund its culture through a subsidy system derived from the implementing of the Exception Culturelle policies in 1958.

These subsidies are created from taxes on cinema tickets and media companies in general. These subsidies given by the CNC (Centre National du Cinéma) may be complemented by local subsidies. But does heavy public spending automatically yield better results in terms of profits as movie directors can focus more on art? Is the system in need of change?

The French publicly-funded movie industry, though flawed, has procured— through its connections with the French theatres and acting schools—many of France’s biggest actors, such as Lea Seydoux (trained in the Parisian school, Les enfants terribles, and revealed through her role in La Belle Persone, a public movie).

This system, however, combined with a tradition of centralisation, causes the actors to be limited in terms of skills—French actors rarely shine abroad as they are primarily trained for plays, not movies—and to limit their background to a certain demographic: Parisian from a upper middle-class background or higher, in general.

The public segment of this industry has also been known, secondly, to be more daring, as it does not have profitability in mind as its first concern. But on the other hand, we must take into account that profitability in the movie industry is synonymous with high spectator turnover. This fact must often need to be counterbalanced by critical success.

In France, however, traditional interconnection of the members of the cultural sector of the economy (press, television, plays, art), make some journalists write favourable reviews for certain movies that may not deserve them. For instance, Stéphane Brizé’s Cannes award-winning La loi du marché (The Measure of a Man), a social drama featuring Vincent Lindon, though critically praised, only had 835,979 entries at the box office, compared to Avengers: Age of Ultron which made 4,240,197 entries.

This demonstrates the tendency of French publicly-funded movies to not focus much on profitability, with the CNC often never paid back the loans given as subsidies (often due to the failure of the movie to yield profits), according to the French Inspection des Finances, thus making the French public movie industry very indebted.

The French private counterparts of the movie industry have the main difference to rely mainly on private companies to write, direct and distribute their movies. Examples of such companies are StudioCanal or Europacorp. These companies, however, do tend to ask and obtain subsidies, creating controversy. This recurring issue in the industry underlines one of the major problems with publicly funded movies— the lack of transparency (unacceptable, as it is the people’s money that is used) often displayed when choosing the projects to support.

This especially transpired with the overall failure of the French cinema industry, one of the biggest in terms of quantity in the world (third behind India and the United States).

Indeed, less than 50,000 spectators viewed 60 per cent of the movies produced in 2010 in France, according to the French Cour des Comptes, which noted these issues several times in the state-sponsored movie business.

Such issues, less prevalent in privatelyrun cinema, have spawned scandal, such the Maraval (Wild Bunch) affaire, revealing in 2013 that actors were being overpaid

Photo: Scarlett Production

for performances in movies far below expectations in terms of acting quality and sales, thus artificially elevating the budget.

Movies in France also suffer from lack of originality in their scenario (prevalence of buddy comedies, social and family dramas).

This handicap especially plagues publiclyfunded movies, already crippled by a deficient funding system some no longer want to support, even though it is mainly focusing on the artistic aspect of cinema, but so are some of the private movie companies.

Yet, as it is with its movies, the industry might have to rethink itself, private and public alike.

Classic Review

Rashomon

Akira Kurosawa’s influential masterpiece is essential viewing for all lovers of world cinema

James Moules Head Film Editor

The cinematic legend that is Akira Kurosawa exploded onto the world stage in 1950, and Rashomon is the film responsible for this. Even people who haven’t seen it know the premise—one murder in the woods, and four contradictory accounts as to how it happened. No answers or hints are given to suggest which version of the event is true—we, the audience, are merely left to speculate. It is simple stuff on paper. But when a genius like Kurosawa is behind the camera, even the simplest of plots becomes a fascinating and complex study of the truth and, more specifically, how our characters will distort it to their advantage.

The course of events that everybody can agree upon are thus: a samurai (Masayuki Mori) and his wife (Machiko Kyō) are travelling through the woods, when they come across a bandit named Tajōmaru (Toshiro Mifune). He leads them into a grove in the woods, claiming that a stockpile of weapons is there. A conflict ensues in the grove, and the samurai ends up dead.

What happened in the grove? A fair question, but we will never know the answer. The three characters involved each offer contradicting testimonies (including a chilling sequence in which the samurai’s story is told through a medium).

Each testimony conveniently presents its respective narrator in the most favorable

Photo: Daiei Film

light; but also giving testimony is a woodcutter (Takashi Shimura) who claims he saw the whole thing happen. We might assume that this story would be the most objective, but we soon realize that even his account has problems.

Kurosawanevertoldtheactorswhichversion of events was true. To do so would have undermined the entire point of the film. It is a film that shows us, with tragic beauty, what happens when a person’s obsession with their own agenda obstructs the search for the truth.

For this reason, many will find Rashomon a frustrating film on a first viewing. With most narrative fiction, it is generally expected that all loose-ends in a plot will be tied up.

Kurosawa doesn’t just break this rule, he makes a point of breaking it. If what they say is true, that humans are infinitely curious

beings who revel in discovering new truths, then Rashomon is a reminder of what happens when the ego gets in the way. We cannot know the truth of what happened to the samurai, and we cannot assume that any one of the four accounts is true. Many people will try – and have tried – to argue otherwise in an attempt to find satisfaction with the film. They are missing the point.

Like other great humanist dramas, Rashomon presents us with a vision of humanity at its most pathetic, but also gives us a flicker of hope as we depart. It is incontrovertibly one of the most influential films ever made, and it remains among the most beautiful and powerful portrayals of humanity’s relationship with the truth in any artistic medium.

Film 19

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Top 5

Review

Everest

Nadia Cheung Subeditor

Baltasar Kormákur’s latest film is featured as a 3D disaster thriller, based upon the real life events of the 1996 Everest tragedy that took 12 lives—which became known as one of the deadliest years on the mountain. The plot is interesting— all or most characters have one goal to achieve, to reach the summit—which proves to be a deathly challenge.

Between the 10th and 11th of May, two commissioning camps on Mount Everest, led by the expedition leaders, New Zealander Rob Hall (Jason Clarke) and American Scott Fisher (Jake Gyllenhaal),

Potential What Everest lacks in emotional heft, it makes up for with visual splendour Future British Stars

give paying clients the opportunity to climb the summit of Mount Everest, a very dangerous expedition. Josh Brolin plays one of the film’s survivors, Beck Weathers, a Texan Doctor with depression that he cures by climbing mountains.

The majority of this film is set on Earth’s highest mountain, Mount Everest, where two camps aim to reach the summit. This is where the majority of the action happens, and 3D technology makes very good use of this, making you feel as if you were part of the mountaineering experience without being exposed to the danger of it.

Being based on a real life tragedy, I would not necessarily say I felt an

enormous amount of sympathy for the characters. That is not to say I did not care about them; there were, of course, moments where I had rooted for some of them, in particular the character of Rob Hall. In fact, the character of Rob, alongside his pregnant wife, Jan Arnold, played by Keira Knightley, were the only two characters that I really felt the most sympathy for.

I felt as though a lot of the characters in the film became predictable, which made the plot quite predictable too, because of the actions and decisions made.

In fact, I felt a slight disconnect between some of the characters, particularly the mountaineers, who, it seemed, were much too concerned about their own

wishes and problems, unaware of the realistic situation and unwilling to accept or face that fact, which to me was annoying. But of course, if you are paying $65,000 to get to the summit of Mount Everest, you would by any means, want to get your money’s worth—which in a way, I could empathise with.

To summarise, I think the highlight of Everest as a cinematic experience is certainly the cinematography and vivid visuals you get through the use of 3D, which is definitely its strongest point, although the plot relies on its setting, which, in my opinion, saves the film from being extremely mediocre. A film that markets itself mostly on the idea of a 3D feature taking over such a monstrous setting like Mount Everest and translating it on screen will by all means have to focus very much on cinematography above all else to be successful—which is a very good thing because it was such a pleasure to see in 3D the details of a large snowy mountain.

But because of the sheer focus on the visuals, I felt that in terms of the film’s overall narrative and the fact this film deals with a real-life disaster that had actually happened, it loses the sympathy you would expect to have. If, however, you’re looking for a film that gives you stunning visuals and an almost visceral experience without causing conflict over how you should feel, then this is a film well recommended.

We count down the British actors aged 25 or under who have the potential to be huge stars in the future

Photo: HBO

5) Jessica Henwick Having had small-but-significant roles in the third season of Silk and fifth season of Game of Thrones, Jessica is rumoured to have a part in Star Wars: The Force Awakens—it would be hard for anyone to remain obscure after that. She’s yet to have a leading role in anything big, but you can expect that to change soon.

4) Will Poulter Best known so far as the insufferable Eustace Scrubb in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and for his role in the relatively-underseen Maze Runner films, he’s now set for a part in Alejandro Iñárritu’s potential awards contender The Revenant. He’s another one to bet on leading a big franchise before long.

3) Kaya Scodelario Photo: Universal Pictures

HOME Pick of the Week

Mistress America

Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig’s latest film, Mistress America, is quirky enough to work in its own way, but it may lack a wider appeal

Photo: Fox Searchlight Pictures

Georgia Welch Contributor Mistress America is the second project of writer, director and frequent Wes Anderson collaborator, Noah Baumbach, working with eccentric actress and writer, Greta Gerwig. If their 2012 collaborative debut, the inspiring and wickedly entertaining Frances Ha, was anything to go by, then Mistress America was set to be a real triumph.

While it failed to challenge the effortless charm and whimsical feel of its predecessor, Baumbach and Gerwig demonstrated multiple comedic moments, and a kind of connection with one another as co-writers, which can, at times, be likened to that of Diane Keaton and Woody Allen. This comparison has been made several times before, and with good reason. The use of New York City

as a character in itself in Mistress America mirrors that of Allen’s Manhattan, a film that possesses similar themes of isolation, narcissism and existentialism.

Mistress America follows the experiences of stepsisters-to-be: Lonely college undergraduate Tracy and the glamorous and seemingly self-assured Brooke, played compellingly by Lola Kirke and Greta Gerwig respectively, who exhibit truly believable on-screen chemistry. The screenplay was competent. It was occasionally philosophical. But most of all, it was relatable, from both Tracy’s and Brooke’s perspectives.

Despite this, many attempts at being profound often felt overwritten, leaving a feeling of awkwardness rather than poignancy. In addition, the naturalistic style in which the dialogue is written and delivered is definitely an area of potential disagreement between viewers, because I feel this aspect will either strongly appeal to or

offend the viewer’s tastes.

One particularly admirable element of Mistress America, however, is its two character arcs, which expose radically different sides to our protagonists than those to which we are initially introduced: “You are much more of an asshole than you initially appear.”

The effective and carefully-thought-out characterisation of both Tracy and Brooke ensures a great deal of thematic depth in what could have easily been a film that merely overcompensates for its lack of a payoff. The pacing of the film accelerated considerably in the second half, which lent itself well to the dynamic, almost frenetic feel of both the city and its complex characters.

Mistress America should definitely be praised for its valiant efforts at humour, having created some hilarious moments. The addition of Orange Is The New Black’s Michael Chernus to the cast elevated this even further.

The film manages to create simultaneously narcissistic and self-loathing characters, a technique that is perhaps capable of resonating with anybody who writes, paints or produces art.

If not for the script trying too hard at times to capture the same magnetic charm of Frances Ha, this film would likely prove just as successful as the former. In spite of this, Mistress America does indeed capture the difficulties of developing original ideas, struggling with criticism and mediocrity, and finding your place in the world, and it should be praised for doing so. Lovers of all things quaint and quirky will undoubtedly appreciate this film, but for a wider audience it may just miss the mark.

She’s had large roles in Skins and (again) in the Maze Runner films, but the film that will most likely bring her larger attention will be the upcoming Pirates of the Caribbean sequel Dead Men Tell No Tales. I don’t have high hopes for the film itself, but I fully expect Kaya Scodelario to be a name of some note afterwards.

Photo: Universal Pictures

2) Jack O’Connell The winner of this year’s BAFTA Rising Star Award, he had a killer year in 2014 with leading roles in Starred Up, ‘71 and Unbroken. These successes have demonstrated both his talent and his popularity—it’s hard to bet against him being a really big deal within the next few years.

1) John Boyega and Daisy Ridley The the leads in the new Star Wars. Is there any way of betting against these two being huge names in the future with that on their respective records? When December 18th comes, you can count of them becoming British stars overnight.

James Moules Head Film Editor

Books

20

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Editor’s Picks

Top 5

Upcoming writing Top 5: Banned Books competitions Where’s Wally? by Martin Hanford (1987)

A quick glance at upcoming writing competitions, including cash prizes for the financially-challenged student

This seemingly harmless children’s picture book was among the top 100 banned books in the 1980s. The current edition no longer has the offensive content but in the original publication there was a picture of a woman with one exposed breast. It was an extremely small detail but censors found it while going through the book with a magnifying glass. In the current edition, her bikini is left on. #freethenipple?

Amnesty International Poetry Competition Closing Date: 31st of October 2015

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (1958)

Writers must be Sri Lankan to enter this competition, either living in the country or having emigrated within the last 20 years.

There have been enforced disappearances for decades in Sri Lanka, hence the title of the competition: ‘Silenced Shadows’ in order to raise awareness. Entries can only be submitted in English, Tamil, or Sinhala, but can be submitted from anywhere in the world. Entrants must be aged 14 or over when they submit to the competition.

There is no cash prize for this writing competition but all the winning poems will be published on the Amnesty website. A book of those winning poems, which will contain all three languages, will also be published

by Amnesty International in 2016 and be sent to all their writers. The Panel of Judges will consist of a variety of acclaimed writers and poets of whom a list is available on the Amnesty website.

SLAMbassadors UK 2015 Closing Date: 30th of September 2015 SLAMbassadors UK is the national youth slam and the upper age limit is 18 so this is one for you freshers. Slam is the competitive art of spoken word performed before a buzzing audience. Young adults from all over the UK are invited to enter by filming themselves performing a poem or rap piece and uploading it to their SlamCam Youtube channel.

The theme is identity which you may interpret how you like: cultural identity, national identity, who you are, what you see and how it’s shaped you, human identity, identity crises etc.

Six acts will be chosen from across the UK to take part in an intensive, two-day masterclass with the spoken word artist Joelle Taylor. The best portfolio of three to five poems will win a £10,000 prize. Open to all writers aged 16-18.

Entry Fee: £0

Set roughly in the nineteenth to early twentieth century, this book is a triumph in postcolonial literature. One of the most critically-acclaimed pieces of African literature, Achebe uses nine fictional Nigerian villages and Okonkwo, the protagonist, leader, and wrestling champion, to recall the consequences of British colonialism and Christian missionaries on his Igbo community. It was banned in Malaysia due to its criticism of colonialism.

Photo: pinkponk @Flickr

Manchester Fiction Prize Closing Date: 25th of September 2015 Established by Carol Anne Duffy and run by Manchester Metropolitan University, this is a prize for those who have a cool few pounds to spare in the name of a massive cash prize: £10,000 for the best short story of up to 2,500 words! Open internationally to new and established writers aged 16 and over.

Entry Fee: £17.50 National Poetry Competition 2015 Closing Date: 31st of October 2015 This is The Poetry Society’s annual competition for a previously unpublished single poem. It will be judged by Sarah Howe, Esther Morgan, and David Wheatley.

Prizes: 1st Prize: £5000, 2nd Prize: £2000, 3rd Prize: £1000, and seven commendations of £200. The top three winning poems will also be published in the Poetry Society’s leading international journal, The Poetry Review, as well as having the possibility of reading at some of the UK’s most prestigious literature festivals.

Entry Fee: £6.50 for your first poem, and £3.50 per poem thereafter.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) by Lewis Carroll

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (1955) Lolita tells the story of a young man from Paris, Humbert Humbert, who is infatuated with young girls, whom he often calls ‘nymphets’ throughout the novel. He moves to a small American town and becomes obsessed with the daughter of Charlotte Haze and marries her in order to get closer to her daughter, who is 12. He eventually runs away from the town with Charlotte’s daughter in order to pursue a ‘relationship’. The Home Office swiftly banned Lolita and seized all copies of it on the grounds that it was ‘pornography’, prompted by the editor of the Sunday Express hailing it ‘the filthiest book I have ever read’. France banned it the year after but, strangely, Lolita was published without any problem in the US.

This is that classic, well-loved yet mildly perturbing children’s book which found itself banned in Human, China at the beginning of 1931 on the grounds that it humanised animals in a way that made them equal to human beings. The censor believed that it was an insult to humans to have animals acting like them and described the concept of children reading the book as ‘disastrous’.

Farenheit 451 (1953) by Ray Bradbury This is true, glorious irony. This book is about banning books. It centres around a fireman whose job it is to burn books, although Bradbury denies that the book is about censorship. It was banned under McCarthyism in the United States due to its perceived accusations of censorship.

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270mm x 168mm non nus landscape Freshers JW.indd 1

19/08/2015 12:31:07

CAMPAIGNERS’ FESTIVAL:

SKILLS FOR CHANGE LAUNCH PARTY TUESDAY 29 SEPTEMBER, 6PM – 10PM CLUB ACADEMY, STUDENTS’ UNION Meet new people and make a difference at University. Over 20 different campaign groups will be showcasing their work, and a panel of inspirational high-profile campaigners will be sharing their achievements. Enjoy free food, spoken-word performances and live music – and find out more about what Skills for Change training we’ve got planned for the rest of the year.

Food & Drink

22

ISSUE 3 / 5th OCTOBER 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Review

EAT ME: Mud Crab Bar & Cafe

Eva Katz Lifestyle Editor

“A trendy venue with some quirky artwork, Mud Crab resonates with Manchester’s chic hipster heaven vibe, refreshingly outside of the Northern Quarter” Although our stomachs were satisfied from our mains, we felt it wrong to deny Mud Crab the opportunity to show us its sweet side. We followed up with a Bourbon Sticky Toffee Pudding which we asked to be accompanied with ice cream instead of clotted cream, though this request was sadly forgotten.

Our waitress was friendly but unfortunately not as attentive as we would have liked. Having worked in chain restaurants before, my standards and expectations for service are high but reasonable, and on this occasion they were not met. Considering that we were one of only two occupied tables in the restaurant, the service we received was rushed, and there was no checking back to ask if we wanted anything else or to see how our meals were. We felt that the restaurant was taking its desire to be relaxed and easygoing rather too literally, which really let down what was otherwise a good visit.

All in all, the food was tasty and Mud Crab is a pretty cool place to grab a bite to eat. Definitely somewhere to take visiting parents or friends if you don’t want to break the bank or head into the city centre. To top it off, they have some generous student discounts: 40 per cent off on Mondays, 20 per cent off at lunchtime, and 10 per cent off at dinner time.

So, would I recommend Mud Crab? The answer is: Not for any special occasions. For a quick bite to eat in a fuss-free environment where you’ll be left to your own thoughts or conversation it could be ideal; but this restaurant, unfortunately, is not the place to sample Manchester’s capability of providing friendly Northern service at its best.

Photos: The Mancunion

Following numerous raving reports from friends, I was keen to try Mud Crab for myself. But before I begin my review, I would like to credit my wonderful friend Flo for waiting for me for 45 minutes following some minor miscommunication due to lack of phones. Thanks Flo, you’re a great pal.

Located in Didsbury, the restaurant is conveniently a stone’s throw from the nearest bus stop (take the 42/142

into East Didsbury) and therefore hard to miss.

A trendy venue with some quirky artwork, Mud Crab resonates with Manchester’s chic hipster heaven vibe, refreshingly outside of the Northern Quarter. The menu has a gastro-pub feel to it and features pizza, salads and grilled meats with some interesting taste combinations.

I, suffering with post-night antics beer belly, chose the Mud Crab Caesar Salad, whilst my friend chose the

Chorizo and Balsamic Red Onion Pizza.

The Caesar Salad was so delectable that it most certainly made me regret agreeing to halve it with my lunch partner. The chicken had great taste from being grilled whilst maintaining its succulent texture, and the anchovies and dressing all complimented one another perfectly. The croutons, which were made using brioche, made it stand out from the crowd.

Mud Crab Bar & Restaurant 747 Wilmslow Rd, Manchester M20 6RN 0161 445 2055 http://www.mudcrabindustries.co.uk/dids-

Recipe

Thai Prawn Curry Jose Harrington Recipe Columinst As freshers flu starts to kick in, you’re probably in need of a warming and healthy meal, and especially for this, we have a fragrant Thai curry. If you’re in a hurry, use jarred Thai curry paste rather than make Bag of frozen prawns, defrosted the homemade one. Personally, I prefer the home300g white rice made paste as it has a great depth of flavour and is 2 spring onions Packet of baby sweetcorn much healthier. This paste can also keep for a cou2 peppers ple of months in the fridge, so could be made in bulk Handful of spinach and used again. Prawns can be swapped for chicken 50g green beans or omitted completely if catering for vegetarians.

400ml coconut milk Method Sesame seeds (optional) Start by blending together the ground cumin, 1 stick of lemongrass ground coriander, chillies, ginger, garlic, lemongrass 1 lime stalks, freshly chopped coriander, zest and juice of 1 lemon lime, two tablespoons of oil until a thick paste has Fresh coriander 1.5 teaspoons of ground coriander formed. ½ teaspoon of ground cumin, Before heating the Wok, ensure that the prawns 3 teaspoons minced ginger are defrosted to remove the water. Then add a 3 cloves garlic splash of oil to your Wok and fry the prawns, baby 2 mild chillies corn, pepper strips and green beans for a couple of Oil minutes until starting to brown. Add the paste, mix Soy sauce together, and add a can of coconut milk, adding a little water if it looks too dry. Bring to boil and add two teaspoons of soy sauce.

Serves: 3-4 Just before serving, mix in the spinach. Serve with rice, chopped spring onions, sesame seeds and a Time: 20 minutes wedge of lemon.

Shopping List

Photos: The Mancunion

Photo: The Mancunion

Food & Drink 23

ISSUE 2 / 28th SEPTEMBER 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Recipe

Holy Guacamole!

Contributor Lucy Brenner avocados the use of this delicious ingredient in her Mexican-inspired dip Photo: threelayercake @Flickr From heart benefits to skin-loving nutrients, avocados are the ultimate superfood. Take full of advantage of Mother Nature’s garden and incorporate avocado oil into your diet or, as I like to call it, nature’s best cosmetic remedy. This simple guacamole recipe is a fantastic way to add avocados to your diet and is great served as a side, dip or an additional layer in sandwiches.

Highly food-pornographic materials on display here.

½ bunch fresh coriander 1 fresh red chilli 4 spring onions 2 ripe avocados 5 ripe cherry tomatoes 2 limes Salt & pepper

Method 1. Blend or chop the coriander, chilli and trimmed spring onions until fairly fine 2. Squash out the avocado flesh (discarding the skin and stones) along with the tomatoes 3. Squeeze in the juice from 1 ½ limes and blend all together 4. Season to taste.

WIN!

INDY MAN BEER CON and include a special edition branded Craft Master One beer tasting glass to take home.

For a chance to win two FREE tickets to Thursday’s session (5.30pm - 11.30pm) with The Mancunion please answer this simple question:

Where is the Indy Man Beer Con trade session held? a) The Student’s Union b) Victoria Baths c) 256 d) Kebab King Please send your responses to food@mancunion.com for your chance to win free entry and a craft beer chalice (worth at least £8). More details can be found at w w w. i n dy m a n b e e rco n . co.uk/ www.facebook.com/IndyManBeerCon

FEDERAL CAFE

CALL THE FEDS:

(Serves 4)

Photo: IMBC

Each week, we’ll be bringing you a taste of what’s on offer in the various locations around university, to filter out the rubbish, leave you full of beans, and hopefully have a latte fun.

Ellie Gibbs Food Editor

Ingredients

8th – 11th October: Sponsored

by Brewdog, Cloudwater, Vertical Brands, Northern Monk, Hawkshead, Camden, Beavertown and more, this annual beer festival yet again brings some great new tastes to the buds of Manchester. A series of collaboration beers have been brewed specially for the event, flavours ranging from gooseberry to fig, quince to seaweed.

This year guests can even take their favourite beers home from WeCan’s production line churning out personalised tinnies.

Friday evening and Sunday will see entertainment in terms of talks, tastings and discussions with leading brewers such as Pierre Tilquin from the renowned Belgian company Gueuzerie Tilquin.

Food will be available from a culinary crew of Diamond Dogs, Honest Crust, Great North Pie, Bundobust and Fish, plus Almost Famous (known for their filthy burgers) and plenty more independent food vendors.

Along with DJs playing throughout the weekend, this year’s IMBC will also feature a music and entertainment programme curated by Manchester label Aficionado, who will be roping in the likes of DBH, Ruf Dug, Menage a Trois and the newly formed Dream Lovers plus Aficionado DJs to soundtrack the shindig. There’s still more to be announced so keep an eye on the website for updates! Tickets start at £8

THE COFFEE COLUMN

Photo: The Mancunion

“I’m not grumpy, I’ve got chocolate in my teeth!”

Food Editor Ellie Gibbs gives an incentive to chat to the person serving your coffee ...Was the Russian barista’s response to my question “having a good day?”

Prior to this exchange, I’d been feeling a little flat, and as I observed her firmly horizontal expression, mouth matching my mood, I thought to myself how we could all do with a little cheering up—and why not be the one to initiate the process?

What followed was an emotive account of how as a child in Russia, sweet things were rare and coveted.

The only option was a teaspoon of cocoa mixed with sugar, serving as the most wonderful treat to those deprived taste buds. “We didn’t have chocolate like we have now; here, there, everywhere in abundance”— so what sufficed was this little tryst of chocolate and sweetener, taken

on the sly from the cupboard. The packet would go down and down, her mother eventually noticing the reduction in amount.

“Why does it still taste so good?” she asked. “I guess it takes me back to those childhood days, the rarity.”

“When you’re deprived of something, the treat of it makes it more special, I think.

“Same with everything: Clothes, cars, everything.”

Having one thing that you love dearly, no matter if there are worse or better options available, is important to treat with the highest value.

“Enjoy your coffee,” she said, “Please!” and smiled, no chocolate in sight.

In our first meeting as editors, Helena and I took the opportunity to get straight down to business by doing a review.

Even before knowing that we were here on business, the staff were eager and friendly, showing us to a seat and explaining that orders are taken at the bar. On my introduction as F&D editor, manager Claudio sat down and shook hands with us and gave a little explanation of the concept behind the cafe. Federal is Australian/NZ founded and takes inspiration from many places to build the ideal spot on the corner of the Northern Quarter.

The changing artworks leave the walls fresh and updated, and the food is delicious with much scope for vegetarians. I had the halloumi and thyme shrooms on sourdough with roasted hazelnuts, and will be returning to sample the almost erotic sounding croissant french toast with summer berries, almonds, whipped vanilla mascarpone & salted caramel. I could write an entire piece on the food and the atmosphere in Federal, but sticking to the main purpose of this column, we’ll feature the coffee and leave you assured that both the aforementioned are outstanding.

The cafe uses Ozone coffee and serves everything from a short to a long black, and piccolo to cappuccino. All the standard cups are available with the usual extras of soy milk, decaf, and syrup shots. It also must be said that their coffee art is beautiful, which makes your drink feel extra special. Hand brewed seasonal single origin coffee is also available in the forms of pourover and aeropress, which takes a little longer but is worth the wait for real coffee lovers.

For those who are a fan of colder drinks but want the caffeine hit, Federal bottles their own cold brew, which is a unique way of serving coffee that delivers its subtle earthy notes without the bitter aftertaste. The iced variety is also available in vanilla, caramel and chai lattes, as well as americano and espresso on the rocks. Affogato is also a wonderfully indulgent choice for those wanting a sweet that perks them up; this is a traditional Italian dessert made by pouring hot espresso over quality vanilla ice cream. If you get that tired feeling after eating a huge meal, affogato is a good option to boost your energy and delight your tastebuds.

There are also loose leaf teas, matcha green tea lattes, spiced chai and the continental Hot Milo - an Australian malted chocolate drink.

Various still and fizzy cold drinks are refrigerated and there is also a Federal juice made up of kale, avocado, ginger, banana, lime and omega seeds for the power protein dieters out there, or for those who just love a good smoothie.

Finally, Fed opens its doors til late on weekends, serving alcohol in the form of vanilla infused espresso martinis and coffee rum old fashioneds. So take advantage of the USP Friday night brinner, the breakfast/dinner compound that’s perfect for late-risers or early afterworkers who missed out on breakfast. Enjoy the atmosphere, enjoy the uniqueness, enjoy the coffee.

TAKE-AWAY ✓ FOOD ✓ CAKE ✓ OTHER DRINKS ✓ Where to find? Just opposite the Arndale’s fish market entrance.

No bookings so get there in good time!

AND IF YOU TRY THE FRENCH TOAST PLEASE EMAIL ME PERSONALLY. 9 Nicholas Croft, Manchester, M4 1EY 0161 425 0974

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

Theatre 25

ISSUE 2 / 28th SEPTEMBER 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Feature

Feature

How you can get involved behind the scenes in Manchester’s theatres How to get involved and gain invaluable experience in your chosen theatre field within some of the most popular theatres in Manchester Many of you reading this article might want to work within the theatre industry one day. Some of you might be wondering how to go about getting vital work experience or how to approach working in a particular field. With an abundance of university societies advertising handson experience, here’s how you can get involved inside Manchester’s theatres.

Contact Theatre is leaps and bounds ahead of its neighbouring theatres in regard to enticing younger audiences and participants. Encouraging minority groups to get involved is something the company particularly champion.

This week Contact Theatre is holding two taster music workshops specifically aimed at women aged 13-25. The workshops, running on the 28th and 29th, take place in Contact’s recording studio and will focus on participant confidence, music production techniques, and will provide an introduction to skills such as producing and recording.

Regardless of ability and experience, these sessions are open to everyone in the age bracket, and they are completely cost-free. Just make sure you book.

Contact also offers ‘Young Identity’ workshops. Young Identity is Manchester’s young writers’ collective, which started off in Moss Side in 2006. This community-based writing project specifically for young people performs locally, nationally, and internationally.

The first project is ‘Young Identity at 6’, which is a weekly creative writing workshop run on a Tuesday, seeking to aid

new, budding writers in the development of their craft and performance skills. It is encouraged that you attend these as an introduction to the Young Identity Project.

The Young Identity workshops operated at Contact gravitate towards poetry and spoken word workshops, which are suitable for 13-25 year olds.

These workshops are free.

Whether your interests lie in art, film or theatre, HOME offers a ‘Young Creatives’ scheme, open to anyone aged 15-25. Every year the group puts on a series of workshops and projects – which are again completely free – as well as commissioning countless opportunities that are led by industry professionals.

With a multitude of events and opportunities lying in exhibitions, cinema, theatre and festivals, HOME could be giving you the perfect leg up into your creative career.

Finally, the Royal Exchange Theatre offers a variety of ways to get involved. The theatre advertises opportunities to get behind-the-scenes experience, to be a part of community projects, as well as professional development and training opportunities. The theatre openly encourage queries in regard to work experience, training and volunteering opportunities.

‘Discover Young People’ have plenty to offer. For example, ‘Young Company’ is the resident company for anyone aged 14-21. Each year, 130 people join theatre staff in the hope of developing their skills in their chosen area. Similar to this is the ‘Truth About Youth’, which is the Royal Exchange Theatre’s programme made

in partnership with the CoOperative Foundation, which is designed to challenge the negative connotations attached to people aged 1421. If you’d prefer experience behind the curtain, the theatre also offers a programme specifically-designed to appeal to wannabe theatre makers. The ‘Young Leaders’ programme is a training and development scheme for aspiring producers and event managers aged 16-25. Each year, the theatre recruits 12 young leaders to work with the theatre themselves, giving you, if you are selected, guaranteed sort-after experience.

Concerning awards, the Royal Exchange’s ‘Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting’ is one of the most popular, with the competition being inundated with over 7000 entries.

This biennial playwriting competition is open to anyone who has written a play and who lives in the UK. The competition was inspired by bilateral ambitions: ‘to encourage and uncover new writing, and to build a national platform for exciting new talent.’

Since it began in 2005, the prize has grown into a nationallyrecognised competition. With 15 prize winners and £160,000 of prize money, it is clear why it has become the largest playwriting competition in the UK. The anonymous nature of the competition means that submissions are judged solely on their content. Winning plays have gone on to be staged not only at the Royal Exchange but at the Lyric Hammersmith and Soho Theatre.

Famous faces from in and around Manchester Maxine Peake The first of our ‘Famous Faces’ was born in Bolton. Maxine Peake’s career has seen her appear on both stage and screen, attracting a large following. She most recently won an award for her portrayal of Hamlet, which is set to be shown in cinemas across the country and was actually performed in Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre.

Peake is most recognisable for her roles in Victoria Wood’s Dinnerladies, the BBC’s Martha Costello, and Veronica in the Manchester-based series Shameless. Her most recent and highly acclaimed role of The Skriker was seen at Manchester’s International Festival. She is rumoured to be starring as Titania in a TV adaption of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’.

John Cooper-Clarke John Cooper-Clarke is widely considered one of the North West’s most unknown gems.

Born in Salford, Cooper-Clarke is a performance poet who came to fame during the punk rock era of the 1970s, when he became known as the infamous ‘punk poet’. Clarke has performed on the same bill as the likes of the Sex Pistols, Joy Division, and the Buzzcocks.

He is best known for the rapidfire way in which he delivers his poems, which are thoroughly laced with wit, sarcasm and

politics. He has influenced the likes of the Arctic Monkeys and Kate Nash and still performs to this day. His work ‘I Wanna Be Yours’ has recently been put to music as a track on the new Arctic Monkeys album.

You can see him at the Bridgewater Hall on the 12th of October as a special guest on the Squeeze Tour.

Danny Boyle The Radcliffe-born film and theatre director’s first job was as an usher at the Bolton Octagon.

Since then, he has become the infamous film-maker behind such successes as Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours, and every student’s favourite, Trainspotting. Boyle has said that he is influenced by where he came from, stating that “there is a great sense of perspective you get coming from an industrial area.”

The mind behind London 2012’s Olympic opening ceremony is also now a patron of Manchester’s HOME. It would seem he loves this place so much that he even managed to reference his north Manchester hometown in his Oscar acceptance speech in 2009.

Benedict Cumberbatch It would be very hard to find someone on this planet who hasn’t heard of Benedict Cumberbatch, but a few of

Survey launched to discover the truth behind diverisity and the arts The Guardian and arts organisation Create have launched a survey to investigate the art sector’s relationship with social mobility

picks thoroughout What’s on this week? Athefewweek in Manchester

Tuesday ‘So Here We Are’ – Royal Exchange Theatre 2PM ‘The Crucible’ – Royal Exchange Theatre 2PM Joe Lycett – Lowry Theatre 8PM

Photo: garryknight @Flickr

Wednesday ‘Rambert’ – Lowry Theatre 7:30PM ‘So Here We Are’ – Royal Exchange Theatre 7PM ‘The Crucible’ – Royal Exchange Theatre 7PM Fred MacAulay – Lowry Theatre 8PM Thursday ‘Rambert’ – Lowry Theatre 7:30PM Stand Up Thursday – The Comedy Store 8PM ‘No Such Thing as a Fish with the QI Elves’ – Lowry Theatre 8PM

‘Donald Robertson is not a Stand-Up Comedian’ – Lowry Theatre 8PM ‘La Melancolie Des Dragons’ – HOME 7:30PM Friday ‘Rambert’ – Lowry Theatre 7:30PM ‘The Crucible’ – Royal Exchange Theatre 7PM ‘Britannia waves the rules tour’ – Royal Exchange Theatre 7:30PM

John Cooper Clarke Photo: ATP Festival @Flickr

Feature

Editors’ Picks

Monday The Face of Britain: Simon Schama – Lowry Theatre 8PM Yotam Ottolenghi & Ramael Scully – Royal Exchange Theatre 7:30PM Lip Syncin’ Battle – The Comedy Store 7:30PM Joe Lycett – Lowry Theatre 8PM

you might not be aware that he actually studied here at the University of Manchester.

His variety of roles cover film, television, theatre, and radio, and his performances have earned him a total of 29 wins out of an impressive 70 nominations.

His best-known roles vary from his heartbreaking portrayal of our very own Alan Turing, to arguably his most popular role as the modern day Sherlock Holmes. You can currently find him raking in further acclaim as Hamlet at the Barbican until the 31st October.

Photo: lizjones112 @Flickr

A new survey published by the Guardian on the 21st of September has set out to discover whether or not having a career in arts and culture is increasingly only for the privileged. The survey, developed by the arts organisation Create, is in partnership with the London School of Economics, University of Sheffield, University of London and Goldsmiths. Art professionals are questioned on their income, career aspirations, and background, with the findings hoping to reveal who truly occupies Britain’s cultural sector.

Prominent figures such as Christopher Eccleston and Julie Walters have stated that a

career in culture is increasingly difficult to achieve for those who aren’t from a privileged background.

Factors to consider include the high cost of living in cultural hot spots such as London, as well as the recent spikes in university fees.

A mere 18% of Britain’s cultural workforce come from parents with a working class background.

Dave O’Brien of Goldsmiths, who is leading the research stated that, “A whole host of studies have demonstrated clear evidence of inequalities in cultural jobs based on people’s gender, ethnicity and class.

However, there has yet to be a comprehensive picture from across different occupations.

There’s a need for much more

comprehensive data about working life in the cultural and creative industries.”

Former Shadow Culture Secretary Chris Bryant questioned the issue.

Broadcaster Stuart Maconie, has complained that today’s artistic expression is quickly becoming that of a “rich fellow’s diversion, a pleasant recreation for those who can afford it, rather than the cultural imperative it should be.” Actor Julie Walters spoke out against the diminishing opportunities for those from affluent areas.

Vikki Heywood of the Warwick Commission, whilst announcing the recent Enriching Britain report on diversity, said that, “There are barriers and inequalities in Britain today that prevent [creativity] from being a universal human right. This is bad for business and bad for society.”

Professionals within the arts of any type are encouraged to take the survey, which is available to complete until the 18th of October. The results are expected to be announced in November ahead of the ten day event Panic! in London.

John C

26

Lifestyle

ISSUE 2 / 28th SEPTEMBER 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Where’s your head at?

Gemma Sowerby Subeditor & Lifestyle Contributor

Whether you’re a new student or an old hat, readjusting to university life after a summer of travelling, home cooking, and lie-ins can be a challenge. Not just on your body clock, or your friendships, but your state of mind too—don’t underestimate the effect that a lifestyle change this big can cause. For some, it’s perfect: Back into the old routine, with the motivation to get out of bed every morning.

To those of you angelic enough to relish in the thought of 7am starts, good luck to you. I’m sure you’re smugly drinking smoothies at the front row of a lecture theatre, in your trainers ready for the run home. For others, it may not be that simple.

For many, home is where the heart is, and your first semester can generate some unsettling feelings. While only a small percentage of students will suffer from a mental health problem during their time at university, feeling low or anxious is increasingly common. A 2014 YouGov survey of 2,300 British adults revealed that “students and people not in employment are more likely to feel anxious some of the time or all of the time,” and that “a third of students said they cope by ‘hiding themselves away from the world’”.

We all know that a problem shared is a problem halved, and it’s important not to let these feelings build up over time to the point where they become something

more troublesome. Staying in touch with your emotions and your mindset is just as important as handing in that first piece of coursework on time and eating your five-a-day. (News just in: Just looking at the frozen spinach in Sainsbury’s once a week counts!) The charity Mind suggests building on this idea, and introducing a five-a-day of wellbeing, focusing on staying active and engaged, to help you through the tough times.

The lightning speed pace of university life is enough to knock the most surefooted student off their Nike clad feet.

Expectations are high—socially, academically, and emotionally—and maintaining a world-shatteringly awesome social life, achieving a first and running 10km a day is only going to end in tears (and severe sleep deprivation). Pick some reasonable goals for your first semester, and fully commit yourself to achieving them.

Third year English and French student Lauren says: “For me, particularly during Freshers, it was important to really know what I did and didn’t want to do.

There’s more pressure at uni than you might expect, and though you might not know exactly who you are yet, it is the worst time to start following a crowd. Be yourself!”

You don’t have to be, do, or act like anyone else. Ever. If the going gets tough, consider all the things that make you you, and bring them to the forefront of your personality; we’re not all professional actors, and as glam as your

Photo: Hannah Brierley @Flickr

Instagram might be, if watching Adam Sandler movies on Netflix is your number one hobby, you should get it out there. This will lift so many worries and thoughts, such as “Am I cool girl enough?” or “Am I demonstrating the perfect balance between lads’ lad and sensitive boyf material?”

Third year PPE student Ben says: “Don’t be afraid to try new things, and force yourself out of your comfort zone.

But be aware that everyone is in the same boat, and even for the most confident and outgoing people it takes time to find your niche.” (Beware, though, that Adam Sandler movies really are terrible, and you should probably rethink your so-called hobby…)

By far the most widely discussed cause

Cash or No Cash?

Evangeline Katz Head Lifestyle Editor A student job can either be a lifeboat in the storm that is university life, keeping your bank balance afloat above £0, or it can be the anchor that drags your attention and time from the whole reason you’re here–to study. The big question is: can you achieve the balance between student employment and everything else that a university student has to juggle?

With work comes sacrifice, that is, unless you have some awesome magical unicorn job which fills you with eternal joy and slots snugly into your life in the clouds. It’s simply a question of what you’re the least attached to: your social life, your

studies, your sleep, or keeping out of your overdraft. Chances are you’ll to have to miss out on a few parties or hours in the library in order to earn some extra dollar.

As you make your way through the years of university, your priorities should hopefully change. Time management is an essential life skill which, if you haven’t already mastered, university will teach you. However, to some this does not come naturally. If you are unfortunate enough to be one of these people, a job alongside your studies is probably not the best idea.

Another dilemma is finding the right job for you and your capabilities. Ideally, you want something that will fit in around you, however we live in the real

Photo: Hannah Brierley @Flickr

world so achieving this (particularly as a student) is unlikely.

Saying this, Manchester, being the bustling city that it is, holds some casual work opportunities that most students can only dream of.

Check out the job opportunities at the O2 Arena or Manchester United if you think you may need a cash injection every once in a while. On the other hand, try to find an opportunity that will compliment your studies whether that be some holiday work experience or some freelance work for a relevant company or brand. Keep track of new skills that you learn to really boost your CV. Unfortunately, not all of us have access to the same level of financial support and therefore for some, getting a job is mandatory to fund the expenses of student life. The kind of job you choose could impact your studies in a different way. If you’re a bit of a night owl, guilty of watching television into the early hours of the morning and deliberately choosing lectures that don’t start until after midday, a bar or restaurant job could be for you.

Those of you who prefer the light of day on the other hand, may prefer a role in retail, but be prepared to sacrifice those weekend house parties in favour of an early start in the Arndale Centre! But don’t be fooled into believing that student jobs are limited to the retail or hospitality industry, you can do anything you like—as long as it fits around your lectures!

of worry and sadness at university is, of course, actual university. Did you forget that you have to study? If the note-taking is getting too much, the essay deadlines are really stacking up, or if you just really have no idea what your biomechanics lecturer is going on about, do not panic: You’re not alone.

University is no easy feat, hence why loads of people don’t make it there in the first place. You did, and you should be proud. Don’t be one of those 40 per cent scrapers if it’s not going to make you happy—you probably could be spending at least a couple of days a month doing all-nighters, but this is for you to determine, and no one else. Equally, if you’re regularly in Ali G at 4am, it might be time to learn where the line is between a

Got flu?

healthy grade and a healthy mind. Once you’ve given it all you’ve got, there’s nothing more you can do.

If you are feeling like you need some help, The University of Manchester Counselling Service says: “Talking to a counsellor can be great, but there is also a lot you can do for yourself. Try the Counselling Service’s new online selfhelp programme Silvercloud, and use upcoming Wellbeing Week as an opportunity to try out new ways to look after your head at university.”

Head to Mind for more information on their Five Ways to Wellbeing plan, and visit www.manchester.ac.uk/counselling for more information on the Counselling Service, to make an appointment, and for online guides and self-help tools.

Now you’ve got it, here’s how to get rid of it

Aj Mal Lifestyle Contributor A student job can either be a lifeboat in the storm that is university life, keeping your bank balance afloat above £0, or it can be the anchor that drags your attention and time from the whole reason you’re here–to study. The big question is: can you achieve the balance between student employment and everything else that a university student has to juggle?

With work comes sacrifice, that is, unless you have some awesome magical unicorn job which fills you with eternal joy and slots snugly into your life in the clouds. It’s simply a question of what you’re the least attached to: your social life, your studies, your sleep, or keeping out of your overdraft. Chances are you’ll to have to miss out on a few parties or hours in the library in order to earn some extra dollar.

As you make your way through the years of university, your priorities should hopefully change.

Time management is an essential life skill which, if you haven’t already mastered, university will teach you. However, to some this does not come naturally. If you are unfortunate enough to be one of these people, a job alongside your studies is probably not the best idea.

Another dilemma is finding the right job for you and your capabilities. Ideally, you want something that will fit in around you, however we live in the real world so achieving this (particularly as

Photo: hills_alive @Flickr

a student) is unlikely. Saying this, Manchester, being the bustling city that it is, holds some casual work opportunities that most students can only dream of.

Check out the job opportunities at the O2 Arena or Manchester United if you think you may need a cash injection every once in a while. On the other hand, try to find an opportunity that will compliment your studies whether that be some holiday work experience or some freelance work for a relevant company or brand.

Keep track of new skills that you learn to really boost your CV. Unfortunately, not all of us have access to the same level of financial support and therefore for some, getting a job is mandatory to fund the expenses of student life. The kind of job you choose could impact your studies in a dif-

ferent way. If you’re a bit of a night owl, guilty of watching television into the early hours of the morning and deliberately choosing lectures that don’t start until after midday, a bar or restaurant job could be for you.

Those of you who prefer the light of day on the other hand, may prefer a role in retail, but be prepared to sacrifice those weekend house parties in favour of an early start in the Arndale Centre!

But don’t be fooled into believing that student jobs are limited to the retail or hospitality industry, you can do anything you like–as long as it fits around your lectures!

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Kick the Habit with Stoptober Aj Mal Lifestyle Contributor Lingering smells, brown teeth and fingers, and less money in your pocket. There have never been more reasons and more ways to give up smoking. As well as the obvious benefits to anyone standing nearby, giving up could reduce the risk of heart disease, gum disease and cancer.

Whilst smoking has been banned from bars and clubs, this has lead to some rather appealing outdoor smoking spaces and pub gardens. However, there is no need to avoid these as they can be a lovely place for an alfresco drink or meal on the odd sunny Manchester day–it does happen!

The fantastic Stoptober campaign offers help and advice in stopping smoking. This year’s campaign features a variety of

well known comedians, including Al Murray, Shappi Korsandi, and Manchester University Medical School graduate, Lee Nelson (Simon Brodkin).

As well as television adverts, there will be live comedy performances, roadshows and a website full of tips on how to kick the habit. Advice includes ways to make giving up easier, including nicotine patches. Taking up a new hobby is also recommended as a way to keep your hands and mind occupied, with suggestions including waving at friends or making heavy metal hand signs!

If you and a few of your friends wanted to get involved, evidence has proven that ‘social quitting’ can dramatically improve your chances of successfully stopping for good. In fact, you’re 36% more likely to quit if your friend does with you. On the flip side,

the research also shows that you are 61% more likely to smoke if your boyfriend, girlfriend, or best friend does, showing the powerful effect that your peers have on your own smoking behaviour.

Over a quarter of a million people across the country signed up to Stoptober last year with more than half making it to 28 days.

This year, it is expected the campaign will welcome the millionth sign up. By stopping smoking for 28 days you are 5 times more likely to stop for good.

So check out the campaign for help to quit, and a lot of laughs at the same time, and let’s make this a successful and smoke free Stoptober!

Overheard anything

...on the bus? ...in Sainsbury’s? ...in lectures?

Let us know!

lifestyle@mancunion.com

In Partnership with the Students’ Union

NO MONEY TO

GET HOME? The Students’ Union has an exclusive partnership with Street Cars which means you can get home, even if you don’t have any money!

Even if you don’t need the SafeTaxi scheme, you still get 10% student discount off your fare.

StreetCars are the Union’s approved supplier

For more information on how to use the Safe Taxi Scheme visit manchesterstudentsunion.com/safetaxi or pick up a business card from the Union helpdesk.

Profile: Ivy Church

Providing struggling students with a friendly face Alex Daniel Contributor Halls can be tricky, nights out can be daunting and the new workload can overwhelm even the most committed fresher by the end of week 3. In short, occasionally one just yearns for a friendly face; this is what Ivy Church can provide for students in need.

Based in Didsbury, this Christian faith group have been unremittingly standing outside Owens Park every evening during Freshers’ Week, and will continue to offer care and support (for those so inclined) for as long as it is required.

Their mission towards students is simple. They seek to provide refuge for those who are finding that the start-of-term whirl of beer pong, freshers’ excitement and Fifth ecstasy more difficult than expected.

They hope that those who are struggling with the manic intensity of weekly seminar reading, early morning lectures and fast-approaching coursework deadlines can approach them for advice.

It is important to remember too that for most freshers, this is the first prolonged stretch of time that they have spent away from home. This only compounds the issue when it becomes difficult to cope with

your new life.

Some turn to alcohol to deal with these problems, while some go into their shell and find themselves feeling alone. Some even turn to drugs. Ivy Church is there to help with any problem, big or small.

Ivy Church maintains that the most important thing you can ever learn is: “how much God the Father loves you, because Jesus Christ has done everything necessary for you to live an amazing and powerful life, now and forever.”

You don’t need to shell out nine grand a year for that piece of education either. Indeed, if you’re a Christian looking for a new community, they recommend that you approach them as they are a “going” church. On their website, they state: “We want to see Jesus’ love reach the last, the least and the lost both in the UK and to the ends of the earth.”

Whether you’re a Christian or you’re just looking for a new community, they’ll welcome you with open arms. They’re also missionaries: They are willing to spread their message beyond the confines of those already committed to Jesus. If you need advice on faith or a new direction in life, it’s as simple as talking to those friendly people at Ivy, who have been stationed outside your new home every evening this week.

If you’re struggling in your first few weeks at the University of Manchester, or have encountered new problems at the beginning of Second or even Third year and beyond, go and have a word. They’ll listen to what you’ve got to say, and you never know where it might take you…

Photo: Ivy Church

Overheard University of Manchester The funniest things you’ve been saying around campus this week “But how would they know there’s no semen in the Ali G sleeping pods? I wouldn’t want to lie in semen.”

-Overheard in Ali G

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?

“This carpet is the carpet I’d give my Sims when I was going to kill them.”

-Overheard in Samuel Alexander

“Russell Brand would definitely let you do what you wanted with him.”

-Overheard in Owens Park

Download the booking app or call:

0161 228 7878

“That would be the title of your autobiography – Lights Off, Clothes Off, Turned Off.” -Overheard in Withington Sainsbury’s

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Tuesday 29th September / 11am - 5pm / Club Academy Discover what challenges you could be taking part in this year...

Climb the tallest free standing mountain in the world. Trek to the lost Incan city of Machu Picchu. Cycle London to Paris or run the Budapest Marathon.

Come and sign up to your once in a lifetime experience or find out more.

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SPORT

/TheMancunion @Mancunion_Sport

Campus Sport: a focus on History’s Football and Netball Teams

Will Kelly Sport Editor History FC

Will Kelly speaks to Dan Bunter It promises to be a very exciting year ahead for History FC, one of the University of Manchester’s oldest campus football league teams. Having suffered two successive relegations, History FC have stabilised over the last two seasons and will certainly be aiming for promotion this season from Division 2.

It took time for the team to gel last season, resulting in a few early losses but a strong secondhalf of the season led to victories against the 2nd and 3rd placed teams in the second round of fixtures, as well as a memorable 3-3 draw against league winners the Islamic Society, featuring two last-minute free-kicks from this year’s captain Dan Bunter.

As captain, Dan Bunter, who is a final year Politics and Modern History student, is very optimistic for the team’s chances this year, and having dislocated his ankle at the end of last season, is particularly keen to get back playing for History FC, whom he joined in his Fresher’s year. History FC also welcomes back former captain Lewis Ryder, who skippered the side in the 2013-14 season and is back in Manchester studying a History MA. The ISSL campus league has 5 divisions of approximately 10 teams from a variety of subject and halls teams. It provides a good level of competitive football in a friendly environment. It

certainly ensures a great balance between competitive football and enjoying playing the beautiful game. Alongside league fixtures, which take place on Wednesday afternoons, there are cup and plate competitions taking place on Saturday mornings. Therefore there is plenty of football available across the academic year.

History FC have a strong, although small, returning squad from last year and are looking for new players to make the side into a title-winning team. Players from all subjects are welcome to trial, they are being held on Wednesday 30th September from 4:30-6pm at the Armitage Centre Astro Turf pitches, please bring £2 to cover costs.

Getting involved in the campus football league is a no-brainer for any football lover at the University of Manchester. History FC have been a regular fixture in the ISSL and are looking forward to a hard-fought, enjoyable and hopefully successful season ahead.

On the Move Photo: thearcticblues @Wikimedia Commons

History Netball

Will Kelly speaks to Laura Sullivan As a team it is important for us to keep the atmosphere relaxed and enjoyable. Our training sessions are very relaxed but we do work on our netball skills and match techniques, which we then transfer into a game. We train once a week on Tuesday evenings. We have decided that we won’t be holding any trials to join the team this year because we believe that this discourages people, which is the last thing that we want to do!

Matches are on Wednesday evenings, everyone gets rotated in and they are always entertaining and enjoyable. Last year the team organised a couple of socials outside of netball and the History society, in order to get to know one another better. This year we hope to improve as a team as well as welcome some new faces. We will be working on our shooting and defensive skills.

Another aspect I would like to work on is increasing and improving our versatility. This will help the team to understand how positions work together to reach the goal. It will also be helpful

if switching position is required. We are hoping to organise a few socials once the semester has started in order to get to know one another better and to introduce the new members. We are looking forward to starting the season and welcoming any new players, as well as hopefully winning some matches.

This week on

Harry Newton looks at what sports stars are tweeting and who’s making sense

Harry Newton Sport Editor

@SamBurgess8 What an experience at the WC opener last night V Fiji.

Great way to kick off the tournament. Thanks to all the English fans. It was electric In a big week for Rugby Union, with the opening of the 2015 World Cup right here in England, Sam Burges–the name on many people’s lips–expressed his delight at England’s opening game win against Fiji! Burges points out something the country is all too aware of - the home crowd this year can really make a difference to the team, and who is to say that England cannot go

@LewisHamilton Teamwork makes the dream work. #coolrunnings out and win the whole thing?

Current Sports Personality of the Year Lewis Hamilton reminded us all that he is not just a fantastic driver – but a fantastic chooser of films! Citing from one of the greatest films known to man, Hamilton commented on his team’s performance in the Singapore F1. He has recently come out to say “I never had a loss of trust or confidence in this team,” despite the poor show.

@andros_townsend @FootballManager do you wanna tell her or shall I?

@Mancunion_Sport

@Hazelosullivan1

Follow us! Tweet us your sport opinions, and maybe you’ll find yourself here next week!

Andros Townsend took to the internet to reveal his girlfriend’s astonishing error! Townsend tweeted a picture of his EA Sports alter ego being fined on Fifa Manager and then added another photo of his girlfriend thinking it was real life, telling him off on WhatsApp. We’ve all had slow days but come on!

Savage Haircut Photo: TuborgLight @Wickimedia Commons

@RobbieSavage8: No .. Silva and aguero yes RT @mickeytuggs90: @ RobbieSavage8 Would you pay money to watch De Bruyne Robbie ?

And, taking the crown of plonker of the week is football pundit Robbie Savage! Despite Savage acknowledging the brilliance of David Silva and Sergio Agüero, Savage decides that the Bundesliga Player of the Year Kevin de Bruyne is not good enough for the pundit to splash the cash and watch him play. Reports suggest that Robbie Savage is still having a long hard look at himself in the mirror.

The Mancunion SPORT meet every Monday afternoon at 5PM on the first floor of the Students’ Union. If you want to write for us, come and join us!

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Walking in a Winter World Cup Land Harry Newton discusses the problems with a winter World Cup in Qatar

Harry Newton Sport Editor We all remember our stand-out World Cup! Mine was in Germany 2006. The Italian triumphs, the Portuguese penalties and Zinedine Zidane’s fantastic attempt to launch himself headfirst into World Cup folk law—it had it all. But just imagine this, you’re now a youngster looking forward to your stand out World Cup, and 2022 is going to be your year… in Qatar.

Qatar became the only Middle Eastern and the only Muslim country to win the right to host a World Cup, making history and opening up a window of opportunity to really showcase the Middle East in one of the biggest sporting events the world has ever seen. However, Qatar are not doing this in the slightest.

Despite officially being the richest country in the world per capita, Qatar are paying their workers around $50 per week to work ridiculous hours in the blistering heat day in and day out.

A recent study by ABC News had found information about the living conditions for many of these workers, where 300 workers are sleeping in 20 tiny flats. Images found show that the men are living in filthy apartments without proper cooking equipment and are sleeping on thin mattresses on a dirty floor. Locals have described the apartments as normal from the outside, but this may be

just a coverup to hide these terrible living conditions.

It is not just sleeping conditions that are horrendous for the workers as The Daily Mail predict that 4000 workers will die before even a ball is kicked, because of trying to complete the $260 billion infrastructure faster! 1200 have already died, however BBC News predict that this number is much smaller than the actual amount of deaths. These figures account for the deaths of Indian and Nepali migrant workers in the construction, however these workers only make up 60% of the workforce.

Compare this to the single person who died in the building of the 2012 London Olympics, and we see that Qatar definitely are not showcasing to the world that they are changing their attitude towards human rights and looking after their people. The richest country in the world does not even have a proper sewage system in order and are arresting any reporter that is taking an keen on finding out more controversy with the Qatar World Cup campaign.

As if all of these factors are not enough to showcase that Qatar are incapable of holding a World Cup, this week it has finally been announced that the 2022 World Cup will take place over the winter, from the 21st of November to the 18th of December. Of course, this is a much better idea than holding the World Cup in summer, as it would be 50 degrees during the peak of summer in Qatar, but a Winter World Cup is simply wrong.

Players perform much better in the November period than over the summer especially after a gruelling season.

However, the World Cup will surely showcase apprehensive players who will still be thinking about the rest of the season while playing for their own team.

Furthermore, this raises questions of what other countries around the world are going to do with their own national leagues. The Premier League, for instance, showcases most of their games over the festive period and this is when

the tournament really starts to heat up.

Stopping midway through this to have the World Cup in Qatar will surely create a below par season.

There are rumours surfacing that some leagues are even considering boycotting the competition due to the timing of it as well as the issues regarding human rights in Qatar. It would really be a shame to see England not attending the World Cup, depriving the country from the best tournament in the world.

But in this case it may be necessary!The

real question to ask is how did Qatar win the bid for this fantastic opportunity?

However, with Sepp Blatter currently under Swiss criminal investigation for alleged disloyal payment to Platini… we can all but guess.

Some are in support of Qatar Credit: Sean Knoflick @Flickr

Sport in the City

Adam Selby takes a look at local sport on offer in Manchester - the spotlight on Hyde United this week.

Adam Selby Sport Reporter

You really don’t need me to tell you that there is more to our city’s sporting scene than just two football teams, Manchester City and Manchester United. Research last month, conducted by sports network ESPN, in partnership with Bath and Gloucester University, crowned Manchester as the sporting capital of the UK. They based their decision not just on the illustrious success and past history of the two Manchester clubs, but also judged the city on parameters ranging from atmosphere, range of venues and even transport links.

Now, to anybody who knows a thing or two about the rich diversity and abundance of sports on offer throughout the city and the wider Greater Manchester area, such recognition doesn’t come as a great surprise.

Therefore, over the course of the academic year, as well as paying close attention to, and prioritising the progress and successes of our University’s very own societies, teams and campus sports, let our new Sport in the City feature tempt you into a very different sporting day out. Whether it’s a new sport, a team about whom you did not know, or just an event that interests us, we hope that we will entice you to explore the wide sporting variety that the city has to offer during your time studying at the University of Manchester.

In the spotlight this week: Hyde United FC Well…who are they?

Hyde United FC, a semi-professional football team currently competing in the Evo Stik Northern Premier League Premier Division. In recent years, Hyde United – nicknamed The Tigers – experienced consecutive seasons of relegation after failing to establish themselves in the higher tiers of non-league football. However, in June 2015, the announcement of fan ownership of the club, coupled with the return of manager Gary Lowe

– who led The Tigers to the premier division of the National League back in 2011/12 – should hopefully bring the good times back to Hyde and their average attendance of 500 spectators at each home game.

over for a much needed hot beverage during the winter months. On average, a pint of lager will cost you £2.60, while soft drinks alongside your typical match day hot food and snacks are also available. A matchday programme costs £2.50.

footprint has truly won the hearts of fans from around the country and even led to a lucrative shirt and stadium sponsorship deal with The Lad Bible.

Finally, when can I see them in action?

How do I get there?

Tell me something I didn’t already know…

Situated 7 miles away from Manchester City Centre in Tameside, Hyde’s stadium Ewen Fields is accessible to students via public transport. Should you wish to catch the bus and make use of your UniRider, the 201 Stagecoach bus leaves from Manchester Piccadilly/ Newton Street every 10 minutes and stops off at Hyde Bus Station. Meanwhile, for those wanting to catch the train, aim for the Newton for Hyde station, with a direct service running every 20-30 minutes from Manchester Piccadilly Train Station. With a student railcard, an off-peak day return only costs £2.65—bargain! From both the bus and train stations respectively, a short 10 minute walk will then lead you to your destination and if in any doubt, head for Hyde Leisure Pool; the ground is tucked away just behind that building.

Liverpudlian comedian John Bishop played for Hyde United for two seasons between 1988 and 1990 during his days before comedy. He made 41 appearances for The Tigers, scoring 7 goals. Furthermore, the club have also experienced significant success off the field via social media, with just fewer than 39,000 followers on Twitter, more than the likes of Cambridge United, Oxford United and Preston North End. Through a mixture of light-hearted tweets combined with never being afraid to mock their own plight, their social

But how much does it cost to get in?

Although many non-league teams do in fact offer a student concessionary ticket option, a ticket to watch Hyde United in action will cost you the same as a fullpriced adult ticket. £10 for a league game or £5 for any cup game or friendly during the season. There are, however, discounted season tickets for Hyde United available to purchase for the eager Tigers amongst you. Match day tickets are available to purchase at the gate.

What are the facilities like?

The purchase of any food and drink during your day out is entirely optional, but with a social club attached to the stadium serving food and both soft and alcoholic drinks, you may find yourself hovering

Hyde United Celebrate Photo: James Lobley @Flickr

Hyde’s next home league game takes place on Saturday 3rd October against a mid-table Stourbridge FC—in a competitive, yet unpredictable league, very few points can prove the difference between promotion and relegation.

If you have any requests for local teams, sports or events taking place in Manchester, or if you wish to be involved, please contact: sports@mancunion. comevents taking place in Manchester or wish to be involved, please contact: sports@mancunion.com

ISSUE 2 / 28th SEPTEMBER 2015 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Referee Respect

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Harry Newton assesses how football can learn from rugby in how to treat their officials Harry Newton Sport Editor

I think Mike Dean is a really good referee, but he’s got one fault - he wants to be the star too often and it’s really getting on my nerves. It’s not about you Mike, it’s about the game.

With the arrival of the muchanticipated Rugby World Cup last week, the country has contracted Rugby Fever! A sport that generically plays second fiddle to football has fought its way to the forefront of people’s minds and the backfront of the presses. In comparison to football, rugby is a game with more aggression, more players and more scoring, but despite this scope for potential problems for referees, they are treated with respect and protection, unlike within The Beautiful Game.

Last Saturday saw Garth Crooks, BBC pundit, launch a tirade at football referee Mike Dean, after his performance in the Arsenal vs. Chelsea game, which involved Arsenal being reduced to 9 men through ill-discipline. The ex-Tottenham Hotspur and Stoke City man became visibly heated as he continued his rant about Dean. Crooks stated that, “the only people who were interested in sending the player off….were the officials,” when discussing Gabriel’s departure.

He then went on to comment about Dean himself; “I think Mike Dean is a really good referee, but he’s got one fault— he wants to be the star too often, and it’s really getting on my nerves. It’s not about you Mike, it’s about the game.” He went on to liken him to a “petulant school teacher,” labeled him “over officious” and suggested he looks for excuses to send off players. A pundit may be paid to express their opinion on the game, but this is a step too far from Crooks, who made this debacle personal.

This is not the only time that somebody has come out into the media to slam Mike Dean, as in March of last year Nigel Pearson, ex-Leicester City manager, described Dean as “one of the most arrogant people” he has met.

Whether or not the views of Crooks or Pearson are in any way accurate is irrelevant. Both of these comments are just two examples that have been cherrypicked from a pool of hundreds of other examples where pundits, managers and footballers have shown a complete lack of respect for the officials. In a world where managers will not comment on a player’s individual performance after a game, they have absolutely no problem criticising the referee’s individual performance. Strange.

Week in, week out, we see footballers harass the referee. Whether it be the infamous sending off of Manchester United’s ex-player Ángel Di María last season for tugging at a referee’s shirt, or the constant moans of Diego Costa, players simply do not treat the referee the way that they should. Rules indicate that a referee can show a yellow card to a player for arguing an official’s decision.

This has not changed the situation much, however, because if they booked every player that argued with them, the game would eventually become into the referee playing crossbar challenge, alone.

Differences in rugby show how a referee can be treated correctly. Whilst watching England beat Fiji in their opening game of the Rugby World Cup last Friday, the commentators fell silent

whilst the referee walked over to an offending player. We heard the referee speak, via a microphone, to the offender, telling him calmly what he had done wrong. And the player accepted the referee’s explanation. This happened time and time again without complaint, because the microphone gave the referee protection, so that the world could hear what was being said between the two. Football referees already have a microphone during the games; making this device’s output public would make footballers think twice about what they are saying to the referee, and would open up understanding as to why referees make the decisions that they make.

Of course, it is not just the microphone that makes players respect the referee, since respect is instilled at lower levels of the game and from a young age. This is something that English football is trying to do via the “Get On With The Game” initiative. Going to a game played

between children does not always turn out to be as joyful and care-free as you would expect, with some referees getting a much harder time than even Mike Dean has received from Garth Crooks. Starting to eradicate the problem at this level is progress; however, it will only work if Premier League players act like role models to these children and do the same.

Whether the sport is rugby or football, one thing is apparent—you will not change the referee’s decision. No referee will give a foul, only to then change their mind once Diego Costa has sprinted over to tell him that he is wrong. However, one thing that is different in rugby is that the referee’s decision is given more with a greater explanation, because he can discuss with officials watching overhead and consult a video replay. This instills more confidence in the players towards the officials and gives us a much more accurate sport.

The problem with football is that we find ourselves in a vicious cycle. If we introduce this, it will mean more correct calls and gain referees more respect.

However, with the current lack of respect from players, this would lead to officials calling for a video replay on most decisions, undermining the referee’s trained decision making skills.

There is no doubt that the introduction of video would help a referee in instances of difficult decisions; would make the game run more smoothly; and would overall gain the referees more respect as authoritarians of the game.

But football does not deserve this until players, managers and even pundits treat referees with the respect that they deserve.

Dean calming Cardiff City players Photo: Jon Candy @Flickr

Fighting Talk

Lottie Lindsley and David Brierley invite you to explore the world of Karate Lottie Lindsley & David Brierley Sport Reporters

The Manchester University Shotokan Karate Club is one of the most successful and dynamic university martial art clubs in the UK, and we owe every fibre of that achievement to the passion and conviction of our members. Few people know what Karate actually is, and many have damaging stereotypes about what it entails. I want to write today about what this sport and martial art really is about, and how every single person reading this can get involved.

Karate is a martial art from the Ryukyu Island of Okinawa, halfway between the Japanese Island of Kyushu and the Island of Taiwan. The history of this art is complex at best, but can loosely be summed up as a combination of Japanese Ju Jitsu, Chinese Crane Boxing, and the native martial art of Tuiti. Karate literally means ‘Chinese Hand’, in reference to its origins in Chinese military systems. A martial art employing kicks, punches, grapples, throws, and locks, Karate might perhaps seem violent in appearance. However, Karate is not about aggression, nor violence. As Okinawan master Taika Oyata said, Karate is an ‘art of life preservation’: self defence, physical exercise, and physical and mental conditioning.

Sport Karate is a much more modern invention, taking the original martial art and adapting it for the competitive environment of an arena.

Here at the University, we practise the style of Karate known as Shotokan—the largest style of Karate in the world, practised by everyone from Chuck Norris to Paralympian David Smith. Our competition consists of two categories: Kata, and Kumite. Kumite is a semi-contact sparring competition between two opponents, where points are awarded over timed matches for cleanly executed punches, strikes and kicks.

Kata competition involves two opponents each performing a routine of movements involving a variety of techniques, with the winner being judged on their accuracy, power, speed, and concentration. These kata contain many applications that are applicable to self defence, and are often many hundreds of years old. Top sport karateka (people who practise Karate) often specialise in one discipline or the other, but many are highly competent in both—each complementing the other.

Karate is for everyone. If you are interested in the competition element, then we cater for you.

We compete at a wide range of competitions throughout the year, with the highlight being BUCS in February. This is part of the BUCS weekend event, which also includes many sports from Judo to Athletics, Boxing, and Swimming. It

is great to be a part of such a huge event and really helps to kick the competitive spirit into overdrive.

However, that’s not to say that you have to compete! We have many people who come purely for the thrill of training and the constant hunger to improve and to push their body further than they thought possible. We also have a work hard, play

Photo: Scott Denny @Flickr

hard attitude and love attending the AU socials, but also have smaller gatherings, and often organise a Chinese meal out (especially after a competition!).

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There she goes: A blue mist surrounds the Eva Carniero Will Kelly looks at what is wrong with the Eva Carneiro case

Will Kelly Sport Editor Chelsea club doctor Eva Carneiro has decided to leave the club, 6 weeks after criticism from manager Jose Mourinho.

Mourinho had downgraded Carneiro’s role after the medical staff treated Eden Hazard during the 2-2 draw with Swansea on 8th August.

With Chelsea being already down to 10 men after Thibaut Courtois had been sent off, Carnerio and her medical team rushed onto the pitch to treat Eden Hazard, who had signalled for medical assistance. It meant that the Blues were temporarily reduced to nine men, and Mourinho said the duo had been “impulsive and naive.”

Chelsea asked Carneiro to return to work, but after consulting lawyers for the last couple of weeks, she has decided not to and is now considering her legal position. Mourinho himself is being investigated by the Football Association after a member of the public emailed the FA, claiming that Mourinho had used sexist language during his touchline outburst against Carneiro. Television footage is currently being examined by the FA and Mourinho could face a 5 match ban if found to be guilty.

Carneiro’s departure from Chelsea has provoked exasperation around the football world. The Chair of the FA’s Inclusion Advisory Board, Heather Rabbatts, has expressed her “sadness and anger” at the news. Moreover, there is complete dismay that the incident against Swansea has led to, ac-

cording to Rabbatts, “one of the few very senior women in the game, a highly respected doctor” leaving the club through no fault of her own.

Speaking to a few students on campus, there has been a sense of disillusionment about what has happened. “The fact of the matter is, Carneiro fulfilled her duty as the senior medic and responded to the referee to enter the field of play to treat a player. How can Mourinho have the right to take her off the bench when she was working within her accepted guidelines?” asks Becky Jones, a post-grad student.

Certainly the organisation of Premier League doctors has recently confirmed that had she not carried out her task, Carneiro would have neglected her duty and a breach of GMC guidelines.

Rabbatts believes that “in acting properly, she was then subject to verbal abuse and public criticism, and in effect, demoted by her removal from the bench. Her departure raises a serious question on how players are safeguarded if their medical support is compromised.”

Mourinho has made no apology for his remarks after the game, about which he stated that “Even if you are a kit man, doctor or secretary on the bench, you have to understand the game.”

The organisation, ‘Women in Football’ have responded that they believe “It is appalling that her professionalism and understanding of football were subsequently called into question by manager Jose Mourinho and it threatened to

undermine her professional reputation.”

The cavalier attitude displayed by Chelsea Football Club has even concerned FIFA’s medical committee chairman, Michel D’Hooghe.

D’Hooghe has announced his attention to set up a medical sub-committee to draw up a new code of ethics between managers and team doctors.

It is quite frankly ridiculous how we have come to this. I would hope that D’Hooghe will draw up a new code to protect the ever-expanding medical profession in football. Because Carneiro is a woman, people ask is it not sexist that she has received more attention than the other physiotherapist who was also punished by Mourinho, Jon Fearn?

Anna Kessel, the chair and co-founder of ‘Women in Football’, gives the best answer: that yes it is indeed sexist, but not in the way that some have implied. “Fearn has not had his photograph plastered across every single newspaper for the last six weeks. He did not have stories sold about his sex life.

He did not have intimations made about unprofessional behaviour. He did not have paparazzi camped outside his house or hiding behind bushes to capture him taking his dog for a walk. Because while Fearn was also a victim of José Mourinho’s ill-chosen words that day, unfortunately it is women in the football industry who tend to face that added layer of scrutiny in everything that they do. That is what is sexist.

That is what we are fighting against.”

The whole issue surround-

ing Carneiro puts in my eyes another question that we as a society should be asking ourselves. Who is much to blame

sexist abuse Carneiro faces from football fans within the ground. You also have to ask the question of the Sun, who

to step up and make a difference. This is about medical ethics, human rights, employment rights and the integrity

On the Move Photo: thearcticblues @Wickimedia Commons

here? It’s not simply Chelsea Football Club. What I would say regarding Chelsea, is that Mourinho should have never made this issue public in the first place, and instead should have dealt with matters internally. Yes he does have the right to drop any one from the bench, but somebody from Chelsea Football Club should have stopped him, for his actions have caused particular embarrassment to Carneiro and Fearn.

On the internet, you can find footage that outlines the

decided to interview Carnerio’s ex-partner in which he revealed vivid details of their sex life. Who has decided that such a story would be in the public interest? What as a society have we become if that is of any importance to us? As Kessel quite rightly says, certainly Fearn and no other man would be subject to such a story.

I believe that there hasn’t been enough made about Carnerio’s decision to leave the club. The Mancunion endorses the calls made by Kessel for the FA and the Premier League

of the game. It is up to the FA to review the evidence and to do the right thing and to take action. We as a society also need to look at ourselves and endorse change, rather than feed onto the prejudice that exists right now.

Eva Carnerio’s downfall has been led by a club for whom she has worked loyally for 6 years. Now, the very game that we are in love with has so far suggested that it does not care.