Issue 16

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George Harrison and The State of Skate: The Future of ‘Raga Rock’: 18 Contact Theatre: 24 19

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18th February 2019 / Issue 16

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Unlucky 13, lucky for some OfS report reveals some Vice-Chancellors earn 13 times the median wage of their staff

Sam Honey andJosh Sandiford News Editor and Breaking News Reporter Figures released in a report by the higher education regulator, the Office for Students (OfS), have revealed that almost half of all vicechancellors received more than £300,000 in salary, bonuses and benefits last year – with six universities in England paid their vicechancellors £500,000 or more.

The report shows that some vicechancellors are being paid as much as 13 times the median pay of their staff. University of Manchester President and Vice-Chancellor Nancy Rothwell earned “8.24 times the median pay of staff (£31,604)” in the 2017-18 academic year.

While the highest reported salary for anyone in the position was the £70,000 taken home by the vice-chancellor at the University of Bath, the head of the London Business School was paid almost £600,000 with benefits included. In addition to this, 62% of universities in England increased the number of staff paid over £100,00 in the 201718 academic year.

The university with the largest increase

Headlines this week

in vice-chancellor pay was De Montfort University in Leicester, where pay went up from £286,000 to £350,000.

In December, The Mancunion revealed that Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell’s overall pay packet fell by £37,000 to £269,000 in the 17-18 academic year, due to the fact she took less in pension contributions as cash.

The OfS introduced new rules last year stating that universities could face “significant” financial penalties for giving vice-chancellors extremely high salaries.

Some vice-chancellors refused a salary increase and a number of universities reduced the basic pay of their vice-chancellor. The chief executive of the OfS Nicola Dandridge said this was “good to see” but did acknowledged that it can be “difficult to revisit contractual obligations while a vice-chancellor is in post.”

Education Secretary Damian Hinds commented: “We set up the Office for Students to look out for students’ interests and it is absolutely right that the OfS demands greater transparency from universities by requiring them to justify the pay and benefits of their vice-chancellors.”

“Of course salaries need to be competitive

– but high pay must be justified by high performance on objectives such as widening participation for disadvantaged groups, low dropout rates, growing export earnings and pioneering innovative research.”

Meanwhile, the i Newspaper has revealed that a ‘raft’ of institutions have announced plans to make staff redundancies in a bid to save cash.

Increasing budget deficits have been blamed for pushing providers into making necessary cuts to services, leaving universities running on depleted levels of resources. It was recently reported that three universities were at risk of bankruptcy, amid The OfS re-affirming that they would not bail out struggling institutions – back in January, it was confirmed that five institutions in London had failed to break even, with Kingston announcing a deficit of over £13 million.

Redundancy announcements are now becoming commonplace across the sector, as universities look to mitigate the effects of overbearing financial pressure.

The University of Cardiff has already confirmed that 350 jobs will be cut across a period of five years, following a £22.8 million

SU fails to support Reclaim the NSS boycott Night returns Page 3

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deficit, while Kent has also confirmed that jobs will be lost. Likewise, Bangor University will see 60 further jobs lost, just a year after over 100 staff took voluntary redundancies to help deal with £8.5 million budget cutbacks.

Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute remarked that the current crisis was a result of unprecedented financial uncertainty: “There are some universities that are thriving, but the system is facing something of a perfect storm due to the competitive market, Brexit, dip in the number of 18-year-olds and huge policy changes that have knocked them for six.”

Continued concern persists over the perceived marketisation of Higher Education, as fee-paying students see reductions in the quality of service, alongside pay rises for the highest-ranking across UK universities.

Chris Skidmore, the universities minister spoke of the threat of competition across Higher Education: “There is an expectation that in a small number of cases providers may exit the market altogether as a result of strong competition.’’

Story continues on page 2...

Ex-UoM lecturer guilty of hate crime Page 5

Puzzle Page!

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2 News

ISSUE 16 / 18th February 2019 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Continued from page 1...

Inside Issue 16

UK Vice-Chancellor pay soars to 13 times median wage

Almost half of all vice-chancellors received a salary of over £300,000, while a number of universities are forced into job cuts amid deficits Sam Honey and Josh Sandiford News Editor and Breaking News Reporter

UoM student wins prestigious award Science & Tech, page 8

Wi t h fe e s at a n a l l - t i m e h i g h o f £ 9, 2 5 0 p e r ye a r fo r m o s t d e g re e s u b j e c t s , t h at t h e n o t i o n t h at s o m e i n s t i t u t i o n s a re b e co m i n g f i n a n c i a l ly u n s u s t a i n a b l e w i l l d i f f i c u l t fo r m a ny s t u d e nt s t o p ro ce s s .

O n e s e co n d -ye a r s t u d e n t , wh o c h o s e t o s t ay a n o ny m o u s , s a i d : “ I t ’s d i f f i c u l t t o u n d e r s t a n d t h e l e ve l o f d i f f i c u l t y t h at u n ive r s it i e s a c ro s s t h e co u n t r y a p p e a r t o b e . O bv i o u s ly, i t i s a h u ge c h a l l e n ge t o fa ce t h e i m p l i c at i o n s o f t h e e x i t f ro m t h e E U a n d ke e p i n g a co n s i s t e n t ly q u a l i t y s e r v i ce a m i d r i s i n g s t u d e n t n u m b e r s , b u t yo u e x p e c t

t h at t o b e m a i nt a i n e d w it h t h e l eve l t h at we p ay t o s t u dy o n a n a n n u a l basis. “ I f e ve r y s t u d e n t a t a u n ive rs it y i s co n t r i b u t i n g £ 9, 2 5 0 a ye a r t owa rd s t h e i r s t u d i e s , t h e n t h e re s h o u l d b e a m p l e ava i l a b l e t o cove r t h e co s t s o f t h e i r d e g re e . W h e n t h e re i s t a l k o f f i n a n c i a l d i f f i c u l t y it i s s i m p ly h a rd t o b e l i e ve co n s i d e r i n g t h e wa ge s o f s o m e o f t h e m o s t s e n i o r f i g u re s a c ro s s H i g h e r E d u c at i o n i n t h i s co u nt r y. H ow c a n o u r i n s t i t u t i o n s b e s t r u g g l i n g wh i l e t h e m aj o r i t y o f v i ce - c h a n ce l l o rs s it o n a s i x- f i g u re p ay p a c ke t ? ’ ’ A U n ive r s i t y of Manchester s p o ke s p e r s o n s a i d : ‘ ’A s s e t o u t i n t h e U n ive rs i t y F i n a n c i a l S t a t e m e nt s fo r t h e ye a r e n d i n g 3 1 Ju ly 2 0 1 8 , t h e P re s i d e nt

a n d Vi ce - C h a n ce l l o r ’s t o t a l p ay wa s £ 2 6 0, 3 9 9 fo r a t h i rd co n s e c u t ive ye a r, w it h n o b o n u s e s .

“A ny i n c re a s e s t o t h i s s a l a r y m u s t b e a p p rove d by t h e i n d e p e n d e nt Re m u n e ra t i o n C o m m it t e e wh i c h re p o r t s d i re c t ly t o t h e U n ive rs it y ’s B o a rd o f G ove r n o rs . T h e P re s i d e nt a n d Vi ce - C h a n ce l l o r i s n o t a m e m b e r o f Re m u n e ra t i o n C o m m it t e e a n d n o t p re s e nt a t a ny C o m m it t e e d i s c u s s i o n s re l at i n g t o t h e i r s a l a r y. “ W h e n d e c i d i n g s a l a r y t h e re i s a n eva l u at i o n o f t h e P re s i d e nt a n d Vi ce - C h a n ce l l o r ’s p e r fo r m a n ce wh i c h i n c l u d e s a n a s s e s s m e nt f ro m e a c h m e m b e r o f t h e B o a rd o f G ove r n o rs a n d a fo r m a l rev i ew o f i n d iv i d u a l p e r fo r m a n ce by t h e C h a i r o f t h e B o a rd . ”

Pigeonholed by the puffa jacket Opinion, page 10

Photo: University of Manchester

For the love of money Lifestyle, page 29

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S c ie nce a nd L aw s e t to me rge” , we wrongly listed the Students’ Union Senate as a body required to approve t he me rge r b e twe e n the School of Social Science and S c h o o l o f L a w. I t s h o u l d h a v e s t a t e d U n i v e r s i t y S e n a t e . We

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ISSUE 16 / 18th February 2019 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

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Photo: Save Our Staff MCR

SU branded ‘unhelpful’ for failing to support NSS boycott

This SU is democratically mandated to support an NSS boycott via an active senate motion Josh Sandiford Breaking News Reporter The University of Manchester Students’ Union (SU) has been branded ‘unhelpful’ for refusing to support a boycott of this year’s National Student Survey. This is despite the SU being democratically mandated to do so via an active senate motion.

Save Our Staff, the society which supports striking lecturers and campaigns against the marketisation of further education, has told The Mancunion that a neutral stance by the SU means that a third University of Manchester boycott of the NSS would be “ineffective”. They also argue that without the SU on board, students “won’t know the extent of the problems associated with the NSS.” For the last two years, the Students’ Union (SU) has either discouraged final-year students from filling in the survey or actively engaged in an attempt to boycott the NSS. It’s previously been argued that the results from the student survey are used as part of a framework that “legitimises the increase of tuition fees”, making it a target for groups that campaign against the marketisation

of education.

This year, the Students’ Union changed tact and have taken a neutral stance on the survey.

This has been seen by some as inconsistent with a policy passed by Senate, the highest decisionmaking body in the SU, which commits the SU to support a boycott of the NSS until 2020.

Hufi Neibig, President of Save Our Staff (SOS) said: “As a group, we would like the SU to support a pro-active boycott of the NSS because it’s damaging, its results are used against students and we believe a boycott can only be effectively carried out with the support of the SU.” The SU argue that a link between the NSS and tuition fees is no longer existent and that the mandate was based on a policy position that no longer exists. Even though Manchester SU claim that a link no longer exists, Cambridge University Students’ Union - who have typically been seen to have led the campaign against the NSS - are boycotting the survey for a third year in 2019.

Olivia Meisl, the SU’s Education Officer who is listed as ‘responsible’ for the policy proposal committing the SU to support a boycott said: “We were mandated to boycott based on the policy position at the time, and this situation has changed completely.”

Olivia told The Mancunion that after the first successful NSS boycott, the TEF, the body in charge of grading the quality of universities — and indirectly affecting how much they can charge — reduced its reliance on the NSS survey by 50%.

She added: “Last year, the Exec resolved to carry on the policy as the link between the TEF and fees still existed, but the boycott was unsuccessful. This year, the Augar review has been commissioned to look at reducing the undergraduate fee, and the link between raising fees and the TEF has been totally severed. The situation is entirely different from when this policy was first passed.

“We have many other important campaign priorities this year which are time-bound, such as reclaim the night’s aim of restoring a sexual violence support unit, better buses transport campaign, Augar review into fees and funding of universities, and the place of international students following Brexit.”

The SU’s executive officers stress that despite not campaigning for a boycott, they are no way promoting the NSS and ultimately still believe it is a flawed metric.

As well as supporting an NSS boycott, the primary aim of SOS is to “stand in solidarity” with

striking staff and let staff who are contemplating striking know that they have student support.

The University and College Union (UCU) is currently balloting members for strike action regarding the gender pay gap, insecure contracts, excessive workloads and the supposed falling value of pay. The ballot, which closes on February 22nd, needs a turnout of at least 50% before action can be taken.

Last week, SOS passed a motion at Senate committing the SU to support a ‘yes’ vote in the UCU ballot for strike action, it passed with 73% of attendees in favour. The SU will now write a letter to the vice chancellor demanding an improved pay offer of 7.5%.

Hufi Neibig added: “We’ve been emailing our lecturers and teaching staff to let them know that if they were to vote for strike action, they can expect student solidarity. We would get together and support them.

“We’re not pro-strike, the main thing we always say is that striking is a last resort, it’s not something staff or students want but it’s just about communicating that it might be necessary and we will do what we can to bridge the gap between students and staff.”

Fewer students from state-run schools enrolling at uni Emily Broncz Deputy News Editor A summary published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency shows a decrease in the proportion of students enrolled at university who come from state-run schools.

The statistics have been published as an objective measure of how UK higher education performs in widening participation at university.

Widening participation includes looking at students from disadvantaged backgrounds or students who receive the Disabled Students’ Allowance (DLA).

Rates of students enrolled for their first degree who were educated by state-run secondary schools had been steadily increasing since the 2010/11 academic year. However, for the first time in eight years, the enrolment rates from state-run schools have dropped from 90% in 2016/17 to 89.9% in 2017/18 across the UK. The University of Manchester has an even lower rate of disadvantaged student enrolment at 84.6% in 2017/18 compared to Manchester Metropolitan University’s ground-breaking 97.2%

in the same year.

However, the University of Manchester differs from the trend as the rate of disadvantaged student enrolment has increased from 82.8% in 2016/17.

The figures show that the numbers of students from low-participation neighbourhoods has continued to rise since 2009 including an increase from 11.4% in 2016/17 to 11.6% in 2017/18.

Students enrolled who receive DSA had risen until 2015/16 at which point it dropped from 6.9% to 6.6% in 2016/17 and 2017/18, respectively.

The University of Manchester, again, shows a different correlation as 7.5% of enrolled students receive DSA in 2017/18 which has not changed from 2016/17. Although, Manchester Metropolitan University rates are lower than average as only 5.3% of DSA receiving students were enrolled in 2017/18 which has fallen from 5.7% in 2016/17.

The Higher Education Statistics Agency does recommend caution when using the data to look at trends across time. Changes to the underlying population such as the number of students attending state-run schools were not included.

In addition, changes in the way state-schools are

marked meant that a number of students were excluded from the figures. A summary published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency shows a decrease in the proportion of students enrolled at university who come from state-run schools.

The statistics have been published as an objective measure of how UK higher education performs in widening participation at university.

Widening participation includes looking at students from disadvantaged backgrounds or students who receive the Disabled Students’ Allowance (DLA).

Rates of students enrolled for their first degree who were educated by state-run secondary schools had been steadily increasing since the 2010/11 academic year. However, for the first time in eight years, the enrolment rates from state-run schools have dropped from 90% in 2016/17 to 89.9% in 2017/18 across the UK. The University of Manchester has an even lower rate of disadvantaged student enrolment at 84.6% in 2017/18 compared to Manchester Metropolitan University’s ground-breaking 97.2% in the same year.

However, the University of Manchester

differs from the trend as the rate of disadvantaged student enrolment has increased from 82.8% in 2016/17.

The figures show that the numbers of students from low-participation neighbourhoods has continued to rise since 2009 including an increase from 11.4% in 2016/17 to 11.6% in 2017/18.

Students enrolled who receive DSA had risen until 2015/16 at which point it dropped from 6.9% to 6.6% in 2016/17 and 2017/18, respectively.

The University of Manchester, again, shows a different correlation as 7.5% of enrolled students receive DSA in 2017/18 which has not changed from 2016/17. Although, Manchester Metropolitan University rates are lower than average as only 5.3% of DSA receiving students were enrolled in 2017/18 which has fallen from 5.7% in 2016/17.

The Higher Education Statistics Agency does recommend caution when using the data to look at trends across time. Changes to the underlying population such as the number of students attending state-run schools were not included.

In addition, changes in the way state-schools are marked meant that a number of students were excluded from the figures.

4 News

ISSUE 16 / 18th February 2019 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Manchester’s employment level to surpass London’s following Brexit Ayazoe Atallah News Reporter A study by law firm Irwin Mitchell and the Centre for Economics and Business Research predicts an increase of 1.5% in employment levels in Manchester between July and September.

At the same time last year, the number of employed persons was around 467,900. This amount is predicted to increase to 470,000 this year, according to the economic report.

Manchester’s GVA is predicted to remain the

same as the previous year, staying stable at 1.4%.

Although the city’s economy has recently been impacted by a failure in areas such as car sales and manufacturing, it is still set to surpass London’s employment growth towards the end of the year. In the North West, the study claims Manchester as the most rapidly-growing Powerhouse city.

Manchester has relied on the success of young, online businesses like retail company boohoo.com and electronics provider AO.com.

Other businesses involved in software

development and the internet also contribute to the city’s promised success.

The news comes after insecurity surrounding Brexit negotiations and discussions regarding the possible impact on the UK’s economic stability.

Coming up to the 29th March, the date set for the UK to leave the European Union, concern has been raised in regards to economic growth.

A partner at Irwin Mitchell, Roy Beckett, addresses this worry by adding: “Although the report says that the economy will grow more slowly following Brexit, there are some positive

signs in relation to employment levels.”

Beckett acknowledges the challenges but also reassures the public with the possibility for “many opportunities” following the slow progression directly after the exit date.

However, the study reported that no Northern cities would occupy the top 10 spaces in the list of economic growth up until the third quarter. Beckett said, “We are working hard with our clients to support them and provide proactive advice so that they are well-prepared for the future.”

Reclaim the Night returns Reclaim the Night is returning to Manchester on 21st February, with the yearly march aiming to improve the safety of women at night Photo: Luchia Houghton-Lloyd

Laura Finn News Reporter Reclaim the Night is returning to Manchester on 21st February. The yearly march aims to improve the safety of women at night, especially in the Fallowfield, Rusholme, and Withington areas.

Beginning at 6pm outside Owen’s Park, the march will travel down Oxford Road to the Students’ Union (SU) where a rally will take place in the SU courtyard, followed by an after party in Club Academy and Black Milk.

Research has shown that reported cases of sexual harassment has risen by 64% since 2016 and there has been a 75% rise in cases of stalking and harassment since 2016.

However, at the same time, police officers have been cut by 23% and in 2017 the council closed down the Serious Sexual Offences Unit, removing 74 officers from the unit.

SU Women’s Officer, Sara Heddi, told The Mancunion: “[The] ‘Enough is enough’” movement makes it clear “we want safer streets and we want it now”.

This year, the Union have “specific objectives

[…] we are marching directly on the council with bigger demands for a bigger investment in safer streets.”

Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, has been called on to tackle the violence and fear faced by women in the city.

From addressing day-to-day issues such as bad street lighting and lack of police presence, to increasing women’s safety on a deeper level. This includes stopping the cuts to women’s shelters, encouraging more organisations to become hate crime reporting centres, and awareness of where victims can report acts of harassment.

The march started in 1977 and is becoming more nuanced. It keeps its core message strong – women should feel safe at night, but it also adapts to address current feminist issues such as inclusivity. Previously a pro-choice block to support those who chose to use the medical facilities in Fallowfield as there had been antiabortion protesters outside the clinic. A ‘Muslim block’ was also introduced by Saffa Mir to support the marginalised group.

The organisers urge everyone to march, write letters to councillors, and sign their petition which can be found on their Facebook event.

Austerity prevents Manchester from becoming Northern Powerhouse Manchester’s vision of becoming a northern powerhouse seems uncertain after nearly a decade of strict spending cuts in the city

Emily Broncz Deputy News Editor An independent prosperity review carried out by Cambridge professor, Diane Coyle, has highlighted that regional inequality and a lack of productivity have been holding Manchester back, despite the city offering “world-class strengths”.

The report detailed that Greater Manchester’s role in health innovation and research into graphene have earned the city a fantastic reputation. Followed by the city’s ever-growing strengths in manufacturing, digital and creative industries, and professional services.

Despite this, several improvements were outlined by the panel, who concluded that more needed to be done to drive down levels of social inequality, to improve wage growth, and increase

productivity. The areas of retail and social care were flagged up as two sectors which see high employment but suffer from low productivity.

Spending cuts over the last decade have seen Manchester City Council withdraw a total of £372m in funding from services across the region.

Since 2010, some areas within Manchester have faced colossal slashes to budgets, with Tameside cutting 90% of its funding from its youth services budget. As a consequence, vital facilities such as youth centres and libraries have been closed, leaving some areas bereft of any community spaces.

The cuts have created a plethora of issues for Mancunians, most notably the homelessness crisis, exaggerated by a continued lack of funding to its respective budget.

Manchester City Council is currently having to rely on reserves in order to fund resources.

This, however, is set to change, with a government spokesman declaring that over the next two years, Manchester will have access to £876m in funding.

Addressing Coyle’s report, Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham seemed positive about the prospect of investment into the city: “We are now working with the government to develop an ambitious Local Industrial Strategy which will respond to many of these issues and allow us to provide that extra strength to the UK’s economy.”

Burnham also reassured residents of the city that the “Northern Powerhouse” is a vision that can still be delivered but would require the council to “continue to work closely with ministers to do so.”

The report defined a number of steps which would help boost productivity in the city-

region. There were demands for an increase in programmes to help improve health in addition to better transport links and employment standards.

Professor Diane Coyle claimed that: “Productivity has an impact not just on the economy, but on people’s quality of life.” Speaking further on the issue, Coyle also stated that further devolution of powers was needed immediately to “deliver sustained improvements in living standards for the people of Greater Manchester.”

The findings have been published a decade on from the Manchester Independent Economic Review, which alluded to the fact that Manchester had been “punching below its weight” compared to similar international cities.

Although, recently collected evidence would suggest that improvements have been to the city, the core conclusion still dominates.

News

ISSUE 16 / 18th February 2019 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

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Ex-Manchester professor charged over racial abuse of neighbour

Dr John Smart was ordered to pay a fine and costs after multiple instances of racial abuse Sam Honey Head News Editor A former University of Manchester professor has been convicted of a hate crime, after verbal slurs made towards his German neighbour.

Dr John Smart, 72, formerly lectured in mechanical engineering at the University of Manchester. The professor was convicted of two charges of racially aggravated harassment at Stockport Magistrates’ Court.

Smart was ordered to pay a £1,290 fine, £250 compensation, and £689 in court costs. He was also barred from making any contact with his victim, through the conditions of a restraining order, as handed down by the court.

In a range of incidents between April 22 and July 4 last year, the retired professor made reference to his neighbour in a raciallyabusive way. On one such occasion, while walking to a nearby Waitrose supermarket to buy a newspaper, the 72-year old reportedly remarked, “You’re that German, why are you still

here, go back.”

At a later point, while passing her home, Smart asked again, “Are you still here?”

The victim of the attacks described her ordeal with Dr. Smart: “There was no need for someone overstepping the mark in a situation where emotions shouldn’t be high. The gentleman continued to walk down the road and then stopped briefly and said something like ‘you’re obnoxious, go back’.

“At that point I was beginning to shake. I was getting very agitated and having shakes. I

made it back into the house and came down into a crying fit. I called the police once I’d calmed myself down who came and took my statement.”

Dr. Smart denied any wrongdoing in court, saying that although the pair exchanged words, he could not remember what had been said.

Prosecutor Lynn Rodgers undermined Smart’s defence however, saying: “What she doesn’t expect is to be in her garden and being polite to people passing by, to be then racially abused. It’s a curveball that’s come at her.”

Universities advised to ignore migration targets

As Brexit uncertainty continues to affect migration and Higher Education, UK Universities are told to ignore the 100,000 limit set by the government Sam Honey Head News Editor UK Universities should ignore migration targets set by Westminster, says Alan Manning, the government’s lead adviser on migration.

Manning, chairman of the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), is also a professor of economics at LSE. The 74-year old has claimed that the government no longer pays attention to their goal of reducing migration to below the 100,000 threshold.

Ahead of the 2017 General Election, Theresa May confirmed that it was her intention to stick to this target, despite the coalition’s notable failure to bring numbers down to the tens of thousands, a level that May termed “sustainable”.

Despite this, there was no sign of this figure of 100,000 in the recent Immigration White Paper. Manning noted that the government no longer pays attention to the limit, and assured those across the Higher Education field that student migration would not be affected by it.

Manning said: ‘’My advice to people who worry about the net migration target is to say just pretend it doesn’t exist ... [It] is not really influencing policy on student migration at all at the moment and if you keep on mentioning it you’re actually drawing attention to it and pretending it’s a problem when actually it really isn’t.’’

Manning was embroiled in controversy last year when he confirmed that the MAC’s report on the impact of migration policy on international students would include this group in final migration statistics.

Manning claimed that, ‘’removing students

from the net migration statistics would make almost no difference to the actual figures,’’ but was also criticised for refusing to recommend the re-introduction of post-study work visas.

With the publication of the White Paper back in December, the government announced a ‘skills-based’ plan for immigration, confirming that all students who had completed a degree at a UK institution would be given six months’ post-study leave, with a full year for PhD graduates.

Many have pointed to the success of the post-study visa system in Australia as evidence of the necessity to implement it in the UK. One such voice is Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute: “Why do we put these absurd constraints on one of the very few sectors where our country is truly world class?” he asked. “We should be redialling everything the way the Australians have done.”

Manning dismissed such claims however, saying, “You can already find, for example, the Australian Labor Party saying this system is out of control. ‘’I wouldn’t be that surprised if that actually turns into something of a boom or bust situation.

I really don’t think that would be in the interests of the [UK] sector.’’

However, the future relationship of migration and Higher Education in the UK is currently being dominated by the uncertainty of the Erasmus+ system post-Brexit.

It remains unclear as to whether the European exchange programme will be in operation at UK Institutions and for UK students post-2020.

Although the government has underwritten funding for Erasmus to continue until the end of 2020, practical measures to ensure the program remains in operation have not been clarified.

infrastructure, such as electric charging, to support the electric buses.

The electric buses produce 30% less greenhouse gas emissions compared to diesel buses with the same passenger capacity. The green house gases include carbon dioxide, methane, and nitric oxide.

Emissions from some buses contribute to poor air quality. TFGM are said to be using the scheme to make Manchester’s bus fleet as green as possible.

The air quality index, a measure of air pollution, was measured this week as “moderate” over Oxford Road and Piccadilly.

Andy Burnham, the Mayor for Greater Manchester endorsed the investment: “This

is good news for Greater Manchester’s bus passengers, who can now look forward to seeing even more modern, environmentally-friendly electric buses on our roads, in place of more polluting vehicles.”

“Some buses contribute heavily to poor air quality, a problem that affects us all – but in particular the poorest and most vulnerable in society – and which contributes to the equivalent of 1,200 deaths every year in Greater Manchester” “Buses have an essential role to play in that, which is why we’re working towards having a zero-emission bus fleet – and today’s funding announcement is another step in reaching that ambitious goal.”

New electric buses to hit Greater Manchester Lucy Menage News Reporter Transport for Greater Manchester (TFGM) have successfully secured £5.2 million to fund a total of 70 plug-in electric buses.

23 of the electric buses will be used on the Vantage route and the Manchester free bus network.

First Bus Manchester, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), Manchester Community Transport, and Stagecoach Manchester have been awarded funding to purchase the remaining 47 electric buses.

Stagecoach Manchester will be given the largest proportion of the funding at £6.9 million.

In August of last year, Stagecoach announced that they planned to use the electric buses on routes servicing the University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University as well as Manchester Airport, six hospitals, the city centre and Piccadilly station. Stagecoach South Manchester recently reported a 14% increase in pre-tax profit.

The electric bus scheme is part of the government’s Ultra-Low Emission Scheme, which will provide £48 million for authorities across England and Wales to purchase lowemission electric buses.

The funds will also be used to build

Photo: The Mancunion

6 News

ISSUE 16 / 18th February 2019 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Do you think ViceChancellor pay is out of control?

Construction crisis in Manchester City Centre

Photo: N Chadwick @geograph

Harry Deacon Deputy Sport Editor Manchester Councillors are trying to figure out how to handle the disruptive sideeffects of ongoing construction work in Manchester City Centre.

With over 60 major developments currently processing, city centre roads are set to close for years on end, with councillors seeking advice as to whether developers can be forced to re-open streets that have been inde finitely stopped up.

The problem lies in the fact t h at a f te r p ay i n g a o n e - o f f £ 4 ,0 0 0 sum, there is “no re striction” on how long developers can keep

roads shut, according to Miles Platting and Newton Heath Councillor John Flanagan.

The topic was discussed at a public neighbourhoods committee meeting, where attendees made it clear that they remained frustrated by the role of developers in creating a gridlock in the city centre.

Deansgate Councillor William Jeavons is fighting to re strict the gridlock, saying that the prolonged inconvenience caused by the property firms is “d i s i n ge n u o u s t o t h e p e o p l e t h at l i v e i n t h i s c i t y. ” With a further 68 developments just around the c o r n e r, C o u n c i l l o r J e a v o n s i s concerned about the impact

that not only Deansgate, but the w h o l e o f M a n c h e s t e r, w i l l f e e l i n the coming months.

Although it is evident that the issue is being addressed, there is still “room for improvement” in the eye s of Director of Highways Steve Robinson.

This suggests that the problem of gridlocked traffic and shut-off roads, such as Liverpool Road and Quay Street, will not disappear in the forthcoming future.

City Centre residents and students alike will have to bear the brunt of stop-and-start buses, constant construction noise, and unfinished eye-sores, for the imminent future at least.

UoM study says at-risk women should be screened for breast cancer earlier A new study led by the University of Manchester has found that more breast screenings every year from the age of 35 will detect tumours earlier

Josh Sandiford Breaking News Reporter A new study led by the University of Manchester has found that screening at-risk women for breast cancer every year from the age of 35 will d e t e c t t u m o u r s e a r l i e r.

The long-term trial found that annual breast screening in women aged 35-39 who were identified to be at ‘moderate’ or ‘ high’ risk of breast cancer detected tumours when they were significantly smaller in size and less likely to spread.

Wo m e n a t i n c r e a s e d r i s k of breast cancer are currently screened annually from the age of 4 0, but le ad i ng U K cl i n ic i a n s and re s earchers have sugge sted that if this was extended to i nclude wome n age d 3 5 -3 9, u p to 8 6,0 0 0 wome n cou ld b e ne f it .

The study – funded by charity Breast Cancer Now and carried out by researchers at the University of Manchester – offered scans to 2,899 women aged 3 5 -3 9.

The screening detected 35 invasive breast cancer tumours, most of which were small and had not yet spread.

Further analysis will now be needed to find out whether or not the screening should be

limited to thos e with a ‘ high’ chance of developing breast c a n c e r. A l o n g - t e r m f o l l o w u p will also be necessary to help further ascertain whether or not there might be any risk to future cancers as a result of radiation doses.

In total, around 5 5,0 0 0 women and 350 men are diagnosed with breast cancer each year in the UK and it is estimated that around 5-15% of cases are linked to a family history of the disease. While more women are now surviving breast cancer than ever before, the disease remains the leading cause of death in women under 5 0 i n E n g l a n d a n d Wa l e s .

Lead author Professor Gareth Evans, Professor in Medical Genetics and Cancer Epidemiology at the University o f M a n c h e s t e r, s a i d : “ T h e s e a r e the first significant data on the benefits of screening in women aged 35-39 who are at increased risk of breast cancer due to a f a m i l y h i s t o r y, a n d t h e r e s u l t s are very promising.

“Our trial shows that mammography screening is effective in detecting tumours earlier in this younger age group, and lays the groundwork for extending this screening in women at moderate or high risk

from ages 40-49 down to women age d 3 5 -3 9. “ Fo r w o m e n w i t h a f a m i l y h i s t o r y, r e m o v i n g a n o n - i n v a s i v e tumour so early in their lives is likely to be a cancer preventive.

Yo u o n l y n e e d t o l o o k a t c u r r e n t long-term survival outcomes in this group to see just how important new early detection methods could be.”

Baroness Delyth Morga n , Chief Executive at Breast Cancer N o w, a d d e d : “ T h i s c o u l d b e a n enormous breakthrough on early detection in young women with a f a m i l y h i s t o r y o f b r e a s t c a n c e r.

We b e l i e v e t h e s e f i n d i n g s c o u l d b e prac t ice - ch a ng i ng , a nd u rge the G ove r n m e n t ’s upcoming review of NHS screening programmes to set out what further evidence will be needed to consider annual screening for women aged 35-39 who are at increased familial risk of breast c a n c e r.

“Early detection remains absolutely critical to stopping w o m e n d y i n g f r o m b r e a s t c a n c e r.

The earlier the disease is found, the more likely treatment is to be successful – and this major trial suggests that screening could be vital in women as young as 35 who we know are at increased risk.”

With University ViceChancellors being paid 13 times median staff salary, is it time to set a cap on their sky-high wages?

“Pay inequality at the uni is clearly a very pressing issue.

I think it’s morally abject to pay anyone hundreds of thousands in a society where people can barely afford to get by, as living wages struggle to keep up with prices.”

Felix Hanif-Banks, History.

“I think earning 200k isn’t bad, they are part of top management so that’s pretty normal, 500k is quite high though.” Anoymous, Accounting and Finance.

“I think this trend is worrying. The Uni has been receiving much higher tuition fees since 2012, and all they seem to be doing with the extra cash is padding out their bank balances and investing in dangerous fossil fuels, instead of providing better financial and administrative support to their struggling lecturers and students. This is especially annoying when the Uni won’t get off my case about the 6 quid I owe them in overdue library loan fines.”

James Bosson, MA Politics “I believe that the work of the vice chancellor still remains too obscure to students, therefore rendering their pay rather unjustified, I’d say that Nancy Rothwell feels very detached from students.”

Bella Jewell, French and Italian “My problem is not with how much vice chancellors are paid, per se, but how much they are paid in comparison to lecturers.

Further, that vice chancellors earn so much but were happy to reduce payments to lecturers upon retirement is especially troubling and offensive.”

Jamaal Iqbal, Politics and International Relations

Investigations 7

ISSUE 16 / 18th February 2019 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Mansion Point and the changing face of student accommodation New redevelopments in students halls mean luxury accommodation is on the rise, impacting on the diversity of the student population Photo: The Mancunion

Felix Hanif-Banks Investigations Editor Fresh new halls are filling the huge void left by the emptying of the Owens Park Tower at the start of this academic year.

Mansion Point is the latest of these additions to Fallowfield life, offering a renovated Allen Hall, the old postgraduate accommodation on Wilmslow Road, from the beginning of next academic year.

It’s been bought by the Cheadle-based Mansion Group for nearly £5m which is reconfiguring the site and increasing capacity from 124 beds to more than 200.

The University of Manchester objected to the project saying it was concerned about the over supply of student accommodation at a time of falling demand.

It told the council that bed spaces were still available at the start of the 2018-19 year at a number of centrally-located student blocks.

According to a document prepared for Mansion Group in

late 2017 there are about 23,600 student beds in Manchester, with 60% controlled by the universities. The rest is in private hands.

Manchester is the fourth location for Mansion after Durham, Newcastle, and Leeds. Mansion Point will be its most expensive offering with the cheapest accommodation priced at £135 a week.

In line with other private accommodation in Manchester such as iQ, Mansion Point is promising a wide range of facilities such as a cinema room, pool table, TVs for each flat, and a promise of greater security.

Given recent reports that Withington is victim to the most burglaries in Manchester, students will undoubtedly flock to those newer developments that claim to guarantee better safety, but those students who don’t want to, or are unable to pay out vast sums for shiny, new accommodation, face being priced out of student halls if current trends continue.

Mansion Point’s price puts it roughly on par with the University’s own Richmond Park, but there’s a shortage of affordable housing for first-year students. An Oak House room

without a basin is still available for £99 a week, up slightly on previous years, but there are no more sub-£100 rooms on the market.

Less affluent students have no stake in these new developments and it’s clear they’re not the intended audience; pricier halls can only lead to wealthier students, and this takes away from the diverse and pluralistic place that university, especially in Manchester, should be.

The University’s new development, Unsworth Park, follows a similar path. Due to be completed for next academic year next to the current Richmond Park, Unsworth is being marketed to an upper echelon of students.

Student accommodation is a critical issue and mirrors in many ways the fabric of Fallowfield and other student areas.

Increased privatisation leads to residents and students having a smaller say in what form the local area takes in the future, and higher prices only seeks to alienate large quantities of people who would otherwise be welcomed into Fallowfield or its neighbouring areas. Mansion Point may be offering slick stylish living, but this all comes at a great cost.

Learning from Warwick: How does UoM deal with sexual assault?

The recent incident of rape threats at The University of Warwick make students reflect on the policies here in Manchester Ruby Bannerman Contributor The University of Warwick faced a barrage of criticism after it emerged two students who were banned for 10 years for their involvement in a group chat that threatened rape could return early – later this year.

Following the backlash there was a rapid U-turn and the university confirmed the pair will not be returning at all.

The two students were among 11 investigated by police last year for a group chat named, ‘F**k women disrespect them all’, wherein they threatened to assault, rape, and torture a number of female students.

Warwick’s initial position prompts two questions – How would my university respond to these circumstances? And, what measures would my university take to ensure my safety?

The University of Manchester, in 2010 at least, may have fallen short of expectations regarding the protection of its students after sexual assault.

In an article for The Telegraph entitled, ‘My university failed me when I reported my sexual assault’, ex-University of Manchester student Eleanor Muffitt argued that the University’s treatment towards her had significantly worsened her PTSD. She said: “As the University refused to tell me whether my assailant was still a student there, every day carried fresh fear that I’d turn a corner and come face to face with him. I stopped leaving the house and came incredibly close to ending my life,

before leaving university for good 18 months later.”

So have things improved for University of Manchester students who are sexually assaulted?

“

So have things improved for University of Manchester students who are sexually assaulted?

Seemingly so. Whilst in the past the University might have immediately handed all responsibility to Greater Manchester Police, which Muffitt suggested they had, it is now more engaged.

The report and support page on the University’s website lists numerous actions students can take if they have been the victim of a sexual assault, some arguably better than others.

For example, the first course of action suggested is talking to your academic advisor. If you are in halls, you can also

speak to your RESlife advisor. These are often circumstantial/ flawed suggestions as many young female students for example, may feel uncomfortable disclosing their assault to a male advisor who is an active faculty/residential member they may frequently see.

In her article, Muffitt particularly criticised this procedure.

Other options seem more viable such as Students’ Union Advice Service.

According to the website, this is a free, confidential, impartial service where students can get advice and information on numerous issues, including advice on procedures and representation at hearings. The Advice Service is also a hate crime reporting centre.

The advice page is clear and concise and offers an anonymous platform to seek help. This is a benefit students in the past like Muffitt did not have and removes any stigma one might feel when reporting through its anonymity.

Although you cannot predict exactly how individual cases may be treated, the pressure applied to the University and police from students like Muffitt, and movements like Reclaim The Night and MisogynyIsHate, mean that there will be a variety of options available to you if you experience assault.

Though suggestions such as speaking to your academic advisor may seem ignorant, that may be the appropriate course of action for some. Hence, it is difficult to measure the degree of helpfulness the university provides in this respect, its promises of respect, anonymity and support moving forward are promising.

8 Science & Tech

ISSUE 16 / 18th February 2019 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

UoM student wins prestigious undergraduate award The Mancunion looks at Cristian Bodnar’s work in artificial intelligence and machine learning that won him a prestigious award by the Global Undergraduate Summit Jacklin Kwan Science Editor Cristian Bodnar is the most recent winner of the computer science Thomas Clarkson Gold Medal award and was one of the two prize-winning students from the University.

The Thomas Clarkson Gold Medal is awarded by the Global Undergraduate Summit, widely seen as one of the most prestigious accolades for undergraduate students. His final year report for his BSc in computer science was recognised for its excellence and innovation in the field of text-to-image synthesis.

Cristian’s work is highly complex. It essentially aims to generate a completely new image just from an inputted text description.

It can be seen as a more challenging form of language translation, but unlike translating Spanish to English, where the languages you’re switching between are bound by limited vocabulary and grammatical structure, translating text to image can result in a huge diversity of results. “These images are generated similarly to a person you would ask to imagine a red flower, you can end up quite surprised with the kind of representations your program dreams up.”

In his research, Cristian utilised a type of neural network called a ‘generative adversarial network (GAN)’. It’s a class of artificial intelligence algorithm where a generator will create a

synthetic image, and a discriminator assesses how high quality that image is (i.e. how likely it is to be real). Cristian trained his neural network using sets of publicly available images of birds and flowers. Each image was captioned with a short description that specified features like colour, shape, size etc. These descriptions and their corresponding images were then

“

I was excited by the huge amount of ideas that could be tried and discovered

mapped onto a common ‘embedding space’, which was then implemented in synthesising new images.

Similar to how a painter first outlines the general shape of their artwork before filling in finer details, the neural network first generates a low-resolution image that is refined later on.

It represents just one of the many powerful applications of artificial intelligence in computing. However, the problem of text-to-image synthesis is a rather new one. “I

realised most people were working on the reverse problem: image captioning, which is a much easier problem. Research for text to image synthesis was just starting to emerge at the time. It was a young topic of research… I was excited by the huge amount of ideas that could be tried and discovered…”

Similar to many other challenges in technology, computer scientists need to mathematically express an abstract problem (in this case, a visual one). It’s one that requires creativity, which was part of what attracted Cristian, “I liked that Computer Science is at the intersection of so many fields, so I could literally do anything. I’ve always been extremely curious about everything and a bit reluctant to specialise in a single field. I think Computer Science was the right compromise for me because I can still work on genetics, robotics, mathematics, linguistics, or even art.”

In a couple of years’ time, Cristian’s research could have many commercial applications. “It could be used for replacing search.

If you want to buy some furniture, you don’t need to spend a couple of hours to find the one you would like, but you could actually describe one, a computer would then synthesise some 3D renderings and then someone will make it based on the model.”

Cristian is now an MPhil student in Cambridge where he specialises in artificial intelligence and machine learning. He’s now applying his education to ‘genetic algorithms’ (computational equivalents of the evolutionary process) and reinforcement learning.

Photo: Mike MacKenzie @ Flickr

Gravitational waves: round three Euan Hall reviews the latest developments in scientific efforts to understand ripples in space-time.

Photo: Charly W. Karl @ Flickr

Euan Hall Contributor After over a year, the search for gravitational waves is about to begin once again. The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) has been running upgrades since August 2017, and is in its final stages of testing before commencing its third observing run.

LIGO was responsible for the historical detection of gravitational waves in 2015. Gravitational waves are ripples in space-time, emanating from objects moving through space in just the right way, like two objects that orbit each other.

Much like two boats on a lake moving in circles, the orbiting bodies can send out waves to the edges of the water. In this analogy, the ‘flat’ lake is the fabric of space-time, which is flexible. It stretches and warps as things move through it. If you disturb this fabric with something catastrophic, say two orbiting black holes or two supernovae, gravitational waves will be sent out through the universe.

Gravitational waves were predicted by

Einstein in 1915, but we have lacked the ability to observe them until recently. LIGO sends a split laser beam down 4km vacuum tubes. The beams bounce off incredibly precise mirrors 400 times before they’re superimposed onto each other with extreme accuracy, causing destructive interference. If a gravitational wave passes through Earth then the path length for a laser in one direction lengthens, while the other shortens, and a signal or ‘chirp’ will be recognised by the researchers in the observatories.

In February 2015, LIGO announced that it had made its first detection, the merging of two orbiting black holes. After this detection, LIGO ran for three and half months and observed another gravitational wave event. In January 2016, it was switched off and underwent upgrades until November 2016 to achieve greater sensitivity and reduce noise. In its second run, it observed neutron star events – resulting in 84 scientific papers being published.

Now, after a year of upgrades LIGO is nearly ready for its third observational run. Ultimately the goal of each LIGO upgrade period is to

increase the detectors’ sensitivity, to increase the range at which we can detect gravitational waves and the frequency of them. We reached out to David Shoemaker, a senior MIT research scientist and spokesperson of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, for some details about the upgrades. Over the last year, the mirrors of the interferometers have been replaced with those that have better reflective coatings.

Shoemaker said: “We have several different colours of light in the detectors: a near-infrared beam, very powerful, to enable the detection; but also a weaker green light used to help obtain the initial operating lengths of the detector (bringing optical cavities into resonance). These new mirrors have better reflectivity for the green. They also have less ripple on the surface.

The result is a better use of the light we inject”.

In addition, the power of the lasers has been increased with new amplifiers, allowing for better resolution. “The more photons per second (i.e., light intensity) we have, the more precisely we can say how much light is falling on our light detector and the better resolution we have for changes in that rate that might be

due to a passing gravitational wave.”

As well as this, the interferometers use ‘squeezed light’ to improve sensitivity. The lasers are fired through a crystal that adjusts the rate of the photon flow so they are spaced out more evenly. This translates to a more complete wave pattern on the interferometer, an improvement to an uneven picture resultant from the inherent variability of photons. The detectors also have new panels to ensure no stray light leaks into the system.

However, the hunt for gravitational waves is a global one, and LIGO is not the only observatory upgrading. VIRGO, Italy’s partner observatory is undergoing its own upgrades, and when VIRGO and LIGO are both online researchers hope to detect mergers ten times more frequently each year. Japan’s Kamioka Gravitational Wave Detector (KAGRA), a unique underground and supercooled detector, is due to open late 2019. Furthermore, India is working on IndIGO, a $177 million observatory expected to be complete in 2024, which will further improve accuracy.

Features 9

ISSUE 16 / 18th February 2019 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Rats to riches: entrepreneur Eugene Lim

Jacklin Kwan interviews Eugene Lim, the founder of Rats to Riches, a strategy board game, about his journey in making the product and the creative challenges he faced along the way Jacklin Kwan Science and Tech Editor Rats to Riches is a finance strategy board game. It featured in the London Toy Fair, caused a mini-viral sensation in the UK’s board game community, and it was invented by a guy I met in my first year. Eugene and I met at a society social, and throughout my course, I witnessed his game grow from a modest student beta test into a huge startup success all on my Facebook feed. In the past two years, I began growing a fascination with how a normal, full-time university student could create something so... complete. From conceptualising and designing a game, making the tokens and cards, and actually having people who want to buy and play it. How did Eugene do it? What had happened in between the time we met at the single social to when he was suddenly giving Ted talks about his game?

I sat down with Eugene at the Bright Building. It’s an open space floor plan and professionals with lanyards are brainstorming over coffee, and it’s all very impressive. “It’s actually not part of the University. It’s just a random building for start-ups. My office is actually just around there,” he points around a bend while we’re walking to a table. I learned that Eugene actually earned his office space through an accelerated start-up program provided by the Entrepreneurship Society at the University. But by that the time he applied for the program, he had already begun work on a board game.

The story starts when Eugene is volunteering with Enactors, teaching secondary school students in Manchester about economics. But early in, Eugene noticed that there were often consistency problems. During the exam season, volunteers could not commit to the hours, leaving Enactors short-staffed. “I wanted to make a board game that could teach economics even if we weren’t there.” It made sense; Eugene already found that volunteers needed to make

Photo: Eugene Sebastian Lim @ Facebook, Dice: Steaphan Greene @ Wikimedia Commons

games out of complex concepts like interest rates, lending, trading.

With just a humble idea began the steep learning curve at the beginning of Eugene’s second year. Youtube videos of board game reviews and of game design were a must for someone who had never played much more than Monopoly. Eugene also became invested in gaining knowledge through the board game community. He would show up to board game events he found on meetup.com with scraps of paper so people could test his proto-game, catalysing incremental steps of feedback and the product design of Rats to Riches.

Whilst talking to him, it was clear a lot of this feedback wasn’t always easy to hear. Criticisms of an early version of Rats to Riches at a game de-

veloper meeting was particularly harsh, “Yeah, they just ripped my game apart. ‘It’s too convoluted. There’s no element of luck or skill. The game plays the player etc. etc. They basically told me my game was shit…But that just made me want to prove them wrong.”

Rats to Riches was already in the throes of intense development when Eugene was chosen by the start-up program. With that, he suddenly had £1500, an office, and a mentor network program to support him. “I had no idea what to spend the money on. This board game takes like, what, £2 to produce? It’s just cards and tokens.” So, rationally, Eugene decided to make 1000 sets of Rats to Riches Beta (yes, he prints the word ‘BETA’ on the box).

He uses these sets to test the game with stu-

dents and friends, but even late iterations of it were heavily criticised. 10 minutes of gameplay with one of his lecturers ended with a damning face-to-face review. “It was true. He told me that my game was too confusing, that it should be simple like chess, which only has six pieces but can interact in really complex ways. But it was hard.

I realised that to incorporate his advice, Rats to Riches would look completely different to what I already had made.” In a move that speaks volumes about Eugene’s devotion to improvement, he did end up scrapping main elements of his game to design it from the ground up.

“But it wasn’t easy. I know when I’m telling it to you, it just sounds really fast. But it really wasn’t.”

Early on, Eugene was putting in 13-15 hours of work a day, and his mental health began to deteriorate. “You just try so hard to make something out of nothing. And you’re just so aware all the time that it could so easily go back into nothing.”

But something was born out of nothing. Using the remaining sets of Rats to Riches Beta, Eugene and one of his course mates began launching huge social media campaigns, asking board game savvy influencers to test their game and say their thoughts. Soon, Rats to Riches was a mini-sensation on Instagram.

Eugene was eventually invited to a meeting in Liverpool with Accentuate, a company that stocks board games in huge distributors like John Lewis and is backed by Dragons’ Den investor Peter Jones. “I just thought they wanted to talk. But I arrived and everyone was wearing suits while I just had a t-shirt and jeans on.” Accentuate had booked out the entire floor of a restaurant, and as Eugene sat down to dinner, they revealed that they wanted to buy the licenses to sell Rats to Riches. “I just remember listening to all of this and going, ‘No.’” But eventually, with some more time to process their offer and iron out the exact terms, Eugene decided to partner with Accentuate. His board game will be sold all across the country.

How going 100 days sober can transform your life

Aaron Comer speaks to James Herdman who gave up alcohol and cigarettes for 100 days while at university, and discovered numerous benefits which the experience gave him Aaron Comer Contributor The beginning of February is an emotional time of year for students. The joy of exam results and the excitement of Valentine’s Day are always a call for celebration. Probably the biggest celebration for students this time of year, though, is the ending of the ‘Dry January’ campaign. Across the University, hundreds of students took part in this fundraiser by being sober for the whole month. Throughout January, students may have found this lifestyle quite rewarding. But how does university life change if being sober went on for longer than a month?

My friend James Herdman can help answer this question. From September last year, he decided to go a whole 100 days without any alcohol or cigarettes for charity. And trust me, this was a true endeavour for a man whose student career previously involved more trips to Fifth than to lectures.

James is resitting third-year in an economics and politics degree. Like some students, he has an interest in fitness, clubbing, and online gambling. In fact, it was the internet which was the initial inspiration for the challenge. “In summer I watched a review of Doug Polk (a YouTuber) going 100 days sober and I umm’d and ahh’d about the idea before thinking… why not give it a bash?”

By August, the plans for the challenge were getting into full swing. Personal goals were being set by James in all aspects of life — “I really wanted to improve attendance and general performance at uni, going to the gym six times a week in the process.”

The challenge became even more appealing to James after he realised how much alcohol dominates adolescent life: “speaking to my friends, none of us can remember the last time we hadn’t had a drink for more than a fortnight since we were 16!” He was beginning to realise that students drank far too much.

Reflecting on conversations with James at the time I could sense the excitement in his Yorkshire accent. The sacrifice was becoming more than just an act of personal achievement — it was forming into a health campaign for students.

Overall, the 100 days were a huge success.

James’ social life surprisingly didn’t take a hit at all. He spent the money that he would usually slide across the bar at The Friendship on nice meals in Manchester’s restaurants instead. He also visited the cinema so much that he decided to put this to use and start his own film podcast (The Final Cut) on Fuse FM. Reflecting on the general results of the 100 days, he noticed many healthy habits: “Without drinking, well-being gets better beyond belief… less anxiety, more sleep, and of course less hangovers.” An experience I imagine most partici-

pants of Dry January also shared.

But by the sounds of it, you really notice significant gains after 3 months sober. The facts are these: With the gym he went 53 times in 100 days, gaining 8lbs of muscle in the process. “I feel amazing, once I had been to the gym, I’d feel great all day and so much more confident in myself.” To put this achievement into perspective, this is the equivalent of gaining approximately 4kg – or 5% – of James’ total body weight before the challenge.

As alcohol seriously damages the ability for muscle growth, a noticeable change in appearance can quickly be seen by going sober.

The maths doesn’t stop there. James’ performance in other hobbies also improved. He was winning so much at poker he was earning a satisfactory wage for a student. “In 143 hours of poker I earned an average of £8.10 per hour, that was more than I was earning when I worked at Spoons!” Without the influence of alcohol or the cravings for a cigarette at the poker table, James was making more conservative and less irrational decisions, bettering his overall performance.

It also turns out you do not need statistics to notice the improvements in your life. “I learnt a lot about my mates during the challenge, you really notice who is a genuine friend beyond a drinking buddy.” I personally feel this is quite an unexpected and important benefit, especially for a final year student. Relying on alcohol for entertainment is not sustainable after graduation

when the real world of employment hits us in the face.

With graduation on topic, James feels it will be a happier occasion than it was for him last year. “I’m more involved in modules with more time to read and a clearer head, my exam results aren’t out yet, but they have absolutely improved!” It goes without saying that more visits to Fifth than university was a contributing factor for the need to redo final year.

It turns out alcohol and cigarettes really eat into your time more than you imagine. The few minute cigarette breaks and the morning hangovers can really rack up.

So, what advice does James offer to other students who are hoping to achieve the same? “Do it for a charitable cause so you feel better about yourself and to help others with alcohol-related problems.” There are numerous charity platforms online for students.

Websites such as JustGiving are financially safe and easy to use. He also advises to get someone else involved with the challenge,“It’s really important to do it with someone. It means you always have someone who is up for gyming or eating out when others are off to 256.”

So, if you’re reminiscing of the good times of going to university and a lack of morning paracetamol during Dry January, maybe the 100 days is the next step for you.

ISSUE 16 / 18th February 2019 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

10 Opinion Photo: marneejill @ Flickr

The Lion for Change: Recognising the power of adverts Aisha Al-Janabi looks at how TV adverts grab our attention and the impact that they have on social change Aisha Al-Janabi Deputy Film Editor Watching TV means that every 15-minutes there’s an interruption from a stream of advertisements, which collectively makes up a large portion of our viewing experience. I tend to roll my eyes at the awkward perfume adverts, but there are occasionally ones which do engage me.

Gillette recently revealed their advert on toxic masculinity which gained a lot of publicity through re-tweeting and sharing the video on a myriad of social media platforms.

I never thought I would go out of my way to watch an advert, but I did, along with many others with the video reaching more than 4 million views in the first 48-hours of its release, according to a report by The Guard-

ian. This more socially aware advert was a change from Gillette’s usual marketing, whilst this was something I welcomed, it was also met with fistfuls of negative comments.

An issue repeatedly raised with the Gillette advert appeared to be that brands do not have a role to play in social activism.

However, as adverts are easily accessed by those with TVs, this wide-reaching capability should be used to engage the audience and start conversations around topics effecting our society and normalise these; like women with hairy armpits, men doing the dishes and multi-ethnic families.

The legendary John Lewis Christmas adverts show that advertising can involve beautiful forms of storytelling that results in emotional responses that are beyond – and in addition to – a desire to buy what

Photo: Tim Parker @ Flickr

Pigeonholed by the puffa jacket Sophie Marriott looks at the way student culture, for all its diversity, can pigeonhole us into narrow tropes with particular expectations and how this can restrain our ability to explore our self-identities impact that they have on social change

is being marketed. The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity showcases branded creative communications and celebrates innovative advertisements.

The festival has several categories which can be entered, one of which is The Lion for Change focusing on how adverts can create positive social change. The 2018 winner of this category was from Libresse, known as BodyForm in the UK, a sanitary products company. The brand released their #BloodNormal campaign with the intention to normalise periods and remove the stigma surrounding them. The advert acknowledges that period cramps exist and hurt, it shows a man buying pads and is the first TV advert to depict period blood as red, and not blue as is normally the case. Despite having a period, I must admit I initially found this uncomfort-

Sophie Marriott Head Opinion Editor Facebook and Twitter are saturated with quizzes inviting you to discover which ‘type’ of student you are, or what style you suit best, or what you really should be studying based on your personality.

Are you fit? Are you chilled? Or are you a mess?

These tired tropes circulate lazily through our social media and smuggle us into overcrowded pigeonholes like batter-farmed chickens.

Only certain people will live in certain halls of residence, and they’ll also dress in similar ways, and of course, have exactly the same lifestyle. What type of student are you according to your favourite takeaway? Or better yet, what takeaway are you based on what type of student you are?

What should be a time of experimentation and self-discovery is becoming a race as to who can finish this process first. It feels as if the aim is always to present yourself as a finished product; polished, buffed, complete. However, this leaves no room to relish the process before this point, to wear outfits that perhaps aren’t very ‘you’, and sometimes outfits which aren’t really very anyone.

Having the ability to experiment with your style or your social group, is an opportunity to explore your deeper identity. Clothes can be a way to articulate your interests and passions to the outside world, just as your music taste can. The way you spend your free time is a kind of scouting out of your own mind.

able to watch but is precisely why the advert is needed. Many women are still made to feel ashamed and dirty of menstruating, but through explicitly showing this in an advert and celebrating it makes these topics unavoidable and will hopefully shatter the taboo surrounding them. The Cannes Lions Festival will be in June this year, and I’m unexpectedly excited to see what advertisements will be celebrated. Having this festival and giving recognition through awards encourages brands to continue to make engaging and progressive content, despite the negative backlash because it will come along side support.

There is still a lot of development to be made in branded communication, but there is certainly a shift in the right direction, and an increased pressure on brands to be socially responsible and engaging.

Not everyone knows exactly what they think, all of the time, nor is everybody in complete harmony with their background.

It is often assumed that every member of an ethnic minority is profoundly in tune with their wider community, and if they’re not overtly Black or Asian it’s because of some conscious choice they’ve made. Or equally, the more prevalent category, that of the middle-class white student, are not all from the happy homes in the leafy Home Counties.

At times, the Library can feel like the infamous lunchtime diner scene in Mean Girls, segregating the cliques of high school.

Of course, in Manchester, it is far more nuanced, and there isn’t the same pernicious judgement of those who make different fashion and lifestyle choices from yourself. There are some, however, who dish out scoffs to anyone who tries to escape the expectations built around them.

Manchester can be wonderful in accepting people from different backgrounds and cultures, and with different body types, but there’s a disturbing readiness to confine people to these groups. I’m sure most would agree that, in theory, all should have equal access to the puffa jacket as well as the sensible waterproof. Yet unconsciously we see one of these items and make a leap to an assumption about work ethic and social habits.

There should be more room for people to experiment with different cultures and genres.

What we expect of certain people becomes the only way they could behave.

Opinion 11

ISSUE 16 / 18th February 2019 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Face boo k

VS The Law

Razan Samkari argues that online giants like Facebook are not currently compatible with modern, transparent democracies and need to be restrained by laws and policy to protect their users.

Razan Samkari Contributor Facebook - the world’s largest social networking company, with over 2.3 billion members, was accused of breaching of data privacy throughout 2018.

Cambridge Analytica, a data-driven political consultancy firm, used the personal information of millions of Facebook users without permission to directly influence political campaigns, powering Trump and Leave.EU to success.

The story damaged Facebook’s reputation - #deletefacebook gained traction for a time but user numbers and profit continue to rise.

Profits topped £17bn last year, up nearly 40%.

The share price did sink by 30%, and it suffered the largest one-day loss in value ever in July - £100bn - but this reflected investor unease over slower growth, rather than privacy concerns.

The scandals have not put off advertisers, but they have increased calls for regulatory action, which could have a debilitating effect on Facebook’s ability to generate profits.

Founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg was summoned to Congress, but has refused to speak to MPs in this country. Many other countries have threatened a clampdown.

So far the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office - a public body which protects personal data - has fined Facebook £500,000 over Cambridge Analytica.

That was the maximum possible under old data protection laws. New EUwide rules are much tougher, allowing a fine of 4% of global turnover. Facebook’s revenues were about £46bn last year so that could mean a fine of about £190m.

This scandal proves that centralisation of the internet on a few highly influential websites grants companies almost unconstrained power, beyond the control of many countries’ legal systems. This manipulation of everyday people may create profits for Facebook, but it harms wider society.

Nimo Omer Contributor Our Future, Our Choice which is campaigning for a People’s Vote, arrived in Manchester last week as part of a national tour.

A behemoth of a blue bus was parked right outside the Students Union. Emblazoned across the side in bold, unmissable letters: “77% of us don’t want Brexit. Please stand up for our future!”

Photo: Anuli Changa

OFOC: A campaign for adifferent kind of Britain Nimo Omer looks at the success of the ‘Our Future Our Choice’ who were behind the blue bus on campus last week.

Although the establishment seem baffled by their success amongst young people they have reinvigorated Brexit.

“

According to the Guardian OFOC already has representatives in about 50 universities leading many to pontificate about the reasons for their success in such a short amount of time.

It was a sight for sore eyes. We often talk about how this generation has become more politicised and engaged, but from my experience, these politically charged spaces were often laden with a heady combination of hopelessness and cynicism.

Either people would be coming together to discuss the impending so-

This is becoming a central question of jurisprudence in the modern day: the idea that social media and the internet wield such power between them that they cease to be answerable to legal or political systems.

Many questions arise in consideration of Facebook’s seemingly unrestrained power. Facebook now operates with an annual revenue about the same size as the entire economy of countries like Lithuania, Croatia or Ghana.

It is a terrifyingly enormous financial entity, and it looms on the social horizon. Does its power amount to that of a nation-state in terms of the global order? If so, what is its role? D Does it have a responsibility to users in the way that government do to their citizens? And should it be accountable to them in the way a democratic government should be? In order for Facebook to exist in a healthily functioning democracy, these questions regarding its regulation and supervision must be addressed.

Mark Zuckerberg’s US Congress appearance demonstrated that lawmakers clearly do not comprehend how these companies operate, particularly in regards to issues of privacy. Technology is developing increasingly rapidly and the law must work with IT specialists to ensure that our legal frameworks move with the times to match these advancements.

This could be either by establishing a legal panel specialised in IT developments and regulations, such as computer engineering advancements, or an impartial governmental supervisory body of data security protection and breaches to bridge the gap.

Massive social networks like Facebook must be regulated by the legal system; they have proven they cannot be trusted with handling personal data. Currently, these private companies are taking advantage of out of date laws to generate profits by stealing people’s data and undemocratic political intervention. Lawmakers must stop being so oblivious and catch up with modern technology.

cial, economic, and environmental apocalypse or they would be there to pad their CVs. Both respectable choices, but I for one, want more than that.

According to the Guardian OFOC already has representatives in about 50 universities leading many to pontificate about the reasons for their success in such a short amount of time. Are young people are simply Europhiles? Are they just more political? Perhaps social media has something to do with it because social media always has to have something to do with it?

I would suggest however that this transcends the political message itself and the means through which it is disseminated.

OFOC is a campaign and organisation that seems to be running on the message that things can get better. Who would have thought that people would respond well to a narrative that doesn’t end with some kind of catastrophic nightmare?

With every broadcasting channel, radio show and newspaper article seemingly jumping at the chance to give airtime and column space to the most shocking clickbait, and alarmist voices for the sake of novelty, seeing young people who are trying to shift the narrative entirely is refreshing.

OFOC’s audacity to suggest that there is an alternative to the narrative offered by our two political parties lies at the epicentre of its success in the last few months.

With activists involved from all sides of the political spectrum, the organisation offers an entirely different kind of politics; one that derives its success from unity and not division.

I’m not sure what’s going to happen in the next few weeks, needless to say, it will be tumultuous, but I think what we see here is a glimmer of hope. The chasm created by increasingly destructive populist movements is being filled by an optimism that I assumed had been destroyed by the dark spectre that has been consuming our political landscape for years.

12 Societies

ISSUE 16 / 18th February 2019 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

So you want to start up your own society?

Are you thinking of creating a society but just don’t know how?

Ellie Martin lays out everything you need to know to get started.

Ellie Martin Contributor For those of you who have found a society that you’re enjoying, you might be thinking of getting more involved in the organisation and running of the group.

Societies are what the members make of them, so if you use the time you have at uni to make a society great, this can hugely benefit you and the society itself. If you’re not familiar with the way in which everything works, it can be a little confusing to get your head around how to become more involved in a society, or worse still, to start your own. Here is all the information you need on navigating societies; the committee, the jargon and, most importantly, what you need to do if you want to start a society.

Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need scores of students to start a society. The University of Manchester only requires a President, a Treasurer, a Secretary, and an Inclusions Officer (a 2017 addition) for you to be recognised. So, if you and your three flatmates want to turn those late night deep discussions about Game of Thrones into a weekly GoT social with 20 other people joining the conversation, then you’re on your way!

These four roles are what makes up a “Committee”. Each society must have these four essential roles to be officially recognised by the SU. Societies can have as many roles as they want in the committee, and these will vary

according to the needs of the society. Some will only need these four essential members, while others can have more than a dozen extra roles, depending on the size and demands of the society. These can be things like librarians, kit managers for sports societies, socials officers, and anything else that the society might need.

When it comes to who has the authority in a society, some may choose to give each member of the committee equal voting power when decisions have to made.

Others may choose to organise themselves with general committee members, more specific roles based on the society’s needs, and then an inner “Executive Committee” made up of the four essential roles who have more deciding power.

Societies who have links with Manchester Metropolitan University also must comply with their SU’s requirements, and so some societies will have members of the respective universities elected for roles set out by both SUs, working together in one committee.

If you’re interested in becoming a committee member, how do you go about it?

Each society holds ‘General Meetings’, which are open to all members of the society. Most societies will hold Ordinary General Meetings (OGMs) throughout the year where the committee members meet to discuss the society, any events that might be taking place, or socials that need to be planned.

Annual General Meetings (AGMs) are usually held in April or May, before everyone has left. This is when elections are held for the

following year’s committee. The democratic election of committee members is essential, and the minutes and results of the meeting have to be forwarded on to the SU. The Pirate Society (proof that you really can start any society you want) had trouble a few years ago when they refused to hold elections, as they stated that “democracy was weak and unpirate-like.” As a result, they weren’t officially recognised by the SU, which lead to some real trouble with funding and organisation.

Generally, each member of the committee, including the president, will be elected (or re-elected) from a pool of members who have put themselves forward for the positions. You can’t be elected if you haven’t put your name forward so, don’t worry, your mates can’t force you into a position if you don’t want to be elected. You may also have to present your reasons for running for a position at the AGM, and answer questions from the members as to what you might do in a certain situation or why you want to take on a certain role. Election terms for a committee are between one AGM and the next.

Extraordinary General Meetings are rare and called when there is something special that the whole society needs to vote on, like a committee member quitting and another person needing to be voted in to take their place.

A society’s constitution is another requirement of the SU for the society to be

A Strawberry Jam is a bloody big success Fuse FM’s period-themed club night raised enough tampons to supply someone for eleven years Chloe Hatton Societies Editor Fuse FM’s most recent club night was a bloody big success, collecting enough tampons for someone to use for 11 years, alongside a whole range of other sanitary products.

Following our preview of the event, which was a night full of the very best of Manchester’s female talent, the collaboration managed to raise a whole heap of sanitary products and money to help women most in need.

The night managed to collect 78 packets of pads, 66 boxes of tampons, 19 tubes of toothpaste, and 16 bottles of shampoo, alongside a range of other products like shower gel, panty liners, and toothbrushes. As if this wasn’t enough, the night also managed to raise £80 on the door.

If you were unable to attend but still want to donate, a collections box will be set up in 532 Bar and Kitchen, in the Students’ Union. The donations will go to rough sleepers and refugee and domestic abuse shelters across Manchester through Every Month, a charity that works closely with Bloody Good Period to provide sanitary products to those in need in the North of England.

Not only was this event designed to help raise vital supplies for Bloody Good Period, it also helped to showcase some of the brilliant performances that female DJs in Manchester have to offer.

Martha Bolton, Fuse FM’s Head of Events, claims there is still a problem with female

under-representation, especially in the world of work. Deciding to work with an all-female lineup helps to give many incredibly talented women, who may never have been on stage before, an opportunity to really show what they can do.

Seven DJs were given a chance to perform, with some even going on stage for the first time.

Although this may seem daunting, they all rose to the challenge, and both the performers and the audience were incredibly supportive.

Leia Barlow (Velmz) said: “It was a great experience meeting other female DJs, as it’s quite rare that I get the chance to! Everyone was so supportive, and there was a great variety of genres throughout the night.”

Martha added: “We don’t want to use euphemisms for periods. This is all about normalising something that has historically been very stigmatised, and we want to break down those barriers.”

The event was a huge success, with just under 300 free tickets being nabbed before the event and welcoming even more students at the door. If you were one of the unlucky ones who didn’t manage to make it down — never fear!

Our friends over at Funraising are, as we speak, compiling a short documentary of the night, full of footage and interviews for you to enjoy to your heart’s content. Keep an eye on their Facebook page for the video.

Stay tuned for Fuse FM’s next event by keeping up to date with their Facebook page — they’ll be back very soon with what is sure to be a bloody good night.

All photos: Callum Lunn @ Fuse FM

Photo: The Quidditch Society

officially recognised. If you’re starting your own society, the SU can provide you with a template for one. The constitution varies from society to society, but it is a document that sets out the intentions of the society and the ways in which decisions will be made.

Society constitutions are really interesting documents, and you can find some real gems hidden within the clauses. For example, after the Quidditch Society was reformed in 2014, the newly elected committee rewrote the constitution in a way that was immediately telling that it had been written by a group of private school boys, with roles of “Quartermaster” instead of kit manager, “Squire to the President”, and “Secretariat”.

Sections of the constitution might include definitions of what is meant by “member of the society”, the ethos of the society, how elections are run, and the roles of the committee.

When the AGM of your society comes around, you’ll be ready to ask the right questions and get yourself elected. And, if you’ve not yet found one you’re into, maybe now you feel more equipped to start a society of your own! Registration for new societies is closed for the current year, but get yourself ready with a constitution and a committee and apply for registration in the coming year.

You never know, your idea for a society might be what someone else has been looking for!

WOMEN IN

MEDIA ®

CONFERENCE 2019 #WIM19

Dates: 2-3 March Venue: People’s History Museum Info: Q&A sessions, workshops and speeches showcasing successful women in media and empowering confidence in those wishing to follow in their footsteps.

Location: People’s history museum Tickets on sale now!

Website: www.womeninmediacon.co.uk

Supported by Amnesty International UK

Scan the QR code and register to receive the latest job alerts This week’s top employers are:

Mancunion Crossword #8 Solution Revealed Next Issue!

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Police have arrested a man after he brandished a petrol-powered what in a pub in Sale? (3) What has been seized from curry mile lately? (6, 5) The President of Venezuela has called Trump an ‘extremist’, but what’s his name? (6) UoM researchers have developed new ‘smart-inks’, but made from which famous material? (8) Which student area in Manchester was recently named the worst in the city for burglaries? (10) Which famous artist’s work has come to Manchester? (2, 5)

Who’s been in a racism storm recently? (6) What starts at the end of this month? (2, 9) Northern Rail strikes are finally coming to an end, but what’s the name of the Trade Union representing staff?

(3) Which school is social sciences set to merge with? (3)

Contact Theatre’s The Toast S/S Thai Smiles Inside Feature: George Harrison Oscars Opinion: 20 Future: 24 Rack: 25 19: 26 Review: 27 Culture and ‘Raga Rock’: 18

CULTURE Photo: Mikey @ Flickr

THE

Opinion.

16

ISSUE 16 / 18th February 2019 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Music

Sexism remains an issue in the music industry Photo: Authorised Press Shot

Sports Team Photo: Carl T. Gosset Jr. @ Flickr

Women make up just 17% of the charts, and sexism in the industry goes much deeper even in our local music scenes writes Lily Martin It has become a topic of conversation that has disseminated across genres, styles, and continents, but remains scarily poignant: Do we have a deep-rooted issue with sexism in the music industry? And is that why women are struggling so much to break through into the charts and onto the stage?

The Independent reported this week that the USC’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative has concluded that the number of women on the charts “remained stagnant at 17%”. Female songwriters contributed to just 12.3% of their field in a sample of 100 songs, and just 2.1% of songs had female producers.

Stacy Smith, lead author of the report and founder of the initiative, told Rolling Stone: “A lot of what we are seeing is just a rinse and repeat of last year. When you look at songwriting credits, you see almost 25% of the 700 most popular songs have 10 male songwriters attached. That means 10 men are setting the agenda for a quarter of the most popular content being distributed lyrically in the music space.”

These figures suggest that the under-representation of women in the music industry is an issue that can be seen clearly on a surface level. But the gender discrimination, stereotyping, and disrespect women face seems to run far deeper – arguably being partly responsible for issues of representation higher up.

Manchester isn’t exempt from this. The lack of female fronted bands in local lineups is staggering, and gigs targeted at women in music highlight the massive disparity in opportunity between the sexes. Rarely do headlining or supporting female acts have the same level of public gravitas as their male counterparts, despite being equally as talented, hard-working, and capable. Female musicians may feel intimidated by their audience and ideals that they feel forced to uphold.

The more I speak to people, the broader the issue seems too. One front-woman of an up-and-coming indie band described how she once arrived at a popular Manchester venue to play a gig and was asked by the door staff which band her boyfriend was in. She also hates that a band being ‘female-fronted’ is now becoming a genre – “the Arctic Monkeys aren’t described as ‘male-fronted’ are they?”

An important point is made clear here: Are women in the music industry increasingly being defined by clear-cut roles and expectations about what they should be contributing to the scene?

There’s a plethora of female photographers, bloggers, journalists, and fans. But where are the female guitar techs? The female sound techs? The female tour managers?

Is the music scene just one big ‘boys club’, where women are pushed into the margins to fulfill supporting roles for their male counterparts? And, essentially, is this why women are so under-represented — because they are dominated over by the men in the industry?

In my opinion, the severe problems we face in equal representation and opportunity for the genders stem back directly to a much wider lack of respect that lies beneath the surface. Many women in the music industry are exposed to being framed by stereotypes of their place, particularly in terms of the word ‘groupie’. In this one label, a woman is utterly demeaned by her male counterparts, and in many cases her female ones too.

So the question now becomes: Has all that much really changed since the emergence of the ‘fan-girl’ in the 1960s?

It’s certainly no secret that the music industry is considered a hidden hive of inadvertently sexist attitudes. The underground scene is potentially the worst. Here, archaic conceptions about how to treat women and mutual respect, irrespective of gender, reign supreme. Male musicians develop reputations for sleeping around, playing women against each other and an ethos of acceptance prevents anyone from speaking up for principles that should have been left in the 20th century.

Women are treated with little professional respect even in the roles that they embrace. There seems to be an expectation for women to dress for the men in the scene, and many female lead singers have voiced the pressure they face to be aesthetically synonymous with one-another, and to become an image of sexualisation and female promiscuity. This seems to be something that the music industry feeds on – the mistreatment and disrespect for women are shrugged off by labelling them as ‘groupies’ and even in some cases shrouded threats to their standing and opportunities within the industry are used to encourage and intimidate.

Women may even be forced to question whether they exacerbate their own situation as well.

Women rarely speak up against what they witness and experience, in part because they are numb to it. This degrades any hope of feminism in an industry that desperately needs it. Other women are perceived as threats to male attention – instead of criticising the behaviour of men as old-fashioned and outdated, we turn against each other and become defensive, defined by the company we keep and instinctively hostile against anyone who could jeopardise that. Men in the music industry remain painfully unaccountable for their flippancy and ill-judgement in their treatment of women, and this ripples out into wider opinions of the position of women in the scene.

Significant strides need to be made, particularly starting from the very roots of the music industry if we are going to establish any real change in the perception and success of female musicianship. It is vital that any change needs to be targeted at abandoning traditional concepts about whose responsibility it is to advocate equality, and stop using it as a beacon for ego development and to get laid.

Josh Sandy highlights Sports Team as a rising band to keep your eye on as they may just have missed the accumulating ‘indie-landfill’

It’s often said (by me) that the road to hell is paved with ‘indie’ bands. However, occasionally a group comes along that reminds me that the UK alternative rock scene isn’t dead, it’s just in a Bastille-induced coma. Never have I been more reminded of this than when I came across the Cambridge-based six-piece Sports Team.

With the release of their debut EP Winter Nets last year, the band introduced the world to a new breed of guitar-driven rock with a distinctive pop-culture tinged lyrical dexterity.

This was backed up with two singles, ‘Margate’, a fast-paced upbeat ode to the popular British holiday destination, and ‘Kutcher’, which inexplicably uses the former Punk’d host as a bizarre relationship metaphor. Both releases started to draw whispers about their potential and this, coupled with their energetic live shows, earned the sextet a much coveted spot on NME’s 100 Essential New Artists For 2019 and a place in DIY magazine’s Class of 2019.

These tips have proved to be correct as the release of their new single ‘M5’ in late January has cemented their status as the band to watch in 2019. The song has enabled them to find a uniquely British niche and is dripping with retro Britpop-influence. It channels the Middle England angst and wit of Blur and invokes memories of both ‘Country House’ and ‘Parklife’. The track has already received the backing of Radio 1’s Annie Mac as her ‘Track of The Week’ and the accompanying video, which features the group against a hilariously badly green screened motorway, is well worth a watch.

After their single’s success, there are many reasons to be excited for the future of Sports Team. Starting with their upcoming UK tour, which includes an appearance at Manchester’s Soup Kitchen, as well as their hotly anticipated second EP Keep Walking! which is due in early March.

Of course, there will be people who, like me, may have lost faith in this genre, but I can assure you that the fightback is very much on – and Sports Team will be one of the first over the top.

Hot Right Now

Opinion.

ISSUE 16 / 18th February 2019 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Music

Just give me a reason: Why is Pink worthy of her BRIT award?

On the announcement that Pink will receive the BRIT Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, Bella Fleming looks at the reasons why she is not worthy

Photo: Raph_PH @ Wikimedia Commons

The Outstanding Contribution to Music Award will be back in The BRITS this year, having not been given out since Blur took it home in 2012. Past winners of this award include Sir Elton John, David Bowie, Queen, Oasis, and Spice Girls, to name just a few. And, last week, it was announced that the 2019 recipient of the Outstanding Contribution to Music Award will be the incredibly underwhelming American pop singer Pink.

The fundamental aim of The BRITs is to recognise and celebrate all the fantastic music made by British artists, and their contribution to the global music industry. So it does seem slightly strange that the winner of the Outstanding Contribution to Music Award is an American and as manufactured as pop singers get. Pink is only the second international artist to receive this award, after U2 won it in 2001. I don’t necessarily agree with international artists winning this award. However, I would argue U2 are far more relevant and have been far more influential to the global music industry than Pink.

According to the BRIT Chairman Jason Iley, in a statement made about this award, Pink is “truly one of the greatest artists of our time”. This is a statement that truly does confuse me. I don’t remember the last time Pink did anything significant in the music industry.

Maybe I’m not paying enough attention, but I don’t think Pink is at all relevant to the music industry as it stands today, and I especially

don’t think she’s one of the “greatest artists of all time.”

In order to try and find some understanding in this seemingly paradoxical world where Pink is being recognised as a musical genius, I turned to the BBC who recently published an article titled ‘Pink: 7 reasons she deserves her BRIT Award for outstanding achievement’. However, this article offered no solace. According to the BBC, Pink deserves the award because she never mimes when she sings on stage. If someone who is paid to be a singer is being congratulated on not miming when she sings, then should we congratulate the actors who don’t mime their monologues or surgeons who don’t pretend to operate? The answer is no. This is her job, and what she is ridiculously overpaid to do. This is not an outstanding achievement.

Another reason, according to the BBC, why Pink is worthy of the award is because she has “an impressive collection of hits”. I think this is clutching at straws. Hannah Montana had a lot of hits but I don’t see her receiving an award for contributing outstandingly to music, although perhaps Hannah Montana would have made a better recipient than Pink. If you look at the stats, the Hannah Montana soundtrack released in 2006 sold 3.74 million copies in the US

Record Reappraisal Blur

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alone. Pink’s most recent album, released in 2017, sold 1.8 million worldwide, with only 627,000 of them being sold in the US. That means that Hannah Montana, a fictional Disney Channel character played by a 14-year-old girl, managed to outsell Pink’s record almost six times over in the US alone.

Data from Spotify shows that Pink does not even feature on the list of the top ten most streamed artists of all time, the top ten artists with the most monthly listeners, the top ten most streamed songs or albums of all time, or even the top 25 most followed artists of all time. Even Demi Lovato managed to make it onto that list. So yet again, Pink may have had a few hits in her time, but arguably anyone can have a hit, and this is no indication that an artist has significantly contributed to music.

Maybe I have it completely wrong, and Pink has done something miraculous or maybe I just haven’t listened to enough of her ear-bleeding artificial pop songs. Perhaps there’s a more political motivation behind the award. Whatever the reason is, I think Pink is undeserving of the Outstanding Contribution to Music Award.

I, for one, will be changing channels as soon as Pink takes the stage next Wednesday.

Photo: Indopug @ Wikimedia Commons

Blur

Daniella Veneziale reviews Blur’s monumental self-titled album as it reaches 22 years old 1997 was a strange year for music, and many would say the beginning of the end of what had been one of the most momentous events in British music since the 1960s — Britpop. Oasis released their third album, Be Here Now, regarded by many as the worst of the decade, and it would not be until 1998 before Pulp’s This Is Hardcore would signal the brutal, undignified death of Britpop for good.

For Blur, however, a change in musical direction proved immensely fruitful with the release of their fifth studio album, the eponymous Blur in early 1997. A stark departure from the tongue-in-cheek, satirical take on mid-nineties life in Britain encapsulated by their previous record, The Great Escape, Blur saw a stronger influence from American bands such as Pavement. As Graham Coxon stated during this period, “(American guitarists) were doing very interesting stuff with guitars and I needed to be nourished,” Blur therefore really stood out as a symbol of Coxon’s rejection of Britpop and yearning to make music “which scared people again.” It was a metaphorical band-aid, enabling the band to function once again as a

collaborative outfit, something they had lost during the Britpop years, and a departure from Damon Albarn’s previous sole dictatorship over the band’s musical style and aesthetic.

What came from this was Blur’s most thoughtful album to date; a somewhat come-down from the dizzy heights of Britpop to a more mature outlook, and experimentation with lo-fi sound.

But what sparked this need for change, not just for Blur, but British bands across the board?

Not only were band members themselves growing up and getting older, but the face of Britain was changing; it was time to ditch the class A’s and think about the future. This sentiment is all too apparent in tracks such as ‘Death of a Party’, where Albarn croons “The death of a party/Came as no surprise/Why did we bother?”

From the album emanates a sense of loss, and a sense of confusion of existence, as well as a reflection on the changing social and political climate.

Change is not only reflected lyrically but in musical style with the Bowie-esque ‘Look Inside America’, a merging of Coxon’s signature guitar riffs with an acoustic sound likable to something off Hunky Dory. Lo-fi is utilised to the max in the track preceding it with ‘I’m Just a Killer for your Love’, where Alex James’ bass really seeps into the senses, tying the depth and ambiance of the album into a neat bow. The Bowie influence is seen more than once, with the bittersweet optimism of ‘You’re So Great’, a Coxon-sung track and arguably the most tender on the album, with lyrics reading “And I feel the light/When you tell me its OK/Cos you’re so great, and I love you.”

Gone were the days of Blur vs Oasis, a new era in British music was on the horizon, and Blur would be riding that wave until their hiatus in 2003.

Read the full article on mancunion.com.

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ISSUE 16 / 18th February 2019 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Music

The big feature.

George, Ravi and The Rise of ‘Raga Rock’ Aidan Tinsley explores George Harrison’s famous relationship with Ravi Shankar and how the influence of Indian music has infiltrated the UK’s popular music scene

The importance of Indian influences on western popular music is often overlooked - most people can name their favourite rock musician or guitarist, while few can name even a single sitar player. Some might be tempted to explain this with a simple “people in the west just aren’t exposed to Indian music”, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. When you look at the Anglo-American musical trends of the mid-1960s and early ‘70s, the unavoidable and undeniable presence of Indian influences becomes clear, erupting onto the scene in 1965, when George Harrison was first introduced to the work of Indian musician Ravi Shankar.

The “Sitar Maestro” Shankar had begun to perform and record in the UK in the mid-1950s in an attempt to gain a western audience for his compositions of Hindustani classical music, recording his debut LP Three Ragas in London in 1956. Through this endeavour, Shankar caught the attention of Byrds singer David Crosby, who promptly introduced his music to friend George Harrison. The Beatles lead guitarist became fascinated by Indian music, a fascination which birthed the song ‘Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)’ on the Rubber Soul album in 1965. The heavy use of the sitar in this song marked the beginning of the phenomenon which would become known as ‘Raga Rock’, a period in the latter half of the 1960s in which influential rock musicians began to incorporate Indian instruments and sounds into their music, famously including the use of the sitar in the Rolling Stone’s hit ‘Paint It Black’ back in 1966.

George Harrison continued to champion Indi-

an music in his solo career, with his first release being Wonderwall Music (1968), a collaboration with Shankar and the soundtrack to the film Wonderwall. This album employed occasional non-English vocals and Indian instruments less well-known in the West than the sitar and tambura, such as the shehnai and sarod, and more closely resembled a work of Indian classical music than anything Harrison had produced before.

One of my favourite Harrison tracks has to be ‘My Sweet Lord’ from his third solo LP All Things Must Pass (1970), not only for its hypnotic acoustic rhythm, signature silky slide guitar, and powerful key changes- but because it sought to change the way we view culture and religion, bringing people from different backgrounds together. ‘My Sweet Lord’ says so much by saying so little, with alternating chants of “Hallelujah” and “Hare Krishna” serving to call to an end to the divisions of religions from different cultures- instead offering lyrics to which all religious believers can relate.

George Harrison’s career spanned over forty years, in which time he experimented with a host of different genres and sounds, but it was his Indian-influenced work which always felt the most personal. Harrison had a passion for the music he had discovered in the ‘60s, and this translated into the authenticity of the work he produced- forever acting as a reminder that different music and cultures exist in the world other than those of the West, and are just as important.

Read the full article on mancunion.com.

In Conversation with

Photo: Mark McNulty @ Authorised Press Shot

Queen Zee

Zene Davine, lead singer of glam punk group Queen Zee, talks politics, being a transwoman and the DIY production of their self-titled debut with Issy Bolitho Released 8th February, Queen Zee’s debut album has been a long time coming. Davine calls it a relief to finally be sharing it, saying “it feels good as a band to be putting out your statement.”

The album is set to deliver exactly what Queen Zee do best, loud, riotous, yet introspective, rock that is sure to keep you moving, singing, and thinking. Despite the weight of album number one being lifted, the band are keen to dive into new music. “I’m looking forward to the next record”, Davine says, “It’s kind of great to move on from the material.”

But there’s no rest for the wicked; with new songs being demoed as we speak it’s clear the band are taking no time off in the wake of their debut.

Davine mentions that although their identity within the LGBT+ community has shaped the band, they don’t want that to limit themselves and the audiences they play to. “Playing Reading and Leeds I can go and preach to the audience where maybe 50% of them agree with me and 50% don’t,” and it is opening such dialogue that Queen Zee is all about. Davine talks about playing major festivals, “being invited to play there as a trans person is an absolute minori-

ty,” and the necessity of her “invading those spaces… and normalising who I am.”

Although the band are arguably political in nature, Davine takes the stance that because of the current “bizarre political climate” the writing of the band is politicised due to trans and LGBT+ politics being at their forefront.

Queen Zee provide an essential voice in normalising trans and LGBT+ voices at a time where politics are “on the table for everyone to debate.” Davine adds that “my nature and my existence has become debated.”

Not only are the band unique in their poignant lyricism and their scruffy, boot-stomping riffs but in the DIY method that is behind everything they do. “It was almost DIY at the start out of necessity,” the band don’t have any major label backing, starting their own label Sasstone Records, and had no external funding. Despite this, they weren’t prepared to “sit around and wait for someone to do it.”

It is this ethos that sets the band apart and allows pure passion to shine through the cracks of their punk imperfections. Davine points out the “rough around the edges” nature of the album, citing it as “energy and passion rather than just perfection.” This mentality has

provided a vital learning curve for the band, getting them from a point where “neither of us could really play our instruments” to producing their debut, running their own record label, and creating their own artwork that is reminiscent of a 90s punk zine.

Charming all those who listen with their brutal honesty and tongue in cheek humour, the band have amassed a cult-like following. Fans have twitter competitions comparing the number of gigs they have attended, some upwards of 20 only two years after the band’s initial entrance onto the scene, with Davine adding “they recognise the same faces in the audience quite a lot of the time.” And the impressiveness of their devoted fanbase does not stop there, with the band receiving acclaim from the likes of Iggy Pop saying “they rock like crazy.”

2019 is set to be a record year for the quintet, with a headline tour and the release of their debut album. Things are only looking up for the band that is set to dance, kick, and rock their way into your hearts.

Be sure to catch Queen Zee this weekend (23rd Feb) at the YES basement.

Read the full article on mancunion.com.

Listen to our Spotify Playlist Scan the code and follow ‘The Mancunion’ for more!

ISSUE 16 / 18th February 2019 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Games

RIOT - Civil Unrest

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RIOT - Civil Unrest is fighting a losing battle, writes Jeremy Bijl

REVIEW

Riot - Civil Unrest Jermemy Bilj

4/10

Riot - Civil Unrest is a game that looks at the most carnal expressions of modern human conflict, yet never really comes to terms with its own internal contradictions. Whilst it’s certainly an interesting and mimetic project, it remains a clunky and narratively uncertain piece which frustrates as much as it excites.

Riot, in essence, is a real-time strategy game which sees you take control of either rioters or police, set against the background of real-life riots. The Police, as you might expect, are more tactical: you control small units in each level, but have more powerful weapons. Playing as the rioters is much messier (which may well be the point), and it can be hard to control the throng of protesters from your position in front of the screen.

Whilst the gameplay, in this way, certainly represents what a riot might really be like for both sides, the graphical style does somewhat obfuscate the game in terms of functionality. The blurry, pixelated characters can be very troublesome to differentiate, which is problematic for a game which primarily re-

quires pointing and clicking to get things done. Additionally, the camera and view controls felt unresponsive and unwieldy.

It also simply wasn’t fun. As nebulous as this sounds, I simply didn’t find myself enjoying playing Riot. The interface was hard to navigate and the game felt clunky, while the depersonalisation of both sides created by the blurred art style meant it was difficult to emotionally invest, as did the lack of an overarching narrative. It all felt a little like the gameplay had been contrived from the premise.

I never really got a proper grip of the narrative. Strangely, story mode seemed to have little in the way of story, which was mainly found in global mode, the campaign which sews the game together. Global mode held some appeal, asking you to consider public opinion when making decisions, but was mainly an exercise in repetition, albeit with increasing difficulty.

Levels were small and delocalised, giving only a few cursory lines of context.

The cut scenes were interesting, but did little to really engage you with ensuing events. More troubling, however, was the fact that this game seemed to so little of consequence about its subject matter.

Indeed, Riot, which I assumed would

be politicised to the point of controversy, was mainly anodyne and inoffensive.

Passiveness was always rewarded; violence almost always deemed unnecessary. Journalism mode sees you get paid to get pictures, with no expansion on the topic after that. Moreover, the levels were relatively straightforward as you are only ever given one very achievable objective, meaning that you could largely ignore more complicated and morally troublesome mechanics.

I can see why the developers wouldn’t have wanted to push politicisation too far as it would risk dividing an already niche audience, but its failure to meaningfully engage ultimately felt like an opportunity missed, rather than a pitfall evaded.

Perhaps the most profound thing RIOT does is, in many ways, to its own detriment. Riot is almost completely lacking the fun found in classic RTS games like Age of Empires, but this does have the knock-on effect and making the player ask, ‘should a game about riots be fun at all?’ The despair of humanity when in total revolt does shine through in this way; it’s just unfortunate that it’s at the expense of enjoyment. RIOT - Civil Unrest is available on PC, PS4, Xbox One, and the Nintendo Switch.

The State of Skate: where are the games?

EA and Activision have no plans for a bigger budget skate game or re-boot, but two indie studios are stepping to fill the breach, Jeremy Bijl writes Gaming and skating had, until the turn of the decade, gone hand in hand. The massive success of the Tony Hawk series throughout the late ‘90s and 2000s and the Skate series up until Skate 3 in 2010 has meant that skating fans have never been left wanting.

Now, however, nine long years have passed with the only release of note being the universally maligned Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5, which did little to satiate the appetite of fans of the sub-genre. So, what’s going on with skating games, and is there any hope of a better tomorrow?

Well, the short answer for fans of the aforementioned series is, sadly, no. Tony Hawk announced via Twitter in February 2018 that, “Activision owns the THPS (Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater) license but I am no longer working with them.”

Rumours about Skate 4 have always refused to go away, but the last official word that we heard on the game is a trite statement from EA CEO Andrew Wilson saying that EA “are not currently making Skate 4.” EA, having recently announced that the 7.3 million sales of Battlefield V meant it had “flopped” are presumably disinterested in rebooting a franchise that sold little more than that at its zenith.

However, with the niche long uncontested, seeds of hope have begun to grow out of the ashes of despair for skateboarding game enthusiasts in the form of two in-development indie projects, titled Skater XL and Session (formerly Project: Session).

It is worth noting at this point that both games are still a very, very long way from representing the finished products. Skater,

which is made by Easy Day Studios, is currently in early access on Steam, but amounts to little more than a mechanical proof of concept, being set on a small arena with no objectives, scoring system or narrative.

Nonetheless, its subreddit has been quick to praise the mechanics: in Skater, each thumbstick controls one foot, making for a deep, difficult, and ostensibly realistic playing experience; rather counter-intuitively (at least at first), board movement is done with triggers. It currently holds a ‘very positive’ rating on the Steam store and costs £15.49. It is only available on Microsoft Windows, although Easy Day have said an eventual console release is “very possible.”

Like Skater, Session maps each in-game foot to its respective thumbstick and movement to triggers, but a major difference is that it is being built using the Unreal Engine rather than Unity, which is being used for Skater.

Which of these approaches is more successful remains to be seen, with Session set to hit Steam’s Early Access programme in Q2 2019.

However, Session’s life has hitherto been going somewhat less smoothly than Skater’s.

Even though the game is not yet in early access, fans on its subreddit are worried about a perceived lack of communication from developers Crea-ture Studios on the project, and some feel that Skater has progressed better so far. A free demo has been available for some time, but, like Skater, it is very raw - probably even more so, having tried it out - and has not been updated for a long time.

However, it should be noted that Session’s

Kickstarter backers are receiving more regular updates as to how the game is developing.

Additionally, Session currently has an advantage in that it will be available on Xbox One as well as PC, and, having signed a 3-month deal with Microsoft for launch exclusivity, will surely receive some backing from the tech giants. By implication, a PS4 release may be made available following that 3-month period, although nothing has been confirmed yet.

At the moment, then, the ‘state of skate’ is that we have two competing projects with small but passionate fan bases. Both look promising, with the commitment to realism, difficulty, and punk music that endeared so many fans to the original two Skate games. However, the games default settings of using the right and left bumpers to steer feels very cumbersome, and this doesn’t help the currently clunky feel of both games; a far cry from the smoothness of Skate or even THPS. Nonetheless, development blogs show varying levels of sustained progress, even if it is not coming quite fast or regularly enough for fans who have already financially backed the projects.

However, it really is too early to tell whether either product will live up to the high standards set by the skating games of the 2000s, let alone which will ultimately will better. Whilst Skater XL has a firm upper-hand for now, there’s a long way to go until these two games are fully-fledged products ready for sale. The competition between the two and the intense scrutiny of their fan bases can only make for a more fascinating contest — may the best skater win.

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ISSUE 16 / 18th February 2019 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Film

The Terrordome is here Danielle Carbon-Wilson Contributor

4/5

Welcome II the Terrordome bridges links between past and future, a future that has become our present making it more relevant than ever before In the last few years, the world has seen a surge in films fighting for change within racist, corrupt social systems of power. However, Ngozi Onwurah’s pioneering film, Welcome II the Terrordome, highlights the reality of how long people have been fighting for this change and in some cases, how little there has been. Part of HOME’s 2019 campaign to celebrate women in global cinema, Onwurah’s film is just as relevant today as it was in 1995 when it debuted as her first independent feature film, the first in Britain directed by a black woman.

It is an Afrofuturist science-fiction set in a near dystopian future, exploring, very exOnwurah’s film is plicitly, the racism, gang violence, just as relevant and police corruption of late 20th today as it was in century Britain. It has none of the sub1995 tlety of today’s films but made in a time when racism itself wasn’t as masked as it has become, Onwurah is not interested in subtlety. The

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film starts with a family of slaves who decide not to ‘brand their souls’ and so walk, shackled but together, into the sea. Here, Onwurah incorporates Ibo mythology as we learn that the souls of these slaves travel to the future Terrordome, where the same actors play the main characters – now, their shackles are hidden behind prison walls.

The film’s documentary style becomes evident as we, the audience, are placed in the driver’s seat of a car, cruising through the exaggerated ghetto that is the Terrordome. The traditional fourth wall created by the camera, allowing audience passivity, is broken as we are assaulted with the looks, shouts, and fists of its inhabitants: they are angry. Angry at their lives and at their audience, who, at the time sat and watched the injustices and were inactive on and off screen. That anger is pushed to the brink when a young boy is killed and a violent revolution begins.

Dr Amy C. Chambers, a Senior lecturer of film at Manchester Metropolitan University, introduced the film, stating that Onwurah was widely criticised in 1995 for this palpable anger, fuelling the familiar label, ‘angry black woman’. The few critics who recognised she was a woman used this label to describe and undermine her and it is a label we still hear today. It’s true, the film is angry, violently so, but this was exactly the driving force that led Onwu-

Photo: Courtesy of HOME

rah to make it in the first place. Tired of the daily injustices they incurred and the voices and stories unheard in the media, black people, including Onwurah, were by and large angry.

Through the film, she creates a space to express this; it is not quiet or humble, described by Onwurah herself as ‘a primeval scream’ that what was happening was wrong.

The film is hardly perfect, the dialogue at times is simplistic and repetitive and some of the acting doesn’t quite meet Suzette Llewellyn’s emotionally charged performance. But despite her low-budget, Onwurah has achieved a piece of art which, as Dr. Chambers acclaimed, “packs a powerful political punch”.

She cleverly uses form, specifically narration, bringing the African oral-tradition of folktale into her imagined future, using rap as a form of story-telling.

In this way, we see how Welcome II the Terrordome bridges links between past and future, a future that has become our present and for this, it is more relevant than ever.

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The Oscars are the film industry’s worst enemy Opinion:

In an effort to streamline their yearly awards ceremony, The Academy has flipped the bird to the film industry in favour of pleasing the masses, writes Tobias Soar The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is the biggest cancer in the film industry. They have turned film-making into a competition for the viewer’s bloodthirsty pleasure. Casual film-goers will now be swayed to watch Oscar award-winning films over other (arguably more creative) “losers”, thus missing out on fresh cinematic experiences. This year, for the 91st Academy Awards, a decision to streamline the ceremony has had an unfortunate side effect. It has given the middle finger to a huge group of industry professionals.

Instead of excluding musical acts or enforcing shorter winning speeches or even reducing the number of commercial breaks, the 91st Academy Awards will skip over broadcasting the awards for cinematography, film editing, live action short, and makeup and hair-styling.

“In the history of CINEMA, masterpieces have existed without sound, without color, without a story, without actors, and without music. No one single film has ever ex-

isted without CINEMAtography and without editing”, tweeted Alfonso Cuarón, director of the Oscar-nominated Roma. I completely agree. The technical elements of film-making are core pillars of the art and hiding the celebration of their greatest contributors is a poke in the eye to every cinematographer and film editor, living or deceased.

Allow me to list “Best Picture” Oscar-winning films whose cinematography and editing elevated them to a position in the Cinema Hall of Fame, in my opinion: Moonlight, Birdman, The Artist, Silence of the Lambs, Rocky, The Godfather, and The Godfather Part 2. Without their cinematography and editing we wouldn’t have iconic shots which are burned into the mind of practically every living person who has seen a film. Another merit these films hold is that they aren’t “Oscar-bait” — I’m looking at you, The Post. Unlike some films which were specially made to secure an Oscar win, they are fantastic films which just so happen to have been appreciated by the Academy, too.

Photo: Mohamed_Hassan @ Pixabay

I also think that the Academy’s decision to exclude these categories is irresponsible. They have a duty to preserve and acknowledge every pillar of the art of film.

They should be upholding a golden standard of what makes film special.

Fortunately, the exclusion of these categories is temporary — next year four different categories will be glossed over instead. Obviously, the solution is to give less recognition to industry professionals so the Academy can earn more during commercial breaks. And of course, the not-cringeworthy-at-all musical interludes must be preserved at all costs!

President of the Academy, John Bailey, if you really believe that you are “committed to presenting a show which we will all be proud of”, you should take a step back and look at how your crowd-pleasing decision is not only harming but insulting the industry. If I were you, I wouldn’t be proud at all.

ISSUE 16 / 18th February 2019 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Film

21

Howl’s Moving Castle

Review.

Carl Fitzgerald reviews Howl’s Moving Castle, and despite being 15 years old, still offers a breathtaking viewing experience, which has to be seen on the big screen Carl Fitzgerald Contributor

Photo: Bagogames@Flickr

This past week I was offered the pleasure of being able to attend a screening of Hayoa Miyazaki’s 2004 epic, Howl’s Moving Castle at the Odeon in Deansgate. I’d never seen the film before and, sitting in a coffee shop just outside the screen room right now, I can’t think of a better immediate response than to notify all readers of another screening on February 21st at Vue, and implore all of you to book tickets as soon as possible. This is a movie which demands to be seen on the big screen. The sheer scope of the world it creates is immersive enough to make you want to climb into the huge screen and live within it.

The story follows a young girl named Sophie living an uneventful village existence. Tales abound of witches and wizards occupying the outskirts, particularly of the wizard Howl, who wanders the world in a gigantic mobile castle, and the Wicked Witch of the Waste. But after a chance encounter with Howl, Sophie is bitterly

transformed into a frail ninety-year-old woman by the Witch. Wanting to find a way to break the curse, she ventures out to the valleys and is swept up by Howl himself, leading them, along with many other colourful characters, on an adventure beyond any wildest dream.

Howl’s Moving Castle looks gorgeous. Anyone who knows Studio Ghibli’s oeuvre knows of the sheer depth of skill that goes into their animation, and this film is no exception. From the opening shot, as a thick mist clears over the mountains and we first see the titular castle hobbling along the landscape, it requires taking a moment to absorb the whole thing. And it doesn’t stop there. Every frame is filled with touches of stunning attention to detail, glueing your eyes to every scene.

Furthermore, Miyazaki’s profound imagination is never wasted on his settings or characters. From a talking flame who eats eggshells to a small storefront which can

5/5

occupy a space in any village. But perhaps the film’s two most profound scenes involve exploring the setting of Howl’s garden.

This location not only makes for a quaint change of pace from the story’s madness, but is an absolute masterclass in Miyazaki’s ability to animate nature. Every blade of grass seems to move with the film, and its use in the later stages develops into one of the most breath-taking sequences of animation ever played in a movie.

But Miyazaki never loses track of his story and characters amongst the sheer size of the thing. He keeps it fairly simple and focused, but with enough twists and turns to the point where you never know what to expect and are always enthralled. I’d encourage anyone to see a Studio Ghibli picture on the big screen whenever the chance comes knocking. But Howl’s Moving Castle is such a magical and perfect piece of art, that I’d implore you to see it in the cinema.

In discussion with LevFlix

Photo:LevFlix

LevFlix was created in 2018, and hosts screenings with the community at the heart of it’s founding, organisation and continued success, writes Aisha Al -Janabi Over cups of tea, I had the opportunity to chat to Zoe who volunteers at LevFlix, which is a local cinema organisation. LevFlix was created after the re-opening of The Levenshulme Old Library in 2018, and hosts screenings with the community at the heart of it’s founding, organisation, and continued success.

Whilst talking to Zoe it was clear there is a wonderful collaboration between the the community and Leflix is a not for those involved with LevFlix. Levflix is a profit organisation not-for-profit organisation run by a team run by a team of of volunteers to provide accessible and volunteers engaging film screenings at The Levenshulme Old Library.

As the name would suggest, this was a library that opened in 1905 before, sadly, being closed in

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2016. This would not have been possible without continued support from locals who in 2013 occupied the library and refused to leave in order to prevent it’s closure, along with demonstrations that were held outside the Town Hall.

Despite this success, the library building remained unused for some years but with continued pressure and support from the public the building was re-opened and re-purposed in 2018 as an Arts, Community and Cultural Centre.

The long-awaited opening of the community centre was successful and Zoe fondly remembered visitors coming in saying “I remember when it was full of books!” Although no longer kitted out with bookshelves, thankfully it is still filled with something that provides invaluable resources to the community.

One of these resources born from the reopening is Levlix and the importance of locals is evident from how these film screenings are organised. When I asked Zoe about their target audience her answer was simple, “anyone who’d like to” which is certainly possible through it’s pay-as-you-feel scheme. In addition to this, the volunteers created an online survey to find out film preferences audience members had so this could cater be catered for, something

which is a unique possibility as a community cinema.

From these surveys the three most popular genres seemed to be international, independent, and documentary films. The next film certainly fulfills these, with Britain on Film: South Asian Britain being shown on Wednesday the 20th of February at 7pm. The film is collated archive footage of Britain’s South Asian communities from the 20th century.

The funds raised from these screenings have been used to subsidise matinee films for families during the school holidays. Events such as this can give parents invaluable support during school holidays and provide engaging experiences for children as alongside the screening were crafts supplies, biscuits, and fruit – all the requirements for a great afternoon.

Levflix is still a young organisation, created in 2018, and are looking for more volunteers including behind-the-scenes side of the organisation including social media outreach and support on the day of screenings like setting up.

To find out more about upcoming film screenings, or about getting involved with Levflix head to their Facebook page or website for more details and to find contact details.

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Books

Review: ‘Mouthful of Birds’

by Samanta Schweblin

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One of Argentina’s most prominent writers, Samanta Schweblin, reaches new levels of eeriness in her latest short story collection ‘Mouthful of Birds’, writes Gurnaik Johal Following the success of her debut novel Fever Dream, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize in 2017, Mouthful of Birds is Samanta Schweblin’s first collection of short stories published in English. People have rightly compared her dark, surreal style with Kafka, the Grimm brothers, and even the films of David Lynch, but there is something distinctly startling in these 21st Century Argentinian stories.

The first story, ‘Headlights’, begins with a newlywed abandoned by her husband as she takes a toilet break on the side of a highway. He drives off and she finds herself stranded amongst an otherworldly community of jilted brides. The story is flipped on its head — something you’ll get used to while reading the collection. The twists in the plots are like hard handbrake turns, perspectives shift with a screech.

Schweblin sweeps across a large area of life in Buenos Aires, from brutal gangs in stories like ‘The Test’, to the art world in stories like ‘The Heavy Suitcase of Benavides’. Some of the stories are barely a few pages long. Schweblin is brilliant at boiling off the excess in a story, leaving something dense and essential. The brevity and compelling writing style propel you through the collection quickly — you can finish a story in a matter of minutes.

A quick roundup of all book-related events coming up this term in and around Manchester by Gurnaik Johal

Photo: Rept0n1x @ Wikimedia Commons

The collection is wide-ranging.

Schweblin is a writer unafraid to blend genre, from gothic to magical realism and fantasy. The one connecting thread that runs throughout is the theme of change. Like Ovid’s Metamorphoses, each story shows some form of transformation and like Kafka’s Metamorphosis, this change is uncanny and grotesque.

As is seen in Fever Dream, Schweblin is talented at creating suspense. There’s an eerie escalation in each story, as if with each sentence Schweblin is blowing up a balloon, bigger and bigger until, in the last paragraph, it is so full of air that it pops. These snap moments at the climax of each story are brilliant. Mouthful of Birds is filled with cliffhanger endings, each one satisfying in its own way. You’re left wanting more, but you don’t feel cheated out of a good ending.

Reading the book admittedly puts you in a strange head space. Her immersive style brings you down into the minds of characters who are hardly ever in control.

They’re as lost in the stories as we are, stumbling through Schweblin’s strange new worlds. There’s a slight sense of detachment in her writing style, creating a sense of separation between what a character is thinking and what they are doing. It’s as if you are

watching the stories unfold from the sunken place in Jordan Peele’s Get Out — the horror lies in being able to watch, but not being able to act.

One of my favourite stories in the collection, ‘Santa Claus Sleeps At Our House’, is written from the perspective of a young child oblivious to their parents’ marriage falling apart. A depressive mother and an aggressive father struggle to keep the family together while the child can think of only one thing: the remote control car they asked to get for Christmas. The story starts, “the Christmas when Santa Claus spent the night at our house was the last time we were all together.” Sentences like this are brilliantly translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell, who also translated Fever Dream. The McDowell/Schweblin combination seems to working wonders, so let’s hope McDowell is hard at work at bringing Schweblin’s other short stories to English-speaking readers.

Listed in The Mancunion’s most anticipated books of 2019, Mouthful of Birds comes strongly recommended. Schweblin is a writer fascinated with the dark underside of society. She unearths and exposes things like a curious child picking up a rock from the floor, turning it over to see the wet dark mud beneath it, and all manner of insects running.

What’s On:Live Literature in Manchester While the main bulk of events in the Manchester Literature Festival took place last term, there’s still plenty of events on for any book lovers in the city this spring.

With the opening of the new Blackwell’s Bookshop near the University, there’s a new venue in Manchester for readings and book signings. On the 21st of March, debut writers Glen James Brown, Amy Arnold, and S.K. Perry will be in store discussing their recent novels. Look out for Amy Arnold’s A Slip of a Fish, which won the 2018 Northern Book Prize.

On the 26th of March, two of the UK and Ireland’s most exciting writers, Nicole Flattery and Daisy Johnson, will be talking about their books Show Them A Good Time and Everything Under respectively.

Johnson was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and her novel, Everything Under, was voted Blackwell’s Book of the Year 2018.

Flattery read some of her short fiction in

Manchester last year and if that, and the fact that she won The White Review Short Story Prize 2017, is anything to go by, then her debut collection is set to be a hit.

The Centre for New Writing also boasts a stellar line-up for the coming weeks with events running at the University’s Martin Harris Centre. Non-fiction writers Cathleen Miller and Horatio Clare will be in conversation on the 18th of February, and author and singer-songwriter Tracy Thorn will be talking with Manchester’s Jeanette Winterson on the 26th of February.

Novelists Max Porter and Luke Brown will be at the Martin Harris Centre on the 11th of March discussing Lanny, Porter’s much-anticipated follow-up to his award-winning debut Grief Is A Thing With Feathers.

A definite highlight is Valeria Luiselli’s rare appearance as part of the Manchester Literature Festival on the 20th of March. Winner of an American Book Award, Luiselli is one of Mexico’s most prominent writers. She will be joined by Kamila Shamsie to discuss her forthcoming novel Lost Children Archive. Intertwining two stories, Lost Children Archive is her first novel in English and follows a road trip from New York to Apacheria.

As always there’s a host of spoken word events on from the Northern Quarter to Didsbury. So whether it’s brand new poets or world renowned novelists, 2019 looks to be another jam-packed year for book lovers in Manchester.

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ISSUE 16 / 18th February 2019 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Theatre

The Future of Contact Theatre

Anuli Changa attends the Open Forum at YES as part of Contact’s Queer Contact Festival Weekender and reflects on discussions about the future of Contact Theatre once refurbished The Open Forum at YES was a diverse and interesting group, brought together to discuss the annual festival, Queer Contact, celebrating LGBTQ+ culture through the arts. The festival replaced its predecessor – Queer Up North – and is usually a 10-14 day event. However, building work at Contact Theatre means it will only be a weekend event in 2019.

The forum was made up of young people involved in Contact projects, performers, producers, and other organisations. The discussions focused on experiences as a participant/audience member of Queer Contact. We discussed the past, present and the plans to reimagine Queer Contact in 2020.

The moderators of the forum and other Contact representatives were keen to stress that the involvement of young people is integral to the work of Contact Theatre. Honesty was stressed in responses to different questions about what has been enjoyed about Contact work and what needs to be improved.

Whilst Contact’s building (situated by the Students’ Union) is being refurbished, Contact shows have kept going in different venues. The Contact in the City concept means that Contact

shows have been in venues across Manchester, allowing audiences a chance to explore the city whilst experiencing the different performances For the future of Queer Contact, comments were made about the accessibility of venues

Photo: Pit-Yacker @Wikimedia Commons

and events, as well as the representation and diversity that is needed. As mentioned, Contact Theatre is so close to the Students’ Union that it is the perfect place to escape to

on university campus. The new Contact building (which will open in early 2020) will be a place to relax even when you are not attending a specific event. You won’t need a ticket to enjoy the recording studio and other creative spaces planned for young people.

The new building is putting even more emphasis on young people and their involvement with Contact. This is something Contact is already known for, with multiple projects for young people to get involved with, as well as Young Board Members.

Contact also currently have two major commission opportunities aimed at BAME performers and theatre-makers, responding to the need for better representation in the arts. The two opportunities are the Diverse Actions Artist Commission and the Queer Contact partnership with Black Gold. Again, Contact’s young people are heavily involved in the decision-making process.

Contact will clearly continue their strong focus on diversity and young people, whilst being open to constructive criticism and praise to shape future projects.

Review:Twelfth Night im ed ia Co m Ph ot o: W ik

able to portray the layers of her character as both comedic lead and demonstrate the emotional turmoil of her predicament in disguise. Fitzpatrick had a great grasp of the language and was constantly engaging and likeable. She and Thomas Valerio (Orsino) played well opposite each other, and the direction (Phoebe Lynch) choices played up the homoerotic tension between the two characters when Orsino still believes Viola to be a man. I enjoyed the campness of making this physically implicit, going beyond Shakespeare’s allusions to Orsino’s own confusion in the language of the play.

Sam Grieve’s Sir Andrew Aguecheek was nothing short of excellent. Grieve’s master of physical comedy and hilarious facial expressions, made for a great portrayal of the foolish Aguecheek.

I am not sure how she managed to do all this and never go too far, but she had the audience in raucous laughter whenever she was onstage.

Cathy Wippell as Feste the ‘fool’ was another standout comedic performance. Feste is a great contradiction of a character, a fool by profession but often the smartest and wittiest person in the room. These layers were well portrayed

by Wippell. She also did well to sing Feste’s multiple songs most amongst the shenanigans happening simultaneously, a contrast which was extremely amusing to behold.

Tai Francis also deserves a mention as Malvolio. They did well to demonstrate the stern and slightly creepy side of Malvolio, as well as the love-sick element of the character, when Maria (Ella Marsden) tricks him by sending a mischievous fake love letter. I enjoyed Marsden’s performance as the disapproving, yet cunning char-

“

acter. I was delighted to see that, despite the modern costume choice, Malvolio still emerged in yellow, cross-gartered stockings.

The music (composed Sam Grieve’s Sir

by Phoebe Lynch) was an enjoyable addition with Andrew Aguecheek live instruments. The folk music style was was nothing short reminiscent of the traof excellent ditional Elizabethan/ Shakespearean style.

This did seem slightly confused with the modern clothing and party atmosphere of the set, complete with bunting and balloons. Despite this, I liked the set for its simplicity and fun, certainly not taking the madness of Twelfth Night too seriously. The set also made for some comedic moments, with characters hiding behind balloons and fighting with lightsabers instead of swords.

Overall, a very enjoyable production of Twelfth Night which really played on the subtleties of comedy in facial expression and characters, whilst keeping the hilarity and outrageous nature of a Shakespearean classic.

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Twelfth Night is a tale of mistaken identity, tomfoolery, and madness. One of Shakespeare’s most well-known comedies, following twins Viola (Emily Fitzpatrick) and Sebastian (Michael Schulz), torn apart by a storm at sea. Viola believes her brother to be dead and dresses up as him to become Duke Orsino’s (Thomas Valerio) servant. Viola (now Cesario) is told to woo the Lady Olivia (Lara Paul) on Orsino’s behalf. In the process Olivia falls in love with Viola, whilst Viola realises her love for Orsino. With the subplot of the rest of Olivia’s household being up to no good, chaos most definitely ensues.

Emily Fitzpatrick was impressive as Viola,

m on s

Theatre Editor Anuli Changa reviews one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays, Twelfth Night, performed by the University of Manchester Shakespeare Society

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ISSUE 16 / 18th February 2019 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

A R T E

Arts F A C T

Photo: Cjc13 @ wikimedia commons

of the week

Photo: Dennis Jarvis@flickr

Photo: Mikey @ Flickr

In this instalment of Artefact of the Week, Bella Jewell examines a mancunian treasure, The Toast Rack: a grade two listed brutalist masterpiece This unusual building certainly divides opinion. Whilst some are drawn to the raw, 1960s brutalism of the concrete construction, others are disdainful of the monochrome, derelict building.

Despite differences in taste, however, The Hollings building – known as ‘The Toast Rack’ – is a national treasure; a grade two listed national treasure.

Tucked behind the University of Manchester’s Fallowfield campus, the iconic Toast Rack has stood empty for the past six years, having been closed to students in 2013. Despite having been frozen in time for the past few years, there are proposals in the works to transform this modernist classic into a new futuristic space, housing flats, a restaurant, and a covered garden amongst other features.

To truly appreciate this Toblerone-shaped building, however, it is important to look to its past. The Hollings building was constructed in 1960 by architect, Leonard Cecil Howitt, and was certainly an avant-garde creation.

The building was originally home to the Domestic Trades College, later becoming part of Manchester Metropolitan University. There is speculation that Howitt’s design was a humorous nod to the building’s function as a domestic science college, given its appearance as a toast rack, next to the attached semi-circular restaurant block, known as the Fried Egg. However, the profoundly unconventional form of the building goes beyond a superfluous joke; the tapered shape served an intensely practical purpose, creating teaching spaces of varying sizes, To read more, visit mancunion.com

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Modern Art: A victim of British traditionalism?

Photo: Gazanfarulla Khan @ Flickr

Angus Dickson discusses the reasons for the decline of Modern Art’s popularity by exploring how xenophobia, cultural progression, and artistic theory impact upon our definitions of ‘art’ It’s fair to say that modern art gets a lot of bad press. Whilst there are still many who appreciate pieces that most people would describe as weird or boring, it is statistically proven that people go to modern art galleries less every year. There are many reasons for this, the first being society’s adversity to change.

Throughout history, humanity has been reluctant to accept any form of cultural change. Your grandparents wouldn’t listen to your music, and your grand-kids probably won’t either. This is something that is inherent not only to the human condition, but particularly to the British, with our traditional and nostalgic fascination for the ‘classics’. No more books, poems, or works of art will ever be added to this list of ‘classics’ because the deadline has already passed. It passed about 30 years ago. Art, however, has always progressed, and its ever-changing nature is what makes it timeless.

With the technology available nowadays, the ability to paint like a photograph is no longer as impressive as it was a hundred years ago. So, artists need to find a new way to impress — if not through the semblance of reality, then why not through the process by which they have tried to achieve it?

Practically everybody has looked at a piece of art and said, “I could do that.” The common response to this is “But you didn’t.” Nowadays, instead of valuing the artistic process, artists seem to focus more on the creativity or the source of inspiration.

Whilst very few people would look at a Caravaggio and think they could reproduce a similar work with ease, a fair few might look at a Rothko and believe they are comparably talented. And perhaps they are, in terms of painting ability, but the point of Rothko, and modern art in general, is not the artist’s literal talent, but their creative talent.

You cannot judge a Rothko by its photographic realness in the way that you might a Caravaggio. You can, however, judge it by its ability to elicit emo-

tion in the spectator, which was Rothko’s primary intention. Of course, some examples of modern art are far harder to dismiss by this logic. Piero Manzoni, for example, literally sold his faeces in a can. Whilst many see this as a blatant middle finger to the art world, there is always the argument that he was simply trying to widen the world’s perception of what can be seen as having artistic value.

As pretentious as people sound when they use this argument, it is true that art is subjective. Everybody has different tastes. I hate Damien Hirst, but that hasn’t stopped him from being worth $300 million, so clearly not everybody does. That is what modern art is about. Anything can be art, and if one person likes it or it makes them feel something, that’s the only definition necessary.

The biggest obstacle to enjoying something unfamiliar is the pleasure one gets from hating it. A lot of the time, people will claim to ‘hate’ things they don’t understand, because we get a narcissistic pleasure from being opinionated or different. In reality, all we are achieving is ignorant xenophobia.

This lack of understanding, or ‘fear of the unknown’, has recently increased as artists have delved deeper into ideology and artistic theory. But should a mathematician make their work more accessible to the public? Of course not, as this would dilute the complexity and credibility of their work. Art is just another field of knowledge inside of which there are very specific interests, and often in contemporary art, the target audience is other artists.

It’s irrational to ‘hate’ modern art without understanding, or at least acknowledging, the theories and creative processes behind its fruition.

Perhaps this won’t result in the immediate gratification sought by the infrequent gallery-goer who looks for photo similarity in painting, but there is certainly a different sort of gratification when the artist’s ideas, intentions, and ideologies are understood.

Featured artist: Ryan Gear Scan the QR Code to find out more

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ISSUE 16 / 18th February 2019 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Fashion & Beauty

A Step too Fyre? The Danger of Influencers Fyre festival was set to be the biggest event of the year, promoted by dozens of industry influencers... until it all went wrong receiving a fee of $250,000 or upwards each. Images of the models were consequently posted across the internet and on their personal social media accounts, each vouching for the legitimacy of the event. The orange Fyre tile went viral on Instagram, with the likes of Bella Hadid posting the picture with the caption ‘Can’t wait for #FyreFestival, coming soon’. The world was convinced that this would be the greatest party to ever happen, boasting private villas on the beach, yachts, and some of the biggest names in the dance music industry to perform. The only problem was that McFarland’s expectations of what could be achieved in the short space of time they allowed themselves, with a limited workforce and precarious funding, was severely overshot (or it could be more likely argued that the festival was never meant to exist in the first place).

I remember back to seeing countless videos for the festival appearing on my Facebook stream and thinking “wow, I really wish I could go to that,” yet my lack of tens of thousands of pounds hindered me somewhat.

The danger here was for the ones who really did have that kind of

money to feed into this elaborate marketing ploy. Guests arrived at the island on the day that the festival was set to take place only to find that absolutely nothing was ready. There had been a storm on the island on the days leading up to the event which had destroyed what little preparation had been put into place. What’s more is, all music acts had been cancelled upon hearing the leaked information about the derelict state of the supposedly luxury festival.

The influencers involved supposedly had no idea that the festival would be a complete failure.

Nevertheless, they promoted the illusive festival regardless, due to the large cash sums they had been offered.

When the reality came to light of how hurricane tents were replacements for ‘cabanas’ on the beach, the influencers deleted their initial publications. Yet their reputations and followers appear to be untouched by the scandal. Their involvement seems to have been almost forgotten, and we continue to trust in their ‘opinions’. The persons involved do not seem to be aware of the detrimental effect they can have on people’s lives. Their powerful

Spring Into This Season’s Freshesh Trends!

Photo: Anna Caldwell @ Flickr

Feeling fed up staring into your gloomy winter wardrobe? Isobella Rae navigate and translate the Spring/Summer catwalks to deliver our latest trend report!

From bleached denim at Dior to block colour suits at Sies Marjan, here I take a sneak peek into the hottest runway trends for Spring Summer 2019.

A dominant feature on the catwalks, fringing stood out as a prominent trend at the SS19 shows thanks to Gucci and Marc Jacobs. Meanwhile, it looks like the wearable trend of cycling shorts, adored by Manchester-based fashion brands Prettylittlething, Missguided, and adored by bloggers such as Naomi Genes is thankfully here to stay for yet another season.

On-trend more than ever next season, denim is a must-have.

From double denim to bleached, there are so many ways it can be worn. Highlighted by the likes of Dior and Off-White, denim will be the most adaptable item in your wardrobe this summer.

Loved by Valentino and Emilia Wickstead, bows are back for SS19. Statement-making and super feminine, bows will enhance not only basic items next season, but also play a dominant role in statement-making looks.

Although not everyone’s favourite, clashing prints will be crucial to your spring summer wardrobe this year. The likes of Louis Vuitton made the most of this

trend at fashion week, showing the bolder the better when it comes to prints.

Having seen the baker boy hat flourish last season, the path has been paved for an influx of fashionable hats for SS19.

Highlighting the importance of coordination between both hats and clothing, Moschino is set to have influenced much of next season’s coords on the high-street.

Classic yet contemporary, lace lovers will be happy to hear the delicate fabric has returned for SS19. Whilst Alexander Wang displayed delicate inserts of lace, Erdem made it a bold feature on the runway.

From skirts to suits and shirts, beige has been known to dominate the catwalks in past seasons and continues to do so today. Although Dior gave a more traditional interpretation on this classic, yet current, colour, Burberry provided a modern adaptation to this trend.

Striking and sensational, block colour suits are a must for any woman looking to be smart yet stylish this spring. As Sies Marjan showed block colour red suits on the catwalks, Armani debuted the neon tones that are slowly creeping onto the high-street.

Photo: Newsmag @ Flickr

responsibilities as role models should be taken seriously, especially since they are often broadcasting to a young, and perhaps more vulnerable audience.

This is often the case when online personalities promote to millions of followers with little to no knowledge of what they are actually endorsing. The fashion & beauty industry is no exception; in fact, it is undoubtedly one of the biggest culprits. I for one have allowed myself to be led again and again into spending ludicrous amounts of money on products which were sure to ‘change my life’ but alas have changed nothing besides my bank balance.

Over-consumption has always been a prevalent issue but with influencers at the forefront of our online lives e.g. YouTube, Snapchat, Twitter, and the aforementioned Instagram, the presence of influencing is more dominant than ever.

Opinion.

In a world where we are subject to ‘Influencing’ from left, right and centre, never has it been harder to distinguish the ‘real’ from the ‘fake’. With the influencer economy on Instagram alone valued at $1 billion by agency Mediakix, what is obvious is whether you consent to engage with these individuals or otherwise, this is a booming sector which is actively shaping our society.

As such, ‘Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened’ the recent documentary which is available to stream on Netflix, has shocked the media and the world. The extent of the outcry is equally as noteworthy as the failed event itself.

Centred around the story of the nowimprisoned Billy McFarland, the documentary follows McFarland developing a festival alongside business partner and rapper Ja Rule, which would take place on Exuma, a remote island in the Bahamas with the goal of promoting his company Fyre Media They began by recruiting the giants of the influencer world, such as the likes of supermodels Hailey Baldwin and Kendall Jenner to appear in promotional videos for the festival and subsequently promote the event online, each

How To Get Involved in Fashion Week without Leaving Manchester Despite being one of the UK’s booming fashion capitals, Manchester doesn’t host its own international fashion week. FOMO? Alice Porter shares her tips on how to get involved Fashion Week has come round once again, and, like September and February of every year, you might be experiencing some FOMO if you’re not in those fashion capitals. If you are feeling less than pleased about spending the month of February in Manchester rather than New York, London, Paris, or Milan, not to worry. There are so many other ways you can get involved with the excitement of fashion week from the comfort of your own home, or the Ally G if you’re in the mood to procrastinate...

1.Sit Front Row Wherever You Are: Thanks to the internet, you can now watch shows, as if you’re sat on the front row, live as they happen. Most brands stream their shows nowadays so you can watch them live or whenever you’d like in the following days or weeks, taking in everything, the music, the set, the atmosphere, and, most importantly, the clothes.

2. Stay Caught Up on All The Coverage: Inevitably during fashion week, I spend so much of my time soaking up all the coverage.

If I don’t have time to watch a

show, or am not interested in the brand enough to do so, I love to scroll through the photos of each of the looks on Vogue’s fashion week section (run by what used to be Style.com) and read the reviews of each show alongside them. I also love finding endless inspiration from all the outrageous street style and Man Repeller’s recent piece on all the best street style from NYFW is great for that.

3. Get Social: Not only do we have the internet to help us stay caught up but social media too! I think social media is the best way to feel as though you’re really involved in fashion week, as a lot of the coverage in the traditional press and media can feel a little detached. You can follow all of your favourite brands on social media to keep up with them but a great way to feel really connected is by following those who are attending fashion week.

Instagram accounts that always document fashion week really well include @alyssainthecity, @ manrepeller, @lucywilliams02, and @alwaysjudging.

Credit: Mercedez Fashion @ Flickr

ISSUE 16 / 18th February 2019 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Thai Smiles Cafe

Thai Smiles Alice Stepheson

9/10

Siam Smiles’ capacity is low for now, and Alice Stephenson wishes always to find a free table for herself in this hidden gem of a Thai restaurant

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Binging with Babish The creation of Andrew Rea, Binging With Babish sees food from your favourite TV shows and film come to life. From The Office and Michael Scott’s pretzel with all the toppings, to Rick and Morty’s Szechuan Sauce.

And, (bonus) learn the basics of cooking with his new videos, Basics with Babish.

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Bon Appetit Where do we even start with Bon Appetit? The American food magazine has become a YouTube channel and Instagram account, offering a whole host of platforms. From their spin-off account @healthy_ ish on Instagram, you can find simple and mouth watering recipes.

Highlights have to be the hilarious ‘It’s Alive with Brad’ series on YouTube and ‘Gourmet Makes’.

Chefs attempts to re-create your favourite foods like Pringles, Skittles and Oreos.

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Table Manners Singer Jessie Ware sits down with her mum, Lennie, and various celebrities to talk food over a home cooked meal. Not only are the two hosts excellent chefs, their mother-daughter relationship makes the show hilarious and heartwarming. The podcast features guests such as Nigella Lawson, Alan Carr and Loyle Carner.

As rising rent prices diminish the crop of profi table restaurants in the city centre, Great Northern on Deansgate has offered a less expensive refuge for critically acclaimed Thai venture Siam Smiles. The restaurant formally resided in a Thai supermarket in Chinatown. Buoyed by rave reviews and a curiosity at how Great Northern provides for its fl edgling businesses, I make my way through the labyrinth of industrial warehouses and vast apartment blocks. I eventually fi nd an off centre strip along which a few small eateries hold out against the comparative desertion of this wing of the project’s vast mass.

On arrival, our waiter directed us to his favourite dishes at my request. He was disappointingly unfazed by my proud wielding of a notebook I bought explicitly for writing down tasting notes. To my slight chagrin, his recommendations were both Thai stalwarts I’ve come across before. A variation of Tom Yum and Pad Thai. I ordered both anyway while Patrick opted for Thai Green Curry. As we waited for our food our eyes surveyed the decor of the restaurant. The grey-brown interior of a Victorian shell was pleasingly lent a somewhat fl uorescent treatment by bright fl ashes of fuchsia and turquoise infl icted upon it by fresh garlands of fl owers and a feature wall.

Our food arrived in good time. My soup was an advert; hearty slabs of pork were accompanied by an anything but frugal patter of fresh coriander. The noodles seduced me through the translucent gauze of the broth.

Patrick’s green curry looked prosaic, but a charming terracotta bowl with serrated edges redeemed it.

We began, green curry up fi rst for demolition due to the boiling temperature of

Food & Drink 27 my soup. One bite and I was hooked. Sharp, sweet spiciness soothed by an embrace of coconut milk perfectly balanced. It was a biting contrast to the stodgy, fl avourless shortcomings of my attempts to make the dish at home. There was a little too much rice, and it was presented as a kind of fallen hay bale instead of the elegant white domes I came across in Thailand. However, this failed to usurp my relentless passion. Patrick was forced to suffer me pillaging spoonfuls from him throughout our meal.

As it settled to a hospitable temperature, I moved on to the Thom Yum. I was surprised with pork, although it was included in the description on the menu. Thom Yum is, to my mind, strictly fi sh based. Researching after my meal, however, I discovered the dish, ‘Kuai Tiao Thom Yum’, is in fact an amalgamation of two different dishes. ‘Kai Tiao’ is a pork broth, its name translating roughly as ‘Boat Curry’. I can offer no conclusion other than that this is a Siam Smiles invention.

And what an invention it is.

Soft, glutenous noodles were submerged in punchy brine. Fish balls and tofu offered a surprisingly sweet dimension as I liberated them from the depths of the bowl. There is none of the aggressive, brute force of chilli here. Instead, more a constant buzz of feverish hotness staking its claim over a dish otherwise dictated to by sharp, mouthwatering lime. I couldn’t get enough, and was delighted by Patrick’s miserable refusal to partake in fl esh-eating when it was this rewarding.

As we collected the bill, I looked out upon our barren surroundings smugly. A small part of me hopes Great Northern stays deserted, as Siam Smiles’ capacity is low. Selfi shly, I wish always to fi nd a free table for myself nestled amongst this post-industrial sprawl.

Feed your mind: finding food in all the right places

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Sorted Food Sorted Food is a group of friends (two of which are professional chefs) who turned their love into food into a full blown franchise!

They follow themes such as ultimate battles; where you watch the boys compete to cook the best dish for a category such as ultimate brownie battle or ultimate breakfast battle. They also do full blown Catrin Stewart and Elena Bradley round up recipe videos, food reviews and gadget reviews whilst having their favourite podcasts, YouTube chanthe rapport and banter of gennels, and social media pages as an oasis uine friends! Very entertainof pure, wholesome food accounts ing to watch but also very well researched recipes and full of information that you can use yourself; as the professional chef element is tempered down by the other 3 boys being Food Wishes If there were one word to describe amateurs. this YouTube account it would be wholesome. Like the girl-nextdoor but with dads, Chef John’s DIY food videos are the perfect way to learn cookery. You’ll be taught by a chuckling, pun-using Devour Power classically trained chef. From Sometimes all you need is to simple recipes for one-pot Greek watch someone else eat criminal- chicken, lemon, and potato bakes – ly unhealthy ‘cheat’ foods. This to more complex demonstrations of satisfies that craving. An Amer- pastel de natas (Portuguese cusican couple who document their tard tarts), this man is an antravels on Instagram showcasing gel. Each recipe is accompanied the best of extreme American in- by full online written recipes and dulgence! Aesthetically pleas- discussions of substitutions for Jake Cohen ing, regular posting, and so un- his recipes. My personal favourite @jakecohen on Instagram is a healthy that it makes you feel recipes are his pourable easy piz- chef and food journalist, but we like a saint. Think laughably ex- za dough, lobster mac and cheese, recommend you follow him for the cessive stringy cheese, massive baklava, and Korean fried chicken. most perfect pasta swirls you’ve burgers and eye-rollingly sinful He’ll become your new dad and fa- ever laid your eyes on. Prepare to drool. foods. Enjoy at your own peril... vourite chef in no time.

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21 / 02 / 2019

YOUR KEYS LOCK YOUR DOOR MINE COULD SAVE MY LIFE 75% rise in cases of stalking and harassment since 2016. In the same time the number of police ofямБcers has been cut by 23%.

MARCH, SIGN THE PETITION, WRITE TO THE COUNCIL!

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Lifestyle 29

ISSUE 16 / 18th February 2019 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

The fight against FGM

Victoria Evans discusses Jaria Hussain-Lala’s eye-opening talk on the prevalance of FGM worldwide and the challenges women and girls face Victoria Evans Contributor Female Genital Mutilation, (FGM), as defined by the World Health Organisation, involves procedures that alter or cause injury to female genitalia for non-medical reasons. Jaria Hussain-Lala, chairwoman of the Greater Manchester FGM Forum, delivered a presentation on the prevalence of FGM as part of Sex Week.

Photo: Salford Women’s Aid

Although the discourse focused on a SouthAsian perspective, she provided invaluable and eye-opening information on FGM worldwide There are four different types of FGM. The first, clitoridectomy, involves the partial or total removal of the clitoris. The second is the removal of the clitoris and the labia minora.

The third type, infibulation, is the most severe and involves the above, in addition to sewing the vagina closed. A small hole remains, from which a woman is expected to urinate, menstruate, have intercourse and give birth. The fourth involves any other alteration to the genitalia.

It goes without saying the enormous impact FGM has on the lives of females. FGM is performed on girls as young as 6 months old, often in unhygienic and unprofessional conditions. It results in adverse short-and-long-term effects. The use of unsterile blades and equipment can lead to infections, HIV, haemorrhaging, and death. Jaria pointed out in her talk that FGM can have significant effects on a woman’s libido. It can also cause problems with child bearing and has links to psychological disorders.

FGM is prevalent in 45-50 countries. Ap-

proximately 200 million girls in Africa and the Middle East have undergone this ritual. The most common reasons for the practice are on the basis of chastity and purity. In the Islamic Bohra community where 90% of girls are ‘cut’, the clitoris is viewed as an impure piece of skin.

FGM is far from straightforward. Debates have arisen surrounding the practice as an act of female circumcision or mutilation. Coupled with the protective blanket of apparent religious custom, the fight against FGM faces many obstacles. Deemed a cultural norm, challengers against the practice can face isolation and threats on the family within society meaning many girls and women find it hard to speak out against FGM. This is contributing to the limited progress in the fight against it. However, some women see this as a necessary practice and an ideological rite of passage. This creates difficulty in a worldwide struggle to eradicate the practice, largely down to the gap in education and hierarchical cultural traditions.

The UK has the largest victimisation in Europe, with 170,000 girls and women affected.

There are approximately 65,000 girls under the age of 15 who are at-risk of FGM. However, the UK was the first Western country to introduce laws to illegalise FGM, continuing to re-

vise the Act in order to protect and prevent.

Men are under-researched and often missing in the narrative of FGM. A 2016 study conducted by Kameel Ahmady, interviewed 1000 men in 200 villages across Iran. The research showed that men overall preferred cut women, as they claim to want wives who are ‘pure’ and ‘moral’. Opinion also included that uncut women were ‘out of control’. However, men found that intercourse was less satisfying because their wives weren’t enjoying it, pushing them to seek sexual pleasure elsewhere with uncut women.

FGM, regardless of cultural belief, is a violation of children’s rights. The pain inflicted upon a young girl can have lifelong impacts. With increased education, awareness and continued efforts from organisations such as the Greater Manchester FGM Forum, perhaps the world will soon see a significant decrease in the number of FGM cases. It is essential to place women’s sexual health and well-being at the forefront of minds and communities. Awareness is key in the worldwide attempt to reverse existing cultural norms that harm women and girls.

For the love of money

Sophia Ashby delves into the history of St Valentine’s Day, because all relationships have complicated pasts, and looks to our current celebration of love Sophia Ashby Lifestyle Editor Chocolate, cards, flowers, and a romantic date with your other half. The cliché and commercialised scenes commonly depicted on Valentine’s Day. Whether you are in a happy relationship, single or your Facebook status still cringingly states ‘it’s complicated’, the 14thFebruary looms over us all.

I am a very recently single lady myself (hit me up) and refuse to be sucked into the sadness that is expected to consume all those not in a relationship. Firstly, I think Valentine’s Day is a load of commercialised codswallop.

You can’t find real love at the bottom of a box of chocolates. It cannot be bought in a florist, and it will never materialise over lobster in an overpriced restaurant. Love is certainly not 50% off a ‘lovehunny’ couple’s vibrator.

Valentine’s Day conjures images of love and affection. But, as with all pure things, capitalism has found a way of making money out of it. I the weeks running up to the big day, billboards bombard us, telling us how to love. To confine romanticism to a single day is problematic, verging on tragic.

Firstly, we should be telling the most important people in our lives that we love them daily. This does not just mean your partner.

All those who show you daily that they love you deserve some appreciation. What Valentine’s Day teaches us is that expressive love is only necessary for one day a year.

In an attempt to quell my yearly anger at the forced displays of affection, I decided to research the origins of Valentine’s Day. In truth, I wanted to discover that the day had no historical origins. I thought that by proving its purely monetary value, I could be more justified in my dismissal of it. However, I found that, like most relationships, Valentine’s Day has its roots in conflict.

Valentine’s Day holds its origins in Ancient Rome. The festival known as Lupercalia, celebrating the coming of Spring, included match-making rituals. Boys would pick the names of girls from a box, and the pair would celebrate the festival as boyfriend and girlfriend. The match relied on fate, suggesting a trust in a higher being or knowledge in creating a successful relationship.

Historians believe that the Church took over this ceremony in around the third century, in order to Christianise Rome. The leg-

end states that Emperor Claudius II sentenced Saint Valentine to death for conducting secret marriages despite the ban. On the day of his execution, he sent a letter to his lover, signed ‘from your Valentine’.

The tradition of anonymous cards was born in the 17th century. Friends and lovers exchanged hand written notes detailing their appreciation for one another.

In a traditional sense, it is endearing to know that there is an official celebration of romantic love. However, its origins are intensely ideological. The history of Valentine’s Day is an accurate reflection of human relationships and power dynamics. Rather embarrassingly, our current interpretation of Valentine’s Day shows our modern obsession with the monetary value of love.

Photo: David Teniers @ Public Domain

If you ask me...

Ciska Howarth discusses our modern obsession with romance and the pressures that ensue with proving your affection when Valentine’s Day comes around Our society is obsessed with romantic love.

From the time we are toddlers watching princesses swept off their feet by Prince Charming, we are told that to be happy, fulfilled, and complete we need an ‘other half’ to love us.

Valentine’s Day can only reinforce this, and is becoming increasingly difficult to avoid.

The moment Christmas is over, shop windows fill with extravagant displays of ways to buy affection. Suddenly, even the most content and settled of us find ourselves questioning everything. Maybe you find yourself missing

an ex you haven’t thought about in months. The 14th February might be the one day of the year you ever wish you weren’t single. Even if you are in a relationship, the commercialisation of Valentine’s can put pressure on proving that you love somebody by spending money on them.

As with all ‘big days’ like Christmas, birthdays, and anniversaries, Valentine’s Day means something different to everybody. It’s not always perfect hearts and flowers, even for those who seem happily coupled up from the outside.

Personally, I choose to treat it as any other day.

I’ve always believed that small gestures of love and appreciation every day mean so much more than extravagant gifts and fancy dinners.

Yes, of course it is nice to dedicate a day to celebrating your significant other. But, don’t feel that you have to subscribe to everything Valentine’s. The truth is that there are so many kinds of love that can fulfill us all year round.

Love yourself, love your friends, and work on maintaining the relationships that are life-giving and supportive.

30 Sport

ISSUE 16 / 18th February 2019 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Manchester United handed “reality check” against PSG in the Champions League Tuesday 12th February, Old Trafford, Manchester

Manchester United 0-2 James Gill Head Sport Editor M a n ch e ste r Un ite d s u f fe re d t h e i r f i rs t d e fe at u n de r i nt e r i m m a n a ge r Ole G u n n a r S o l s k j æ r a s t h ey lo st 2- 0 to Pa r i s S a i nt- G e r m a i n ( P S G ) . S o l s k j æ r s a id t h at “ m o u nt a i n s a re t h e re to b e cl i m b e d ” a n d h e w i l l b e h op i n g h i s s ide ca n p e r fo r m b e t te r i n t h e s e co n d le g .

T h e f i rst h a l f o f t h e ga m e wa s fa i rly q u i e t , h oweve r Un ite d s u f fe re d t wo i nj u r i e s i n q u i c k s u cce s s i o n at t h e e n d o f t h e h a l f t h at cau s e d t h e m to ch a n ge t h e i r wh o le ga m e p l ay. Je s s e L i n ga rd a n d A nt h o ny M a r t i a l we re b ot h s u b st it ute d fo r Ju a n M at a a n d A le x i s S a n c h e z , b ut t h e Re d D ev i l s s e e m e d to lo s e a l l t h e i r at t a ck i n g t h re at w it h t h e i nj u r i e s.

Ju st e i g ht m i n u te s i nto t h e s e co n d h a l f PS G d e fe n d e r K i mp e m b e vo l leye d i n t h e op e n i n g go a l , b e fo re Wo rl d C u p

w i n n e r Kyl i a n M b a p p e a d d e d a n o t h e r j u st m i n u t e s l at e r. S a d ly fo r U n it e d fa n s, t h e s e co n d h a l f go t wo rs e a s Pa u l Pog b a wa s s h ow n a s e co n d ye l l ow c a rd fo r a re c k l e s s c h a l l e n ge o n Da n i A lve s , m e a n i n g t h e F re n c h m a n w i l l m i s s t h e s e co n d l e g i n h i s h o m e n at i o n .

Ta l k i n g a b o u t t h e m at c h , S o l s k j æ r s a id : “ To d ay wa s a k i n d o f a re a l it y c h e c k o n t h e leve l o f t h e t o p t e a m s . T h at i s t h e leve l we wa nt t o ge t t o. To p fo u r i s o n e t h i n g . Un it e d s h o u l d b e at t h e t o p. T h ey a re a top t e a m . We k n ow we n e e d t o s t e p u p o u r leve l . We a re d i s a p p o i nt e d . ” “ T h e re i s a d e t e r m i n at i o n i n t h e d re s s i n g ro o m t o p u t t h i s r i g ht . We w i l l g ive it a go. I f we ge t t o h a l f- t i m e w it h a o n e -go a l l e a d , t h at i s wh at we h ave t o a i m fo r. ” Fo l low i n g t h e t i e , b o t h t e a m s we re ch a rge d by U E FA . M a n c h e s t e r U n ite d we re ch a rge d w it h t h row i n g o b j e c t s , wh i ch s p e c i f i c a l ly re l at e d to a b e e r

b o t t le t h row n at fo r m e r Un it e d p l aye r A n ge l d i M a r i a , a n d fo r b lo ck i n g s t a i r ways .

P S G we re c h a rge d fo r s e t t i n g o f f f l a re s d u r i n g t h e g a m e , t h row i n g o b j e c t s, a c t s o f d a m a ge s , a n d c rowd d i st u r b a n ce A ro u n d 8 0 0 s e at s i n t h e v i s it o r ’s s e c t i o n o f t h e g ro u n d a re u n de rst o o d t o h ave b e e n d a m a ge d by F re n ch fa n s a s we l l a s t h e n e t t i n g p ro t e c t i n g d i s a b le d fa n s b e i n g r i p p e d . T h e re a re a l s o re p o r t s o f F re n c h fa n s d a m a g i n g t h e t ra m s t h ey u s e d t o at t e n d t h e g a m e .

T h e b re a c h e s o f U E FA r u le s by a s m a l l m i n o r it y o f b o t h t e a m s ’ fa n s h i g h l i g ht t h e fa c t t h at , d e s p it e e f fo r t s by c l u b s a n d gove r n i n g b o d i e s t o e ra d i cat e t h i s t y p e o f b e h av i o u r, it s t i l l p e rs i s t s.

M a n c h e s t e r U n it e d ’s n e x t f i x t u re i s C h e l s e a o n Fe b r u a r y 1 8 t h . T h e s e co n d t i e a g a i n s t P S G w i l l t a ke p l a ce o n M a rch 6th.

Spurs cruise past Borussia Dortmund Wednesday 13th February, Wembley, London

Tottenham Hotspur 3-0 Borussia Dortmund James Gill Head Sport Editor Tot te n h a m Hot s p u r lo o k s e t to a dva n ce to t h e Q u a r te r-F i n a l s o f t h e C h a m p i o n s L e a g u e w it h a co m fo r t a b le 3 - 0 w i n a ga i n st B u n de s l i ga le a de rs B o r u s s i a D o r t mu n d . I f t h ey m a n a ge to cl o s e o u t t h e s e co n d le g it w i l l b e t h e i r j o i nt- b e st ca mp a i g n eve r.

B ot h s ide s we re m a r re d by i nj u r i e s i n a ga m e wh i ch D o r t mu n d we re p re d i c te d t o w i n . S p u rs we re w it h o ut capt a i n H a r r y Ka n e a n d D e le A l l i , wh i le D o r t mu n d we re m i s s i n g m a ny key p l aye rs i n c l u d i n g M a rco Re u s, Pa co A lc á ce r, Ju l i a n We i g l , a n d L u k a s z P i s z c z e k . A l l t h e s e p l aye rs h oweve r s h o u l d b e f it fo r t h e s e co n d l e g , i n a ga m e wh i ch p ro m i s e s to b e a c ra cke r.

T h e f i rst h a l f wa s t i g ht f ro m b ot h t e a m s w it h few cle a r- c ut ch a n ce s H oweve r, S o n H e u n g- m i n ch a n ge d t h at j u st m o m e nt s i nt o t h e s e co n d h a l f

w it h a b r i l l i a nt s i d e - fo o te d vo l l ey f ro m a Ja n Ve r t o n g h e n c ro s s . Ve r t o n g h e n h a d a p h e n o m e n a l g a m e p l ay i n g o u t o f p o s it i o n a s a l e f t w i n g- b a c k .

T h e B e l g i a n m i r ro re d S o n w it h a s u b l i m e vo l l ey f ro m a S e rge Au r i e r de l ive r y t o m a ke i n 2 - 0. D o r t m u n d lo o ke d le s s l i ke ly t o t h re at S p u rs ke e p e r Hu go L lo r i s a s t h e g a m e p rog re s s e d a n d t h e g a m e wa s p u t to b e d s h o r t ly b e fo re f u l l t i m e by s u b s t it u t e Fe r n a n d o L lo re nte .

A f te r t h e g a m e , S p u rs m a n a ge r M au r i c i o Po c h e t t i n o s a i d : “ t h e t e a m i s f i g ht i n g . I a m s o p ro u d . T h ey d e s e r ve f u l l c re d it . W h at t h ey a re d o i n g i s a m a z i n g .

S o n wa s fa nt a s t i c a g a i n . I t h i n k h e i s a p l aye r t h at p rov i d e s t h e t e a m w it h a l o t of things. He has a smile and has lots of e n e rg y. H i s p e r fo r m a n ce s eve r y g a m e a re i mp rov i n g a n d i mp rov i n g . ” “ 3 - 0 i s a ve r y go o d re s u l t b u t at t h e s a m e t i m e I t h i n k we n e e d t o t h i n k t h at we n e e d t o f i n i s h t h e j o b. A lways wh e n we p l ay t h i s co m p e t it i o n a n d a g a i n s t

a go o d s i d e l i ke D o r t m u n d it i s ve r y difficult.” “ We s p o ke a b o u t o u r de fe n s ive p o s it i o n s a n d c h a n ge d t h i n g s a l it t le.

S o m e t i m e s it wo rk s a n d s o m e t i m e s it d o e s n’ t . We h ave a lo t o f t a le nt e d p l aye rs . We h ave a n u n b e l i eva b le s q u a d .

I a m h a p py w it h a l l t h e p l aye rs . T h e o n ly p ro b l e m i s t h at we ca n o n ly p l ay 1 1 p l aye rs a n d n o t 2 2 . ” T h e s e co n d l e g o f t h e t i e t a ke s p l a ce o n M a rc h 5 t h , w it h D o r t mu n d n e e d i n g a m a s s ive re s u lt t o s a lva ge t h e i r C h a m p i o n s L e a g u e h o p e s . S p u rs w i l l b e n o t o n ly eye i n g u p a r u n i n t h e C h a m p i o n s L e a g u e , b ut a p o t e nt i a l P re m i e r L e a g u e t it l e .

T h ey a re o n ly f ive p o i nt s o f f t h e p a ce a n d w it h o u t a n FA C u p t i e t h i s we e ke n d , t h ey w i l l h ave ove r a we e k t o re s t t h e i r p l aye rs b e fo re a f i x t u re a ga i n s t B u r n ley.

Wit h g a m e s a g a i n s t C h e l s e a , A rs e n a l , L ive r p o o l , a n d C it y s t i l l to go, s o m e b i g re s u l t s co u l d s e e S p u rs w i n t h e i r f i rst P re m i e r L e a g u e t ro p hy.

Champions League Preview: Manchester City Harry Deacon Deputy Sport Editor The race for the Premier League trophy is well under way. City are breathing down Liverpool’s necks, patiently waiting for any sign of a slip-up from Klopp’s men.

After successive draws to Leicester and West Ham, the Merseyside outfit have been reeled back in by their Mancunian neighbours.

As Liverpool have begun to falter, it seems that city’s defeat to Newcastle was just the wake up call they needed. Since that loss at St. James’ Park, Aguero’s six goals in three games have been essential in putting Arsenal, Everton, and Chelsea to the sword.

However, Europe is a completely different ball game. City have so far been unable to crack Europe’s top competition,

coming closest back in 2015/16. Defeated by eventual winners Real Madrid in the semi-finals, surely City fans would have hoped for the club to push on in the next few seasons, not fall back.

The following years have brought much European heartache for the citizens.

Disappointingly losing out to an inferior, albeit exciting, Monaco side in 2016/17.

Then, crushingly bending to Liverpool’s will in their road to Kiev last season in a thrilling two—legged encounter.

This year, City will be hoping to balance both their domestic and European ambitions. Pep Guardiola clearly has much talent and depth at his disposal so even when the title race hots up further, the Champions League should not be ignored.

Group F proved to be fairly straightforward for last season’s Premier League centurions. The two Shakhtar Donetsk games were a formality ending

6-0 and 3-0; no surprises there. David Silva managed to net in both matches while Brazilian wonderkid Gabriel Jesus grabbed a brace in the six—goal thrashing.

German opposition showed to be slightly tougher for the Premier League leaders. Hoffenheim put up a fight in both games but history repeated itself with two 2-1 scorelines. David Silva scored once again, while Sane got himself two goals in the final game of the group stage.

However, City showed a rather weak side to their usual brilliance when coming up against a side Guardiola had nothing but praise for. Lyon managed a 2-2 draw at The Etihad and a 2-1 victory at the Groupama Stadium. “Incredible,” is what Pep called Lyon’s young centre midfielder, Houssem Aouar.

The last 16 has not been the Citzens’ greatest ally in recent times. As mentioned, Monaco sent them home in 2017, and

Barcelona ended City’s European hopes in both 2014 and 2015, the latter being the year the Catalonians lifted the trophy.

This year, City come up against struggling Schalke. The Bundesliga side have found themselves way down in 14th after a torrid start to the season that has continued after the winter break, as they have only one once since December 22nd.

Schalke’s European story, however, has been completely different to their domestic woes. The German side were handed an interesting group, with Lokomotiv Moscow the top seed the group was opened up.

Finishing on 11 points, only behind Porto, Schalke cannot be perceived as a pushover. This, paired with the Manchester club’s relative youth on the European stage, could provide an upset. However, with the form of City and the talent at their disposal they should have enough about them to see them through to the quarter finals.

ISSUE 16 / 18th February 2019 WWW.MANCUNION.COM

Sport 31

England’s West Indies win marred by homophobia West Indies bowler Shannon Gabriel allegedly asked England captain Joe Root ‘why are you smiling? Do you like boys?’

James Gill Head Sport Editor England claimed a 232-run win in the third and final Test against West Indies to stop the first whitewashing by their opposition since 1986. The victory was vital if they want to stand any chance of beating Australia in the upcoming Ashes series.

After the game, captain Joe Root said that “this was a really important week for this group.

It has been much more what we are about. To play in the manner we have, coming back from two disappointing games, was massive going into what is a really important summer. It is nice to finish on a high even though we have lost the series.”

With several batting collapses in the first two Tests, England relished their opposition suffering a similar fate, losing all ten wickets for 154 runs in the first innings. This collapse meant that when England declared on 361-5 in their second innings, West Indies had to chase

485 runs to win.

Root led his side impressively, scoring 122 runs to guide England to victory. However, it was during his time at the crease that an incident with West Indies bowler Shannon Gabriel occurred, which has sadly dampened an otherwise great Test series.

Describing the incident, Gabriel said: “the pressure was on and England’s captain Joe Root was looking at me intensely as I prepared to bowl, which may have been the usual psychological strategy with which all Test cricketers are familiar.”

“I recognise now that I was attempting to break through my own tension when I said to Joe Root: ‘why are you smiling? Do you like boys?’ His response, which was picked up by the microphone was: ‘don’t use it as an insult.

There’s nothing wrong with being gay’.”

“I then responded: ‘I have no issues with that, but you should stop smiling at me’. I know now that it was offensive and for that I am deeply sorry. To my team-mates, and members

Photo: Julie Lazaliervey @ Wikimedia Commons

of the England team, especially their captain Joe Root, I extend an unreserved apology for a comment which in the context of on-the-field rivalry, I assumed was inoffensive sporting banter.”

Gabriel was charged by the International Cricket Council under article 2.13, which is used for the use of language that is not permissible.

It states that it “is intended to cover a Player or Player Support Personnel directing language of a personal, insulting, obscene and/or offensive nature at any Player, Player Support Personnel, Umpire or Match Referee during an International Match.”

By accepting this charge, Gabriel was fined 75% of his earnings for the match and picked up three demerit points. As the player already had five, he reached the threshold where he would be given a four-match ODI ban. This means he will miss the first four out of five ODI’s between the two sides starting on February 20th.

The point Gabriel mentions in his statement, about how he assumed it was

“inoffensive sporting banter” is an issue that Cricket commentator Fazeer Mohammed discussed on the Test Match Special podcast.

“In the Caribbean, there tends to be a different attitude towards what I will describe as homophobic remarks. Of course in England and many other parts of the world there’s a very different attitude. There’s a zero level of tolerance to this sort of situation, if it is that he said something that could be defined as homophobic.”

“It’s all part of the learning process. If you’re playing international sport, with all these microphones, all these cameras around, you’re going to get caught sooner or later.”

“At the end of the day, whether it’s Shannon Gabriel or somebody else, they will have to recognise that the comments that they would make with their friends, their mates, in nightclubs, or in any other environment, which might be considered acceptable in that situation, is certainly not acceptable in the international field of play.”

Photo: Diallo25 @Wikimedia Commons

To MLB or to not MLB

Kyler Murray has announced he will be leaving the Oakland A’s to pursue a career in the NFL, following his Heisman Trophy win this year James Gill Head Sport Editor Texas-born athlete Kyler Murray has announced that he has chosen to target a career in the NFL playing American football, over the MLB playing baseball. The 21-year-old was drafted ninth overall by the MLB side Oakland Athletics, who some may know from the film Moneyball, last June.

Murray received a signing-on bonus of $4.66 million by the A’s, of which he will repay or forfeit the majority. After being drafted in the MLB he stayed at Oklahoma University to play a season as their starting quarterback. The incredible talent of this young athlete was clear as he won the Heisman Trophy, given to the best college football player in America that season.

In a Twitter post, Murray answered questions about his future, saying: “I am firmly and fully committing my life to becoming an NFL quarterback. Football has been my love and passion my entire life. I was raised to play QB, and I very much look forward to dedicating 100% of myself to being the best QB possible and winning NFL championships.”

“I have started an extensive training program to further prepare myself for upcoming NFL workouts and interviews,” added Murray. “I

eagerly await the opportunity to continue to prove to NFL decision makers that I am the franchise QB in this draft.”

The Oklahoma Sooners finished the season with an impressive 12-2 record with Murray recording some brilliant numbers. He topped the league in passing yards with 4361, along with 1001 rushing yards and a total of 54 touchdowns.

He will be hoping that his consistent performances last season, as well as his results in the NFL combine taking place on the 26th February, will be enough to convince franchises he is good enough. The first round of the draft begins on the 25th April, and ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr predicts Murray will be a top 5 pick. If Kiper Jr is correct, Murray will be the first player ever to be picked in the first round in both the NFL and MLB. The general manager of the Oakland Athletics, David Forst, said that he does not regret picking Murray in the draft, even though his side will not receive a compensation draft pick. “We’ve known all along that this was a possibility, we’ve been in constant contact and we knew he had a great option in the NFL.” “When we knew definitively is not the story here. We’ve known from the tone of the conversations that he could choose the NFL. We’ll focus on what we need to do to make sure that if he comes back to baseball at some point then he’ll come back with the A’s.”

Six Nations: England thrash France Following a surprise victory in Dublin, Eddie Jones’ England served up an emphatic win over a France, with Jonny May scoring a 29-minute hat trick

Chris Perrin Contributor England confirmed themselves as serious contenders for the Six Nations title with an emphatic 44-8 win over France at Twickenham.

In near-identical fashion to their opener against Ireland, England made the best start possible. Once again it was Jonny May who capped off an electric move, chasing down Elliot Daly’s grubber kick and putting five England points on the scoreboard after just one minute.

The sight of Jonny May jumping in celebration was to become all too familiar for the French. On 23 minutes, May was found by captain Owen Farrell’s long, looping pass. His shimmy wrongfooted Damian Penaud, paving the way for his and England’s second try. Six minutes later England cut through France’s defence once more with a well-executed grubber, this time courtesy of Chris

Ashton. May was the recipient of the pass, and got his hat-trick inside thirty minutes.

A glimmer of hope was given to France in the 34th minute. Yoann Huget carried strongly, shrugging off a number of English challenges before passing to Penaud who rounded off the attack. However, this was the only bright moment on a bleak day for France. Their first try turned out to be their last. When Henry Slade scored in the 39th minute to give England a 22-point lead at the break, the game was all but over.

The home team scored two more tries in the second half, and cruised to their second Six Nations win in as many games.

The win takes England to the top of the Six Nations standings with three matches to play. A crucial showdown in Cardiff awaits Eddie Jones’ side next, with Wales being the only other team to have won both of their first two fixtures. Beat Wales, and England would be in a prime position to win the grand slam.

Photo: UoM Powerlifting Society

Squat, bench, deadlift: Meet the Powerlifting Society Deputy Editor Amy Wei meets the society tackling the gender imbalance in strength sports to build an all-star team to take to University Championships Amy Wei Deputy Editor Strength sports aren’t quite as established at the University of Manchester as those involving balls, mouth guards, and batting devices — nor are its needs as accounted for by the University — but the new Powerlifting Society hopes to change that.

Founded by a group of passionate powerlifters at the beginning of this academic year, the society aims to one day form a team of male and female lifters to compete in University Championships, something the University of Manchester has never attempted.

They started off with a more local focus on community, hosting taster sessions for people of all abilities, and socials to introduce more students to the sport. They’ve nurtured an impressively warm, supportive, and wide community already, especially for an individual sport.

Eduard Krkoska, who recently won his first bronze medal in a regional competition in November, said: “We try to be extremely supportive of everyone. We’ll often train together with the most experienced members and the least experienced members, training harmoniously and always pushing each other to be the best powerlifters we can each be.

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“I feel like you won’t get that with most sports, where they’ll divide people according to ability.”

Powerlifting is a strength sport that consists of three maximal attempts on three lifts: a squat, bench press, and deadlift. Megan Cotcher, a senior member of the society, only started lifting competitively a year ago, but now holds seven North West women’s records in the Under 52kg weight category.

Megan said: “Even though powerlifting’s an individual sport it’s so friendly, people you’ve never met will cheer for you in the crowd on comp day and you’re probably even good friends with your competitors.

“I never get bored. Even though we train the same three movements over and over you’re always improving and you can see your training is working when you can add more weight to the bar or your technique improves.”

One particular obstacle for the society’s dream to take teams to the university championships has been a lack of serious female interest in competitive lifting. Megan thinks this difficulty is partly due to stereotypes about the sport.

“As far as female involvement goes, there are noticeably fewer females in the sport if you look on a database like Openpowerlifting.

“It would be nice to see more females giving it a serious go at the University of Manchester

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but I do think people have a lot of stereotypes about the sport.

“I for one thought it was a sport for big guys but once you actually get into it and see how diverse the weight classes are it’s actually a really fair sport to compete in and you’re not disadvantaged at all being female.”

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By having a society where we can set a good standard, or keep pushing each other to do more, it’s a lot quicker for newcomers to reach [a high] standard The lightest male weight category is Under 53kg. New Powerlifting Society member Wei Wen Tan competed for the first time in this category at a North West regional competition in Liverpool earlier this month, and proceeded to

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take three regional records for his weight class: on squat, bench, and his total score.

Eduard, who travelled to Liverpool to handle him and volunteer at the competition, said he was “super chuffed” for Wei Wen and hoped to see more members competing soon.

Eduard recommended that aspiring powerlifters should reach out to the society, because: “training for powerlifting by yourself can be not only quite lonely and a lot less fun and exciting, but it can also be a lot less productive.

“By having a society where we can set a good standard, or keep pushing each other to do more, it’s a lot quicker for newcomers to reach the standard our high-level lifters are at.

“On top of that, they can get continual support around programming, technique, and competitions from other members of the society.”

The society’s got more training sessions, socials, and even a “little mock competition” in their semester 2 calendar. They hope to see lots of new and returning faces ready to push themselves under the barbell.

Unlike other universities in the UK, the University of Manchester doesn’t have its own strength sports gym. Eduard told us with a sigh: “We are currently in the works trying to get something sorted out, but unfortunately this probably won’t come as soon as we would like.”

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